the astonishment I feel, that a clergyman of this Church, should, through zeal against the Geneva doctrines, make fuch an unwarrantable conceffion in favour of the Geneva discipline. Who could ever have thought, that an Oxford divine, should, and that from the Clarendon-prefs, rather let go the hierarchy, than give up free-will? Oh, tell it not in Glasgow! publifh it not in the streets of Edinburgh! left the Prefbyterians rejoice, and the daughters of the kirk triumph.

:

No wonder, fir, that, after this, you should asfert, as follows, concerning grace and free-agency. You, indeed, give us to understand, that you do not wholly explode all influences of the holy fpirit, "But the fupernatural, extraordinary, and irrefiftible influences of the holy fpirit," page 98.-If, by fupernatural, extraordinary, and irrefiftible, you mean the miraculous gifts and influences of that adorable perfon; Calvinifts as much difclaim all pretenfion to thefe, as you can do. We believe, that, the end of their vouchsafement, in the primitive ages, being fully answered, by the confirmation of the gospel; the gifts themselves are, long fince, ceafed and that no man, who now makes this claim (if any fuch mad-man is to be found), can expect to be credited, unless he actually has miraculous powers to prove it by. -Yet there is, certainly, a fober fenfe in which all the gracious influences of the spirit may, and ought to be, termed, fupernatural; or, fuperior to the powers and reach of nature. You will not, furely, affert that the influences of the spirit are natural to fallen man: for that would be fetting afide the effential difference, which Scripture and reafon are fo careful to maintain, between nature and grace. Conftant experience also, and daily obfervation, confirm the apostle's decision, that "The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God; neither can he" even "know," much lefs receive, "them, because they are fpi

ritually

ritually difcerned:" and until the natural man is renewed by grace, he has no fpiritual eyes to difcern them by. In exact conformity to this certain truth, the first exhortation, in our baptifmal office; hath these words: "Forafmuch as all men are conceived and born in fin, and that our Saviour Chrift faith, none can enter into the kingdom of God, except he be regenerate and born anew of water and of the Holy Ghoft; I befeech you to call upon God the Father, through our Lord Jefus Chrift, that, of his bounteous mercy, he will grant to this child that thing" [namely, regeneration] "which, by nature, he cannot have." If, then, the new birth, and the renovating influences of the spirit, are not natural to man; they must be fupernaturally conferred. The fame influences may, in fome fenfe, be safely enough, termed extraordinary; inasmuch as they are extra ordinem, or out of the common courfe: for all men have them not. But I lay no manner of ftrefs on this remark. Thus much, however, it proves; that the word, fo carefully explained, may be used in a rational, harmless fenfe. Though, for my own part, I always chufe to abftain, as much as poffible, from the ufe of fuch terms, as are liable to mifapprehenfion, and require a tedious circuit of explanation. As a great man obferves, Quid hoc mala rei eft, ità ex deftinato confilio loqui, ut mox prolixa explicatione indigeas, apud auditores fimplices et candidos; et apologiá apud minùs faventes ac fufpicaces? I have, therefore, always acquiefced in the ufual diftinction of the fpirit's influence, into ordinary and extraordinary: and understand, by the former, his fupernatural agency in a way of faving grace; by the latter, his agency, formerly exerted, in the collation of miraculous gifts.

But I fce not fo much reafon for abfolutely cashiering the epithet irrefiftible: though I could with, that the term invincible (which more exactly conveys our true meaning) were always fubftituted in its room. Irrefiftible may feem (though we intend VOL. V. (23.)

