Author, they can have but one meaning and one end. Why then should there not be some degree of care on the part of God to impart a right knowledge of the one as well as of the other? Why is it incredible that Xenocrates, following the light of nature, should be led by the spirit to the discovery of truth or to a life of virtue, while we must believe, that a Christian, following the superior light of the gospel, cannot attain to truth or holiness, except he be also led by that Holy Spirit? Is God a respecter of persons? Are not His means of communicating himself to the heathen world, His rights to, and demands upon their obedience and their necessities, as great as in our own case? "Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?" "Is He the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also." When again it is said, that God "suffered all nations to walk in their own ways," (Acts xiv. 16.) the plain and unsophisticated sense of the words is, that He interposed not to guide them by a written revelation or an authorized declaration of His will. It is of importance also that it should be noted, that in Scripture language a man's own ways are ways of iniquity. (Isaiah lii. 6.) We cannot therefore please God, except we walk in ways which are not our own; in ways, into which we must be led, and in which we must be kept by the influence of another. "Thou compassest my path," saith the Psalmist; "whither shall I go from thy Spirit-lead me in the way everlasting." Nor is there an inconsistency between a supposed offer of grace and a man's walking in his own ways. For if free-agency be not destroyed, they, to whom the word of God is sent, and who have the offer of the spirit, may yet walk in their own ways. (Deut. xxx. 19.) In the conflict between contending principles, (Rom. vii.) to which C. P. next adverts, what is there to demonstrate that

the good is not originally from the Lord? It is not true,' says Secker, that, in strictness of speech, fallen man hath originally no principle of what is right left in him.' If the whole was lost by the fall, somewhat hath, by the general Grace of God, been restored since.' This is the great point for which we contend; we deny not the existence of something good, but affirm only, that in every thing good there is the presence of the preventing Grace of God. In every advance towards perfection, it will not be denied, that the increase and growth of the good principle and the diminishing and the decay of the bad, are to be attributed to God's Holy Spirit. Why then is not the beginning of the good, (Gal. v. 17. and Pool's Synopsis.) to be referred to the same original? Perfection being unattainable in this world, the conflict will never cease; but the more the spirit triumphs over the flesh, the more it is maintained and carried on by the power of grace. Since then the conflict is never supported with success except by the power of grace, where is the certainty, or even the probability, that it is not begun by the same power? How are we to be sure, that the some. thing good is not of the nature of a thing lost and forfeited, but afterwards restored? As to his com. ment on the tenth article, nothing can be more palpable than the mistake of C. P. The works of which that article treats, are such as, under certain circumstances, through 'the Grace of God by Christ preventing us,' it is supposed, may and by all good Christians will be done. But since the spirit is given to man only by measure, works positively good and intrinsically righteous, can never be done by mere man, under any circumstances whatever, on this side of the grave. Therefore not positively, but relatively, good works must be the works designed: and the article must be expressly provided to declare, that even works of

relative goodness, by which alone man can serve God, cannot be done without His grace preventing us and working with us.'

Whatever powers C. P. may claim for fallen man, (if any such there can be) they will not be so much as questioned by me, if it be granted, that they are useless, and inapplicable for religious purposes, and ineffectual for his recovery from sin and destruction, except when aided by the grace of Christ. Total corruption, in my sense of the expression, is so entire a weakness, so utter an impotency, so perfect a depravity and so absolute an helplessness as to exclude the presence of every thing sound and good. 'There is no health in us' or strength; but however we might have exerted ourselves, we should have toiled in vain; however we might have struggled, we should have "stuck fast in the deep mire," if Christ had not put forth His hand, and extricated us from the ruins of the fall by the help of His Grace. I am led to this opinion by our Saviour's own plain and decisive saying: "Without me ye can do nothing." We are in every way so dependent, that even in civil or natural actions we are in capable of doing any thing without the Providence of God preventing and assisting us. But this saying of our Saviour evidently refers only to religious acts. But when limited to such actions why is not this saying to be literally understood? The literal sense is always to be presumed to be the true sense, unless strong reasons evince the contrary. It is the business therefore of those, who object to that sense, to produce their strong reasons against it. In the mean time I would willingly bring to the recollection of your readers the following remarkable extracts from Tillotson's Sermon on this saying of our blessed Saviour: ' A man cannot make himself good, he cannot convert or change himself; nor by his own strength continue and hold out in a good course;

