that righteousness and trae holiness, in which, had he not resisted the motions of the Holy Spirit, he would for the most part have continued from the day of his baptism.

One case more remains. It is that of a person, (and God grant that there may be, as I humbly trust there are, many such) who, having been baptized in his infancy, has been carefully brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; has attended to all the ordinances of his religion; has never wholly, or habitually, or for any length of time, lost sight of God and his duty, and, though neglectful of some duties, and defective in all, yet on the whole may be said to have honestly endeavoured to live up to the promises made in his name at his baptism. Now to call on such a man as this to repent in the same sense or degree, that the Apostle did the proud and ceremonious Jew, or the idolatrous Gentile, or we of the present day would the notorious sinner, were

plainly wrong. And, therefore, whilst we still call all men to repentance, we regard the repentance necessary for such a man as this, more as the continual renewal of the man of God, when through the force of temptation he has for a time fallen away, the bringing back of himself to his good principles, and the forming resolutions, under God's blessings, of stricter watchfulness and obedience for the future, than any entire change of heart and practice, (which if it were to take place could only be for the worse) much less a regeneration or new birth, which can never, ordinarily speaking, be used of repentance, as distinct from baptism.

It was needful then, that the Jew and the Gentile should repent, or in other words, should undergo an entire change of heart and conduct, before either could be admitted through the initiatory sacrament of baptism into the Church of Christ. It is needful, that the

sinner, who was admitted in his infancy, but has proved himself an unworthy member of that Church, should repent, or in other words, be wholly renewed through the renovating grace of God's Holy Spirit, which was first shed on him at his baptism, and has been since resisted and neglected by him-or he cannot be saved.

It is needful that the very best Christian, that ever lived, should repent, or with the Apostle, be renewed day by day, (for great are the infirmities, and numerous the transgressions of the very best) or he is in danger of sinking lower and lower, and becoming as the notorious sinner. To all in one or other of the above senses—but still keeping these senses distinct-we may apply the salutary admonition of the Baptist, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Yours, &c.

C.

ON MAN'S CORRUPT STATE BY NATURE.

To the Editor of the Remembrancer.

Sir,

IN a former Number you have spoken of the many communications you had received upon the disputed doctrine of the total corruption of man; and having promised some observations of your own upon the same subject, you had led me to expect that the investigation of that doctrine would have been continued in several successive Numbers.But in the Number for the present month, nothing relating to it from the pen of others is contained, nor is your own promise fulfilled. Being disappointed, therefore, of the satisfaction which I had hoped for from your own remarks, and of the elucidation of the subject which I expected by means of your correspondents, with a view to useful discussion and to the obtaining

clearer and more correct knowledge, I beg leave to submit to you the following additional remarks.

It is with doctrines, Sir, as with other things; they are seldom examined by their own intrinsic merits, and judged of with an impartial attention to the interests of truth, and an utter disregard of other considerations. Circumstances unfriendly to truth operate more or less, and are too frequently fatal to the justness and the propriety of our decisions. It is well known, that the utter inability of man, not as a part of that nature which he originally received from God, but as a consequence of the Fall, is a doctrine which finds in every Calvinist a strenuous advocate. Hence it has come to pass, that this total corruption and Calvinism are associated in the minds of many, and the doctrine is disavowed by such persons for no other reason than because of the dangerous and offensive character of its supposed confederate. But we should do well to take heed, lest by a too zealous and precipitate hostility to Calvin. ism we become involved in an opposition to truth. The general adoption of this doctrine by the Calvinistic party has procured for it a very ill name: but are we to be scared from every tenet which they profess? Whether the total corruption of man, and the forfeiture of all his original powers of doing good by the Fall, be essential to the system of the Calvinist, I design not to inquire. But various circumstances, which it would be useless to enumerate, combine to induce me to propose to yourself and to your correspondents the following question: Is there a necessary and inseparable union between the doctrine of man's perfect inability and the Calvinistic notions of predestination and of irresistible or indefectible grace? Is not the doctrine in question united to that most objectionable system by our habit of treating of it rather than by the

nature of the thing? My abhorrence of an eternal decree, in the Calvinistic sense, is as heartfelt and as cordial as any man's can be; I have no fellowship with "kings incog, travelling, disguised like pilgrims, to their dominions above;" I abominate the presumptuous doctrine of indefectible grace. Nevertheless, I hold to the opinion, that man is totally corrupt, so as to owe every thing to Christ, in opposition to any power, independent of grace, of extricating himself from the ruins of the Fall. It is not my wish or my design to heap unnecessary abuse upon the fallen nature of man. In the following remarks you will not find it described as a loathsome mass of corruption, or in any such like terms. I am only anxious so to maintain with temper and sobriety the utter helplessness of man, as that the want of the Redeemer's intercession in our behalf may appear always indispensable; that His love may be appreciated as it deserves; and that the want and efficacy of His merits may be justly, and distinctly confessed.This sense of total corruption is that alone which I every where intend; and I thank your correspondent C. P. for the fair statement of it which he has given in your 392d page.

