The account, which I have now given of the Arminian doctrine with regard to the nature and efficacy of the grace of God, is agreeable to the three last of the five articles in which the early Arminians stated their system. In these articles they discover an anxiety to vindicate themselves from the charge of Pelagianism, or from the appearance of ascribing so much to the natural powers of man, as to render the grace of God unnecessary.

3. Man has not saving faith from himself, and, being in a state of depravity and sin, he cannot, by the exercise of his own free will, think or do any thing that is truly good; but it is necessary that he be regenerated and renewed by God in Christ through his Holy Spirit, in his mind, his affections, or his will, and all his faculties, that he may understand, think, will, and perform any good thing; according to that saying of Christ, "Without me ye can do nothing."

4. The fourth article, after saying that this grace of God is the beginning, the progress, and the perfection of all good, so that all our good works are to be ascribed to the grace of God in Christ, adds these words: But as to the manner of the operation of this grace, it is not irresistible: for it is said in Scripture of many, that they resisted the Holy Spirit.

5. The fifth article, after mentioning the strength and assistance furnished to those who are united to Christ by a true faith, expresses a doubt whether they may not by their own negligence make shipwreck of a good conscience, and forfeit their interest in Christ. The later Arminians laid aside the language of doubt upon this subject, and said without hesitation, that those who, being united to Christ by faith, had been partakers of his grace, might, through their own fault, fall from a state of grace.

The Calvinistic system gives a very different view of the application of the remedy; and the difference may be traced back to its fundamental principle, that Christ did not die for all men, but for those of every nation who are in the end to be saved. Them only he delivers from the curse, and for them only he purchases those influences of the Spirit by which faith and repentance are produced. Others enjoy in common with them the gifts of nature, the bounties of providence, the light of conscience; and all who live in a Christian country, by the motives proposed in the Gospel, and by the ordinances. of religion may be restrained from many open sins, and excited to many good actions. But that grace, which forms in the mind of man the character connected with salvation, is confined to those whom God hath chosen. Being conferred in execution of an unchangeable decree, it cannot fail of attaining its effect; and, being the action of the Creator upon the mind of the creature, it is able to surmount all that opposition and resistance which arises from the corruption of human nature. It is distinguished by the Calvinists from that continual influence which the Supreme Cause exerts throughout his creation, and by which he upholds his creatures in being, preserves the faculties which he gave them, and may in some sense, be said to concur with all their actions. And it is conceived to be an extraordinary supernatural influence of the Creator, by which the disorders which sin had introduced into the faculties of human nature are corrected, and the mind is transformed and renewed, and created again unto

good works. There have not been wanting some who have attempted to explain the manner of this supernatural influence. But the wiser Calvinists, without entangling themselves in an inextricable labyrinth of expressions which after every attempt to affix clear ideas to them must remain unintelligible, rest in that caution which our Lord gave when he spoke to Nicodemus upon this subject. John iii. 7, 8. "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." Although we cannot give a satisfying account of the causes why the wind blows at a particular season from one quarter, or why it ceases just when it does, we do not doubt of the fact, because we see and feel its effects. So, although the manner of the operation of the Spirit is not an object of sense, and cannot be explained by words, we may be assured of the reality of the operation from its effects. When we see such a change upon the disposition and the life of the regenerate, as cannot be accounted for by any natural means, we are led to acknowledge the power of the Divine Agent by whom the change was produced; and we perceive the propriety with which the Scriptures, in speaking of this change, make use of such expressions as being born again, creation, resurrection. For the figure used in these expressions tends to mislead, unless the action marked by them implies an exertion of power, the effect of which is independent of any co-operation or any resistance in the subject of the action; and therefore they may be considered as indicating such an operation of the Spirit, as effectually removes that corruption of the powers of human nature which nothing less can remedy.

This supernatural influence is seldom exerted without the use of means; in other words, although the means of removing the corruption of human nature derive their efficacy entirely from the Spirit of God, yet, in accomplishing this object, the Spirit of God ordinarily employs the exhortations, the promises and the threatenings of the word of God, the council and example of good men, and all those instruments which have a tendency to improve the human mind. Hence that change which is the work of the Spirit, is not instantaneous, but consists of many previous steps, of many preparatory dispositions and affections, and of a gradual progress in goodness;-by all which a man is conducted from that state of degeneracy which is natural to the posterity of Adam, to the possession of that character without which none can be saved. His understanding is enlightened with the knowledge of the truth; his will is inclined to follow the dictates of his understanding; he pursues a certain line of conduct, because it is his choice; and he has the feeling of the most perfect liberty, because he becomes willing to do that from which formerly he was averse. Augustine expressed the effect of this influence by the significant phrase, victrix delectatio; a delight in the commandments of God, which overcomes every inferior appetite; and all the Calvinists, when they speak of the efficacy of divine grace, would be understood to mean that the grace of God acts upon man, not as a machine, but as a reasonable being.