we can do nothing of this, without the grace and assistance of Christ.*

We being weak and without strength, slaves to sin, and under the power of evil habits, and unable to free ourselves from this bondage by any natural power left in us, our blessed Saviour in great pity and tenderness to mankind, hath in his Gospel offered, and is ready to afford to us an extraordinary assistance of his grace and Holy Spirit, to supply the defects of our natural power and strength. And this supernatural grace of Christ is that alone which can enable us to perform what He requires of us. And this, according to the several uses and occasions of it, is by Divines called by several names. As it puts good motions into us, and excites and stirs us up to that which is good, 'tis called preventing grace; because it prevents any motion or desire on our parts.'-It (the Scripture)' does constantly ascribe all the good that we do to the Grace of Christ." When the Scripture speaks of the Redemption of Christ, it represents our condition not only as miserable, but helpless.'"For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.”When mankind was under an utter impotency of recovering itself out of that state of sin and misery into which it was plunged, plunged, &c.'When I say this grace and assist. ance is derived to us from out union, I do not intend to exclude the necessity of God's grace and Holy Spirit to the conversion of a sianer, and his first planting into Christ: but when we say that Christians derive the influences of grace and assistance from their union with Christ, this supposeth them to be Christians already, and planted into Christ, and that this likewise is the work of God's grace. For if we cannot bring forth fruit, without the aid and assistance of His grace, much less without that could we be planted into Him, and united to Him.' It can scarce be necessary

ference or obligation to him. And though we may be strengthened and assisted by the Holy Spirit, to persevere in what we ourselves have begun well, yet how can we be said to be prevented in it? If there be any goodness or any virtue, which we of ourselves may attain unto, so much goodness or virtue prevents, instead of being prevented by, the grace of God. What shall we say then "of God's special grace preventing us?" It would be unreasonable to suppose, that we have power of ourselves, and power of the Spirit also. For God does not vouchsafe unnecessary aids, or suspend our own powers for the sake of employing powers provided by Himself. The idea which we are taught to have of grace is, that it is sufficient, that is, that it does enough, but not more than enough, to make our call ing and election sure, if we be not wanting to ourselves. Either therefore power of ourselves, or preventing grace must be given up. And at what stage in the progress of a good work or of a general good course is assisting grace to come in to our help? Spiritual labours are dissimilar to many others in this respect. Many acquire the first rudiments of an art or science with ease, in which it is the lot of a very few only to attain distinction. But in spiritual labours the greater progress we make, the less difficulty do we meet with. In this case the first rudiments are the more difficult, and the going on unto perfection is the more easy. For in our way towards perfection, the greater progress we have made, the more is the enemy of our salvation baffled, and our hope of victory confirmed; the more is the disposition to do ill subdued, and the contrary habit of doing well acquired; the more sensibly is the pleasant ness of religion felt, and the peaceableness of her ways experienced, and the more evident does the wisdom of doing well, and the folly of doing ill hourly become. In what part then of a particular good work, REMEMBRANCER, No. 34.

