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Tappan Presbyterian Association
LIBRARY.
Presented by HON. D. BETHUNE DUFFIELD.
From Library of Rev. Geo. Duffield, D.D.
Add
DEO REIPUBLICÆ ET AMICIS
Gronze
burnd
fuld A. M..
In tali nunquam lassat venatio sylva.
A.D.1884.
I
•


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THE
WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
IN CONVERSION.
1
LONDON:
R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD-STREET-HILL,
CHEAPSIDE.
1
THE WORK
OF THE
IN CONVERSION
CONSIDERED
HOLY SPIRIT
مو
WITH
IN ITS RELATION TO THE CONDITION OF MAN AND THE
WAYS OF GOD:
ON THE PRINCIPLES MAINTAINED.
BY
1:1.
Practical Addresses to a Sinner,
1:1
LONDON:
JOHN HOWARD HINTON, A.M.
HOLDSWORTH AND BALL,
18, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH-YArd.
1830.
33 JWB
9-1
gift
Tappan Presbe Ussor,
2-9-1933
PREFACE
CONTENTS.
PART I.
OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CONVERSION..
CHAP. I.-Of the absolute necessity of the Spirit's in-
fluence in conversion
ན
PART II.
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CONversion,
CONSIDERED IN RELATION TO THE CONDITION OF
MAN
•
CHAP. I.—Of the structure and operation of the human
mind
II.-Definition of Terms
Disposition, Inclination.
Power, Ability
Freedom, or Liberty of moral agents
Rectitude, Depravity.
PAGE
vii
|
III. Whether man in his natural state has power
to repent:
The argument from the
nature of the case
IV. Whether, in the conversion of a sinner,
power is imparted:-The argument from
the work of the Spirit....
W
I
20
24
62
ib.
63
70
74
78
82
vi
CONTENTS.
CHAP. V. Whether the possession of power is not in-
volved in the praise and blameworthiness
of actions:-The argument from the
nature of sin
VI. Whether the possession of power is not im-
plied in the divine commands: The
argument from moral obligation
PAGE
VII-Whether the possession of power be not
implied in the distribution of rewards
and punishments :-The argument from
human responsibility
S
IX. Whether the Holy Spirit is a gift of justice,
or of grace :-The argument from the
gracious and sovereign character of the
Holy Spirit
VIII. Of the divine use of means independently of
the Holy Spirit:-The argument from
the limited communication of the Spirit.. 129
Apkaln
kada
XI. The argument from express words of scrip-
ture continued......
X.-Whether the ability of man is not main-
tained in the holy scriptures:-The argu-
ment from express words of sacred writ.. 149
XII. The argument from express words of scrip-
ture concluded
掣
​88
98
XIII. Whether the sentiment which ascribes
power to man does not pre-eminently
humble the sinner and glorify God :—
The argument from the tendency of the
doctrine
105
144
164
198
208
CONTENTS.
vii
CHAP. XIV. Whether the sentiment of man's ability
agrees with the actual exercises of his
mind-The argument from experi-
ence
XV.-Objections answered
XVI. The same continued
J
XVII. Considerations for those who may not be
convinced.
294
PART III.
XVIII. Of the necessity of the Holy Spirit as
implying contrariety of disposition
305
THE ASPECT OF THE SPIRIT'S WORK IN RELATION TO
THE WAYS Or God.
• •
CHAP. I. Of the ministration of the Spirit in answer
to prayer
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
II.—Of the ministration of the Spirit in his
unsought agency
•
PAGE
III. Of the ministration of the Spirit as con-
nected with the work of redemption
generally
228
250
268
312
315
332
340
345
4
PREFACE.
I AM extremely unwilling to associate any per-
sonal considerations with a subject of such deep
intrinsic importance as that of the following trea-
tise. Much rather would I have stood retired,
as concealed by the glory of the truths I shall be
employed in exhibiting, than have had any occasion
to divert the attention of a single reader to a topic
of so small comparative moment as the private
opinions of the writer. But the circumstances
under which I write do not allow me this grati-
fication. It must be known to some of the readers
of these pages, that the sentiments which I have
already published have been conceived, unjustly
as I imagine, to be derogatory to the character
and office of the Holy Spirit, if not inconsistent
with any belief of his influence. It will therefore
infallibly be supposed, that I have resolved upon
this undertaking because I felt myself challenged
to an explicit statement of my opinions; and
while some will read what I may write with,
A 3
X
PREFACE.
perhaps, scarcely any other design than to see how
far I may clear up the alleged intricacies or
contradictions of a theological system, it will be
difficult for others to avoid associating a similar
feeling with the perusal of this volume.
That I have commenced this work in part
because of the alleged inconsistency of my sen-
timents on some points with scriptural views of
the work of the Holy Spirit, I am not disposed
to deny; but this is far from being either my
only, or my principal impulse. Not at all un-
willingly, indeed, do I answer the challenge
which has reached me, to explain and to vindicate
my sentiments, inasmuch as I am not only without
consciousness of doing dishonour to the Spirit of
all grace, but also persuaded that the views which
I have advocated render him more abundant
glory; but I do so much the more willingly, I
do it even joyfully, because the subject itself, on
which it calls me to treat, is one of infinite excel-
lency, and one upon which nothing can be wisely
and seriously written, without being, under the
divine blessing, conducive to good. Nothing can
be more important than to have right views of the
Holy Spirit's work, and few things more neces-
sary than to lead persons generally to a habit of
vigorous and scriptural thought respecting it. My
ܟ
T
PREFACE.
xi
aim and my hope will be, therefore, to the utmost
possible extent, to treat the subject as by itself,
as though it had never been a matter of con-
troversy, and especially as though the writer had
no personal relation to the argument; and while
I do this, in order that the following pages may be
the more eminently fitted for general usefulness,
I earnestly entreat those who peruse them to
concur with me in the same design, and to read,
not with the view of criticising the writer, or
estimating his success as a controversialist, but
with a desire to become thereby both wiser and
better. That what I write may be adapted to
this end, may God in mercy grant me the teachings
of that blessed Spirit, of whose work I am about
to treat! Whereinsoever I may err, either in
sentiment or in spirit, may He graciously forgive!
And the effort itself, with all its feebleness and
imperfection, may he condescendingly own and
accept, as a tribute from a grateful heart to the
glory of his name, and as an instrument offered
by a willing hand to the promotion of his cause!
It might be expected, perhaps, that I should
take some notice of those who have written in
express opposition to me; but, though I desire to
treat them with the utmost respect, and to cherish
for them all due affection, as fellow-labourers,
xii
PREFACE.
according to the best of their judgment, in the
cause of God and truth, the reasons which I have
assigned above induce me to proceed without any
further reference to them. As to their works,
I have endeavoured substantially to answer them,
without reducing the discussion of truth to a
dispute with individuals.
In order to anticipate a feeling of dissatisfaction
which might possibly arise in the perusal of this
treatise, I beg the reader carefully to observe,
that it refers to the work of the Spirit, and not to
the work of Christ.
The work of our Lord Jesus
Christ is of unquestionable necessity and glory.
His divine person, vicarious sacrifice, and pre-
vailing intercession, constitute the substance of
the gospel, and the only way for a sinner's
approach to God. But as no writer can be ex-
pected to treat of all subjects in one book, so I
conceive that the necessity and excellency of the
work of Christ stand perfectly distinct from the
question discussed in the following pages. When
we ask, whether a sinner has or has not power to
come to God, or to fulfil his duty, we do not
expect to receive for answer, No man can come to
God but through Christ; a sacrifice is necessary.
Undoubtedly it is, and it would be unutterably
to our surprise if ever we had been supposed to
PREFACE.
xiii
question it. But, by such a reader, the ground on
which we stand is quite misunderstood. We sup-
pose the necessity of an atonement to be admitted;
we take for granted the actual and absolute help-
lessness of man in this respect, and maintain, as
decidedly as any person, that he has not power,
in any degree, nor in any sense, to make an
expiation for sin; we assume also that the blood
of Christ has been shed, as that of the "Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world," so
that the way is now open for a sinner's return
to God, through him. Not until this point has
our inquiry any existence; it is only then we ask,
Has a sinner power to come to God through
Christ, unaided by the Spirit ?
Every candid reader will accept this explana-
tion, and estimate the argument of the following
pages accordingly. If it should be thought, never-
theless, an unfair position to start from, I only
say, that I can set out from no other. I never
imagined such a thing as that man was capable of
making an atonement for his sins, nor will I ever
affirm it. If I cannot maintain man's ability to
do all his duty, without maintaining by impli-
cation his ability to expiate his transgressions,
this must be shown with more clearness than has
hitherto been attempted. Certain as it is that an
+
xiv
PREFACE.
atonement for sin is indispensable if sinners are to
be saved, I am not convinced that it is the duty
of a sinner to atone for his iniquities, or that God
has ever required this at his hands. Satisfaction
for sin could never be required, but with a view to
salvation; and nothing has ever been required of
a sinner in order to salvation, but acceptance of a
sacrifice already offered, or prepared. The neces-
sity of an atonement is altogether dependent upon
the hypothesis that sinners are to be saved; if they
are not to be saved, there is no such necessity.
And though it is true that the ever blessed God
has entertained the idea of saving them, yet it is
uniformly declared that he has done so in a way
of mercy, providing for them the needful expiation,
and not requiring it of them; in which case salva-
tion would have been of justice and of debt. I
will not, however, pursue this subject further,
without further need. Let me only hope that my
readers will bear fully in mind, that the doctrine of
atonement for sin is not involved in that of man's
ability, as regarded in the following argument.
The question simply is, whether, the death of
Christ being supposed, a sinner is able to come to
God through him.
As the subject of this volume is not the work
of Christ, so neither is it the whole work of the
PREFACE.
XV
Spirit, but simply that work in the conversion of a
sinner; and this only in its relation to the con-
dition of man, and the ways of God. The recol-
lection of this may tend to prevent dissatisfaction
that I have not asserted the personality and deity
of the Holy Spirit; that I have not expatiated on
the whole of his glorious work; and that I have
not even entered into any detailed account of
conversion itself. Upon all these points I believe
I am truly orthodox,' and I am quite willing to
afford any reasonable evidence that I am so; but
it is on all accounts better, that the argument
should not be encumbered with matter not neces-
sary to its clear and satisfactory prosecution.
If a mistake does exist in the general belief
and mode of instruction on this point, if those who
teach inculcate, and those who are taught imbibe,
the notion that men cannot repent, or do any
other part of their duty, while they certainly can,
this is manifestly an evil of no small magnitude,
and one most urgently demanding a remedy.
Leaving it to the following pages to discuss the
question whether men can repent, I may here
allude for a moment to the immense force with
which the contrary sentiment has long been im-
pressed upon the public mind. The ministry of
the divine word has been widely and deeply
Att
xvi
PREFACE.
impregnated with it; and as this is the principal
means of general religious instruction, from this
cause alone the opinion must have obtained a very
extensive prevalence. But, in addition to this, if
we examine the formularies which are employed
for the instruction of the young, we shall find the
same sentiment expressed, without, so far as is
known to the writer, a single exception.* The
* The following may serve as a specimen :-
Catechist. My good child, know this, that thou art not
able to do these things of thyself, nor to walk in the com-
mandments of God, and to serve him, without his special
grace.-Catechism of the Church of England.
Q. Is any man able perfectly to keep the commandments
of God?-A. No mere man, since the fall, is able, in this
life, perfectly to keep the commandments of God.-
Assemblies' Catechism, Q. 87.
K
Q. Can you of yourself love and serve God and Christ?-
A. No; I cannot do it of myself, but God will help me by
his own Spirit, if I ask him for it.-Watts's First Cate-
chism, Q 20.
Q. But is not your heart itself sinful, and have you power
of yourself to repent of sin, and to trust in Christ, and obey him?
-A. We have sinful hearts, and cannot do these duties of
ourselves; but God has promised his own Holy Spirit, if we
pray for it, to renew our hearts to holiness, and help us
to do his will.-Watts's Second Catechism, Q. 50.
Can you make your own heart good?
I am so wicked and so weak,
My heart I cannot better make.
Little Child's Catechism in Rhyme, p. 11.
PREFACE.
xvii
catechism is perhaps a more powerful engine than
the pulpit itself; since the ideas it contains are
thrown into the mind at so early an age, and with
Can you change your own heart when you please?
I own,
It is not in my power,
To melt this stubborn heart of stone;
My evil passions to subdue,
And my depraved soul renew.
Milk for Babes, p. 34.
Q. Are we able to change our own hearts?—A. Can the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then
may yo also do good that are accustomed to do evil.
(Jer. xiii. 23.) – Abridged Bible Catechism, viii. 2.
Q. Can you reform and renew your wicked heart?-A. No;
I am dead in trespasses and sins.-Brown's Short Cate-
chism, Q. 14.
I am not aware of any exception to this melancholy
uniformity. Let it be observed that the catechumen is
taught that he cannot serve God, in the strict and proper
sense of the term, the only sense in which a young child
can understand it, and that very sense in which, as shown
in the following pages, it is false. If any person will take
the trouble to look for a question or answer relating to
our just responsibility for our conduct, he will find that
this is a point systematically avoided. Upon this highly
important subject the mind is left totally uninfomed, nor
can any instruction be given upon it without contradicting
and destroying the fallacy introduced in its stead. How
is it no catechism-maker has happened to insert this
question, Why does God hold you accountable? Or, if he
had, upon the principle which has been universally
adopted, what answer could have been given to it, but
xviii
"PREFACE.
an air of such unquestionable authority, as almost
inevitably to form the characteristic elements and
controlling principles of all future thought. If there-
fore the sentiment of man's inability be poison,
(and I believe it is poison of the most direful kind,)
it is poison which has been mixed for ages with
the whole supply of religious knowledge among us,
the word of God alone excepted; and even this,
in defiance of its own purity, has been made sub-
servient to the mischief. Into the breast of almost
every creature who has received any evangelical
instruction at all, has this pernicious notion been
infused by the teachers to whom he looks up,
often with too implicit deference; and, like his
mother's milk, it has become insensibly incor-
porated with his whole being. Is it not time that
vigorous efforts were made to correct the mischief!
Because, in some instances, the question here
considered has undergone much discussion with
little apparent advantage, and persons have arisen
from conversation, or from reading, neither con-
vinced nor enlightened, it has been conceived
this,--Because I am not able to regulate my own conduct?
The reader may observe, also, that the only method by
which it is attempted to surmount the difficulty, is by say-
ing that God has promised his Holy Spirit to them that
ask him; a specious, but delusive representation, which
will be found exposed at page 117.
Gal
PREFACE.
xix
that some fatality attends it, as though it were
never to be understood, or as if it required some
peculiar metaphysical skill; but, when due allow-
ance is made for the influence of pre-conceived
opinions, and habits of thought and expression,
not only long established, but interwoven with all
that is dear and important to us in religion itself,
it is conceived that the subject is attended with
no extraordinary difficulty. For, if there were, it
should operate to prevent us from forming any
opinion at all. How can that be difficult in itself,
respecting which we find it very easy to make up
our minds, provided it be on one side? This is
exactly the case with the question before us.
Persons in general find no difficulty whatever in
understanding, or in supposing that they under-
stand, that man cannot do any thing; yet there is
an insuperable difficulty in comprehending that
he can.
The grounds of both these conclusions.
are of precisely similar character; and any one
who knows why he believes the former, is quite
competent to examine all the reasons which may
be adduced in behalf of the latter. To those who
have never thought upon the subject at all, and
who take it for granted that man cannot do any
thing merely because others think or say so, there
may be some difficulty; a difficulty, however, by
XX
PREFACE.
no means peculiar to this subject, but attaching,
with little difference, to every one upon which
the mind has never been exercised. Such readers
should ask themselves, how far it becomes them
to take up any religious sentiments without a
knowledge of the grounds of them? Can there, in
such a method, be any security against mistake;
or any rational conviction at all? If, however,
they will not arouse themselves to a sufficient
effort, it is only for them to wait a little while, till
those who will think have gone before them; this
fearful difficulty will then vanish of itself, and
they will thenceforth find it as easy to believe that
man can do what he ought, as they now find it to
imagine that he cannot.
If there is one class of persons, who should
more especially feel themselves called upon to give
the subject of this treatise the most patient and
dispassionate attention, and who should most reso-
lutely spurn the fetters of previous opinion and
customary phrases, it is surely the ministers of
the gospel, whose voice is heard above all others
in the instruction of mankind, and whose labours
exert so powerful an influence in the formation of
public opinion. How important it is for those to
speak according to truth, who speak for God;
and for those to lead in the right path, whom so
Ma
PREFACE.
xxi
many take blindly for their guides! How soon
would the most deep-rooted and wide-spreading
errors be exterminated, if the whole public ministry
lifted up its voice against them! In all corrections.
of error, the ministry ought not to follow, but to
lead. I am aware, indeed, of the difficulty which
there is in doing so. I know that certain forms
of sentiment and phraseology sometimes acquire
in the eyes of the people a greater sanctity than
even the word of God, and I am far from con-
demning the spirit which dictates tenderness to
the prejudices of pious persons; yet it is surely
possible to carry such a spirit too far, and, in our
unwillingness to wound their feelings, to spare and
confirm their mistakes. There is little pleasure in
encountering prejudices, but there may be in it an
urgent duty, and out of it may arise important
results. At all events, the path of the man of God
is clear. He has to speak the truth, plainly and
fearlessly, save the fear of Him by whose ulti-
mate approbation we stand or fall; and perilous
will his account be, who shall stand convicted at
another day of having kept back any part of the
counsel of God, because his people might not like
to hear it. If, however, the ministers of the
gospel will not lead in the progress of truth, they
must follow; for, with or without them, truth will
1
xxii
PREFACE.
prevail. Though less rapidly, she will diffuse her
light among the people, whatever may be the
ignorance or hostility of any portion of the priest-
hood. When it is seen that she conquers, all will
be pleased to be on the triumphant side; and not
least of all the author himself, whose recantation
shall not be delayed a moment, when it can be
shown to be demanded by the sovereign authority
to which he bows.
The subject is the more earnestly to be pressed
upon the consideration of the ministers of the
gospel, because of its intimate connexion with the
revival of religion, a topic to which a measure,
though as yet a small measure, of public attention
has been drawn. I cannot suppress my conviction,
that one reason why the preaching of the divine
word has been far less powerful in our land than
might have been expected, considering the mul-
titude of voices employed in it, and far less
powerful, too, than it has been in a country where
such exertions are much less abundant, is to be
found in the influence of the sentiment of man's
inability for his duty. Comparatively few of the
preachers in the United States of America are
tainted with it, and it is under the ministry of
those who are free from it that the most blessed
effects have been produced. Upon this point I
PREFACE.
xxiii
cannot refrain from introducing the following in-
teresting testimony, contained in a letter from the
Rev. W. C. Walton, of Alexandria, U. S. and
inserted with approbation by the Rev. H. F.
Burder, of Hackney, in the Supplement to the
Evangelical Magazine for 1829:—
"For a number of years after I commenced
preaching, my views of man's inability to perform
the duties required in the law and in the gospel,
rendered it impossible for me to see his guilt in
neglecting these duties. I maintained that he was
culpable for not using the means to get a new
heart; but it never once occurred to me that
he was guilty for not having a new heart; or
which is the same thing, for not loving God and
obeying the gospel. I did not consider that the
enmity against God, which constitutes the carnal
mind, is voluntary. I often spoke of the necessity
of divine influence in conversion, but I did not
prove to the sinner, what I now think to be sus-
ceptible of the clearest proof, that the necessity
of divine influence arises from the unwillingness
of the sinner to do that which God requires.
During that period of my ministry, my preaching
was comparatively useless. In the year 1822,
Providence led me to Baltimore, where my views
were changed, and where I was blessed with
a revival of religion. I published a narrative
xxiv
PREFACE.
of that revival, which has gone through several
editions, and which has been honoured as the
means of producing several revivals. I have
now been in this place about two years, and we
have had about one hundred and fifty persons
added to our communion, in a comparatively thin
population. You will pardon me for saying so
much about myself, when I assure you that it is
not myself, but the Truth, and the God of Truth,
that I wish to magnify. To his name be all the
glory."
Whatever causes may be hopefully operating
towards the production of similar results on this
side of the Atlantic, the author has little expec-
tation of their extensive appearance, until the
ministration of the quickening word is, in like
manner, loosed from its miserable shackles, and
sinners are driven without ceremony from a refuge
of lies, which has been held sacred far too long.
THE
Ty
WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT,
&c. &c.
PART I.
*
OF THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CONVERSION.
THE form in which the subject of this vo-
lume is announced carries with it the general
sentiment, that the conversion of a sinner to
God is a work in which the Holy Spirit is
concerned; and it may be desirable in the out-
set, to devote a brief space to an exhibition of
the scripture testimony on this point. We shall
find it to indicate and establish two great po-
sitions; namely, that, in reference to the con-
version of a sinner, the influence of the blessed
Spirit is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, and CER-
TAINLY EFFECTUAL.
B
Kat
T
CHAP. L
Of the Absolute Necessity of the Spirit's
Influence in Conversion.
THE operation of the Holy Spirit in the
conversion of a sinner is not to be regarded
as occasional or accidental, but as essential
and uniform. Conversion to God never has
taken place, and never will take place, without
it. And if this be the case, it is but saying
the same thing in other words, to assert that
his influence is absolutely necessary to the pro-
duction of this effect.
This is manifestly a point on which, indepen-
dently of divine revelation, we have no means
of obtaining complete and satisfactory know-
ledge. When any man does in fact turn to
God, under what influence he did so might be
doubted, were it not revealed; and yet more
difficult might it be to decide whether any
other man would turn to God without a given
influence, unless that also were declared by a
being of competent information. According
THE SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
3
to their various views, some might suppose one
thing, and some another; but the voice of au-
thority puts all our imaginations to silence, and
announces, as from Him that knows the heart
to its lowest depths, that, without his Spirit,
no man ever did repent or ever will. We turn,
therefore, necessarily and directly to the lan-
guage of holy writ, and may place the pas-
sages which bear upon the subject before us
in such an arrangement as follows.
1. Sometimes the existence of an uncon-
verted state is expressed by asserting the ab-
sence of the Holy Spirit: as in Jude 19, 20;
where ungodly men are described as "sensual,
having not the Spirit." If the fact of not
having the Spirit be a decisive evidence of an
unconverted state, it is plain that no man is
converted without becoming a partaker of it.
2. Sometimes the presence of the Spirit is
made a criterion of a converted state. So
when Paul says, "As many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Ye
are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so
be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if
any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is
none of his." Rom. viii. 9, 14. And John,
66
Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and
B 2
NECESSITY OF THE
z
he in us, because he hath given us of his
Spirit." 1 John iv. 13. There can be no force,
nor even truth, in these passages, except upon
the principle that the influence of the Spirit is
uniformly and inseparably connected with con-
version. If in any case it were not so, in that
case these texts would be inapplicable.
3. Sometimes the necessity of the Spirit's
agency to a saving change is expressly affirmed:
as in John iii. 5. "Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God."
4. Sometimes the sacred writers directly
ascribe to the Spirit the exercises involved in
conversion to God. So in 1 Pet. i. 22. “See-
ing ye have purified your souls by obeying
the truth through the Spirit." Obeying the
truth," though under another form of speech,
is identical with conversion; and the apostle
affirms it to have been done CC
through the
..
Spirit."
5. Sometimes the success of the gospel ge-
nerally is referred to the power of the same
glorious agent. 1 Thess. i. 5. "For our gospel
came unto you, not in word only, but in power,
and in the Holy Ghost." "Whose heart the
Lord opened, that she attended unto the things
SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
5
which were spoken of Paul." Acts xvi. 14.
"The epistles of Christ, written not with ink,
but by the Spirit of the living God." 2 Cor.
iii. 3. Now the gospel is the grand means of
conversion, and in the accomplishment of this
end all its success lies; but this is declared to
depend upon the accompanying influence of the
Holy Spirit, and therefore also conversion.
6. Sometimes the operation of the Spirit
is represented as forming an essential part of
the method of salvation. "Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but accord-
ing to his mercy he saved us, by the washing
of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost." Titus iii. 5. Any one who has not
experienced "the renewing of the Holy
Ghost," therefore, is a stranger to the very
operation by which salvation is wrought, and
consequently to conversion.
7. Sometimes the condition of man by na-
ture is represented as absolutely requiring the
influence of the Spirit. "The natural man
discerneth not the things of the Spirit of God;
neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.” 1 Cor. ii. 14.
"Ye
will not come unto me, that ye might have
life. No man can come unto me, except the
6
NECESSITY OF THE
#
Father which hath sent me draw him." John
v. 40. vi. 44. The only assignable influence
by which this opposition can be overcome, is
that of the Holy Spirit; which therefore is
clearly necessary to the conversion of a sinner.
8. The change of heart and character in-
volved in conversion, is made the subject of
a corresponding and characteristic promise.
"A new heart will I give you, a new spirit
will I put within you; and I will take away
the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you an heart of flesh: and I will put my
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in
my statutes." Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. "I will
pour out my Spirit upon all flesh." Joel ii. 28.
How much of the excellency and glory of these
passages must be lost, if even their very truth
were not impeached, on the supposition that
the influence promised is not necessary to the
end for which it is to be effused!
& C
9. The influence of the Spirit holds a pro-
minent place in the acknowledgments of all
good men. So Paul, "I know that in me,
that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
By the grace of God I am what I am." Rom.
vii. 18. 1 Cor. xv. 10. And in accordance
with this is the language of all saints, ascribing
SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
77
the glory of their salvation to God alone.
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory, for thy mercy and thy
truth's sake." Psalm cxv. 1.
Nothing can be more decisive than the va-
rious, yet uniform evidence of scripture on the
point under consideration; nor is it easy to
imagine that any man, regarding the authority
of the divine word, can entertain the contrary
opinion, or a sentiment which necessarily im-
plies it. In the face of this overwhelming
mass of divine testimony, it were scarcely less
than insane to doubt for a moment, not merely
the high importance, but the absolute necessity
of the Spirit's influence to the conversion of a
sinner. It may be added, however, that these
declarations have an echo in the breast of
every man. Those who would read their
own hearts, would have been powerfully led
towards this conclusion, even if it had not been
revealed; and what the divine oracles thus
affirm, is established by the uniform and uni-
versal fact, that no man ever does turn to God
without the acknowledged interposition of an
unseen influence, making him willing as in the
day of power. The author cannot conclude this
chapter, without humbly acknowledging his
THE SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
S
part in the general truth. As he finds it in his
bible, so he finds it in his heart. There is no
fact of which he has a more thorough convic-
tion than this, that in his nature there dwelleth
no good thing, but, on the contrary, every
evil; and that the influence of the blessed
Spirit is absolutely necessary for him even to
think a good thought. Had the experience
of even a short life not taught him this lesson,
he must have been blind and infatuated
indeed.
6529
CHAP. II.
Of the certain Efficacy of the Spirit's Influence
in Conversion.
THE second position which, we have said,
the sacred scriptures establish respecting the
influence of the Holy Spirit in conversion, is,
that it is CERTAINLY EFFECTUAL. By this
language we mean, that whensoever the Spirit
begins to operate upon the heart of a sinner
for his conversion, he invariably accomplishes
the work. He never suspends his interference
till the work is achieved; nor are there any
cases in which his influence is ineffectual to its
attainment.
That there are many and great obstructions
to conversion is readily admitted; but it must
be manifest, we conceive, without any proof,
that the divine agent of whom we are speaking
is competent to remove them all. Being di-
vine, he is also almighty. Difficulty is a word
totally inapplicable to him; and not less so in
the conversion of a sinner, than in any other
B 3
10
EFFICACY OF THE
work he undertakes. If it be his gracious
pleasure, therefore, to operate effectually to
this end, there is nothing to hinder him from
doing so. But have we reason to think that
he will?
1. In taking, as of course we do, the affir-
mative side of this question, we may argue
from the wisdom by which it must be con-
ceived that the proceedings of the blessed
Spirit are directed.
Now it is one of the most obvious dictates.
of wisdom, that a work which we do not mean
to finish should not be begun; and not less so,
that when a work is begun it should be
finished, unless there be some paramount rea-
son for its abandonment. Nor are these dic-
tates of merely human wisdom, since they are
stamped with the impress of divine sanction,
in the following address of our Lord to his
disciples. Luke xiv. 28-30. "For which of
you intending to build a tower, sitteth not
down first, and counteth the cost, whether he
have sufficient to finish it? Lest haply, after
he hath laid the foundation, and is not able
to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock
him, saying, This man began to build, and was
not able to finish." And if it be thus a matter
SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
11
of just reproach that a man should begin
what he is not able to finish, how much more
so if he should commence a work which he
did not mean, or had not constancy enough
to complete, though he were able?
We need not hesitate, therefore, to apply
the rule before us to the operation of the
blessed Spirit. If his proceedings be suffi-
ciently characterized by wisdom to withdraw
them from the mockery of "all who behold"
them, he will begin nothing which he does not
mean to finish; nor will he, without urgent
cause, forsake the work of his own hands. We
say, not without urgent cause, not because we
think such a case has ever existed, or ever will
exist; but to make the hypothetical concession,
for the sake of argument, that, if any good
reason can be shewn why the work of conver-
sion should be abandoned by its glorious Author
after he has commenced it, we are ready to
allow its force. But can any such reason be
shewn, or even be conceived of, in reference to
a being to whom all possible circumstances are
perfectly foreknown? A reason that would
lead to the abandonment of a work after it was
begun, would operate yet more powerfully to
prevent its being undertaken at all; so that, as
J
12
EFFICACY OF THE
no sufficient reason can be supposed to arise
why the Spirit should renounce his design to
accomplish the conversion of a sinner after he
has commenced his work, its relinquishment,
should it ever take place, could be ascribed to
no other causes than such as would involve
both the undertaking and its author in a total
want of wisdom, and a just exposure to dis-
honour.
But the force of this argument is not yet
fully stated. The accomplishment of conver-
sion when the work is begun, we have shewn
to be necessary to shield its author from shame.
But is this all that is to result to him? Far
from it. Every work of his is to redound to
his glory.
How much more then is it to be
maintained that he will make this work com-
plete, since it cannot otherwise "shew forth
his praise!" How inconceivably strange would
it be, if, instead of this, he were only to sur-
round himself with fragments, which, however
beautiful and durable in themselves, would
only be, on that account, the more lasting and
afflictive sources of dishonour and regret!
2. If there is force in the general bearing
of the preceding argument, it will be aug-
mented by referring to the special character and
b
SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
13
Jugend
pre-eminent excellency of the work in question.
For if there be any object which, rather than
another, a person of wisdom will strenuously
pursue, it is surely such an one as exhibits
the highest excellence, and leads to the most.
important results. Let the work of the Holy
Spirit in conversion be regarded in this light.
Without assigning it a pre-eminence over all
his works, we must at all events allow it a very
high elevation among them. It far exceeds
the works of nature, and the administration of
providence. It is, the new creation of the soul
in the image of God. It is, on the part of the
blessed Spirit, the exertion of a holy energy,
and the production of a holy result. It is
intimately connected with all the hopes and
joys, the purity and devotedness, the redemp-
tion and glorification of the soul on which
he acts. Out of the depths of corruption and
iniquity, it prepares materials for a holy edifice,
a temple of the living God, a monument of
grace, to adorn eternally his palace in the
skies. In whatever light we regard the con-
version of a sinner, therefore, we cannot for a
moment imagine that such a work will volun-
tarily be abandoned by its author. O no!
sooner should creation itself be forsaken, and
14
EFFICACY OF THE
the course of providence be confounded, than
the influences which turn a sinner to God fail
of their intended issue.
3. Further confirmation of this sentiment
might be derived from the gracious character
of the work of conversion. It is undertaken,
not merely for the glory of its author, but also
for the happiness of its subject. It is repre-
sented as arising from the grace or love of God
towards the sinner, and not merely so, but from
rich and abundant grace. That is to say, in
undertaking the conversion of a sinner, the
blessed Spirit means to do him a favour, and
a favour of unspeakable magnitude and excel-
lency. Now there is plainly no way of re-
alizing this representation, but by the work of
conversion being completed. If it be begun
and not completed, if the influences of the
Spirit be withdrawn and the sinner be left in
his sins, he may be treated justly-nay, in a
general view of his condition, he may be treated
even mercifully: but it is plain that he does
not receive that particular favour which con-
sists in an actual conversion to God, and an
intention to communicate which, appeared to
be announced by the exertion of some incipient
influences conducive to this end. It can hardly
SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
15
be conceived that the blessed Spirit would
commence the work of conversion without an
intention to complete it, or without an exercise
of that deep and tender benevolence from which
it is declared to spring; but an incomplete
conversion, which is in fact no conversion at
all, is no exercise of grace at all, since
it makes no change for the better, whether
conditional or actual, in the state of the sin-
ner himself. To be an exercise of grace, con-
version must be not only begun but finished.
We therefore conclude that, where it is begun,
it will be finished; because it is incredible that
the Holy Spirit would represent his proceed-
ings in a light in which they cannot justly be
regarded.
4. To add but one more consideration, we
may advert to the connexion subsisting be-
tween the work of the Spirit, and the work
and glory of Christ. It is not only for his own
sake, nor for the sake of the sinner himself,
that the Holy Spirit undertakes the work of
conversion it is pre-eminently for Christ's
sake; through the influence of his death, and
for the promotion of his glory. Sinners are to
be turned to God because Christ died for them,
and in order that Christ may be glorified in
16
EFFICACY OF THE
them. Nothing can be conceived more power-
fully to operate on the Spirit himself than such
an influence as this. Certainly, if any object
can do so, this will call forth his utmost
energies and most persevering efforts. Will he
ever relinquish a design which he undertakes
out of love to the eternal Son of God, and
the accomplishment of which is essential to
the glory that shall recompense him for his
sufferings? Impossible! It is impossible, then,
that he should relinquish the conversion of a
sinner; having once commenced it, he will
assuredly carry it on to perfection.
The reasoning which has been here pursued
might be carried much further; but sufficient
has been said, perhaps, to show the grounds on
which the sentiment of the certain efficacy of
the Spirit's influence in conversion rests. If
it should be observed that we have not, as in
the former chapter, adduced individual texts
of scripture, it will yet be admitted that our
whole argument has proceeded strictly on
scriptural grounds, which are of course of the
same authority and conclusiveness as express
testimonies of the divine word. But suppose
we inquire, in passing, why it is that express
testimonies on this point are not so abundant in
SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
17
holy writ as on some others. The reason plainly
is, that it never seems to have admitted of the
possibility of a doubt. Whether God, having
converted a sinner, would carry on the work of
grace to the end of life, might have been
doubted; and therefore it is expressly declared
that he will: Phil. i. 6. " Being confident of
this very thing, that he which hath begun a
good work in you will perform it until the day
of Jesus Christ." But whether, having put
forth his power for the conversion of a sinner,
that object shall be accomplished, is a point on
which the scripture bears no express testimony,
except that which is involved in the declaration
that he is GOD ALMIGHTY.
Upon what ground, indeed, it may well be
asked, has it ever been imagined that the
contrary could occur? We believe we are
correct in saying that it is upon no other than
the supposed necessity, on the part of the
divine Being, of a deference to the will of man.
A man must not be converted against his will!
To speak of the grace of God, or the influence
of the Spirit, as irresistible, destroys free
agency! We care not about the word irre-
sistible, which, if employed in this reference
at all, means only, as we have said above,
18
EFFICACY OF THE
}
certainly efficacious: but it must be manifest, we
should imagine, out of what a confusion of ideas
this objection arises, since conversion is not the
turning of a man without his will to God, but
of a man by his will. It is a change of his will
itself. It is making him willing, which, we
suppose, is neither against his will, nor de-
structive of free agency. It is, at the same
time, plain enough, that if the influence em-
ployed in conversion were such as left the
ultimate decision to a corrupt and carnal heart,
the work would never be accomplished at all.
The author is aware that the Holy Spirit
has been supposed to exert upon the minds of
sinners some influences which are called com-
mon, in contradistinction from those special
ones which issue in conversion. He doubts
whether any such influences are exercised;
but, at all events, as they are not conceived to
be designed for the conversion of a sinner, they
do not affect the bearing of the present argu-
ment.
ARGA
What has hitherto been advanced may be
thus briefly summed up. The influence of the
Holy Spirit is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to
conversion, and CERTAINLY EFFECTUAL to
it. These are sentiments of great glory and
SPIRIT'S INFLUENCE.
19
deep importance. May God impress them
deeply on the heart of the writer, and withhold
him from writing a word, or entertaining a
thought, inconsistent with their truth, or cal-
culated to obscure their excellency!
-
PART II.
THE WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN CONVERSION, CON-
SIDERED IN RELATION TO THE CONDITION OF MAN.
FUGA
THE influence of the Holy Spirit is, as we
have just seen, of high importance, nay, of
absolute necessity, to the conversion of a sin-
ner. Now this fact obviously indicates a cor-
responding feature in the condition of mankind.
There must be some cause for this necessity,
some reason why men do not turn to God with-
out heavenly aid. What is this cause? Is it
external or internal; without man, or within
him? Is it voluntary, or involuntary? Does it
criminate man, or excuse him?
Few inquiries can be more important than
these; a clear answer to them being absolutely
necessary to a just knowledge of the condition
of our nature, and a satisfactory view of the
bearings of the glorious dispensation, that,
namely, of the Holy Spirit, to which our atten-
tion is directed.
The uniformity of the fact in all circum-
p
Kual
CONDITION OF MAN.
21
stances, that men do not turn to God of them-
selves, as well as the decisive testimony of
holy writ, assures us that the cause sought for
is to be found in their own bosom. Whatever
of an external kind may assume the aspect, or
bear the name, of an hinderance to conversion,
none of these things, nor any combination of
them, can be regarded as constituting the grand
impediment. In truth, these all derive their
influence from the state of mind on which they
act, irrespectively of which they are utterly
powerless; and were this right, nothing would
hinder man from turning to God. The main
and only effectual obstruction is within his
own breast.
This obstruction to conversion is well known
by the general designation of the corruption or
depravity of man's nature. But when we have
said this, we have gained no information re-
specting its precise character; we have merely
given it a name, and have still to inquire what
may be intended by it. On the specific nature
of that fact in our fallen condition which occa-
sions the necessity for the Spirit's interposi-
tion, an important diversity of opinion exists,
which may be stated as follows.
On the one hand it has been maintained that
22
CONDITION OF MAN.
DISPOSITION.
the necessity of divine influence argues, on the
part of man, a want of POWER to turn to God;
and on the other it has been conceived that the
obstacle is not a want of power, but a want of
In reference to the actual
want of right disposition in mankind, both
these classes of divines are agreed, the diffe-
rence between them relating simply to one of
two questions: First, whether a want of dis-
position is the whole hinderance to conversion,
or whether there be not also a want of power ;
or, Secondly, whether a want of power is not
identical with, or constituted by, a want of
disposition.
Those who affirm that power is wanting,
chiefly argue either from express words of
scripture, which declares (to take one passage
for an example) that no man can come unto
Christ except the Father draw him; or from
the nature of the case, since, if man had power
to turn to God of himself, the Holy Spirit
could not be necessary for this purpose. Those
who maintain that power is not wanting, (and
the writer is among them) do not shrink from
fully meeting these arguments, with others
which will be hereafter noticed on the same
side; while their proofs are brought likewise
CONDITION OF MAN.
23
from the language of scripture, as well as
from an examination of the structure of the
human mind, and of the actual operation of the
Spirit, from the just responsibility of man, from
the gracious and sovereign character of the gift
of the Holy Ghost, and from the pre-eminent
tendency of the sentiment they advocate, at once
to humble the sinner and give glory to God.
Such is a bird's-eye view of the field of in-
quiry which lies before us: a field which com-
prehends certainly a number of topics most
interesting in themselves, and bearing power-
fully on many points both of doctrine, expe-
rience, and practice. The writer would feel
little pleasure in pursuing his task, if he thought
it would be barren of spiritual profit; but as
he is persuaded this will be by no means ne-
cessarily the case, so he implores for himself
and his readers the gracious unction, beneath
which alone true wisdom is either acquired or
increased.
Before entering directly into the discussion,
the reader's patient attention is requested to
some important preliminary matter, relating
generally to the structure and operations of
the human mind, and the import of the terms
in which we describe them.
CHAP. I.
Of the Structure and Operation of the Human
Mind.
If we were examining the movements of a
machine, and seeking to understand the causes
by which they were either accelerated or im-
peded, we should probably deem it necessary
in the first instance to gain some competent
knowledge of the nature of the machine itself;
or if we should heedlessly have commenced our
investigation without such a preliminary mea-
sure, perplexities and embarrassments would
speedily convince us of its necessity. It is
thus with the inquiry now before us. We wish
to solve problems respecting the state and
operations of the mind under particular cir-
cumstances, namely, under the prevalence of
depravity, and the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Is it not, therefore, not only desirable, but ne-
cessary, previously to acquire a proper view
both of the structure of the mind itself, and of
its general mode of operation? Should we be
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
25
ignorant of these, or inaccurately informed,
how can we proceed with satisfaction, or con-
clude with confidence, respecting the questions
immediately before us? Upon these subjects,
therefore, we shall here enter, briefly, and with
the utmost attainable simplicity. We trust
that the explanations which may be given will
be found neither difficult nor uninteresting;
but if in any measure they should be so, let it
be remembered that what is important should
never be considered too uninteresting to be
attended to, nor too difficult to be achieved.
In fact, the topics on which we are about to
enter are not difficult, and they can appear to
be so only because to some readers they may be
new. They ought not, however to be mysteri-
ous, to any person, and the author hopes they
will not be so to any of his readers after the
perusal of the following pages.
I. It has been customary to speak of the
Powers or Faculties of the mind, and doubtless
it is both necessary and just to use this phrase-
ology; yet it should be remembered that,
however familiarly we may speak of them, they
are things of which, in their own nature, we
know absolutely nothing. The whole that is
с
26
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
submitted to our investigation is comprehended
in the various modes of human action, external
and internal. From the fact that certain
modes of action occur, we infer that there
exist faculties or powers of performing such
actions. This conclusion is unquestionably
drawn with sufficient justice, inasmuch as we
can conceive of no effect without a propor-
tionate and corresponding cause; but still it is
important to observe, that it is only by such an
inference we arrive at the knowledge even of the
existence of our mental faculties. It follows,
therefore, that the proper method of investi-
gating the mind of man is to begin, not with his
faculties, but with his actions. Observe what
he does, and you will then learn what are his
powers. Our facilities for such an employ-
ment can scarcely be considered as less than
ample. In how many forms is man continually
acting within our observation; while, in truth,
the whole mystery is exhibited in our own
breasts, and the knowledge of man is nothing
more than the knowledge of ourselves.
Let us then imagine one of our species to be
before us; or rather let us turn our eyes in-
ward, and mark what takes place there. If I
do this, I find that I am PERCEIVING various
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
27
objects, with their apparent properties; such
as the fields in their summer beauty, my chil-
dren in their early loveliness, with a variety of
others, which may either be presented to me
by the senses, or arise from recollection or re-
flection. Besides this, perhaps, I find that I
am also in a state of FEELING; experiencing
either hope or fear, desire or aversion, pleasure
or pain, or feeling of some other kind, in va-
rious degrees, or with various modifications.
I may yet further find myself upon some occa-
sions, perhaps after considering various motives
or modes of action, ultimately DETERMINING;
as either to attend to some subject, to take
some step, or to enter on some pursuit; after
which I proceed To ACT. These observations
will be sufficient for the present. Here are
matters of fact. We perceive, we feel, we de-
termine; and upon the supposition that these
processes argue the existence of corresponding
faculties, we go on to say, that man possesses
one faculty of perceiving, another of feeling,
and a third of determining. The faculty of
perceiving, we may call the UNDERSTANDING;
that of feeling, the HEART; and that of de-
termining, the WILL. These three faculties
are principally concerned in all human actions.
St
c 2
28
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
II. We may now look at each of them a
little more closely.
1. By the UNDERSTANDING, or the faculty
of perceiving, we apprehend, according to its
apparent nature, and so far as it is suited to
our apprehension, whatever object is presented
to the mind. Here it is material to remember,
that there are many ways by which objects
may be so presented. The most obvious is the
eye, which certainly makes us acquainted with
things with much more vividness and accuracy
than any other organ; but it is clearly not the
only channel of access to the mind, distinct per-
ceptions being produced in it by impressions on
the ear, and every other corporeal sense. In
addition to this, the mind is accessible to commu-
nication from some beings, (one, at least, if no
more) without the intervention of the senses at
all. It is important to observe, also, that objects
may be presented to the mind out of its own
stores, either as brought out of the treasures
of memory, or as resulting from the exercise of
its own thoughts. A very important portion
of these last consist in those judgments respect-
ing right and wrong, of which we shall here-
after speak.
Now, whatever object, using this word.
Magd
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
29
in a sense sufficiently large to comprehend a
sentiment, or any thing else which may be per-
ceived by the mind,-whatever object is in
any way intelligibly presented to the mind, we
perceive it inevitably. It is no matter of choice
with us whether we will perceive it or not.
If
I look on the sky, or hear a bell, or am in-
formed of an event, or recollect an interview,
it does not lie with me to perceive or not to
perceive these things respectively. I do per-
ceive them, and that in a manner altogether
involuntary and beyond my control.
It is to be added, that whatever is presented
to the mind is perceived according to its appa-
rent nature and properties. Of the real na-
ture of things we know little, if any thing; we
have to do with their apparent properties only,
and in perfect accordance with these is every
object apprehended by the mind, if it is in a
sane state.
2. By the HEART, or faculty of feeling, we
become subject to the excitement of desire,
aversion, hatred, love, and numerous other
affections of the mind. These affections must
be considered as not existing of themselves, or
without a cause. They have always some ob-
ject. We are never in a state of desire without
30
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
Sad
desiring something; or of sorrow, without
something for which we are sorry; excepting
indeed in cases of disease, which, of course, are
withdrawn from the scope of our present in-
quiry in a sound state, and in its healthy
exercise, no feelings exist in the mind, unless
excited by some object. Until excited in some
respect, it is altogether tranquil.
The next material observation is, that our
feelings, when excited, correspond with the
apprehended nature of the object which has
excited them; as fear with the perception of
danger, or hope with the prospect of advan-
tage. It is impossible to conceive that there
should be any variation from this rule. If ever
what I regard as adapted to engage my love
inspires me with aversion, I shall not be of
sound mind: as long as I am so, my feelings
must have an exact correspondence with the
apprehended nature of the objects which have
awakened them.
All objects have not an equal adaptation to
excite our feelings, nor the same objects equal
efficacy in all circumstances. But all objects
which are adapted to move our feelings at all,
have a tendency to do so independently of our
choice. A sight of danger, for example, does
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
31
not appeal to us, as it were in the way of in-
terrogation,-whether we will be afraid or not;
but the perception of it tends directly to in-
spire fear, whether we will or not, and it will
certainly do so, unless its influence be counter-
acted by some other means. It is, in truth, a
general maxim, that every object presented to
the mind, having any adaptation to move the
feelings, produces infallibly an excitement of
them corresponding with its apprehended na-
ture, unless such an effect is prevented by the
operation of a counteracting cause. It follows,
also, that our immediate feelings are in many
cases involuntary; they are so in all cases,
indeed, in which they are not affected by
some voluntary productive or modifying in-
fluence.
3. By the WILL, or faculty of determining,
we form resolutions respecting what we will, or
will not, be or do. This is clearly not to be
understood as referring to our outward conduct
alone. Whether we will attend to any given
subject, or agree to a certain proposal, and
many things more which are wrought entirely
within the bosom, are subject to our determi-
nation; as also, in truth, is what we shall be,
and what we shall feel, as far as these are
32
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
dependent upon the use of means put into our
power.