For my own part, I have never yet detected the connecting link between man's total corruption and irresistible, necessarily efficacious, or indefectible grace; or its affinity with election, preterition, predestination, reprobation, or by whatever other name it may be called. Whe ther we be totally corrupt and utterly impotent, or only partially so, is one question; and however this may be determined, another follows, which is separate and distinct: whether the remedy for our weakness is a forcing or an assisting, but not irresistible, power. The first question, whether and at what time we stand in need of foreign and spiritual succour? Is

wholly independent of the second, what character are we to attribute to that holy influence? In whatever stage of the Christian race divine grace is indispensably requisite, whether it must absolutely prevent or go before our setting out, or whether it need only take us up by the way, and, not being grieved, conduct us to the end; in either case it is equally possible that it may be only an assisting and not a forcing power. That it may aid us a little earlier in the progres of a particular good work towards perfection, it is not necessary that its character should undergo a change. If it be offered to stir up our wills and to put in us good thoughts and desires, if it precede our endeavours, it need not be less liable to be grieved, quenched, and received in vain, to be resisted and done despite unto, than if it were only provided to confirm good resolutions, wholly originating in ourselves, and to give to endeavours, begun in our own strength, "that character which God requires."Whether, therefore, we be totally corrupt or not is a question, upon the determination of which depends the time at which the Holy Spirit begins to work in us, rather than the resistible or irresistible and in defectible manner of His working. In all natural actions the providential care of God prevents, accompanies, and continues with us to the end. We cannot move an hand or a foot without His permission, or without a power which proceeds from Him. Yet who will not say, with Dr. Johnson, "there is no disputing about it, I feel that I am free?" And why may not our dependence and our freedom of agency in respect to powers provided for us by grace be the same as in respect to the powers which are vouchsafed and preserved to us by the daily care and ordinary provi. dence of God? In Him" we live and move and have our being;" His concurrence is necessary to all we

think, or say, or do. Yet we are not the slaves of a fatality, or of necessity, but responsible creatures, free to think, free to speak, and free to execute. And this being the case, why may we not conceive of our spiritual as of our natural powers? Why may we not be totally dependent upon Him, and incapable of any the very smallest degree of goodness without Him? Why may not His being beforehand with us and His concurrence be indispensable, and yet our liberty not be abridged in spiritual matters more than in natural ?

Desirous as I am of weighing my own opinions by the sentiments of others, it would have been satisfactory to me if your correspondent C. P. had alleged some reason for pronouncing the doctrine of total corruption a dangerous extreme. Is the difference so vast between the one tenet, that man can do nothing of himself, and the other, that he can do a little but not enough, that the first is to be condemned as a dangerous and ill-grounded fallacy, and the second is to be approved as an wholesome and edifying doctrine? The manner in which C. P. has been led to form his opinion of the former is very plain. He connects it with Calvinism; and sup. posing that he has thus fixed upon it a sufficient stigma, he immediately pronounces sentence against it. But that there is such a principle in operation as "the effectual working" of the power of the Holy Spirit, C. P. will not deny. And if agreeably to the scheme of man's redemption, his natural corruption be counteracted by this influence, and man be made responsible for his moral conduct, where is the danger? Such a supposition is neither impossible nor extravagantly improbable. And though one disputant is not at liberty positively to affirm it, neither can another be permitted to deny it without proof. Its truth is to be inferred from the

condition and necessities of man,

and from the goodness of God; from man's being unable to do without such assistance, and from God's being too just to require impossibilities, and therefore too merciful not to give it. It is a supposition honourable to the me. diatorial character of our Saviour, as it ascribes our release from the bondage of corruption to His powerful and gracious interposition. It does not sanction a man's resting in a state either of despair or of indolence, but it urges him on to work the work of Him that created him by powers derived from grace, instead of beginning with reliques of former powers preserved amidst the ruins of the Fall. God's working with man is, in the opinion of an Apostle, a sufficient reason why man must work also. (Phil. ii, 12, 13.) What were the primitive powers of human nature in their most perfect state, no man can be able to declare; but the sufficiency, the perfect adequacy, and the readiness of the power of grace to an swer every just demand that can be made upon it, must be freely admitted by all who have a lively sense of, and who reflect upon, the goodness and the mightiness of God. It cannot be doubted, but that whatever difficulty or temptation can overtake the nature of man, a way may and will be made to escape, by a God of mercy and of justice, that it may be able to bear it. Let it be supposed, then, that a man is fully persuaded that he himself is utterly helpless, but that God is beforehand with him by the offers of His grace. In this case he is sensible that he is called upon to work out his salvation with powers which, properly used, can never fail, instead of engaging in an arduous task with a measure of strength, the sufficiency and adequacy of which he has reason to distrust, He travels on his way under better auspices, with livelier hopes of success, and under an higher degree of encouragement, than if he had sei

