indeed, lay rebels and penitents open to a new aspect from the Deity; but that aspect was in the Deity before they laid themselves open to it. Fire, without changing its nature, melts wax and hardens clay. Now, if a rebel's heart absolutely stiffens itself, so that it becomes like unyielding clay; or if a penitent's heart humble itself, so that it becomes like yielding wax; God changes not, any more than the fire, when he hardens the stiff rebel by resisting him, and melts the yielding penitent by giving him more grace. To understand this better, we must remember that God's eternal nature is to "resist the proud, and give grace to the humble;" and that when free grace, which has appeared to all men, assists us, we are as free to choose humility and life as we are to choose pride and death, when we dally with temptation, or indulge the natural depravity of our own hearts. Hence it follows, that the judicial difference which God makes when he alternately smiles and frowns, dispenses rewards and punishments, springs not from any alteration in his unchangeable nature; but from a change in the mutable will and behaviour of free agents. A change this, which arises from their will freely resisting divine grace, if the alteration is for the worse; and from their will yielding without necessity to that grace, if the change is for the better. Nor are we any more ashamed to own man's free agency before a world of fatalists, than we are ashamed to say, "Verily there is a reward for the righteous :" "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished:" "Doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth," and will "render to every man according to his works," that is, according to his free will; works being our own works, only so far as they spring from our own free will. And we think that the opposite doctrine is one of the most absurd errors that ever disgraced Christianity; and one of the most dangerous engines which were ever invented in Babel to sap the walls of Jerusalem. A dreadful engine this, which, if it rested upon truth, would pour floods of disgrace on all the divine perfections; would overset the tribunal of the Judge of all the earth; and would raise upon the tremendous ruins the throne of the doctrinal idol of the day: I mean the spurious doctrine of grace, which I have sometimes called, "the great Diana of the Calvinists," because, like the great Diana of the Ephesians, it may pass at once for Luna, or "finished salvation" in heaven, and for Hecate, or "finished damnation" in hell. THE FICTITIOUS CREED. ARTICLE IX. “I BELIEVE that the seed of the word, by which God's children are born again, is a corruptible seed; and that, so far from enduring for ever, (as that mistaken apostle Peter rashly affirms,) that it is frequently rooted out of the hearts of those in whom it is sown." THE GENUINE CREED. ARTICLE IX. : WE believe that the word or the truth of God is the divine seed, by which sinners are born again when they receive it, that is, when they believe: and this spiritual seed (as that enlightened apostle Peter justly affirms) endures for ever; but not for antinomian purposes; not to say to fallen believers, in the very act of adultery or incest, "My love! my undefiled!" No it endures for ever, as a seed of reviving or terrifying truth: it endures for ever as a two-edged sword, to defend the just or to wound the wicked; to protect obedient believers, or to pierce disobedient believers, and obstinate unbelievers. It endures for ever as a sweet savour of life to them that receive and keep it; and as a bitter savour of death to them that never receive it, and to them that finally cast it away, and never "bring forth fruit to perfection." But although the seed of the word can never be lost with respect to both its effects, yet, as we have already observed, it is too frequently lost with regard to its more desirable effect. If Mr. Hill doubts of it, we refer him to the parable of the sower, where our Lord observes that the good seed was thus lost in three sorts of people out of four, merely through the want of co-operation or concurrence on the part of free will, which he calls "good or bad ground, soft or stony ground," &c., according to the good or bad choice it makes, and according to the steadiness or fickleness of that choice. And if Mr. Hill exclaims against the obvious meaning of so well known a portion of the gospel, the world will easily see that, supposing his doctrine of grace deserves to be called chaste, when it prompts him to vindicate, as openly as he dares, the profitableness of adultery and incest to fallen believers, it by no means merits to be called devout, when it excites him to insinuate, that our Lord preached a "shocking, not to say blasphemous," doctrine. THE FICTITIOUS CREED. ARTICLE X. "I BELIEVE that Christ does not always give unto his sheep eternal life; but that they often perish, and are by the power of Satan frequently plucked out of his hand." THE GENUINE CREED. ARTICLE