The will does not act of itself, nor indeed
can we conceive of such a thing. We never
make any determination without having a per-
ception of the case respecting which we have
to determine, nor without being moved by
something so perceived to the particular deter-
mination itself. Determination is neither more
nor less than the answer to a question,-shall I,
or shall I not?-and cannot be conceived of
apart from circumstances which give rise to
such an interrogatory. If there is no question,
there is nothing to be determined; and if there
is nothing to be determined, no determination
can exist. Neither can any determination be
formed, without something in the case perceived
to move us to it. In a general way it is per-
fectly obvious that our determinations do arise
from such moving causes. When we say, I
will do this, or I will not do that, it is because
we see something either attractive or repul-
sive in the cases respectively; and if we
examine, we shall find that this is uniformly
the case: the rule has, and can have, no
exception. It is of the nature of a rational
creature to determine according to apparent
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
33
reasons; in whatever case a determination may
be otherwise formed, if such ever were or
can be, it can scarcely indicate less than
derangement, if not rather a subversion of the
constitution of the mind.
We go on to observe, that as we never come
to any determination without a moving cause,
so every cause acts, according to its apparent
force, and tends to the production of a corre-
sponding result, by virtue of our intelligent
constitution, and quite independently of our
choice. If, for example, I see danger, and the
sight moves me to determine upon avoiding it,
it tends to bring me to this determination by it.
own force as perceived by me, whether I am
willing to be so moved or not. My coming to
this resolution may be hindered by the influence
of other considerations, such as the advantage I
may derive, or the good I may do, by braving
the peril; but my being led towards such a re-
solution is involuntary still; and each of these
modifying considerations also has a tendency to
act upon me, whether I will or not, according
to its nature and force as perceived by me.
Determinations, therefore, considered as acts
of the will, do not, in any case, originate with
the will itself. This faculty never acts, it was
c 3
34
STRUCTURE OF THE MIND.
not intended to act, it is not capable of acting,
of its own accord. It may be moved, but it
cannot move of itself. It will answer to the
slightest touch, but is itself absolutely inert;
like the gunpowder, which nevertheless the
smallest spark in flames. The acts of the will
not originating with the will itself, but being
produced by objects perceived, are infallibly
and inevitably such as our perceptions are of
the objects which produce them. They are
not voluntary.
In connexion with this statement, and as
adapted to remove any appearance of paradox
which may attach to it, it may be important to
observe, that the cases are very different when
we speak of man as a whole, and of his facul-
ties apart. Man is a voluntary agent. Both
his actions and character originate with him-
self. He is, and does, what he chooses or
determines to do and to be. His determina-
tions are voluntary, that is, they arise out of
his own feelings; and in this self-origination
the voluntary nature of character and actions
consists. But, taking the faculties of man
apart, such language is totally inapplicable.
He has no choice whether they shall act or
not. They are made to act when acted upon,
OPERATION OF THE MIND.
35
and precisely as they are acted upon; and
however they may give rise to voluntary action
in man, there is nothing voluntary in their
own. Our faculties have no choice whether
they will act or not. How should they? The
very notion is absurd. They are of the nature
of mechanism; adapted to be acted upon, then
to act, and to propagate their action, until it
produces something by combination totally dif-
ferent from the character of either.
Hence it may be seen how untenable the
ground is which has been so hardly fought,
namely, that the will is, or ought to be free.
Doubtless man ought to be free, and we believe
that he is so, however fallen and corrupt.
But, without any reference either to the
primitive or the degenerate state of man, the
idea of freedom is totally inapplicable to the
will, as a part of our intelligent constitution.
The will having no power of choice, or self-
movement, it cannot be either free or bound.
From its nature it cannot act until it is acted
upon; and if it does not act as it is acted upon,
the mind is no longer sane.
III. Having taken this brief view of the
faculties of man separately, let us now consider
橥
​36
OPERATION OF THE MIND.
them in their relation to each other, and in refer-
ence to the result of their combined operation.
The mental processes are often so rapid that
it is not easy to analyze them, or even to be-
lieve them capable of analysis. We shall find,
nevertheless, that every one of our actions
engages all the powers of which we have
spoken, and in a uniform and beautiful order.
If we take a journey, it is because we have
determined to take it; here is the action of
the will. Something moved us to this deter-
mination; perhaps it was the hope of plea-
sure, or a sense of duty; here is an excitement
of the feelings, or the action of the heart.
But what excited these feelings? Obviously
the perception of the duty or the pleasure to
which they referred; here then, lastly, is the
action of the understanding. Such is the
process which is carried on continually.
First, objects are perceived by us; next our
feelings are excited according to the appre-
hended nature of the objects perceived; then a
determination is formed in accordance with the
whole effect produced upon the feelings; and
finally action is induced, in conformity with
this determination and all that has preceded
it. Viewing the mind in itself, therefore, apart
OPERATION OF THE MIND.
37
from all modifying or disturbing influences, we
have a faculty of perception, apprehending
whatever is fitted to its powers, and transmit-
ting these apprehensions as it were to an inner
chamber, the heart, where lie a thousand capa-
bilities of feeling, all ready to be inflamed by
whatever may be adapted to them respectively;
while these, again, by their simple or com-
bined energies, lead to determination, and this
ultimately to action.
The mechanism is extremely simple, yet
most beautiful and efficacious; and, as might be
expected from the peculiarity of its character,
it produces a result worthy of the closest
investigation. This result is not merely an
external action. Various internal acts and
exercises, or permanent states of mind, arise
from it too; as, for example, an effort of
thought, or an endeavour to cherish, to regu-
late, or to suppress any particular feeling. But
whatever action, external or internal, or what-
ever feeling, permanent or transient, may be
thus produced, it is evident it will have some
striking and important properties.
First, It will be INTELLIGENT. Every
thing will be done for some known or know-
able reason; since, according to the constitu-
.
38
OPERATION OF THE MIND.
tion of the mind, neither can feeling be excited,
nor a determination formed, but under the in-
fluence of objects perceived by the understand-
ing. In this respect it differs widely from
organic action, such as that of vegetable or
animal bodies, which act by the force of physi-
cal and not of intelligent causes.
Secondly, It will be VOLUNTARY. Every
thing will be done under the impulse of the
agent himself, and no other; since objects
presented to the mind operate primarily to the
excitement of his own feelings, and these exclu-
sively are the impulses of his actions. This is
the true and proper idea of voluntary action-
action resulting from our own feelings; and
such is our mental mechanism fitted to pro-
duce. In this respect again it differs widely
from organic action, which is commenced and
carried on by external impulse alone.
Thirdly, It will CORRESPOND WITH THE
APPARENT NATURE OF THINGS. Every
action being excited by objects perceived, it
plainly follows that all our actions will be con-
formable to our perceptions, or to the nature
of things as perceived by us: but every sound
mind perceives objects according to their
apparent nature; whence it follows also, that,
FACULTY OF ATTENTION.
39
if no disturbing influences interfere, our actions
will strictly accord with the apparent nature of
things, as truly as the rays of light are re-
flected from a mirror, or the face of the sky
from an unruffled sea.
IV. In these observations we are of course
to be considered as confining our view to the
nature of the mind itself, and the manner in
which it would operate by virtue of its con-
stitution simply, apart from any disturbing
causes. At the existence of such causes we
have already cursorily hinted, and it will now
be necessary more particularly to advert to
them. We know that, in point of fact, the
conduct of men does not always accord with
the nature of things as it is most obviously to
be apprehended, and as it is in reality appre-
hended by them. Besides which, it may well
seem strange that a being of such excellence
as man, and one too upon whose conduct such
awful issues depend, should be laid so entirely
open to the influence of things about him or
within him, that every thing should thus tend
to excite his feelings, and inspire determina-
tion, and lead to action, by its own force,
whether he will or not. If he has no choice
S
40
FACULTY OF ATTENTION.
what he shall perceive, or what he shall feel,
or what he shall determine, is he not exposed,
without defence, to impressions of every kind,
like chaff before the wind, or like a feather
on the ocean, the helpless victim of his circum-
stances?
Matt
We might here say, that if this were actually
the case, which, as we shall presently see, it is
not, the actions of men would still be strictly
voluntary; that term denoting simply those ac-
tions which result from our own feelings, as dis-
tinguished from every other impelling cause.
But we rather go on to observe, that man is
endowed with a POWER OF SELF-REGULA-
TION AND CONTROL, the nature and influ-
ence of which it is important that we should
rightly estimate. We all know that, upon
various occasions, we not merely apprehend
the apparent properties of things, but that we
dwell upon them with more or less force, and
for a longer or shorter period; we pay them, in
a word, more or less ATTENTION. We know
also the result of this. Some thoughts we
immediately banish from our minds, and they
are to us as though they had never been;
others we dwell upon intensely, and they pro-
duce a deep impression on our feelings. Now
palak
FACULTY OF ATTENTION.
41
the fact is, that the actual influence which an
object presented to the mind will have upon us,
is not to be measured simply by its own nature
and force, but is compounded of two elements;
the first being its real adaptation to move us,
and the second the intensity with which we
contemplate it. A great truth, if we give it
little attention, will produce but a small effect;
while, if we give them much, we may be deeply
wrought upon by trifles.
Whether this power of giving more or less
attention may be properly called a distinct
faculty of the mind, as by philosophers of great
eminence it has been, is of comparatively
little consequence: it is plainly a very influ-
ential mode of mental operation, and the most
important inquiry is, How is it brought into
action? In the exercise of attention are we
voluntary or involuntary? Are we impelled by
our own feelings, or by other causes? We are
impelled partly, and in various cases, by both.
Some pieces of intelligence, for example, are so
touching that they fix our attention instantly,
and rivet it in defiance of ourselves; while there
are subjects, on the other hand, to which if we
* See, especially, Professor Stewart's Elements of the
Philosophy of the Human Mind.
42
FACULTY OF ATTENTION.
attend, it is under a sense of duty, or perhaps
of interest; that is to say, it is under the im-
pulse of our own feelings. Attention has in
part, therefore, a voluntary character.
We
employ it when we please, and to what extent
we please. And since the influence of what-
ever is presented to the mind may be thus
regulated, may be almost annihilated on the
one hand, and greatly strengthened on the
other, it is plain that we have in our own
hands the control of our feelings, actions,
and character. Every man is thus put in
possession of the key of his own heart, and is
enabled to render it a sanctuary for the enter-
tainment of select objects, inviolable, to a great
extent, by whatever he may choose to exclude.
If we can select the objects which shall occupy
the understanding, we can in like manner
select those which shall affect the heart, since
none can affect the heart but those which
occupy the understanding: if we can choose
what topics shall impress the heart, we can
choose what the state of the heart shall be,
since it always corresponds with the topics
which bear upon it: and if we can choose
what the state of the heart shall be, we can
equally fix our determination and our conduct,
FACULTY OF ATTENTION.
43
since they have an exact conformity with the
state of the heart.
It is necessary here to observe a distinction
between the subordinate and transient affec-
tions of the heart, and its habitually prevailing
state. Affections of the former kind are often
produced instantaneously, and for the moment
uncontrollably, as by tidings of the death of a
friend; the latter is the result of cherished
and perhaps long continued contemplation of
objects of a particular class. Such contem-
plation must inevitably form the habitually
prevalent state of mind, and thus in point of
fact it is always formed: so the miser pores
over his gold, the imagination of the rake riots
in sensual pleasure, the man of science has his
thoughts in his lore, and the christian in
heaven. When we say that the constitution of
man gives him a power of self-control, we refer
to the prevalent and habitual state of his
heart. He can make it what he pleases, let
him only fix his thoughts with corresponding
intensity on congenial topics. And thus has he
also an ultimate power over those violent, and
at the moment irresistible emotions, to which
he is subject; because the lasting influence of
the objects which produced them may be
44
FACULTY OF ATTENTION.
modified by that of other considerations se-
lected for this end.
If the faculty of Attention (to use this
phraseology) shews us how man may be and do
what he pleases, it will equally explain to us
why, in so many instances, he is not what the
state of things around him is adapted to make
him; why his conduct is so often at variance
both with his interest and his duty. This
melancholy result arises from inattention to
the more serious objects set before him. He
sees them, but does not regard them. The
perception of them is momentary; they are
instantly forgotten, and therefore wholly with-
out influence. It matters not how momentous
such things may be in themselves, nor how
often they may be exhibited and perceived; if
no attention be paid to them, or if the atten-
tion they are adapted to excite be withheld,
they can exert no power. Trifles lighter than
air will outweigh the most solemn topics, if
the former be intently dwelt upon, and the
latter banished from the thoughts.
To this it may be added that inattention is
the only method by which things fail to act
upon us according to their apparent nature.
As it is only by being presented to the
Jakk
FACULTY OF ATTENTION.
45
understanding, and by engaging our attention,
that objects have power of acting upon us at
all, so when attention is engaged, their pro-
portionate influence is certain and infallible.
As no man can live seriously who does not
habitually think of serious things, so no man
can live in levity who does. The fixing of the
attention determines the character and con-
duct with irresistible power, and infallible
certainty.
Before we quit the subject of Attention, it
will be proper to advert to the connexion be-
tween this exercise of the understanding,
and the state of the heart.
Some things
instantly engage more attention than others;
why is this? To some things I purposely
pay more attention than to others; and
why is this? It is plainly because my feelings
are more excited towards one object than ano-
ther. And this is equally the case, whether
attention be voluntary or involuntary; whether
an object fixes my attention by its immediate
interest, as tidings of the death of a friend
or whether it engages my attention by my own
purpose and effort, as under a sense of duty;
a sense of duty being as truly a feeling, or
state of the heart, as a sense of pleasure or of
;
46
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
grief. Either way feeling is excited, and pro-
portionate to its excitement is the attention
engaged.
It is material to remember that attention is
voluntary only in part, and in some cases. In
others it is altogether involuntary, as when
arising from the influence of objects which
powerfully interest the feelings. Here no pur-
pose is formed to attend to them; but the
attention may be even riveted for a time, in
defiance of our most strenuous efforts. It is
important to bear this in mind, because it
shows how attention may be awakened in the
first instance, without any option of ours, and
so become the impulse of further feeling, or the
object of designed regulation.
V. As far as we have hitherto regarded the
structure and operation of the mind, we have
found it adapted to produce a species of action
and feeling, which is intelligent, voluntary,
and accordant with the apparent nature of
things. We have found also that man has
a power of regulating his feelings and conduct
as he pleases, whether according to the appa-
rent nature of things or not; inasmuch as the
power of giving attention to things as he
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
17
pleases modifies the influence they are adapted
to exert, and virtually alters their properties
as apparent to him. But there is yet a further
quality of our actions, to which we must now
advert. Man is capable of doing RIGHT or
WRONG; or, which is the same thing, of being
right or wrong in what he does. This cannot
be said of the brute creation, as for example,
of a lion or a bear, which, though they may
revel in the blood of other beasts, or even in
that of man, are charged with no crime: yet
if a man were to do the same with his fellow-
man, we should hold him subject to blame.
What is the ground of this difference?
It is simply this. The mind of man is
adapted to the perception of moral truths,
that is, of the good or evil properties of ac-
tions. He is capable of understanding that
some things are wrong, and others right.
Sometimes he infers this for himself, some-
times he imbibes it from others, in both cases,
perhaps, with considerable inaccuracy; but let
this be as it may, the ideas thus acquired are
treasured up in the memory, and constantly
brought into use, in the way of forming a
judgment both of others and ourselves. This
perception of moral qualities, and even the
48
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
formation of moral judgments, is no way depen-
dent upon our choice. We do it whether we will
or not, and with irresistible force, though the
degree of attention we choose to give to the
process may vary. This capacity of estimating
actions according to a scale of good or evil,
and this propensity in every case so to estimate
them, constitute together what is called the
CONSCIENCE of man, which is no other than
the understanding in this particular aspect and
occupation.
f
Hence it is manifest how, in any voluntary
action, a man may be right or wrong. While
he is contemplating it, and before he has de-
termined respecting it, his own mind passes a
judgment upon it, and pronounces it to be
either one or the other. If he then does it,
knowing it to be wrong, he is plainly wrong
in doing it. So on the contrary, if his con-
science testifies it is right, he is not wrong in
that respect; though, if the action be not right
in itself, he still may be wrong in not having
taken greater pains to ascertain its character.
A similar illustration may be applied to the
state of the heart, which a man's conscience.
equally indicates to be right or wrong, and
which, like his outward conduct, he has (as we
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
49
2
have just seen) a provision for regulating ac-
cording to his pleasure. Whatever emotions
the objects he perceives may excite, a judg-
ment is instantly passed upon them, with more
or less accuracy expressing their character;
and if he finds improper affections excited, the
suppression or the indulgence of them con-
stitutes respectively his right or wrong conduct
in such a case.
The additional mechanism by which an agent,
already intelligent and voluntary, comes to be
also right or wrong, is at once simple and
efficacious. We are so constituted as to know
good from evil, and irresistibly to apply our
knowledge; in acting according to our know-
ledge, our rectitude, as far as we now speak
of it, consists; and hence, with the same limi-
tations, we are right in doing what we believe
to be right, and wrong in doing what we be-
lieve to be wrong.
w
But we have to go a step further. To right
conduct we uniformly attach approbation, and
blame to that which is wrong. We never
doubt the propriety of this in ordinary affairs,
and may think it strange to inquire into the
grounds of this connexion; yet, as we shall
see hereafter, it is important that we should
D
50
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY,
do so.
The case is this. We look upon the
conduct of men in a thousand instances, and,
if we see nothing that strikes us as either right
or wrong, we attach to them neither praise nor
blame; but the moment we see any thing
right we approve of it, or any thing wrong, we
condemn. Why should this feature of men's
conduct, and only this, induce so peculiar and
decisive a feeling? Why am I to be any more
praised for acting according to my knowledge
of right, than according to a perception of
sweetness? Or why blamed any more for
the indulgence of a feeling that is wrong,
than for the admiration of what is deformed?
It has been common to rest the answer to
this question on the force of conscience, which
certainly testifies to every man that, wherein-
soever he has been either right or wrong, he is
deserving of praise or blame accordingly; but
if this testimony of our conscience is true,
there must be a ground or reason of its truth,
and this reason it is for several causes im-
portant to discern. It will add, for example,
great force to the testimony of conscience itself;
it will tend to check the efforts, and to impede
the success, of men who wish to rid themselves
of its unwelcome admonitions by subtile but
p
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
51
fallacious arguments; and, above all, it will
tend to show the justice and the glory of our
Maker's ways. We put the case, therefore,
we hope fairly; and are quite willing to say, If
the testimony of our conscience be unreasonable
or untrue, let it be rectified.
Our answer to the inquiry is this. Our per-
ceptions of right and wrong have a very pecu-
liar power. And this in two respects:-in the
first place, they make an immediate and inevi-
table appeal to our choice. We may see many
things, and yet see nothing that we either like
or dislike; but the moment we perceive any
thing to be right or wrong, that state of indif-
ference ceases, and we instantly approve or dis-
approve. So with respect to our own conduct.
Innumerable actions might be proposed to us,
not one of which we should care to adopt or to
decline; but no action could appear to us to
be right or wrong without our immediately
being led towards a corresponding purpose,
either that we would or would not do it. Re-
specting objects perceived as right or wrong,
therefore, our ultimate decision is never invo-
luntary; instantly, and from the very nature of
these perceptions, they appeal to us for delibe-
rate approbation or disapprobation, adoption
D 2
52
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
or rejection; and these are voluntary exercises
or states of the mind.
In the second place, perceptions of right and
wrong enter the mind with a force imperative
and supreme. They bring with them an imme-
diate sense of obligation. Other things may
be agreeable or disagreeable; I may like them
or dislike them, and I may pursue or avoid
them as I please: but with respect to things
right and wrong the case is altogether different.
Here is something that I ought to love, that
I ought to do; nay, I must do it, or else I
shall be wrong; it is binding upon me, nor
have I any liberty to decline, or to evade it.
Now we are so constituted that this sense of
obligation always accompanies the perception
of any action as right, nor can these two things
In addi-
by any possibility be rent asunder.
tion to this, the sense of obligation is the most
powerful of all the feelings of which we are
susceptible. We may be attracted by pleasure,
by gain, and by various other aspects of things,
but none of these do we feel it binding to pur-
sue; we may relinquish them if we please; but
what we feel to be right, we feel also to be
imperative, it may not be left undone so,
on the other hand, we may be deterred by
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
53
danger, by reproach, and by nameless other
unpleasing aspects of things, yet, if we choose,
we may encounter them; but whenever we
discover a thing to be wrong, we feel an abso-
lute prohibition of it,-it may not be done.
The sense of obligation, therefore, being by far
the most powerful of all the feelings of which
we are susceptible, it may be expected to take
the lead of them all, and to exercise a supreme
directing and controlling influence; and in the
course of nature, and by its own force, it will
infallibly do so, unless it is prevented by the
interference of some other cause. To this sen-
sibility of obligation all perceptions of right
and wrong immediately appeal; an actual
sense of obligation is instantly excited by them;
and as this is the strongest of all our feelings,
it should, of course, instantly prevail. If we
suppose a case in which it does not prevail, let
us ask why it does not? There is nothing ca-
pable of interfering with it but some other
feeling, either previouly existing, or at the same
moment excited in the heart. If any such feel-
ing were of superior, or even of equal power, then
we might account for the obstruction without
imputing blame to the agent; it would rather
be referred to his constitution: but as this is
A
54
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
not the case, the sense of obligation being the
most powerful of all our feelings, here is a
stronger feeling overcome by a weaker,-the
sense of obligation, for example, resisted by the
love of pleasure. But how is it that the
weaker prevails over the stronger, and that
man does not act according to the tendency of
his powers? It is plainly because he has been
misapplying the voluntary part of them. At
the same instant he had a call from duty and
from pleasure; he felt that of duty to be the
most forcible, yet he lent to it so dull an ear,
and listened so keenly to the voice of pleasure,
that the feeble inducements of the syren pre-
vailed. By his lending a quicker ear to what
he knew to be the least forcible appeal, this
deviation from rectitude has been produced;
and for this he is held to be deserving of blame.
The argument thus far may be summed up
as follows:-We receive moral perceptions,
and apply these to our own conduct; each
moral perception calls upon us instantly to
choose, and creates a conscious obligation to
choose aright; this is the most influential
feeling we are capable of, and has nothing to
oppose it but a variety of weaker ones: our
Maker, therefore, expects that it should prevail;
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
55
and if it does not, it will be only because, by
means of attention or inattention which we
know to be disproportionate to the respective
objects, we give greater strength to the feebler
cause. We wilfully originate the evil, and the
whole blameworthiness of it deservedly falls
upon ourselves.
That this natural imperativeness and supre-
macy of the sense of obligation is not only a
reasonable foundation of praise and blame,
but that also on which these are universally
awarded, will readily appear from a reference
to matters of common life. Suppose yourself
a parent interrogating a child who has been
disobedient. You ask him, Why did you
strike your brother? "He provoked me."
"But ought you to have yielded to the provo-
cation?" "No." "Ought you not to have
controlled your anger?" "Yes."
Then you
have been very wrong, and I am displeased
with you." Both parent and child feel this
argument to be perfectly conclusive: but what
is at the bottom of it? Plainly this principle;
that a sense of duty is, in its natural tendency,
of greater power than any other feeling, and
that, therefore, if other feelings are not con-
trolled by it, it is not only a fault in itself, but
""
ઃઃ
4 t
56
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
our fault, inasmuch as it results from a wilful
misapplication of our self-regulating powers.
The same principle is at the foundation of all
blame or praise.
If
any person should be disposed to push the
question a step further back, and to say, My
conduct is produced by my feelings, and these
are produced by the things presented to my
mind, which I discern involuntarily, so that I
cannot help feeling as I do, nor therefore
acting as I do :-should a man say this, we
meet him by admitting at once that, if this
statement is true, he is free from blame. Most
certainly all ill-desert is to be traced back to
the state of the heart, which is the sole impulse
of action, and seat of character.
Let a man
only prove that he cannot help his feelings,
and he will clear himself from all censure; since
his heart and conduct in that case would but
simply represent the objects he perceives, as the
face of the ocean reflects the aspect of the sky.
But this is far from being the fact. Suppose we
take the case of a man already in a state of
wrong feeling, as of ingratitude, for example;
he is conceived to say that he cannot help it;
but we ask, Has he come to this state of feeling
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
57
:
without a consciously wrong use of his volun-
tary powers? He has surely at some time heard
the admonition within him that he ought to be
thankful what attention did he pay to it?
Did he inquire whether he was duly thankful,
or how his gratitude should be properly ex-
pressed? Or did he turn his attention to some
other objects, and abandon the duty of grati-
tude to forgetfulness? No doubt he has taken
the latter course, thus making himself unthank-
ful when he could have helped it.
J
We do not scruple to express our belief that,
in whatsoever instance or degree the state of
heart may be wrong, it arises solely from a
wilful inattention to what would have influenced
it aright. If we had given as much atten-
tion to every topic as we perceived to be its
due, and then our state of feeling had been
wrong, it would have been hard to be found
fault with; but if we have been less at-
tentive to some of these topics than we know
we ought to have been, and more attentive to
others, by thus making a selection of the ob-
jects which shall operate upon us, we have
moulded the state of our hearts according to
our own choice, and are therefore justly re-
sponsible for its character.
Whatever it may
K
D 3
58
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY,
be, it is such as we have wilfully made it, by
designedly dwelling on the topics under the
influence of which it has been formed, to the
exclusion of others which would have given it a
different complexion.*
It may be said, perhaps, that this selection
of topics by which a wrong state of mind is
induced, may be made under the influence of
feelings which had arisen involuntarily. Some
of our feelings are doubtless involuntary; but
it is to be observed that these immediately
* The influence of attention in leading to what is volun-
tary, in cases in which itself is involuntary, seems to facilitate
our conception of the mode in which sin might come into
existence in a holy being. Whatever interests the feelings
tends to engage our attention, involuntarily, and therefore
not sinfully; but, without care, it may be engaged unduly,
or disproportionately: but disproportionate attention pro-
duces yet further disproportionate or improper feeling, and
so commences the progress of sin. Our first parent, for
example, saw that the tree was good for food, and a tree to
be desired to make one wise. This was truc, nor was it
wrong that it should be interesting to her; nor, being in-
teresting, could it fail of engaging her attention in a mea-
But her attention was engaged disproportionately,
and she neglected other considerations: hence undue atten-
tion excited undue desire, and the indulgence of this desire
was sin.
Had it been as soon repelled as the voice of con-
science pronounced it wrong, Eve had come unhurt from
the power of the tempter.
sure.
The
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
59
become subject to our moral judgment, by which
they are pronounced to be either right or
wrong; and if wrong, then follows an instant
sense of obligation to suppress or rectify them.
This sense of duty we have already shown to
be stronger than every other stimulus to the
mind, so that there can be no excuse for the
indulgence or continuance of a wrong feeling
in the heart, nor any, therefore, for its further
influence in engaging attention to improper
objects. If a wrong feeling be instantly and
perseveringly resisted, as we know it ought
to be, it will lead to no evil.
If the objector should say-But, feeling as I
do, I cannot act otherwise, since my feelings
determine my conduct; we allow it.
we allow it. But we
reply, You ought to feel otherwise; and how-
ever far gone you may be in evil disposition, it
needs, even now, nothing more than a due con-
sideration of all the topics presented to you, to
change your whole state of mind, and to pro-
duce within you a new heart and a right spirit.
Sta
For it should be observed, in conclusion,
that God, in his infinite wisdom, has so ar-
ranged the circumstances in which we are
placed, that if a due regard be paid to ALL
the objects presented to our understanding, the
S
60
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
state of the heart will infallibly be right. He
has properly adapted the causes in operation
to the nature upon which they were to operate,
just as mechanical forces are proportioned to
the machinery on which they are to act.
Were this not the case, the whole world of
morals would be thrown into disorder. To
expect in us a right state of heart, when a due
consideration of all things open to our observa-
tion was adapted to produce a wrong one, could
not be otherwise than unreasonable; and it must
be to the full as unreasonable to complain of
such an expectation, when nothing more than a
due consideration of known or discernible truths
is requisite to its fulfilment. No further than
we neglect such consideration does God con-
demn us; and in this respect surely we cannot
pretend to justify ourselves.
The author should perhaps apologize for
occupying his readers so long with topics which
may perhaps truly be called metaphysical and
abstruse; if, however, they have done him
the kindness to accompany him attentively, he
hopes they will not fail to derive advantage
which will amply recompense their labour.
Should a single perusal not have enabled any
GROUND OF RESPONSIBILITY.
61
one to master the subject, a second may do
much to diminish the difficulty, or may pro-
bably overcome it altogether. We shall here-
after find how necessary a clear view of the
elements of mental and moral philosophy is to a
proper understanding of the questions to which
we are approaching, and how decisively the
principles which have been stated bear upon
the chief points of the controversy. If as yet
we seem to have made no progress, it is only
because it is much better to determine our
general principles, apart from any reference to
the particular subject to which they are to be
applied. A little further extension of the
reader's patience is requested in the perusal of
the following chapter.
CHAP. II.
Definition of Terms.
AFTER the brief exhibition given in the
former chapter of the elementary truths re-
lating to the intelligent and moral nature of
man, it may be important to put down a few
definitions of terms relating to these subjects;
both that we may the more clearly know what
they mean when they occur, and that preci-
sion in their use may aid the accuracy and
conclusiveness of our reasonings. They will
often, indeed, of themselves, decide points
which have been long and laboriously dis-
puted.
DISPOSITION, INCLINATION.
Terms of definite import are very desirable.
for the various states of feeling, or excitements
of the heart. The habitually prevalent state
of the heart in any respect, we call the DIS-
POSITION of a man in that respect. It differs
from INCLINATION, which is not necessarily
POWER.
63
either habitual or prevailing; it may be
neither. It differs also from AFFECTIONS,
which are occasional, temporary, and sub-
ordinate states of feeling. It differs, lastly,
from WILL, which we conceive to mean either
simply a determination, or the faculty of
determining according to our feelings.
POWER, ABILITY.
Another term of great importance in the
ensuing discussion is POWER, or ABILITY;
and it is highly material to have a settled
opinion respecting it before we proceed further.
When may it be said that a man has POWER
to perform a given action? To this we answer
without hesitation, when he possesses the means
of doing so. Let the definition be tried by
examples. My power to walk consists in
having the free use of my limbs; that is, in
possessing the means of walking. My power
to think consists in having the use of a sane
understanding; that is, in possessing the means
of thinking. My power to pay my debts con-
sists in having sufficient property for this
purpose; that is, in possessing the means of
paying them. My power to be sorrowful
consists in having a heart susceptible of being
T
64
POWER.
affected by afflictive considerations; that is, in
possessing the means of being sorrowful.
Is any thing else necessary to constitute
power, besides the possession of means? and
if so, what is it?
This question is put the more pointedly,
because we shall have proceeded but a very
few steps before the definition of power above
given will be objected to, and something
else will be deemed essential to it: we beg
to suggest, however, that if any objection be
made, it should be made now, and not be
brought out just when and where the pressure
of the argument may be most severely felt,
and when it can scarcely fail to have the
appearance and the effect of an evasion. What
more, we again ask, is necessary to constitute
power, than the possession of means?
Is our having a disposition towards any
action essential to our having power to perform
it? This is the important question with which
we shall find ourselves involved hereafter, and
which it will be much better to settle now,
without asking which side of the argument it
will favour. We conceive that it is not.
Suppose a case for illustration. A man is
in full health, at perfect liberty, and with
POWER.
65
employment before him, but he is idle: has he
power to work? Another has sufficient money
to satisfy his creditors, but he is fond of
gaming, and has no disposition to meet them:
has he power to pay his debts? A rich man is
importuned by a sufferer, but he is covetous:
has he power to relieve the distress? In all
these cases we conceive an affirmative answer
would be immediately returned; yet they are
cases in which disposition is wanting; and they
lead to the conclusion, therefore, that dispo-
sition is not necessary to power.
Or conceive it to be granted, for the sake of
argument, that disposition is essential to power.
Then it will follow that, what a man is not
disposed to do, he has no power to do. Though
a man be rolling in wealth, a love of dissipation
destroys his power to pay his debts; and though
he be in full vigour, idleness annihilates his
power to work; and it is only necessary to go
great lengths in these bad dispositions, to
authorize one to say, I am totally unable either
to pay your bills, or to labour for my bread.
A person who should use such language as this
would be deemed a fit inmate for a lunatic
asylum. Nothing is more common, and few
things are more important, than the distinction
66
POWER.
+
between power and inclination. You can but
you will not, is language almost incessantly
used, and the distinction on which it is founded
is the basis of some very important transac-
tions; as when an idle fellow is sent to the
treadmill, or an able but reluctant debtor to
the prison.
To say that disposition is essential to power,
attaches a very extraordinary limitation to the
idea of power itself. I have no power, I am
told, to do any thing that I am disposed not to
do, yet there are an immense number of things
which I am disposed not to do, which I have
been always used to think I could do. As, for
instance, I am surrounded by several hundred
places, and am disposed not to go to any of
them; but have I therefore no power to go to
any of them? In that case I must be considered
as fixed, literally like a rock, to my position, till
I am disposed to move, with which disposition.
to move, it appears, my power of moving is
identical. On the contrary, the obvious fact
is, that we have power to do many things,
whether we are disposed to do them or not.
The things are but few in comparison which
we are disposed to do, and these are selected
at our pleasure out of the much larger number
POWER.
67
:
which we have power to perform. The state
of the disposition has not the slightest con-
nexion with the question of power.
It cannot but seem strange that such an idea
as we have been noticing should ever have
been entertained; but it has apparently arisen
from an erroneous view of the fact that a dis-
position to act is necessary to the actual
performance of an action, whence it has been
hastily concluded to be necessary also to the
power of performing it. Nothing certainly
can be more obvious than that a voluntary
being will never act further than he feels a
disposition to do so. Though I may take a
journey whenever I please, so long as I am
determined not to do so, it is quite certain that
I shall not; yet one would think it equally
plain, that my power of doing it remains unim-
paired. To imagine that whatever is necessary
to the actual performance of any thing is also
necessary to the power of performing it, is
to overlook the difference that exists between
power and performance, which, being different
in themselves, do not necessarily imply the
same requisites. The mistake has sometimes
been confirmed by not properly interpreting
a form of speech which is frequently employed
68
POWER.
in this connexion. We say of a man des-
perately idle, he cannot work; or of another
devoted to drinking, he cannot refrain; or, a
man cannot do one thing while he is deter-
mined to do the contrary; and then we con-
clude that what we say a man cannot do he
really has not power to do. Into the full force
of this language we shall inquire in a subse-
quent chapter; at present it may be sufficient
to observe that it is very commonly employed,
as it is obviously in these cases, to express
willingness or unwillingness, without any re-
ference to power at all.
K
There are clearly two very distinct states
before us; namely, the possession of means to
perform a given action, with a disposition to
employ them; and the possession of the same
means for the same action, without a dis-
position to employ them. The question is,
which of these two states are we to call power?
In all ordinary cases the latter is called power;
and we are willing to adopt this nomenclature
rigidly through the whole discussion. If any
person should insist on giving the name power
only to the former of these states, doubtless he
would evade the following argument; but he
would also neednessly depart from the common,
POWER.
69
and therefore the only intelligible use of the
term; while he would leave the latter very
important state altogether without a name,
and merely necessitate the construction of a
new one, before he individually could be pur-
sued through the perverse intricacies of his
S
course.
We are quite ready to admit the fact, that
a disposition towards an action seems to render
the doing of it easy, and that a contrary dis-
position seems to render it difficult, sometimes
even to impossibility. But it only seems to do
so. By the terms easy and difficult, strictly con-
sidered, we understand only that actions are
more or less welcome or pleasing to us, as must
inevitably be the case, in proportion as we are
willing or unwilling to perform them. It is
manifest, however, that our power to perform
an action is not at all affected by its being
more or less agreeable to us. We are fully
able to do some things which, nevertheless, we
deeply abhor, and quite unable to do other
things, the accomplishment of which would
give us great delight; so that, after all,
though aversion may prevent action, it has
no tendency to diminish power. However
loath I may be to satisfy my creditors, even
Katany
70
LIBERTY,
if I should be so reluctant as to make me feel
it difficult, and even impossible, yet, as long as
I have the means of doing so, I shall be held
by all men of common sense to have the power
of doing it.
Too much time, perhaps, has been spent
upon this point; yet its importance required
that it should be cleared up. If the reader
feels satisfied respecting it, let him set it down
as an axiom hereafter not to be disputed, that
power consists in the possession of means alone;
and that, though a man certainly never will do
a thing without a disposition to do it, yet, by
the possession of means alone, he becomes fully
able to do it, whether he will or not. Disposi-
tion is not identical with power, or necessary to
it. If he should not feel satisfied with this
conclusion, let him reconsider the subject, put
his objections into a tangible form, and re-
solutely come to some definition of power by
which he may be willing to abide, before he
proceeds to the argument in which it will be
employed.
ht
FREEDOM, OR LIBERTY OF MORAL AGENTS.
A third term which it may be desirable to
define is FREEDOM, or LIBERTY, in its
LIBERTY.
71
application to man as a moral agent. Much
may hereafter depend upon the meaning we
attach to these words.
By freedom in a general view, we mean
simply the absence of constraint; so that
powers, of whatever kind, may act according to
their own nature without impediment. Thus
the parts of a machine may be said to be free,
when not obstructed in following the impulse
of its moving power; so in respect of the
body, we have freedom when our motions are
not coerced; and in like manner, as intelligent
beings, we enjoy freedom when the intelligent
faculties of understanding, feeling, determi-
nation, and attention, can all exert themselves
according to their nature, without obstruction.
Now man, as a moral being, is no other
than an intelligent being acting under the per-
ception of moral truths, so that his FREEDOM
as a moral agent consists in the unobstructed
action of his intelligent faculties, and in this
alone: nor can it consist in any thing else, since
there do not exist any other powers than these,
to be the instruments of his moral actions.
The writer is not unaware how strenuously
it has been urged that some other kind of
freedom must pertain to moral agents, such
72
LIBERTY.
S
as a freedom of the will, or a right disposition,
of which he has perhaps said enough in another
place, page 64. The indulgence of such fan-
cies is, in all probability, to be referred to that
fruitful source of error which we have already
noticed, the misinterpretation of analogical
terms. Thus, for example, the fact of the evil
disposition of men in their fallen state, and the
certainty of its result in the commission of evil,
have introduced the words captivity, bonds of
iniquity, and many of a similar character;
very forcible and significant phraseology, doubt-
less, and, as metaphorical language, highly
appropriate but it seems to have been for-
gotten that it is metaphorical; or if not, its
just interpretation has at all events been over-
looked. A man in bonds is not free to act;
a man with a prevailing evil disposition is said
to be in bonds of iniquity; therefore it is erro-
neously concluded that he is not free to act,
and that a right disposition must be necessary
to his moral freedom. This is the argument,
and it seems perhaps conclusive. But in what
sense is a man of evil disposition said to be in
bonds? Literally, or figuratively? Surely in
the latter sense alone. And what is the ana-
logy on which the use of this metaphor is
T
Jam
LIBERTY.
773
founded? Simply this, that as a man who is
in bonds will certainly not perform certain
actions, so a man who, though he is not in
bonds, is ill-disposed, will, with equal certainty,
not perform certain other actions. And this is
all. The metaphor means nothing as to the
actual want of freedom, because in this respect
the cases are not analogous; but it denotes only
the certainty of a line of conduct in an agent
still perfectly free: it does not follow from
the use of such language, therefore, however
forcible, that evil disposition constitutes bond-
age, or that right disposition is necessary to
freedom. Moral freedom can consist in no-
thing more than the freedom of the powers
by which moral actions are wrought; and these
powers are nothing more than the intelligent
faculties of man. If there are any other, let
them now for the first time be announced and
described. Notwithstanding all that may be
said of bondage, therefore, and allowing to
the metaphor its full legitimate force, we do
not scruple to maintain that moral freedom has
nothing whatever to do with the disposition;
but that, in this respect, a devil is as free
as an angel, and the most wicked man as free
as the most holy.
E
P
74
RECTITUDE, DEPRAVITY.
One more set of terms it is important to
define. Wherein consists the RECTITUDE,
and wherein the DEPRAVITY of human na-
ture? Few words are more often used in
the discussion than the latter of these, and a
precise idea of its import will greatly facilitate
the accuracy and value of its application.
We have stated that the whole good or evil
of man consists essentially in the state of the
heart. RECTITUDE, therefore, which is a
comprehensive name for whatever may be good
in man, and is primarily applicable to the state
of the heart, denotes a right state of it, or a
right disposition. DEPRAVITY, therefore, can
be neither more nor less than a wrong disposition,
or a wrong state of the heart.
It is true that the other faculties of man
are represented as depraved, and they do all
of them, in fact, feel the pernicious influence
of sin; but they do so only in a secondary and
indirect manner, through the medium of the
heart, on which the deteriorating effect of ini-
quity primarily and immediately fell. My un-
derstanding, for example, is depraved; that is,
it does not now act as it ought in the apprehen-
sion and retention of divine things: but why?
Not through any diminished competency to act
par
DEPRAVITY.
75
as the instrument of perception, but through
the influence of an evil disposition, affecting,
not its condition, but its exercise. The depra-
vity of the understanding, therefore, is rather
but a branch of that of the heart, in which
the root of the evil is planted, and the bitter
fruits are borne in every department of the man.
If any should conceive that depravity de-
stroys, or even weakens, our powers of action,
it will be desirable for them to recollect what
our powers of action are. We have shown
that these are no other than our intelligent
faculties; the question, therefore, is, whether
a wrong disposition destroys or weakens the
intelligent faculties. That it perverts them in
actual use we allow, and that it sometimes
leads to sinful courses which weaken, or even
destroy them; but it must be allowed, on the
other hand, we think, that the intelligent fa-
culties are not necessarily destroyed, or even
weakened, by a wrong disposition. Wicked
men have still the use of their reason, and
some of them in a pre-eminently powerful de-
gree, though associated with dispositions evil
enough to ally them with infernal beings. In
whatever degree, or from whatever cause, the
rational faculties are impaired, in an equal
E 2
76
DEFINITIONS.
degree we most readily admit our power to
be diminished.
The perplexity and difficulty which have been
thrown into discussions such as those which
are now before us, by the use of ill-adapted
or ill-defined phraseology, or by neglecting to
distinguish the strict from the analogical use
of words, must be the author's apology for
dwelling so long on these introductory matters.
When a subject is either intricate in itself, or
has become so through unskilful management,
nothing is more conducive to its successful
investigation than definitions and distinctions.
In these, indeed, the very crisis of the argument
lies. The differences that occur in the details
of it frequently throw the disputants back upon
some more general topic; so that until these
are understood and agreed upon, the course of
subordinate reasoning is perpetually broken,
and can never be satisfactorily prosecuted.
The author intends and hopes to use all his
- principal terms strictly in the meaning he has
assigned to them, and to adhere rigidly to
the principles of mental and moral philosophy
which he has laid down. Such of his readers
as may agree with him in these, will form
agreeable companions to him in his course, and
he has a cheerful hope of gaining their acqui-
DEFINITIONS.
177
escence in his conclusions; but to what pur-
pose should any go further, who dissent from
these axioms? To such readers his reasonings
must always appear fallacious, and objections
continually arise, throwing us back on points
which should have been previously determined.
The decision of the religious argument is in-
volved in the principles of moral philosophy
from which we set out, and all who may
differ from the author upon these, he requests
to proceed no further, but to apply their
thoughts to the reconsideration of them: for if
the difference should be irreconcilable here, it
would be sure to be so every where else, and it
would be better to part at once, with mutual
expressions of candour and good-will, than to
prolong a discussion which may irritate, but
cannot convince. Should they choose to con-
tinue their perusal of this little work, he hopes
they will do him, not the favour, but the jus-
tice, to recollect the sense he has given to his
own terms, that, at all events, whatever they
may think of his arguments, they may judge
fairly of his consistency. If any should prefer
passing by the general argument altogether,
the author will meet them again with plea-
sure on the plain and decisive ground of
scripture testimony.
CHAP. III.
Whether man in his natural state has
power to
repent:-The argument from the nature of
the case.
AFTER these brief explanations, we come
to the question before us: namely, Whether,
in harmony with the admitted necessity of the
Spirit's influence, it can be maintained that
man has power to repent without his aid.
Let it be distinctly remembered, that we
affirm man to have no disposition to repent,
but, on the contrary, a most extreme aversion
to it; his heart being desperately wicked.
But, according to the definition we have given,
power is altogether different from disposition,
and implies nothing respecting it. It is simply
the possession of means, which is compatible
with disposition of any kind.
The question, therefore, comes to this: What
are the means necessary to repentance, or to
induce an entire change of mind towards God?
They are, first, The opportunity of becoming
acquainted with truths adapted and sufficient.
to produce such a change. For the considera-
THE NATURE OF THE CASE.
79
tion of suitable topics is the only method of
effecting a change of any kind in our disposi-
tion, nor can a change be reasonably expected
further than adequate reasons are shown for it.
Secondly, A state of the understanding phy-
sically sound, competent to discern the true
import of the matters presented for considera-
tion. This is obviously indispensable.
Thirdly, A proper connexion between the
understanding and the heart, so that there may
be no obstruction to the influence of the truths
discovered.
g
Go
These appear to be all the means necessary
to repentance; and it may safely be affirmed
that, under these conditions, consideration
would infallibly produce it. If it would not,
it must be either, 1, because the reasons pre-
sented are insufficient; or, 2, because the un-
derstanding could not discern them; or, 3,
because the action of the understanding upon.
the heart was obstructed: all which things are
contrary to the suppositions made. It requires
to be shown, therefore, whether these condi-
tions do meet in the case of a sinner or not.
Ska
He
First, then, Has the Most High presented
to a sinner any just and sufficient reasons for
reponting? We feel as though the very ques-
80
THE ARGUMENT FROM
tion involved impiety. It is manifest that, if
he has not done so, he has the whole blame of
impenitence to take to himself.
Secondly, Is the understanding of man ca-
pable of discerning the true import of the
statements presented to him? Undoubtedly it
is, if he be sane. If any malady impairs his
rational faculties, the excuse is valid; but
nothing more than sane rational faculties is
necessary to understand the word of God. To
receive it, or to have a spiritual view of it,
this, indeed, is not to be ascribed to a natural
man; but these phrases indicate either a right
state of heart, or the engagement of the under-
standing under a right state of heart; and
they imply that which we contend for, namely,
the faculty of previously discerning the import
of the divine word, because without this it
could neither be received nor rejected, neither
considered as excellentn or foolish.
Thirdly, Is there any such derangement in
the faculties of man, that the heart does not
now yield to the force of objects presented to
the understanding? We know that it exhibits
more sensibility to some than to others; but the
fact that it feels the force of any is a proof that
the faculty still exists unimpaired; while the
THE NATURE OF THE CASE.
CASE.
81
other part of the statement, that it does not feel
duly the force of all, is fairly to be accounted
for by inattention, or a selection of the topics
by which attention shall be engaged. Let the
case be examined, and it will be found that the
heart is still, as truly and as forcibly as ever,
affected by whatever objects occupy the under-
standing.
The means of repentance, therefore, and all
the means of repentance, are possessed by a
sinner without the Spirit; but the possession
of the means of repentance constitutes the
power of repentance; therefore, a sinner has
power to repent without the Spirit.
It might be here said, that if a disposition
to repent be necessary to repentance actually
taking place, it ought to be considered as a
part of the power. This is just a specimen of
the way in which the argument is liable to be
interrupted, by objections arising from its pres-
sure at particular points; but it is sufficient to
say that the meaning of our terms is already
settled, and we cannot vary.