out relying upon his own resources and confiding in himself. And as we must alway be responsible in proportion to our ability, he who misemploys the superior talent of grace, has to apprehend a sorer punishment (Heb. x. 29.) than the man who has only to account for the abuse of the inferior powers and ordinary endowments of a depraved nature. The doctrine, therefore, of our own total corruption, and of the special grace of God preventing us, carries with it greater encouragement to do well, and more alarming motives to deter us from doing ill, than can possibly be suggested by any confident hope of arriving at a partial degree of virtue," by our own unassisted powers. As to the danger of the doctrine of man's total corruption, I could wish to close my remarks with the following passage from Archbishop Tillotson: "God is always beforehand with us in the offers of His grace and assistance, and is wanting to no man in that which is necessary to make him good and happy. No man shall be able to plead, at the day of judg. ment, want of power to have done his duty; for God will judge the world in righteousness; and then I am sure He will condemn no man for not having done that which was impossible for him to do. God hath done enough to every man to leave him without excuse. St. Paul tells us, that the blind heathens should have no apology to make for themselves. Next to the being of God, and his goodness and justice, I do as verily believe it as I do any thing in the world, that no man shall be able to say to God at the great day, Lord, I would have repented of my sins, and obeyed thy laws, but I wanted power to do it; I was left destitute of the grace which was necessary to the performance and discharge of my duty; I did earnestly beg thy Holy Spirit, but thou didst deny me. No man shall have the face to say this to

God at the great day; every man's conscience will then acquit God, and lay all the fault upon his own folly and neglect: for then every mouth shall be stopped, and God shall be justified in his saying, and overcome when we are judged.""

I should not trouble you, Sir, with the little misapprehensions of my meaning, into which C. P. has fallen, nor with his misapplication of texts of Scripture and of the tenth Article, if I did not believe, that the clearing up of these matters would contribute to my main design. In the same page, to which I have already referred, he has charged me with assuming what I was not entitled to do, instead of producing proofs. But if he will once more turn to the 262d page, he will perceive, that no assertion is hazarded, but that a question is merely asked; that no new argument is proposed by myself, but that a weakness and defect in the argument of another is pointed out. There being no selfevident impossibility in the supposition, that man in all ages may have been made righteous by the imperceptible, preventing, and cooperating power of grace, that disputant must examine and disprove this, who would establish the contrary hypothesis on sure ground. If the righteousness of the patriarchs and of others can by any possibility be ascribed to the influence of Him, who in the secret manner of his working is compared to the wind, then that righteousness can never be admitted as a decisive

evidence of remaining powers in man, unless it be distinctly shewn, that it is the production of those powers, and not of the foreign and external influence. The Bishop of Winchester, who has advanced the argument of the righteousness of the patriarchs and of others, to prove that man is not totally corrupt and naturally incapable of good, has expressed himself in the 250th page of the second volume of his Theology, in the following manner. REMEMBRANCER, No. 33.

"The most pions of those, who lived under the Mosaic dispensation, often acknowledge the necessity of extraordinary assistance from God: David prays to God to open his eyes, to guide and direct him ;' to create in him a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within him.' And Solomon says, that God directeth men's paths, and giveth grace to the lowly.'" To this testimony of the Bishop we may add, that " Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost," not merely to foretel the rise and fall of kingdoms connected with the destinies of the Church, or to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, but to call men to immediate repentance. Therefore the Holy Spirit was not an unconcerned spectator of the conduct of mankind before the Gospel dispensation. Nay, he must actually have wrought for their conversion, or St. Stephen could not have said, "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your Fathers did, so do ye." I would also refer C. P. to the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews, that he may satisfy himself to what principle the righteousness of Abraham and of other worthies is to be ascribed; whether to faith and its attendant benefits and powers, or to a principle separate from grace, and centering in themselves, and in their own arm of flesh. "By the gift of God's Holy Spirit," says Tillotson, (vol. iii. p. 611.)" is not only meant the common and transient operations of God's Spirit upon the minds of men, exciting and disposing them to that which is good; (for thus the Spirit was given to men in all ages, from the beginning of the world,) but the special presence," &c. The well known arguments, that "He, who is always taking care of all his other works, down to the very meanest things on earth," cannot "disregard the most important thing in it, the eternal interests of the souls of men;" that "He, who 3 X