not bring forth evil fruit; neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." Every effect must correspond with its productive cause. Every cause, producing effect, and operating according to its nature, must produce that, and only that, which is congruous to its nature, how highly soever the effect be wrought, and with what co-operation soever, it has acted: and no cause can produce an effect, in point, either of extent or of quality, above the rate of the power it possesses either naturally or in the circumstance in which it acts.

I cannot, accordingly, accede to the ideas of those who say, that, though the intervention of a divine power be necessary to the production of the change, which in scripture is called a divine nature and the new creature, yet, in this production, we are not to suppose, that the spirit of God operates otherwise than by graciously aiding or prompting the faculties of our minds in their contemplations of the truths of the gospel, or in their efforts, by the ordinary means appointed, to attain to the spirit and habits there recommended. Observe, by the faculties of our minds is here meant, their faculties as they are in their unrenewed state. They are the same, or such as in the passages already recited are called "unclean things," " thorns," " thistles," "and a corrupt tree." Now, can these unclean things, by any effort of their own, and operating, as they must, according to their nature, can they produce a clean heart? can these thorns produce grapes? these thistles figs? or this corrupt tree good fruit. This would be an appearance even more than supernatural, and much more extraordinary, than that for which we plead. It would be, not above only, but contrary to nature.

Suppose then, such energy and direction to be by a superior power imparted to them, as that they shall effectuate a change wrought up and completed to the utmost extent of their possible exertion; I ask, to what that change would amount? can it, on any principle of reason or philosophy, be supposed to be of any other nature, than of that by which it was effected? can enmity, the nature of the carnal mind, exerting the most accommodating powers which it may possibly put forth, and those directed, and promoted, agreeably to their proper, that is, their natural tendency or drift, by any supposable superior aid whatsoever, can it, I say, convert itself, or be converted into love? can the "unclean thing," by any operation, consisting with its natural uncleanness, make itself, or be made clean? or can that, in which "dwelleth no good thing," work itself, or, by any intervention in aid of the best things dwelling in it, be wrought up

into an habitual frame or principle of goodness? That the ulti mate tendency and drift of the influences of the spirit of grace on the unregenerate heart, is the repentance, faith, and conversion of the sinner, is by no means to be doubted; as the aim of the husbandman in the preparatory tillage of his ground is, that he may obtain a profitable crop. But, in neither case are the operations suggested, in a strict and proper sense, effective to the purposes respectively mentioned. As the grain, in the one case, is not engendered or formed by any action of the husbandman, but depends on a plastic agency of a different kind, and by a superior power; so the change, of which we speak, requires an influence or operation of a different kind from any which has been supposed, in order to its actual accomplishment. It is well known, moreover, that those influences of the spirit of grace referred to, do not always terminate in the requisite change; which is an evident proof of their not being of that kind from which the requisite change results. How many, who had been favoured with them, have, after all their good purposes, and apparent reformations, returned, "as the dog to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire?" The good spirit of God, in his sovereign proceedings, (no doubt, ungratefully and often opposed) hath not seen meet, in this case, by any other more directly pointed and decisive operation, to affect the refractory heart.

The proceedings of the spirit of grace in this affair are founded in great and remarkable wisdom. The attention of the thoughtless sinner is, in the first place, arrested. He is led to serious reflection on the nature and consequences of the life he has led. His conscience is alarmed; and presents to him the just and awful awards of the final tribunal. He sees, and, in a manner, he feels the necessity of deliverance from "the wrath to come." For this grace he is prompted, of course, with a degree of earnestness to pray; and withal to attempt the amendment of his life, so far at least, as that, according to his apprehension, he may not farther incur the displeasure of heaven, or preclude his successful pursuit of the grace he needs. From the numerous defects, however, of his best attentions and endeavours in the way of duty and from the growing experience he has thereby acquired of the strength and prevalence of his sinful habits, he is gradually brought to see yet more of the depth of his depravity, the greatness of his guilt, and the extent of his spiritual poverty and weakness; and, in effect, he is yet more convinced, that his only sure ground of hope is the provision made in the gospel for "the chief of sinners;" and that, otherwise, his case is desperate. When this - VOL. II. 3 I

impressive conviction has obtained, his mind is, on the whole, in a condition more consonant to, or suitable for, the reception of those more special influences and informations which directly tend to and immediately terminate in the change in regeneration implied. But the impressive conviction referred to, with the efforts of reformation, either preceding or attending it, are not of the nature of real religion. They are only preliminary, and, as I think, I may justly say, preparatory in the wisdom of God to the vouchsafement of that grace by which the heart is renewed, and the principles of saving faith and repentance are produced; and, indeed, as I do verily believe, and that on grounds, as I conceive, unquestionable, is the utmost point to which the powers of the unrenewed mind, aided by the concurrent intervention of the Holy Spirit, can be consistently supposed to reach. Still, withal, there must remain a radical defect. There still are wanting the productive seeds, as I may say, of genuine piety in the heart. There still are wanting, in particular, those perceptions of the peculiar beauty and excellence of the divine perfections, and of divine things, in general, which are necessary to render them objects to us of holy and supreme affection, and to produce in us a real taste for them, a proper relish of them, and a commanding desire of the participation and enjoyment of them, together with such intercourse with, and accomodation to them, as true religion, or as the love of God and universal holiness, implies. The perceptions, of which I speak, are the same with that spiritual discernment, suggested by the apostle in the second chapter of 2 Cor. "The carnal mind receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." The divine act of capacitating, qualifying, or disposing the mind for the admission of these perceptions, together with the efficacious communication of them through the medium of the word of truth and grace, is, as I apprehend, the first step, if so I may speak, or the radical operation of the Spirit in the work of regeneration. On these depend, from these result, that holy taste, that relish, that well-pleasedness or delight in, and enjoyment of spiritual objects, and that desire of, and propension towards them, which I have mentioned, and which essentially belong to the "new creature," or "the new man," so called in the fourth of Eph. " which after God is created in righteousness and true holinesss"