If it is still to be debated what power is,
the reader is in reality advanced no further
than the 63d page of this little volume, and
would do much better to return to it.
E 3
CHAP. IV.
Whether, in the conversion of a sinner, power
is imparted:-The argument from the work
of the Spirit.
HAVING seen the condition of man without
the Holy Spirit, let us now observe him under
the influence of this divine agent, and endeavour
to ascertain the nature of the work which he
accomplishes in the heart. We have called it
generally, the conversion of a sinner to God:
but what is the conversion of a sinner to God?
Or, When the Holy Spirit produces the con-
version of a sinner to God, what does he
produce? The question may seem too simple to
be so carefully put, but we shall hereafter find
it greatly to our advantage to have formed
clear ideas on it.
Now the actual conversion of a sinner
presents many details; such as an extensive
change of his views of divine things; a variety
of emotions, and often of conflicting emotions,
in his bosom; a total change of his principles
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT.
83
and preferences; and a corresponding change
in his conduct and pursuits. It is manifest,
however, that in all this there is one grand and
leading feature, one principal point of change,
to which the rest are subordinate; we mean
the change of the disposition, or the habitually
prevalent state of the heart. The change in
the views is the means of producing this change
of heart, without which that would be of no
advantage; from this change of heart springs
the change of conduct, which could other-
wise have no consistency or permanency; while
the various and conflicting emotions which arise
are the mere accidents of the change, modified
by the previous state of the mind, and the con-
siderations chiefly instrumental in transforming
it. In a word, then, that which the Holy Spirit
produces in the conversion of a sinner, is
essentially a change in the habitually prevalent
state of his heart.
This may be easily illustrated. The state
of a sinner's heart towards God while carnal
is declared to be enmity (Rom. viii. 7.); when
converted it is love (Col. i. 21.): and the con-
version of a sinner consists in the effectuation
of this change. Once he hated God, now he
seeks his friendship; once he avoided the
84
THE ARGUMENT FROM
Lord's ways, now he chooses them; once he
delighted in sin, now it is his burden; once he
lived far from God, now he desires his constant
presence. This change is what the Holy Spirit
produces when he effects the conversion of a
sinner.
It may be added, that this is the principal
result of the Spirit's work. In one view it is
an ultimate result, to which the enlightening of
the mind and the various exercises connected
with it, are conducive, and in leading to which
their entire value consists: while, in another
view, it is an initiatory effect, from which alone
any true holiness or transformation of life can
proceed, and by which such transformation is
secured. It is, in a word, the sum of true
religion, which is accordingly declared to consist
in having a new heart; (Ezek. xviii. 31. xxxvi.
26.) the restoration of man to essential rectitude,
and the image of God. To maintain this
change, and to give it universal influence is the
whole scope of the Spirit's operation.
The next point requiring observation is the
method in which this grand change in the state
of the heart is produced. To an inquiry upon
this subject the answer is ready and obvious; it
is produced by a change of views in reference to
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT.
85
divine things. A sinner does not begin to love
God, whom he once hated, without having some
new ideas of his excellency; nor to hate sin,
which he once loved, without some discoveries
of its criminality. In order to convert the heart,
the blessed Spirit enlightens the eyes; and
hence he is represented as accomplishing his
work by the instrumentality of the word of truth.
(Psalm xix. 7, 8. James i. 18. Eph. i. 18.)
This is the use and end of the change of views
which always takes place in conversion, that by
them the heart may be transformed.
The views by which this change is produced,
however, are in one respect, far from being new
views, since they are only such as are contained
in the sacred scriptures, and such as, in many
cases, have been often presented to the mind
before. What causes them now to produce a
new effect? And what does the Holy Spirit do,
in order to give them this unusual efficacy? He
induces a sinner to attend to them, and thus
insures their influence. Thus it is said that
"the Lord opened Lydia's heart, that she
attended to the things which were spoken by
Paul." Acts xvi. 14.
The author is very desirous that his readers
should fully satisfy themselves, before they
86
THE ARGUMENT FROM
proceed, whether the preceding is an accurate
and scriptural account of the conversion of a
sinner to God. If any of them should conceive
that there is any further change produced in
conversion, he entreats them to ask what it is,
and not to satisfy themselves without a clear
and intelligible idea of it.
If the preceding view of conversion be correct,
it is manifest that the Holy Spirit acts herein
in conformity with the intelligent constitution
of man, which has been already described. In
all this process there is nothing extraordinary,
but the originating impulse; in all other re-
spects it is precisely what takes place in every
change of the feelings, and the very method by
which a thousand changes in them are wrought
every day. Here is the understanding dwell-
ing upon certain truths, and the heart influ-
enced accordingly. The extraordinary thing is
that a man is come to dwell upon truths which
he once banished from his thoughts; but this,
it is plain, makes no difference in the truths
themselves, nor in the state of the faculties
which he employs upon them. Here is no
change of power, but simply a different employ-
ment of the power which has been all along
possessed.
Jedn
THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT.
87
It appears, therefore, that, whatever the
state of man as to power may be before he is
influenced by the Holy Spirit, it is the same
afterwards, inasmuch as the work of the Spirit
makes no difference in this respect. He imparts
no power, but merely sets in motion existing
powers by an extraordinary impulse; so that
the power of turning to God must, on this
ground also, be admitted to exist without his
influence.
If it should be suggested that the impulse
thus given should be called power, we have
only again to refer to our definition, which we
are very willing to alter, if any of our readers
will show cause; but from which, until then,
every consideration forbids us to depart.
CHAP. V.
Whether the possession of power is not in-
volved in the praise and blameworthiness
of actions:-The argument from the nature
of sin.
THE actions and character of men are fami-
liarly spoken of in terms which convey either
censure or commendation. Similar epithets
are likewise employed by God himself upon
similar subjects. Hence he speaks continually
of righteousness and of sin. The conduct of
men in an unconverted state he charges upon.
them as highly criminal; that is to say, the
very conduct from which the Holy Spirit, in
conversion, causes them to turn away, he
severely condemns. Now, familiar as this
kind of language is, it carries with it an idea
strictly and powerfully applicable to our
present purpose. For if an action, or rather
the person by whom it is performed, be justly
considered as worthy of praise or blame, it
must be because there is some peculiar feature
THE NATURE OF SIN.
89
in his conduct, giving occasion to, and corre-
sponding with, this peculiar view of it. The
actions of volcanoes and whirlwinds are not
blamed, neither are those of brutes; why
should those of men be so?
To deserved blame or commendation several
conditions are required; but the only one.
necessary to be now noticed, is the possession
of power to have acted otherwise. This is
uniformly and absolutely essential. If, for
example, a man is praised that he did not go
to a gaming-house, and it is found that the
reason of his not going was his confinement
in a prison, the only ground of the praise
awarded him is taken away. That which
renders a person praiseworthy in the doing
of good actions, is his doing them volun-
tarily, that is, under the impulse of his own
feelings, and no other; and when, therefore,
he might have done otherwise. In like
manner, it is essential to blameworthiness
that a man should have power to avoid the
action as well as to perform it. If your ser-
vant, for instance, has injured your property,
hold him criminal because of the apparent
you
voluntary nature of the act; but, if it could be
satisfactorily proved to you that it was invo-
90
THE ARGUMENT FROM
luntary, and not through carelessness merely,
but by some external force which he had not
power to resist, you would immediately alter
your opinion, and clear him from censure.
Every man feels that, when a fault is charged
upon him, he makes a good and irrefragable
defence, if he can say truly, I could not help
it-I did all I had power to do. A person
who should persist in attaching blame when
this was clearly proved, would infallibly be
considered as blinded by passion; and such a
censure would soon become light to those who
might have to bear it, inasmuch as it would
be consciously and manifestly undeserved.
Let these simple illustrations be applied to
the case before us. We argue thus, using
for convenience the syllogistic form :-God
blames man for not being conformed to his
will; but God blames no man unjustly; there-
fore, whatever is necessary to just blame, must
be found in the condition of man. The con-
clusion of this syllogism forms the first member
of the next:-Whatever is necessary to just
blame is found in the condition of man; but
power to act otherwise is necessary to just
blame; therefore man has power to act other-
wise than that for which God blames him.
THE NATURE OF SIN.
91
Which of these positions or conclusions will
be disputed the author cannot tell. To him it
appears that the possession of power to do
right, is essential to the very possibility of
doing wrong, and that, if man does not possess
it, he can be guilty of no sin.
The opinion that blameworthiness towards
God is a different thing from blameworthiness
towards men, is without just foundation.
There is, and can be, but one set of ideas
suggested to our minds by this and its kindred
terms, sin, righteousness, condemnation, &c.;
among these ideas, that of the possession of
power is always found, and it is inseparable
from the use of the terms themselves. That
God has used these terms, knowing what
meaning they conveyed to us, and that they
could convey no other, is a pretty fair argu-
ment that he intended them to convey these
ideas; but if he did not so intend them, and
has not given us his own explanation of them,
then he has left us altogether in the dark as to
their meaning, with the additional evil of a
powerful tendency to understand them in an
inapplicable sense of our own. Will any friend
of God be pleased with this alternative?
Either he has thus uselessly spoken, or he has
92
THE ARGUMENT FROM
used words in their ordinary meaning; and if
he has done the latter, the use of the words
sin, condemnation, &c. essentially implies the
existence of the power contended for.
Jag
It has been said, that no doubt can be enter-
tained by any man of his sinfulness, because his
own conscience convicts him of il. This is most
true, and it bears directly upon the argument
in hand; for the very reason why a man's
conscience convicts him of sin is, that it also
assures him of his power to avoid it. To this
extent he always and inevitably feels himself
subject to blame, but no further. Persuade a
man that, in any given instance, he has not
the power of acting otherwise, and you im-
mediately free him from all self-accusation in
that respect. Hence there has arisen so marked
a distinction as to the kinds of conduct for
which men blame or justify themselves respec-
tively. If a man commits a fraud, he reproaches
himself for it, he feels it was a deliberate vil-
lany; but if he breaks into a rage, he says,
(though unjustly) I could not help it, it is my
constitution and he feels no blame and if you
represent to him the state of his heart towards
God, and attach censure there, you find that
he uses the same weapon of defence with
:
Data
THE NATURE OF SIN.
93
still greater force;-O! says he, that is natural
to me, I cannot help that. A thousand
such examples might be adduced, but these
are sufficient to show that the reproofs of con-
science are founded upon, and proportioned to,
the conscious possession of power; and that,
to whatever extent a man is really persuaded
that he has not power to act differently, to
the same extent he inevitably feels himself
exempt from blame.
Some persons have satisfied themselves with
saying that men must feel themselves blame-
worthy because they know they have sinned
freely, or voluntarily. True: but what purpose
does this statement serve? Suppose that men
have this opinion of themselves; it must be either
just or unjust. If just, it must be founded on
their power to act otherwise, which is essential
to voluntary action, and which is all we have
contended for; if unjust, it is only a fallacy
of which they ought to be disabused. And
what is the meaning, besides, of sinning, or
doing any thing else, voluntarily? It is to act
under our own feelings, without any other
influence; that is to say, it is to select one out
of several things, any of which we might have
chosen. If I have not power to act otherwise
94
THE ARGUMENT FROM
than I do, my actions are not free, but con-
strained.
It would, after all, be much more candid, if
those who maintain that man has not power to
avoid sin, would acknowledge that, according
to that principle, the sinner loses his criminal
character. They have excellent authority for
doing so, and no less than that of our Lord
and Saviour himself. "If ye were blind,"
said he to the Pharisees, "ye should have no
sin." John ix. 41: in other words, If you had
not the means of doing right, you should be
charged with no fault in doing wrong. And if
this is the principle on which HE proceeds in
the distribution of blame, why should we be
discontented with it? It is impossible, indeed,
to admit that sin is no fault, since the sen-
timent would subvert the whole fabric of the
divine government, and turn the oracles of
eternal wisdom into foolishness: let, therefore,
the untenable notion of man's inability, which
plainly involves such consequences, be at once,
and cordially, and for ever abandoned.
Some divines have shown so much candour
as to allow this consequence in part. Taking
up the general principle that God blames men
only for not doing what they could do, and
Gy
THE NATURE OF SIN.
95
not what they could not do, and conceiving
that men cannot do any thing spiritually, but
only externally good, they hold that men are
not blamable for not doing spiritual things,
such as believing in Christ.
It is pleasant to see the force of truth in
any measure admitted by antagonists in ar-
gument, and we may fairly set this conces-
sion down as no trifling confirmation of the
principle we have maintained, namely, that
blameworthiness is commensurate with power.
But to what an extraordinary position have
our brethren thus been driven! There is no-
thing blamable in any spiritual wickedness,
they affirm, because man has no power to do
any thing spiritually good. By things spi-
ritually good or evil, we suppose we are to
understand things good or evil in disposition,
or in the state of the heart; so that the idea
entertained is, that there is no blamewor-
thiness in any state of the heart, however evil.
Wonderful imagination! Nothing blameable
in pride, lust, hatred, malice, revenge, love
of sin, enmity to God, contempt of salvation,
rejection of Christ, or in any of the dreadful
evils of heart which might be added to the
catalogue! What then is the bible, but a
-
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
mass of awful fictions, falsely representing that
on account of these things cometh the wrath
of God upon the children of disobedience?
Is it not strange, too, that, while there is no
blameworthiness in these inward evils, there
should be so much in the outward expression
of them? There is harm, it seems, in for-
nication, but none in lasciviousness; it is
censurable to strike a blow, but not so to be
in a rage; it is wrong to commit sin, but not
so to love it. Yet why should this be? Does
not the law of God look into the inmost soul,
and require purity there? Has not our Lord
declared that whoso looketh on a woman to
lust after her, hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart; and the apostle, that
whoso hateth his brother is a murderer ?
Matt. v. 28. 1 John iii. 15. Besides, if these
outward acts of iniquity are held to be blame-
worthy, it must, upon the principles of our
brethren themselves, be because they have
power to avoid them: but what power has
any man over his conduct, except by having
power over his heart, out of which the con-
duct actually and inevitably springs? They
seem startled by our maintaining that men can
regulate their conduct by their dispositions
THE NATURE OF SIN.
97
but really it is we who have the greater
cause to wonder, when we find them affirm-
ing that a man can regulate his conduct
without his dispositions. They would be hard
task-masters, if the government of the world
were in their hands. The yoke of our Maker
is easy indeed in comparison with theirs.
Our readers will probably agree with us
in thinking that nothing can be more futile
than the attempt to withdraw spiritual evils,
that is, evils of the heart, from deserved blame.
And if they are deserving of blame, upon the
principles of those with whom we are arguing
men must have power to avoid them; because,
as they allow, God blames us for not doing
only what we have power to do. How de-
lightful would it be to find persons of such
amiable candour, and of clear views too to a
certain extent, scattering, by a vigorous effort,
the perplexities which yet surround them!
Ste
F
Get
}
CHAP. VI.
Whether the possession of power is not implied
in the divine commands:-The argument
from moral obligation.
Ir is an obvious, but remarkable circum-
stance, that the same things which are de-
scribed as wrought by the Holy Spirit, and as
indispensably requiring his influence, are else-
where made the subject of divine command,
and enjoined to be performed by men.
"Re-
pent and be converted," said the apostles, Acts
iii. 19. "Let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts," said
the prophets, Isa. lv. 7. "Come unto me,"
said the Saviour, Matt. xi. 28.
"Wash thy
heart from wickedness," said Jehovah, Jer. iv.
14. What are we to understand by this?
The issuing of commands is a thing of per-
petual occurrence among men; but it implies
always a peculiar condition in order to give it
propriety. One feature of this condition, and
the only one immediately pertaining to our
present argument, is, that the power of the
MORAL OBLIGATION.
99
persons commanded should be proportionate
to the obedience required. This is a point of
obvious and indispensable necessity. Whether
it may be just or not that any commands at all
should be addressed to me from a given
quarter, may perhaps be questioned, but it is
at all events unjust that I should be com-
manded beyond my strength. It may be pos-
sible that all the power I have should be
rightly at the disposal of another; but what
would any one have more? Or what could
a claim for more result in, but absurdity and
ridicule? Authority in him who commands
is strictly correlative to power in him who
obeys. Who thinks of commanding the dead;
or of requiring the living to do what they
have not power to perform, as the lame to
walk, or the deaf to listen?
One would naturally infer, therefore, that
when God issues his commands, the very fact
of his doing so, as a being of adorable justice,
implies an appropriate condition on the part of
men, to whom they are addressed; they must
have power to do whatever God enjoins upon
them. To issue commands under any other
circumstances is unjust and absurd, and can-
not be ascribed to the most blessed.
F 2
100
THE ARGUMENT FROM
Under the force of this obvious inference,
some divines, deeming it indispensable to
maintain human inability, have been led to
abandon the obligation of the divine law ;
alleging, that, as men cannot do what is en-
joined, and God knows they cannot, so he does
not expect they should; and that the only use
of the law is to set forth God's rights, and our
sinfulness. Such is the force of system.
With what eyes can these persons read the
bible? The commands of God are expressly
and directly addressed to men, they are
worded in every way expressive of his will and
authority: what could he have said more or
otherwise, if he had intended them to be
obeyed? But the use of the law, we are told,
is to set forth his rights. Yet what rights can
can he have, irrespectively of man's power?
Rights of moral government pertain essentially
to creatures capable of moral action, and can
extend no further. Where there are no such
creatures, (and according to this view there
are none upon earth) there no such govern-
ment can be exercised, nor can any such rights
therefore exist.
Ski
In order to maintain the strange opinion
that God may justly command when we have
MORAL OBLIGATION.
101
not power to obey, it has been a favourite idea
with some divines that there is something
peculiar about his supremacy, which exempts
it from the force of ordinary rules; and it has
often been announced with oracular wisdom,
as an axiom in a certain school of theology,
that God's rights are not to be measured by
our ability. We trust we have no desire to
limit the Holy One of Israel, but cherish an
unfeigned joy in his supremacy and sovereignty.
But God has limited himself by the very fact
of establishing a moral government, with de-
finite rules and principles, which he has shown
no desire to violate; and he can feel himself
little indebted, we apprehend, to those who
have advocated his liberty to do so. He means
to be a righteous judge: and if so, his com-
mands must be proportionate to our power,
whatever that power may be, or may be-
come.
It is of little consequence, we should rather
say it is of no consequence at all, how a change
may have been wrought in the power pos-
sessed by me; whether by means blamable
or otherwise, whether by another's conduct or
my own, whether augmenting my power or
diminishing it the principle never can be
102
THE ARGUMENT FROM
departed from, that, such as my present power
is, precisely such is my present obligation.
As to the remaining alleged use of the law,
(upon the supposition of human inability,) this
is the strangest of all. It is to exhibit our
sinfulness. But, on the above supposition,
what sinfulness have I to be exhibited? If
I had power, according to Christ's declaration,
I should have sin; but if I have no power,
I have no sin: so that, if the law exhibits me
as a sinner, it exhibits what is not the fact, and
stands in need of correction. To deny, there-
fore, that the law of God is given and intended
as the rule of our obedience, is to deny its
utility altogether. If it does not answer this
purpose, it answers none; or only the mis-
chievous one of ascribing to God rights which
he does not possess, and to man iniquities of
which he is not guilty.
It has been imagined by others, that the
law may be considered as two-fold, an internal
and an external law, the letter and the spirit ;
the one enjoining outward actions, and the
other referring to the state of the heart. The
latter, or the spiritual part of the law, is sup-
posed not to be addressed to men in a way
of command; but only the former, or the
Gang
MORAL OBLIGATION.
103
outward precepts, which men, it is allowed,
have power to fulfil. It is well that men
are allowed to have power to do any thing
that God commands, for so far his ways will
appear to be just. But we should like to know
on what this distinction in the law is founded.
The apostle affirms that the law itself is spi-
· ritual; and though some of its requirements
are of an outward kind, it contains many also
that are strictly spiritual, and the state of the
heart is pre-eminently regarded in all. Such
indeed is the grand requirement in which the
whole law is comprehended: "Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy
neighbour as thyself." Mark xii. 30, 31. It
would appear also, that, if God may not com-
mand the state of the heart, he cannot effec-
tually command any thing, inasmuch as all
external actions originate and take their cha-
racter from it. It is in the heart, in truth,
as we have already shown, that the right and
the wrong of every action essentially lies;
and if God has not aimed his law at the heart,
he has passed by the only part of our nature to
which it is applicable at all.
If this were not enough, we should like
to know, too, how a man can have power
104
MORAL OBLIGATION.
to perform things outwardly right, but not
inwardly so. Outward actions are not such
as are commanded, unless they are performed
in the spirit which is commanded, every pre-
cept requiring an internal as well as an ex-
ternal conformity. Besides, there is no way
of regulating the outward conduct, but by first
regulating the heart. A man's power over
his actions consists in his power over his
heart destroy this, and the other instantly
expires.
As the very fact of the divine being issuing
his commands, seems to demonstrate the exist-
ence of a corresponding power of obeying
them, this argument will be greatly strength-
ened by considering the awful consequences
which he attaches to disobedience; a topic
to be pursued in the following chapter.
CHAP. VII.
Whether the possession of power be not im-
plied in the distribution of rewards and
punishments :—The argument from human
responsibility.
WE referred, at the close of the preceding
chapter, to the consequences which it has
pleased the Most High to connect with the
violation of his commandments. As he has
issued a law to be obeyed, so he has appointed
a day in which he will judge the world. Acts
xvii. 31. We must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, that every man may
receive according to his works, whether they
have been good or evil.” 2 Cor. v. 10.
*
This part of the divine administration is
evidently pervaded by a general principle of
great importance, namely, that God holds men
answerable to him for their conduct; and
doubtless, if he does so at all, he does so
with indisputable justice. But, in order to
just responsibility, there is required a peculiar
F 3
106
THE ARGUMENT FROM
•
and corresponding condition in the parties held
to be responsible. No man holds all other
men to be responsible to him; why does he
hold any to be so? Plainly because of some
peculiarity in their condition. In such a con-
dition the possession of power is a uniform and
essential element. A person may be my ser-
vant, and
and therefore I may consider him
answerable to me for the occupation of his
time; but if his power of labour is taken
away, his responsibility no longer exists. The
awarding of praise and blame, of punishment
and reward, proceeds universally upon this
principle, so far as it is acknowledged to be
just; every deviation from it is an admitted
instance of partiality, wickedness, or folly.
The application of these remarks to the
divine government will lead us to a very
easy and obvious conclusion. The Almighty
holds men responsible to him for their conduct;
but power over our own conduct is necessary
to just responsibility; therefore, men have
power over their own conduct.
An imagined necessity of maintaining hu-
man inability has induced an unwillingness
to admit this reasoning. It is alleged that
the subject, like many others, is mysterious,
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
107
and that we should not pry into such profound
investigations.
Undoubtedly many subjects are mysterious,
and it is both our duty and our interest not
to push inquiry where God checks it. But
upon what authority is the responsibility of
man ranked among the mysteries of religion?
Certainly no question can be more import-
ant, or more conducive to a practical end,
than this:—On what ground does God hold
me answerable for my conduct? Nor can
there be a question better entitled to a plain
and convincing reply. Upon the answer to
such an inquiry, the complexion of a man's
feelings, in reflecting upon his character,
obviously depends. If the censure which
attaches to him be apparently unjust, or if
the justice of it be hidden among divine
mysteries, he may be assured indeed of con-
demnation before God, but he cannot feel
any condemnation of himself. Humiliation,
shame, penitential sorrow, can spring from
nothing but such justice in his condemnation
as he himself can understand; and if these
features of character be of any excellency
or importance, it is not less so, not merely
that our responsibility should be just, but
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
that its justice should be apparent to our-
selves. A shadow upon this topic darkens
every other; since our views of divine mercy,
our joy in salvation, our grateful devotedness,
all and every part of christian character, will
bear a proportion to the justice we discern
in our condemnation and ruin. It ought to
be, therefore, with every man, a matter of
the utmost anxiety to have clear views of
this point. Not that we should be unwilling
to leave in mystery what God has placed
there, but, respecting the grounds of our
responsibility, it is yet to be proved that he
has withdrawn them from our cognizance;
and when we think of their obvious and fun-
damental importance, it may be deemed almost,
if not altogether incredible that he should
have done so.
This is the less to be supposed, because re-
ponsibility is not by any means a mysterious
subject in itself. We are in the habit of hold-
ing each other responsible continually, and of
allotting most readily both praise and censure,
punishment and reward. The principles on
which we do this are perfectly simple and ob-
vious; and there is a natural and irresistible
tendency to apply them to the divine conduct,
Jag
Madag
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
109
as well as to our own. God has made use of
our own language in this respect, and has
given us reason to suppose, therefore, that he
entertains similar ideas, and acts on similar
principles; otherwise his declarations are cal-
culated to mislead. If, when he speaks of
righteous judgment, he does not mean the
same as we do when using the same terms,
the language, at best, is useless: what else
does he mean? Only give such an unintelli-
gible character to scriptural phraseology ge-
nerally, and the value of the bible is utterly
destroyed.
very same names.
And why should the principle which regu-
lates human conduct, not be applied to the
divine? Is there such a difference between
the relations we bear to each other, and those
we bear to our Maker? He calls them by the
"If I be a father," says
he, "where is mine honour; if I be a master,
where is my fear?" Mal. i. 6. Does he pro-
fess to act upon principles different from ours?
So far from it, that he draws illustrations
from our own conduct to convict us of sin
against him; and even calls us in to be judges
in the controversy which he maintains with
men. Judge, I pray you, between me and
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
my vineyard: what could have been done more
to my vineyard, that I have not done in it?
Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring
forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes ?"---
Isai. v. 3, 4. Nay, he frames his very law by
the same rule; "Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy mind, and with all thy STRENGTH."
Mark xii. 30.
J
Typ
The import of the last quoted passage is
especially worthy of observation. Upon a
careful perusal of it, the reader will clearly
see that the law of God, in its utmost latitude,
and in its highest interpretation, demands.
nothing more than our strength; and that God
himself not man-has made this the exact
measure and standard of his requirements. It
is moreover evident, from the language here em-
ployed, that our Maker considers our strength
for the performance of what he requires to lie
in the possession of our intelligent faculties;
in strict accordance with which idea, he calls
upon us to love him "with all our heart, with
all our soul, and with all our mind." An opinion
has been entertained in some quarters, that
our first parents, to whom this declaration of
God's law was given, had strength equal to its
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
111
performance, but that their depraved descend-
ants have not. We conceive, however, that the
words of our Lord above quoted, express the
law as given to man depraved, as well as to man
in innocence. If they do not, then the law of
God must have undergone a change, with the
condition of man: and we ask, what change?
And what is the law now? And where are the
scriptural authorities for such a view?
We
know of none, nor can we conceive that any
serious attempt will be made to maintain such
a position. But if this be the law as now
given to us, let it be observed that it takes for
the measure of its demands, not the strength
of our first parents, or of a state of innocence,
but our actual and present strength: "Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
strength." Such is its language to every in-
dividual; varying, therefore, with all varia-
tions of strength, if such there be, and making
the strength of every man the measure of the
obedience which God requires from him.
But suppose this is not held to be the prin-
ciple of the divine government, and that, in
relation to God, a man is to be blamed for
doing what he had not power to avoid, or for
not doing what he had not power to perform;
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112
THE ARGUMENT FROM
suppose it admitted that God's right to com-
mand is not limited by man's ability to obey,
and that he exacts labour beyond our strength;
the justice of all which is to be consigned (as
well it may) to mystery now, and to be
cleared up at a future day:-what is the con-
sequence of this? We inevitably associate
hay
the character of the most blessed with what is
evil and base in our estimation; we place him
in the same rank with unreasonable and cruel
men, with unrighteous and merciless task-mas-
ters, and even with the cruel monarch, whose
similar conduct, in requiring bricks without
straw, is held up to the universal execration
of men, and aroused the indignant vengeance
of heaven. We set up religion in direct op-
position to the common sense and indestruc-
tible principles of mankind. We tell them
what they never can believe, and what, if
they could believe it, would only increase their
enmity to God; what is adapted to attach
scorn to professions of justice, and turns de-
clarations of mercy into ridicule. That these
effects are not produced in pious minds we
allow, but they are produced to a most de-
plorable extent in the minds of the ungodly;
they naturally and justly follow from the
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
113
premises, and not at all the less so because
they are left to slumber in some persons, under
the general plea that the subject is mysterious.
We maintain that it is not at all mysterious,
and should be greatly astonished indeed if the
Almighty had left in mystery any thing by
which his name could be so dishonoured. The
mysteries of religion are things above reason, not
things contrary to it; nor can they be so, for
none such are there in religion to conceal. We
can conceive no argument to be plainer or more
decisive than this: God holds us justly respon-
sible; proportionate power is necessary to just re-
sponsibility; therefore, we have power to be and
to do all that for which God holds us responsible.
If we examine the nature of the power which
is considered necessary to just reponsibility
among men, we shall find it to be precisely
that which we all possess in relation to God.
It is the possession of means. A man is blamed
or punished for not paying his debts, who has
the means of doing so, that is, money, within
his reach; and the same in every other case.
According to the view we have taken of the
structure and operation of the mind, we have
the means of being all that God expects us to
be; or, in other words, we have the power of
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
being so. Taking, therefore, the same ground
which satisfies every one of the justice of re-
sponsibility among men, we find justice equally
manifest in our responsibility to God: why should
any thing additional be desired in this case?
Are we dissatisfied with this state of things?
The argument we have just drawn from the
principle of responsibility is greatly strength-
ened, by adverting to the awful magnitude of
the consequences which the Supreme Governor
has attached to disobedience. In a case in
which the result in suspense was trivial, it
might be comparatively unimportant to be
scrupulous about the principle. But in the
case before us the issue is most momentous.
The futurity which is to be decided according
to our present conduct, comprehends by far
the most important portion of our being,
its highest joys or its deepest sorrows; they
are joys and sorrows, for the description of
which all sources of earthly illustration have
been employed, nay, they have been exhausted,
and yet they have been proved inadequate;
they are to be imparted by God's own hand,
then, unrestrained, and acting with an energy
therefore altogether beyond conception; and
finally, they are to be perpetual, admitting,
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
115
throughout all eternity, of no change but
augmentation, according to their respective
natures. Is the ground upon which I am sub-
jected to one of the alternatives of such a
destiny to be concealed from me?
Nor is this all. In the infliction of indigna-
tion so terrible upon his creatures, it is of
the utmost moment that the character of God
should be cleared of every dark suspicion, by a
most vivid and irresistible conviction in the
mind of every sinner of the justice of his
doom; and this not merely at the time of its
endurance, when it can be of no use to him;
but during the time of probation, when it might
exercise a beneficial influence on his course.
To imagine that, when such issues as these
are suspended on the event, God should have
so trifled with immortal creatures, and his
creatures too, as to say, I will deal with you
according to your character, when they have
no power to form that character to good or ill,
is afflictive beyond all sufferance; nor can a
sentiment which involves this consequence
ultimately stand. God forbid for then how
shall God judge the world?" Rom. iii. 6.
It has sometimes been conceived sufficient
to say, that the supposed mystery attending the
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
responsibility of man will be cleared up here-
after, and that no doubt will be entertained of
it at the judgment day. Most unquestionably
this is a truth; but a truth which no way tends
to lessen the importance of satisfactory infor-
mation on the same subject now. The justice
of his responsibility is a thing which should
obviously be made apparent to a sinner, not
merely at the time of his punishment, to silence
him in his sufferings, but during the period of
his probation, to quicken him in his escape. To
suppose knowledge communicated then which
which is not accessible now, is to suppose the
existence of a new case, in which no probation
is granted, but punishment inflicted without
opportunity of refuge. It would enable a sin-
ner to say, If I could have known this before, I
might have been a different man: whereas the
equitable character of the final judgment ob-
viously lies in its simply carrying out the prin-
ciples of the probationary state, and rewarding
every man according to that which he might
have known, as determining the character of
that which he has done. We have no need to
hesitate in saying, therefore, that the grounds
exhibited as those of our responsibility hereafter,
must be precisely the same as those exhibited
B
Sara
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
117
now; and that if the subject be mysterious in
this world, it can receive no elucidation in the
next.
Another method by which it has been con-
ceived reconcilable with common sense that
God should so awfully punish men for not doing
what they have not power to do, is by such a
statement as follows: Though man has not
power to repent and turn to God of himself,
yet God is willing to give him power, having
promised to impart his Holy Spirit to them
that ask it. Now, it is continued, man has
power to ask for the Spirit, and he ought to
pray for it, in which case he would have power
bestowed for all the rest of his duty.
It is an undoubted truth that God has pro-
mised to give his Holy Spirit to them that ask
him, and it is a most blessed encouragement to
us under the experience of our desperate de-
pravity; but the preceding statement is liable
to several objections.
It proceeds upon the assumption of a totally
inadmissible principle, namely, that repentance
may be a sinner's duty at the time that he has
not power to perform it. If power should be
imparted, whether by the Holy Spirit or in any
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118
THE ARGUMENT FROM
other method, then unquestionably it would be
his duty; but this idea of praying for power to
repent implies that the obligation of repentance
exists before the power is received, which we
conceive to be impossible and absurd.
This assumption is also contradicted by a
part of the statement itself. A man can pray,
it is alleged, and therefore he ought to pray,
and will be justly blameable if he do not. Most
admirable and undeniable! But the converse
surely follows, that as man cannot repent, he
is under no obligation to repent, and for impe-
nitence is liable to no condemnation. Else it
might be equally affirmed that men ought to
pray though they could not pray, which this
hypothesis very carefully and very wisely avoids.
Yet why should we be more willing to say
that they ought to repent when they cannot
repent? Is not the principle in both cases the
same? The statement shows an apparent desire
to avoid this inconsistency; yet by this very
principle it destroys itself. Indeed error is
always a suicide.
Further, upon the hypothesis under consi-
deration, the direct and immediate obligation of
a sinner is to pray, and not to repent, to turn
to God, or to believe in Christ, for all which
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
119
he has no power, and which therefore it were
vain to attempt to perform. His duty is
merely to pray that power may be given him
for these ends. We conceive this to be a per-
version of the aspect of scriptural exhortation,
and a striking deviation from the address of the
gospel. We know, indeed, that Simon was
exhorted to pray, but it was for pardon of sin,
not for the Holy Spirit; and besides, the en-
couragement to pray came after an exhortation
to repent. See Acts viii. 22. And this is the
uniform address of the gospel. "Repent ye,
therefore, and be converted. Except ye re-
pent, ye shall all likewise perish. God now
commandeth all men every where to repent.
Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Acts iii. 19.
Luke xiii. 3. Acts xvii. 30. Mark i. 15. This
is required of sinners as their first and imme-
diate duty, without the intervention of any
other act. The address of our brethren, how-
ever, must be of a totally different kind. It
must be to this effect: "We do not exhort
you to repentance, or conversion, or faith in
Christ, because you have not power to perform
them; but we exhort you to pray. You can
pray. Pray, therefore, for the Holy Spirit to
enable you to repent." Now we ask where
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
the pattern of this address is in the holy
scriptures? Or, if there be none, by what
authority is it introduced, to modify and super-
sede the wisdom and power of God? Can any
thing more effectually condemn a hypothesis,
than its compelling its advocates to abandon so
principal a feature of the divine word? This
verily is "another gospel."
There is here also another inconsistency.
The statement supposes a man to pray for
power to repent; that is, to pray before he re-
pents, or, which is the same thing, to pray in
impenitence and unbelief. What sort of prayer
can this be? Or what acceptance can it find
with God? Can any supplication be grateful
to him from a man who is yet an enemy to him,
or any which is not presented in a Saviour's
name? Yet if a man prays in the name of
Christ, or as a friend to God, he is no longer
in unbelief or impenitence; he has both re-
pented and believed, at the very moment when
he is praying for power to do so.
But let us look yet a little more narrowly at
that which a sinner, on this supposition, is ex-
horted to do. He is urged to pray; for what?
not for pardon, nor for deliverance from the
wrath to come; nor for peace of conscience, or
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
121
purity of heart; but for power. For power?
Why power is the very thing which creates
both his responsibility and his danger, and is
the last thing in the world which a wicked
man would wish to possess. Nothing can be
more gratifying to him than to learn that
he has no power to repent, since he may then
be quite certain that it cannot be his duty, and
that the neglect of it cannot expose him to any
just condemnation. This is just as he would
have it; and if you tell him that in a certain
quarter he may obtain power, his reply might
naturally be, 'I would rather not obtain it; it
would impose upon me new duties, and create
fearful responsibilities, which I am very happy
to avoid.' This strange notion, therefore,
makes it dependent upon man himself whether
he will have power or not; and leaves it to a
sinner, by never praying for power, to exclude
himself from ever being answerable to God for
his impenitence.
But we have not yet done. We should like
to know upon what grounds it is affirmed that
a sinner can pray. Any available or accep-
table prayer, or in other words, any real prayer,
must be in spirit and in truth; it must express
the state of the heart. Now such a state of
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
heart as would be expressed in prayer for the
Holy Spirit, would certainly be totally dissi-
milar to the ordinary and previous state of a
sinner's mind. If he has power to pray for the
Spirit, therefore, he has power to produce this
change in the state of his mind. But this
change is of the same nature, and as great in
degree, as that implied in repenting of sin and
turning to God; and if a sinner has power for
the one, how has he not power for the other?
Besides, does not the fact of praying for the
Spirit inevitably carry with it the idea of re-
pentance and reconciliation to God? Can
we conceive of a man still loving iniquity and
hating God, pouring out his heart in breathings
after the humbling and soul-subduing influences
of the heavenly dove?
It requires to be asked, moreover, whether
sinners really have the power to pray. We,
of course, believe that they have; but we are
convinced that they have it in no other sense
than that in which they have also power to
repent. The passages of scripture and other
arguments which are brought to show that
men have not power to repent, would equally
demonstrate that they have not power to pray.
"Without me," says our Lord, "ye can do
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
123
nothing:" (John xv. 5.) Why is prayer made
an exception to this declaration? In the very
same sense in which men cannot repent, they can-
not pray; the hinderances to both are precisely
of the same character, and of equally certain
operation; nor can it be less derogatory to the
Holy Spirit to imagine that men can pray with-
out his aid, than that without it they can re-
pent. In affirming that men can pray, our
brethren are guilty of the same violations of
scripture, the same inconsistencies, and other
evils, charged upon us in saying that men can
repent; they cannot therefore reasonably ac-
cuse us, nor do we attempt to criminate them.
We believe the doctrine of man's entire ability
for his duty to harmonize with the whole of
scripture; and they, who admit it in one point
without answering the end they desire, may
just as easily, and much more satisfactorily,
admit it in all.
G
It has sometimes been said in reference to
the commands of God, that man is not called
to obey them in his own strength; and hence
it is inferred, that the utterance of commands
does not necessarily imply the existence of
power to fulfil them.
This singular representation appears to be
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
founded upon the fact, that the blessed God,
having foreseen and foretold the melancholy
and certain influence of our evil disposition,
has encouraged us to pray for the influence of
the Holy Spirit, in order to quicken and lead
us in our duty. This is a most gracious and
important part of the divine administration of
mercy, and one which we should be extremely
sorry to overlook or to obscure; yet we con-
ceive that it affords no ground for the objection
derived from it.
In the first place, it is obvious that the com-
mands of God are addressed to man as he is,
and not to man as he is not. If otherwise,
then they are not addressed to man at all,
but to a being in some state in which he is not;
nor can they ever have any bearing upon him,
but on the supposition of his coming sometime
into the state of superadded strength which
they contemplate. It seems evident, however,
that no such qualification as this is attached to
any of God's commandments. They are uni-
formly addressed to man as he is, without the
slightest intimation that obedience is not re-
quired until he obtains additional power to
obey; on the contrary, from the moment they
are understood their obligation begins, while
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
125
every act of disobedience is reckoned a sin,
and will meet its reward. If man is not called
to obey in his own strength, he should not be
required to obey while he has no strength but
his own; the additional strength which obe-
dience requires should be issued simultaneously
with the command. But neither is this the
; since it is manifest that the commands
of God are laid upon men for a long period
before the Holy Spirit, which is supposed to
convey the additional strength, is commu-
nicated. Besides, if God does not call men
to obey in their own strength, then the
strength which he does require them to use
should be communicated by him unsought,
and not only promised in answer to prayer ;
and in cases in which that strength is never
given, it follows that he never calls for obe-
dience at all. The only thing which, upon
this principle, he can be said to require,
is prayer, and prayer for strength; which
is never enjoined, though many other things
are which this imagination supersedes; and
which, moreover,
moreover, is quite as much be-
yond our own strength as any other spi-
ritual exercise, and therefore ought as little
to be required, until the additional strength
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
is given which we are thus expected to seek.
It may be added that the objection quite over-
looks the fact, which we have elsewhere no-
ticed, that God actually makes our own strength
the measure of his demands; for thus it stands
in the grand expression of his law, and the
same qualification doubtless attaches to every
individual precept of it, "Thou shalt love.
the Lord thy God with all thy strength."
And if the whole that he requires be that to
which our own strength is competent, why
should he wait for our obedience till we ac-
quire more strength than our own?
In the next place, we do not see how the
condescending kindness of God in encouraging
us to pray for his Holy Spirit at all counte-
nances the idea that he does not call us to
obey in our own strength. For, in truth, the
operation of the blessed Spirit has no relation
to our strength, but solely to our disposition.
Our strength to do the will of God consists in
the possession of our rational faculties, which
we have, if we are sane, independently of gra-
cious influence; that which hinders us is a
wrong disposition, and for the correction of
this the Spirit's aid is to be implored. His
object is not to impart strength, but to inspire
+
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HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
127
resolution; so that even if it were true, which
it is not, that God does not require us to obey
without the Spirit, still it could not be said
that he calls for no obedience in our own
strength. Even when he gives the Spirit, he
gives no more strength; and if, therefore, we
are ever called upon to obey his will, in our
own strength, and in that alone, it must be.
Besides, when we come to pray for the help
of the Spirit in order that we may obey our
Maker's commands, what does this very act
and attitude imply? Surely, that obedience
to these commands is our duty, whether we
obtain the aid that we seek or not. If it be
not our duty, why should we seek help to per-
form it? Our doing so seems clearly to indi-
cate that we have felt ourselves called upon to
render obedience before we came to the throne
of grace, and that, finding impediments, we
are come for relief: but, if it be true that we
are not called upon to obey while we have only
our own strength, then we have been labouring
under a delusion, and ought rather to return
from the mercy-seat with this consolation, that,
until strength is given, we are not expected to
obey. The truth is, that, by encouragements
to pray for the Spirit, God is making no
128
HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY.
allowance for supposed weakness, but showing
himself willing not to abandon us to our wick-
edness. He requires obedience of us as we
are; and if we find resistance from a desperate
heart, he permits us to hope that he will take
even that away.
D
CHAP. VIII.
Of the divine use of means independently of
the Holy Spirit :-The argument from the
limited communication of the Spirit.
WE have already adverted to the fact, that
what is, on one hand, ascribed to the operation
of the Holy Spirit, is, on the other, enjoined upon
man as his duty; and hence we have inferred
the power of man to perform it. But we may
go further than this. God has not only issued
commands; he has also used a variety of means
to induce us to comply with them. Of this
character are all the invitations and promises,
the warnings and threatenings, the doctrines
and examples, contained in holy scripture ;
all of them addressed to the understanding,
and in some way or other appealing to the
heart, and constituting together an immense
apparatus of motive and persuasion. Many of
these portions of holy writ are unquestionably
directed specifically to ungodly men, and, by
shewing the necessity, reasonableness, import-
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LIMITED COMMUNICATION
ance, and blessedness of conversion, adapted to
lead men to repentance. Such passages are
also, obviously, of no limited application, but
are addressed to sinners generally, and there-
fore to sinners universally; so that, wherever
the knowledge of the gospel comes, a system
of persuasive means is immediately put into
operation upon every person of sane mind.
This system of means plainly does not imply,
or comprehend, as in its own nature, any com-
munication of the Holy Spirit to the parties
on whom it bears. Some, indeed, have con-
ceived that there is a dispensation of the Spirit
co-extensive with the means of religious know-
ledge, a measure of his blessed influence being
given to every man, to make the best use of it
for his own welfare; a sentiment into which
we need not at present enter more fully than
to say, that we see in it neither doctrinal truth,
nor practical value. On the contrary, we ap-
prehend that, as, on the one hand, the scrip-
tures declare the influence of the Spirit to be
productive of the fruits of the Spirit; so, on
the other, the measure in which such fruits are
actually produced clearly and indubitably de-
scribes the extent to which his influences have
been received. If this be the case, and we
OF THE SPIRIT.
131
shall assume it for the present without further
argument, the communication of the Spirit is
not universal, even where gospel privileges are
enjoyed; since it is manifest that not all who
enjoy them are converted to God. In such cir-
cumstances, however, the use of means is still
universal, the truths of God's word, which are
adapted to lead to repentance, bearing upon
every man alike. Hence, therefore, it ap-
pears, that the communication of the Spirit
and the use of means are not co-extensive ;
and that while there is one portion of man-
kind who enjoy both these favours, there is
another who possess only one of them, namely,
the means of persuasion, being left without the
influences of the Holy Ghost.
Let us dwell for a moment upon this state of
things, remembering that it is no accident, no
mistake; that it is not found where diverse
agencies might have given rise to unexpected
incongruities; but that it exists in the admi-
nistration of God himself, and therefore is
stamped with the previous knowledge, delibe-
rate design, and perfect wisdom, which charac-
terize all his works.
To what circumstances, then, is the use of
means adapted or appropriate? Clearly, to
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LIMITED COMMUNICATION
none but those in which there is an apparent
possibility of their success. In sickness, for
example, it is a general maxim, that while
there is life there is hope; and physicians
accordingly continue their exertions, with
however little expectation of a cure, till life
expires: but was any one ever so absurd as to
perpetuate the use of means after it was ascer-
tained that life was extinct? So accurately is
the principle acted upon, as to establish some
remarkable exceptions to the general rule; in-
asmuch as in cases of pulmonary consumption,
for instance, it is now known that, after a cer-
tain point of its progress, recovery is hopeless,
and at that point the application of all medi-
cines is suspended, excepting such as may
mitigate sufferings which death only can ter-
minate. To every case of the employment of
means the same principle extends; and if there
be any readers of this book who would not feel
themselves guilty of absurdity in making efforts
for an object when they knew there was no
possibility of success, they, but they alone, may
deny the conclusion to which we are tending.
If a possibility of success be necessary to the
appropriate use of means in the abstract, it
must be so, whether those means be employed
OF THE SPIRIT.
133
by human agents or divine: the objects con-
templated may differ, and the means devised;
but the principle of the practicability of the
end by the means devised, is alike essential to
the wisdom of both. But if this be the case,
then it inevitably follows, that it is possible for
sinners to be converted by the means instituted
for this end, namely, by means of persuasion,
without the influence of the Holy Spirit;
otherwise God would have resorted to the
use of means without propriety or wisdom,
which is not to be supposed.
Should any reader here be startled by recol-
lecting how expressly our Lord declares this
to be impossible, the author begs to refer to a
following chapter, in which the meaning of that
and its kindred terms will be fully, and he
hopes candidly investigated. At present, let
the train of reasoning which is before us be
frankly pursued, and if the idea is to be re-
tained, that the Almighty is attempting to
accomplish by the use of persuasion what it is
impossible so to achieve, let us fairly observe
the attitude in which we place him. We set
his administration in this respect on a level
with absurd and irrational actions. It is like
the conduct of a man who should exhaust his
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wealth upon speculations from which he knew
he could derive no return,-a wasteful expen-
diture of his resources. It is like the effort of
a man attempting to lift a mountain in his
hand, a ridiculous application of his strength.