As the grace of God, which is conceived to derive its efficacy from

his power of fulfilling his purpose in those for whom it is destined, overcomes all the opposition with which it is at first received, so it continues to be exerted amidst all the frailty and corruption which adhere to human nature in a present state. It is not exerted to such a degree as to preserve any man from every kind of sin. For God is pleased to teach Christians humility, by keeping up the remembrance of that state out of which they were delivered, and to quicken their aspirations after higher degrees of goodness, by leaving them to struggle with temptation, and to feel manifold infirmities. But although no man is enabled in this life to attain to perfection, the grace of God preserves those to whom it is given, from drawing back to perdition. The doctrine of the perseverance of the saints flows necessarily from that decree, by which they were from eternity chosen to salvation, and from the manner in which according to the Calvinistic system the decree was executed; and all the principles of the system must be renounced before we can believe that any of those for whom Christ died, and who consequently became partakers of his grace, can fall from that grace either finally-by which is meant that they shall not in the end be saved, or totally, by which is meant that they shall at any period of their lives commit sins so heinous and so presumptuous, and persist in them so obstinately, as at that period to forfeit entirely the divine favour.

All the parts of that delineation which I have now given, are found in Chapters IX. X. XVII. of the Confession of Faith. The whole doctrine is not expressed in the tenth Article of the Church of England: but we consider it to be implied in the seventeenth.

ARMINIAN AND CALVINISTIC SYSTEMS COMPARED.

CHAPTER IX.

ARMINIAN AND CALVINISTIC SYSTEMS COMPARED.

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AFTER the view which I have given of the two great systems of opinion concerning the extent and the application of that remedy which the gospel brings, we are prepared to estimate the difficulties that adhere to them. As every system, which, with our limited information, we can hold upon subjects so extensive and so magnificent, must be attended with difficulties, it is not incumbent upon us to answer all the questions which our system may suggest; and we have given a sufficient answer to many of them, when we show that the same questions, or others not more easily solved, are suggested by the opposite system. But as difficulties are of real weight when they imply a contradiction to some received truth, we are called to defend the system of opinion which we hold, by showing that it is not subversive of the nature of man or inconsistent with the nature of God.

SECTION I.

THE Arminian system appears upon a general view, most satisfying to a pious and benevolent mind. Pardon procured by the death of Christ for all that repent and believe, when conjoined with an administration of the means of grace sufficient to bring all men to faith and repentance, forms a remedy suited to the extent of the disease; a remedy from which none are excluded by any circumstance foreign to themselves, and which, if it does not in the end deliver all from the evils of sin, fails, not through any defect in its own nature or any partiality in the Being from whom it proceeded, but purely through the obstinacy and perverseness of those to whom it is offered. But while this account of the gospel appears to derive, from its correspondence with our notions of the goodness and justice of God, the strongest internal recommendation, it is found to labour under these three difficulties. 1. The supposition of an administration of the means of grace sufficient to bring all men to faith and repentance, upon which this system proceeds, appears to be contradicted by fact. 2. This system, while in words it ascribes all to the grace of God, does in effect resolve our salvation into something independent of that grace. 3. This system seems to imply a failure in the purposes of the

Almighty, which is not easily reconciled with our notions of his sovereignty.

1. It does not appear agreeable to fact, that there is an administration of the means of grace sufficient to bring all men to faith and repentance. For although there is nothing in the nature of the gospel to prevent it from becoming an universal religion, yet the fact is that by much the greatest part of the world does not enjoy the benefit of its instructions.* And although the imperfect propagation of the gospel may be owing to the corruption and indifference of Christians, yet with regard to the inhabitants of those nations to whom the most distant intimation of its existence never extended, it cannot surely be said that there has been any want of inquiry on their part. The Arminians are obliged to resolve this manifest inequality in dispensing the advantages for attaining faith and repentance into the sovereignty of God, who imparts his free gifts to whom he will. Still however they do not abandon their principle; for they contend that the grace of God accompanies the light of nature, and that all who improve this universal revelation are conducted by that grace to higher degrees of knowledge. But here also the fact does not appear to accord with their system. For the light of nature, although universal, is most unequal. In many countries superstition is rendered so inveterate by education, custom, and example, and the state of society is so unfavourable to the improvement of the mind, that none of the inhabitants has the means of extricating himself from error; and even in those more enlightened parts of the world, where, by the cultivation of the powers of reason or the advantages of foreign instruction, men have risen to more honourable conceptions of the Deity, there does not appear any possibility of their attaining to the faith of Christ. For, as the apostle speaks, Rom. x. 17," Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher ?" The Socinians, indeed, say, that all in every situation who act up to the light afforded them, may be saved, without regard being had to the merits of Christ. But this opinion the Arminians strongly disclaim, and choose rather to say, that those who improve the measure of knowledge derived from the works of nature, and the grace of God which accompanies it, are, in some extraordinary manner, made acquainted with the doctrine of Christ, so as to attain before they die that faith in him which the means afforded them could not produce. And thus the Arminians are obliged, with regard to the greatest part of mankind, to give up their fundamental position, that sufficient means of grace are administered to all, and to have recourse to the production of faith by an immediate impression of the Spirit of God upon the mind. The Arminians, feeling the force of this difficulty, leave-piously and wisely leave-the fate of that great part of mankind who do not enjoy the gospel to the mercy of God in Christ; and, in their confessions of faith, they confine their doctrine concerning the universal application of the remedy, to those who are called by the word. To this call they give the name of an election to grace and to the means of salvation, which they distinguish

Book I. Ch. ix. 4.