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'dued, and also deny those which he had; as a 'power to believe in Christ, or to assent unto any 'truth that God should reveal unto him: and yet " they grant this privilege unto every one of his 'posterity, in that depraved condition of nature, 'whereinto by sin he cast himself and us. We have all now, they tell us, a power of believing ‹ in Christ, that is, Adam, by his fall, obtained a 6 supernatural endowment, far more excellent than ( any he had before!'

It is freely allowed that the principle in innocent Adam differed in many circumstances from that in believers. The production of the one was a necessary act in God, the other sovereign. If he would create Adam, his nature required that he should create him holy; but he is under no necessity of nature to produce an holy principle in a lapsed creature. The one was left to the choice of its subject to keep it in being; so is not the other. The one was exercised in contemplating and adoring God in all his glorious perfections, as displayed in the works of Creation and Providence; the other contemplates and adores him not only in these characters, but as the God of sovereign saving grace. But as these differences lie not in the nature of the principle, but are merely circumstantial, they make nothing in circumscribing present duty.

That the principle of holiness in Adam, and that which is wrought in believers are essentially the same, I conclude from the following reasons.

First, They are both formed after the same likeness; THE IMAGE OF GOD. God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him PUT YE on the new man, which, AFTER GOD, is created in righteousness, and true holiness.* If God be immutable in his nature, that which is created after him must be the same for substance at all times, and in all circumstances. There cannot be two specifically different images of the same original.

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Secondly, They are both a conformity to the same standard; THE MORAL LAW.-That the spirit and conduct of man in innocence was neither more nor less than a perfect conformity to this law, I suppose will be allowed; and the same may be said of the spirit and conduct of Jesus Christ, so far as he was our exemplar, or the model after which we are formed. God's law was within his heart. It was his meat and drink to do his will. He went to the end of the law for righteousness; not appear that he went beyond it. riority of his obedience to that of all others, lay not in his doing more than the law required; but in the dignity of his person, which stamped infinite value on every thing he did. But if such was the spirit and conduct of Christ, to whose image we are predestinated to be conformed, of necessity it must be ours. This also perfectly agrees with those scriptural representations, which

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describe the work of the Spirit as writing God's law in the heart;* and those which represent the ultimate state of holiness to which we shall arrive in heaven, as no more than a conformity to this law, and this model: the spirits of just men MADE PERFECT.........We shall be LIKE HIM.

Thirdly, The terms used to describe the one imply that it is of the same nature as the other. Conversion is expressed by a return to God; † which denotes a recovery to a right state of mind after a departure from him. Regeneration is called a washing, which expresses the restoring of the soul to purity, from which it had degenerated: and hence the same divine operation is in the same passage called, the renewing of the Holy Ghost.

But, "this renovation, it has been said, is spoken of the mind, and not of a principle in the mind." The renewal of the mind, must either be natural or moral. If the former, it would seem as if we had divested ourselves of the use of our natural faculties, and that regeneration consists in restoring them. If the latter, by the mind must be meant the disposition of the mind, or, as the scripture speaks, the SPIRIT of our minds. But this amounts to the same thing as a principle in our minds. There is no difference between a mind

Psalm xl. 8. John iv. 34. Rom. x. 4. Jer. xxxi. 33.
† Isaiah ly. 7.

‡ Motives to Love and Unity, p. 22.

§ Ephes. iv. 23.

being restored to a right state and condition, and a right state and condition being restored to the mind.

Fourthly, Supreme love to God, which is acknowledged to be the principle of man in innocence, would necessarily lead a fallen creature to embrace the gospel way of salvation. This is clearly intimated in our Lord's reasonings with the Jews: I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my father's name, and ye receive me not.* 'This reasoning, on the contrary hypothesis, was invalid; for if receiving the Messiah was that tổ which a principle of supreme love to God was unequal, a non-reception of him would afford no proof of its absence. They might have had the love of God in them, and yet not have received him.

Love to God, which was possessed by Adam in innocence, was equal to that of the holy angels. His being of the earth earthy, as to his body, no more proves his inferiority to them as to the prin ciples of his mind, than it proves the inferiority of Christ in this respect, who, before his resurrection, was possessed of a natural and not a spiritual body. But it cannot be denied that the angels are capable of understanding, believing, and approving of the gospel way of salvation. It is, above all others, their chosen theme: which things the angels desire to look into. It is true, they do not embrace the

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Messiah as their Saviour; because they do not stand in need of salvation; but give a being that wants a Saviour, a free invitation, and their principles, and he would not scruple a moment about accepting it. It is not possible for a creature to love God, without loving the greatest friend of God, and embracing a gospel that more than any thing tends to exalt his character: neither is it possible to love mankind with a holy and affectionate regard towards their best interests, without loving the friend of sinners, and approving of a doctrine that breathes good will to men.

CONCERNING THE DECREES OF GOD.

A GENERAL invitation to sinners to return to God, and be saved through Christ, it has been thought must be inconsistent with an election of some, and a consequent rejection of others. Such has been the mode of objecting used by the adversaries to the doctrines of discriminating grace;* and such is the mode of late adopted by our opponents.

In general I would observe, If this mode of reasoning prove any thing, it will prove too much; it will prove that it is not the duty of some men to attend the means of grace, or in any way to seek after the salvation of their souls, or to be in the least degree concerned about it: for it may be pleaded

* See Owen's Death of Death, Book IV. Chap. i.

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