It is like reasoning with the wind, or expostu-
lating with a stone. Can any one think thus
of his Maker?
stavad Ju
Hard
The difficulty of entertaining such ideas has
led some to imagine, that God never intended
the means he has employed to answer the end
for which they are apparently designed; an
opinion which has been strengthened by the
observation, that none of God's designs can fail
of their accomplishment. Of this argument we
shall speak presently; let us first observe the
extraordinary predicament into which it brings
the adorable being on whose behalf it is pro-
duced.
We are to conceive, then, that the blessed
God uses means adapted to an end, without
any design to accomplish that end. Now it
may be observed, in the first place, that this
immediately stultifies our ordinary mode of
reasoning. When we see a person adopting
means conducive to an end, we uniformly and
inevitably conclude that he designs to accom-
Zutt
OF THE SPIRIT.
135
plish that end, or at least to do something to-
wards it thus when a man excavates the
ground, and collects bricks or other materials,
can any body help concluding that he intends
to build? We have no such certain method of
judging of the intention of others as by the
tendency and adaptation of their actions; and
if it be of any importance at all to ascertain
the designs of God, as in some respects we
suppose it is, we can scarcely avoid estimating
them by the same rule. Or, secondly, If the
designs of God may not be inferred from the
adaptation of his actions, it attaches a melan-
choly stigma to his character. A man who
makes preparations as though he meant to do
one thing, and all the while means to do
another, either does not know his own mind,
or he proceeds in a way of concealment and
deceit he is either a fool or a knave. If,
as we most deeply feel, such imputations must
be infinitely remote from the Most High, must
not such conduct also? It is certain, at all
events, that, in instituting means for the con-
version of sinners, he seems to have this de-
sign; it is certain, too, that, as he has con-
stituted us to infer design from the apparent
tendency of actions, he knows we shall con-
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ceive him to have this design; and if it shall
ultimately turn out that he had no such design,
what can possibly result from the institution of
these means, but delusion to us, and mockery
to himself?
Besides, look at the nature and extent of the
means themselves. How solemnly and awfully
he speaks! With what a vehemence of affec-
tion and importunity he pleads! From what a
compass the topics are adduced which are em-
ployed to persuade, and how much do they
comprehend of the most attractive and the
most terrible that can appeal to the heart of
man! Think of the patience, the perseverance,
the solicitude, with which all these means are
employed, while God himself looks on, with
urgent yet suspended wrath, saying, "How
shall I make thee as Admah, and set thee as
Zeboim!" Could he have done more if he really
had intended to persuade?
Nor should we forget that criminality is at-
tached to the failure of the means employed.
If the Almighty had not intended them as
means of conversion, one would think he
could find little cause of complaint in the fact
that none were converted by them: why is he
angry at this, if he never meant they should be
OF THE SPIRIT.
137
so? He is angry, nevertheless, with the wicked
every day, and, "if he turn not, he will whet
his sword." Ps. vii. 12. When "the Lord
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven in flaming
fire," it will be to "take vengeance on them
that obey not the gospel." 2 Thess. i. 8.
But why, if the gospel was not meant to be
obeyed? The displeasure of God surely can
have no foundation but the contradiction of his
will, and no measure but the degree in which
sinners have been guilty of it.
Whatever
justice or reasonableness there is admitted to
be, therefore, in the punishment of the impe-
nitent, there is just as much proof of the inten-
tion of God that they should repent at his call.
But none of the designs of God, it is said,
can be frustrated: and so, for the thousandth
time, is an apparent truth converted into a real
error.
There are two characters or capacities in
which God acts: in the one he appears as a
sovereign agent, accomplishing all his pleasure;
in the other as a moral governor, submitting
himself, within certain limits, to the pleasure of
others. The latter idea is necessarily involved
in the creation of rational beings, who may or
may not, honour their maker by obeying his
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commands, or accomplishing his will. There is
manifestly, therefore, a wide difference between
the legislative will of God, and his absolute will;
between his design respecting what others should
do, and his design respecting what he will do
himself. The accomplishment of the latter is
absolutely certain, the former is liable to frus-
tration. And this state of things involves no
dishonour to God; because, whatever the con-
duct of his creatures may be, however they
may choose to disobey and dishonour him, there
are ultimate measures of wrath, by taking which
his name and glory will be fully vindicated.
Seeing therefore that there is a most just
and important sense in which it may be affirmed
that God's will may be resisted and his designs
frustrated, namely, in reference to the whole of
his legislative administration, it may correctly
be maintained to be his will that men should
repent at his call, even though none of them do
No other part of his will is frustrated
herein, than such as the very nature of his
government renders liable to this result.
so.
Gard
It may perhaps be conceived that the fact
that none are converted without the influence
of the Spirit, a fact which the author most fully
and unequivocally maintains, authorizes the
OF THE SPIRIT.
139
inference that the means were not intended for
their apparent end. Would the Almighty, it
may be said, institute a magnificent apparatus
as means of conversion, by which he foreknew
that none would be converted?
This question involves a principle which ap-
plies to all instances of probationary adminis-
tration. Can it be wise and worthy of God to
make an experiment which he knows will fail?
Let his own conduct answer. The experi-
ment made with our first parents in the garden
of Eden was just such an one; yet he did make
it, and he may therefore make another on a
similar principle. Or let the nature of the case
answer. May there not be other results, for
the production of which the experiment may
be worth while, although that particular result
should not arise? He must have great confi-
dence in his own judgment who would under-
take to answer this question in the negative;
and until it is so answered, and upon sufficient
authority, the way is quite open for conceiving
that God may have instituted means of con-
version, and intended them as such, although
no sinner should be converted by them.
We might ask, indeed, If the invitations
and warnings of holy writ were not intended
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as means of conversion, for what were they
intended? The importance of answering this
question has been felt by those who hold the
opinion we are combating, but it seems to
have been found somewhat difficult to answer
it satisfactorily. It is, we are told, to leave
sinners without excuse. Strange assertion!
It is then to be supposed that, if it were not for
the warnings and invitations of the gospel,
sinners would have an excuse for their sins!
This is a startling proposition to set out with,
verily; but it is nothing to what follows, namely,
that the gospel is given to take this excuse
away, and for no other end! If this be the
case, it must be confessed that the gospel has
been grievously misunderstood. It has been
imagined to have an aspect of favour, to come
with a message of mercy, to be glad tidings of
great joy, the grace of God bringing salvation:
but, according to this notion, it brings nothing
but guilt, misery, and wrath. Before it comes,
men have a valid excuse for their sins, one
which makes it impossible for God to punish
them justly, and which will certainly exempt
them, therefore, from any punishment at all:
but, after the gospel comes, this excuse is taken
away; then they begin to be chargeable with
OF THE SPIRIT.
141
guilt, and liable to misery, and the publication
of the gospel itself is a mere contrivance of
his, that he might be able to condemn justly
wretches whom he was otherwise determined
to destroy!
Scarcely less extraordinary is the method by
which the sinner's excuse is to be taken away.
If indeed, he being already guilty and exposed
to ruin, a door of hope is really set before him,
then he will have no excuse if he should ulti-
mately perish; and this is exactly the state of
things for which we contend. But nothing of
this sort is admitted by our companions in
argument. They will have the sinner's excuse
taken away without salvation having been put
into his power; as though the semblance of it
were enough to insure this melancholy end,
and the whole affair were characterized by a
systematic hypocrisy, which it is astonishing
that any man could devise, and yet more asto-
nishing that he could attribute to his Maker.
The truth which we have thus been endea-
vouring to establish, is that the warnings and
invitations of the gospel are used by the
Almighty as sincere means of conversion. If
this be admitted, we conceive it to follow that
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those whom means are used to lead to repent-
ance have power to repent, the use of means
being otherwise absurd.
To what has been said we may add, that
the means employed possess a perfect and ma-
nifest adaptation to the faculties of man in
their natural state, irrespectively of the in-
fluence of the Holy Spirit. We have seen
that man's heart is wrought upon by means
of the understanding, according to the ten-
dency of the objects presented to it; and we
find that the means instituted by God for the
conversion of sinners are in perfect accordance
with this constitution, and require nothing
more to give them efficiency. He presents
truths to the understanding, adapted and suf-
ficient to induce repentance; and, according
to the structure of the mind, the consideration
of those truths would infallibly lead to the
result they are adapted to produce. The ap-
paratus, therefore, is framed without a regard
to the influence of the Holy Spirit; as a sys-
tem of means, it is perfect and complete with-
out this appendage, and is sure of success by
itself, unless some cause prevents the natural
and ordinary action of the mind.
The opinion, to which we briefly referred
Vid
OF THE SPIRIT.
143
at the commencement of this chapter, that a
measure of the Spirit's influence is given to
every man who comes within the knowledge
of the gospel, has arisen from a conviction of
the necessity of admitting power in man, as
well as the use of means by God; but, as man
is conceived by this school of divines to have
no power of himself, it must be given to him,
and hence the hypothesis of the universal
dispensation of the Spirit. With regard to
this scheme of doctrine, we might well be
content with the testimony which it bears to
the general principle we have advocated; but
we may observe in passing, that, if the con-
stitution of our intelligent and moral nature
be such as has been described, the supposition
of the universal influence of the Spirit is alto-
gether needless. It is only conceived to put
a man into such a condition of strength, that,
as to religion, he may do what he pleases; but
in the very same condition we have shown man
to be without supernatural aid. To what end,
therefore, is the introduction of an agent in
this respect unnecessary?
CHAP. IX.
Whether the Holy Spirit is a gift of justice,
or of grace:-The argument from the gra-
cious and sovereign character of the Holy
Spirit.
Wakat
HAVING Contemplated the condition of those
to whom God does not impart the influences
of his Spirit, let us briefly survey that of the
more favoured portion of mankind, on whom
this inestimable blessing is bestowed. Judging
by the fruits, there are manifestly some into
whose hearts this divine agent is commissioned
to enter in what light are we led to regard
this gift, by the oracles of truth? If the com-
munication of the Spirit is necessary to impart
power to men to perform their duty, then we
may expect to find it spoken of as a matter
of equitable administration, as a thing due to
men, inasmuch as there can be no equitable
responsibility without commensurate power:
but if, on the other hand, we should find
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
145
it described as altogether a matter of grace
and favour, and one respecting which God
acts according to his sovereign pleasure, then
we may not unreasonably conclude that it is
not necessary to the just responsibility, or
to the power, of man. An examination of
the holy scriptures will readily decide this
question.
The gift of the Holy Spirit, we apprehend,
is invariably spoken of as an act of grace, of
rich and boundless grace.
1. This may be inferred from the passages
which represent mankind in their natural
state, and independently of any communication
of the Spirit, as in a state of entire unwor-
thiness and just condemnation; Rom. i. 18,
et seq. ii. passim. So that any good thing given
them must be of mercy, or free favour. But
the Holy Spirit is not only a good thing, but
one of the best things which the eternal Fa-
ther has to bestow; wherefore it is of grace.
2. It appears also from the fact, that the
gift of the Spirit is a part of the work of re-
demption; which is uniformly represented as
originating in the free grace of God alone, and
as characterized by it in all its parts. Now
if the gift of the Spirit be a part of this
Η
the
146
SOVEREIGN CHARACTER OF
dispensation, it must partake of its general
and essential character of grace.
3. The same conclusion may be drawn from
the connexion which exists between the gift of
the Spirit and the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. It is one of the fruits of his death,
and could not otherwise have been bestowed.
Gal. iii. 13, 14. But the gift of his Son is
declared to be the very highest expression of
the Father's love to a guilty world, John iii. 16,
a gift as free as wonderful; and such therefore
must be the character of every other gift which
comes through this channel of mercy.
4. The discrimination and sovereignty which
appear in the dispensation of the Spirit, lead
us to the same result. Whatever is necessary
to the power of men to act a right part in
their present state of being, God has dispensed
universally, with an equal, that is, an equitable
hand; all that may be given to men over and
above this measure of good, he considers as
forming a department subject to his unequal
and discretionary distribution, in relation to
which, while he gives to every man severally
as he will, he says to every other man, "Friend,
I do thee no wrong: may I not do what I will
with mine own?" Matt. xx. 13. No conclusion
THE HOLY SPIRIT.
147
can be more easy or more safe, therefore,
than this; that, respecting whatever gift the
blessed God uses sovereignty, giving it to some
and not to others, that gift is not necessary to
the power of man to secure his own welfare.
It is plain, however, that God has used sove-
reignty in the gift of his Spirit, which is im-
parted to some and not to others; wherefore
we maintain that the gift of the Spirit is not
necessary to man's power for his duty.
5. Love, or kindness, is declared, also, to be
the prevailing motive and character of the
Spirit himself, in his gracious operations.
Hence, the apostle speaks of "the love of the
Spirit;" Rom. xv. 30, and the sacred writers
generally represent the enjoyment of his influ-
ences as a matter of the highest thankfulness
and praise.
V
If, therefore, the communication of the
Spirit is thus, without exception, described
as arising from the free grace of God, through
our Lord Jesus Christ, we conclude that it is
not requisite to human power, or just respon-
sibility.
Some, who maintain the reverse of this con-
clusion, have been led also to question the
premises, and to assert, with more or less
distinctness, that, as a measure of the Spirit's
H 2
148
OF THE HOLY SPIRIT.
influence is essential to enable every man to do
his duty, so God is bound to give it to every
man for this end; that such a help is due to
our present condition; and that he could not
justly judge and punish us, as fallen creatures,
without previously restoring us to such a state
of power. This is a fair specimen of the weight
with which this sentiment bears upon every
portion of divine truth; a sentiment not more
mischievous in sapping the foundation of human
responsibility, than it is injurious to the lustre
of divine sovereignty. That the gift of the
Spirit is in any measure due to man, is one of
the last things which, with any regard to scrip-
ture, it would seem possible to maintain; nor
can it be asserted without implying the con-
nected, but incredible idea, that God was
equally bound to redeem the world, and to
effect it by the death of his Son.
The writer again recollects, that there have
been supposed to be some influences of the
Spirit exercising the minds of men not truly
converted to God. These he is not called
upon either to affirm or to deny it is enough
for him to repeat the observation, that, as they
have never been represented as affecting the
question of a sinner's ability to repent, they are
beyond the scope of the present argument,
:
CHAP. X.
Whether the ability of man is not maintained
in the holy scriptures: The argument
from express words of sacred writ.
Kada j
THE sacred scriptures are the standard and
depository of all truth. They are not only a
testimony, but a law; and nothing is truth
which is not according to this rule. How
deeply ashamed would the writer feel, if he
were conscious of shrinking in the least degree
from this test; or if he were fearful lest the
word of God should overthrow an opinion of
his! Infinitely removed be such a feeling!
Welcome, thou light of heavenly wisdom,
whatever shadows may disperse at thy rising!
Frequent references to the scriptures of
truth have already been made; but it yet
remains to notice some particular and im-
portant passages, which have not pointedly
come under review.
I. We conceive, then, that there are por-
Giddy
150
THE ARGUMENT FROM
tions of holy writ in which the power of man is
expressly asserted.
1. Such an one occurs, Isaiah vi. 9, 10.
"Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed,
but understand not; see ye, indeed, but
perceive not. Make the heart of this people
fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their
eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their
heart, and convert, and be healed." This is a
plain affirmation, "Ye do hear, but do not
understand; ye do see, but do not perceive."
Though they did not "understand and per-
ceive," or so consider the messages of the
prophets as to be reformed by them, yet they
did hear and see," which constituted the
means, or the power of doing so. They were
neither blind, nor deaf.
This forcible passage, with some slight va-
riations, is quoted by our Lord, as recorded
by all the evangelists, and in one case with a
modification, which throws a decisive light on
the prophetic phraseology, "Make the heart
of this people gross," &c.
In John xii. 40,
it is thus quoted: "He hath blinded their eyes,
and hardened their hearts, that they should not
see with their eyes, nor understand with their
heart, and be converted, and I should heal
{
SACRED WRIT.
151
them." In Luke viii. 10.: "That seeing they
might not see, and hearing they might not un-
derstand." In Mark iv. 12.: "That seeing
they may see and not perceive, and hearing
they may hear and not understand, lest at any
time they should be converted, and their sins.
should be forgiven them." In Matt. xiii. 14, 15,
more fully: "By hearing ye shall hear, and
not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and
not perceive; for this people's heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and
their eyes have they closed; lest at any time
they should see with their eyes, and hear with
their ears, and should understand with their
hearts, and should be converted, and I should
heal them.” What we wish now to be ob-
served in this passage is the direct testimony
borne to the actual capacity of men to per-
ceive and understand and obey the truth, al-
though they do not. They see and hear, and
they have hearts to feel; while, through che-
rished and determined inattention, the things
declared to them are as though they neither
saw nor heard them. The mixture of literal
with figurative expressions, and the occurrence
of the strict and analogical use of the same
term in immediate conjunction, is here very
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
remarkable, and should carefully be ob-
served.
2. A passage of similar bearing may be
found, John ix. 39, 41. "And Jesus said,
For judgment am I come into this world,
that they which see not might see, and that
they which see might be made blind. And
some of the Pharisees which were with him
heard these words, and said unto him, Are we
blind also? Jesus said unto them, If ye were
blind ye should have no sin; but now, ye say,
We see; therefore your sin remaineth." In
this passage there is a mixed reference to the
sight of the body and the state of the mind,
arising from the circumstance that our Lord
had just spoken to the blind man whom he had
restored to sight, and had taken occasion from
his cure to reprove the spiritual blindness of the
Jews. "For judgment," says he, or for dis-
crimination, "am I come into this world: that
they which see not might see," (referring to
the man then present, who had been restored to
sight) "and that they which see might be made
blind," or might have evidence of their blind-
ness, for which the light of my works affords a
more extraordinary occasion; referring to the
perverseness with which the Jews had rejected
Latit
SACRED WRIT.
153
the proofs of his Messiahship, derived from
that miraculous cure. These persons are dis-
tinctly described as "those who see;" but
somewhat piqued at the seeming association of
blindness with their names, the Pharisees who
stood there asked him, "Are we blind also?"
Some persons would have immediately replied,
Yes, certainly; and had this been really the case,
our Lord could not properly have avoided it, nor
can we believe that he would have attempted it.
But mark his answer: "If ye were blind, ye
should have no sin; " if you had not the power of
appreciating the evidence of my true character
afforded by this miracle, there would be nothing
blameworthy in your not being convinced by it:
"but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin
remaineth." To evade the force of this latter
clause, it has been said, that our Lord is not
there asserting that they did see, but only
taking them at their own word, which might
be false, and probably was so.
But when we
consider that the circumstances were such as
brought the truth of the statement into imme-
diate question, it will be evident that, if it was
not true, it was by all means incumbent on
their divine instructor to show its falsehood;
otherwise he would have been allowing them
A
H 3
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
to think it true, and thus, if it were not so,
attaching his sanction to a ruinous error. Be-
sides, he has just before plainly described them
in similar terms, as "those who see;" so that
he does not merely take them at their word,
but at his own. And, lastly, the nature and
importance of the argument built upon it pre-
cludes the possibility of considering it as an
error. The fact of their seeing is made the
premises for the conclusion that they were
criminal. Their saying, We see, if it were a
mistake, could not authorize this conclusion;
but, on the contrary, would lead to the infer-
ence that their rejection of the Messiah had no
guilt in it-one of the last lessons we can con-
ceive to have been inculcated by our Lord.
The entire argument, therefore, is this: "If
ye were blind ye should have no sin;" if you
had not power to appreciate the evidence of
my true character, you would incur no blame
by rejecting me; "but now, as ye truly say,
ye see;" you have all the means necessary to
apprehend my glory; "therefore your sin re-
maineth." No words can more clearly assert
that these wicked Pharisees were not blind,
though they acted as if they were. They
possessed ample means, that is to say, full
by
ܝ
SACRED WRIT.
155
power, of acting otherwise; and if they had
not, they would have had no sin.
We are very well aware that, upon another
occasion, our Lord represented these same
persons as blind. Matt. xxiii. 16, 19. We sup-
pose it will be maintained, however, on both
sides, that this divine instructor was not guilty
of contradicting himself; and if not, we must
understand him to say that the Pharisees were
blind only in such a sense as was consistent
with their seeing; that is to say, that, pos-
sessing the power of sight, they did not use it,
but acted as though they were blind, and so
remained in ignorance and sin. But of this
and similar expressions we shall speak more
fully presently.
3. The same truth is expressly asserted by
our Lord, Matt. xiii. 12; "Because seeing
they see not, and hearing they hear not, nei-
ther do they understand:" language which
fully establishes the power of men to perform
all the actions for which sight and hearing
were given, while it touchingly complains of
the guilty inattention by which instruction was
rendered fruitless.
4. We mention a large portion of scripture
carrying the same idea with it, when we refer
156
THE ARGUMENT FROM
to the parables of our Lord. Every one has
been struck, not merely with their general
verisimilitude and beauty, but with their mi-
nute and comprehensive accuracy. It may
reasonably be expected, therefore, that in them
no important feature in the character or con-
dition of man will be omitted; or that, if not
illustrated in one parable, it will be found in
another. Least of all can it be supposed that
a matter of such particular prominence and
such vital importance as the ability or ina-
bility of man has been overlooked. Nor shall
we find that it has been so.
Mode
If the power appropriate to man as a moral
agent be wanting, the objects introduced em-
blematically to exhibit his conduct, either as
to what it is, or what it ought to be, should
be equally destitute of the power appropriate
to them; otherwise the analogy necessary to
the very structure of the parable does not
exist, and nothing can result from it but con-
fusion and error. So when man as a moral
agent is compared to a tree, if the former be
devoid of moral power, the latter should be
destitute of vegetable power; or if a man's
conduct towards God is illustrated by the con-
duct of a son towards his father, if the former
SACRED WRIT.
157
have no power over his conduct towards God,
the latter should have no power over his con-
duct towards his parent.
Let the reader recollect himself but a mo-
ment, and he will be convinced that none of the
parables are formed upon this principle. They
uniformly introduce, for the illustration of our
moral action, objects or agents in possession of
the entire power belonging to their nature. If
an impenitent sinner be compared to a fig-tree,
it is to a living and not a dead one. Luke
xiii. 6. If the condition of man is shadowed
forth by that of servants who received talents
to employ for their Lord, they receive every
man "according to his several ability." Matt.
xxv. 15. If the address of the gospel is
likened to the invitation to a feast, the parties
to whom it is addressed have full power of
accepting it. Luke xiv. 16, et seq. We might
go in the same manner through the whole of
the parables, and not find a single instance in
which a different idea is insinuated.
"
This is a remarkable fact, and bears directly
upon our argument. These parables, in which
man, in relation to his moral conduct, is com-
pared to objects possessing the whole power
which naturally pertains to them, clearly inti-
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
mate that man is in possession of all the power
requisite to moral action. If this is not the
case, the parables are founded on a mistaken
analogy, and must lead to erroneous conclusions.
If man were really destitue of power, he not
only might, but must be compared to objects
devoid of their proper strength, as to a dead
tree, a dead man, the diseased, or the blind;
but it is very remarkable, that, while epithets
of this kind are freely applied to man himself,
not a single object of this class is used for the
purpose of parabolical illustration. The rea-
son is, that these expressions, when applied to
mankind, become metaphors, and though highly
significant and important, are used out of their
strict and literal meaning. Parables, however,
are not metaphors, nor a species of composition
in which terms can be properly used in a meta-
phorical sense. When the state of a tree is
used to illustrate the condition of a man, it may
be described in any terms literally and strictly
applicable, but in no other; and hence the fact,
that such terms as blind, dead, &c. never enter
into our Lord's parables, is a decisive proof
that there are really no such things as blindness
and death in the condition of mankind.
5. In this place we may introduce, also, the
SACRED WRIT.
159
passage in which the apostle asserts the in-
trinsic and independent sufficiency of the
divine word: "From a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures, which are able to make
thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is
in Christ Jesus." 2 Tim. iii. 15. We scarcely
need stay to prove that the apostle here assigns
to the scriptures a sufficiency to make men wise
to salvation apart from the influence of the
Holy Spirit. No reference to the Spirit is
contained in the passage or its connexion, nor
is there any ground of necessity for introducing
it. We observe more particularly, that the
sufficiency of the scriptures to impart saving
wisdom is not to be viewed in the abstract,
but in connexion with the persons to whom
they are given; they are able to make US wise
unlo salvation. Now this, it is manifest, im-
plies something respecting our condition, as
well as the excellency of the scripture itself.
It is not able to make an idiot, or an infant, or
a dead man, wise unto salvation. It can have
this effect upon none but such as are capable
of understanding, appreciating, and obeying it;
whence it evidently follows, that we, whom it
is able to make wise unto salvation, are able to
understand it, to appreciate, and to obey.
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
6. Another class of passages concurring to
prove the sentiment under review, may be
found in those which require and enforce con-
sideration, not merely as a duty, but as the
method of obedience to the divine will. These
which follow are such : "O that they were
wise, that they understood this, that they would
consider their latter end!" Deut. xxxii, 29.
Consider how great things God hath done
for you." 1 Sam. xii. 24. "Thus saith the
Lord, Consider your ways." Hag. i. 5, 7.
5,7. Of
the same tenor are the texts in which the Lord
requires men to hearken, a word expressive
simply of attention, or consideration: "Take
heed and hearken, O Israel." Deut. xxvii. 9.
"Hearken to me, ye stout-hearted, that are
far from righteousness. Hearken diligently
unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and
let you soul delight itself in fatness. Incline
your ear and come unto me; hear, and your
soul shall live." Isa. xlvi. 12. lv. 2, 3. In
some instances the word hearken is used to de-
note the very obedience to which it leads. "To
obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken,
than the fat of rams." 1 Sam. xv. 22. Who
will hearken and hear for the time to come?"
Isa. lxii. 23. To these may be added the
<<
SACRED WRIT.
161
passages in which God rests the burden of his
complaint for disobedience on the want of con-
sideration: "But they refused to hearken,
"Israel
and stopped their ears." Zech. vii. 7.
doth not know, my people doth not consider."
Isa. i. 3. "They consider not in their hearts."
Hosea vii. 2. "But they said, We will not
hearken. Behold ye walk every one after the
imagination of his evil heart, that ye may not
hearken unto me." Jer. vi. 17. xvi. 12.
'
Sk
Every attentive reader of the scriptures
knows that similar language might be quoted
to a great extent. Let us ask, what is the im-
port of it? Can it imply less than we have
stated above, namely, that in God's own view,
consideration is the method by which obedience
is to be induced, and an exercise from which it
would certainly follow? To engage us to obe-
dience he requires consideration, and nothing
else; if obedience be not rendered, he ascribes
it to the want of consideration, and to nothing
else. Is he right in doing so? Is it conceivable
that he would have done so, if it ought to be
referred to any other cause? Are we going
beyond the clear testimony of the divine word
when we say, that the question of obedience or
disobedience is exclusively a question of consi-
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
deration or inconsideration? But if this be the
case, then it cannot be maintained that we
have not power to obey, unless it can be said
also that we have not power to consider, which
obviously cannot be said of any man who re-
tains his intelligent faculties. So long as we
have power to consider, according to God's
own word, we have power to obey.
We may be allowed here to pause a moment,
for the sake of pointing out to such of our
readers as have made themselves acquainted
with the principles of moral science, as laid
down in our first chapter, their perfect ac-
cordance with the language of sacred writ.
We have stated that our entire power of self-
regulation lies in the faculty of attention, or
consideration; and that this faculty gives an
effective power of self-control, so far as
motives are sufficient for the purpose. The
scriptures address us precisely in the manner
which we should anticipate upon this supposi-
tion. They call upon us to obey commands,
and to consider, that we may obey; if we do not
obey, they tell us that it is because we have
not considered; both these addresses proceed-
ing plainly upon the principle, that, if we had
considered, we should have obeyed. The scrip-
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163
tures, it is true, were not intended to teach us
moral philosophy; but there is nevertheless a
system of moral philosophy on which the scrip-
tures proceed, and when we find one with
which they manifestly harmonize, we may
satisfactorily assure ourselves of its truth.
CHAP. XI.
The argument from express words of scripture
continued.
II. BESIDES the passages which refer di-
rectly to the power possessed by man, those
bear as decisively upon the argument, which
indicate the nature of the cause preventing the
performance of right action.
Two things being necessary to the perform-
ance of any action, namely, power to perform
it and a disposition to perform it, one of two
causes likewise, or either of them, may operate
to its prevention; namely, a want of disposition,
or a want of power. Do the scriptures say
any thing respecting the cause which hinders
men from repenting? And if they do, to which
of those above-mentioned do they ascribe this
impediment? The information they contain on
this subject may be expected to be full and
satisfactory.
1. It will now probably occur immediately to
every reader, how often we are expressly taught
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165
that men cannot repent. Such is the language
of our Lord: "No man can come unto me,
except the Father which hath sent me draw
him. Without me ye can do nothing. With
men this is impossible." John vi. 44; xv. 5;
Matt. xix. 26. Similar expressions are of fre-
quent occurrence in the sacred writings. This
phraseology has been conceived to prove, be-
yond the possibility of doubt, that men have
no power to turn to God. Is it not, it is
demanded, expressly asserted? and can a doc-
trine so clearly stated ever be impugned, with-
out calling in question the authority of holy
writ?
P
Far be it from us to incur this heavy crimi-
nality, or to betake ourselves to such a refuge!
It must be a bad system which shrinks from
any portion of God's word; and the writer
hopes he should feel no satisfaction in any sen-
timent he holds, if there were a single expres-
sion in the oracles of God to which he could
not attach a fair, full, and consistent meaning.
In this case he has simply to observe, that he
conceives the import of the terms in question to
have been mistaken.
In order to show this, we may begin by ob-
serving that the word cannot is by no means
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
uniformly used to denote the want of power,
but is very commonly employed to express de-
termination. We do this with great frequency
in our ordinary conversation: as when we say,
I cannot come, or, I cannot agree to it; in
which cases all that we mean to convey is
our determination not to do these things.
Now, if it be a fact that the term cannot is not
uniformly used to denote power, but sometimes
determination, then the argument drawn from
its use is clearly inconclusive; and it requires
to be ascertained in what cases it refers to the
one, and in what cases to the other.
This inquiry it will be much better to con-
duct on general principles, than with reference
to particular passages of scripture. Let us
first ascertain the rule by which the import of
the term is regulated, and then impartially
apply it to whatever cases may arise. This
rule we conceive to be as follows:-The term
cannot denotes determination, and not power,
when and whenever it is applied to acts, whether
internal or external, the performance of which
depends upon the state of the mind.
It is scarcely needful to observe, that many
of our actions do depend upon the state of the
mind, and upon nothing else. Whether, in a
SACRED WRIT.
167
state of health and freedom, I rise or sit, I
walk or remain in the house, I read or write,
and innumerable things besides, depend solely
on the state of my mind; that is to say, accord-
ing to the state of my mind I may, and shall,
either do them or let them alone. Now if, in
any of these cases I were to use the word
cannot, as in saying, I cannot walk now, or I
cannot come yet, the word cannot in this case
would simply express my determination that I
would not. The reason why it must be under-
stood in this sense is, that I am plainly in full
possession of power to do the very things I
have said I cannot do; nothing but my deter-
mination not to do them prevents me; and
therefore the word cannot, in this case, must
be taken to denote determination and not power.
To show how purely this term is applied to the
purpose of expressing determination merely,
without the slightest association with the idea
of power, we may give the following example.
Conceive a plan to be submitted to you for your
consideration and concurrence. It appears to you
unadvisable, and you say, I am not willing to
embark in such a business. Suppose it is pressed
upon you more strongly; you still disapprove
it, and reply, Do not urge it, for I never can
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agree to it.—Why have you made this change
of expression? Had any fit of inability come
over you just at that moment, that you said, I
cannot? Or did you not mean to express pre-
cisely the same thing by cannot in your second
answer, as by not being willing in your first,
only more decidedly? Imagine further, that,
upon fuller information, your objections vanish,
and you ultimately agree to the plan proposed.
Is this because you have acquired any new
power, which you had not five minutes before?
Or is it not rather that your determination
merely has undergone a change? It is evident,
therefore, that the phrases cannot and will not
are used interchangeably, the former conveying
precisely, though more emphatically, the mean-
ing of the latter.
It may be said, that, although in some instances
where an action depends on the state of the
mind, the word cannot may denote only determi-
nation and not power, it does not follow that this
should always be the case; sometimes perhaps
it may indicate a want of power also. The
proof of such a use of the word lies upon the
party who adduces the possibility of it. We
believe that such a case does not exist, but
that, upon the most extensive and accurate
SACRED WRIT.
169
examination, it will be found that, whenever
the word cannot is applied to acts which de-
pend upon the state of the mind, it denotes de-
termination only, without any reference to power.
Nor can it very well be otherwise. For, in
the first place, it would be a very confounding
method of speech to make one and the same
word convey two dissimilar, and in some
respects opposite ideas at once. It is a consi-
derable freedom with language, to employ a
word for such purposes at different times and
in different circumstances; but to go further
than this is a kind of legerdemain, which could
not be accomplished without some little diffi-
culty. In the next place, it is not in the
nature of things that, when an act depends
upon the state of the mind, power should be
wanting; for if power is wanting, then the act
does not depend on the state of the mind. It
is very possible that both power and disposition
to perform a given action may be wanting at
the same time; as, for example, that a man
may have neither money nor inclination to pay
his debts; but in this case it is clear that the
non-performance of the action does not depend
upon the state of his mind, because, if the state
of his mind were different, still he could not
I
sh
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pay his debts, not having money for the purpose.
If it were said of such a man, he cannot pay
his debts, nobody would understand this of his
will, but of his power. The reason of this is,
that the strict and primary reference of the word
cannot is to power, its reference to will being
secondary and analogical: whence it follows
that whenever the idea of power is present, the
word cannot must apply to it, and not to will;
it can apply to will, therefore, only when the
idea of power is absent, and obviously must
do so whenever this is the case. Whenever,
therefore, an act depends upon the state of the
mind, if the word cannot be used in reference
to it, it refers to determination only, and not
to power.
Our object in these remarks is not to frame
any artificial rule to which the use of lan-
guage may be forcibly reduced, but to ascer-
tain upon what principles its employment is
actually regulated among mankind. If the
universal practice in reference to the word
cannot be as above stated, the rule so deduced
is capable of the most strict and just applica-
tion to the declarations of holy writ. The
language in which God has spoken to us is the
language of man; it was in all respects suitable,
SACRED WRIT.
171
f
desirable, and necessary that it should be
so, if it was intended for the instruction
of mankind; nor can any good reason be
assigned why the import of it should not be
determined by the same methods as that of
ordinary life. Upon this principle, then, we
ask, what our divine Lord means when he
says, No man can come unto me." The
meaning of it may be, no man has power to
come; but since the word cannot has not
always this meaning, it is proper to inquire
into the particulars of the case. Upon what
does a sinner's coming to Christ depend? If it
depends upon the state of his mind, the word
cannot in this case does not denote power, but
determination only. Let the scriptures be
consulted on this head.
It is remarkable that when our friends from
whom we differ refer to sacred writ for in-
formation respecting the obstacle to repent-
ance, their quotations are invariably of one
kind. They adduce immediately various de-
clarations that men cannot come to Christ;
and, if you were to listen to them only, you
would never imagine that there were passages
which exhibited the subject in any other light.
Yet there are such passages, and many of
Agg
1 2
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them. A sample of them follows: "Ye will
not come unto me that ye might have life.
How often would I have gathered thy children.
together, as a hen gathereth her chickens un-
der her wings, and ye would not. He said,
I will not. Because I called, and ye refused,
I stretched out my hand, and no man regarded.
Seeing ye put away from you the word of
God, we turn unto the Gentiles." John v. 40.
Matt. xxiii. 37. xxi. 29. Prov. i. 21. Acts
xiii. 46. Such quotations might be greatly
multiplied. And in considering the import of
the divine oracles respecting the hinderance
to repentance, why should they be overlooked?
Have they no meaning? On the contrary, we
conceive their meaning to be clear and in-
dubitable; namely, that sinners do not repent
because they will not. Their conduct in this
respect depends upon the state of their minds;
there being nothing but malignity of heart, and
enmity to God, to prevent their coming to him
through his Son. But if this be the case, then,
according to the rule laid down, the word
cannot, does not refer to power, but to deter-
mination only.
If this conclusion is to be set aside, it
must be by showing that repentance does not
SACRED WRIT.
173
depend upon the state of a sinner's mind, that
there is some other obstacle to it besides the
wickedness of his heart, and such an obstacle
as would still operate if the wickedness of his
heart were destroyed. It would afford us
great pleasure to see this fairly undertaken,
and we should look with much interest for the
result. For ourselves we will only say that, if
there were any such impediment, the burden of
men's impenitence could not be justly laid
upon their unwillingness, where, nevertheless,
our divine Lord has laid it, and where doubt-
less it truly rests.
In reference to the discussion in which we
are engaged, the terms will not, &c. have a
more decisive bearing than the term cannot,
to which greater prominence has been given.
The last is an analogical expression, and requires
a limited construction; the former are literal
expressions, and have only to be interpreted
in their strict and obvious sense: the one
tells us what the hinderance to repentance is
like, the others tell us what it is. With re-
spect to the nature of the impediment, there-
fore, these are the only passages which give
us any information at all, and, instead of
being thrown into the back-ground, they
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
are the only ones which should be con-
sulted.
If it be finally admitted, and we conceive
it cannot be disproved, that the only thing
which obstructs the return of sinners to God
through Christ is the malignity of their hearts,
then it follows, as we have shown, that the
word cannot, as applied to this case, is meant
to express no want of power, but simply the
fact of the sinner's determination. Should an
objection be raised on the supposed ground
of taking away the meaning of words, or of
introducing confusion into the use of lan-
guage, the reply is obvious. We wish to
understand the words of holy writ precisely
in the same manner as we do those of ordinary
life, as it is quite natural, and even impera-
tive that we should, unless reason can be shown
for the contrary. Can any such reason be
shown? Why do any persons insist upon our
allowing a meaning to certain phrases in the
bible, which neither we nor they would assign
to them out of the bible? The proof of such
a necessity lies with them, and must be ad-
duced before we can comply with their de-
mand. So far from taking away the meaning
of words, we give them the precise and full
HAN
SACRED WRIT.
175
import currently attached to them: why do
those who differ from us impose on them a
different one? And as to introducing con-
fusion into the use of language, this is the very
thing of which they are pre-eminently guilty,
while the method we adopt is the only way
of avoiding it. No confusion arises in or-
dinary intercourse from the word cannot being
frequently used to express determination only;
and for this reason, that the cases in which
actions depend upon the state of mind are
for the most part very manifest, and that in
all such cases the word is known to refer to
the determination alone. If the language of
scripture is treated on the same principle, there
will be no confusion in the use of it; but if
it comes to be insisted on that the word cannot,
must in all cases denote some want of power,
or that it may do so in some instances where
nevertheless the act depends upon the slate of
the mind, this will introduce confusion enough,
and it would as grievously confound the inter-
course of men, as it does the oracles of God.
Should it be asked why, if men have power
to repent, it is so repeatedly and strongly
asserted that they cannot, it is only needful
to ask in reply, why, in common life, we so
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
frequently say we cannot do a thing which we
really can do. The reason in both cases is one
and the same. It is that this form of expres-
sion conveys the idea of fixed and unalterable
determination more emphatically, and at the
same time less offensively, than any other. So
when, in reply to your importunate request, a
friend says, I cannot do it, it is equivalent to
his telling you that it is of no use to press him
further, and it intimates at the same time that
his refusal arises from no unwillingness to
oblige you, but from the imperative influence
of other considerations. Just such is the use
of these terms in sacred writ. They express
the fixed determination of a sinner with great
emphasis, and afford, perhaps, the only method
by which the painful but important truth of its
certain prevalence can be convincingly con-
veyed.
We may now perhaps dismiss, without more
particular consideration, the whole of the pas-
sages of scripture, the force of which lies in
the use of the term cannot. To decide the
import of one, is to decide that of them all.
With them, also, may be classed the kindred
term impossible, which occurs Matt. xix. 26;
but which is used, and must be interpreted,
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177
upon the same principle as the almost identical
word cannot, already considered.
A phrase somewhat different occurs in Rom.
v. 6: "For when we were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly." We conceive
this passage to be inapplicable to the question
before us; inasmuch as it seems to refer, not
to the case of a sinner's coming to God through
Christ, but to the practicability of opening a
way for the approach of a sinner at all. Most
certainly we are without strength to make an
atonement for sin, or to satisfy any of the de-
mands of God's righteous law in respect of the
justification of a sinner; and this consideration
gives great force to the statement of the
apostle, that, in this helpless condition, Christ
died for us. But this has no connexion with
the present argument. The question we are
now to answer pre-supposes that Christ has
died, and that the way to God through him is
open; and we ask, has a sinner power to come
to God through Christ; a question very diffe-
rent from that which relates to his power to
atone for sin, and to be answered on very diffe-
rent principles.
The same remark is applicable to another
passage, which has been quoted in this con-
نے
I 3
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
nexion, from Rom. viii. 8.
"So then, they
that are in the flesh cannot please God." The
apostle in this place is not referring to the
actions of ungodly men, but to their estimation
in the sight of God; and the sentiment would
be more accurately expressed by saying, Those
who are in the flesh cannot be acceptable to
God, or approved by him, Ðεų aptσai où
Θεῷ ἀρέσαι
δύνανται. In this view the text has mani-
festly no bearing on the subject before us.
2. Besides the passages which contain the
terms cannot and impossible, which have been
erroneously conceived to be express declara-
tions of human inability, there are others which
are regarded as furnishing powerful auxiliary
evidence on the same side. Such are the
following: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin,
or the leopard his spots? Then may ye who
are accustomed to do evil learn to do well.
Who are dead in trespasses and sins. Can
these dry bones live?" Jer. xiii. 23. Ephes. ii. 1.
Ezek. xxxvii. 3.
We class these passages together at present,
for the sake of making respecting them one
general observation. They are all of them
plainly metaphorical. They are not literal
SACRED WRIT.
179
descriptions, but figures of speech. It may
perhaps be said that this is no uncommon way
of evading a difficulty, and may be used for ill
purposes as well as good. We are quite aware
of this. But still it must be allowed that there
are figurative expressions in the divine oracles;
and while we fully admit, on one hand, that
they have a definite and important meaning,
which must not be frittered away, we must
contend, on the other, against any unwarrant-
able stretch of their signification. To avoid
difficulties on both sides, let us set down in a
few words the rules by which the character
and the import of any figurative expression
may be ascertained.
We agree, then, that every passage, and
every phrase, is to be taken literally, unless
there is something in its position or use which
determines it to be figurative; but every ex-
pression must be taken to be figurative which
in its literal sense is inapplicable to the
subject to which it is applied.
example, our Lord says, John xv.
the true vine, and my Father is the husband-
man," inasmuch as the terms vine and hus-
bandman are not literally applicable to the
Divine Father and Son, we say they are
When, for
I am
GA
،،
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
figuratively used. Now, there is no difficulty
whatever in the use of this rule. The nature
of the things ordinarily spoken of is sufficiently
obvious to inform us, with very little trouble,
whether the words applied to them are literally
applicable or not. If they are, we allow of no
metaphor; if they are not, we cannot deny it.
Let us inquire further, what effect is pro-
duced on the meaning and interpretation of a
word, when it is figuratively employed.
When a word is figuratively employed, it is
taken from a subject to which it properly or
strictly refers, and applied to one to which it
does not properly refer. So when David says,
"The Lord is my light:" he takes the word
light, which properly refers to the effect of
some luminous body on the eye, and applies
it to the influence of divine mercy on his mind.
Now, when a word is so taken from one subject
and applied to another, it is obviously im-
possible that, in its secondary use, it can convey
all the ideas which it did in its primary one,
the two objects being far from having alto-
gether the same properties. The effect of
using a word figuratively, therefore, is to limit
its signification, and to select some of the ideas
it has conveyed in its proper employment, for
SACRED WRIT.
181
application in its new and (rhetorically speak-
ing) improper one. Thus, in saying The
Lord is my light," the psalmist drops all the
ideas belonging to light as a material body,
&c. &c., and retains only those relating to its
directing and cheering influence. This rule,
also, we shall find uniformly and easily appli-
cable. We have only to notice the features
in which the objects compared either agree or
disagree in those in which they agree, the
ordinary import of the term which is now
metaphorically used will apply; in those in
which they do not agree, its application is not
to be attempted.
With these simple rules in our hand, let us
resume the passages which await our atten-
tion.
، ،
(1.) Jer. xiii. 23. "Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, and the leopard his spots?
Then may ye who are accustomed to do evil
learn to do well." The Ethiopian changing
his skin, and the leopard his spots, is here put
in comparison with a man's ceasing to do evil,
and learning to do well; that is, a change in
the state of the body is compared with a
change in the state of the mind,-a change in
something in its own nature unalterable by
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man, with a change in something which is
susceptible of alteration, as the state of the
mind undeniably is, by human means. It is
evident that there is no similarity in the two
cases in respect of capability of change; and
on this point therefore nothing can be learnt
from the comparison. The aspect in which
the cases are similar is the actual non-pro-
duction of the result, and the certainty that
it will not be produced.
Let means to any
extent be employed for the changing of the
Ethiopian's skin or the leopard's spots, the
end will never be attained; and with equal
certainty, notwithstanding the use of every
means, will those who have been accustomed
to do evil, never learn to do well. This we
conceive to be the fair and full force of the
metaphor here employed, and we most freely
adopt it. Our readers will perceive, how-
ever, that, like the terms already noticed, it
does nothing more than express emphatically
the fixedness of a sinner's determination; it
indicates nothing respecting his power, only
that, by this very circumstance, the existence
of it is implied.
(2.) Eph. ii. 1; v. 14. "You hath he
quickened, who were dead in trespasses and
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sins. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise
from the dead." This is undoubtedly very
forcible language, nor have we any inclination
to weaken it. We apprehend, however, that
it is to be considered as figurative and not
literal. The word death properly refers to
organic or physical life; but here it is applied
to a state of the mind, which, though it may
be in some respects analogous to natural life, is
manifestly not identical with it, and to which,
therefore, a term derived from so different a
subject cannot be in every respect applicable.
The import of the term death, therefore, must
be limited in this case; and not all the ideas
ordinarily conveyed by it can be transferred to
the new object, but only such as the existing
analogy may permit. The things put into
comparison with each other are the body under
the influence of death, and man, as a moral
agent, under the influence of a sinful dispo-
sition. Now, death produces two principal
effects: first, the non-performance of vital
action, as seeing, hearing, feeling, &c.; and,
secondly, the destruction of the organization
from which these actions proceeded, or the non-
existence of power to perform them. In like
manner, a sinful disposition induces the entire
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
non-performance of right action in one who is
under its reigning influence; but the influence
of a sinful disposition does not destroy the
structure from which right action may proceed,
that being, as we have shown, no other than the
possession of intelligent faculties, with which
God has made us, and which remains as entire
in the wicked as in the just. We know in
fact, that, whatever the influence of trespasses
and sins on a man's mind may be, they do not
destroy its powers of action; for in that case
they would be no less incapable of evil than of
good. The point in which an analogy does
obtain between the state of a dead body and
that of a mind under the influence of sin, is
this; that as the destruction of animal life
prevents the exercise of animal functions in
fact, so right exercises of mind are in fact
prevented by the influence of sin, and with as
much certainty, though not by a similar cause.
All that this passage teaches us, therefore, is
the fixedness of a sinner's determination, or
the entire certainty that men of themselves
will not turn to God.
Should any of our readers be dissatisfied
with the view now given, it will be material
for them to shew, if it can be shewn, that the
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term dead has in this case a literal, and not a
figurative meaning. If they can do this, they
will gain a great advantage to their cause.
