verted, indeed,-wholly perverted, and hopeless of recovery without the grace of God,- but not annihilated, or impaired in respect to their competency to create perfect obligation, and to sustain, in joy or in woe forever, all the responsibilities of the government of God, as obeyed or disobeyed. Man is not so constituted as that no choice, good or evil, can be originated by him, which God, by an immediate efficiency, does not produce. Nor is he made accountable for a nature which was created in him as really as his intellect or his bones and sinews; nor for moral qualities, which are as involuntary as his appetites or his instincts, and which render choice, not in accordance with them, a natural impossibility. The dependence of man upon Christ is in no sense the dependence of his deficient constitution as a free agent, but of his deficient character as a sinner, the obstinate perversion of his free agency. Still it is a dependence not the less real or certain for a sinner may wilfully make his destruction certain, and render grace indispensable to avert his ruin. It is this kind of dependence, originating in the obliquity of the will, which meets and baffles our unaided efforts at every step of our attempt to persuade men to be reconciled to God. Who, without the grace of Christ, can keep back from sin the depraved mind of individuals and communities; or rouse man from the deep slumbers of a willing ignorance and obstinate stupidity; or bring home the commandment, and flash in upon the dark unwilling mind the painful conviction of sin? And even when this is done, who can subdue the will, but He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,— but He who stilled the raging tempest on the sea,- before whom disease fled, and death yielded up its victims? It is in the day of His power only that any sinner ever submits to God, and becomes a willing subject of his perfect govern ment. It seems to be thought by sinners, when they are awakened, and pressed with obligation to submit, that their act of refusal is not of the same nature with other acts of choice; that if it be in some sense voluntary, it is in a sense so unique as greatly to mitigate, if not to annihilate, its criminality. But, in respect to its being the voluntary action of the mind, it is as really so as any act of choice whatever, and is distinguished from ordinary volitions only by this,— that it includes and absorbs, more entirely than any other, the whole energy of the mind, and comprehends in it the greatest amount and intensity of criminal purpose of which a sinful mind is capable. It is the most voluntary and the most criminal decision of which a sinner is capable, and made in defiance of the most perfect obligations to the contrary. Thus the Holy Ghost decides, when he comes to reprove the world of sin, because they believe not. And yet it is a decision, in point of fact, irrevocable, but by the grace of God. It seems to be a fact, in the history of perverted mind, that, once ruined, it never recovers itself. In fallen angels it has not, in fallen man it does not; but the disease rages on, unreclaimed by its own miseries, and only exasperated by rejected remedies. The way of man is not in himself. Wise is he to do evil, but to do good he has no knowledge. The main-spring of the soul for holy action is gone, and divine influence is the only substitute. It is the sinner's duty to repent, but he refuses. It is his duty to come to Christ, but he will not. His carnal mind is enmity against God, and he will not submit. His heart is fully set within him to do evil, and he will not turn. Motives and obligation are by his obstinacy swept away. The blood of Christ and the joys of heaven plead in vain; and in vain are hell and destruction uncovered before him. "Madness, by nature, reigns within, The passions burn and rage; Till God's own Son, with skill divine, I have only to add, what is especially taught in the text, that for the continuance and consummation of holiness every Christian is dependent on Christ. When the heart is renewed, it possesses no self-preserving energy. If angels, great in might and perfect in holiness, and Adam, our ancestor, created after the image of God, could fall, how feeble is the guarantee of the continuance and consummation of holiness from the sufficiency of its own feeble beginnings! The question has been asked, whether it is possible for a saint to fall; and the answer is, that, left to himself, and aside from the preservation of Christ, it is not only possible that he may fall, but certain that he will fall. Not because his growth in grace and perseverance is a natural impossibility; not because he cannot so watch, and pray, and strive, and fight, as to endure to the end; but because, through remaining sin, and deceitfulness, and sloth of heart, he will not watch, and pray, and strive, and fight, so as to obtain the victory, except as Jesus watches over him, and intercedes for him, and sustains, and protects, and guides, and gives him the victory. To this plain Scriptural account of man's dependence on Christ for his capacities and powers of action as a free agent, and also for their restoration by grace to their unperverted exercise, it might seem as if no objection could be raised; and yet no subject has been beset with objections more numerous, acute, or perplexing. To some of these I propose to attend, in the sequel of this discourse. OBJECTION 1. It is objected that the "doctrine of dependence on the sovereign grace of God for the commencement and continuance of evangelical obedience is inconsistent with the doctrine of man's free agency and accountability; that the two doctrines never have been and never will be reconciled; that all who have made the attempt have but darkened counsel by words without knowledge; and that all who preach man's dependence on the Holy Spirit for regeneration, and then call upon him to repent, and obey the Gospel, contradict, in one part of their discourse, what they inculcate in another." ANSWER. If the dependence of a sinner upon the special influence of the Spirit for ability to obey the Gospel were occasioned by such a constitution of mind as renders obedience a natural impossibility for want of adequate powers, or knowledge, or motives - then it would be impossible to reconcile such dependence with accountability; and it might truly be said they never have been and never will be reconciled. It must certainly be admitted that, if God should command exercises which man can no more put forth than he can create a world, and should not himself work in him to produce them, it would be the requisition of a natural impossibility, which could not be reconciled with a just accountableness. Or, if he should command a change of moral tastes or instincts, which are a part of the soul's created constitution, upon which the will cannot act, but which do themselves govern the will as absolutely as the helm governs the ship, then, also, the thing required would be a natural impossibility, and could not 1 be reconciled with free agency and accountability. But where is the inconsistency with free agency and accountability in the present case? God commands the sinner to obey the Gospel; and the sinner, thoroughly furnished with all the powers and means of moral agency, refuses to obey. Rewards, threatenings, entreaties, expostulations, judgments and mercies, exhaust their power upon him, and he refuses; he will not come to Christ, and resists always the Holy Ghost. And what is there here to destroy free agency? Who puts forth a more giant free agency than the sinner, fully set to do evil? Would flexible wickedness be blamable, and is inflexible obstinacy blameless? If depraved a little, would he have no cloak for his sin; and do his crimes whiten, and his obligations fail, as his heart strengthens itself in opposition to God?. "But, if he will not repent unless God, by his special grace, interpose, how can he be to blame?" He can be to blame, because it is his duty to repent on the ground of his capacity and the divine requirement, and he refuses. He can be to blame, as the drunkard can be for his intemperance, because he is able and only unwilling to reform; as the thief can be, though he may never cease to do evil; as the pirate can be, though he may go on to shed blood till justice overtakes him. "But is not his destruction certain, if the Lord does not have mercy upon him?" Most assuredly. "Well, then, how can he be to blame?" Because, with the plenary powers of a free agent, he has violated the law of the universe, and trodden under foot the blood of atonement, and despised the riches of the goodness of God, until public justice demands his death. Cannot a criminal deserve punishment unless some way is open for his actual escape from punishment, |