patible with the idea of his acting solely and irresistibly. In the collect for the first Sunday after Epiphany, we pray to God not only that "we may perceive and know what things we ought to do, but that we may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same:" were grace irresistible, did it necessarily and solely produce a godly life, there would be no room for faithfulness on our part. In this prayer we entreat our Heavenly Father to enable us to know and perceive our duty, and therefore admit the insufficiency of our natural strength for this purpose, without the aid of the Spirit of God; but at the same time we acknowledge, that our own faithfulness, our sincere and uniform endeavour to obey the known will of God, is necessary to render this divine grace efficacious, and to produce a right application of this supernatural power. Faithfulness implies free-agency, a power to obey or to disobey. A servant is faithful to his master, but a machine necessarily executes the will of its maker. A kind master will reward the fidelity of a servant, although he has only done what it was his duty to do; and an all-merciful God has graciously promised to reward the faithfulness of his rational creatures with everlasting happiness, for the sake of his blessed Son. A grateful servant will will disclaim all right to the reward of his earthly master, and an humble Christian will acknowledge eternal life to be the free-gift of God through Jesus Christ. In these and in numerous other passages of our Public Formularies, the necessity of divine assistance is acknowledged, but in no one instance is the exertion of irresistible grace declared or supposed. On the contrary, the necessity of the concurrence or co-operation of man is universally expressed or understood. We pray to God for the help, the assistance, the guidance of the Holy Spirit; which words cannot but imply the concurrence of our own wills and endeavours, some co-operation on our part. It will not be imagined that I mean that God could not exercise an irresistible power over the minds and actions of men. I only maintain, that we have no ground to believe that he does exercise such a power. It is not our business to speculate upon what God could have done to cause our obedience and secure our Salvation: it is enough for us to search the Scriptures, and learn what God actually has done and promised, and then to consider what remains to be done by ourselves. After all the volumes which have been written upon the subject, the argument against the doctrine of irresistible grace lies in a very narrow compass. It has pleased God to make us responsible beings; responsibility cannot exist without free-agency; free-agency is incompatible with an irresistible force; and, consequently, God does not act with irresistible force upon our minds. The language of the Homilies, respecting the corruption of human nature, and the necessity of divine assistance, is also very decisive I shall quote only the following passage, which is sufficient to prove, that they do not represent our own care and exertions as fruitless and unnecessary, or the Spirit of God as acting irrespectively and irresistibly; "Let the misery and short transitory joys spied in the casualty of our days, move us while we have them in our hands, and seriously stir us to be wise, and to expend the gracious good-will of God to us ward, which all the day long stretcheth out his hands, as the Prophet saith unto us, for the most part his merciful hands, sometimes his heavy hands, that we being learned thereby, may escape the danger that must needs fall on the unjust, who lead their days in felicity and pleasure, without the knowing of God's will towards them, but suddenly they go down into hell. Let us be found watchers, found in the peace of the Lord, that at the last day we may be found without spot and blameless. Yea, let us endeavour ourselves, good good Christian people, diligently to keep the presence of his Holy Spirit. Let us renounce all uncleanness, for he is the Spirit of Purity. Let us avoid all hypocrisy, for his Holy Spirit will flee from that which is feigned. Cast we off all malice and all evil will, for this Spirit will never enter into an evil-willing soul. Let us cast away all the whole lump of sin that standeth about us, for he will never dwell in that body that is subdued to sin. We cannot be seen thankful to Almighty God, and work such despite to the Spirit of Grace, by whom we be sanctified. If we do our endeavour, we shall not need to fear. We shall be able to overcome all our enemies, that fight against us. Only let us apply ourselves to accept that grace that is offered unto us (d).” But while the Church of England, in every part of its Public Formularies, asserts the doctrines of preventing and co-operating grace, it gives no countenance to enthusiasm, properly and justly so called. The real orthodox Divine maintains, in the sense just now explained," that every true Christian is inspired, enlightened, sanctified, and comforted by the Spirit of God;" but he rejects all claim to private revelation, all pretensions to instantaneous and forcible conversion, and to the sensible operation of the Spirit: in short, he dis (d) P. 417. Oxford 8vo. Ed. claims claims what, in the language of modern Calvinists, are called Experiences; that is, suggestions or perceptions, known and felt to be communicated by the immediate inspiration of God. This is by no means to confound a Christian inwardly with a Christian only outwardly; it is not to exclude the heart and affections from the business of religion; it is not to deny the indispensable necessity of supernatural aid, or the actual assistance of the Holy Spirit; it is not to extol our natural powers beyond their just limit; or to rely upon them solely in working out our Salvation: but it is to guard against the delusions of spiritual pride, and against unscriptural notions of the manner in which the Holy Ghost operates upon the minds of men; it is to prevent the rapturous flights of a heated imagination, and to call the attention to the plain and practical duties of rational devotion; it is to invite men to confide in the promised support of divine grace, without fostering an unwarranted conceit of familiar intercourse with God; it is to promote the exertion of those faculties which we have received from our Maker, and to direct them, under infallible guidance, to the purposes for which they were given us, the glory of God and the salvation of our own souls. It is to encourage true zeal, vital piety, and Christian humility, without in curring |