Sovereign GRACE. The fact of our accountability must never be concealed. We are stewards, not principals: "so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Every faculty, both of body and of mind, our position in society, our capability of receiving and power of distributing, and, specially, our relationship to God and to man, all involve responsibility! "How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" Here then is a consideration which ought to awaken into holy desire and earnest activity-to covet and to seek the best things.

What diligent cultivation of the faculties-what attendance on the ordinances of grace-what constant drawing out of the fulness of Christ-what watching for opportunities of usefulness, would there be, if each were fully impressed with his responsibility! No bad habit would be deemed incurable; no evil propensity as chartered with a toleration; no low tone of piety excusable, on account of its being the ordinary level of Christian excellence; no season of speaking or acting for God would be wasted without a sense of guilt; no omission of duty or perpetration of evil would be regarded as a misfortune, but as a SIN, and every sin would be felt to be "EXCEEDING SINFUL."

It is, however, certain, that our knowing the fact of responsibility, will not, of itself, awaken all this earnest concern and exertion. The heart, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, is too selfwilled, and too much engrossed with its present selfishness, to be alive to the awful realities of a DAY, which, being distant, the consequences of which are dimly seen, and scarcely felt. Hence the necessity of sovereign grace. The will of man must be brought to submit to the will of God; and the duties of his relation must be deeply and practically felt. This change of purpose and of action cannot originate in the carnal mind by any inherent power to alter its own tendencies; and all the productions of such a mind must be of its own character; for that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? The best resolutions of the unrenewed heart, are not only feeble but essentially defective; they are carnal and human, karà äveрwπоv, 1 Cor. iii. 3. Before, therefore, we can be spiritually-minded, we must be born of the Spirit, we must put off the old man with his deeds, and be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and put on the new man, which, after God, karà còv, is created in righteousness and true holiness, Eph. iv. 24.

This Divine agency originates, consecrates, and renders effectual, the human agency. The Holy Spirit not only inclines the will to seek the favour and the glory of God, but also furnishes strength for the effort. He enlightens the understanding that we may see our sinful, dangerous, and helpless condition; he takes of the things which are Christ's, and shows them unto us: he sheds abroad the love of God in our heart; he fulfils in us all the good pleasure of his good5 D

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ness, and the work of faith with power. Thus, while the Christian gives all diligence to make his calling and election sure, and to save his fellow-men from error, he wills and acts as he is moved by the Holy Ghost.

We do not profess to solve the problem, how human freedom and effectual grace are reconcilable with each other; although we are sure they must be harmonious in their co-operation. And we assert, that there is nothing unreasonable in believing, that the Holy Spirit, without destroying the liberty of mind, influences both its moral and intellectual powers; and especially we think with Edwards, that He illumines, and that volition follows the understanding. "Sanctify them by thy truth." Let a man have scriptural views of the condition of human nature, the character and consequence of sin, the adequacy and appointment of the Mediator, the necessity and the beauty of holiness; and let him view these truths, not only as speculations, but as possessing everlasting importance, and he will determine to act as one in earnest about his own salvation and the glory of the Lord.

Still, however, the truth itself is only an instrument, and it is efficient only as accompanied by the Spirit of life. The heart must be prepared for the reception of the truth, and this preparation is the work of God. The fact of the atonement, like the brazen serpent in the wilderness, may be viewed by different persons in various aspects : some may treat it with contempt; some as a subject of curious regard; and others, believing it to be the only means of cure appointed by God, look upon it with intense interest and impassioned desires. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.” The notion, that there is a delegated power in the Gospel to convert and save, without an immediate accompanying gracious influence, is a sort of Spinozism, and is as contrary to the facts of sanctification as the material philosophy or pantheism is to those of Providence. God works by agents, and yet retains an eternal superiority, and a distinctiveness from all the instrumentality which he employs. No creature agent can possess an independent power of being or of acting. Sandemanianism, if followed out, must be fatal to prayer, to a sense of dependence, and to gratitude. It is a kind of evangelical pantheism. Man must not be confounded with the instruments he uses, nor must the Spirit of God be identified with his own word of truth, though he employs it in regenerating and sanctifying the heart. The agent is distinct from the instrument in both instances, and they are analogical with each other, furnishing a proof of the beautiful unity which pervades the whole system of agency, whether human or Divine.

This acting of the Holy Spirit on the mind for the purpose of disposing and enabling it to become active itself, is an influence of sovereign grace. Let the reader meditate on the first chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians, and he will see how all the actings of grace are accord

ing to God's good pleasure and plan, and how that plan is formed irrespective of man's desert. Nor indeed can those gracious influences which excite holy desires be viewed in any other aspect than as sovereign; because they must, in the nature of the case, be unmerited. The influences which gratify those desires may be contemplated as faithful, because they fulfil promises made to certain conditions of mind; while those very couditions, i.e. holy desires, have been produced by sovereign grace. These sovereign influences prompt the prayerless to earnest supplication, and then in fidelity to the exceeding great and precious promises, more is effected than was either asked or expected.

How sovereign grace shines in bringing Saul and Onesimus to confess their sins! and what faithful adherence to the promises, in forgiving them their sins, and in cleansing them from all unrighteousness! 1 John i. 9. In usefulness, likewise, as well as in personal grace, the wind bloweth whither it listeth, and a man can receive nothing except it be given to him from above; and yet a man will be found at last to have received according to the diligence and the spirit with which he has sought this honour.

