who have not been deeply convinced of sin by the effectual working of the Divine Spirit. There is then a most. obvious difference to be made upon the bearing of the question, as it respects those two very opposite states. and conditions man, created perfect and upright under a covenant or constitution of works, which he had full ability to perform and, man, fallen, ruined, weak, and dead in a spiritual sense, without power, without desire to perform, or rather with contrariety only to, the righteous. will and purity of his Maker. To such an undone creature, the question cannot apply but in a legal point of view, or but in reference to the holy Law, which condemns him in all things and at all times, and would condemn him absolutely under the Gospel itself, if he must stand or fall by the most ardent prayers, the best exercises of faith, or the most holy acts and

thoughts

thoughts of his soul. The law ap-, plies to man when upright to justify, and when fallen to condemn him; but to mix this. with the grace of the Gospel, and to talk of duty in the first instance, where every thing must be of the divine goodness and mercy, is to displace the order of gracious wisdom, to disparage the glory of gratuitous redemption, and to introduce man as a high and mighty agent, where he is at best but a helpless beggar, and must be, in becoming a real Christian, a broken hearted recipient of absolute bounty and favour.* The confounding duty with privilege,

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* The Second Council of Orange, A. D. 529, to the same effect concluded; "If any man say, that mercy is conferred by God upon us, believing, willing, desiring, endeavouring, laboring, watching, studying, asking, seeking, knocking, without the grace of God; but doth not confess, that it is only by the infusion and inspiration of

the

privilege, in this case, is mingling Law with Gospel; and, while it pre

tends

the Holy Ghost into us, that we believe, will, and are able to do all these things as we ought to do, and makes the help of grace to follow after either humility or obedience, nor will grant that it is by the gift of grace itself, that we are obedient and humble; that man resisteth the Apostle in saying, "What hast thou, that thou hast not received?" And, "By the grace of God, I am what I am." See Bishop Beveridge on the 9th Art. of the Church of England. The Bishop might have transcribed the other twenty-four Canons of this Council, which almost equally bear upon the same point. The Council itself assembled, as also did some other Councils about that age, for the purpose of deciding upon the errors of the Semi-pelagians (or, as they would now be termed, the Semi-arminians), which had been broached in the preceding century, to the moles-. tation of the Church. The author of this error is stated to have been Cassian, a monk of Syria, who settled at Marseilles, about the year 430. He and his followers, who formed a considerable party in the South of France, asserted, that, even before or without the grace of God, man

had

tends to be careful of the interests of holiness, it actually subverts those interests, by removing (if possible) the main spring by which they can

had sufficient free-will, if not truly to effect any good work, yet certainly to begin it, by seeking, knocking, or asking for grace to assist their own endeavors for repentance and conversion. Against this tenet, as contrary to the faith of the Church, Fulgentius, the eminent friend of St. Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine, and other celebrated authors of that time, strenuously contended, and were supported by several particular Councils, and especially by the Second Council of Orange, before-mentioned. The Canons of this Council, upon a reference to the then Bishop of Rome, were declared to be "the doctrine of the Church and of the Fathers;" a measure which, without giving much credit to his infallibility, he cannot fairly be supposed to have taken, in the face of the world, either if he doubted of the fact, or if the fact had been otherwise. Several other Bishops of Rome in succession also confirmed the doctrine, as the established sentiment of the primitive Church down to the respective periods in which they lived.

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only

only be carried on, even the free and efficacious operation of the Spirit of God. It does more; it tends, on the one hand, to introduce into an unbroken heart the notions of its own powers and righteousness; and, on the other, to distress the children of God, by pointing out to them, as a ground of hope or comfort, their due performance of religious acts, instead of the sole and finished salvation of Christ, and the free grace and mercy set forth in the Gospel. This is not the way of truth, or peace, or holiness. True holiness, as things now are in the world, is the offspring of faith only; and this faith is the gift of God, and imparted to the soul by the gracious and sovereign operation of his Holy Spirit. So that Faith," as an amiable divine ob" is not so properly a part of that obedience we owe to God, as an inestimable benefit we receive from

serves,