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6. Orthodox.

That grace is both free mercy in itself, and the sole efficient communication from God to his chosen in Christ; that the will and powers of man before conversion rather resist than promote it; that, therefore, in the FIRST act of grace in conversion, man being spiritually dead to God is wholly impotent and passive under the sole activity of the Divine Spirit, who takes away not only the strength of resisting, but the will to resist; that this gracious Agent imparts a new and divine nature, with its own proper and peculiar faculties, or, in other words, by the action of his grace, constitutes a new creation with a new life, a new birth to a new and spiritual world, and an holy resurrection of the soul from the death of sin in this evil world; that, in consequence of this, the person hath an heart of flesh for an heart of stone, so called because naturally incapable by sin of all gracious impressions; that the Holy Spirit bestows not only light, but sight, to the understanding, and then not merely appeals by moral evidence of reason, but infuses a supernatural act and conviction of faith, which, though not against sound reason, is of far greater force, and in this way applies what is emphatically called the demonstration · of the Spirit and of power; that the Holy Spirit alone, operating upon the soul, as the soul doth upon the body, UNITES it to Christ for all things, and THEN, but not till then, by a sweet and divine compulsion, draws and enables the person, thus become a true believer, in the degree appointed, both to will and to d of his good pleasure, for all life and holmess; that, in this way, and

by

by the instrumentality of the word, the believer is taught of God in all the truth of salvation, having also the very "thoughts of his heart cleansed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit;" that being truly inspired, by having Christ dwelling in his heart, and by having the Spirit of Christ, without which he could be none of his, he is and must be, though but a wayfaring man, infallibly taught, both because the teacher is TRUTH itself, and because it is not possible for the elect to be finally or essentially deceived; that thus the Christian is not a doubting reasoner, grounding himself upon the fallacious deductions of a depraved understanding, but a gracious and firm believer, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, of which he receives the earnest by the work of the Spirit within him, and of which he gives the proof by works of righteousness from him.

*

The last confession is not a mere human scheme or system, but is founded upon the divine oracles. It is also most certainly agreeable to the public confessions of the reformed churches, to the sentiments of the most pious and learned divines both English and foreign who follow those confessions, and is indeed pure and unsophisticated Calvinism, or rather (what it ought to be called) true and vital Christianity; as might be

See the valuable Syntagma Confessionum Fidei, published at Geneva, 1612. See also the testimony of Bradford and other reformers in Fox's Acts, p. 1470. WITS. Diss. Epist. ad Huber. &c. ad loc. Abp. Leighton, Rivet, Owen, Du Moulin, &c.

proved by a multitude of testimonies, if it were neces

sary.

From the premises it follows; that, if it be said, men can act for God by their own natural powers without his grace, it is Pelagianism:-Or, that grace only is needful to assist those natural powers in order to work, after men have believed, and asked, and sought for it; this is SemiPelagianism:-Or, that all men have common or sufficient grace to aid the natural powers in order to acquire more grace, or can resist grace in its intentions and operations; this is Arminianism:-Or, that the natural powers are only illuminated and strengthened by the grace of God, though invincibly so, in order to faith and holiness, without any infusion of a new and divine nature, with its own new and peculiar faculties; this is Semi-Arminianism:*-Or, finally, that the natural or any other faculties of men, either in or towards the act of conversion or regeneration, or new birth by the divine Spirit, have in the first instance no ability at all, but are purely passive in the hands of God, as the clay in the hands of the potter, the Spirit blowing where it listeth, and men hearing only the sound thereof, but incapable of bringing it in, or driving it away; and that, in consequence, of this birth, a new and divine life is infused with its own new and gracious faculties, which life then operates upon all the natural faculties, so that even these are enabled to yield an obedience, which before they were both incapable of and contrary

This opinion was censured by the Synod at Rotterdam in April, 1686.

to;

to; this is the true and unsophisticated doctrine of the Bible, of late years called Calvinism.

It is nothing to the present purpose to say, that our natural powers are to be brought under the means of grace, and are to be exercised as much as possible in all ordinances; for this is both agreed to and insisted upon by all true Calvinists: but the elenchus, or clinch, of the whole matter is their potency in the affair of conversion, upon which all true Calvinists are agreed, that they have, in se, no potency at all, but that the whole workmanship is of God, as much as the original creation of the world was; and that therefore it is called xewn dos, a NEW creation.

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Nor is it to the purpose to urge, that this principle is abused by hypocrites and false professors; for there is not one doctrine of the gospel, which has not been abused, and perhaps more grossly abused than this either has been or can be. The greatest mercies are the most capable of the vilest abuses, but NOT BY THE CHILDREN OF GOD. The devil and his agents first ruined the world of nature; and all their malice and subtlety are ever upon the watch to mar and disturb, though they cannot destroy, the world of grace. But the foundation of the Lord standeth sure, having this seal; The Lord knoweth them that are his; and, Let every one, that nameth the name of Christ, depart from iniquity.

This is the way, in which the children of God will always desire to manifest their regeneration. An heavenly birth must have heavenly actions and an heavenly

mind. It is that likeness to God, which the believer both hath and loves. The experimental Christian, therefore, cannot talk of his own natural powers, which are infirm and discordant, but of the goodness of God and the power of God manifested in him and to him. All other men are of the earth earthy; and the tendency of their hearts and lives, when duly examined, is earthy also. Whatsoever is born of the flesh Is FLESH, and cannot possibly rise above its own principle or cause. The works of the flesh will therefore necessarily be produced either from the carnal hand or carnal mind; and these can produce no other. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit; for of thorns men do not gather figs, nor of a bramble-bush gather they grapes. The spiritual birth constitutes the essential difference between those, who are made by it the children of God, and those, who are only "naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam." And the effect and fruits of this birth prove the difference to the believer's own conscience in the sight of God, and generally in the sight of the world.

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