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has previously given us will and inclination to obey them? -Surely nothing can be more absurd or unreasonable than such a supposition. Should Arminians reply, We do not say that God is obliged to give us will and inclination-I ask, What then do you mean by power to obey the commands of God? If you mean natural power or natural faculties, we have no dispute with you on this subject but if you mean moral power, that is nothing else than will and inclination. The supposition that God is obliged to vouchsafe his assisting grace to enable men to obey his commands, is, in every view of the subject, absurd. For, if God is obliged to vouchsafe his grace, that grace vouchsafed is no longer grace, it is a debt. That which God in justice is bound to give, is not grace. Dr. Graves, and other Arminian writers, talk absurdly, and are guilty of a gross abuse of language, when they call by the name of grace, that assistance which they allege God is bound to give in order to enable us to obey his precepts.-They should either give up their system, or, at least, they should call things by their proper names. From their vocabulary the word grace should be entirely expunged. It is a gross misnomer.

Both Arminians and Calvinists agree in this, that man, in his natural state, without divine assistance, is utterly unable to believe, repent, and obey. This inability, as we have already seen, arises from, or rather consists in, our moral depravity. This depravity is universal. There is none that doeth good; no, not one. It is total. All the

faculties of the soul are depraved-the understanding-the will-the affections-the imagination-the conscience-the heart. Men in their natural state (Eph. iv. 18,) have their "understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of "God through the ignorance that is in them, because of "the blindness of their heart. -Their will and affections are carnal, and filled with enmity. (Rom. viii. 7,)" The "carnal mind is enmity against God: it is not subject to

his law, neither indeed can be."-Men in their natural state are "haters of God, and live hateful, and, hating one "another." "Madness is in their heart." It is "deceit"ful above all things, and desperately wicked." "Every "imagination is only evil continually." The state of fallen man involves in it two things, guilt and depravity. Guilt is removed by the atoning blood of Jesus, as we have already seen; and depravity is removed by the renovating and sanctifying influence of the Holy Ghost. Dr. B. main

tains, that baptism is regeneration.* To expect any subsequent regeneration, hé stigmatises as rank enthusiasm. He is not the first master in Israel who knew not these things, and needed to be taught the first principles of the joracles of God. Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, was also gnorant of this great important doctrine. Our Saviour assures him, that he needed not only baptism by water, but regeneration by the power of the Holy Ghost. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Baptism with water was the sign; but regeneration, or the new birth, was the thing signified. Water is the great regenerating agent in the natural world; the holy spirit in the moral world. The one is a fit emblem of the other. The vege table world during the winter is in a state of decay. By the vernal showers it is regenerated, and the decayed face of the earth renewed.-In like manner, by the blessed spirit of all grace the souls of men are renewed, and the moral world regenerated. (Is. xliv. 3, 4,) " For I will pour water upon "him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I "will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon "thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the "grass, as willows by the water courses."-Old and New Testaments unite in teaching the same blessed doctrine. (Titus, iii. 5,) Not by works of righteousness which we

have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by "the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy "Ghost." We may as well expect the renovating of the vegetable world without water, as the regeneration of the moral without the all-powerful influence of the Divine Spirit. The same divine influence which created the world and raised the dead, is necessary to the restoration of our fallen nature, and regeneration of our perverted faculties. To illuminate our darkened understanding, requires the influence of that omnipotent agent, who said, "Let there be "light, and there was light." It is the same Almighty Being that commanded the light to shine out of darkness,

*Dr. Mant, now Lord Bishop of Down and Connor, in his Bampton Lectures, and the Bishop of Lincoln, in his Refutation of Calvinism, advocate the same dangerous and uncharitable doctrine. For a refutation of it, the reader may consult the work of an eminent Divine of the Church of England.-Scott's Remarks on the Refutation of Calvin

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who shines in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of his son Jesus Christ. Some imagine, that as light expels darkness, so all that is necessary to expel the darkness of our minds is the light of the divine word. This, however, is a gross fallacy. Light, indeed, introduced into a dark room will banish the darkness; but it will not give light to a man born blind. With regard to such a man, it is not only necessary that he should be introduced to the light, but, in order that he may profit by it, the cataract must be couched; his eyes must be opened. Just so with the natural man.-He requires not only an external revelation, but an internal illumination. Hence the judicious prayer of David, "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wonderful things out of thy law." Were Dr. B. to offer the same prayer, it might not be unprofitable. By divine illumination he might be brought to see in the sacred volume many wonderful things which he has never yet seen; particularly the necessity of the new birth-the necessity of a regeneration quite different from water baptism.

