God, the fancied moral character of their converts. Thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself, and did approve thy sin." Psalm 1. 21. Intelligent Arminians have not proceeded the full length of their principles. Consistency, however, would bring them down to the level of Finneyism. Hence says Edwards,"It were to be wished, that Doctor Whitby and other divines of the same sort had explained themselves, when they have asserted, that that which is necessary, is not deserving of praise; at the same time that they have owned God's perfection to be necessary, and so in effect representing God as not deserving praise. Certainly, if their words have any meaning at all, by praise, they must mean the exercise or testimony of esteem, respect, or honourable regard. And will they then say, that men are worthy of that esteem, respect, and honour for their virtue, small and imperfect as it is, which yet God is not worthy of, for his infinite righteousness, holiness and goodness? If so, it must be because of some sort of peculiar excellency in the virtuous man, which is his prerogative, wherein he really has the preference; some dignity, that is entirely distinguished from any excellency or amiableness in God; not in dependence, but in preeminence; which, therefore, he does not receive from God, nor is God the fountain or pattern of it; nor can God, in that respect, stand in competition with him, as the object of honour and regard; but man may claim a peculiar esteem, commendation and glory, to which God can have no pretension.”* IX. Regeneration is not the result of the natural man's improvement of sufficient grace. Sufficient grace is regeneration. If sufficient grace, to make a right use of the means of grace, were given to all men, then all would be saved. For the abuse and right use of means, is one peculiar mark of difference which distinguishes the regenerate from natural men. It should, however, be observed here, that God manifests many special favours to those who enjoy the means of grace, which elevates their condition above that of the heathen, and increases their responsibility. But such persons, continuing in their natural state, may also enjoy many * Edwards' Works, Vol. 2. p. 134. gifts of the Spirit, and yet perish. They may be enlightened in the knowledge of the truth, as a science, by the same means that men become enlightened in law, medicine, or the properties of natural things; and this knowledge may be so far operative, as to produce an external reformation. Their gifts, may, like Balaam's, be brilliant; their office, like Ahab's and Judas', high; their profession orthodox; the form of their worship scriptural; and their works, as to the matter of them, good; yet such persons may be, and are lost. If they shall fall away, it is impossible to renew them to repentance. "For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world, through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them." 2 Pet. ii. 20, 21. "They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Tit. i. 16. In such persons, mere legal convictions may, and sometimes do, rise higher than in the regenerate. The soul may become frantic under the terrors of the Almighty, and rush, by a suicidal hand, into the full measure of that divine wrath, the mere preludes of which had become intolerable. But the knowledge which the regenerate have of God, differs, not only in degree, but in its own nature, from any thing that can be found in natural men. For, whatever may be the degree of the divine favour, manifested to natural men, in the way of means and common gifts; or, whatever may be the degree of their attainments, none of these things are such preparations for regeneration as necessarily secure the end. Yet they are necessary antecedents, by a divine constitution. A competent knowledge of the scriptures is an indispensable preparation for the exercise of the ministerial office, but not such a preparation as necessarily procures the possession of the office. The law operates upon the natural conscience, before it is purged. Some concern for salvation is produced in the soul, before it is saved; enough, at least, to lead to a diligent attendance upon the means, like the impotent man at the pool of Siloam. For Lydia heard, before the Lord opened her heart, "that she attended unto the things spoken by Paul." It is in the sense here explained that sound writers call these things "preparations" for regeneration. X. Regeneration is not the Spirit's assistance of the soul, enabling it to bring its own latent principles into activity, which "before lay torpid, like some animals in winter;"* but the renewal or restoration of its faculties to their primitive state. The moral principles of the soul in its depraved state, being opposite to the principles of the new birth, the more the faculties are brought into activity about holy things, the more diabolical will be the motives of its conduct. The force of divine truth operating upon a natural conscience, may, and does effect an external reformation, which leads men to do many things good in themselves, and useful to men: may restrain them from many outward transgressions of the divine law, which, if perpetrated, would injure both themselves and others. Thus they secure that "friendship of the world which is enmity with God." James, * Charnock. |