Now all this supposes an effect produced, specifically different from any whose production may be attributed to the agency of the powers of the carnal and unrenewed mind. These powers,

however aided and prompted, can, by their proper operation, as has been observed, produce no effect other than after their kind. In the effect of their production there must be wanting all that which essentially distinguishes the new and divine from the old and earthly nature, the spiritual from the carnal, a principle of piety from the reverse, or from the counterfeit, or mere semblance of it. In the one," all old things," at least in their principle, remain; in the other, they " are done away, and all things have become new."

According to these representations, which I believe to be just and scriptural, I think, I may correctly and philosophically say: that, in regeneration, a new simple perception obtains in the human mind; or, in other words, new apprehensions, or notions of divine things, altogether foreign and specifically dif ferent from any heretofore possessed, take place.* Not that any faculty, such as we call natural, in contradistinction from the moral, is, in this instance, created, or in any wise imparted to the human mind. The soul of man, in its original constitution, is endowed with every natural faculty needful to the purpose. But, these faculties, by our fatal defection, have become most wretchedly vitiated and disordered. Through the prevalent influence

* It is well known by the learned, that, the perceptions or ideas, of the class here referred to, whether communicated by sensation or reflection, or otherwise, (if otherwise communicable) are the origin, and compose the ground-work, or materials of all our knowledge. They are the impressions made on our minds, independently of our own choice, on occasion of objects presented, through whatever sense or medium conveyed. And they are called simple, as being, though distinctly discernible, yet, in their nature undefinable, and wholly incommunicable to those who are devoid of the senses or other powers, by which, according to the established order of things, they are conveyed; or to those whose powers of perception have been disqualified by accident, disease, or any disorder, whether natural or moral. When these powers are possessed in sound condition, they receive the true impression or notion of the properties of the objects presented; when unsound, they either receive them not at all, or they receive false impressions. And where the mind is furnished with true simple ideas, it has the power to repeat, compare, and combine them even to an almost infinite variety. If, accordingly, it has the power of perception, or spiritual discernment in its healthful and competent state, it will admit the true notion of spiritual things, and it will be affected by them according to their nature, or their true and specific qualities. Moreover, carrying this notion along with it in its contemplations through all the variety of the works of God, and of the forms of his revealed perfection, it will be wrought into the various sentiments, and delightfully animated to the practice of universal holiness.

of sinful principle and habit, they have become incapable of such moral preceptions, as accord with the distinct and specifical nature of divine and spiritual things. And, so long as this moral vitiosity and disorder remains in its power, it is in vain to expect, that any such notions of God, or of whatever appertains to his nature pr works, should so obtain and exist in our minds, as to produce in us the affections and determinations which correspond with their peculiar characters, or with the nature of that religion which he requireth of us. These impediments once, in proper measure, removed; this disorder rectified; this disease corrected, or overpowered by a superior counter-operation, divine objects, in their genuine forms presented, will have their free and proper impression. Their truth, their importance, their peculiar beauty, excellence, and glory will be sensibly perceived and felt; the heart will delightfully embrace them; and the man, with all his soul, and strength, and mind, will devote himself to the love and service of God forever.

SUCCESS NOT THE SUBJECT OF REWARD.

MR. EDITOR,

THE public were advertised in the prospectus to the Assembly's Magazine, that nothing would be admitted into it that should be found decidedly hostile to the doctrines contained in the public standards of the presbyterian church; and I think we have since been informed, that it would not be open to much controversy. All this appears to me perfectly right. But I presume, notwithstanding, that you will admit without reluctance a portion of temperate debate, on such subjects of theology and morals, as are not explicitly settled by our received creeds. I therefore send you the following discussion, on a point on which you have, indeed, already admitted controversy: I mean the point which a writer in the magazine for July controverts with Dr. Nott, and which the doctor had thus stated: "In the estimation of heaven our ser vices are appreciated, not by the good we accomplish, but the sincerity, the strength, and constancy of our exertions."

Believing, as I assuredly do, that Dr. Nott's opinion is correctly true, and accurately expressed, and of course that your correspondent is entirely erroneous, I will offer my sentiments with as much precision, candour, and brevity, as I can. 1st. By stating the point in debate. 2. By trying it on the principles of natural reason and equity, sanctioned by the general scope of revelation. 3. By consulting the direct testimony of scripture