"Ye

of sinners. Marvel not then, that we say, it is not enough to give credit to all that God testifies concerning his Son. must be born again."

Then will the new heart receive the word of God, as good seed into good ground, which will produce the renunciation of all confidence in works of righteousness which we have done, and entire reliance upon that blood which cleanseth believers from all sin.

The same degree of humility and confidence in Jesus may not exist in every renewed mind; because.the operations of faith are different in different believers; and in the same person, at different times All christian graces, however, in due season, worketh the same SPIRIT, through benevolence of disposition.

Next to confidence in Jesus, saving faith will, under religious culture, produce love to the Bible, delight in the society of the pious, religious affection for divine ordinances, and ardent exertions for the promotion of the Redeemer's kingdom. To ascertain, however, whether we possess saving faith, it will not be necessary to ask, "have we all the operations of faith?" but, "have we any act of faith, which proves the existence of a new heart?"

What has been said affords three

INFERENCES.

1. It does not appear, that a knowledge of the way of salvation is absolutely essential to the existence of saving faith. renewed disposition is the only indispensable requisite to salvation. When God has produced such a change, that the rebel, when enlightened, will love God, the rebel's heaven purchased by the blood of Christ, is through the mediation of Jesus, secure. For Christ's sake he shall be saved, being one of the redeemed people; and in due time, he shall know it to be for Christ's sake, that he may give Christ the glory.

3

2. The scriptural doctrine of saving faith excludes, of necessity, neither infants, nor those persons who are destitute of the written revelation, from future felicity. The speaker will not affirm that infants and heathens are in any case saved; for it is more than he knows. But if any one affirms, that they are all lost, it is more than he can prove.

Infidels libel divine revelation, when they say, that the scriptures pronounce sentence of damnation against all children, who are incapable of rational assent to the gospel; and against all the poor pagans, who never had the opportunity of believing it.

The scriptures do not confine the operations of the Holy Ghost to one truth, or one motive. Holy exercises may be created by God, and at the same time exercised by man, in view of many motives. Nothing in the word of God forbids us to suppose, that HE, who hath the hearts of all men in his hands, may turn the heart, or the moral exercises of a child, as easily as the heart of a hoary-headed sinner. He who made the inhabitant of the wilderness, and taught him that the Great Spirit exists, may use this partial knowledge of God and of duty, as a motive in view of which to produce that lave, or saving faith of heart, which im

* I never heard a Hopkinsian admit the possibility of saving infants before.

Exercises created! They are like the creatures of the poet; or like Diocesan Bishops; or like that wicked invention of man, the mule, which are none of them the creatures of God. If exercises are creatures, what are they? Are they matter or spirit? Are they creatures capable of acting or of being acted upon? Are they animals or vegetables, or minerals; or do they belong to the kingdom of the gases? No doubt they are of the gaseous kingdom! They are certainly more subtle than the common atmosphere.

It seems that these creatures have eyes, and live in view of motives. Yet they are incapable of volition. Should I grasp my cat, and make him look upon a chesnut in the embers, and then forcibly put his paw into the fire, that would resemble this creation of exercises in view of a motive, Away with such nonsense from the church of God!

th plies sorrow for known sin, desire of pardon, if God can consistently bestow it, and pious resolution of future obedience. Having renewed this person, for aught that appears, God may for Christ's sake, pardon and save him. It would then hold true, that there is no other name given under heaven, except that of Jesus, whereby guilty men can be saved. Let infidels, therefore, for ever be silent upon this subject and acknowledge that they know nothing more about the heathen and infants than we do; who acknowledge that they may be saved or lost, according to the decree of heaven.

3. Christians should be cautious in denouncing those who give any evidence of saving faith. We are not to expect all the fruits of holiness will immediately appear. Hitherto the operations of faith may have been few in one, who by regeneration has been made spiritually alive from the dead. How far a believer may be left in ignorance, we cannot easily determine. Neither dare the preacher say, "so far and no farther, a person may be erroneous in opinion, and criminal in practice, and still retain the spirit of faith.”

If any should imagine this sentiment too liberal, I reply, that while I denounce error and sin I would hope many persons may be saved whose faith and love are feeble. "Him that is weak in the faith receive." It is a grateful persuasion, that in many cases, the heart is right, where the head is wrong.

Paul has taught us, in the fourteenth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, that two persons may have saving faith, who are directly opposed in opinion upon a subject of revealed religion. One may believe it lawful, and another, unlawful, to eat every sort of flesh. In consequence of this difference of opinion, their conduct is opposed; but, nevertheless, we are assured that God accepts the service of both, because they act from love to what they severally suppose to be the mind of the Spirit. I conclude with the apostle's conclusion upon this subject.

"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin."

NOTE C.

THE CHRISTIAN GRACES DISTINGUISHED.

BY A CALVINIST.

THE FAITH of God's elect does not, in fact, ever exist in a state of separation from REPENTANCE, HOPE, LOVE, and new obedience. Yet, these graces may be distinguished from one another, as truly as those stars which constitute a constellation may be individually seen Each of them is distinct from each. They are all exercises of a soul born of the Spirit, of a soul united to Christ, and influenced by the Holy Ghost.

We have no difficulty in admitting, that perception, attention, abstraction, recollection, desire, fear and hatred, are exercises of one and the same mind. It would, however, be ridiculous to confound them. The writer, who should seriously attempt to prove the identity of these exercises, would be considered insane: and he who should employ the words, as if they were synonymous, would find his composition altogether unintelligible.

The various gracious exercises of a renewed mind are equally distinct; and it is more criminal, because more injurious, to confound them.

It is absolutely necessary, however, to those who would reason on any subject, and to those who would understand argument, that they should have a little common sense. We do not say that they must have much, or that they must be sensible men ; for such a requisition would exclude very many persons, yea, and very many public teachers, from examining any subject. They must, however, have sense enough to know, that the body of man is distinct from its own external actions; that the bone is not the blood; and that the hand is not the foot. They must have sense enough to know, that the mind is distinct from its own ́acts, and

that faculties are distinguished from their exercises. Without so much sense, on their part, there can be no reasoning with them. A man, who does not know, that the power of sight is distinct from the act of looking on an object; and, that an irrascible disposition is distinct from being in a rage, cannot understand any argument. Such a man might assert, concerning a stone which he saw rolling down the hill, that motion was essential to its nature, and that it ceased to be a stone, so soon as it rested on a level.

In treating of the CHRISTIAN GRACES, the principle must be admitted, that the regenerated soul is distinct from its own moral actions and that a holy disposition is distinct from its several pious exercises.

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It must be allowed also, on our part, that to distinguish each Christian grace from every other, is difficult; but analysis is also difficult even in material subjects, which are visible and tangible.

The reason is plainly this: that there is no object presented to our investigation, which is perfectly simple, either in the material world, or among the exercises of our own minds. Every thing which we see is complex; and what the logicians call a simple idea, never, in fact, exists. All our mental operations are complex. It is true we can separate one piece of matter, one pebble from another, and examine it separately; but this object is, itself, compound. We may also distinguish one principle, or one action from another; but each of these is, in itself, again susceptible of analysis. Sensation cannot exist without perception, nor can either of them without being accompanied by volition: and a human volition never once existed where the operations of intellect were entirely excluded. No mental act whatever can have existence without volition.

The difficulty, therefore, of distinguishing the Christian graces, is one which is common to every subject of investigation.