be by the mere will and arbitrary agency of God we say that his first deliverance from such a state, his first reception into a state of grace, must be effected, in the truest and highest sense of the words, altogether independently of himself, of his own works or thoughts, exertions or inclinations; for on this hypothesis no one can possess any more than another the "single eye," and the "honest heart,"+ supposed and commended by our blessed Lord, but all are equally the bond-slaves of Satan, and are just as likely to obtain their liberty, whether they are delighted with the badges of their servitude, and profess themselves willing captives, or whether they are incessantly labouring to burst the fetters, whose iron hath entered deep into their soul.

Now let us suppose the other alternative, and put the case of those who live and die in their sins. And how are they chargeable with the cause of such a dreadful calamity? they were condemned before they were born-they were totally unable to help themselves all their life long-the only arm, which could have plucked them from the burning was so far shortened that it did not save, and who was then the real Author of their final and eternal perdition? We leave you to infer, for we should shudder to declare.

It appears then that the principles, which we have been tracing into their consequences, introduce in their train, by natural and necessary connexion, the tremendons doctrines of absolute predestination, of private and personal election and reprobation. We are not ignorant indeed that the advocates of the opinions we are opposing reject these, and similar deductions from them, with the utmost aversion and disgust; but they are to be reminded that the laws of reasoning do not allow them the liberty of adopting such a summary course of proceeding; they are either bound to shew the fallacy of the argument by which these conclusions are derived, or, if they are allowed to be legitimately deduced, they and the hypothesis must go together-they must be both admitted or both rejected.

*Luke xi. 34.

+ Luke viii. 15.

-But, besides denying the consequences which we attribute to their doctrines, and we think fairly, our opponents on this head have made certain assertions of their own in relation to the subject now under discussion, which appear perfectly astonishing and incomprehensible; for they tell us that the total depravity of man's heart, his innate aversion to all that is good, his invincible propensity to all that is evil, is so far from being any extenuation of his wickedness in neglecting to obey the will of God, that it is an actual aggravation of his guilt in the estimation of the Almighty. Surely from such an assumption one might have expected an influence diametrically opposite; surely in an earthly court of justice a natural incapacity of performing any action would be at once admitted as a sufficient and satisfactory plea for the omission of it. And "shall man be more just than God;" shall human tribunals be guided by principles of equity, "and shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

A solution of the difficulties arising out of the doctrine of man's total corruption, as it bears on the attribute of divine justice, has indeed been attempted, but on grounds altogether paradoxical; it will moreover increase our wonder to hear from whom such a defence of untenable principles has pro ceeded, for it was no other than the illustrious Pascal, who, by way of obviating these and other objections to the Calvinistic account of the Fall of man, gravely asserted that God's justice is not like ours. It would be easy to shew that

* Mr. Simeon, as above.

"It is most astonishing to reflect that of all mysteries, that which seems to be farthest removed from our discovery and appre hension, I mean the transmission of Original Sin, should yet be so necessary a point of knowledge as that without it we must remain utter strangers to ourselves. For 'tis beyond doubt that nothing appears so shocking to our reason as that the transgression of the first man should derive a guilt on those who, being so vastly distant from the fountain, seem incapable of sharing in the impure tincture. This transfusion is looked upon by us not only as impossible,

this proposition involves, in the very terms of it, a manifest contradiction and absurdity, but we rather prefer demonstrating its falsehood by a direct reference to Scripture itself. By the prophet Ezekiel * then the Almighty makes the following appeal to his people: "Ye say, "The way of the Lord is not equal." Hear now, O house of Israel. Is not my way equal, are not your ways unequal?" That rebellious house had been complaining that God's moral government of the world was not conducted according to the rules of equity, on which he condescends to lay before them a minute account of the nature and principles of his dealings with mankind, and then invites them to determine, by their own reason and common sense, whether his proceedings were equitable or not, But how could he and they have reasoned together at all, unless upon principles common to them both; and how could that justice, which was denied on the one hand, ever be proved on the other, unless each of the parties engaged in the discussion had affixed the same meaning to the term justice? And farther, the nature and contents of that explanation of his conduct, which God was pleased in this instance to impart to

but as unjust could we suppose it to be possible; for what can be more repugnant to the rules of our miserable justice, than to doom to eternal ruin an infant without will or choice, for an offence which shews so little probability of affecting him, as to have been committed six thousand years before his existence in the world? Certainly nothing strikes our judgement with more harshness and violence than such a doctrine. And yet without this incompre hensible mystery we are ourselves incomprehensible to our own minds."-Pascal's Thoughts, chap. 3.