From these statements will appear the folly of attempting to distinguish the operations of the Holy Spirit from those of our own minds in all cases; for, as Dr. Owen observes, "The Holy Spirit works on the minds of men in and by their own natural acting;" and hence, also, the folly of waiting till we think we feel some extraordinary impulse of the Spirit before we attempt spiritual acts.

III. Nor will this combination of agencies be less adapted to render salvation CERTAIN, and to secure all the GLORY to God, the Great Author. On any principle which does not involve in it a power by which the provision of mercy may be effectually applied, there could be no certainty that even one sinner would be saved. The dispensation of the Gospel, with all its advantages, might utterly fail; the love of the Father, and the humiliation and death of his Son Jesus Christ, might be altogether ineffective, unless the people should become willing. When, however, an energy is engaged which can and will influence man, without destroying his constitution-an energy which shall make the Gospel the power of God unto salvation-which shall direct the heart into the love of God-which shall effectually work in those who believe; THEN the promise is sure to all the seed, and the predestination to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ, to be conformed to the image of his Son, and to eternal glory, is certain of being carried into effect. "A seed shall serve him." "The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands."

This Divine agency affords ground for hope that efforts to benefit others also shall not be in vain. Without this cheering expectation, fear would enfeeble, if it did not entirely prevent, all exertion; with this hope all is vigour and confidence, and the doctrines of regenera

tion and of saving grace, as well as that of the resurrection, exhort us, "Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." If, however, this Divine agency did not put into action the human agency, salvation could not be realised; for salvation from sin to holiness through a mediator implies of necessity the activity of mind in penitence, in believing the record God has given of his Son, and in the exercises of various graces. Salvation is indeed from the confined and sickly atmosphere of the prison, as well as from the infliction of the capital penalty; it brings into a state of liberty, that we may serve God in active righteousness and holiness all the days of our lives. The moral paralytic, like the natural, recovers health and strength in his effort at action. The withered arm is cured as it is stretched out. Spiritual health is promoted by exercise.

Yet, as the providing and the meritorious causes of salvation are of grace, and as the influence which first disposes and then enables the sinner to seek mercy and to promote its interests, is also of GRACE, all the glory is shut out from man and secured to God. The question ever to be kept in view is, What is the turning point, or rather turning power, in conversion, and in each subsequent effort of mind, to perfect holiness? Is it inherent in man, a part of his original endowment still remaining; or is it given to the convert in common with his whole species; or is it ab extra, is it special grace? We believe this turning power is SPECIAL GRACE-the all-commanding influence of the Holy Ghost, disposing the will and turning the heart to God. Thus the Christian is born of the Spirit—" born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." "By grace are ye saved." Created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works.” The song on earth and the song in heaven must symphonise—" Grace, grace unto it." This economy secures all the glory to the TRIUNE JEHOVAH, the God of all grace, and prevents for ever the saved from self-gratulation and pride; this compels obedience to the apostolic command" He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."

IS PROTESTANTISM A NOVELTY?

J. K. F.

FEW religious bodies seem to be more called to express their sentiments on the Reformation than the Independents, and none have more reason to feel themselves free to do so. They owe their position as dissenters to the fact that, in their conscientious opinion, the Reformation, instead of verging towards excess, did not go far enough. After a manner which, not only papists, but many protestants call heresy, so worship they the God of their fathers. In dealing with this intensely interesting subject, Independents will not be suspected of political animosity, or the more rancorous spirit of religious perse

cution. They have consistently maintained that civil rights are independent of religious belief; that political franchises are a common property; and that all the odium of persecution belongs to arrangements, however extenuated or veiled, which visit with temporal disabilities the exercise of "conscience towards God." The right of private judgment in matters of religion is the corner-stone of Independency. So far as man's highest interests are concerned, the magistrate bears the sword, not to punish belief, but to protect the peaceable profession of it.

It is probable that not many of our readers expected to see the day in which, in this Protestant country, the Reformation should be held up as a crime in its authors, and in itself a calamity to mankind. They could not anticipate that popish writers in making the allegation would find their fastest allies in that church which calls herself the bulwark of Protestantism. Finding the Reformation assailed from such apparently opposite quarters, what are "the humble poor" to do? What are they to believe? Happily Protestantism has given them the Bible! It is no longer a question for schoolmen-"What is the faith once delivered to the saints?" That book has taught them to say, "Let God be true, and every man a liar." Meanwhile they will be slow to criminate those who taught them this high appeal; and such of them as read these pages may be glad to be reminded, that Protestantism is not such a novelty as its opposers of every shade would have them to believe.

Every one is familiar with the principal features in the life of Luther, the prominent, but by no means exclusive, agent of the great change of the sixteenth century. It is not always recollected, however, that Luther's religious light was not produced by collision with the infamous vendor of indulgences. The Providence which removed a youthful companion by a stroke of lightning, sent Luther to the monastery at Erfurt, with a disposition to seriousness, which it might have been foreseen the forms of popery could not satisfy. Religious anxiety proved too deep for superstition to allay, or study to divert. Two years after he assumed the cowl, he learned from a book which ought to have been his first companion in the monastic cell, how man may be just with God. His profiting had so appeared to all, that we find him called by his prince, when no more than thirty-four, to grace a professor's chair in the university of Wittenberg. Here, while lecturing on philosophy, and afterwards on theology, he justified the choice of the elector, attracted crowds of students, and (what was more important) daily acquired clearer views of the Gospel. Tetzel's impudent and senseless mode of vending indulgences was exciting the comparatively calm and measured disapproval of the public, when Luther encountered the traffic with a vehemence proportioned to his greater light. The sober-minded might have been content to withhold