There are, however, some few difficulties in the
way of it. We may observe, for example,
that, literally speaking, the soul of man is not
dead, but alive, as is manifest from its conti-
nual action, though that action be wrong; to
which it might be added that the soul is never
to die, because it is immortal. The apostle,
moreover, is not telling us in what state man is
generally, but in what state he is so far as he
is influenced by sin,-"dead in [or by] tres-
and we know that the in-
passes and sins;
fluence of sin is to make a man act wrong, and
not by any means to render him incapable of
acting at all. Other expressions, also, are
used on the same subject, which are quite
incompatible with a literal interpretation of
this. As, for instance, in one of the passages
under consideration, "Awake, thou that sleep-
est, and arise from the dead." How can a
man be at the same time both dead and asleep?
Or if he be literally dead, what is it short of
absurdity to call him blind, or dull of hearing;
or to ascribe to him either evil or good in any
form? These and a few other difficulties must
52
Tatia
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
be surmounted, in order to establish a literal
meaning of the passage before us; and until
this is done, the view taken of it above, we
believe, cannot be impeached.
(3.) To the same class of expressions be-
long those which represent men as blind or
dull of hearing, or asleep: "The God of this
world hath blinded the eyes of them which
believe not. Their ears are dull of hearing.
Awake, thou that sleepest." 2 Cor. iv. 4;
Acts xxviii. 27; Eph. v. 14. No question will
be raised, we suppose, as to the figurative
character of this phraseology. Blindness,
deafness, and sleep, are states of the body; to
which, if any state of the mind be analogous at
all, it can be only in part. So far as these
terms express an existing state of insensibility,
they may be applied, with their utmost force,
to the state of a sinner's mind towards God;
he does neither perceive, nor attend to the
things of salvation: but so far as they indi-
cate an incapacity for such actions, the appli-
cation of them to the state of a sinner's mind is
forbidden by the known fact, that he is actually
in the enjoyment of his rational and intelli-
gent powers, which constitute his capacity for
them all. These expressions, therefore, denote
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nothing more than an existing state of inatten-
tion to divine things, with the certainty of its
continuance.
derbir
It may be observed, in passing, that, although
it is manifestly unwarrantable to make a literal
use of the texts we have been examining, it is
on such an application of them that their whole.
force, as used with great frequency by divines
of a certain class, depends. Exhorting sinners
has been gravely compared to going into a
burying ground, and calling to the dead; just
as though men under the influence of sin were
literally dead, or dead in the whole sense of
that term. What brave words may be built
upon the most glaring and ruinous fallacies!
It has often been imagined to be an insu-
perable difficulty in the way of maintaining
human ability, that it involves apparently an
express contradiction to the sacred scriptures,
and much wonder seems to have been felt that
the advocates of the sentiment have not been
startled by so tremendous a necessity. Such
an appearance, however, results necessarily
and in all cases from the use of analogical
language. For example, the bible affirms
that God is a sun and shield; yet who would
hesitate to say that God is not either a sun or
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
a shield? Of bread Christ declared that it was
his body; yet we maintain without scruple
that the sacramental bread is not the body of
Christ. Do we feel guilty in either of these
cases of contradicting the word of God? Cer-
tainly not. Whenever words are used out of
their strict reference, they are true in one sense
and false in another; and necessarily so, be-
cause it pertains to such a use of words to
retain only a part of their ordinary meaning.
Thus it may be said of the declaration "No
man can come unto me," that, if the word can
be analogically used in it, as we have endea-
voured to shew, it is true in one sense, and in
another it is false. Take such part of the
ordinary meaning of the word cannot as the
analogy in the case justifies, and it is true; but
take such part as is not justified by the exist-
ing analogy, and you make a new assertion, one
which Christ never intended, and this assertion
is false. Seeming contradictions are thus,
when properly understood, harmonious truths.
God both is and is not a sun and shield;
bread both is and is not the body of Christ;
man both can and cannot turn to God; con-
version is both possible and impossible with
men; sinners are at the same time both dead
.
badd
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and alive. The one series of these assertions
is true figuratively, and the other is true lite-
rally. When I say God is not a sun, it is no
way contradictory of the text which declares.
that he is one, because that text is meant to
intimate only that in some respects he is
like one.
And when I say men can come to
Christ, it is equally remote from opposition to
his affirmation that they cannot, because the
only intended meaning of those words is that
they certainly will not, being in this respect
like men than cannot. A very instructive and
convincing example of this use of terms has
already been before us, in the various forms
in which the evangelists record the quotation
of Isaiah vi. 9, 10, in the discourses of our
Lord, which may here again be exhibited for
attentive perusal. "Hear ye indeed, but
understand not; see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people gross, and
make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ;
lest they should see with their eyes, and hear
with their ears, and understand with their
heart, and convert, and be healed. They
seeing see not; and hearing they hear not,
neither do they understand. By hearing ye
shall hear, and shall not understand; and
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seeing ye shall see, and not perceive; for this
people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears
are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they
closed; lest at any time they should see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should
understand with their heart, and should be
converted, and I should heal them. That
seeing they may see, and not perceive; and
hearing they may hear, and not understand,
lest at any time they should be converted.-
That seeing they might not see, and hearing
they might not understand."
If it be true, therefore, that the terms
in question are figuratively or analogically
employed, we are running no hazard by a
mere apparent contradiction of them. It is
no real contradiction; but, in fact, is abso-
lutely necessary in order to set these passages
of scripture in their true light. It has been
reprobated as, if not incorrect, at least un-
guarded, to affirm in an unqualified manner
that men can come to Christ, because Christ
expressly declares they cannot. Let us only
suppose that the same principle had been acted
upon in reference to those other words of his,
which are entitled to at least equal reverence,
"This is my body;" that no person should
App
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ever have dared to say bread was not his body,
because he expressly affirmed that it was:
what would have been the result? The doc-
trine of transubstantiation would not have been
exploded to the present day. And a similar
mischief is now resulting from the unwilling-
ness to affirm that men can come to Christ; it
allows and encourages men to suppose that
they literally and truly cannot; it conceals the
very important fact of the limited import of
the term in this connexion; and so renders our
over-scrupulous regard to the letter of God's
word subversive of its real meaning, and con-
ducive to the propagation of pernicious and
destructive error.
3. Having disposed of the passages which
have been conceived to indicate a want of
power, as the operating cause in a sinner's
impenitence, and endeavoured to shew that
they express nothing more than the fixedness
of a sinner's determination, we may proceed to
notice some by which the latter idea is directly
conveyed.
(1.) We may be permitted briefly to refer
again to the texts already quoted, which affirm
that sinners will not come to God through
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
Christ. “Ye will not come unto me that ye
might have life. How often would I have
gathered thy children together, as a hen ga-
thereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not. Ye would none of my reproof."
John v. 40; Matt. xxiii. 27; Prov. i. 25. Here
is no metaphor. The words are used in their
literal sense, and must be taken strictly to
mean that men's determination not to come to
Christ is the reason why they do not come.
But if so, then it cannot be true that they are
unable; for in that case their inability would
be the reason, or at least a part of the reason,
why they did not come.
(2. Another class of expressions may here
be noticed. "Because I have called and ye
refused, I have stretched out my hand, and no
man regarded, but ye have set at naught all
my counsel, and would none of my reproof.
For that they hated knowledge, and did not
choose the fear of the Lord. Seeing ye put
away from you the word of God." Prov. i. 24,
25, 29; Acts xiii. 46. It is clearly stated in
these texts that men's impenitence is of the
nature of a refusal, a setting at nought, or a
putting away of the gospel message. Now,
these are acts which arise from a state of the
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mind, and which, from their own nature, can
arise from nothing else. That non-performance
of a thing which arises from want of power is
never called a refusal, nor can it be so without
a flagrant absurdity. It seems evident, there-
fore, that the only cause operating to prevent
men from coming to Christ is the state of their
minds, which, according to the definitions laid
down in the outset, is totally distinct and
widely different from a want of power.
(3.) Phraseology of similar import occurs
in John iii. 19. "This is the condemnation,
that light is come into the world, and men
have loved darkness rather than light be-
cause their deeds were evil." The truth here
inculcated is, that because men continue in
spiritual ignorance they prefer it to spiritual
knowledge; they love darkness rather than
light. But could it be said of a blind man
that he did not see because he would rather
not see? Surely, if a man's spiritual ignorance
arises from preference, it cannot be held at the
same time to arise from incapacity; because, if
he were incapable, there could be no opportu-
nity for preference to be exercised. The act
of preference between two objects, necessarily
implies a power of choice respecting both.
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J
(4.) There is yet another very striking ex-
pression used by our Lord, in quoting the im-
portant passage from Isaiah already noticed, as
recorded by Matthew, ch. xiii. 15. "For this
people's heart is waxed gross, and their cars
are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they
closed: lest at any time they should see with
their eyes, and hear with their ears, and un-
derstand with their heart, and I should heal
them." See also Acts xxviii. 27. No ques-
tion can be entertained of the accuracy of the
meaning thus attributed to this passage by the
great prophet of his church. Ignorance of
divine things, or spiritual blindness, is ascribed
to the closing of their eyes by sinners them-
selves; inevitably implying that they have eyes
to close, that their eyes are capable of seeing,
and that they will certainly see, unless wilfully
closed. From the latter part of the verse it
seems plain, also, that the dulness of hearing
and the grossness of heart were equally volun-
tary. Sinners close their ears as well as their
eyes, and harden their own hearts by a deter-
mined inattention to divine truth, for no other.
reason than because an attention to it would
interfere with some other things, in which they
are resolved not to be disturbed.
¿
JA
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(5.) We may notice, also, the language
of the apostle, 1 Cor. ii. 14. "The natural
man discerneth not the things of the Spirit of
God; neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned." The important
question respecting this passage is, what are
we to understand by an object being spiritually
discerned? Simply, I conceive, that the dis-
cernment of it is favoured or prevented by the
state of the mind. We know that there are
many things, or, to speak more strictly, many
properties of things, which we discern more or
less clearly, or not at all, according to the
state of the mind. A miser does not see the
happiness of liberality, nor a voluptuary the
pleasures of beneficence. The things of God
are pre-eminently of this kind. The glory of
God, the excellence of his law, the sinfulness
of sin, the awfulness of eternity, and all things
else pertaining to salvation, have the property
of being discerned or overlooked according to
the state of the observer's mind. They are
spiritually discerned;" and because they are
so, as long as the state of his mind is that of
a natural man, namely, enmity to God, he
cannot, that is, in point of fact he will not, dis-
cern them. But, inasmuch as the state of his
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CC
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
mind is the only impediment to such discern-
ment, the absence of it is by this passage dis-
tinctly referred to a want of disposition, and
not to a want of power.
(6.) There is another passage deserving of
notice, in which our Lord plainly states the
cause which induces him to say that men
cannot come to him to be of a strictly volun-
tary kind. John v. 44. "How can ye believe,
who receive honour one of another?" There
is no compulsion upon sinners, we suppose, to
attach an undue importance to the honour
which cometh from men. It is nothing more
than the state of their minds which induces
them to do so; yet it was as influenced by this
disposition alone that our Lord declared they
could not believe. The inference seems to be
irresistible, that nothing but the state of their
minds prevented their believing.
(7.) To these references may be added,
Luke viii. 15; where, in the parable of the
sower, the fruitfulness of the word is ascribed
to its being "received into an honest and good
heart." All that is necessary to the efficacy
of divine truth, therefore, is a right state of
mind; and if so, there is no want of additional
power.
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The fact which we conceive to be established
by the passages which have now gone under
review is this: that the scriptures uniformly
represent a sinner's impenitence as resulting,
not from a want of power, but from a want of
disposition alone.
We conclude, therefore,
that disposition is wanting, and power is not.
Had it been so, we could scarcely have searched
the bible so far, without finding some, we might
rather say many and unequivocal, indications
of the fact.
CHAP. XII.
The argument from express words of scrip-
ture concluded.
III. ANOTHER class of scriptures illustra-
tive of the point under consideration, may be
found in those which describe the nature of
the change wrought in the conversion of a
sinner. The work effected in this case must
of course correspond with the previous im-
pediment to conversion. Now, the scrip-
tures speak frequently and expressly of this
work, and uniformly represent it to lie, not in
any alteration of the means or power of repen-
tance, but of the state of heart, or disposition.
The following passages may serve as a speci-
men.
Ezek. xxxvi. 26, "A new heart will I give
you, and a new spirit will I put within you;
and I will take away the stony heart out of
your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.
A new heart here evidently means a new
state of heart, or disposition, as appears from
""
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the following phrase, a new spirit: and the
beautiful metaphor which closes the verse,
conveys the same sentiment under a different
form. Here is no reference to power.
Psalm cx. 2.
Thy people shall be willing
in the day of thy power." By the day of
power in this passage, of course, we understand
the period when the blessed Spirit operates
savingly on the heart; and when he does so,
the making of a sinner willing is declared to
be the nature of his work. Could this have
been said if it were the Spirit's work to give
power?
ઃઃ
John vi. 44. "No man can come unto me,
except the Father which hath sent me draw
him." The use of the word draw in this
passage is worthy of observation. Drawing is
a process not any way adapted to the need of
a man who has no power; it pertains rather
to one who wants inclination. The work of
the Spirit denoted by this word must be the
gracious influence exercised upon the heart
of a sinner, sweetly overcoming his hitherto
cherished resistance, and making him willing
in the day of power.
Acts xvi. 14. "The Lord opened Lydia's
heart, that she attended to the things which
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were spoken of Paul." The work of the Spirit
as here described, consisted not in communi-
cating power, but in opening the heart to
attend to the truth, or in inducing a dispo-
sition to attend to it; which Lydia must have
had power to do before, or else she could not
have done it merely in consequence of a change
of her disposition.
If the change produced in the conversion of
a sinner were giving him power to repent, such
language as this would surely be adapted to
mislead. Not a single passage that we are
aware of can be adduced to shew that the
Spirit of God confers on a sinner any addi-
tional means, or power of repentance. Yet,
if power were wanting, he infallibly must do
so; and if he really did this, so important a
part of his work would certainly not have been
overlooked.
It will probably occur to the reader that the
operation of the Holy Spirit in conversion is
compared to a new birth, and even to a new
creation. John iii. 3; 2 Cor. v. 17. This lan-
guage has been conceived to indicate the pro-
duction of new powers, as well as of new
action. As it is manifest, however, that these
are but comparisons, so, according to what has
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201
already been stated, it is important to observe
the true extent of the analogy subsisting between
the objects compared. Birth and creation, it
will be admitted, do involve the production of
new powers. But, when these terms are applied
to the conversion of a sinner, we are immedi-
ately met by the fact that the powers of moral
action in man are already in existence, namely,
his intelligent faculties. Here is no room,
therefore, for the production of new powers;
and hence, of necessity, the analogy, and the
force of the metaphor, are confined to the pro-
duction of new action. Now, the production
of new action in the mind is identical with a
change of disposition, disposition being the
source of habitual and permanent action. To
which it may be added, that the change in
character and conduct subsequent upon a
change of disposition, or of the habitually
prevalent state of the heart, in the case of a
sinner towards God, is of quite sufficient mag-
nitude and extent to justify the application of
the phrases under examination. "If any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things
are passed away, and all things are become
new."
In a few instances the same analogical use
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
""
of terms may be observed, which prevails so
largely in reference to the impenitence of man.
So the apostle says, "I thank God, who hath
enabled me.
But it is manifest that the word
enabled refers to an operation on the state of
his mind, and indicates only the production of
a particular disposition. At the same time it
is remarkable that this kind of phraseology
is much less frequently employed respecting
the divine interposition for the production of
good, than the sinner's determination in the
working of evil. Of those who do not turn to
God, it is much more frequently said they
cannot do it, than it is of those who do turn
to him that they are enabled to do it; they are
made willing. Sometimes a marked diversity of
expression occurs in the same passsage; as where
our Lord says,
"No man can come unto me,
except the Father which hath sent me draw
him;" in which case it was obviously most
natural to have said, "except the Father
enable him." This difference shews that
there was a peculiar end to be answered
by the use of the term cannot.
We con-
ceive, that it was designed to express more
emphatically the fixedness of man's deter-
mination against God; while the language
Det
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applied to the work of the Spirit, has been
framed to exhibit more particularly the volun-
tary nature of conversion, without concealing
the knowledge and manifest power of the in-
fluence by which it is wrought.
Among the passages adduced in this con-
troversy by those who differ from us, we have
observed many which simply state the fact that
salvation is of the Lord; that his people are
made willing in the day of his power; that all
Zion's children are taught of the Lord; and
are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor of man, but of God. Psalm iii. 8.
cx. 3. Isa. liv. 13. John i. 13.
Nigh
Undoubtedly these are highly important and
decisive passages as to the fact that the con-
version of a sinner is in every case produced
by divine influence; a fact to the cordial ad-
mission of which the present volume bears
ample and unequivocal testimony. But how
does the assertion of this fact bear upon the
question at issue? Here are two causes sup-
posed, namely, the inability and the enmity of
man, either of which will operate to render the
Spirit's influence necessary to the conversion of
a sinner whichever of them may be conceived
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
to be in operation, therefore, the necessity of
that influence is consistently maintained, and
consequently the fact, that conversion never
takes place but by virtue of its exercise.
Texts of scripture which merely assert this,
assert an important truth, but they assert
nothing which affects the point under discus-
sion. This ground is occupied in common by
both parties in the dispute, and is quite remote
from the field in which the contest is to be
decided. The introduction of these passages
may excite the more observation, because they
have often been brought forward with great
ostentation, and exhibited with much parade
of scripture proof, as though they alone were
altogether decisive of the controversy; while,
in fact, it indicates nothing more than an
entire misunderstanding of the subject, unless
it should discover too, what we are very un-
willing to suspect, a wish to depreciate an
argument by raising an unfounded prejudice
against those who advance it.
The import and bearing of holy scripture in
other aspects has been, or yet will be noticed,
in other parts of this volume. It has been our
object here to observe the passages which bear
upon our subject directly, and to shew that
Matt
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they are in unison with the general argument;
which we trust has been satisfactorily done.
It will occasion the writer the deepest afflic-
tion, if, however unconsciously, he have been
led in these remarks to alter or to diminish the
full and true import of the divine word; and
unutterably would he be ashamed of himself, if
he could harbour a wish to evade, in however
unwelcome a direction, the force of truth: but
as, on the one hand, he hopes he has no aim
but to know the mind of Christ; so, on the
other, he solemnly believes what he has stated
to be the correct expression of that mind, so
far as the passages examined are concerned.
He has not, perhaps, adduced every text on
which stress has been laid in this discussion;
but those which have been brought forward he
hopes are fair specimens of the classes to which
they belong, and sufficient to establish and
illustrate the principles on which the whole are
to be interpreted. Nothing is more true or more
important than the sentiment, that the express
and direct sense of scripture, wherever it can be
ascertained, must determine every matter of
religious opinion; but the case before us is one
in which this very maxim has been made the
foundation and the bulwark of an extensive
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
and long prevalent error. The declaration
that men cannot come to Christ having been
once supposed to mean that they have no
power to do so, the force with which this is
asserted seems to have attached to the mis-
take a most unmerited character of sacredness
and inviolability. Whatever might be dis-
puted, this must not be called in question,
because it was expressly asserted; and he who
would dare to suggest a doubt of it could not
but incur the heaviest accusations of hetero-
doxy and heresy. Slender basis for so vast a
superstructure! Upon what films can wide-
spreading errors be established! The whole is
but an oversight; a mere inadvertency, in mis-
interpreting analogical phraseology as though
it were literal, and thus throwing out of view
other portions of the divine word, a fearless
examination of which would instantly have
dispelled the delusion. The writer yields to
no man in his willingness to submit to the
direct sense of scripture; he has no higher aim
than to ascertain the mind of the Spirit therein.
If he contends against what has long been held
to be the express sense of scripture, it is be-
cause he is convinced that it is a mistake; and
he calls upon his brethren opposed to him in
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argument to abide by their own principle, and
to vindicate their claim to a supreme venera-
tion for God's word. Which do they love
best; their system, which they have long
imagined the word of God to support; or the
word of God, which they may now perceive
leaves their system to fall? The writer hopes
and believes the latter: but the result will de-
clare it.
CHAP. XIII.
Whether the sentiment which ascribes power
to man does not pre-eminently humble the
sinner and glorify God:- The argument
from the tendency of the doctrine.
If we were to say that the apparent ten-
dency of a sentiment should in all cases be
held decisive of its real character and truth,
we should doubtless be going too far. With
our limited and imperfect knowledge, we may
not always be competent judges on such a
point; we may ourselves be misled by error, or
blinded by our feelings. Yet there are grounds
on which an inquiry into the tendency of an
opinion is both reasonable and important. Every
thing which is just in sentiment must also be
right in tendency; rectitude in sentiment being
nothing more than an accurate view of things
as they really exist, and things as they really
exist being adapted by divine wisdom to exert
a right influence on the heart. If an opinion,
therefore, according to its legitimate use, tends
TENDENCY OF THE DOCTRINE. 209
apparently to evil, this is a presumptive evi-
dence of its fallacy; as, on the other hand,
there is a presumption in favour of its truth,
if it tends to good. Though this is not to be
considered a principal argument, it is an im-
portant auxiliary one, it is proper that every
sentiment should be brought to this test, as a
help towards ascertaining its character.
With respect to the accordance of religious
opinions with the truth of the gospel in this
point, we have considerable facility of judg-
ment. The divine dispensation of mercy has
very distinct and peculiar features. Its as-
pect is by no means vague or equivocal; in
the midst of its boundless condescension and
riches of grace, its tendency is manifestly to
abase man, and to exalt his Maker. To the
former is allotted shame and confusion of face,
deep criminality and ill-desert; to the latter is
ascribed unbounded and self-moved love, rich,
free, and sovereign, as the sole spring of all
that is happy for man, or excellent in him. It
is an easy and effectual mode, therefore, of
bringing a doctrine to the test, to ask what is
its tendency. Does it abase the sinner? Does
it glorify God? Does it breathe the acknow-
ledged spirit of his dispensation of grace?
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The writer cannot help picturing to himself
the surprise which one class of his readers
may feel, at his bringing the doctrine he has
endeavoured to maintain to the test now before
us; or the joy which may be felt by others at
the anticipation of his approaching discom-
fiture. There is scarcely a point in which our
brethren who oppose the sentiment of man's
ability imagine themselves so strong as in
this. They conceive that it tends to exalt the
creature; and take this to be so entirely be-
yond doubt, that on this ground its condemna-
tion is with them already past. They may be
assured, however, that they proceed too rapidly.
With the semblance of an impregnable fortress,
they have no real strength. There is not the
least unwillingness to bring the doctrine we
advocate to this test; on the contrary, we are
very desirous of it; being fully convinced that
the result will be eminently in its favour. If
it do not tend to humble man and to glorify
God, let it perish and be forgotten!
I. Let us then recall the sentiment itself,
that our view of it may be accurate. We
maintain that man, in his present condition,
possesses power to be what he ought to be;
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211
WIN
so.
understanding by power, the means of being
In order to guard against the perplexity
which may arise from the frequent analogical
use of the word power, it may perhaps be
better to use the word means, as strictly of
the same import. Our inquiry is, first, whether
the idea that man possesses the means of being
what he ought to be, tends to exalt or to humble
him as a sinner.
Now it appears evident that the ascription
to man of more abundant means of being what
he ought to be, must have a direct tendency
to represent him as the more deeply guilty if
he is not what he ought to be. Even upon the
supposition of our brethren, (which, however,
we do not admit,) that man may be guilty in
some measure though he have no means of
being otherwise than he is, it seems plain that
if he have means of being so, his guilt must
be greater; and greatest of all according to
the opinion which ascribes to him the amplest
means. To say that a man does not love God
when he cannot, may be to say a bad thing of
him; but to say that he does not love God
when he can, is surely to say of him something
worse: or, which is the same thing, to affirm
that man has power to love God, is to
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represent him in a light which aggravates
his guilt, and tends more deeply to abase
him.
Yet all we have maintained is that man has
the means of being what he ought to be; an
opinion which, instead of exalting a sinner,
has so direct a tendency to humble him, that
whoever desires to humble him most deeply
should obviously maintain it with the greatest
emphasis.
It can scarcely be less than wonderful that
this consequence should ever have been over-
looked; but it may perhaps be ascribed to the
influence of one or other of the following
fallacies.
1. It may be thought by some that power
is an excellency; and that to ascribe power
to man is to ascribe goodness to him, which,
in his fallen state, cannot justly be done.
The error committed here lies in not ob-
serving the distinction between man as a
creature, and man as a moral agent; or be-
tween natural and moral qualities. Looking
at any creature, as such, the possession of
power, or the means of action, is an excellency;
and every increase of power adds to its ex-
cellency, inasmuch as it confers an adaptation
THE DOCTRINE.
213
for some superior kind of action. So the power
of performing moral actions is an excellency
in man, enabling him to do what other creatures
cannot. But when we regard man as a moral
agent, and ask wherein his excellency as such
consists, it is not in power, but in the right
use of power; not in having means of action,
but in well employing them. Power is a natural
excellence, but not a moral one; an excellence
of structure, but not of character. It is ex-
cellence, but not goodness: and therefore to
ascribe power to man is not to ascribe to him
any goodness at all.
That this is the true idea of power, or means
of action, may appear more fully from this,
that the employment of it is not necessarily
good. Power may be used for evil, and it is
in many cases so used; so that it might in
these cases be regarded as an evil itself. The
fact is, however, that power has no moral
character at all; it is neither evil nor good;
but a mere instrument of action, by the varied
employment of which good or evil character
is formed and exhibited.
2. It may be alleged, perhaps, that if power
itself be not a moral excellency, power to do
good must be so.
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THE TENDENCY OF
But what then is power to do good? Ac-
cording to our definition of power, it is the
means of doing good, and nothing more. But
is the possession of the means of doing good a
moral excellency? A rich man has the means
of being charitable; is this any goodness in
him? If this question needs no answer, so
neither does the following: A wicked man has
the means of serving God; is this any good-
ness in him? The same principle decides both
cases. The means of doing good constitute
no moral excellency, but merely a natural one;
and they may in fact be rendered only means
of doing evil, by the neglect or misuse of them.
When we say that man has power to do good,
therefore, we do not ascribe to him any moral
excellency.
3. It may be said that disposition is power,
and disposition to do good is goodness.
Most certainly, disposition to do good is
goodness: but the reader will be kind enough
to recollect that we do not allow power and
disposition to be the same. If he is disposed
to go over that ground again, we can only
refer him to chap. ii. page 62.
4. It may be urged that all power is declared
to be of God; and that, therefore, if power be
THE DOCTRINE.
215
ascribed to man, it is derogatory to the glory
of God.
There is no doubt but all things are of God.
Every creature is endowed by his hand with
whatever faculties it possesses, and is entirely
dependent upon him for their continuance. In
this sense our power to act at all is of God;
so likewise is our power to breathe, and our
power to do evil as well as good. If, there-
fore, it is any way derogatory to God's honour
to say that man has power to do good, it must
be equally so to say that he has power to do
evil, or to perform any of the functions of life.
In fact, however, there is nothing dishonour-
able to God in either. Whatever powers God
has given us we possess; and to say what
powers we possess is to say in other words what
powers God has given us. To describe man
as he is implies no question as to his origin,
nor any insinuation of his independence.
When the power by which man works right-
eousness is said to be of God, it is necessary to
recollect the double import of the term. An
application of the principle by which the use of
words is to be ascertained, will shew that the term
power is here employed analogically, not in refe-
rence to the means of acting, but to the disposition.
་
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THE TENDENCY OF
to act. And if this be the case, all language of
this kind is remote from the question; as we do
not ascribe to man any disposition to act right,
but simply the means of doing so. The fact,
therefore, that God gives man the disposition
to serve him by a special communication of
grace, argues nothing respecting the means of
serving him, which he still may, or may not,
possess by nature.
To return from these digressions. In
ascribing to man the means-that is, the power
—of loving and serving God, we do nothing to
exalt him, but every thing to abase him. Let
the sentiment we maintain be compared in
this respect with that which is opposed to it.
Affirm that man has no power to act right:
does that abase him? It lowers him, indeed,
by denying the principal attribute which raises
him above the brutes, but it does not dishonour
him; it sinks his nature, but it does not impugn
his character. Upon this principle, in order to
humble man more we should say that he has no
power to think, none to reason, none to admire,
none to be happy; and let us only go on in the
same direction, and we may ultimately reduce
him to an oyster or a zoophyte. Profoundly
humiliating indeed! But all this while what
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217
charge of GUILT is fixed on him? What blame
is attached to him? Of what criminality does
he stand convicted? Absolutely none. Every
diminution of his power, on the contrary, re-
moves him further from the possibility of being
either evil or good, and with the incapacity of
an oyster, he attains also its innocence.
To deny power to man, therefore, is a pre-
posterous method of attempting to abase him.
But this is not all. The species of power which
our brethren refuse to ascribe to man is pre-
cisely that which is necessary to his being
humbled, and without a consciousness of which
he can never feel any abasement at all. They
affirm that man has no power, or means, of
doing good, or of avoiding evil; in which case
we maintain it to be impossible that a man
should feel himself blameworthy, for either
doing evil, or for not doing good. Whatever a
man may be accused of, a sincere and honest
conviction that he had no means of doing
otherwise always amounts to a full justification.
of himself in his own eyes, and must do so,
while his rational constitution remains unim-
paired. Upon such a ground as this, therefore,
no feeling of humiliation can ever arise.
The state of things which thus opens to us is
L
pat
218
THE TENDENCY OF
truly admirable. Here are men who profess
to hold doctrines abasing to the creature, and
cry down a sentiment because it exalts him;
while the doctrine they espouse annihilates the
possibility of blame, and furnishes the sinner
with a complete justification; and that which
they oppose, not only carries the guilt of the
sinner to the highest pitch, but affords the
only ground on which he can be convicted of
criminality at all. Under what infatuation can
it be, that, professing to maintain the deep
criminality of transgression, they seize upon
that on which the very existence of criminality
depends, and strive to blot it out from the re-
cords of truth, and from the conscience of man?
Allow that man has power to be and to do
what he pleases, whether right or wrong, and
you may hold him blameworthy; deny this, and
let him be what he may, he is innocent. Yet
this is the very thing which is singled out for
denial. That is the doctrine, therefore, which
exalts the creature; for it enables him to look
with complacency on his heart and life, with
all their iniquities; to justify himself, notwith-
standing all the accusations of the law of God;
and even to lift up his head with insult in the
presence of his Maker and his judge. Ours is
S
THE DOCTRINE.
219
the doctrine to abase man, and is the only doc-
trine which attaches to him a particle of real
criminality. If he has power to serve God,
then disobedience is a crime; the sinner him-
self cannot but allow it to be so; and a crime
fully proportionate to the glory of God, and the
vastness of our obligations.
Let the influence of the two sentiments be
embodied in two hypothetical cases.
Let us
imagine that we hear one person in a soliloquy
of the following kind. They tell me that I
have sinned. They speak awfully of my break-
ing God's commandments, and of the punish-
ment hereafter to be inflicted upon me. They
say I ought to be deeply ashamed of myself;
but I could not help it. Sin is natural to me.
It is in my constitution, and I have no power to
be otherwise than I am. If I am to be other-
wise than I am, therefore, the Lord must make
me so. It is unreasonable to blame me; for I
have done the very best I could, and certainly
cannot blame myself.
We have carefully avoided in this case the
use of all strong expressions, lest we should
be supposed to have overcharged the picture.
Let us now hear a soliloquy of a different kind.
"I have heard that I ought to love God and
<<
Sa
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THE TENDENCY OF
to serve him; that I can do both; and that,
with due consideration of his word, I shall
certainly be led to do both. It is certain that
I have never meditated seriously on the con-
tents of the bible. I have bent my attention
to the world; I have voluntarily avoided every
thing adapted to render me serious; I have
cherished an aversion to God and his ways; I
have said to him, Depart from me. I have
thus wilfully neglected the means of loving
him. The heart which I could have given to
him, I have given to another. Affections
which might have been engaged for him, have
been willingly enlisted against him, till now I
hate him and his ways. Wretch that I am!
who shall express the depth of my wickedness?
Is it thus I have treated God when he called
me? Is it thus I have hardened my heart
against those glorious truths, which, if I had
but duly meditated on them, would have
melted me into gratitude and love? How
justly may he look on me with anger! How
righteously will his indignation burn against
me, even to the lowest hell! How bitterly
must I reproach myself, as voluntary in my
deepest guilt, and the author of my own ruin!
O thou, my maker and judge! wherewithal
S
THE DOCTRINE.
221
shall I come before thee? By what arguments
can my conduct be justified, or by what excuses
can it be extenuated?"
The reader of course will judge, whether the
natural tendency of the doctrines in question
has been now fairly represented. He may
easily satisfy himself that these are not ficti-
tious cases. Let him observe the many per-
sons around him who are not of a contrite
spirit, and inquire why it is that a load of
guilt like theirs occasions them no grief, and
he will often have for answer, I cannot help
it; you know I cannot do any better of myself."
If, on the other hand, he should ever meet with
one who holds this unwelcome sentiment of
man's ability, he may be reckless about sin on
other grounds, but he will always say, Well,
I know I am to be blamed. Such is the influ-
ence of the two sentiments in fact; and it may
not be going too far to say, that, of all the
errors working mischief in the heart of man,
the notion of his own inability is incomparably
the most prolific source of self-complacency
and religious unconcern.
C
II. Having seen how the doctrine of man's
ability tends to abase the creature, let us now
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THE TENDENCY OF
inquire, in the second place, whether it tends
to glorify the Creator.
We may begin by remarking generally, that
God is glorified in exactly the same proportion
as man is abased; the quantity of shame and
confusion of face belonging to the sinner being
the precise measure of the grace exercised by
the Saviour. If there were no sin there could
be no grace; and by whatever degree sin is
magnified, in the same proportion is grace
glorified. Whatever sentiment, therefore,
most humbles the sinner, most glorifies God:
but we have already seen that the doctrine of
man's ability most humbles the sinner; and we
may conclude, therefore, that it will also most
glorify God.
But to go into particulars. The glory of
God in salvation, or that aspect of his glory
pertaining to the present argument, consists in
its being regarded as an act of grace, free,
sovereign, and infinile. The true idea of grace
seems to be that of undeserved bounty, kind-
ness to the unworthy; and the degree of grace
manifested obviously accords with the degree
of unworthiness in the objects of it. To say
that grace is free and sovereign, is to say that
there is nothing in the objects of it adapted to
htt
THE DOCTRINE.
223
excite it; but that it springs solely from God's
own bosom, and is regulated in its exercise by
his own good pleasure.
The question respecting the glory of God in
salvation, therefore, resolves itself into one re-
specting the unworthiness of man. Is man un-
deserving of the kindness of God? Is he utterly
undeserving of it; without any thing, of what-
ever nature, adapted to induce it? Is his
character adapted rather to repel divine mercy,
and to inflame just indignation? Is his crimi-
nality so great as to render it a matter of end-
less wonder that he should ever be forgiven?
Let us first see how these questions can be
answered on the supposition that man has not
power to be what he ought to be. The case
then is simply that of a person who has fallen
into some calamity without the means of avoid-
ing it, and consequently without any fault on
his part. It may certainly be deemed kind to
render assistance in such a case; and if this is
what God has done, we would be very far from
insinuating that it is not grace, since any re-
gard to creatures must be in him a matter of
infinite condescension. Nor will we here stop
to inquire whether kindness of such a descrip-
tion confers any eminent lustre on the character
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THE TENDENCY OF
of a benefactor; whether it could furnish just
occasion of exalted encomium; whether it be
more than accordant with the universal law of
loving our neighbour as ourselves; or whether
the omission of such a service would not attach
a stigma difficult to be removed. Our object
rather is to show, that, whatever grace may
have been manifested on the supposition of
man's impotency, much more has been exercised
on the supposition of his power.
If it be true that man has power, full and
entire power, to be and to do all that he ought,
to love God supremely, to delight in him, and
to serve him with all his heart, then the case is
a very different one from that just exhibited.
Whatever may be the wretchedness into
which he may have fallen, and whatever its
adaptation may be in itself to inspire com-
passion, the aspect of man's character to-
wards God has a tendency to repress such a
feeling. Why should his Maker rescue him?
Has he not been his Maker's enemy? With
ample powers for his service, has he not wil-
fully devoted them to the world, and trampled
alike upon the commands and the mercies, the
glory and the terrors, of the Almighty? What
favours has he not abused! What dishonour
THE DOCTRINE.
225
has he not aimed to inflict! And all this when
he had full power to do otherwise; when God
had set before him the most moving truths,
the consideration of which would have sweetly
drawn him to love; but he would not incline
his ear, neither would he hearken. Shall God
save such a one? Shall not his soul be avenged
on such a rebel as this? For such a wretch
shall his arm be stretched out, and his Son be
slain? This is a miracle of grace indeed. Love
which prevails while crimes of the deepest dye
provoke eternal wrath, and justice demands
the execution of a righteous vengeance,—such
love is free; it may be sovereign, and must be
glorious. Such love is worthy of the Eternal;
and if all earth and heaven be called upon to
shout its praise, the theme is infinitely higher
than the song.
The writer cannot believe it needful to carry
this illustration any further. He will leave it
to appeal to every pious mind, only expressing
his heartfelt delight that the sentiments he
holds do lead him to most admiring views of
the grace that bringeth salvation. Oh! if he
felt that there were any sentiments which
could sink him in deeper shame before the
presence of his Maker, or inspire more elevated
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THE TENDENCY OF
apprehensions of his Redeemer's love, were it
for this luxury alone, he would instantly embrace
them. It is for this reason, in truth, that he
binds his present sentiments to his heart. None
humble him like these; none like these inspire
him with adoration of his Lord.
If a reader of the opposite persuasion should
feel any force in the preceding argument, it
may perhaps lead him to say-' But, after all,
the great question is, Is the sentiment true;
is it scriptural? No doubt, this is the great
question; and he will have the goodness to
recollect how fully it has been treated in the
former parts of this volume. It is not that we
have examined our opinion in this indirect
manner in order to avoid the direct application
of scriptural tests: but having first applied
them, we use this as a subsidiary means; and
as the former justified us, so does the latter.
It should be recollected, too, that we are now
upon ground which our companions in argu-
ment have claimed as peculiarly their own, and
from which, as their impregnable bulwark, they
have loudly proclaimed our defeat. We wish
no triumph, neither let them practise any
evasion; but let it be fairly decided which
sentiment has the advantage on the ground
THE DOCTRINE.
22¹
now occupied. Nothing is easier than for a
man, who is determined to maintain his opinion
at all hazards, when baffled at one point, to
run to another, and so lead an everlasting
chase but if there be any sincerity in the
reference so often made to the tendency of the
doctrine, we call upon our brethren either to
show that it is not such as we have stated, or to
abandon, if not their opinion, yet their boast ;
and to content themselves with being that por-
tion of the christian church who hold senti-
ments which justify man and annihilate the
grace of God.
سروه
M
CHAP. XIV.
Whether the sentiment of man's ability agrees
with the actual exercises of his mind:
The Argument from Experience.
The dep
Ir can scarcely fail to have occurred to our
readers, that the subject before us is by no
means one, either of abstract speculation, or of
remote inquiry. It relates to matters which
lie within our own breasts; to matters, there-
fore, respecting which our own consciousness
should afford us the means of forming a ready
and decisive judgment. One can scarcely
withhold surprise, that on so home a topic
there should have existed any diversity of
opinion, or scope for argument; and if it does
exist, it is highly natural and just to refer to
every man's consciousness of what passes within
him for a decision of the question. Whatever
may be the value of philosophical disquisitions,
whatever may be the force even of divine tes-
timony, they are of no further influence nor
truth, than as they accord with the facts
THE ARGUMENT FROM EXPERIENCE. 229
existing in the bosom of men. The use and
end of them is not to produce a fictitious man,
but to discover the real one; not to form a
picture, but to exhibit a light. Respecting
the whole question in the discussion of which
we have been engaged, we say most cheer-
fully, Let experience decide it.
Much is it to be regretted that any circum-
stance should diminish the value of this appeal.
Some readers, perhaps, under the influence of
their own consciousness, may be ready to say
that, on this ground, there cannot be two opi-
nions, at least among those who are taught of
God. The expectation is. natural; but the
fact does not justify it. There are two opi-
nions, even among those who are taught of
God; unless, at least, the parties in this dis-
cussion proceed to the extreme length of pro-
nouncing each other not to be christians,-an
anathema which, from angry and defeated dis-
putants, is no way uncommon, but which we
have no disposition to hurl at our brethren,
and shall find it not difficult to bear, if it be
only from them, and not from their Lord.
But since those who have alike experienced
divine teaching do not come to an instantaneous
agreement upon this point, it is manifest that
Mak
230
THE ARGUMENT FROM
the appeal to experience cannot be made in
the rapid and decisive manner which might
have been anticipated. We shall need to ad-
vance with caution and discrimination. We
shall, however, need no more than this. The
ground for the appeal to experience is not at
all affected by the different views which may
be taken of it. No doubt can be entertained,
but that the inward exercises of all true chris-
tians, though greatly diversified, are substan-
tially the same; and that they are spoken of
in dissimilar terms, only because those terms
are employed with more or less strictness and
accuracy. We have seen already that a lax
and unobservant use of words is the origin of
many of the doctrinal perplexities involved in
the present discussion; and we need not be at
all surprised to find the same cause operating
to disguise and distort the exercises of the
heart. Let us only rectify these inadver-
tencies; let us but ask candidly what cer-
tain phrases mean, and reduce them fairly to
their correct import, and then we shall hear
distinctly what the testimony of experience
really is.
p
Before we proceed to inquire of those to
whom the Lord has been gracious, we wish to
EXPERIENCE.
231
ask a few questions of the ungodly themselves.
Of such among them as would affirm that they
have ability for their duty, we have no need
here to speak; whether correct or not, their
testimony is at all events on our side. We
refer now to those who think they cannot do as
they ought; language which is very often heard
from some persons, especially when they have
been induced to make any of those transient
and abortive efforts with which the lives of
many abound. Supposing my reader to be
cherishing such a sentiment, we use the free-
dom of addressing him personally, and say;
What do you mean when declare that you
you
cannot love God, or repent of sin, and serve
him heartily? What hinders you? The ques-
tion perhaps may startle and perplex you; you
may be disposed to reply to it by saying again
that you cannot, and that you cannot tell why;
but we must repeat our inquiry. If you cannot
repent, something hinders you, and something
which may be discovered, if you will look
closely, and speak honestly. What is it?
Judge if we are not right in saying, that it is
your wicked heart which will not let you re-
pent. Your love of sin, of the world, and of
self-indulgence, makes you deeply disrelish
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THE ARGUMENT FROM
21
T
the consideration of religious truths; it drives
you from them, and leads your thoughts to
temporal things when they ought to be fixed
on eternal ones. You know there is no other
hinderance. You could love and serve God,
if your own heart would let you; but if this
be the case, then you have power to do it;
for, if you had not, you could not do it though
your own heart would let you, and though it
were even bent upon it most intently.
If you still say, But how can I help the state
of my heart, which will not let me repent? we
answer that you have the means of doing this,
by the due consideration of religious truths.
Consider, and you will be wise. Your expe-
rience will confirm this representation. For
we ask, Have you ever given to religious
truths the serious, honest, continued, and com-
plete consideration, which you knew they de-
served? If you have not, how can you say
that such consideration would not have con-
verted you? Again, have religious truths ever
been seriously thought of by you, without pro-
ducing some effect, and an effect exactly pro-
portioned to the degree of consideration you
may have given them? How else are we to
account for the hours of anxiety, the bursts of
Karkal
EXPERIENCE.
233
sorrow, the occasional prayers and purposes of
amendment, which your memory will readily
recall? And if this be the case, as we are
satisfied it is, it may fairly be reckoned a de-
cisive proof that due consideration would have
converted you, and that, by this instrument,
you have the means of regulating your own
heart. Further; How have religious truths
at any time consciously failed to influence you,
or lost the influence which they were beginning
to exert upon you? You know very well that it
has been by inconsideration. When they were
brought before you, you took no pains to
weigh them, but rather willingly forgot them,
or perhaps indulged yourself in some method
of taking off their force; and when they
had made you in some measure serious, or
unhappy, the impression was lost by forget-
fulness, if not by a method more flagrantly cri-
minal. We are not afraid of your experience
contradicting these statements: and if it do not,
then we have its unequivocal testimony to the
sentiment, that every man possesses ability for
his duty. You, at least, possess ability for yours.
In harmony with the principle we are main-
taining are those well attested instances in
which conversion has more manifestly been
234
THE ARGUMENT FROM
induced by reflection. We hear, for example,
of a traveller at an inn engaging to reward a
servant, if she will promise to spend in prayer
a quarter of an hour every day till his return;
and of a dying mother in India, who enjoined
her son to spend half an hour every morning in
solitary reflection. In both these cases con-
version resulted; and there are doubtless many
similar ones.
These are direct testimonies to
the adaptation and power of religious truth to
affect the heart, whenever it is duly regarded;
and they authorize the broad assertion, that it
is impossible for any man to continue in sin,
who steadily contemplates the motives which
are adapted to win him from it; he must
disregard them, or he will infallibly repent.
In perfect accordance with this view is the
language of holy writ, in which we suppose
every true christian will be ready to describe
his own conversion: "I thought on my ways,
and turned my feet unto thy testimonies."
Psalm cxix. 59. Thoughtfulness is the first
of all hopeful signs; and it will be fully ad-
mitted, we imagine, that conversion com-
mences and is carried on by the influence of
clear, vivid, and powerful views of divine
things; that is to say, by having the attention
Jule
EXPERIENCE.
235
deeply engaged on them. Then what was sel-
dom thought of becomes ever present, it cannot
be forgotten; and the more intently it is dwelt
upon, the deeper becomes the conviction of
its importance, and the more decided its in-
fluence upon the heart.
T
Let us now request any devout reader to
examine how it is with him in his closet. On
his entrance there it may be conceived that he
finds a painful degree of worldly-mindedness
and insensibility to divine things, much dead-
ness of heart, and perhaps an entanglement of
his affections with some sinful object. An hour
spent in fervent exercises of secret piety
awakens his heart, destroys the fascination of
sin, and brings him near to God. But what
are the exercises which have produced this
result? They are greatly diversified, no doubt;
but they are in substance only two, meditation
and prayer-one grand object of prayer also
being that the heart may be enlarged and
quickened in meditation. The great power of
religious retirement lies in its adaptation to set
before us the glories of the world to come, to
exhibit them distinctly, and to engage on them
a full and solemn attention. To this point the
labours of closet piety are mainly directed, and
236
THE ARGUMENT FROM
only so far as it is attained is any benefit de-
rived. Hence the value and importance of the
perusal of the divine word, of examination of
the heart, of a review of the Lord's dealings
with us, and an observation of our ever varying
circumstances; and hence, in truth, one great
part of the value of prayer itself, which, above
all other exercises, brings us into close contact
with eternal realities, or cuttingly convicts us
of our thoughtlessness, while we bow in the
very presence of those awful things by which
our whole hearts ought to be absorbed. If
there be any particular object to be attained,
as for example, some special sin to be mortified,
we look at it in the various lights in which its
guilt, ingratitude, folly, and mischief appear
most conspicuous; when these fix our attention
strongly, the resolution to mortify that sin is
produced and confirmed, and not till then. It
is the same in every other case; and it is wholly
on this principle that we rest the truth of the
general sentiment, which universal experience
confirms, that the vigour and growth of piety
are always proportionate to the extent and
liveliness of its secret exercises, or in other
words, to the attention engaged by the objects
to which piety itself relates.
EXPERIENCE.