It is but justice however to add, that the "Thoughts" of Pascal were principally written towards the end of his life, after he had contracted a sort of religious hypochondriacism by a total abstraction from the world, and an incessant practice of the most rigorous austerities, when his constitution was already exceedingly debilitated by severe and protracted illness.

* Ezekiel xviii. 25.

his people, will place the point in question beyond the reach of contradiction, for the description which it gives of the divine dispensations, as they regard both the righteous and the wicked, is perfectly consonant to our notions of justice, when it is the most exalted, and the most perfect.

It must be here remarked that the consequences we have attributed to the opinion of the total depravity of the human heart, do not attach themselves to the doctrine of man's corruption, when understood in that lower sense, in which we conceive it is stated in Scripture, and corroborated by fact; for it is perfectly consistent with that doctrine to believe that, though the imaginations and feelings of the mind of man are perpetually inciting him to transgress the law of God, yet that there is also afforded, for the sake of Christ, to every individual child of Adam such an uniform and abiding portion of divine grace, as will enable all, who are so disposed, to bridle appetite, to overcome temptation, to turn to God, and bring forth fruits meet for repentance. This opinion too is confirmed by Scripture, many passages of which concur in proving that the beneficial effects of Christ's meritorious death have extended, in some degree, and for some purposes, to all mankind;* and certainly if any such effects are general, that, which we are now considering, must be included in the number, for it is of all others the most wanted, as a necessary preliminary both to present and future happiness, and it is one which the justice and goodness of God would undoubtedly incline him to bestow. At all events the existence of such a moral faculty in man, however to be accounted for,—whether it is to be considered as one of his mental endowments which escaped the ravages of the Fall, or as arising from a new principle of holiness and obedience infused into him afterwards by divine grace;-whatever, we say, be its origin, its existence is necessarily implied in all those exhortations of Scripture which are addressed to the unbelieving and the

-xviii. and 1 Tim. 4. x.

* See especially Rom. 5. xv.-x

wicked. And such a power, thus universally imparted, of attaining to the knowledge and practice of his duty, we may call one of the natural powers of man, with the same propriety, and for the same reason, that we so denominate his intellectual capacities, for these latter are, as to their primary cause, just as much the offspring of God as any of the influences of divine grace; mental and moral faculties are equally emanations from his own all-perfect essence, and are equally diffused by him through the wide range of rational creation, to enlighten every man that cometh into the world, and to guide his feet into the ways of peace."

To return. The opinion of the entire corruption of the human soul, inconsistent as it is with divine justice, is nevertheless, if possible, still more derogatory to the goodness of God; for on this supposition we must imagine that the Deity has peopled this world of ours with a set of rational creatures, endowed with the fullest conceptions and capacities of happiness, and for no other purpose than to make the great majority of them miserable; creatures, destined to be the constant sport and prey of a host of raging, untameable, diabolical passions; and of whom they, who are not picked and culled out of the general lot by an arbitrary decree of the divine mind, are to be consigned to future punishment, beyond thought and without end. Does this accord with the character of him, whose Spirit has declared that he has "no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,"* and that, "his tender-mercies are over all his works?"+

Lastly, let us advert to the practical effects, which this doctrine has a manifest tendency to produce. It destroys then, in the first place, that proper degree of respect for himself which every one naturally feels, and which is one of the strongest safeguards of innocence and integrity that can exist independently of religious considerations; for a convert to these opinions must necessarily think that he has neither