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no

no fuch thing) to imply fome compulfive force on the will of man, in regeneration: whereas, we neither affert, nor believe, that the will is violently compelled, but only that it is effectually changed for the better, without any violation of its natural freedom. An elect finner is not made good, againft his will; but is, by grace, made willing to be good according to that of the pfalmitt, Thy people fhall be willing, in the day of thy power," Pfalm cx. 3. We apprehend this to be effected, as St. Auguftin expreffes it, fuavi omnipotentid & omnipotenti Juavitate: fo that, though the effect of the holy fpirit's operation is infallibly fecured and cannot but iffue in converfion (for he does nothing in vain;) yet is this blefied effect accomplished, in a way fuitable to the natural powers wherewith man is endued. By irrefiftible, therefore, if you underfland grace that is efficacious, invincible, and certainly victorious; we are authorized, both by Scripture, reafon, and the ftricteft maxims of philofophy, to term converting grace irrefiftible; fince, where God really defigns to renew a finner unto righteoufnefs and true holiness, we think it incompatible with every notion of Deity, to fuppofe, that the intent of an all-wife Being fhould be eventually defeated, and his plan difconcerted; or that the meafures made ufe of by an Almighty agent, fhould be baffled and iffue in nothing. Neither can we apprehend, that a deity, of this infinite wifdom and infinite power, who is "excellent in counfel, and mighty in working," can ever find himfelf at a lofs how to carry his immutable purposes, whether of grace or providence, into execution; or be unable to operate effectually on the wills of men; without trefpaffing on that freedom, of which he himfelf is the author and giver. Surely, he who, without our confent, made us reafonable beings, can, by virtue of his own omnipotently transforming grace, make us holy beings! and that without making us mere machines. He

that

*

that planted the ear, fhall he not hear? He that made the eye, shall he not fee? He that endued my will with natural freedom, cannot he renew this will of mine, without infringement of the freedom he gave?-Time was when the Chriftian world did not entertain fuch low thoughts of God, and fuch lofty thoughts of man, as now too generally prevail. How beautiful, how juft, how nervous is that petition, which, Grotius informs us, was a part of the public devotions of fome ancient churches! "Ad te noftras etiam rebelles compelle propitius voluntates:" In mercy, force over even our obftreperous wills to thy bleffed felf. That fine prayer, of the afcetic Raymund Jordanus, is animated with the fame heavenly fpirit of internal humiliation, and abfolute submiffion to fovereign grace: "Per violentiam tui dulciffimi amoris, compelle rebellem animum meum ad te amandum;" By the overpowering virtue of thy fweeteft love, constrain my rebellious foul to the love of thee. O that God would put fuch a cry, into the heart of the perfon to whom I am writing! You would then, fir, never more draw your pen against the doctrines of grace; but, if reduced to the alternative, you would rather, with Cranmer, hold your hand in the flames, until it was confumed from your arm.-I muft obferve, however, that the holy perfons, above quoted, are not to be underftood, as if they imagined, that God, in his operations of grace, offered violence (properly fo called) to the human will; or compelled his people to love him, whether they would or no, as an ox was dragged to facrifice : but the meaning of their fupplications was, that he would effectually incline and attach their wills to himfelf; and that the omnipotence of his conftraining love would reduce and mafter their natural obftinacy and perverfenefs. However, the strong and nervous manner, in which their petitions were ex

* In Luc. xiv. 23.

+ Long known by the borrowed name of Idiota, For the prayer, referred to, fee his Contempl. cap. 5. fect. 3.

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preffed,

preffed, fhew what ideas these ancient Chriftians entertained of the ftubbornness, rebellion, and depravity of man's will, by nature; and the almighty exertion of divine grace, which is requifite to fubdue it. The invincibility of converting grace, and, at the fame time, the immunity of the will from all forcible, involuntary compulfion, are very happily expreffed in the 10th of thofe articles of religion*, fet forth by king Edward VI. "The grace of Christ, or the Holy Ghoft which is given by him, doth take from man the heart of ftone, and giveth him an heart of flesh. And though it rendereth us willing to do these good works, which, before, we were unwilling to do; and unwilling to do thofe evil works, which, before, we did; yet is no violence offered by it to the will of man: fo that no man, when he hath finned, can excufe himself, as if he had finned againft his will, or upon constraint, and therefore that he ought not to be accufed or condemned upon that account."

As for the paffages of Scripture, which you have accumulated, as making for your own notions of free-will, conditional grace, &c. and which, having wrenched and detached from their contexts, you would fain torture into a fenfe which, it is demonftrable, the infpired writers never thought of; you will find all thofe perverted paffages, and many others which are no lefs impertinently preffed into thefe controverfies by the partizans of Arminius, reftored to their primitive and obvious meaning in Dr. Edwards's Veritas Redux, or in Dr. Gill's Caufe of God and Truth. As to the forms of thefe valuable books, I cannot find that it was ever attempted to be answered. And, for the latter, it has flood unanswered for, I believe, near thirty years; and you, fir, or any other expert Arminian, would do well to try your kill upon it, if you are able, while

See Heylin's Hift. of Reform, in the Appendix, p. 182.

the