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self had shut it by an irresistible decree? God first knocks at the door of our hearts by his preventing grace, without which we have no desire to open unto Christ. And then he helps us by his adjuvant or assistant grace, that we may be able to open. Yet the very name of God's adjuvant, or assistant, or helping grace, doth admonish us, that there is something for us to do on our parts; that is, to open, to consent, to concur. Why should our co-operation seem so strange, which the Apostle doth assert so positively? We are labourers together with God. And, I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I (that is, not I alone) but the grace of God which was with me (g).”

The exclusive consideration of particular texts of Scripture, without adverting to others which take a different view of the subject, coupled with the baneful principle of believing no doctrine which is incomprehensible (h), seems to have been the source of most of the errors which have prevailed in the Christian world. Thus, a person, in reading the New Testament, finds many passages

(g) P. 800.

(h) What Augustine says of Eunomius's disbelief of the divinity of Christ, is very generally true of other heretics and their opinions, qui cum non potuisset intelligere, nec credere voluisset, Unigenitum Dei verbum, per quod ficta sunt omnia, Filium esse Dei natura, hoc est, de substantia Patris genitum.-V. 8. p. 993.

was man.

passages in which the manhood of Christ is asserted, and from them he concludes that Christ By dwelling upon these passages, the idea of the manhood of Christ becomes so deeply fixed in his mind, that he refuses to admit any opinion which he fancies to be incompatible with it. He feels himself unable to comprehend how the same person could be both God and man; and being convinced that Christ was man, he infers that he was not God; and thus he falls into the Socinian error, of Christ being a mere man. Another person, in reading the New Testament, is first struck with the passages which assert the Godhead of Christ, and which are at least as numerous and as clear as those which assert his manhood; and by a similar process he infers that Christ was God only; and thus falls into the Sabellian or Patripassian errors, of Christ being God the Father, and of God the Father having suffered upon the Cross. It is the same with respect to divine and human agency: one person observes, in a variety of passages of the New Testament, the redemption of man attributed to the merits of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy Spirit; and hence he concludes that divine grace is necessary to salvation: he dwells upon this as a settled and uncontrovertible point, and being unable to comprehend how the Holy Ghost and man can co-operate, he infers that man has

no concern whatever in working out his salvation (i); and that the thoughts, words, and works of these who shall be saved, are the necessary and irresistible effects of divine grace: this is the error of Calvinists. Another person, in reading the New Testament, observes repeated commands to believe in Christ, and numberless exhortations to the practice of the personal and social duties; hence he concludes, that belief in Christ, and moral virtue, are necessary to salvation; and being unable to comprehend how the Spirit of God can influence the Free-will of men, or how the worthiness of Christ can atone for the unworthiness of men, he rejects the doctrines of divine agency and of Christ's meritorious death, and relies solely for salvation upon that faith and those works, which are the effect of his own reflection and exertions.

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(i) "There is in the language made use of to explain the doctrine of grace, something liable to be abused by ignorant or crafty inen. We say, that of ourselves we can do nothing; whence they conclude, that we have nothing to do. We say, that it is the grace of God which enables us to do every thing; from whence they conclude, that every thing must be left to the grace of God, and that we need only work ourselves into a strong persuasion that God is at work for us, and may sit still ourselves. And this persuasion, which is generally mere enthusiasm, they dignify with the name of Christian Faith."-Sherlock, v. 2. p. 80.

other error of the Socinians, or of those who in modern times have denominated themselves Unitarians, to which title they have no more an exclusive right, than Calvinists have to that of Evangelical divines. It is to be observed, that the first conclusions of these different persons were all true, namely, that Christ was man-that Christ was God-that divine grace is necessary to salvation-that belief in Christ, and moral virtue, are necessary to salvation. But though each of these propositions be true, not one of them contains the whole truth. Christ was man, but he was also God-Christ was God, but he was also man-divine agency is necessary to salvation; but we must work together with the Holy Spirit, or we shall have received the grace of God in vain-belief of the Gospel, and moral virtue, are necessary to salvation; but it is a lively faith in the merits of Christ as our Redeemer, which can alone make our good works acceptable in the sight of God; and that lively faith can never be attained without the co-operation of divine grace. It should be remem bered, that all Scripture is given by inspiration, and is written for our learning. Every part of it is true, and equally true. It is our duty to read and attend to the whole. The whole Bible is the ground of our faith, and the rule of our

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life. We are to compare Scripture with Scripture; we must add truth to truth; and, disdaining all partial and narrow views of the Deity and his dispensations, search out "all the counsel of God (k)," as far as it is revealed, if we wish to become wise unto salvation.

In appealing to the Public Formularies of our Church, I shall first notice the Article upon Original Sin, in which it is said, that "man is very far gone from original righteousness:" this expression implies, that original righteousness is not entirely lost, that all the good qualities and principles, with which man was at first created, are not absolutely destroyed. That this is the plain and obvious sense of the passage, is evident from the following circumstance: when the Assembly of Divines, in the reign of Charles the First, undertook to reform, as they called it, our Articles according to the Calvinistic creed, they proposed to omit the words," man is very far gone from original righteousness," and to substitute for them, "man is wholly deprived of original righteousness." It was admitted by both parties, that the two sentences conveyed ideas extremely different; and the proposed alteration was rejected by those who wished to maintain the antient and established doctrine of the Church of England, in op(k) Acts, c. 20. v. 27. position

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