X. We believe that Christ's sheep mentioned in John x. are obedient, persevering believers; that is, as our Lord himself describes them, John x. 4, 5, 27, persons that hear (that is, obey) his voice, and whom he knows; (that is, approves ;) persons that know (that is, approve) his voice; that "know not" (that is, do not approve) "the voice of strangers ;" and flee from a stranger instead of following him; in a word, persons that actually follow the good shepherd in some of his folds or pastures. In this description of a sheep every verb is put in the present tense, to show us that the word " sheep" denotes a character, or persons actually possessed of such a character. So that the moment the character changes, the moment a man who once left all to follow Christ, leaves Christ to follow a stranger, he has no more to do with the name and privileges of a sheep, than a deserter or a rebel has to do with the name and privileges of his majesty's soldiers or subjects. According, then, to our doctrine, no sheep of Christ, that is, no actual follower of the Redeemer, perishes. We think it is shocking to say, that any of them are plucked out of his hand. On the contrary, we frequently say, with St. Peter, "Who will harm you," (much more, who will separate you from the love of Christ,) "if you be followers of that which is good?" (that is, if you be sheep ;) and we insist upon the veracity of our Lord's promise, "He that endureth unto the end," in the character of a sheep, that is, in the way of faith and obedience, "the same shall be" eternally "saved." And we maintain, that so long as a believer does not make shipwreck of the faith and of a good conscience; so long as he continues a sheep, an harmless follower of the Lamb of God, he can no more perish, than God's everlasting throne can be overturned. But what has this doctrine of our Lord to do with Calvinism? With regard to the sheep mentioned in Matt. xxv. 33, 34, whom our Lord calls, "blessed of his Father," we believe that they represent the multitude of obedient, persevering believers, whom two apostles describe thus :— "Blessed are they that do his" (God's) "commandments, that they may have right" (or, if Mr. Hill pleases, privilege)" to the tree of life, and enter, &c., into the city." Rev. xxii. 14. "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." "And this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." James i. 12; 1 John v. 3. For such enduring, obedient believers, a kingdom of glory is prepared from the foundation of the world; and to it they are and shall be judicially elected; while the goats, that is, unbelievers, or disobedient fallen believers, are and shall be judicially reprobated from it. when our Lord accounts for his judicial election of the Hence it is, that obedient, (whom he parabolically calls "sheep,") he does not say, "Inherit the kingdom, &c., for I absolutely finished your salvation;" but he says, "Inherit the kingdom, for ye gave me meat," &c., ye fed the hungry from a right motive; and what you did in that manner, I reward it as if you had done it to myself. In other terms, Ye heard my voice, and followed me, in hearing the whispers of my grace and following the light of your dispensation; and now I own you as my eternally-rewardable elect, my sheep, which have followed me without finally drawing back. Again when our Lord gives an account of the judicial reprobation of the finally disobedient, (whom he parabolically calls "goats,") he does not say, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared" for you "from the foundation of the world; for I then absolutely finished your eternal reprobation." No; this is the counterpart of the gospel of the day. But he says, "Depart, &c., for ye gave me no meat by feeding the hungry in your generation," &c.; that is, Ye did not believingly follow me in following your light and my precepts. Either you never began your course, or you drew back before you had finished it: either you never voluntarily listed under my banner, or you deserted before you had fought the good fight out either you never believed in me the light of the world, and your light; or, instead of keeping the faith, you voluntarily, avoidably, unnecessarily, and reso lutely made shipwreck of it, and of a good conscience, and therefore your damnation is of yourselves. You have personally forfeited your conditional election to the rewards of persevering obedience, and personally made your conditional reprobation from those rewards sure by your final disobedience. From these evangelical descriptions of the sheep and of the goats, mentioned in John x. and Matt. xxv., it appears to us indubitable: 1. That these " sheep," that is, obedient, persevering believers, "shall never perish," although they might perish, if they "brought upon themselves swift destruction" by denying the Lord that bought them. 2. That they shall all be eternally saved, although they might have missed eternal salvation, if they had finally |