237
It may perhaps be observed, that we have
hitherto made no mention of those gracious aids.
of the Spirit which are exerted in conversion,
and enjoyed in devotional retirement; and we
may even be asked whether our plan leaves any
room for them. Our answer is briefly this: We
entertain the fullest conviction, that all holy
emotions and enlargement of heart in medita-
tion arise from the influence of the Holy Spirit,
and are never enjoyed without him.
We con-
ceive, however, that his work is not to render
meditation effectual to touch the heart, which
it would do without him, and must do, from the
very constitution of man; but to induce medi-
tation itself,—to fix our thoughts intently on
divine things, which we never should do without
him. Such is his office as described in holy
writ, to "take of the things of Christ and show
them unto us." John xvi. 14. Such is the im-
port of many of the petitions we address to him,
that he will turn away our eyes from behold-
ing vanity," and not suffer vain thoughts to lodge
within us. Psalm cxix. 37. Such is his actual
course of proceeding; for whenever he does
produce deep exercises of heart, it is by en-
larged views of sacred objects. The use thus
made of consideration by the Spirit himself, as
B
**
238
THE ARGUMENT FROM
the instrument for accomplishing all his pur-
poses in the conversion, consolation, and sanc-
tification of men, is a manifest proof of its
adequacy and certain efficacy; since, as, on the
one hand, it is impossible to conceive he would
employ an instrument not fitted for its end, so,
on the other, it is evident that the instrument
does answer all the ends for which he employs
it. Let but the same instrument be similarly
employed, it matters not by what hand, and it
will produce the same result. Hence may be
seen, therefore, the relation and the consistency
between the asserted ability of man and the aid
of the Spirit. The Spirit does nothing more
than lead us to due consideration; but we are
able to give due consideration to any object
without the Spirit; wherefore we have power,
without the Spirit, to do that which we actually
do only under his influence. The only instru-
ment which the Spirit uses to accomplish the
whole of his work, is one which we also have
power to use; wherefore, also, we have power
to accomplish the whole of that work; the only
reason why we do not being our aversion to the
use of the only instrument by which it can be
effected.
If it should be thought that the province thus
EXPERIENCE.
239
assigned to the blessed Spirit is too small and
insignificant, let any christian observant of his
own mind ask himself whether he can, in fact,
ascribe to him any more. We do not hesitate
for a moment, to ascribe to this blessed Agent
all our consolation, our sanctification, our hea-
venly-mindedness, and every other good thing;
but we conceive that he produces them by
means of the truth; and the real question is,
whether he effects these gracious results with
or without this instrumentality? Whatever
good work he carries on in the heart, is it not
by the divine word, exhibited and applied for
this purpose? Such is the tenor of our Saviour's
prayer: "Sanctify them through thy truth, thy
word is truth." John xvii. 17; and such, we
believe, is the uniform testimony of christian
experience. Now, if the work of the Spirit is
carried on by the word of truth, it must be car-
ried on also by the understanding and consi-
deration of man, which form the only avenue
by which the truth can reach or affect the
heart. Besides, when we say that the office of
the Spirit is to lead to consideration, we say a
thing by no means insignificant, but very much
the reverse; for, in relation to the formation of
character and the determination of conduct,
"
J
240
THE ARGUMENT FROM
consideration is every thing. He who can fix
my attention upon various objects according to
his pleasure, has the key of my inmost heart,
and can mould it to his will, so far as those ob-
jects are adapted to exert any influence. Nor
is it so small a matter as may be supposed. Let
any man try his strength at this occupation, and
see how much he can do towards fixing the at-
tention of a person on subjects which he loathes,
or to which he is even indifferent, and he will
soon learn how little it is. Above all, let him
try to engage the close and continued regard
of a wicked man to the things of religion, and
he will ere long acknowledge that it is no
trifling task, that it altogether exceeds the re-
sources of human power, and, little as it seems,
is highly worthy of the almighty and glorious
Agent who condescends to perform the deed.
Here we may perhaps be met by the sug-
gestion, that, among the first lessons of divine
wisdom, is that of our own helplessness. Most
cordially do we concur in this sentiment. It is
among the earliest truths that the Spirit
teaches; he who has not learned it, is wanting
in the very elements of spiritual knowledge,
and if there were any system with which this
should be found to be uncongenial, it would be
EXPERIENCE.
241
effectually refuted by this circumstance alone.
We are not altogether strangers to the feeling
of helplessness, and the deep anguish with
which not only an awakened sinner, but a true
christian, often acknowledges that he can do
nothing, like a helpless captive, sold under the
power of sin. As to holy exercises apart from
the influence of the Spirit, we daily feel them
to be impossible; nor do we think that any
persons use these terms either with more free-
ness, or with more force, than ourselves. But
we have already seen that the use of these
terms is by no means decisive of the question at
issue. They have a twofold use, and a twofold
meaning. It requires therefore to be asked,
what we mean by them; and this is the more
necessary, because only one of their significa-
tions is at all appropriate to the connexion in
which they are employed. Some persons,
when they use these expressions, tell us they
mean to acknowledge that they are without
power to do what is good; others, and our-
selves among them, by the same language
mean, that their hearts have a fixed opposition
to it. If we are complained of for using the
language in this sense, we not only justify our-
selves, but lay the same charge upon our
M
÷
242
THE ARGUMENT FROM
brethren; for, in truth, we use the terms
in their right sense, and in the only sense
which they can rightly bear. We have
already established the principle, that, when
these words are applied to a state of mind,
they invariably denote determination and not
power; and we hold it to be certain that, in
this connexion, they do refer to a state of
mind, and nothing else; in the case before us,
therefore, they can mean nothing but a fixed de-
termination, and persons who use them to denote
an imagined want of power are guilty, both of
a flagrant perversion of language, and of endea-
vouring to express what really does not exist.
For, when the matter comes to be examined,
it will be found that, with whatever force we
may use the terms cannot and impossible, we
do not really mean that we are destitute of
power. Suppose me to say, in heartfelt bitter-
ness, Wretch that I am! How little do I
mourn for sin, or love the Saviour! I cannot
mourn, I cannot love. As soon may the
Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
spots, as I, who have been long doing evil,
learn to do well! What is the real case which
I thus describe? It is the intensity of a cer-
tain state of mind, and nothing more; a case,
..
EXPERIENCE.
243
therefore, from which the idea of power is
altogether separate and remote. I mean only,
that my feelings are desperately opposed to
sorrow for sin and love to Christ. Neither is
it a case which we are without the power,
that is, the means (see page 62) of altering.
Due consideration of the truths adapted to
produce sorrow for sin and love to Christ
will produce them. Hence, accordingly, if we
really wish to possess these feelings, we betake
ourselves to this very means; as though we
should say, Come, my soul, look at those
heart-rending iniquities which grieve thee so
little, and lift up thine eyes to the glorious
Redeemer whom thou hast found it so hard to
love! Wilt thou never melt? It is in the
midst of such exercises as these that the heart
does melt; nor does it ever yield by any other
means than the contemplation, in some method
or other, of truths adapted to produce the effect.
We may confidently appeal to every christian
to say, whether the awakening and increase of
devotional feeling is not always proportionate
to the exercise of sacred meditation.
.
To this it may be added, that, if it were
strictly true that we had no power, we could
attach to ourselves no blame in this respect. If
M 2
244
THE ARGUMENT FROM
<
<
we had been endeavouring to lift an immense
weight, and, after our utmost exertion, had
ascertained that we could not do it, we should
be far from covering ourselves with reproaches,
and exclaiming, Oh, guilty creature that I
am! We should rather resign ourselves to the
result, however calamitous, without any feel-
ing of self-reproof. This, indeed, is precisely
what some professors do with regard to
experimental piety. I am lukewarm,' say
they, and too worldly-minded, I know: but I
cannot help it; I can do nothing of myself; I
must wait till the Lord pleases to visit me.'
But what sort of religious experience are we
to call this? To us it appears to be one of the
most fearful signs of religious declension, and
prevailing sin. At all events, Paul's expe-
rience was very different when he said, 0
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me
from the body of this death!" And equally
different be ours, and that of all our readers!
Is it ever well with us, but when the evils of
the heart are matter of deep affliction, and
severe self-reproach ?-But if this feeling be
just, then it cannot be a case in which we are
without power; for, in such a case, no just
self-reproach could exist.
66
EXPERIENCE.
245
Should any reader be disposed to question,
whether the existence of an evil disposition
merely, without the want of power, can con-
stitute such total helplessness and impossibility
as we feel, he may notice two points. In the
first place, no other cause of our helplessness
exists, or can be shown, or conceived to exist;
and those who maintain it never do, and never
can explain themselves. In the next place,
the influence exerted by adverse feeling is ex-
actly proportioned to its strength. Only sup-
pose a case, therefore, in which adverse feeling
is of immense force, strong enough to lead a
man to disregard all that might subdue it, and
then the influence and result of it are as great
and as certain as though his very power were
destroyed. Exactly such is the state of our
hearts towards God; and hence the feeling, so
characteristic of christian experience, of total
helplessness combined with extreme criminality.
This combination cannot be accounted for,-we
may say it cannot exist, upon any principle but
that which maintains both the depravity and
the ability of man.
Upon no ground have we been more asto-
nished at the resistance made to the admission
of man's ability for his duty, than this on which
Q
246
THE ARGUMENT FROM
we have now touched. We suppose it is as
truly characteristic of divine teaching, to learn
that we are guilty, as to learn that we are help-
less. Is any man taught of God, who has not
felt himself justly chargeable with sin, with
actual conduct and a state of heart which are
wrong, and for which he deserves severe blame
and awful condemnation? We suppose we may
safely set this down as one of the elementary
lessons in the school of Christ. But if a man
believes this, we venture to affirm that he does
not believe himself destitute of power to have
been a different man; because, if he did, he
could not feel himself justly blameable for sin.
While we continue of sound mind, we never
can give up the dictate of common sense, that
we are not blameworthy for what we could not
help; and if we are really convinced that we
could not help hating God and his authority,
we never shall blame ourselves for doing so.
How these two incompatible ideas get into the
minds of some pious people, and dwell peaceably
together, we cannot imagine, except by attri-
buting to them a want of thought with which
we are sorry any of them should be chargeable.
If a person under first awakenings and deep
convictions of sin, were told that he could not
}
EXPERIENCE.
247
:
help it, he would not believe it; at that time no
man believes it so far as the idea gains any
practical influence upon the heart, it diminishes
the sense of guilt, and, carried fairly out, would
destroy it entirely. We have conversed with
various persons upon this point, and once found
a professor, not wanting in shrewdness, who
admitted that sin is no fault at all; and how-
ever others may strive to evade the formality
of coming to so strange a conclusion, little
doubt can be entertained, but that the preva-
lence of the sentiment of human inability has
exerted a wide and lamentable influence, in
banishing from the experience of christians a
deep sense of criminality. We think any close
observer will allow that, among the professors
of the present day, there is much less of this
feeling than there ought to be, and we unhe-
sitatingly regard it as the offspring of this mis-
chievous falsehood.
Da
It has been conceived that a distinction be-
tween will and power is drawn by the apostle,
where he says, "To will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find
not. The good that I would I do not, but the
evil that I would not, that I do." Rom. vii.
18, 19. For the illustration of this passage
248
THE ARGUMENT FROM
the reader is requested to consider the follow-
ing remarks.
Ską
In our account of the structure and operation
of the mind, (page 43), we have pointed out the
difference between the habitual prevailing state
of the heart, and the transient excitements to
which it is subject; the latter are affections or
emotions, the former is the disposition. The
distinct operation of these upon the conduct
may be worthy of a moment's observation. If
the emotions excited should be always in har-
mony with the existing disposition, then there
would be no possibility of an action in any de-
gree contrary to the disposition itself: but if
there should arise emotions of a different ten-
dency, then there might be, and without watch-
ful effort there would be, an action not corre-
sponding with the disposition. Human nature
is so constituted that such emotions may arise.
So it was with man in innocence, and so it is
still. Hence results an especial and continual
conflict in the renewed man; the disposition
being holy, but the heart being also liable to
the excitement of unholy emotions, under the
immediate influence of which sin may be actually
committed, and, in particular instances, the ac-
complishment of the settled purpose of the
EXPERIENCE.
249
..
mind may be frustrated. This is the state of
things which we conceive the apostle to be
illustrating in the latter part of the seventh
chapter of the epistle to the Romans. I
would do good," says he; "to will is present
with me; I delight in the law of God after the
inward man." ver. 18, 19, 22. These expres-
sions represent his disposition, or the habitually
prevailing state of his heart, which dictated a
holy and devoted conduct, and gave this main
character to his life. He found, however,
"another law in his members," an inclination
(C
:
to sin, " warring against the law of his mind,"
ver. 23; and the emotions produced in conse-
quence of this were sometimes strong enough
to prevent the fulfilment of his holy and devoted
purposes: hence he says, the good that I
would, I do not, and the evil that I would not,
that I do to will is present with me, but how
to perform that which is good I find not," ver.
18, 19; I am not watchful, and prompt, and
vigorous enough, to maintain inviolate the
great purpose of my soul. The whole passage
appears to us to be remote from the question
of power; it describes nothing more than a
conflict of feelings.
M 3
CHAP. XV.
Objections answered.
OUR argument has not been pursued thus
far, without meeting with some of the topics
commonly adduced in the form of objections to
the sentiment of man's ability. We trust satis-
factory attention has been paid to these as they
occurred; but there are some others of consi-
derable prominence, which it would be improper
to overlook.
1. It has been conceived that, if power in
man to come to Christ be allowed, nothing will
remain to prevent him from actually coming:
and this would be contrary to the scriptures,
which, at all events, declare that no man will
come to Christ, except the Father draw him.
We believe, in the most unequivocal and
decided manner, than no man ever did or ever
will come to Christ, unless drawn by the Father;
and if the sentiment of man's ability were incon-
sistent with this belief, we could hold it no
longer.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
251
The objection, however, proceeds upon a
principle which may be shown to be fallacious.
The argument is this: Allow that a man can
come to Christ, and then he will be sure to
come; or at least you cannot be sure that he
will not that is to say, all that a man can do
he will be sure to do; or, at least, there is
nothing that he can do which you can be sure he
will not do. This is manifestly false. Of the
many things which a man can do, he may do
some, and leave others undone; nay, he infal-
libly will do so; and which he will do, and
which he will leave undone, may be infallibly
known by any being who can search his heart,
which God can do, though we cannot. Take
any action that you please, therefore, which a
man can perform, still it does not follow that
he will perform it; nay, I may be infallibly
assured that he never will perform it.
The fact is, that, in order to the performance
of any action, two conditions are essentially
necessary: the one is the possession of power,
or means of performing it, and the other is an
inclination to do so. If it be to walk into the
street, or to rise from my chair-I shall never
do this if I have not power to do it: but neither
shall I do it, although I have power, unless I
C
M
252
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
have also inclination. Power is not of itself
active; it is merely the means of acting, and it
sleeps till inclination arouses it. My disincli-
nation to rise from my chair will as certainly
prevent my doing so as if I wanted power, since
it is one of the conditions essential to the action;
so that if by any means you can ascertain how
long my disinclination to do so will last, you
may predict, with an infallible certainty, that
so long I shall not rise from my chair.
This familiar illustration we have taken for
the purpose of setting the principle in a clear
light; but the principle itself will be found to
extend to all our actions, the greatest and most
important not excepted. Our coming to Christ
depends upon two conditions: first, our power
to come; secondly, our inclination to come. We
certainly shall not come if we have not power;
neither, if we have power, shall we come, if we
have not inclination. If we have power, there-
fore, still it may be true that we shall never
come to Christ, because we may never have an
inclination to do so.
The whole question, therefore, whether a man
who has power to come to Christ, ever will
come, resolves itself into this, What is the state
of his inclination? Is he inclined to come ?
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
253
F
Or is he indifferent, yet willing to consider why
he should come? Or is he disinclined to come;
but only to such a degree, that he still is ready
to listen and reflect? Or is his disinclination so
strong as to become the habitual and prevailing
state of his heart, and to induce a determined
disregard of all that might influence him? If
the state of a man's mind be such as is described
in the earlier of these questions, then we may
perchance see the wonder of one coming to
Christ of himself: but if it be truly represented
by the last of them, it is plain that he never will
come of himself, his disinclination leading to
the abandonment of the only means by which he
might be brought to such a result.
We have only to ask, then, whether the state
of a man's mind can be known in this respect;
and if so, what it is declared to be. We have
all of us means of estimating the inclinations of
others and our own to some extent, but not so
far as to speak certainly of what will or will not
be done, either by others or ourselves. There
is one Being, however, though only one, to
whom all hearts are open, and all thoughts are
known; and to him it is fully known whether
any man will of himself come to Christ. He
has given us the advantage of his knowledge in
254
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
his holy word, which teaches us that no man
ever will so come. The heart he declares to be
desperately wicked;" the thought and imagi-
nation of it "only evil continually;" adding,
that it is" enmity against God, and is not sub-
ject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”
Jer. xvii. 9; Gen. vi. 5; Rom. viii. 7. We
might quote much to this effect; but the sense
is, that God, who knows the end from the be-
ginning, has forewarned us that the evil dispo-
sition of a sinner will, in every case, induce him
to reject the Saviour.
What more does the objector want, to satisfy
him of this melancholy truth, and to relieve him
of his fears that some poor sinner may come to
Christ of himself? Why should he deem it
necessary to add to this impediment another,
consisting in the want of POWER? One would
be ready to imagine that he does not believe
the divine testimony concerning the wickedness
of the heart, that he cannot think any man will
be so mad, or so wicked, as to keep aloof from
Christ if he has power to come to him; that he
finds a difficulty to entertain so dreadful an
opinion of another, or of himself. There is
probably more of this scepticism at the bottom
of the efforts made to maintain the inability of
CC
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
255
man than its advocates are aware of. But let
them be aware of it; and if this be their real
feeling, let them manfully avow it. If they
will fairly place themselves among the advocates
of human goodness, if they will maintain that
there are such remnants of right feeling in a
corrupt heart, that a sinner really would of him-
self turn to Christ, if a want of power were not
superadded to prevent him, then we shall know
where they are, and in what company to find
them. We do not believe, however, that they
will do this; but really we have all of us need
to acquire more profound and humbling views
of the "nest of serpents" which sin has gene-
rated in every man's bosom.
2. Akin to this objection is another, namely,
That if man is allowed to possess power to be
what he ought to be, there is no ground for
maintaining the necessity of the Spirit.
We should feel the force of this objection,
if power were the only condition necessary to
the performance of an action; but if there be
any other condition necessary also, the necessity
of the Spirit's influence may surely be main-
tained in reference to that, though not in refer-
ence to power. It has just been shown that a
second condition is necessary to the performance
V
1
256
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
of every action, namely, inclination; and whe-
ther the influence of the Spirit is or is not
necessary to produce such an inclination must
depend upon the state of the mind itself. If,
as we have maintained, the state of man's heart
be such, that an inclination to turn to Christ
will never arise in it, then the absolute necessity
of the Spirit's influence may be intelligibly and
justly affirmed. Those who do not coincide in
this conclusion must be supposed to doubt,
either that inclination is a condition necessary
to action, or that the inclination of man is hope-
lessly averse from God; and they are welcome
to either alternative.
pa
Whether that kind of necessity for the influ-
ence of the Holy Spirit which arises from the
disinclination of the sinner be that which the
scriptures exhibit, is a question, which has else-
where been considered. We will here only
repeat our conviction that this is the fact.
They do not represent any impediment as ob-
structing a sinner's conversion but his unwil-
lingness; they cannot, therefore, recognize any
other cause as originating the necessity of the
Spirit's work.
3. A third objection to the doctrine of human
ability has been raised on the ground that it
Judet
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
257
makes no proper allowance for the effect of the
fall. No doubt, it is said, man in innocence
had power to love God; but if the fall did not
deprive him of this power, what has he suffered
by it? Is he not in as good a condition as
before?
Nothing can be more certain than that a
most serious and melancholy injury was inflicted
upon man by the sin and fall of our first parents;
and it would be a valid objection against any
sentiment that it made no proper allowance for
it. But at the same time it is manifest that the
fall did not annihilate man; nor did it destroy
all his powers, or means of action and enjoy-
ment. Still he retains his senses; still is he
an intelligent and rational creature. It is
plainly necessary, therefore, to ascertain cor-
rectly the nature and extent of the injury thus
arising; and by no means allowable to conclude,
that beade a great mischief has been suffered,
that mischief necessarily comprehends the loss
of power to do well.
What, then, was the nature of the injury re-
sulting to man from the fall?
It may have been of one of two kinds,
according to the twofold aspect in which
man himself is to be regarded. Man may be
K
258
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
considered, first, as a creature possessing
certain powers, or means of action; or, se-
condly, as possessing a disposition to employ
those powers in certain methods, good or evil.
Now the fall may have affected man, either in
regard to his disposition, or in regard to his
powers.
The objection alleges that the injury has
fallen upon his powers: to which we demur,
for the following reasons.
(1.) The powers of man are not injured in
fact. Let it only be recollected what they are:
the power of perceiving, of feeling, of deter-
mining, of attending, of judging concerning
good and evil;-these are the powers of man,
as a moral agent, the powers which capacitate
him to do good or evil. Which of these has
he lost? Manifestly none of them. If any
reader doubts whether these are all the powers
necessary to moral action, we must rer him to
page 47, where this subject is fully treated.
We maintain them to be so; and, if they are,
the fall has neither destroyed nor impaired any
one of the powers of man.
We know very well that these powers do
not, since the fall, act as they did before; but
this proves no change in themselves. Their
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
259
action is altogether affected by the disposition
of their possessor; and to an evil disposition
their actual indolence or mis-employment is to
be referred. If it should be said that dispo-
sition must then be necessary to power, we
must again refer to first principles, page 63,
where it has been shown that disposition is not
necessary to power, but is totally and essen-
tially distinct.
(2.) If any of the powers of man had been in-
jured, it would have reduced him in the scale
of creatures, which is no where alleged to be
the case.
The different powers, or means of action,
possessed by various creatures, constitute the
precise circumstance by which one is distin-
guished from another, and by which the various
orders are formed. Creatures possessing means
of action in the smallest degree are the lowest
in the scale, and every one rises, in proportion
as they become more ample. It is the possession
of powers superior to any other creature on
earth, that places man, as a creature, at the
head of them all; and he, like the rest, must
rise or sink in the scale of creation, just as his
powers may be diminished or increased. To
say, therefore, that man has less power than he
260
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
1
once had, is to say that his rank as a creature
is lowered; that his place in creation is altered;
that he is somewhat nearer than he once was
to the brutes that perish. But do the scrip-
tures ever intimate this? Most certainly not.
They declare him to have fallen, not as a crea-
ture, but as a holy creature; not in nature,
but in character; not in power, but in dispo-
sition. The place which he has lost is not in
the scale of creation, but in that of righteous-
ness; his fall is not from human to brute, but
from divine to diabolical.
Grade
teddy
T
(3.) The effect of the fall upon man as a
moral agent is uniformly represented as sinful,
which a want of power is not.
All the epithets applied to man as fallen are
expressive of God's disapprobation. He is
said to be corrupt, abominable, &c.; so that,
whatever the effect of the fall may have been,
its sinfulness is unquestionable. The want of
power, however, cannot have the character of
sin. Power is the means of action; to possess
which is no virtue, to be destitute of which is
no crime. They may be attained in some cases
by methods which were virtuous, and in others
they may be lost by methods which were cri-
minal: but even in such cases the virtue or the
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED,
261
fault characterizes, not the state resulting, but
only the steps leading to it. I am right or
wrong only as I use the power I have. The
possession of less power than I had, or than
my parents had, may be a calamity to me, but
it cannot be a sin; but the effect of the fall, as*
now viewed, is sinful; it cannot consist, there-
fore, in the loss of power.
(4.) It may be added, that diversities of
power require a corresponding diversity of
treatment; while God treats man before the
fall and after it precisely on the same prin-
ciples.
That beings who possess different powers, or
means of action, ought not to be treated alike,
but with a corresponding difference, seems an
obvious dictate of reason and justice. The
methods by which you endeavour to induce
action should clearly be adapted to the powers
on which you work; and if there were any
difference in power between man before the fall,
and man after it, there should have been an
equal difference in the methods of the divine
conduct. But, is there any such difference?
Manifestly not. The circumstances are diffe-
rent, the motives presented are different; but
the principle of treatment is the same. Innocent
262
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
man was dealt with in a way of rational motive
and persuasion; and with fallen man it is the
same. To Adam God said, in substance, Obey
my will for certain reasons; and he says the
same to us. He left Adam to the result of his
consideration, and he leaves us to the result
of ours.
The duties enjoined upon us respec-
tively differ, and the reasons assigned for them,
but the method of treatment is perfectly iden-
tical. It is persuasion; it is the presentation
of motive; it is an appeal to the understanding
and the heart. Would there have been an iden-
tity of treatment, if there were a diversity of
power?
We need not be reminded that there is a
difference in his treatment of fallen man, in
relation to the promise and the actual in-
fluence of his Spirit.
We have already
shown our reasons for believing that the gift
of the Spirit is not universal, nor in any way
necessary to the just and full responsibility of
man. God holds those accountable for their
conduct to whom he does not give the Spirit;
with these, therefore, his method of treatment
is precisely the same as that which he adopted
with innocent man; and we draw the inference
that their power is the same.
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
263
(5.) We may observe, finally, that a loss or
diminution of power is no where in scripture
ascribed to the fall. Every expression seem-
ingly indicative of a want of power has, upon a
just interpretation, as we have elsewhere shown
at large, a different meaning.
We shall now perhaps be asked, What effect
did the fall produce? Our answer is, A change
in the disposition of man.
Before it he was a
friend to God, after it he was an enemy; be-
fore it, his disposition was holy and heavenly;
after it, it was earthly and corrupt.
That the fall did produce this effect both
scripture and observation yield abundant proof,
and it probably will not be disputed by our
brethren in this argument. The question
rather is, whether a due and sufficient effect is
thus assigned to it. We maintain the affirma-
tive, as follows:-
1st. By the agreement of the sentiment with
matter of fact: it being an obvious fact, that
the powers of man, as a rational and moral agent,
are not destroyed, while his disposition is become
desperately wicked.
2dly. By the impossibility, as already shown,
of referring the effect of the fall to the power
of man. And if it did not touch his power, it
264
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
could alight on nothing else but his disposition;
the only views in which man can be regarded
being these two,-either as a creature pos-
sessing power, or as a moral agent exercising
disposition.
3dly. By the adequacy of the sentiment to
account for all the circumstances of the case.
[1] Take the fact, for example, that men
are universally wicked, without an exception
in any age, or in any clime; a wicked disposi-
tion of great intensity is quite adequate to
explain it. Or take this, that, though often
and loudly called, no man repents, or of himself
ever will repent; and such an evil disposition
will account for it with equal ease. Nor is
there any case or aspect of human guilt which
may not be resolved on this supposition, quite
as satisfactorily as by imagining a want of
power. Different as power and disposition are
in themselves, they agree in this, that they are
alike necessary to action; and let which may
be wanting, the action is with equal certainty
prevented,
[2.] Look again at the fact, that God is angry
with man in the state into which he has fallen,
and calls it sin, which, upon the supposition of
its being a want of power, is quite unintelligible :
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
265
considering it as the indulgence of an evil dis-
position, the matter is perfectly plain. We
have shown that disposition is a voluntary
thing, and, in all cases, just matter of praise or
blame; if, therefore, a wrong state of feeling is
that which has resulted from the fall, the dis-
pleasure of God may be expressed against it
with the strictest justice.
[3.] Reflect on the very strong terms in which
the wickedness of human nature is described;
the utter extinction of good in the heart, and the
overwhelming force of evil: it needs only an
evil disposition of sufficient strength to realize
it all. There is no goodness in power; and
therefore loss of power cannot be necessary to
loss of goodness. Goodness lies wholly and
exclusively in disposition; so that if the dispo-
sition is become wholly evil, every spark of
goodness has fled.
[4.] Or consider, finally, the dispensation of
God towards man; how, though man has fallen,
he still reasons, and pleads, and endeavours to
persuade; all which, upon the supposition of
the want of power, cannot be deemed less than
absurd; but if an evil disposition be that which
distinguishes fallen from innocent man, every
thing is plain. While the rational powers of
N
266
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
man remain, persuasion is an appropriate and
sufficient means of dealing with him; whether
it be successful or not, it has in it no absurdity,
no unsuitableness. It is as fit for us as it was
for Adam, and lays a foundation of unques-
tionable justice for responsibility and punish-
ment, proportionate to the motives employed.
It appears to us, therefore, fully sufficient, to
maintain that the effect of the fall was to change
the disposition of man, and not to destroy his
power. The righteousness of his disposition
we hold to be totally destroyed; his power, as
a moral agent, to be altogether unimpaired.
4. It has sometimes been asked, How is the
assertion that man has power to do good recon-
cileable with the doctrine of his total depravity?
The doctrine of the total depravity of man
we do most unequivocally maintain; and in
order to see how it is reconcileable with his
ability to do well, it is only needful to observe
wherein the true nature of depravity consists.
We suppose we may take it for granted that
depravity is something evil, or blameworthy.
Now we have elsewhere stated (page 74) that
good and evil in man have their existence only
in the heart, or in the state of the feelings. If
a man's feelings be right, every thing will be
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
267
right, because the feelings regulate every thing;
and if any thing in his conduct be wrong, it
must, on the same principle, spring from some-
thing wrong in his feelings. There is neither
good nor evil in any part of man but his heart,
of the state of which all his actions are but the
expression; and if this be the case, depravity
is a word which can have reference to the state
of the heart alone, inasmuch as it refers to
something which is evil. It has no reference,
therefore, to the power of man, in any view
of it, but solely to his disposition; and what-
ever may be asserted respecting the depravity
of man, his power is left wholly out of the ques-
tion. He may be, and we maintain that he is,
totally depraved; and yet, as we also main-
tain, his power may be altogether perfect and
entire. What we mean by saying that a man
is totally depraved, is, that he has a thoroughly
wrong disposition; which, it is plain, may con-
sist with the most ample and excellent powers.
If depravity means more than this, the case of
course will be altered; but we believe we have
here used the word in its correct and scriptural
signification.
N 2
CHAP. XVI.
Objections answered.
5. It has been considered as a weighty objec-
tion to the sentiment of man's ability, that
nothing is gained by it. The result, it is said,
is the same. No more persons are saved; and
men, after all, will not repent.
We cannot sufficiently wonder at this objec-
tion. As though it were to be considered, in
the investigation of a sentiment, whether any
thing would be gained by it! We are to sup-
pose that an opinion which rests upon slight
evidence, or upon none at all, should be readily
received, if it seemed likely to yield some ad-
vantage; while another, though supported by
the strongest evidence, if it have not such a
recommendation, is to be rejected. We have
been used to think the great question to be,
What is truth? and that it is imperative, in
all cases, to do homage to the majesty of truth,
by submitting to her authority. Whether, in
the exhibition we may think proper to give of
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
269
↓
truth, we shall give to any topic a more or less
prominent place, may well depend upon our
view of its profitableness; but surely nothing
that is true can rightly be rejected, or denied.
To judge every thing untrue which is of no ap-
parent benefit, would be to supersede the use
of evidence entirely; and the extensive appli-
cation of such a rule would assign to the class
of falsehoods a large portion of hitherto ac-
knowledged truths. We deem it not too much,
therefore, to insist upon an examination of the
question according to its evidence, irrespective
of its issues. We ask, Is it true? and shall
justly consider every man, who passes from the
question by saying, What do you gain by it?
as unable or unwilling to meet the proof.
It can scarcely be less than presumptuous,
however, to assume that a sentiment possesses
no useful tendency, because it is not apparent
to us. We may be too blind, or too much pre-
judiced, to observe, or to appreciate it. It is
much more reasonable to conclude, that, if it
be true, it must be useful, on the general prin-
ciple that whatever is true is so, if it have any
influence at all; and this might be maintained
more especially in religion, and with respect to
the truth of God. If the sentiment in question
270
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
be true, it is a part of the truth of God; a truth
which he has revealed, and one which stands.
connected with his methods of administration,
and the eternal interests of mankind. Can any
such truth be unimportant, or otherwise than
of a beneficial tendency? And if we do not see
its advantage, should not this lead us rather
to suspect our own ignorance, than to impute
folly to our Maker?
In fact, the objection itself proceeds upon a
sations.
strangely contracted view of the divine dispen-
The result is the same,' says the
objector, upon your scheme, as on ours.'
Undoubtedly. Did any body ever think of
producing a change in results? Will not the
result be the same on every scheme of religious
opinion? Do the various and conflicting
thoughts of men affect the fulfilment of the
designs of God? If it were to make us indif-
ferent to any form of religious belief, that the
result would not be altered by it, this should
equally make us indifferent to all its forms ;
for by not one of them, false or true, will such
an effect be produced. Though truth were
banished from the world, God would work his
sovereign pleasure. He that sets light by one
opinion because no more souls will be saved by
1
C
C
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
271
it, may for the same reason set light by every
other; let him hold which he will, just the same
number of sinners will be saved.
The importance of religious opinions lies in
this, that they exhibit the character of God
and man; and the reason why it is important
that religious opinions should be correct, is,
that it is important for these topics to be
exhibited in their true light. The aspect in
which the character of God is exhibited is
important to his honour in the world, and
to the influence which it is adapted to pro-
duce upon
mankind; while an accurate
knowledge of our own character is obviously
essential to the very elements of real wisdom.
The test, therefore, to which the sentiment in
question is justly liable, is this: Does it repre-
sent the ways of God, and the character of man,
in a light justly influential? If it does, it has
all the beneficial tendency which any sentiment
can have.
Jan
That the assertion of man's ability for right
action does lead to representations of God
which are highly honourable to him, needs no
proof. It throws a flood of light on the justice.
of his commands, and the reasonableness of his
expectations. It establishes beyond controversy
272
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
the criminality and desperate wickedness of
man, and sheds a glorious lustre on the good-
ness, forbearance, and redeeming love of the
Almighty. It shows that all his ways are both
equitable and kind, and that the whole blame
of sin and ruin lies with the transgressor him-
self. Are these matters' of no importance?
Can they be deemed so by any friend of God?
What friend of God is he, who is not delighted
by every augmentation of light which can be
thrown upon his ways? Or are they unimpor-
tant in relation to man? Is it nothing to gain
an answer to some of the many cavils by which
sinners repel or evade the call to repentance?
Is it nothing to fix upon their consciences a
conviction of guilt, and to leave them con-
sciously without excuse?
But, after all, if you do this, says the
objector, none of them will any more repent,
till the Spirit change their hearts. True, un-
doubtedly but, if you are silent on this ground,
let every other topic of address be abandoned
also. Why do you preach at all? Not one
will be converted by that, unless grace change
the heart. But, if we address sinners at all in
a way adapted to affect them, in expectation of
God's blessing, every topic adapted to such an
da
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
273
end should be adduced, and the greatest value
attached to those modes of address which are
best adapted to the design. On these the
greater blessing may be expected.
It seems to have been thought by some per-
sons, that the adaptation of the gospel to the
conversion of sinners is arbitrary, a mere mat-
ter of divine appointment; that there is no
fitness in the gospel itself to accomplish the
end, but that it does so only because God has
been pleased to determine that it should; and
that, if he had pleased, he might as well have
ordained that conversion should have resulted
from the teaching of geography, or the lowing
of oxen. Such an idea is fully implied in the
manner in which they justify the preaching of
the gospel to those who have no power to re-
pent; and, on the same ground, they feel little
inducement to adopt a mode of address because
of its adaptation to convince or impress the
mind. Nothing can be more derogatory to
divine wisdom, or inconsistent with obvious
fact. When the means which God has ap-
pointed for conversion are examined, they appear
directly and admirably fitted to the design.
Intended to operate upon an intelligent and
rational creature, whose feelings are to be
N 3
274
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
reached through his understanding, every word
of scripture appeals to the understanding, and
the whole exhibits a collection of motives,
adapted to the nature of man with infinite
skill, and possessing an unmeasurable and
almost overwhelming power. Is it imaginable
that an apparatus like this would have been
employed by accident? Besides, the pursuit
of an end by suitable means, is one of the first
dictates even of ordinary wisdom. It is that
which God has made every creature to do;
and creatures, in their excellencies, are the
images of himself. He has so constituted us
as to deride even the attempt to accomplish an
object by means known to be unsuitable. And
is it conceivable, that, after putting this im-
press on the whole creation, and with a boundless
store of means at his command, he should, in
the most glorious of all his works, and one
which he summons all intelligent beings to be-
hold, violate his own law, and exhibit himself
in a light which it would be impossible to ad-
mire, and almost impossible not to deride?
J
Pa
The manner in which the influences of the
blessed Spirit are imparted, fully accords with
the view we are taking. Much of sovereignty,
doubtless, may be observed in it; but, at the
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
275
same time, much of wisdom. The kind of
preaching which has been made most useful,
has been that which was adapted to be most
useful; that, namely, which has been most
scriptural in sentiment, most solemn in manner,
most earnest and affectionate in spirit. We
may hence conclude that God chooses to work
by adapted means; and that, where the means
are best adapted, he will give the largest 'suc-
f:
cess.
And if this be the case, we gain much by
every approach to accuracy of sentiment. It
is not only that our representations are more
fitted to be useful, they are also more secure
of a blessing. We are honouring God, by
speaking what he has bidden us; and we may
hope to be honoured by him, in the reception
of our message. In this respect there is a high
bounty attached to the rectification of our mis-
takes, since every improvement in handling the
word of truth renders it more probable that
God may employ us for good.
6. The principle we have maintained has
been conceived to throw perplexity on the im-
portant doctrine of regeneration. Regenera-
tion, it is said, is the commencement of spiritual
life; and, as the existence of spiritual life must
276
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
precede the performance of spiritual actions,
an unregenerate person cannot have power to
perform them.
Sad
This is a very instructive instance of the
facility with which mistakes may be committed,
in the use of the metaphorical language with
which the scriptures abound. It will scarcely
be doubted, we suppose, that the term regene-
ration, as applied to the operation of the Spirit
of God upon the soul of man, is a metaphor.
By all means let us have its true and full im-
port, but no more. In order to ascertain this,
regard should be had to the series of metaphori-
cal representations of which it forms a part.
By nature sinners are said to be dead; under
the influence of the Spirit of God, they are said
to be alive; and that exercise of his power,
by which this change from metaphorical death
to metaphorical life is produced, is appropriately
called regeneration. But, dropping the meta-
phors, what is the actual matter which they are
employed to illustrate? It is neither more nor
less than the state of a sinner's mind; but it is
the state of his mind in a particular respect.
The whole series of expressions just quoted
refer not to its active, but to its quiescent state;
that is to say, they do not denote what it is in
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
277
action, but what it is at rest. They show what
it is before it acts, and as it is prepared, or pre-
disposed to act. This distinction is clearly
founded in fact. It is manifest that there must
be a period, when, in reference to any given
subject, no actual feeling exists, as in infancy,
or in cases of previous ignorance; yet, while
no feeling actually exists, there may also be a
predisposition to some specific state of feeling
on this very subject, in accordance with which
the feelings, when awakened, will naturally be.
So, for example, if I have unconsciously in-
flicted an injury, while I am ignorant of it, I
have no feeling concerning it; when I come to
the knowledge of it, I may feel more or less
sorry, or perhaps not sorry at all; but what
determines the nature and degree of these feel-
ings? Obviously, in the first instance, the state
of mind previously existing; as the enmity or
love I might bear towards the particular per-
son injured, or the tenderness or unconcern I
might cherish respecting the welfare of others
in general. This quiescent state of the heart
is of great importance, as powerfully predis-
posing to specific courses of feeling and action.
It may tend to good or evil; but when involun-
tary, it attaches neither praise nor blame, as is
278
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
pre-eminently the case with infants, in whom a
cause predisposing to sinful action must be
held to exist, since those who live invariably
do evil, but to whom, while yet incapable of any
moral action, it seems impossible to ascribe sin.
This quiescent state of the heart differs both
from disposition and inclination, which are
states of active feeling (page 62); and no better
word for it occurs to us than the bias of the
heart. Man, in innocence, had a bias towards
holiness; since the fall he has a bias towards
sin, and this bias tends to produce sinful action,
which, nevertheless, the conscience is adapted
and able to prevent, though it does not.
Now it is this quiescent state, or bias of the
heart, to which we conceive the terms death,
life, and regeneration to refer. Death and life
do not denote action of any kind, but states,
out of which peculiar and appropriate actions
arise; and regeneration is the act by which the
former state is destroyed and the latter induced.
The bias of a man's heart towards sin is called
death; a bias towards holiness is called life;
the destruction of the bias towards sin, and
the production of a bias towards holiness, is
the precise act of the Spirit, which is called
regeneration, or giving life to the dead. Its
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
279
connexion with conversion is easily illustrated.
While unconverted, this bias towards sin in-
duces a man to disregard every thing which
tends to make him uneasy in a sinful life, and
hence his fearful and criminal perseverance in
it; but, when this bias is removed, and a bias
towards holiness imparted, then he begins to
attend to the truths hitherto neglected, and in
proportion as he attends to them, they also
work upon him, and produce all the varied
phenomena and results of actual conversion to
God. We may take this opportunity of ex-
pressing our opinion, in opposition to a recent
respectable writer,* that the operation of the
Holy Spirit in regeneration is direct, and not
by means of the truth; and that it is not designed
to accomplish something for which the word was
never fitted, but, on the contrary, that it is in-
tended to produce the very result which, if due
consideration were given, the word would pro-
duce without it. May we be allowed to add
our conviction, that an observation of the dis-
tinction upon which we have here dwelt would
facilitate, if it would not even close, the long-
perplexed inquiry respecting the identity and
priority of regeneration and conversion?
JA
P
* Mr. Orme: Five Discourses, pp. 76-80, and Note T.
280
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
Whether this idea of regeneration may satisfy
our companions in this argument, we know not,
nor can we here enter into a discussion of it;
it is, we hope, intelligible to our readers, and
it is in our own view scriptural and satisfactory.
It entirely removes the imaginary difficulty be-
fore us. For if regeneration have respect
exclusively to the state of mind in man, it can
have no respect whatever to his power, which,
as we have seen, is altogether distinct from his
state of mind, and unaffected by it; so that,
whether regenerate or unregenerate, he is the
same in power, though he differs widely in
moral bias. It is quite true that regeneration
must, in all cases, precede holy action, because
the state of the sinner's mind, which is so des-
perately wicked as otherwise to prevent it,
must be changed; but this proves only that an
unregenerate man has no disposition to perform
holy actions, and leaves him in full possession
of the power.
Before dismissing this objection, we may ob-
serve that it rests upon the extreme ground of
denying the obligation of unregenerate men
altogether. If carried out, it leads to an aban-
donment of all the commands and exhortations
which God has addressed to men as such, that
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
281
is, to men unregenerate. This alone might
induce any reasonable man to suspect it, and
will instantly satisfy many of our readers of its
fallacy.
7. It has been said that ungodly men in gene-
ral entertain the opinion of their ability to do
their duty, and that the fondness with which
they cling to this notion demonstrates its
fallacy.
This is a strange argument in its principle.
Every idea which wicked men universally en-
tertain, it appears, must for that reason be
false. Yet a sense of obligation and duty, of
right and wrong, and other dictates of con-
science, are found more or less distinctly in
wicked men, at least as generally as the notion
of their ability, and by this process all these
would be demonstrated to be false. The scrip-
tures, on the contrary, clearly intimate that
the consciences of fallen men retain some
remnants of truth, which constitute the law
written in their hearts, and make them "a law
unto themselves," Rom. ii. 14, 15; and the
conviction of their ability for duty may, for
aught that yet appears to the contrary, be one
of these lingering principles of rectitude.
The argument is equally delusive in its
282
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED,
kandang
details. If ungodly men at large do think that
they have ability to do well, it is by no means
an opinion to which they cling with any fond-
ness. On the contrary, they are for the most.
part extremely glad to rid themselves of it,
and they eagerly avail themselves of every ex-
pedient by which its force may be diminished.
Hence the prevalence of the doctrine of
fatalism among the heathen nations, and the
philosophical, or more thinking portion, of en-
lightened countries; hence
hence the perpetual
tendency, even in the commonest minds, to
make endless excuses for misconduct, directed
to the point that they could not help it; and
hence the readiness with which the same senti-
ment has been imbibed from the preachers of
the divine word, until, though still contended
with by an honest conscience, it has spread
over the whole surface of a professedly chris-
tian land. We have little doubt, that, in
defiance of inward remonstrances, multitudes
do believe that they can do nothing, that they
are very glad to believe it, that many more
would believe it if they could, and that even
those who do not believe it think there must be
some truth in it, since it is so often and so pro-
minently made part of pulpit instruction; but
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
283
it is far worse than all this, that the expression
of such a sentiment by the ministers of the
gospel should fall in with the depraved wishes
of their hearers, and either, on one hand, tend
to silence their inward monitor, and release
them from the last restraint placed on their
vicious courses by their Creator, or, on the
other, violate the dictates of conscience, shock
the common sense of mankind, and give occa-
sion to those whom our ministry should convince
and persuade, to turn the whole into ridicule
and contempt. This we know to be the effect
of such preaching upon ungodly men; and we
have felt a more pungent affliction than we
have power to express, that the wiles of Satan
should thus have converted men, by whose in-
strumentality his kingdom should have been
shaken to its foundations, into agents for pro-
pagating and perpetuating the delusions in
which its main stability consists.
To us it is a convincing proof that the sen-
timent which affirms man's inability is false,
that, after all which has been said in favour of
it, it cannot be fixed on the conscience of man-
kind. On account of this absurdity, some men
discard religion altogether, while others, though
glad enough to avail themselves of it as a
284
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
cloak for sin, and as a means of parrying every
appeal to their consciences which may be made
by the ministers of the gospel, do not believe it
in their hearts. Why will any persons continue
to labour in so hopeless a cause, and, above all,
to identify religion with a contradiction of the
indestructible common sense of mankind?
The mischievous idea which ungodly men do
entertain of themselves, and of which it is so
hard to divest them, is, not that they are able
to do well, but that they are disposed to do
well. They maintain that they have good
hearts, that they wish to be good people, that
they do the best they can, and would do better
if they could. They are willing enough to con-
fess weakness, but not wickedness. This is
their ruinous self-flattery, exalting themselves
in their own eyes, contradicting the testimony
of God, leading to a rejection of the gospel,
and inducing fatal slumbers. It is the con-
trary of this which they find so hard to learn,
and which, indeed, none ever do learn but as
taught of God. Will any reader, who knows
any thing of experimental piety, decide this
question by an appeal to his own conscious-
ness? What was the discovery which divine
instruction led you to make? Was it not that
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
285
your heart was determined against God and
holiness, and so desperately determined as to
yield to none but an Almighty power? You
had imagined yourself disposed to good, you
found that you loved evil; and the discovery
was associated with a sense of vileness, and
emotions of self loathing, which no perception
of mere weakness, or want of power, could ever
have produced.
8. It has been said that, in maintaining the
ability of man, we maintain also free-will.
Of all the imputations brought against us,
this is perhaps the strangest, since it shows,
not only an entire ignorance of the bearings of
the controversy, but an almost incredible in-
attention to the language employed in it. We
maintain that man is free; but we deny the
will to be either free or bound, since, from its
nature, it is not capable of being so. By free-
will, however, we suppose our brethren to
mean a disposition to goodness; an actual
choice of holiness, or a willingness to choose
it; and this our whole treatise goes, in the
strongest possible manner, to deny to man.
While we affirm that he can turn to God, we
are continually also affirming that he will not:
what other reason, indeed, can we assign why
286
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
he does not? Those who assert that they have
not power, are the parties who have the oppor-
tunity, if they please, of cherishing the fancy
of a good disposition in sinners, inasmuch as,
if they had one, according to them, it could be
of no avail to their conversion. Upon our
principles, the whole stress of men's impeni-
tence is laid upon their determination not to
repent, which is exhibited in a much stronger
light by us than by our brethren, and yet they
are amusing themselves, and deluding their
followers, by hurling at us the charge of main-
taining free-will!