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The omnipotent power of the blessed spirit is not only necessary to open the darkened understanding, but also to bend the stubborn will. We have already seen, that men are naturally unwilling to come to the Redeemer that they may have life; and that the carnal mind is enmity against God but God sends forth the rod of his strength out of Zion, and makes his people willing in the day of his power. (Psal. cx. 3.)-By the powerful energy of the blessed spirit, he destroys the enmity of the carnal mind, and sheds abroad divine love in the heart.-In a word; man by nature is spiritually dead-dead in trespasses and sins. To raise him from his spiritual death, and enable him to walk with Jesus in newness of life, requires an exertion of divine power equal to that which raises the dead. To enable an unregenerated man to believe, requires not only the power of God, but the exceeding greatness of his power. (Eph. i. 19,)" And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to "us-ward who believe, according to the working of his "mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised "him from the dead." The same Apostle prays for the Thessalonians, "That God would fulfil all the good pleasure of his will, and the work of faith with power.” It is the powerful agency of that same spirit which entered into Ezekiel's dried bones, that quickens dead sinners-that

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begins the good work of grace, and carries it on to perfection till the day of Christ Jesus. It is the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus that makes us free from the law of sin and death. By his blessed agency, sinners are created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works-they are renewed in the spirit of their minds-old things pass away, and all things become new. My readers are now left to judge, what kind of a system that must be, which does not embrace, but rather excludes, the regenerating and sanctifying influences of the Holy Ghost.

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Should any person ask, Is it the duty of fallen man to regenerate himself? I answer, It is. Many, I know, will be astonished at this answer. They will be ready to exclaim; What! The duty of fallen man to regenerate himself! What monstrous absurdity! Might he not, with as much reason, be required to create himself? or to raise himself from the dead?-By no means: though the impossibility in the one case is as great as that in the other, it is of a quite different nature; and therefore the greatness of the impossibility does not affect the obligation of the duty, nor render the requirement of it unreasonable. That it is the duty of fallen man to regenerate himself, cannot reasonably be doubted by any who believe the Bible to be the word of God. In the sacred volume, we are expressly enjoined to regenerate ourselves. (Ezekiel, xviii. 31,) " Make you a new heart, and a new spirit." Now, if regeneration, or the making of a new heart and a new spirit, were not a duty, it would not be enjoined. The righteous gov ernor of the universe cannot possibly issue any command, which it is not our duty to obey. His commandments are not grievous: they are all holy, just, and good. Would it be unjust or cruel in a husband to address his unfaithful spouse thus Break off your adulterous connexions, and become a new woman. Be a faithful, loving, and obedient wife. Be no longer for another man, and so will I also be for thee."-Would such an address be unreasonable or cruel? Surely not. Such an abandoned female might indeed find it as great an impossibility to become a new woman to become a faithful, loving, and obedient wife-as to create herself out of nothing, or to raise herself from the dead. But surely every person must see, that such impossibility, arising from dissipation and depravity, could not possibly be any excuse-it could not possibly relax her obligations to duty and obedience.

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I ask again: Would it be unjust or cruel in a father to address his prodigal son thus: Leave off your courses of dissipation and prodigality. Become a new man. Behave as a dutiful and obedient son, and you shall be heir of all my possessions ?-Would such requisitions be unjust or cruel? Surely not. And yet the son might be such an abandoned and dissipated character, that he could no more obey his father's injunctions, than he could raise the dead or create a new world. Why then may not God, our heavenly Father, address us, his prodigal and rebellious offspring in similar language? Why may he not say unto us, "Repent and turn yourselves from your transgressions; so "iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby ye have transgressed; and "make you a new heart, and a new spirit; for why will ye "die?" When enjoined to make a new heart and new spirit, all that is required is, to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind, and our neighbour as ourselves. Is it unreasonable, I ask, for God to require of us to love himself, and to love one another? Surely nothing can be more reasonable. It is true, I acknowledge, that in our present depraved state we can no more comply with those reasonable requisitions, than we could create ourselves out of nothing, or raise the dead. But such inability proves what?-It fully proves, that we are MONSTROUSLY DEPRAVED, DESPERATELY WICKED, AND QUITE INEXCUSABLE.

With regard to the unfaithful wife and prodigal son mentioned above, would any one say, that the husband, after making the gracious proposals previously stated, was oblig ed, moreover, to change his wife's depraved and dissipated mind?—that he was obliged to change her hatred and disaffection into love?or that the father was obliged to era dicate his son's vicious habits and corrupt propensities, and to infuse into his mind filial piety and virtuous affections? Surely this would be highly unreasonable. But perhaps it may be said, the cases are not parallel. The husband was not able to change the dispositions of his wife, nor the father of his son, but God is able to change the dispositions of all his children. I grant it. But because he is able, is he therefore bound to do it? Surely not. He is able in a moment to eradicate every vestige of wickedness out of the minds both of men and devils, but he is not therefore bound to do it. He is neither bound to prevent men from sinning,

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