late."*"The dying thief," and "the labourers in the eleventh hour," are instanced to support this argument of compelling grace! Mr. Burder furnishes an example of " a young gentleman, whose sensual lusts were extremely violent, and who procured an entire female skull, and every morning, before he went out, spent some minutes in surveying it; expecting that the sight of so unpleasing an object would operate as an antidote to the power of that temptation, to which he was so subject. But, alas! his corrupt inclination still prevailed, and he sinned as frequently as ever; so he gave away the skull, finding it did him no service. Afterwards, God was pleased to convert him; and vital grace did that for him, which a dead skull was unable to effect. His easy besetting sin had no more dominion over him, from the day that the Holy Ghost laid effectual hold of his heart." † This disgusting story is introduced into a sermon, intended, of course, for the perusal of both sexes: but how little is it calculated to restrain licentiousness! how offensive to virgin modesty! It is a suitable illustration, however, of the gospel-doctrine, which it exemplifies. The most incorrigible sensualist was converted in the day of grace, not because he repented, and endeavoured to reform himself; that point was given up, and he continued to indulge his passions in * Prop against all Despair, p. 32. + Village Sermons, v. iii. p. 114. defiance of his reason and conscience, till "the Holy Ghost laid effectual hold of his heart;' not as a co-operating assistance, but as an arbitrary power. Thus, when the emaciated libertine has wasted life and strength in his debaucheries, after he has corrupted others, and destroyed himself, his last miserable moments, and all the bitterness of remorse and shame will be converted into joy and exultation, if he listen to this consoling preacher. "Come then by faith to Jesus; tell him of the power of thy sins, and of thy inability to destroy them; plead the fulness that is in him for thy supply; beseech him to subdue thine iniquities, and leave the matter in his hands. His grace is sufficient for thee, his strength shall be perfected in thy weakness.”* This is the great pillar of Methodism, the foundation and support of the new evangelical church. It is no wonder that thousands and tens of thousands assemble within its walls, when they are assured, that "whoever, under a sense of his sin and misery, flies to the refuge of his Saviour's arms, is gladly received and freely pardoned. In the fountain of his blood, he is washed from all sin; in the righteousness of Jesus, he is justified from all accusations: he is no longer in a state of condemnation; he has passed from death unto life. And what condition can equal this ?"+ Well may he † Id. v. ii. p. 142. * Village Sermons, v. iii. p.116. ask the question: and surely, if eternal life and present peace had been offered to mankind by Christ in this large, unqualified manner, without terms or conditions, it would not have needed the testimony of martyrdom, and the authority of miracles to recommend it to the acceptance of the world: nor would it have been so obstinately opposed by flesh and blood, by the rebellion of human nature against that commandment which is holy, just, and good. The revelation of Christ would have been too agreeable to those general and depraved propensities, which debase the heart, if the lusts of the flesh could thus be reconciled with the joys of the spirit; the pleasures of the world with the felicity of heaven. The guilty and self-convicted conscience would have flown to the refuge of the Saviour's arms, and have sheltered itself under the shadow of his imputed righteousness, in the worst periods of a degenerate age. How cheerily would the sated voluptuary have exclaimed, "What condition can equal this!" It is true, these new evangelists will sometimes argue that "repentance is regeneration,* * That repentance is very inaccurately termed regeneration by those writers who have applied it in that sense, has been plainly shewn by the Bishop of Lincoln, in his excellent Refu tation of Calvinism, p. 83 et sequent: This subject has also been discussed in a clear and satisfactory manner by the Rev. Theophilus St. John, in his Sermon on the New Birth.* His * Vol. ii. 6. that it means a change of mind, and it is impossible that a man can live in sin, when by the grace of God he is utterly set against it, by being thus renewed in the spirit of his mind.* It might have been supposed the next concession would be, that repentance is a condition: "No," says Mr. Hill," what you call conditions required of us, I call gifts bestowed by him; repentance is his gift. Christ is exalted a Prince and Saviour to give repentance."t By the common misapprehension of these teachers, a scriptural text is cited to contradict its own meaning. The whole sentence, of which this passage is a part, runs thus: "Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance unto Israel, and forgiveness of sins." "The council and the senate of the children of Israel," who sat in judgment on St. Peter, when he made this declaration, afford no testimony in favour of his doctrine, as it is interpreted by Mr. Rowland Hill: "for immediately after they had heard it, they took counsel to slay the apostles."§ If Christ had given them repentance, according to his sense of that expression, this might conclusion that regeneration, according to scripture and the liturgy of our church, takes place in the sacrament of baptism, appears fully established. * Village Dialogues, vol. iii. p. 152. + Id. id. p. 143. well have appeared a very extraordinary effect of it: the malicious and obdurate guilt of the Jewish sanhedrim would have been an astonishing proof that they were no longer sinful, but truly penitent. Does not this account of those who "rejected the counsel of God against themselves," evidently prove that the gift of repentance was not absolute, but conditional; granted to those who would fulfil the terms on which it was bestowed, and thus "save themselves from an untoward: generation?" Christ was exalted, to give to Israel and to all mankind the means of repentance, and forgiveness of sins upon repentance. And when we pray for this gift in our litany, we farther pray that God would endue us with the grace of his holy spirit, to amend our lives, according to his holy word." Now, the change of mind, termed "repentance," and the change of conduct, which is its necessary consequence, termed "amendment of life," are wrought in us undoubtedly by the grace of God, without which neither of them could be effectuated; and therefore we entreat God for that gift from which they both proceed. But the improvement in these virtues, our adoption of holy resolutions, and our progress in a better course of life, are not the thing given, but the use made of it: the power is from God, the application of it from ourselves. |