THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM AND REVELATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIM :

the eyes of their understanding being enlightened, that they might know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the

EXCEEDING GREATNESS OF HIS POWER

to us-ward, who beliece, according to the WORKING OF HIS MIGHTY power. -If this Spirit of wisdom, and this mighty power, were necessary for the production of faith and hope in the Ephesians; who are they, that can believe and understand, without the same assistance,? Or, how can any call upon HIM from the heart, in whom they have not previously believed?

§ 11. Could we, for a moment, adopt the contrary proposition, and state the origination of a man's turning to God as arising within and from himself; what is the consequence ? To be consistent, we must place the Free-will

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Free-will of the creature before the Free-will of the Creator. We must represent the Grace of God to be dependent on the inclination of man, and the redemption of souls to be effectual or ineffectual, as chance, or the flesh, or fleshly wisdom, may induce men either to accept or reject it. With this principle, which equally contradicts the word of truth and the experience of God's children in all ages, comes in a long train of subsequent errors, highly dishonourable to the divine nature, and very repugnant to the peace and spiritual progress of those, who are infected by them. From the presumption of freewill, carnal understanding, and freeagency, assumed by an unenlightened and unmortified sinner, arise that "ignorant" self-righteousness which cannot "submit to the righteousness of God," that specious wisdom of human reason, which esteems as "foolishness"

ness" " "the things of the Spirit of God," and that wrong idea of natural power, which of itself can begin to perform the will of God, and believe in him, and continue to believe and act, by its own innate exertions, with but little or at most a very qualified assistance from above. All this, when, fully laid open, is radically as contrary to the plan and spirit of the Gospel of Christ, as were the principles of the ancient Pharisees, or the later tenets of Pelagius and Socinus.

And indeed I may, in this place, submit to my reader's particular observation; That all free-willers, whether they be Pharisees, Formalists, or Libertines; in a word, all men, who know not the power of God in his, word, and have not felt a change of heart as well as taken up an outward reformation of life, make an easy affair of Faith, and do generally maintain, that it is the mere simple act of the human

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human mind from its own native ener gy, and that, at the most, the Holy Spirit only grants a competent degree of illumination, but leaves the soul as He found it, either to believe or not to believe, as it may determine for itself. This, upon the authority of the Scriptures, is by no means the faith of God's elect, to whom Christ is, not only the wisdom of God enlightening, but the power of God effectually working, to their final salvation. The devils have such a faith, and perhaps greater faith (if so it may be called) than all natural men have; and though, under its clearness to their intellect, they may tremble more than wicked men do, yet it works no change, either in the one or the other, for passing from death unto life, but they remain evil, if not more evil and hardened than ever.

§ 12.

§ 12. But, it has been objected, "Is it not the Duty of every man to believe in God?"

The question is proposed, with respect to the present state of man, too absolutely, and very often for a captious purpose. Doubtless, it is the duty of every intelligent being, whether man or angel, upon the plan and nature of their original creation, to love, serve, honor, obey, and believe, the divine Essence, from whom they proceed, and who can enjoin nothing but what is perfectly right and true. But the question, as it stands in the present case with relation to man as fallen, and to his cordial acceptance of redemption by Christ, is a question of power, rather than of absolute duty; and, for want of this distinction between man's fallen state and his original creation, it becomes a mere sophism to blind the eyes and delude the heart of those,