imagination fhould ever have had place in our minds, or should derive any colour from our opinions! It was finely remarked by one, who was well acquainted with the fallacies of those restrictive doctrines, in the profeffion of which he had been educated, but from which he gloried in being delivered, that " though fpeaking of his abfolute power, God can "compel and neceffitate the will of man, and "fo we do not make him ftronger than God, as is very weakly concluded by fome; yet " he will not, because he will not violate that "order, which he hath fet in our creation. "He made man after his own image, invested "him with a reasonable foul, having the use "of understanding, and the freedom of will: "he endowed him with a power to confider " and deliberate, to confult and choose; and so by consequence he gave him dominion "over himself and his own actions; that hav'ing made him lord of the whole world, he might not be a flave to himself, but might " first exercise his fovereignty in the free pof"feffion of his own mind. To force his will,

were to destroy the nature of his creature, "which grace is not defigned to do, but only "to heal and affift it; and therefore God deals “with man, as a free agent, by instructions "and commands, by promises and threaten

ings, by allurements and reproofs, by re"wards and punishments. So true is the "faying of Tertullian, Nemo invitus fit bo

What though we are instructed by the infallible word of truth, that "no man can "come unto Chrift, except the Father draw "him ;" and that if we would be fons of God, we must be "led by the Spirit'?" Are we alfo told, that we must be chained, and dragged, and irrefiftibly forced to the altar,' like brute beafts, which have no understanding? Is this the reasonable fervice," wherewith the Apostle "beseeches us, by the mercies of "God, to present our bodies a living facrifice,

holy, acceptable unto God "?" Are these the “free-will offerings," with which the Pfalmift teaches us the Lord will " be pleased"?" Nay, does not the very language of fuch declarations itfelf contradict the notion of irresistible force? And does not our bleffed Lord refolve his own expreffion into the fame, as the "being taught "of God," the having heard and having "learned of the Father?" " Many men un“derstand these words," fays Bishop Hooper, " in a wrong sense, as though God required in

d Examination of Tilenus, p. 278.

• John vi. 44.

8 Rom. xii. 1.

f Rom. viii. 14.

h Pf. cxix. 108. ·

"a reasonable man no more than in a dead

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poft; and marketh not the words that follow, Every man, that heareth and learn"eth of my Father, cometh to me. God "draweth with his word and the Holy Ghoft; "but man's duty is to hear and learn, that is "to say, receive the grace offered, consent to "the promise, and not repugn the God that "calleth. God doth promise the Holy Ghoft "unto them that' afk him, and not to them "that contemn him *." And fuch was the interpretation of the wife Melancthon, whom his lefs gentle brother in the reformation accused of " prevaricating with Chryfoftom"," because he afferted the neceffity of a willing mind. It is objected" (said that pious and learned Reformer)" by the timid foul, I can"not believe, unless God kindle my faith. I anfwer, it is true that men are drawn by God; but they are drawn by the word of "the Gospel, to which God wills thee to "affent, and at the fame time to ask affiftance, "as it is written, How much more fhall he give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. "Do not then refift the Gofpel; do not en

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* Bp. Hooper. Preface to Declaration of the Ten Commandments.

1 Multoque fatius eft quam tergiverfari cum Chryfoftomo. Calv. Inft. lib. iii. cap. xxiv. fect. 13.

courage miftruft; do not think, as Enthu"fiafts dream, that thou must wait for a vio"lent motion, whereby God may drag thee "on, although thou refift, and rufh backward "into wickedness: but affent to the divine

voice, and at the fame time pray for affift"ance, as the fuppliant in Mark, Lord, I be"lieve, help thou my unbelief. When thou "doest this, it is certain, that thou art drawn "and affifted by God; according to his oath, "As I live, faith the Lord, I will not the "death of a sinner, but that he be converted "and live. To this effect are thofe fayings, "God draws, but he draws the willing mind; "and again, Only be thou willing, and God "haftens to meet thee, as Bafil says in his dif"course on the prodigal son, to whom, as he returns, his Father goes forth to meet him, "and flies into his embrace. These things we 'fay," he adds, " to comfort those who are in

the Church, and understand that they are called by the voice of the Gospel, and are willing to be converted. But if any without repentance agitate curious questions, with "fuch it were vain to difpute"."

re

m Sed objicit trepida mens, Non poffum credere, nifi Deo fidem accendente. Refpondeo, Verum eft homines a Deo trahi; fed trahuntur per vocem Evangelii, cui vult te Deus affentiri, et fimul petere auxilium, ficut fcriptum eft, Quanto magis dabit Spiritum fan&tum petentibus.

Have we the power then to refift the Spirit, when he would lead and draw us unto God? And is that true, which our Reformers have affirmed, that" although the goodness of God "offereth his fpecial grace to all men, yet

they only enjoy it, which by their free-will "do accept and embrace the fame, and that "others by free-will abuse the grace and be"nefits of God"?" The Scriptures teach us that we may. We may "hate" and "rebel against the light":" we may " do despite "unto the Spirit of grace":" we may “neglect

Non igitur repugnes Evangelio; non indulgeas diffidentiæ; non cogites, ut fomniant Enthufiaftæ, expectandum effe violentum motum, quo te rapiat Deus etiam repugnantem, et iterum ruentem in fcelera: fed affentiaris voci divinæ, et fimul petito auxilium, ficut ille apud Marcum, Credo, Domine, fed opem fer imbecillitati meæ. Hoc cum fit, certum eft te a Deo trahi et adjuvari, ficut jurat, Vivo ego, dicit Dominus, nolo mortem peccatoris, fed ut convertatur et vivat. In hanc fententiam et hæc dicta funt, Deus trahit, fed volentem trahit. Item, Tantum velis, et Deus præoccurrit, ut Bafilius dicit in concione de filio prodigo, cui redeunti Pater obviam procedit, et involat in amplexum. Hæc dicimus ad confolandos eos, qui funt in Ecclefia, et fe intelligunt vocari voce Evangelii, et volunt converti. Si qui autem fine pænitentia movent curiofas quæftiones, cum talibus fruftra difputatur. Epift. ad Rom. cap. ix. Op. vol. iv. p. 160.

m Neceffary Doctrine and Erudition, &c. Article of Free-will.