9. The novelty of the ground now taken, in
asserting that man is ABLE To do his duty,
has been alleged as another ground of objec-
tion. Even Mr. Fuller, it is said, and all
divines of that class, have hitherto admitted a
moral inability. Why need you go further?
There is one sense in which the writer is far
from pleading guilty to the charge adduced.
He can revere no doctrine which is not as
old as the bible; and when it is shown that
any he holds are less ancient than this, he
will immediately relinquish them. He consi-
ders the tenets he opposes as the novelties.
An antiquity of a few hundred years is
ma
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
287
totally insufficient to exempt them from this
character.*
In reference to the controversy, however,
which has been carried on in England within
the last hundred years, in which the late Rev.
Andrew Fuller bore a conspicuous part, and
the ground which he has taken in it, the author
must, perhaps, to some extent, though not to a
very considerable one, admit the allegation of
novelty.
Mr. Fuller maintained, that the only obstruc-
tion to a sinner's repentance was the aversion of
his heart to God, that is to say, an evil disposi-
tion; in this grand point entirely concurring
with the present writer. This he still called
inability; but, to separate from the term the
inapplicable and mischievous ideas involved in
its ordinary use, he adopted the method pre-
viously used by some American and other divines,
of calling this supposed inability of sinners to
repent a moral inability. By this phrase he
explains himself to mean such an inability as
consists in a want of disposition; thus dis-
tinguishing it from a natural inability, the
existence of which he denied. This
This very
*See Ryland's Memoirs of Fuller, chap. i. first Edit,
† Ibid. chap. viii. p. 353. first Edit.
288
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
statement leads directly to the conclusion to
which we have come; for if moral inability be
such as consists in a want of disposition, natural
inability must be such as consists in a want of
means, there being no other ideas to which
ability has ever been referred but these two,
means and disposition. Mr. Fuller, therefore,
really held what we have maintained, namely,
that man possesses full power to repent, in-as-far
as the possession of means without disposition
constitutes power. Whether the possession of
means without disposition does constitute power,
in the full and proper sense of that term, we
have considered at large, page 63; and we en-
tertain no doubt but Mr. Fuller would have
heartily agreed in our conclusion.
The appropriateness and expediency of using
the term moral inability to denote a wrong
disposition is highly questionable. It satis-
fied the disputants of past days; but, at the
time, it rather concealed than exhibited the
truth contended for, and ever since, it has
rather occasioned perplexity than facilitated
inquiry. The existence of inability on the part
of sinners was the main position which the op-
posing divines had maintained; and the adoption
of the phrase in question permitted them to
L
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
289
continue to maintain it. Its being qualified
by the term moral was of little consequence;
still, they said, you allow inability to exist,
and whether natural or moral makes no differ-
ence, IT IS INABILITY. Hence, though the
argument of Mr. Fuller was triumphant, much
less was gained by it than it contemplated and
deserved; and to this day both clergy and
laity are suffering, to a great extent, the very
same mischiefs from the notion of moral in-`
ability, which that of natural inability had
previously inflicted. The question really at
issue has been kept at bay by that inappro-
priate and ill chosen term; and the battle re-
mains yet to be fought on the clear and open
ground, Is there, or is there not, on the part
of a sinner, any inability at all?
It may be observed, also, that, although
the idea which Mr. Fuller attached to the
phrase moral inability was clear and definite
enough, yet it is liable to receive, and has
often received, a very different interpretation.
'Moral inability!' says a reader of this lan-
guage; and what is moral ability or inability?
Moral ability surely must be such an ability as
is required to the performance of moral actions,
or at least to the performance of actions morally
O
290
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
good; and if I have not such ability, no ac-
tions morally good, can be required of me.'
This is not at all an unnatural or unreasonable
interpretation of the terms, but the idea itself
is altogether erroneous; moral ability in this
sense, or ability to perform actions morally
good, consisting merely in the possession of
intelligent faculties and the power of moral
judgments, which are possessed by every man
of a sane mind.
We are very willing to admit that the term
inability may be applied to the want of dis-
position in an analogical sense, as cannot,
impossible, and others frequently are; but we
must maintain that it is only in an analogical
sense it can be so applied. This is the pivot
of the whole dispute. If it be as we affirm,
then the combination of terms in question
is inappropriate; it is not literally and
strictly true, that is, it is not true in its ordi-
nary and apparent sense. We do not deny
that words may be, and often are, used out
of their strict and literal meaning; but words
should not be so used in argument, and most
especially not the words which express the
very ground of debate, and the precise point of
contention. Metaphors and analogies are excel-
wedd
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
291
lent for illustration of an admitted sentiment,
but wretchedly confounding in the examina-
tion of a contested one. If we wish any clear-
ness or conclusiveness of argument, nothing is
more important than to reduce every principal
word we employ to its strict and literal mean-
ing, and never to use it in any other; but
above all things is this desirable, we may say
it is indispensable, with the primary terms.
On this ground we conceive the phrase moral
inability should be altogether dropped, inas-
much as it proceeds upon an analogy which is
extremely likely to mislead; let us rather
know in plain terms what is meant by it, and
make that the subject of our discussions.
There is no difficulty in this. The terms moral
inability mean a want of disposition, a phrase
which ought in all cases to become its substi-
tute. What must we think, if the clearness
and simplicity which it throws into the argu-
ment should be felt as an objection to this
proposal? If the terms moral inability are to
be retained on any reasonable ground, it must
be because they are strictly and properly ap-
plicable to a want of disposition; an opinion
which we shall be extremely happy to see any
one attempt to establish.
02
292
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
If the term inability be in strictness inap-
propriate to the subject, there is the more
reason it should be abandoned, because there
is a perpetual and irresistible tendency in all
upon whom the argument bears to understand it
literally. Thus when we urge a sinner to re-
pent, he replies, But you tell me I am unable ;
in this case plainly taking the word unable in
its strict and not in its analogical sense. If
we have used it in that sense, he fairly repels
our exhortation, and may defy us to meet his
argument if we have not used it in this sense,
it behoves us then to tell him so, and say, I
do not mean that you are really unable; you
are strictly and truly able to repent. And if
this is the point to which a single observation
of an ungodly man may drive us, why should
we set out with the tenacious and prominent
use of a phrase which we must so soon aban-
don, and even apparently contradict?
The names of those who originated and con-
ducted the great and important discussion
respecting the duty of man, called the modern
question, deserve to be had in everlasting
remembrance, nor can the author ever forget,
or fail most gratefully to acknowledge, his deep
obligations to them. But he feels no apology
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
293
due for differing from them. One thing they
taught him was to think for himself; and he is
sure they would be happy, in having led others
to a view somewhat clearer and more accurate
than their own. He has no name to add
weight to his opinions; but he claims not to
be judged at a human bar. Why would his
readers inquire whether he agrees with Mr.
Fuller? Let them ask only whether he is
consistent with the oracles of God.
If it were of any importance, however, (and
to the writer it is certainly matter of gratifica-
tion,) it might be stated, that in this senti-
ment he is far from being alone. He has
reason to believe, that not a few of the most
able and most useful ministers of the gospel
in various denominations mainly, if not entirely,
agree with him; and that the same sentiments
are entertained by many judicious christians
in private life, who are longing to see their
teachers escape from the loosening bonds. He
has a cheering confidence that the bonds are
loosening, and is sorry that any worthy men
should identify themselves with a falling
system.
CHAP. XVII.
Considerations for those who may not be
convinced.
HOWEVER willing we may be to hope that
the preceding pages may have carried convic-
tion to some of our readers, it were too much
to suppose this to have been the case with them
all. We shall probably part with some of them
without having produced this result. Con-
cerning them we have no wish, but that they
would give repeated and serious examination
to whatever may seem to them adapted to the
attainment of truth. If, after all, they retain
the opinion which we have combated, we leave
two points for their consideration.
1. Those who find it hard to admit that a
sinner can turn to God, should consider whether
it is not quite as hard to maintain firmly that
he cannot. The position we have taken is this ;
that a sinner can come to Christ, whether he
will or not; that is, suppose either case, that
he will, or that he will not, still he can come.
My
CONSIDERATIONS, &c.
295
muda
The opposite sentiment, fully and fairly ex-
pressed, is, that, whether he will or not, a sinner
cannot come. If our brethren in the argument
do not mean this, it is quite time they should
be explicit with themselves, and penetrate the
fallacy which must be lurking somewhere
amidst the terms they employ. If they do
fairly mean this, really it is rather a hard case.
In one alternative indeed, on the supposition
that the sinner will not come, the alleged cannot
might be of little consequence, though still it
would be calling things by wrong names, and
withholding from God the glory which is his due.
But let us take the other alternative, and say,
If a sinner will come to Christ, he cannot:—
what are we to think of this? It will doubt-
less be met by an immediate cry, that a sinner
will not come, that such a supposition never
will be realized, and that therefore it is unfair.
We know that such a supposition never will be
realized; but we cannot allow it on that account
to be unfair. The proper way to try a senti-
ment or an argument, is to make various suppo-
sitions, as many indeed as it will possibly admit
of, and see how it appears in those varied lights;
for every portion of truth is like a fragment of
complex mechanism, it will fit no where but in
296
CONSIDERATIONS FOR
its place, and it will fit exactly there. We are
willing that our position should be tried on
either supposition, either that a sinner will
come, or that he will not; and if our brethren are
not willing that theirs should be put to a similar
test, it must be either because they have, or
ought to have, some want of confidence in their
argument. If the argument itself will not
bear this examination, it is undoubtedly falla-
cious; and every man who has any regard to
truth or honesty should immediately renounce
it. Let us proceed to the trial.
One of the supposable cases involved in the
statement that, whether he will or not, a sinner
cannot come to Christ, is, that a sinner may be
willing to come to Christ, and yet not able; a
case indeed apparently contemplated by some,
who, to be more explicit than their neighbours,
take pains to reiterate that men have neither
will nor power to return to God. Let us then
imagine such a person before us. By the sup-
position, he is willing to come to Christ; his
resistance is subdued, the enmity of his heart.
has given way, he has renounced sin and the
world, he is in a state of right feeling towards
God, and quite ready to return and submit
himself to the appointed Saviour; but he
THE UNCONVINCED.
297
cannot! What is the meaning of this? He
cannot? What is to prevent him? Let it be
explicitly stated what cause can interpose its
baneful influence to obstruct this blessed return.
We have heard of many things which make a
sinner unwilling, and so prevent his conversion;
but here is a case supposed in which all these
hindrances are removed, and yet there is the
strange mystery of some other hindrance, to
prevent a willing sinner from bowing to the
Saviour! In the name of all that is reasonable
and honest, we demand that this hidden, mys-
terious, and as yet nameless power, should be
dragged forth to light, that we may have an
opportunity of ascertaining its nature, and
counteracting its influence.
Nor is this all. In what a pitiable condition
is the sinner thus placed! He has been told
to come to Christ, under assurances of mercy ;
and he is willing to come, but he cannot. The
state of his mind is altered, as prescribed, but
not his condition of wrath. Not having come
to Christ, he is still under condemnation,
though he is no longer in love with sin, nor at
enmity with his Maker. He is bound down for
destruction, therefore, by something else than
his sins; he would escape, but he cannot.
0 3
298
CONSIDERATIONS FOR
ง
There is something in this representation truly
horrible, and adapted to dissociate from the
perishing sinner every feeling of blame, and to
render him an object of unmixed and tender
compassion. Hitherto we have been accus-
tomed to regard him as liable to perish, only
because he was wedded to his sins, and as
rushing on destruction in a way of wilfulness
and criminality, which rendered his punish-
ment as just as it is awful. But every thing
must now be viewed in a different light. Un-
fortunate wretch! If he could, he would
escape. He has no love of sin, no enmity to
his Maker, no rejection of the Saviour; but
some dreadful power will not suffer him to
accomplish his wishes, and binds him over to
perdition. Perish, then, miserable victim!
The whole creation will sympathize with thee
in thy fall.
Ja
Once more.
What must we think of the
author of such a state of things as this? Is
there in such a condition any thing merciful,
any thing equitable? Is it not one from which
all our feelings revolt with horror? And yet,
if the sentiment under consideration be true,
the possible existence of such a condition must
be ascribed to the most glorious and blessed
THE UNCONVINCED.
299
Being in the universe; for he has determined
the details of our natural and moral situa-
tion. How can it for a moment be supposed,
that a being infinitely just and merciful should
have adopted a constitution capable, under any
circumstances, of producing such an alternative
as this, and requiring only a due consideration
of what he himself has most earnestly pressed
upon their attention, in order actually to pro-
duce it; while at the same time he professes to
have made a most gracious provision for the
salvation of the guilty upon their return to
him, and calls and invites sinners, who, when
they hear and would accept the call, find, unex-
pectedly that they cannot do so, and sink help-
lessly into hell, with all the apparatus of mercy
turned into a bitter mockery of their ruin?
Every one must be deeply convinced that the
ever blessed and glorious God is infinitely re-
mote from the possibility of such an imputation.
Nor do we wish to insinuate, for a moment,
that those who are opposed to us on the ques-
tion at issue make any approach towards such
an imputation; they probably regard it with
as deep horror as ourselves; but it is not the
less true, that the consequences we have exhi-
bited are involved in the sentiment they
300
CONSIDERATIONS FOR
maintain; and if they are to be avoided, it can
only be by abandoning their ground. Let them
recollect their assertion-that, whether he will
or not, a sinner cannot come to Christ; and
then let them trace our deduction from it most
rigidly, determined to detect its fallacy, if it be
fallacious, but equally determined to relinquish
their tenet, if it be correct.
The reader can scarcely have failed to per-
ceive, in some points of the argument, an
appearance of contradiction and perplexity.
We have spoken, for example, of a sinner's
being no longer an enemy to God, and yet not
being reconciled to him; when, in fact, not to
be an enemy is the same thing as being recon-
ciled. We have been compelled to speak in
this way, because the statement against which
we argue overlooks the fact, that the terms
coming to Christ, being reconciled to God, &c.
are simply expressive of a state of mind; a
state of mind being that, also, with which sal-
vation is connected. To say, therefore, that a
man cannot be reconciled to God, even if he
ceases to be an enemy to him, is to say that he
cannot be in a certain state of mind, even if he
is in that very state of mind; a direct and
obvious contradiction, when drawn out from
THE UNCONVINCED.
301
the familiar, yet ill-understood phraseology,
under which the unobservant suffer it to be
disguised and concealed.
2. The asserters of the inability of man
should inform us what man can do. They have
been candid enough, on certain occasions, to
allow that he can do something, though his
ability does not, in their view, correspond with
his duty; but it is important that they should
describe particularly what man can, and what
he cannot do, and draw an intelligible line of
demarcation between these two great provinces.
of action and duty. The distinction is unques-
tionably of considerable moment, and less
attention has been bestowed upon it by our
brethren than it deserves. So far as their ideas
upon it can be collected, they appear to hold,
that, though man can neither be nor do any thing
spiritually good, (that is, good in disposition),
yet he can use the means for this end; and one
writer, who has been unusually explicit upon
this subject, has given us the following state-
ment.
"Man is able, and ought to examine the
evidences of christianity, and the contents of
the inspired volume. He is able, and ought
to attend on the ordinances of religion, to retire
302
CONSIDERATIONS FOR
for serious reflection on what announcements
have been made by the preacher; and to exa-
mine his own heart and life, by the infallible
test of scripture. He is able, and ought to go
upon his knees before God, for confession of
sin, and supplication for mercy and power.
He is able, and ought to avoid the company
of the ungodly, and to seek intercourse with
those who fear God. He is able, and ought to
observe the dealings of God with him in provi-
dence, and inquire what influence they have
upon him. He is able, and ought to consider
the solemnities of death, judgment, and the
eternal state, and the descriptions given of
those who are prepared. Will any one deny
these things to be within the compass of his
own ability, or affirm them to be excluded
from the most obvious duties? In this course
every one may cherish hope." Douglas's
Letter to the Author, p. 15.
It is obvious, upon the very face of this state-
ment, that these defenders of man's inability
allow and maintain his ability also, in the same
sense, and to the same extent as ourselves.
We have asserted nothing more than that man
can use the means of being and doing all that
he ought to be, of which every reader may
THE UNCONVINCED.
303
satisfy himself by referring to our definition of
power, page 63; and this, it seems, part of our
brethren in this controversy freely allow. There
is, therefore, no real difference between us;
and the discussion reduces itself to these two
points: 1, Whether the means we possess of
being what we ought to be are sufficient; and,
2, whether the possession of such means is
properly called power. Both these points have
already engaged our attention, see pp. 40, 63:
we shall here only make two remarks. The first
is, that, if we suppose God to have required
certain effects to be produced by means which
are not sufficient, we attach to him the impu-
tation of "gathering where he has not strawed,"
which he repels with so much indignation when
insinuated by the "wicked and slothful servant,"
Matt. xxv. 24, 26. The second is, that, in all
ordinary cases, the possession of sufficient means
is considered as the possession of power. He
that has sufficient means of doing any thing,
can do it. If this be an error, let it be cor-
rected in common life; if it be a truth, why
should it be rejected in religion?
If we accurately interpret the views of our
brethren upon this point, it is clear, that, with
all their array of hostility against us, they
304
CONSIDERATIONS, &c.
譬
​really hold the very sentiment for which they
make us fight, and for defending which they
visit us sometimes with such severe animad-
versions, rather an unkind return, by the bye,
for our trouble in vindicating their sentiments.
Whatever injurious consequences may result
from the sentiment itself, the mischief lies as
much at their door as at ours; nor can it be
much to their advantage, that what they affirm
in one form of words they strenuously deny in
another. If, on the contrary, we do not under-
stand them correctly,-if they do not mean that
man can use the means of being what he ought
to be, it will materially aid the discussion if
they will have the kindness to explain them-
selves more fully, and specify distinctly what
man can do; a thing which is manifestly im-
portant, and ought not to be difficult.
Ka
CHAP. XVIII.
Of the necessity of the Holy Spirit as implying
contrariety of disposition.
WE have already seen that the necessity of
the Spirit's influence to the conversion of a
sinner implies something respecting the condi-
tion of a sinner himself; namely, that, without
such aid, he would never turn to God. It
might be supposed, by many it has been sup-
posed, to imply, that he is destitute of power
to do so; a sentiment which we have been
examining, and endeavouring to disprove.
What then does it imply? To this we have
already answered in substance, that it implies
contrariety of disposition; a statement which
we now proceed more fully to develope and
establish.
It is the more needful to do this, because, as
there is a strong tendency, on the one hand, to
maintain that man has not power to do well, so
is there a tendency, on the other, to imagine
that he has a disposition to do so.
Men will
306
CONTRARIETY OF
much rather confess weakness than wickedness,
and cling fondly to the delusive imagination
that they would be right if they could: we
sorrowfully believe, on the contrary, that the
disposition of man is directly, powerfully, and,
to use a scriptural expression, "desperately
wicked." It is not our business here to enter
into the proofs of this at large; but to show
merely how it arises out of the doctrine we
have already established, namely, that of the
absolute necessity of the Spirit's influence in
order to conversion.
If this doctrine be true, it is but the same
thing, in other words, to say that, without the
Spirit, repentance will never take place. Now,
though there may be an endless diversity of
circumstances, there can be only two causes
operating to prevent any action: either we
have not power, or we have not disposition to
perform it. All hindrances may be reduced
to these, nor can any other be imagined. If
the Holy Spirit, therefore, be necessary to
repentance, it must be either because we have
not power, or because we have not disposition
to repent without him; but we have shown
that we have power,-wherefore it must be
because we have not disposition.
DISPOSITION.
307
We now take it as proved that we have
power to repent; if, in addition to this, we
have also a disposition to repent, it is manifest.
that we shall do so of our own accord, every
action being certainly performed when we have
both the power and the disposition to perform
it. In such a case the Holy Spirit would not
be necessary, seeing that we should repent in-
dependently of him; but we have seen that
his blessed influence is necessary; whence it
follows, that, however we may flatter ourselves,
we have not a disposition to repent. To con-
ceive that we are of ourselves disposed to
repent, and do every thing right if we could,
or as far as we can, is directly to deny the need
of the Spirit's energy.
No doubt there are often arising in the
minds of men certain thoughts, or perhaps
feelings, on the subject of religion, which may
be mistaken for a disposition to repent. These
are nothing more than admonitions of con-
science, or slight emotions of fear or desire.
At their greatest amount they have no prevail-
ing influence, they lead to no determination,
to no action. In this way, and to this extent,
the heart may be affected by many things at
the same time, and inclinations excited towards
308
CONTRARIETY OF
different, and even opposite objects. It is
manifest that such inclinations are of no prac-
tical value, and that they indicate nothing
respecting a man's character, or what may be
expected from it. He may have some incli-
nation to religion, but more to worldliness;
and so may be always worldly, in defiance of
his inclinations to religion. That which deter-
mines character is the prevailing inclination,
or what we have strictly defined to be dispo-
sition, as distinct from inclination; and it is
this we mean, when we say, man has no dispo-
sition to repent. He may, and often does feel
convicted, alarmed, desirous, but his prevailing
feelings are always, nevertheless, earthly and
unholy; and what we conclude from the neces-
sity of the Holy Spirit, is, that they always
will be so. If such feelings should ever arise
to a prevailing degree, in that case, repent-
ance would take place without the Spirit,
which, as we have seen, will never be the
case.
The necessity of the Spirit's influence, there-
fore, establishes the unwelcome and melancholy
fact, that our natural disposition is opposed to
God, to our duty, and to our welfare. We
love sin, we hate our Maker. This is afflictive;
DISPOSITION.
309
but what follows is far more so. Our disposi-
tion, it appears, is thus hostile to God and to
our duty, in the midst of circumstances most
powerfully adapted to render it otherwise.
God has exhibited himself to us in colours of
the brightest glory, and of the most heart-
touching mercy. Every thing just and weighty
in obligation; every thing solemn and impres-
sive in prospect; every thing winning and
constraining in kindness; every thing powerful
and generous in motive; every thing by which
every chord in the heart might be touched, has
been set before us; and yet our disposition is
hostile to God, and reckless of our own ruin.
Nor is this all. It is desperately so. So
wedded to sin, so bent upon self indulgence,
that not all which God has said ever will
induce even serious consideration; no patience,
no repetition of his calls, no earnestness of
importunity, no approach of terrors, will ever
change this melancholy mind. His Spirit alone
must achieve the transformation. The inten-
sity of evil disposition which this evinces,
therefore, is most extreme and astonishing.
It can find no parallel. In other cases con-
siderations of duty, of gratitude, of interest,
find their way to the heart by which for a time
M
310
CONTRARIETY OF
they may have been resisted; but in this, though
infinitely the most important, an ill disposition
reigns so triumphantly as to repel every at-
tempt. He that fears his fellow creature,
defies his Maker; he that is grateful to an
earthly benefactor, insults an heavenly one; he
that shrinks from bodily harm, plunges his soul
into hell; he that attaches boundless impor-
tance to time, trifles with eternity. And all
this will he continue to do, amidst the revealed
glories of heaven and terrors of hell; amidst
the warnings of wrath, and the wooings of
mercy; amidst the tears of the Saviour, and
the lamentations of angels; amidst the re-
proofs of his conscience, and the anticipa-
tions of destruction. Such, alas! is man.
What words can adequately describe a dispo-
sition so deplorable!
The second part of our plan, which was to
examine the aspect of the Spirit's work on
the previous condition of man, has now been
executed, and the result of it may be summed
up in a few words. The necessity of the
Spirit's influence in order to conversion does
not argue a want of power in man, but it
does argue a contrariety of disposition; and
DISPOSITION.
311
this, it is afflictive to say, to an extent most
astonishing, and almost incredible.
It re-
observe, in the last place,
Spirit's work in relation to
mains for us to
the aspect of the
the ways of God.
PART III.
THE ASPECT OF THE SPIRIT'S WORK IN RELATION
TO THE WAYS OF GOD.
THE ministration of the Spirit, or the em-
ployment of his almighty energy to accomplish
the transformation of a sinner's heart, is one
of the ways of God, or a part of his general
administration towards the children of men.
As such it has by no means an isolated character,
but stands connected with all other parts of
the same administration; and in this connexion
it has features of great excellency and impor-
tance. Some of these we have been led indi-
rectly to notice in the preceding portion of this
volume; but they call for a more distinct and
prominent exhibition.
Before we enter further upon this part of our
subject, it will be necessary to observe the two
principal views in which the ministration of the
Spirit is exhibited to us in the sacred oracles.
On the one hand it appears as an unsolicited
effectual operation; as in such passages as these:
THE WAYS OF GOD.
313
"This is the covenant that I will make with
the house of Israel after those days, saith the
Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and
write them in their hearts. I will take away
the stony heart, and give you an heart of flesh,
and I will put my Spirit within you, and cause
you to walk in my ways. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power." Heb. viii. 10.
Ezek. xxxvi. 26. Psalm cx. 3.
On the other hand, it appears as a blessing
to be obtained by prayer: "Turn you at my
reproof; behold, I will pour out my Spirit
unto you. If ye being evil know how to give
good gifts unto your children, how much more.
shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit
to them that ask him? If any man lack wis-
dom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all
men liberally, and upbraideth not." Prov. i. 23.
Luke xi. 13. James i. 5.
It cannot be necessary to enter into any
argument upon the point which these passages
establish; since, if they do not exhibit a two-
fold aspect of the ministration of the Spirit, it
would seem difficult to know how language
is to be understood. The blessed God, we are
informed, sends his Spirit into the heart of
some who do not seek him; but he is also
P
314
THE WAYS OF GOD.
graciously willing to impart it to all who do.
These two modes of administration proceed
upon different, though not jarring principles,
and contemplate dissimilar, but harmonious
ends; they will require, therefore, a distinct
consideration, and it will be proper to begin
with the latter.
CHAP. I.
Of the ministration of the Spirit in answer to
prayer.
THE attitude which God assumes when he
promises to give his Holy Spirit to all who ask
it, is that of grace, or kindness.
In saying this, we wish, of course, that the
work of the Spirit should be regarded in the
light in which we have already placed it. We
are aware that some views of it lead rather to an
idea that it is matter of justice, while others
might almost authorize the inference that it is
matter of cruelty; but we have nothing to do
with these views. As we have exhibited it,
and we hope we have exhibited it according
to the scriptures, it is matter of kindness.
1. It is more than just. Between measures
of justice and of kindness there is a wide and
essential difference. Things just are things due
to a man in right, the withholding of which
would do him wrong. Things kind are things
not due to a man in right; though by the
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316 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
communication of them he might be benefited,
yet, from the withholding of them, he derives
no ground of complaint. That which is due in
right, therefore, is simply just, it is not kind;
that which is kind is more than just. To take
a familiar example: I give to a certain person
ten pounds; if I am in his debt to that amount,
it is merely an act of justice; if I owe him
nothing, it is of course an act of kindness.
This distinction is strictly applicable to the
case in hand. Though it cannot be said that
man merits any thing of his Maker, yet,
seeing that he has been brought into existence,
and placed in certain circumstances, with cer-
tain requirements and prospects, certain things
are due to him from his Maker, in order to
give to his own conduct, or to the situation of
his creature, a character of equity. To demand
what he had not given the means of performing,
would be unjust; it is therefore due to a crea-
ture, from whom he demands any thing, that
he should give the means of performing it:
and however apparently lavish the communi-
cation of benefits may be, until they have ren-
dered the condition of the creature in all
respects equitable, they are not acts of kindness,
but of justice merely. Nothing is kind, which
haj
IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.
317
does not go beyond the limit of justice, and
include what is not due to the receiver.
Now, of the promise of the Spirit in answer
to prayer, we say that it is kind; it is more
than just. We have endeavoured to show that
God has placed man in a condition of just re-
sponsibility, independently of the Spirit; and
that, without any regard to his agency, we
have adequate powers to be and to do all that
he requires of us, together with motives of
great abundance and ample sufficiency. If this
be so, he has done all for us that justice de-
mands, without referring to the Spirit. Or if
he has not, what more ought he to do? What is
necessary in any case to a state of just respon-
sibility, but the possession of means of acting,
together with sufficient motives to act, and a
capacity of appreciating them? If it be said,
that God ought to give a right disposition, we
answer, First, that this is never considered
essential to responsibility in any other case:
Secondly, that, if it were, responsibility among
men could not, in many cases, be established
at all, since we cannot give right dispositions;
and therefore, servants, children, or subjects,
in whom wrong dispositions exist, could never
justly be held responsible for their conduct in
318 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
such capacities: Thirdly, that this would be
stultifying his own commands, by bestowing,
as a matter of right to us, the very thing which
he requires as a matter of right from us; a
right disposition being the sum and substance
of all his requisitions. Every thing short of a
right disposition God has given; this justice
does not require he should give; when, there-
fore, he promises the Holy Spirit in answer to
prayer, it is more than just; it is something
not due to us; an act of unmixed kindness, in-
dependently of which we might be governed,
judged, and condemned, without wrong.
To see this more clearly, let us contemplate
the attitude and character of those to whom
the promise is made. We are made capable
of loving and serving God; we are called upon
to love and serve him; we are supplied with
sufficient motives for doing so, and these re-
quire only consideration in order to produce
their effect with a happy certainty. What is
our conduct? Do we reflect on our condition
and our duty? Do we dwell on the topics
which would win our hearts to God?
give serious attention to the motives which
we know ought to govern our lives? The
very contrary is the fact. We dislike God,
Do we
IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.
319
and turn away from every thing that would
correct our alienation. We fill our hearts with
other thoughts, and say, "Depart from me, I
desire not the knowledge of thy ways." What
do we then deserve? Pity? Help? The pro-
mise of the Spirit? If indeed, we could ap-
proach the Almighty, and say, Lord, I have
duly considered every thing, and yet I do not
find sufficient motives to love thee,then we
might claim help; though that help should
rather be the discovery of new and more pow-
erful reasons, than an influence to make insuf-
ficient ones effectual: but the neglect and
rejection of the truths set before us, is certainly
calculated to produce wrath rather than com-
passion; and if, in these circumstances, the
Lord interposes with a promise of his Spirit,
it is an act of kindness, not only unequivocal in
its nature, but illustrious in its degree.
There is one point of view in which this
exercise of divine mercy transcends the un-
speakable gift of his Son. That wonderful
interposition was designed to open a way of
escape for the guilty and condemned, and
might have proceeded upon the supposition,
that men who had sinned would gladly embrace
an opportunity of repentance and pardon; but
320 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
here is the case of sinners who will not repent,
of rebels who will not be reconciled, of con-
demned persons who scoff at pardon, of enemies
who deliberately persevere in their crimes.
Nothing could be calculated to close the door
of mercy like this. It is a new provocation,
more aggravated than all which have gone be-
fore it, and inexpressibly adapted to produce
the abandonment of a sinner to his own ways.
Yet, in defiance of this otherwise unheard-of
iniquity, does the mercy of God spring forth
afresh, as it were, glorying to surmount all
obstacles; and this desperate provocation is
met by the overwhelming promise, "Turn ye
at my reproof; behold, I will pour out my
Spirit unto you." Whence such a mode of
conduct has arisen, there is no difficulty in
determining. Whence could it arise, but from
those depths of self-sprung mercy, of free and
sovereign love, which characterize the whole
work of redemption? Not unto us, O Lord,
not unto us, but unto thy name be the glory!
It may be observed, further, that the kind-
ness of the promise is enhanced by the freeness
of it. Every thing is said which may give
encouragement to sinners of the deepest cri-
minality, and the most extreme unworthiness.
k
IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.
321
None shall want a welcome, or fail of an ample
supply. The blessing is not to be imparted in
small quantities merely, or to a few favoured
individuals; "For thus saith the Lord, I will
pour water on him that is thirsty, and floods
upon the dry ground. For every one that
asketh receiveth, every one that seeketh
findeth, and to him that knocketh, it is
opened." Isa. xliv. 3; Luke xi. 10. The
promise of the Spirit is characterised by the
freeness pertaining to all other gospel blessings:
it is" without money, and without price; for
the Lord giveth to all men liberally, and up-
braideth not." Isa. lv. 1; James i. 5.
2. If, on the one hand, views have been
entertained which would render the promise
of the Spirit a matter of justice, so, on the
other, it has been doubted whether it is of
more than apparent kindness. Can it be real
kindness, it is asked, to promise the Spirit in
answer to prayer to those who cannot pray,
but are dead in trespasses and sins? Is it any
thing more than torturing them by the tanta-
lizing exhibition of unattainable good?
Upon one class of divines these questions
bear hard, namely, on those who hold that
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322 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
fallen man is disabled for his duty and his
welfare; but let it be recollected, that we hold
no such opinion; and, believing that man has
power to do what is right and holy, of course,
we believe also that he has power to pray.
We, therefore, are here involved in no incon-
sistency.
But, it may be said, men of themselves will
not seek it, and this God knows. Undoubtedly
this is the fact. But, if it is meant to argue
from this that there is any inconsistency in the
conditional promise, such a principle will take
a much wider range, and cannot be confined to
this promise alone. Why, when there are
numberless other blessings exhibited in a
similar manner, as attainable by prayer, is
this particular blessing, the gift of the Spirit,
to be singled out, and separated from its com-
panions? Let not the "exceeding great and
precious promises" be destroyed in detail.
Whoever attacks them, let him attack them al-
together, and then we shall clearly know, both
the nature of his object, and the extent of our
calamity. Will any man, then, impugn the
general principle on which God has proceeded,
in opening the throne of grace to mankind at
large? With respect to every blessing for
Job
P
IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.
323
which he has encouraged us to pray, it may be
most truly said, he knows that no man, un-
moved by his Spirit, will ever ask for it. What
then? Does this perverseness of those to whom
it is made invalidate the sincerity of his pro-
posal, and render it hypocritical? Has he
taken shelter under their obduracy, in order
to practise a mockery of human woe? Because
they are unwilling, is his willingness also to be
denied? Or because he knew that they would
not seek his favours, he ought perhaps never
to have spoken of them; he ought to have
viewed their miseries without pity, and to have
shut up the bowels of his compassion; he ought
to have assumed the character of a judicial
destroyer merely, and to have appeared to all
worlds inaccessible to the touching aspects of
human wretchedness. Seeing that men would
not pray, he should have expressed no pity.
Cold-hearted sentiment! Scarcely human
should the being be deemed who could act on
such a principle respecting his fellow-man;
and fearfully regardless of the divine honour
must he be who could recommend it to the
adoption of his Maker. True; men will not
pray, and God knows it; but they are miserable,
and therefore the exhibition of mercy to them
Wha
324 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
flows uncontrollably from the tender mercies of
the Lord; not hugest mountains of guilt can
obstruct the stream: and that men, having
power to embrace the promised good, should
also be at liberty to refuse it, flows as neces-
sarily from the constitution of human affairs,
a constitution, amidst all its mysteries, wise
and holy and good. Now, if it is no inconsis-
tency to promise blessings in general in answer
to prayer, neither can it be any to exhibit the
influence of the Spirit in that light; for this is
but one among a large class of heavenly gifts,
which we are thus encouraged to seek.
Let a case be taken from human affairs, as
nearly analogous as may be to that which has
arisen in the ways of God; and although none
will be found perfectly so, sufficient resem-
blance may be traced for the purpose of the
argument. Let us suppose, for example, that
a poor wretch, ready to perish with hunger,
lies near my door. My first impulse, if I
make any pretensions to compassion, is to offer
him food. I am given to understand, how-
ever, upon authority which I cannot question,
and which I do entirely believe, that if I pre-
pare food for him, and invite him into my
house to partake of it, he will never come,
TË
M
IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.
325
there being a stubbornness about him, or per-
haps a personal dislike to me, which will pre-
vail even over the force of hunger. What
course do I then adopt? Do I shut up my
bowels of compassion against him, and close
my door, and pass him by, indifferent to his
wretchedness? Far from it. I cannot do so.
I rather go to him, and say, "Well, I know
your obstinacy; but still I am willing to feed
you. Whenever you choose to go to my house,
you will find an abundant supply." What have
I done in this case that is improper or unrea-
sonable? What else could I have done, with-
out doing myself dishonour? And can the
conduct of God towards man be more fairly
illustrated?
It may be admitted perhaps, that, if the
case had no other feature, the example would
be satisfactory; but a difficulty may still be
started by saying, "If you had the power of
taking away this poor man's obstinacy, and
giving him a better disposition, would it then
be kind in you to do all the rest, and not to
do this too? Now God has such a power in
respect of sinners; and unless he exerts this,
is not all his other kindness rather apparent
than real?"
326
THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
We are quite aware of the seeming force of
this argument, but we have no wish to shrink
from it. There is no doubt at all but this
would be an act of yet greater kindness, and
if it were merely a case of personal goodwill
between man and man, it might as naturally
be expected from the benevolence of the
person supposed, as the supply of food. But
the case is not of this simple character; and
the introduction of this new feature on the one
hand requires the introduction of one also on
the other, which will totally change its aspect.
A right disposition is that which God requires
of every man as his duty; it is a matter in re-
lation to which he is subject to the government
of God, and for which he is justly responsible.
The case of a sinner towards God, is that of a
subject towards a governor; and the right dis-
position which God requires, is to be compared
to the dues demanded by the government.
Suppose then that the distressed man is your
subject, and you are his king. He implores
relief, and you reply, Come in, and you shall be
assisted. At the same moment certain officers
arrest him in your name for non-payment of
taxes, which, to accord with the case of a
sinner, it is to be supposed he has full power
IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.
327
to pay. What is your method of proceeding?
Do you remit the taxes, or pay them for him?
If he had no power to pay, you would gladly
do so; but, since he has power to pay, you say,
Certainly you must pay the taxes; or if you
do not choose to do so, I cannot interfere; the
law must take its course. And so, instead of
relieving his wretchedness, you would even
have him conveyed to prison in your name, and
by your authority; when you knew that, by
only remitting his taxes, a very easy thing for
you to do, you might have made him happy.
Is this kind? Your reply is, I must also main-
tain the authority and administration of the
government. These are just requirements, and
I must uphold them, or I shall dishonour, and
deserve to forfeit my office. Having thus an-
swered for yourself, you have answered also for
your Maker; and you have answered satisfacto-
rily for both. A right disposition in us is exactly
that to his government, which the revenue is to
an earthly one; the requirement of which,
being in itself just, it is imperative to main-
tain.
It is true, that no actual good results from
These promises, to those who will not plead
them; but neither will this justify the conclu-
328
THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
sion attempted to be drawn from it. Un-
doubtedly you do a man the greatest kindness,
if you improve his condition without any effort.
of his own; but surely some kindness is done,
if you put him into circumstances in which he
may better it himself. Suppose, for example,
that you put a sum of money into a poor man's
hand, that is kind; but is it no kindness if you
inform him that it is deposited for him in the
bank, where he may receive it at his pleasure?
Or, if you should learn that he would not go
for it, should you acquiesce in the representa-
tion that, because you had only done this, you
had shewn him no kindness? Yet it is thus
that some persons are disposed to judge of
the ways of God. In opening the treasures
of his grace to sinners upon their application,
we maintain that he does them an illustrious
kindness; which is not at all diminished by
the perverseness which robs them of the bene-
fit, and turns the very proposal into an aggra-
vation of their guilt.
3. Viewing the promise of the Spirit as con-
nected with the conversion of a sinner, there
may seem to be another difficulty. It is plain
that the same ill disposition which prevents
*
IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.
329
him from turning to God, will equally prevent
him from seeking the aid of the Spirit. When
he begins to desire and seek this, his mind will
have been already turned. This would be a
difficulty, if we maintained that the influence
of the Spirit was necessary to man's power
of conversion, so that, in praying for the
Spirit, he must be regarded as praying for
power to turn to God, to do, namely, what he
had already done: but we hold the contrary
sentiment, that man has power to turn to God
without the Spirit. That power lies in his
capacity of reflecting on divine truth, which it
is his duty immediately to begin and to pursue.
The promises made to prayer are intended to
relieve him amidst the various exercises to
which reflection will give origin. He becomes
convinced of ignorance, of hardness of heart,
of love of iniquity; and here the promise of
the Spirit meets him, just where he wants it,
and quite as soon as he wants it. It is now
only that he begins to feel difficulty, or con-
sciously to want help. He weighs the exhorta-
tion, "Turn ye at my reproof." He says, My
heart will not turn; I love sin in defiance of
every thing, wretch that I am! He reads,
"Behold, I will pour out my Spirit unto you;"
330
THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
he exclaims, Blessed hope! and pleads the
promise, by turning it into a prayer,-"Take
away the stony heart out of my flesh, and give
me a heart of flesh." Let these promises be
viewed only in their true position, and the
difficulty will vanish. They are a part of the
system of means, intended to meet and to
relieve the exercises of a reflecting mind ;
and to this purpose they are wisely and ad-
mirably adapted.
}
Our conclusion therefore remains, that when
God promises the Holy Spirit in answer to
prayer, he assumes an attitude of rich grace,
of illustrious mercy. We have only to add,
that the benignity of this dispensation is uni-
versal and equal. We shall enter fully into
the subject of election and discriminating
grace in the following chapter, for which the
reader's patience is requested but a moment;
all that we here state is, that God will give his
Holy Spirit to every one who asks it, without
any discrimination at all. Such is his promise
respecting all the blessings he has encouraged
us to pray for, and this cannot be an excep-
tion. Every one that asketh receiveth."
Imagine only a case so confoundingly strange
as the contrary! Will it be said that any
66
IN ANSWER TO PRAYER.
331
man, seeking the Spirit of God, will be refused
and repelled? It is incredible. The promises
are expressed in language of general import;
they exclude none. Whatever discrimination
God may exercise elsewhere, he uses none
among the applicants at his throne of grace
for the blessings of his salvation."
CHAP. II.
Of the ministration of the Spirit in his unsought
agency.
Cop
WE have already seen, that, while the
blessed Spirit is promised to all men in an-
swer to prayer, he is also sometimes sent into
the heart unsought, to accomplish there the
great work of his love and grace. The specific
aspects of this ministration of the Spirit are
now to be considered.
Sky
1. It is impossible not to observe imme-
diately its pre-eminent grace. If it was kind
to promise the Spirit when sought, it is much
more so to impart his influence when it is not
implored. In the former case, supplication ex-
presses desire; but, in the latter, the attitude of
enmity and opposition is still maintained. How
passing strange is the fact, that the blessed
Spirit, infinitely holy as he is, and burning for
the divine glory, will enter such a breast, and
wrest out of a sinner's hand the very weapon
with which he is about both to defy his Maker,
THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION, &c. 333
and to destroy his own soul! This is going im-
measurably beyond all that justice requires, and
is the utmost length of kindness to a guilty
worm. God not only provides the blessed-
ness, but gives the disposition to embrace it;
herein giving what also he justly demands,
and providing for the payment of that to him-
self, which is righteously due to him from his
creatures.
To this it must be added, that the gift of the
Holy Spirit secures the attainment of the
great and unspeakable blessings exhibited in
the gospel. A sinner is then no longer left to
trifle with salvation, and to reject the Saviour;
but the hitherto prevailing enmity of his heart
is overcome, and he is made willing in the day
of divine power. He resists no more; but, led by
the Spirit, humbly bows to the sceptre of redeem-
ing mercy, and every thought is brought into
captivity to the obedience of faith. He thus
becomes an actual partaker of salvation itself,
and enters into the enjoyment of all its pri-
vileges; being justified by faith, he has peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by
whom also he has access into the grace wherein
he stands, and rejoices in hope of the glory
of God. Rom. v. 1, 2. How pre-eminently
334 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
gracious must the work be, which leads to such
immeasurable and eternal blessedness! With-
out the influence of the Spirit, a sinner would
be a wretch undone, even in the midst of
mercies; with it, he becomes unutterably and
for ever blest.
P
2. Unlike the former mode of administering
the Spirit, however, this is not universal, but
peculiar. This is known by the fruits; since,
wherever the Spirit is given, repentance and
conversion are actually produced. From the
very fact, therefore, even if there were no
other evidence, from the very fact that only
some persons are converted, the inference must
necessarily be drawn, that only to some is the
Spirit given. With this inevitable conclusion
the declarations of holy writ fully agree; but
it is important to show that the burden of its
proof does not lie upon them. Those who dis-
like them, or their import, may conceive them
to be blotted out of the book of God, if they
please; we call upon them to read in another
book the same lesson. The fact is before their
eyes, and cannot be obliterated; why should
they find fault with the mere words which
record it?
What can be the cause of this peculiarity?
IN HIS UNSOUGHT AGENCY.
335
Whence can it have originated? By what
influence can the course of this celestial stream
have been determined? Certainly by God
himself, since no other being has power or
opportunity to interpose in this matter. Of
the Spirit he giveth to every man severally as
it pleaseth him. But are there any known
causes which may have guided his determina-
tion? Does he give the Spirit to one because
he deserves it; because he has made a proper
improvement of other favours; because he has
been considerate and prayerful; because he
has been upright and moral: and does he with-
hold it from another because he has been the
contrary? Or is it merely according to his
will, and arbitrary pleasure?
To these inquiries it is obvious to answer,
that God has certainly not acted without a
reason, and a good one. No wise being does
so, least of all He who is infinitely wise. The
idea that he has distributed his Spirit, or any
other blessing, according to his mere will and
pleasure, however sanctioned by one class of
divines, or attacked by another, is not only
unsupported by scripture, but directly opposed
to it. Hear, for example, the words of our
Lord. "At that time Jesus rejoiced in spirit,
336
THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so,
Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight."
Matt. xi. 25, 26. When we say that a person
does any thing merely because he will do it, we
mean that he had no regard to the character
or tendency of the action itself; but not such
is the aspect of discriminating grace. What
God has done he has well weighed, and has
done it because "it seemed good in his sight."
The general nature of the reasons under
which God has acted, are also to be ascer-
tained with sufficient clearness. There is but
one grand reason for which he does all things,
and that is the glory of his own name.
With
a view to this end, doubtless, he has decided,
in every instance, the question of the commu-
nication of the Spirit. That we should be
able in all cases to trace this tendency of his
ways, it would be unreasonable to expect,
with our limited capacity, and our present
ignorance; but this affords us no just cause to
doubt its reality. Upon a large scale some
views of it are already apparent, and are opened
to us by inspired authority.
"Ye see your
calling, brethren; how that not many wise
C
IN HIS UNSOUGHT AGENCY. 337
men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble, are called; but God hath chosen
the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of
the world to confound the things which are
mighty; and base things of the world, and
things which are despised, hath God chosen,
yea, and things which are not, to bring to
nought things that are, that no flesh should
glory in his presence." 1 Cor. i. 26-29.
One thing is certain, that, whatever the
reasons may be which have actuated the
Almighty in any particular case, they have
never been derived from the deserts or excel-
lency of man himself. To none has the Spirit
been given because of his wisdom, or rank, or
power, or humility, or virtue, or any other
excellency, natural or moral; and this principle
has been adopted out of regard to the grand
design that God may be glorified in all. Were
it otherwise, some might have cause for glory-
ing in his presence, which may not be, seeing
it is written, "He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord." 1 Cor. i. 31.
The unsought ministration of the Spirit,
then, is discriminating and sovereign; a point
in which God does not render to all alike, but
Q
338 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
everally to each, as it seemeth good in his
sight. This simple and inevitable truth is to
many persons a grand stumbling-block, and cause
of complaint. God, then, it is said, makes a
difference among men, and does not give us all
the same facilities for salvation. But again we
say, that the attack ought to be made, not
against the doctrine, but against the fact.