or of a general good course, can the assistance of the Holy Spirit be so requisite as at the beginning? When the body of sin is most powerful, when it is entire in all its parts, and no one member is yet wounded by the suppression of any evil propensity or by the acquirement of some degree of virtue, then is the conflict most arduous, and the assistance of the Spirit most needful and most to be desired. But it may perhaps be said, that preventing grace is the original of some good works, and not of others. What then is the design and the propriety of the petition, "prevent us in all our doings with thy most gracious favour, and further us with thy continual help; that in all our works begun, continued and ended in thee, &c?" Or of the daily prayer, "O God, from whom all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works do ceed?" While the Church most evidently considers it a point of duty to acknowledge and to pray for the presence of the preventing grace of God in all Christian virtues, will C. P. contend, that it is the fountain, from which some do, or others do not, spring? Will he hazard the assertion, that preventing grace is a principle irregular in its operatiou, and that dependence upon it is of so uncertain a nature, as to be our duty at one time and not at another? Would this resemble the probable working of One, who is "the same yesterday and to-day and for ever?"

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If we may adopt the language of the Prophet, "O Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us," we must ascribe all and every degree of "goodness, righteousness, and truth," whereunto we can attain to the Holy Spirit, and to the mighty working of His power. But if by his own strength, without the " cial grace of God preventing" him, fallen man can attain unto tial degree of virtue," then may there exist a degree of virtue, in the production of which the, Spirit has no share, and which cannot be as4 F

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cribed to him. If we may be the authors and beginners, and the Spirit only an encourager and helper of a good work after it is begun, then it is not of the root, and cannot be numbered among the fruits of grace. When a work is the effect of the labour of more than one person, it is both customary and just to assign the honour and the praise of it to the author and prime mover of it; to that person, who began and set it on foot, and not to him, whose co-operation has extended to no more than some trivial and occasional help. The glory of it by right belongs to him, who has wrought through the whole progress of the work from the first commencement to the final termination of it, and not to that party who has only contributed some broken and interrupted aids, and who has borne only from some given time a certain burden of the entire work. Moreover, are not all our good works the fruit of faith? And is not faith the gift of God? A gift, which may indeed be rejected and declined, but which, wherever it is received, is vouchsafed by God. But if good works are the fruit of faith, and faith is the gift of God, how can we avoid the conclusion, that all our good works in all their parts proceed from God?

I do not pass over such passages as, "who were dead in trespasses and sins," "among whom also we all were by nature the children of wrath," God, "even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us," and the like, because I esteem them unimportant, but because I have already trespassed greatly upon you. Nothing, however, short of an universal cause, could have produced so universal an effect, and a stronger figure cannot be employed to describe our corruption than that of death. Fearless then of "striking upon the Charybdis of Calvinism," I maintain the total corrup tion of man; such a corruption as supposes him destitute of all power

of recovering himself, and makes him a debtor to Christ Jesus for all and every part of his restoration. And I repeat my earnest wish, that it may be impartially considered by others, whether such total corruption, such an absolute helplessness, such an utter impotency, is separable from Calvinism, or not. While it is regarded as a doctrine, to which Calvinistic Predestination or irresistible grace is essentially united, it will not be fairly and equita bly tried. If it be a true doctrine, confessed by Calvinists and denied by us, it will be a pillar and support to their cause, but the weakening and undermining of ours; and in all our controversies with persons of that persuasion, it will produce the result of an uncertain termination of the dispute, or, if the expression may be permitted, of a drawn battle. For whatever ground we may gain against them in one quarter, while the debate is upon other topics, the same ground will they quickly recover against us in another quarter, when the discussion is upon the powers of man in his fallen state, and his need of the preventing grace of his Redeemer, Let us then deprive them of the exclusive possession of that portion of truth which is the maintenance of their cause. The greater our inability is, the more is our need of an extraordinary power and of supernatural assistance, to enable us to do our duty. And our obligation to our Redeemer will be, according as we have received spiritual gifts and succours for our deliverance at the rate of ten thousand talents, or of an hundred pence. For they, to whom He has given most, will also love Him most. Let us then study to know the full extent of our own weakness and incapacity, and of our Saviour's mercy and goodness. What nobler object can employ the energies and the faculties of those, whom He hath ransomed, than an attempt to comprehend the depth of their Redeemer's love, to magnify