lutely reprobates your persons, [and leaves you without grace, so that you will personally and unavoidably commit murder, as did the being from whom you sprung, for which I shall punish you as he deserved?'] Who does not see the injustice and cruelty of such treatment? But if the persons, whom I suppose extracted from me, are reprieved as well as myself, if we are all put together in remediable circumstances, where sin indeed abounds, but where grace abounds much more, who does not see that upon the personal commission of avoidable, voluntary murder, [and much more upon the personal refusal of a pardon sincerely offered upon reasonable conditions,] my posterity may be condemned to the flames as justly as myself?" Upon these grounds, we admit, God might have given us up long ago, because we have had and abused the grace that reprobates are said never to receive.

But this supposition of what God might justly have done, implies that his justice may be separated from his other attributes, particularly his mercy. This, however, never was done; nor can it be. His attributes are inseparably joined ; they cannot be divided without destroying the Godhead. To say, therefore, that he might have passed by all men, is to say that he might not have been God. It belongs to the same class of unmeaning assertions with that just now considered in regard to sinners, viz., they might repent if they would, that is, if they were not sinners, or were altogether different characters from what they really are.

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CHAPTER IV.

FREE GRACE AND FREE WILL.

THE term grace is employed in the Scriptures to mark different objects. We use it here to designate all those dis positions, acts, and influences, of the Creator, which were necessary to endow, and place our first parents after their fall, and all their progeny, in a condition so far to believe and obey God as to obtain everlasting life. This, of course, embraces a power to will, no less than to perceive and do. We speak of this grace as free, to indicate that it is not purchased by man, but bestowed by the mere goodness of God; and that, upon all the sons and daughters of Adam, in opposition to Pelagianism on the one hand, and Calvinism. on the other. That it is free, in the first sense, is obvious from the fact that the constitution under which the human family was organized, made no provision for pardon in case of transgression, nor for any thing else but death. "In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.". As a transgressor, therefore, man had no just claim upon his Maker for aught but death. Nor was it in his power to create any other claim. Hence, all man receives better than this is by mere grace or favor.

That it is free in the other sense free for the whole race is clearly proved from our remarks on predestination in the last chapter. We shall, therefore, treat the subject

nere with great brevity, referring only to a few particulars not before mentioned.

We argue that this grace is equally free for all, from the divine character. God is good. But this is not a sufficient reason why he should not punish the guilty, because he is just as well as good. But is it not an infinite reason why he should not punish the innocent? Why he should not make sentient beings, and place them in circumstances necessitating them to sin, and then punish them with evertasting destruction for their sins? Why, if in his wisdom he determined to suspend the penalty of the violated law, and suffer the first pair to propagate their species, he should furnish them the needful help to work out their salvation ?

It is agreed by predestinarians that his goodness did provide for a part of mankind, and that grace is so richly bestowed on them, they cannot avoid being saved — they will be made willing," and "brought in." "brought in." Can any mortal give a good reason why that same goodness did not provide for the others, also? Were they any worse than the chosen ones? There was no difference. Why, then, should God love and endow them so richly, and do nothing effectively for others? Is it said that it was to display his justice? That was to be displayed in the atonement; and besides, it is not a display of justice, but of the most horrid injustice the human mind ever conceived. Hence, to believe in such limitation of divine grace, we must believe that God's goodness is not "over all his works," that he is a capricious "respecter of persons," or was incapable of doing for all what was necessary to place them in a salv able condition.

The freeness of this grace is equally obvious from the Scriptures in regard to it. The first promise of redemption, "the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head,"

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conveys no intimation of restriction. Nor, indeed, does any other announcement of revelation. Christ was given to the "world"-" appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself"-"died, the just for the unjust "is the propi. lation for the sins of the whole world invites all to come to him, sends forth his ministers to "preach the gospel to every creature”—justifies the "ungodly and is the "Saviour of all men, especially of those who believe." Is it possible that only a small part of mankind are embraced in these provisions? The gospel, then, is a lie, and its min isters teachers of falsehood, and the Spirit a deceiver and tormenter of reprobates by false encouragements and alarms "before the time." But this is not the case. Let God be true, whatever becomes of human theories. "God is love." He loved all mankind, and provided for their salvation. All may come, whether they will or not. The way is open; the Spirit is gone forth; the light that has come into the world "lighteth every man ;" and there is nothing in God, nothing in his election or reprobation, nothing in the sinner's infirmities of intellect, heart, or will, to make it impossible for him to come to Christ and be saved. No, nothing For, "the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath ap peared unto all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world."

One of the first and unconditional results of this grace was the endowment of man with free will, that is, to refuse the wrong and choose the right. That Adam possessed this in his primeval state, is evident from the provisions of the government under which he was placed. Without it he would not have been a proper subject of moral government. But the effect of his disobedience divested him of it, and left him free to evil only, that is, a slave to the devil

Hence, we say with the Church of England, in our eighth article. "The condition of man after the fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his own natural strength and works, to faith, and calling upon God; wherefore, we have no power to do good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Christ pro venting us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will." It is when we speak of him as destitute of this grace that we say he is totally de praved, "very far gone from original righteousness, and of his [fallen] nature inclined to evil, and that continually." But by the light that "lighteth every man," and the " grace of God which hath appeared unto all men," he is redeemed from this low estate, and invested with such a measure of moral power as to be able to resist his evil propensities, "forsake his way, and return unto the Lord who will have mercy on him." This is freedom in the only proper sense. It is that attribute in man, which constitutes him a fit subject of rewards and punishments. It is that, too, which invests the commands, expostulations, promises, and other appliances of the gospel, with interest and solemnity. That which lies at the foundation of all our hopes and fears the grand stimulants of effort; and without which the human family would be completely unmanned.

Thus, "Free Grace and Free Will" constitute the two grand pillars of Wesleyan theology. The first enables us to draw near to God "in the full assurance of hope," believing that with him "all things are ready, that there is nothing wanting on his part to save every man," the last encourages us to " preach the word; be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine," believing that man, by the grace of God, is able to choose "that good part" which shall never be taken