Suppose the doctrine buried in oblivion, the
fact will be irresistible, so long as you see
some around you converted, and others in
their sins. Whatever ground there may be of
complaint, therefore, there can be no altera-
tion.
104
But, after all, is there any foundation for
complaint? The question to be decided is not,
what has been God's conduct to others, but
what has been his conduct to me. Has he done
me any wrong? Has he withheld from me
any means, or advantage, requisite to my having
a fair and full opportunity of fleeing from the
wrath to come? If he has, it is to be found
in the examination of my own circumstances,
and not in comparing them with those of others.
Now in the closest inspection of God's deal-
ings with himself, no sinner can find cause
of complaint; on the contrary, he is treated,
IN HIS UNSOUGHT AGENCY.
339
not only with justice, but with kindness; and
if he fails of salvation, it will be only through
a wilful and perverse neglect of his opportuni-
ties. It is true, his next neighbour is dealt
with yet more kindly; but that makes, and
can make, no difference to him: his case is
what it is in itself, and so ever will remain.
The general view which we take of the un-
sought dispensation of the Spirit is, that it is
characterized by pre-eminent kindness, and
sovereign discrimination. It may be pleasant,
ere we close, to observe in what relation the
ministration of the Spirit stands to the ways of
God in their most general aspects, considered
as consisting in, either the exercise of personal
kindness, the administration of moral govern-
ment, or the conducting of an effectual agency.
Q 2
<
CHAP. III.
Of the ministration of the Spirit as connected
with the work of Redemption generally.
1
It is, of course, with no other part of the
divine ways than the work of redemption, that
the ministration of the Spirit is connected.
The whole office of this blessed agent, so far as
man is concerned, is to remedy an existing
mischief in his nature; and the assumption of
such an office clearly implies, both that he is
fallen from his original excellency, and that by
divine mercy a restorative process is under-
taken. The influence of the Spirit could not
have been called for under any other circum-
stances; and the administration of it is a part
of the method by which the redemption of
men from sin and misery is accomplished.
It is not, however, the first part of this
method. By transgression men are fallen into
a state of guilt and condemnation, which not
only forfeits all title to the favour of God, but
actually shuts them out from the possibility of
THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION, &c. 341
its communication, without some preparatory
operation. The law requires to be fulfilled,
and the righteousness of the lawgiver to be
maintained, at the same time that mercy is
extended to the criminal; an effectual provision
for which must be made, before any exercise of
mercy is actually entered upon. Hence we
say, therefore, that the gift of his dear Son to
die for sinners is prior, in the dispensations of
God, to the gift of his Holy Spirit. The com-
munication of the Spirit presupposes the death
of Christ, without which no good thing could
ever have been conferred on the guilty; it is
indeed the fruit of his dying pains, and is
poured out to the honour of his love, and for
the glory of his name.
But this is not all. It might be asked, Why,
although Christ had died, should the Holy
Spirit be imparted? Was not the way of
salvation fully opened by the blood-shedding of
the Son of God? Undoubtedly it was; and if
men would have availed themselves of it with-
out an extrinsic influence, there would have.
been no occasion for the operation of the
eternal Spirit. The introduction of this glori-
ous agent proceeds upon the supposition, that,
although the way of salvation is open, the
C
342 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION
determination of man's heart is so fixed in sin
that he will not avail himself of it, even when
favoured with the amplest opportunities, and
addressed by the most powerful motives. Such,
on God's authority, the fact is declared to be;
and it is to meet this feature of the case, that
the ministration of the Spirit is superadded to
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is to
induce sinners to receive him, to cause his
enemies to submit themselves, and to bring
them, in this method, to the actual possession of
redemption.
Now it is manifest, that one grand and im-
portant feature of this administration relates
to the final issue of the work of redemption
ilself. Without it, although a vast provision
had been made for the salvation of sinners, not
a single sinner would be saved; and, in this
respect, a character of fruitlessness and dis-
appointment would be given to this great
undertaking, which could be neither gratifying
to the benevolence of the Most High, nor con-
ducive to his glory. To prevent so undesirable
a result, and to secure a large and sufficient
measure of success in the actual salvation of
men, the divine Spirit is sent forth, with his
almighty energy, to work effectually in their
IN THE WORK OF REDEMPTION.
343
hearts to vanquish their enmity, and bring
them to the Saviour, that he may see of the
travail of his soul, and be satisfied.
Another principal aspect of the ministration
of the Spirit has relation to the happiness of
man. When God determined to give his
Spirit in answer to prayer, or, more especially,
to send him unsought into the breasts of par-
ticular persons whom he foreknew, while it
was for his own glory, it was also for their
good. It was because he loved them with an
everlasting love, that he thus purposed to draw
them with loving-kindness. It is a pre-eminent
illustration of his personal kindness towards
the objects he had in view.
It is to be observed, however, that the
ministration of the Spirit is kept altogether
separate from the moral government of
God. He requires obedience, he denounces
threatenings against sin, he will judge and
punish the ungodly, quite irrespectively of the
influence of the Spirit; as it is manifest he
must, since he does, and will do, all this to mul-
titudes of persons to whom the Spirit is not
given. Now the moral government of God.
consists in the method of dealing with men
by means of commands and motives, in the
r
1
Patte
344 THE SPIRIT'S MINISTRATION, &c.
prospect of a final retribution; and since this
comprehends many to whom the Spirit is not
given, it is plain that the moral government of
God is carried on altogether irrespectively of
the ministration of the Spirit.
The gift of the Spirit is a dispensation of
eminent personal kindness, and of glorious
effectual power. It becomes Him so to work,
who can accomplish all things according to the
counsel of his own will. It is honourable for
him thus to secure to his Son the joy set
before him, and to defeat the awful malignity
of a rebellious world. It is an attitude in
which, with manifest justice, he claims to him-
self all the glory of a sinner's salvation. It
was his love which provided a Saviour, whom
yet every sinner would have rejected, without
his overcoming grace. In this, therefore, as
in his other works, God himself is all in all.
To him alone, and in every respect, is it to be
ascribed, that a single sinner has been rescued
from hell and brought to heaven; and to Him
alone will the glory be rendered, while saints-
are happy, or immortality endures. Amen,
and Amen!
t
A
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
TO A SINNER,
>
ON THE PRINCIPLES MAINTAINED IN THE FOREGOING
TREATISE.
THE design of these Practical Addresses is
threefold. It is, first, to exhibit the principles
which the author has been advocating, in a form
less argumentative, and wholly apart from
controversy. When a sentiment is much dis-
cussed, there is danger of its being supposed
to be fit for nothing else; and persons who do
not like controversy, or may not be apt at argu-
ment, may put it aside as possessing no interest.
for them. Such an impression, it is hoped,
the following pages may obviate or correct,
and convince the reader, that the principle
which has been vindicated is capable also of
being applied.
The author wishes, secondly, to bring his
principles to a new and additional test. If
they are of any value, that value lies in their
Q 3
346
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
just and forcible application to the conscience
of a sinner. The question, therefore, is a fair
one; How would you converse with a sinner
on these principles? This question he has thus
endeavoured to answer; whether satisfactorily
to his readers they of course will judge; but, if
it were not satisfactorily to himself, he would
immediately suspect and review his principles.
But, above all, the author has been desirou's
of closing his book with these addresses, be-
cause, on so deeply important a subject as
religion, he could not bear to write a volume
of mere controversy. His readers, like himself,
are sinners hastening to judgment and eternity;
and he earnestly requests that they will do him.
the favour to read the following pages as
addressed personally to themselves. Though he
may never see them on earth, we shall see each
other at the bar of God; and fain would he have
every reader pour a blessing on him there! It
will be either a blessing or a curse.
A brief observation may be necessary, re-
specting the manner in which these addresses
are framed. They will, of course be found to
contain assertion, and not argument, as from
the nature of the case is inevitable; but an at-
tentive reader will find no difficulty in referring
T
TO A SINNER.
347
to the pages, in the preceding part of the work,
where the several points have been argued at
length. The author has, throughout, avoided
the use of the word power, the double meaning
of which almost inevitably introduces perplexity
into the plainest statements. Instead of this
term, he has used a just and exact equivalent;
he has spoken of having the means of doing any
thing, which is the precise definition of power.
He begs to add, finally, that these addresses
are not to be regarded as comprehending all he
would say to a sinner in the circumstances sup-
posed, but only so much as may be connected
with, or illustrative of, the sentiments which
have been under consideration; and as pre-
senting, even in this view, rather a skeleton
than a complete body, the principles upon
which the author would frame his appeal,
rather than the motives by which he would
enforce it.
..
I.
DEAR READER,
I may not address you as an innocent, but
as a sinful man. It is not that I have pleasure
in regarding you as such, but the word of God
348
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
declares us all to be so; and his word is truth.
I am willing, however, to converse with you
on this subject rationally and coolly; I ear-
nestly wish you, indeed, to inquire into the
grounds on which you are charged with guilt.
By all means clear or defend yourself, if you
can.
pad
The general accusation brought against you
by your Maker, is, that you have not loved
him with all your heart. Into the proof of
this allegation I suppose it is not necessary to
enter; you are probably too well convinced of
its truth, to dispute it for a moment.
I may imagine, however, that while you ad-
mit the fact, that you have not thus loved God,
you dispute its criminality. Why, you ask, am
I therefore condemned as a sinner? The ques-
tion is highly reasonable, and extremely impor-
tant; I readily confess, that it behoves one
who brings the charge of sin against you, to be
able to establish it by clear and conclusive
proofs; and I will endeavour to meet your
demand, as honestly as I hope you have put it.
1. That for which God censures you is not
having loved him; or, in other words, he blames
you for not having possessed a particular state
of mind. This, therefore, is the first point upon
TO A SINNER.
349
which your inquiry bears. Upon what ground
of justice does God require you to possess any
particular state of mind at all? There are
creatures around you, I mean those of the
brute creation, whose allowed occupation is
nothing more than the gratification of their
appetites, and the following of their several
impulses. But this, it seems, is not the case
with you.
God requires of you something
peculiar and specific. He is not satisfied that
you should merely eat and drink, and act out
the varied passions which may arise within you;
but he prescribes a particular course, and de-
mands this at your hands. Why should this
be? Because the constitution of your nature
qualifies you to fulfil the demand. You are
not a mere machine, the sport of circumstances,
the victim of fate, or the helpless slave of your
passions. To a certain extent, which we shall
define presently, you have the means of attain-
ing whatever state of mind you please.
It is your nature to love or to hate, to re-
joice or to be sorry, as you find inducements to
do so.
You have also the means of judging of
the various inducements which may be pre-
sented to you in every case, in order to estimate
their proper force, and to determine how far
350
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
you will yield to them, or resist. To qualify
you for this exercise of judgment, God has
given you a perception of good and evil, a sense
of right and wrong, by which the character of
all inducements may be ascertained, and your
course respecting them decided accordingly.
When you perceive any to be either right or
wrong, you have the means also of establishing
or preventing their influence, both by the su-
perior force of the sense of duty itself, and by
turning your attention to such considerations
as may be adapted to give success to your
efforts. Now, since this is the case, and you
may, by attention, bring your mind to any state
you please, then it is manifestly not unjust that
God should require your mind to be in some
specific condition.
Page
It is plain, as we have said, indeed, that this
capacity of being what you please is not un-
bounded. It is limited by two considerations;
the one is the just force of the inducements.
presented to you, and the other your capacity
of apprehending them. As the state of your
mind is to be regulated by consideration, it fol-
lows, of course, that the regulation of it can go
no further than the due force of the topics set
before you for this end, nor than your power of
TO A SINNER.
351
perceiving that force. If God should have
required of you any thing beyond these limits,
I will make no attempt to maintain its justice;
but if, on the contrary, the commands of your
Maker are confined to the extent within which
you are able to be what you please, and are in
all cases accompanied with inducements suit-
able and sufficient in themselves, and well
adapted to your apprehension, then upon what
ground can their justice be impugned?
2. Let us pass on, then, from the fact of such
requirement, the justice of which we will take
to be admitted, to the tenor of the requirement
itself: What is it that your Maker requires
of you?
Receive this information from the lips of our
divine Lord, Luke x. 27: "Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all
thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength."
Such is the law of God, given to man, and to
every man, as the rule and measure of his
demand. You may observe, that it intimates
the existence of strength to be what it com-
mands otherwise, what meaning could there
be in the language itself, "Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy strength," if we had
Mba
352
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
no strength for this purpose? You should ob-
serve also, very particularly, that the employ-
ment of our strength in the way prescribed, is
the whole scope of the law. It specifies nothing
in reference to the quantity of strength which
we may or may not have; but, taking this at
whatever it may actually be, it makes our
actual strength the precise limit of its demands.
With all our strength we are to love God,
but no further. You will mark, therefore,
how accurately the requirements of your
Maker observe the limitation which justice
demands; they extend no further than the
space within which you are able to be what
you please.
3. It still remains to ascertain whether the
requirements of God are accompanied by suit-
able and sufficient inducements.
Here let us recollect, that all which God
requires of us is to love him, the outward obe-
dience he prescribes being no other than the
fruit of love. Has he, therefore, presented to
us suitable and sufficient inducements to love
him? The question surely needs no answer.
He is the Lord our God; and out of this fact
alone inducements of unquestionable sufficiency
arise. He is God our Maker, the author of
Arka
TO A SINNER.
353
our being, with all its powers; and what obliga-
tion is more strong than this, that the parent
should be treated with affectionate kindness by
his offspring? He is the Lord our Maker;
a being of infinite superiority, excellency, and
majesty, in comparison with whom we are less
than nothing and vanity, and with whose glory
our whole hearts should be identified. Can
other or stronger inducements be needful, ere
we have cause enough to love him?
4. The last question to be asked is, whether
these inducements to love God are set before
us in a way suited to our apprehension? I
imagine you can entertain little doubt upon
this point. It is impossible to conceive either
sentiment or language more plain or simple.
It is only that children ought to love their
parents; a truth which we perceive with the
utmost clearness, and the force of which we
feel instantaneously, not merely because of its
evidence, but because it is intimately inter-
woven with our own relations. No sentiment
could be better adapted to our apprehension
than this.
Let us now recall what has been said. God
requires you to possess a specific disposition.
You are able to attain specific dispositions, so
354
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
"
far as suitable and sufficient inducements are
intelligibly set before you. Suitable and suf-
ficient inducements are thus set before you, in
reference to that particular disposition which
God requires you to cherish, namely, love to
himself. You are therefore justly required to
love God; and if so, in not having loved him
you have been guilty of sin. Let me exhibit
this to you in another light.
Understand, then, that your power over your
own mind lies entirely in your capacity of
attention and consideration. The state of
your mind always corresponds with the things
you think of; and when you wish it to be in
any particular state, if there are any intelli-
gible topics suited and sufficient to induce the
state desired, think duly of them, and it will
be done. This is the constitution of your
mind it cannot act otherwise, and in this
method it will act invariably. In order to
love God, therefore, what had you to do?
Obviously to think of him. Reflecting upon
the fact that he is the author of your being,
and of all your powers; dwelling upon his
boundless glory and excellency in this relation
to you; doing this with all the helps to be
derived from his works and from his word;
TO A SINNER.
355
and persisting in it, until these topics had been
adequately apprehended by your understand-
ing, and had exerted their just influence upon
your feelings; doing this, you would have loved
him. Failing in this, you cannot reasonably
have expected to love him; you do not love
any other object, neither can you love any,
but in proportion as you perceive its induce-
ments to love, and dwell upon them; nor in
any other case does dwelling on such induce-
ments fail proportionately to inspire love-why
should it in this?
If you had made the experiment, and found
it unsuccessful; if, after due reflection upon
what you perceived to be just and sufficient
causes for love to God, you had not loved him,
something must have disturbed the rational
structure of your mind. You would have been
no longer sane.
The very
constitution on
which the Divine Being grounded his require-
ments, that, namely, by which the state of the
heart was always to answer to the topics enter-
tained by the understanding, would have ceased
to exist; and with it would have ceased the
obligation of those requirements themselves.
But if you did not make the effort; if the
great facts adapted to excite your love to-
356
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
wards God were presented to your mind, and
disregarded; if you suffered them to slip from
your recollection, or even purposely banished
them from your thoughts; then, of course,
you have not loved God, but, for not loving
him, you are guilty, and God rightly holds
you so. It may now be said to you, Why did
you refuse consideration to these things? You
knew they were right and important, much
more important than the other matters to
which you surrendered your thoughts: yet
you did surrender your thoughts to other
things, and to things which have not only left
you without love to God, but have induced
an habitual and confirmed aversion to him.
Your own judgment condemns you; and God,
who is greater than your heart, and know-
eth all things, how shall not he condemn you?
Acknowledge, therefore, that you are justly
reckoned a sinner; that your mouth is stopped
from every excuse, and that you have only to
plead guilty before God.
II.
G
I have already endeavoured to show you,
dear reader, that, for not having loved God,
TO A SINNER.
357
you are justly chargeable with sin. I must
now set before you another painful but certain
truth; namely, that for sin God will bring you
into judgment. Your conduct he not only
considers to be wrong, but he holds you.
answerable for it. He has suspended upon it
consequences of the deepest interest. If you
had loved him with all your heart, you would
have found in his friendship unspeakable and
perpetual blessedness; and seeing that you
have not done so, wrath is revealed against you
from heaven. A day of retribution is already
announced, when he will say, "As for this mine
enemy, who would not that I should reign over
him, cast him into outer darkness, where there
is wailing and gnashing of teeth."
}
}
The aspect of these things is in the utmost
degree solemn and awful; and you are perfectly
justifiable in inquiring into the reasonableness
of such an administration. You will perhaps
propose some such question as this: But,
allowing it to be just that I should love God,
what right has he to make this demand of me,
and to call me to an account for my conduct?
His right to do so springs out of the one
groat fact, that he is your Creator. As the
author of your being, the arrangement of every
358
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
thing relating to your condition lay in his own
bosom; and he has a right to require from his
creatures whatever return agrees with their
capacity and their circumstances. Wherever
any thing is given, there something may be
required; and much or little, according to that
which has been bestowed. Being a creature
of God, therefore, you are in fact under, a
rightful obligation to love him, from which,
dislike it as you may, you can never escape.
The only questions for you to ask on this
subject are, Whether the return which God
requires be not greater than the means
bestowed; and whether the punishment he
denounces be not greater than the criminality
incurred. Let us examine them.
1. I conceive you to ask, first, whether the
return that God requires from you is not
greater than the means he has bestowed;
whether he is not gathering where he has
not strawed.
What God requires is that we should love
him with all our hearts. We ask, then, whe-
ther he has, or has not, given us the means of
doing this. In order to an answer we must push
the question back, and inquire wherein the
means of doing it consist. Now the means of
TO A SINNER.
359
loving God with all our hearts consist, first, in
having a heart so constituted, as duly and cer-
tainly to feel such inducements to love as may
be presented to the understanding; and se-
condly, in having intelligibly presented to the
understanding suitable and sufficient induce-
ments to love God supremely. These things
being so, then we have the means of loving
God with all our hearts, for, in such circum-
stances, it requires only consideration to pro-
duce this result. But these are in fact the
constitution and circumstances of man; whence
it follows, that man has the means of loving
God with all his heart. And if this be the
case, when God requires man to love him with
all his heart, he does not require more than he
has given him means to fulfil, nor therefore an
unreasonable return for what he has bestowed.
He gathers what he has strawed, and no more.
He has found the talents, and expected nothing
from us but to use them according to our seve-
ral ability.
2. In relation to the system of responsibility,
I conceive you to ask, secondly, whether the
punishment denounced be not greater than the
criminality incurred. Not to have loved God
appears to you an unimportant fault.
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
Let me here request you in the outset, not
to be misled by the awful metaphorical terms so
frequently employed to describe the divine
anger. Their force is to show, doubtless, that
God's disapprobation is a very dreadful thing;
but still it is only God's disapprobation that
they are brought to illustrate. Divested of
metaphor, the simple statement is, that, if you
have not loved him as required, he will both
disapprove your conduct itself, and express his
disapprobation towards you in such a way as
will make you directly sensible of it. The
severe suffering which this will occasion will
arise, not from any violence on his part, but
only from the glory of God himself, and the
intimate connexion there is between his ap-
probation and the final happiness of every
intelligent creature.
The question properly before us, therefore,
is, whether the disapprobation of God be a dis-
proportionate recompense for not having loved
him supremely. This is just like asking whe-
ther our not loving God supremely is any
fault at all; for if it be, it would seem that
disapprobation must justly follow it, on the
common principle of disapproving whatever is
wrong. This is a case, moreover, in which
TO A SINNER.
361
oriminality is very manifest. For God has
given us the means of loving him supremely;
and if we had not neglected the sense of right
which prompted us to it, and refused the con-
sideration by which it would have been pro-
duced, we should certainly have realized the
fulfilment of his will. Do this refusal and
resistance constitute no fault, and deserve no
blame? Then nothing can do so; the very
words should be obliterated from the language
of men, and disapprobation in any and every
respect for ever banished from the world.
Were any servant to fail of his duty to us on
the same ground, we should reprove him with
just severity; nor will our Maker and our
Judge be unjust, when, for such returns, he
he shall enter into judgment with us.
Mark well, dear reader, the conclusion
to which we are come. You would fain
not give an account of yourself to God ;
but you have seen that he holds you to it
by a bond which you admit to be equitable.
Nor can you lower in the least degree the
standard of his demand; since you have
allowed the reasonableness and obligation of
loving him with all your heart. Neither can
you complain of the unrighteousness of his
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condemnation; since you have seen, that, if
you have not loved him, his disapprobation
will be richly deserved.
Is it not time for you to consider, there-
fore, what this condemnation is? Know you
not that God's disapprobation is set forth by
figures of fearful import, and language indi-
cating it to be the source of intense and
unutterable suffering? Is not judgment at
hand? Will its doom admit of any reversion?
Is not your state as a sinner dreadful, and
powerfully adapted to awaken your anxiety?
Will you not cry, are you not even now crying,
What must I do to be saved? O to escape
from the wrath to come!
III.
O Sinner, guilty and condemned! God,
who is rich in mercy, is not unmindful of your
misery. He knew it long before it was dis-
covered by yourself, and of his own infinite
kindness has provided a remedy. He hath so
loved the world as to give his only-begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life. This is
the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin
TO A SINNER.
363
of the world; for the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, that by his stripes we might be
healed. Though he knew no sin, yet was he
made sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. As he died
for our offences, so he was raised again for
our justification; and seeing he ever liveth to
make intercession for us, he is able to save
unto the uttermost all that come unto God by
him. His invitations are most ample and en-
couraging. Hear his call: "Come unto me,
all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest; for him that cometh unto
me I will in no wise cast out."
G
This is for you good tidings of great joy.
Every thing needful to your salvation is com-
plete, and salvation itself is fully prepared for
your possession, the glorious gift of free and
sovereign grace. You are called upon to make
no atonement, to shed no blood, to offer no
expiation; this is all superseded by the shed-
ding of the blood of Christ. In order to have
the benefit of his interposition, you are but to
come to Christ, or to God through him. You
are but to repent, and to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ; for upon repentance your sins
shall be blotted out, and whosoever believeth
gvak
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
shall be saved. But you must do this; for
except we repent we shall all likewise perish,
and he that believeth not shall yet be con-
demned.
Nor is this a matter of mere necessity in
order to your escape from ruin, it is enjoined
upon you as itself a duty; your failing in which
will be regarded by God as directly criminal,
and more deeply so than your primary violation
of his law. Your not embracing the Redeemer,
he holds to be a greater sin than your not
having loved your Creator. This is the grand
manifestation of character to which he now
looks; it is the chief matter which he will
bring into judgment; and if you should be
finally condemned, it will be pre-eminently
because you have not believed on the name of
the only-begotten Son of God.
You perceive, therefore, dear reader, that
you are still indispensably called into action.
Something is prescribed to you, which you
must possess, or you are undone. Your future
and eternal condition actually turns upon this
point. This is a state of things which may rea-
sonably engage your severe inquiry. Its aspect
on one hand is that of most animating hope-
you may be saved; but it wears on the other
TO A SINNER.
365
an appearance of hard necessity-you must
repent.
1. What is it that is thus required of you?
I need not at present enter further into this
question than to say, that it is a state of mind.
The phrases coming to Christ, repenting, be-
lieving, and whatever others may be used in
the same reference, strictly and uniformly
import a state of mind, and nothing more.
Now this is well worthy of your observation.
This was what the law of God required of
you in the first instance; and it is what the
gospel, with all its riches of grace, requires of
you in the second: the two methods of divine
proceeding you perceive to be framed on one
and the same principle, namely, the perfect
equity of requiring you to possess a specific
state of mind.
2. But where is the equity of your being thus
left, and of salvation being poised on the single
circumstance of your attaining a prescribed
state of mind?
Observe, then, that you have still the means
of attaining to any state of mind, to which
suitable and sufficient inducements are set
before you. The means of doing this consist
solely in the faculty of consideration, with a
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
heart that answers to it; both of which you
have, if you are of sound mind; there is nothing
inequitable, therefore, in suspending your salva-
tion on the attainment of any state of mind,
if suitable and sufficient inducements to it are
exhibited. We must go on to ask, then, in
the next place, whether any motives are pre-
sented to you, suited and sufficient to induce
you to repent.
3. The answer to this question is easy, but
it can scarcely be brief. The topics adduced
in the divine word to bring you to repent-
ance comprehend all that is convincing in de-
scriptions of your guilt, or touching in the
character and aspect of your Maker, in the
prospect of eternity, in the solemnities of judg-
ment, and most especially in the interposition
of divine mercy, in the person and by the blood
of the Son of God. Yet I need not surely
enlarge on these themes; for, if you should,
unhappily, not repent, whatever may be the
cause of it, I cannot suppose you will ever say
that you did not know reasons enough why you
should have repented.
Let us return, therefore. For, if you have
the means of attaining to any state of mind to
which suitable and sufficient inducements are
TO A SINNER.
367
set before you; and if there are set before you
suitable and sufficient inducements to the pre-
scribed state of mind on which salvation depends,
then you have the means of attaining that state
of mind, and, with it, salvation itself. You
are, consequently most equitably treated. Sal-
vation is put into your own hands; and if you
lose it, it will be your own fault; it will be be-
cause you have not done that which you have
the means of doing. It is quite time, then,
that you should arouse yourself to action, lest,
while you sleep, your destruction come. You
cannot sleep, and be safe.
4. I may perhaps imagine your next question
to be this But how am I to attain a different
state of mind from that in which I am? A
very important inquiry, truly, and one most
readily answered. You are to produce what
effects you please on the state of your own
mind, by the consideration of topics adapted
to your design; such topics being sure to act
according to their nature, if duly weighed, and
being also sure to accomplish the object, if in
themselves sufficient for that purpose. We
have already seen, that the truths exhibited as
inducements to the state of mind with which
salvation is connected, are sufficient for that
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
purpose: if, therefore, you wish to attain that
state of mind, give due attention to them, and
they will not fail of their effect. It is precisely
for this effort of attention that God himself
calls upon you. "O that they were wise," says
he, "and would consider these things!" Hence
also the numberless instances in which he re-
quires men to hearken to him, which is accu-
rately expressive of attentive hearing: "Incline
your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your
soul shall live." This, in truth, may be re-
garded as the primary thing which God de-
mands of you, since he himself has so arranged
other points, that, if you do this, every thing
else will certainly follow, which may fulfil his
commands and secure your own welfare.
5. Here you may perhaps wish to know more
particularly what the state of mind, connected
with salvation, is. I have called it, in scrip-
ture language, coming to Christ, repentance,
and faith; it is also called in the sacred word,
being reconciled to God. All these convey the
same general idea of a total change of your
feelings on religious subjects, especially mani-
fested by a submissive acquiescence in the way
of salvation by the death and righteousness of
our Lord Jesus Christ. The truths which are
TO A SINNER.
369
adapted and sufficient to effect this change, are
contained in God's holy word; and the consi-
deration of them which will infallibly lead to
this result, is nothing more than an honest,
teachable, and persevering one, such as you
very well know the case to deserve. It does
not, indeed, need more than a single moment's
realizing view to decide your feelings; but
certainly you will not have fulfilled one half of
your duty in this respect, before your heart
will be broken with penitence, and inflamed
with love.
I will now only ask you, whether this is more
than your soul is worth? Whether, if you
perish through the refusal of such a method,
you will not be chargeable with your own ruin,
and give yourself cause for bitter and unan-
swerable reproaches? Shall I now leave you
to enter into your chamber, and look full in the
face those heart-stirring things which are
arrayed for your contemplation? The Lord
meet with you there!
IV.
Perhaps you will assure me, dear reader,
that you have often thought of these things,
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
and have often prayed too, and have not found
any beneficial effect. I am not willing to sus-
pect you of an attempt to deceive me, but I
fear you are deceiving yourself. First, as to
your prayers. Have not many, have not all
of them, been characterized by formality?
You may have been upon your knees; but did
you express any real desire before God? You
may recollect many instances in which you know
you did not; but when, on the contrary, what-
ever words may have passed from your lips,
your heart was quite vacant of any such desire.
Or if you think you have at any time expressed
real desire before God, what have you desired?
Perhaps pardon, deliverance from hell, or some
similar blessing; but you have desired them
apart from repentance and reconciliation to
God. The first object of prayer is a new,
that is, a holy heart, which is indispensable to
salvation: Did you ever desire this? Was it
ever your sincere supplication that God would
break the yoke of your unholy passions, and
cleanse your heart from the love of sin? You
may easily be convinced, I think, that this
never was your desire; neither is it so now:
You have never, therefore, put up a prayer that
God could listen to for a moment. He has
TO A SINNER.
371
never seen you at his throne but as a rebel,
cherishing your enmity to him, while you
would fain cover yourself from his deserved
indignation. Is it such prayers that satisfy
you? Or is it you who complain that you have
not a holy heart, you who have never desired
it?
Next, as to your assertion, that you have often
thought of religious subjects without benefit.
1. It is only a few of them, I suspect, that
have engaged your attention. Are there not
many aspects of divine things, to which you
must acknowledge you have never given any
consideration at all? Have you even, at any
time, taken the pains to inquire, whether there
were not some other serious and important
truths, adapted to affect the heart? Most
certainly you have not. Your conscience has
laid hold upon some few of the truths of reli-
gion which happened to come in its way, and
so you have given them a thought; but a far
greater number of the topics fitted to convert
the heart, are yet to you as things unknown.
Look carefully into the word of God, and see
if it be not so: and can you expect so partial
and inaccurate a view of truth to produce the
effect which you profess to desire?
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
2. I may probably say, too, that your atten-
tion has not been fixed upon the topics most
eminently adapted to affect your heart. Per-
haps some conviction of outward sin, rather
than a view of inward corruption; perhaps a
thought of the wrath to come, without a touch-
ing recollection of Him that is willing to save;
perhaps a cherished idea that the vilest sinner
may be saved, apart from the remembrance that
the wicked must forsake his way. How can
such mutilated thoughts as these produce the
effect you profess to have desired? They
much more probably minister, by an easy
perversion, to your tranquil continuance
in sin.
3. To this it may be added, that, to the topics
which have entered your mind, you have given
a very slender and inadequate attention. You
have often thought of these things, you say.
How often? Have you thought of them every
day, with the morning light, and the evening
shade; and has the savour of them been spread
through your busy hours? The very question
startles and confounds you. By often thinking
of religion, you mean that you have thought
of it occasionally, once in a few months, or a
few weeks, or a few days, which is often enough
TO A SINNER.
373
for you. And when you do think of serious
things, how do you think of them? Do you
set apart a portion of time to entertain them,
with the advantage of retirement, and a mind
withdrawn, as far as may be, from worldly
vanities and cares? Do you then take from
God's own word the representations of eternal
things, and endeavour to bring them home to
your heart with their utmost power? Have
you repeated this exercise every day, through
any considerable length of time?—I know you
cannot answer me these questions. You have
done nothing like this. Your thoughts of re-
ligion have been only such as have floated
across your mind amidst worldly concerns,
never welcomed, and seldom entertained for
a moment; thoughts which you have been more
pleased to forget, than ready to recal. Or,
if ever you have gone into solitude to pursue
such reflections, it has been but occasionally,
and you have yielded speedily to the feelings
of indifference or worldly love, which solicited
your abandonment of so unwelcome an employ.
And did you ever expect, that such thoughts
of religion would be influential? If they were,
religion must be very unlike to every thing
else; for, on no other subject would such
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
thoughts lead to any beneficial result. Nor
did you ever believe that you were giving to
religious subjects the consideration they de-
served. It is highly probable, that you never
even asked yourself whether you were paying
them a due regard or not; and certainly, when-
ever you might have done so, your own con-
science would have told you that you were not.
And yet, though you cannot make any pre-
tensions to having paid such a regard to
religious subjects as you know they deserved,
you complain that you have thought of them
without effect!
p
4. I may charge you with yet a further fault :
You have shown no willingness to yield to the
force of such thoughts as may have been brought
to your mind. When you have been convinced
of sin, you have not taken up that conviction
thus:- Now I see that this is wrong; I ought
to be sorry for it, and loathe it, and humble
myself before God on account of it.' When a
thought of eternity has entered your mind, you
have made no attempt to apply it, as by saying,
'O, my soul, think of this! I am soon to be
either in heaven or in hell: and what manner
The same might be
You have not
of person ought I to be!'
said of every other truth.
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375
tried, you have not wished, that they should
influence you; but have felt rather glad to
evade their influence by forgetfulness, if not to
destroy it by inviting thoughts of a contrary
tendency. And can you wonder that your
thoughts of religion have been powerless?
5. I will direct your attention to one circum-
stance more, which will show you that the
truths of religion are in fact powerful, to the
full extent to which they are considered. You
have never entertained a thought of religion
for a moment, which did not produce some
effect. Whenever you have thought about it,
under whatever aspect, you have found that it
had a tendency to make you serious, and even
anxious; and if you have at any time thought
of it more closely, or for a longer period, you
have found this tendency more strong. What
is this, but a decisive testimony to the power
of religious truths over the heart, as far as
consideration is given to them? Suppose you
had carried the consideration of them further?
Their influence, of course, would have been.
greater. Suppose you had given them the full
consideration you knew them to deserve? Their
influence would have been greater still; nay,
it would have been decisive and effectual. There
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
is no reason why they have not induced you to
repent, but because you have treated them with
consciously unmerited neglect.
Remember, therefore, dear reader, that this
excuse also is taken away from you.
If you
repent, it must arise from reflection; it can
arise from no other means, and it will infallibly
arise from this. The question is, Will you, or
will you not attend to God's call? If you will
not, his indignation will justly follow your
rebellious obstinacy. If you will, enter into
your closet, and consider duly the objects
adapted to prevail with you; and again, I say,
The Lord meet with you there!
V.
Well, my friend, have you been into your
closet?—I will conceive you, dear reader, to say
that you have, and that you are still prepared
to complain of not finding the advantages I led
you to expect. Have you, then, duly reflected
on the solemn truths relating to your eternal
welfare? You cannot, probably, say that you
have. You have been alone, but your thoughts
have been drawn aside by other objects, and
you have not fixed them on divine things for
TO A SINNER.
37
even a few moments. Allow me then to observe,
that it is no wonder the state of your mind has
undergone no change. This was to result from
due consideration, and from that alone; but
you have given no due consideration to serious
things, and for this reason they have produced
no effect. I may still maintain, therefore, that
due consideration will be effectual, and might
again press it upon you. But if I were to urge
you to return to your chamber, you would per-
haps say, It is useless. I cannot reflect. Let
me know, however, what you mean when you
say, you cannot reflect. You do not mean that
the exercise of reflection or consideration it-
self is impracticable to you? You can still
reflect on matters of worldly business, or give
attention to the affairs of life; only you cannot
attend to the concerns of religion. I under-
stand you, then; and it is important that you
should understand yourself. The considera-
tion of religious subjects is so unwelcome to
you, that your heart shrinks from it; your
feelings have so much levity and worldliness
in them, that they drive away all serious
thoughts. Do you call this not being able to
reflect? It is surely not being willing to reflect,
or rather, being determined that you will not.
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
What are those light and wicked feelings of
yours, that they are to banish matters of the
utmost moment from your regard, and even to
prevent your thinking of them? Or what are
you, but a foolish and a wicked man, to suffer
them to do so? Would you permit similar
causes to draw you from an examination of
your worldly affairs? Why then from an
inquiry into the state of your soul?
You are, however, learning by experience
one thing, which, though you may have often
heard it, you never knew or believed, proba-
bly, till now; you are learning the plague of
your own heart. Must it not be an evil heart,
which is so reluctant to look even at the things
of another world, which refuses to be brought
at all into contact with them, and pertinaciously
baffles every effort at consideration, by its che-
rished worldliness and levity? See also to
what awful consequences it leads. You are
thus induced to trifle with your own soul and
your most important interests, to reject your
Saviour, and to defy your Judge. You waste
time, you forget eternity, and you leave death,
judgment, and hell, to come at their leisure,
and overwhelm you with unutterable terrors.
Are you not amazed at your own image?
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379
Resolute trifler that you are, what will become
of you? Whither will this wicked heart con-
duct you, but to everlasting sorrow?
You must not, however, imagine for a mo-
ment that this reluctance which baffles you,
affords any justification, or even any excuse,
for your inconsideration and neglect. What
is itself wicked can furnish no excuse for other
wickedness. Your heart is evil, but see to it;
for it should be good, and God commands you
to make it so. "Make you a new heart, and a
new spirit," says he; Ezek. xviii. 31; and
again, "Wash thine heart from wickedness,"
Jer. iv. 14. This command, you perceive,
proceeds upon the principle already stated,
that, when sufficient inducements to any state
of mind are presented to us, that state of mind
may be justly required at our hands, because
consideration will infallibly produce it. For
the correction of your evil heart, therefore, you
are still thrown back on the necessity and the
sufficiency of consideration.
Yet I would dissuade you from putting on
a new resolution, and saying, it shall be so no
more; you will be more thoughtful. Happy
should I be to think this would be the case;
but there are those who know more of your
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
heart than as yet you know yourself. It is
not worth while to resolve what, in a few
moments, or in a few hours at most, will be
undone. The great God, who alone knows the
heart through all its windings and depths, has
assured us that it is desperately wicked, that
there is no hope of its ever resigning its love
for the world and its enmity to God, without
other aid. Men flatter themselves often and
long that it will; but in this, as in all other
respects, God is wiser than men, and experience
proves him right. The fixedness of your deter-
mination in the love of sin, under whatever
disguise it may be concealed, is so great that
the scripture affirms your conversion to be as
hopeless as the washing of the Ethiopian, or
the raising of the dead. If you wish to be
baffled and undone, therefore, continue to deal
with yourself as inefficiently as hitherto; but
if you have any desire to escape from the
wrath to come, fall instantly on your knees
before God, and implore his quickening and
renewing grace, the grace of his Holy Spirit.
This is his special remedy for the reigning
wickedness of your heart, and it is graciously
promised. He will pour out his Spirit unto
you; he will give you a new heart, and put
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2
within you a right spirit; the stony heart will
he take away out of your flesh, and give you a
heart of flesh. All will be well then, but not
till then; and short of that, nothing should
satisfy you.
Remember, however, what you are to pray
for. You are to pray, not for salvation, but
for the state of mind with which salvation is
connected; that is, for a change of heart. Do
not imagine that prayer will save you, or that
having prayed you have done your duty, and
may leave the rest to God. Your direct, im-
mediate, and indispensable duty is to repent,
from the obligation and necessity of which
prayer by no means relieves you: on the con-
trary, you come to pray, because your heart
is so wicked it will not repent, and to ask God
to give you repentance. As a wicked heart
drives you to prayer, so prayer should lead
you afresh to grapple with a wicked heart, by
more vigorous exercises of reflection and medi-
tation upon the all-important subjects to which,
if to any thing, it must ultimately yield.
Remember, too, what an unspeakable mercy
it is that your way to the throne of grace is
yet open; that a condescending Saviour will
yet receive you; that, after all your unwilling-
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PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
ness and unworthiness, he will not cast you
out; but rather invites and welcomes you as
you are, to the fountain of his blood and the
blessings of his salvation.
Am I to entertain a doubt whether you
will follow my counsel? Do you hesitate to
admit that your heart is madly and diaboli-
cally evil as I have here represented it? Must
you try a little more in your own strength?
Let experience then teach you, if you live to
learn its bitter lessons; but let experience teach
you, and do not maintain a high opinion of
your good intentions, in defiance of perpetuated
folly and sin! Neither let it be forgotten how
short a time you may have to try the experi-
ment, and how soon he that hardeneth his
neck may be destroyed without remedy. Re-
member that this is your last hope, and that,
turning a deaf ear to this gracious invitation,
you abandon yourself entirely to your own
wickedness, and its dreadful results. Yet
understand why and how it is that you perish.
It is not because you do not pray, but because
you do not repent. It is because you do not
attain a particular state of mind, which you
have the means of attaining, inasmuch as the
truths set before you, being duly considered,
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383
A
will infallibly produce it. Do not endeavour,
therefore, to shift the mischief or the guilt to
any other quarter. They lie wholly with your-
self. Your perdition is as much your own
act, and you have as truly the means of pre-
venting it, as if you had this moment a dagger
in your hand, and I were speaking of your
plunging it into your bosom. Will not all
heaven weep, and all hell wonder, at the cool
and dreadful obduracy with which you can
perpetrate the deed of eternal sorrow?
VI.
W
May I hope that I meet you now, my dear
reader, with greater pleasure? I trust you
have now been into solitude, to seek the Lord.
You have implored at his hands the removal
of your desperate levity, and have especially
sought the influence of his blessed Spirit to
open your heart, that you may attend to the
things which concern your eternal peace. Has
the Lord heard the voice of your cry?
If you hesitate a moment in giving me an
answer to this question, it is not because you
feel that you must answer it in the negative,
but only because you cannot yet say all that
384
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
you desire. Your waiting upon God has not
been altogether in vain. You begin to see
something which hitherto you have not seen.
There are strange heavings within your bosom ;
though as yet, perhaps, you seem only to learn
your own ignorance and hardness of heart, and
to be more blind and obdurate than ever,
so that your condition appears to you to be
awful indeed. Or perhaps you can say that
the Lord has softened your heart, and enlarged
it in prayer; leading you as a lost and helpless
sinner to the Saviour's footstool, and inspiring
you with hope, if not with joy and peace, in
believing.
Whatever the peculiarities of your case may
be, (and there are endless diversities in the
operations of the same Spirit,) I doubt not you
will acknowledge that you are indebted to the
blessed Spirit for every measure of beneficial
change. It has been wrought in opposition to
yourself, and in the face of long prevalent
feelings, which have been broken down and
brought into captivity to Christ, by a power
consciously not your own. Long did you re-
sist, and still would have resisted, had not a
gracious friend disarmed you, and laid you
low at his feet. If you are now willing instead
TO A SINNER.
385
of unwilling, it is because he has made you so,
in the day of his power.
To whom, therefore, have you to ascribe the
glory? Manifestly to him who has wrought
the change. It might have been to yourself,
if
you had shewn any disposition towards it, or
if you had of your own accord made use of the
means in your possession; but seeing that,
with the means in your hands, you neglected
the great salvation, and turned from him that
called you, what can ever belong to you but
shame and confusion of face? All the praise
is due to the God of your salvation. You are
a monument of his mercy, a trophy of his
victorious grace; and, while time or immor-
tality endures, you will have to say, Not
unto me, not unto me, O Lord, but unto thy
name be glory, for thy mercy's sake!'
While self-gratulation is thus destroyed, it
is important you should learn also the greatness
of your obligations. You should neither over-
look nor forget, what and how much grace
hath done for you. It was much that Christ
should die for you, and that a way should thus be
opened for your reconciliation to God; but was
it not hard, too, that you would not be recon-
ciled? You wilfully cherished and perpetuated
S
386
PRACTICAL ADDRESSES
a state of enmity towards God! What might
he not have done with you? But what
did he do? Instead of leaving you to your
obstinacy, he sent his own Spirit into your
heart, to weary you of your evil ways, and
constrain you to seek his face. He himself
opened the heart which you locked against
him; and the blessedness which he has shed
abroad there is not of your seeking, but of his
own bringing, unsought. The first serious
thought you entertained he inspired, and dic-
tated the first prayer you uttered. Could he
have done more, or could you have deserved
less? And what does he now deserve of you,
but a life of grateful purity and devotedness,
immovable and unquenchable for ever?
At the same time it is worthy of your ob-
servation, that the blessed Spirit has wrought
this change in you in a method adapted, not to
contradict, but to confirm, all your views of
primary duty and guilt. What he has done
may be summed up in this brief description ;-
he has led you to consideration, and by the
consideration of divine things has transformed
your heart.
You are conscious that similar
consideration of these things would, at any
time, have had the same effect; so that what-
TO A SINNER.
387
ever doubt you may have affected respecting
it before, you have convincing evidence now,
that the means of repentance and salvation were
in your own hands, and that your state of im-
penitence was one of entire wilfulness and deep
criminality. Ah! why did you neglect these
heart-subduing truths so long? With what
bitterness and shame have you now to look
back on that guilty period; and how power-
fully should the recollection of it animate you,
while you endeavour to live henceforth to him
that loved you, and gave himself for you!
บ
NOTE.
NOTE.
HAVING, at the commencement of this work, expressed
my dissatisfaction with the existing construction of our
several Catechisms, in reference to the subject which has
been under discussion, I feel myself in some measure called
upon to a exhibit a different, and, in my opinion, a more
eligible line of instruction. At all events, such an attempt
may show how easily the sentiments which have been ad-
vocated may be reduced to the catechetical form, and may
suggest some hints for the use of those who may be em-
ployed in the instruction of the young.
Q. My dear child, does God require any thing of you?
A. Yes; to love him with all my heart, and my neigh-
bour as myself.
Q. What has he done to induce you to do this?
A. He has set before me, reasons why I should do so.
Q. What is necessary in order to your rendering the
obedience God requires of you?
A. A due consideration of the reasons he has set before
me.
Q. Do you feel inclined to keep God's commandments?
A. No; I feel very much averse to them, and hence
continually forget and disregard them.
NOTE.
389
Q. Then you have already broken the commandments
of God?
A. I have broken them many times, and am continually
breaking them.
Q. And is God justly angry with you on this account?
A. Yes; because I have disregarded the reasons set
before me, to induce me to obedience.
Q. What does God require in order that your sins may
be forgiven?
A. That I should hate and forsake them, and submit to
his mercy through Jesus Christ.
Q. Upon what ground does he require such a change in
you?
A. Because he sets before me most weighty and power-
ful reasons for it, which, if duly considered, will produce
that effect.
Q. What, then, is your immediate duty as a sinner
against God?
A. To hearken diligently to his word, and weigh every
thing he says according to its great importance.
Q. Have you already learned to hate sin, and to submit
to Jesus Christ?
A. No; I still love my sins, and practise them conti-
nually.
Q. Have you, then, ever duly considered what God has
set before you?
A. I have not; but have hitherto been very inattentive
to it.
Q. And what may you learn from this long-continued
inattention to such important things?
A. That the love of sin is very strong within me, and
induces me to neglect all the instructions of God's word.
Q. How long do you think it will continue to do so?
A. If I may judge from the past, it will do so always.
390
NOTE.
Q. And so God forewarns you. Is not your character
then, very wicked?
A. Yes; dreadfully wicked.
Q. Is not your condition also very dangerous?
A. Yes; I am on the brink of destruction.
Q. Is it not of the utmost importance you should se-
riously reflect upon it?
A. It is awfully important; but my heart flies from it.
Q. Have you any wish it should be fixed and awakened?
A. I hope I have.
Q. May you ask it of God?
A. Yes; for he has promised to pour out his Holy
Spirit unto me, if I seek it, and to take away the heart of
stone, and give me a heart of flesh.
N
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