the glory of the Bible, the soul of Christianity, the ground of a sinner's hope, and the source of the believer's joys; and can say in truth that we esteem them beyond the riches of the Indies. Nor are we yet possessed of a sufficient degree of modern candour to treat them with cold indifference, or to view them as non-essentials, but think ourselves bound to maintain them to the utmost of our ability, and to reject all assertions inconsistent with them."

And are these the doctrines which have given Mr. Fuller such offence? Is this the profession that is so contemptible in his eyes? Are these the churches which he compares to a dunghill in society? O my soul, be thou contemptible too! Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel, and have thou fellowship with those who are, in their tribulation as well as in their joys. And what though thou be reproached and reviled here, as thy great Leader was; be assured, for thy consolation, that the reproach of his followers shall be rolled away, when he comes in his own glory, and in his Father's glory, and all the holy angels with him.

NOTE TO LETTER II.

I HAVE lately perused a treatise on the work of the Holy Spirit, not long since published by Mr. John Howard Hinton, the design of which is to prove that there is in man an inherent power to repent, believe, and perform all the commands of God, without the aid of the Spirit. Mr. Hinton does not, however, deny the necessity of the Spirit's influence; on the contrary, he goes so far as to allow that no man ever was or ever will be converted, without it. Although the whole of this system is as old as the days of Pelagius, our ingenious author has given it the air of novelty, and adorned it so artfully, that many knowing persons are unwittingly captivated with its charms. But indeed it is only justice to Mr. Hinton to acknowledge, that there is no substantial difference between his views of the Spirit's work, and those of Mr. Fuller. The friends of the latter, who express their horror at the sentiments of Mr. Hinton, do not understand the bearings of their own system. Mr. Hinton has satisfactorily proved that what Mr. Fuller called moral inability, is not properly inability, but disinclination; and as the only difference between these two writers is verbal, Mr. Fuller's admirers ought, in my opinion, to acknowledge that Mr. Hinton's book is unanswerable.

Our author, in order to prove his point, namely, that man has the power to turn to God, to believe in Christ, and to keep the whole law, commences, very properly, with a definition of terms. By DISPOSITION, he means the habitually prevalent state of the heart. By POWER, he means the possession of means; and he argues very conclusively that there is a great difference between a man's possessing the power to do an action, and his having the disposition to do it; but he concludes that the thing which hinders a sinner's

return to God, is not a want of power, but a want of disposition only.

Although I have in these letters designedly avoided all other points of Mr. Fuller's controversy but the atonement, I feel tempted to introduce a few thoughts on Mr. Hinton's publication.

It appears to me that he is greatly mistaken when he asserts that the only thing which hinders men from turning to God, is a want of disposition. A slight acquaintance with the Scripture is sufficient to convince any one, that ignorance, gross ignorance, is one reason why men do not turn to God. The chief priests and Scribes of old had the Scripture in their hands, and read it diligently, yet a veil was upon their minds, and they, being "ignorant of God's righteousness," did not obey the gospel. If so, it is not true that "a want of disposition is the whole hindrance to conversion." (Page 22.) Moreover, if a want of disposition be the only hindrance to conversion, then the work of the Spirit consists merely in communicating a right disposition, which Mr. Hinton assents to, (page 83;) and if so, the understanding, if it be enlightened by the Spirit at all, must be enlightened through the medium of the disposition or the will, which is absurd.* On this subject, Mr. Hinton has committed a palpable contradiction. In pages 84 and 85, he admits that the blessed Spirit, in conversion, produces a "change of views in reference to divine things;" that he gives "new ideas of the excellency of God ;" and that," "in order to convert the heart, he enlightens the eyes." But he overturns all this by adding, "The views by which this

* Mr. Hinton, in this instance, appears to have lost sight of the masterly reasoning of Edwards, in his "Enquiry into the Freedom of the Will." This work is a philosophical defence of Calvinism, and is generally considered unanswerable. Although I believe it to be so, yet I think it has never done much harm to the kingdom of Satan. Metaphysics are infinitely too weak to trouble the prince of darkness. Nothing but the simple truth of the gospel calls forth his wrath. As for human wisdom and philosophy, he holds them in unspeakable contempt, and he laughs at metaphysics as leviathan laughs at the shaking of a spear.

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change is produced, however, are, in one respect, far from being new views, since they are only such as, in many cases, have been often presented to the mind before." If so, then the Holy Spirit does not enlighten the eyes; for no man's eyes are enlightened who is not made to see what he never saw before.

The following reasons, amongst many others, produce in my mind a full persuasion that Mr. Hinton is erroneous, when he asserts that man has power to repent, to keep the law, &c. without divine influence.

FIRST. The understanding of man is so darkened, and his ignorance of spiritual things so profound, that although he has the Scriptures in his hand, he cannot understand the things of God without the Spirit. This argument goes to the very foundation of Mr. Hinton's system. For if it can be proved that men cannot comprehend the things of God, in their true nature, without the Spirit, then it will follow that man has not the power to turn to God, that is, he has not the means of doing so, without the Spirit; and Mr. Hinton's beautiful system totters and falls to the ground. The question relates not to duty, but to power. The question is not whether man's incapacity to understand spiritual things be not his fault; nor is it the question whether the blindness of his understanding do or do not arise from the depravity of his heart; but the question relates merely to the fact of his blindness, and the consequence thereof; for if the fact be established, it will follow that man has not the POWER to turn to God without the Spirit. Now, both the fact itself, and the consequence, I thus prove from Scripture.

1. Men by nature are said to be not only dark, but darkness in the abstract, Eph. v. 8. Their minds are blinded, 2 Cor. iv. 4; they know not God, neither do they understand, Psal. xcii. 6. Their understanding is darkened, and they are alienated from the life of God through ignorance, Eph. iv. 18. Now the state of the understanding bears upon the question of power. This darkness may be and is culpable, but still, while it reigns, the sinner is incapable of forming

right views of God and the things of God; and consequently he has not the power, or, as Mr. Hinton would have it, he has not the means of turning to God without the Spirit. A servant may have the power to do his master's business, but owing to inebriation he may be unable to execute it; yet he deserves punishment for the very inability. Even so, man had originally power to understand the things of God, and to live unto God according to the covenant under which he was in innocency; but he is so intoxicated by the fall as to become without understanding. He still possesses physical powers; but every faculty of his soul is so empoisoned by sin, so imbecile in a spiritual sense, that he neither knows God, nor can he perform the spiritual requirements of the law. He is, therefore, in his present state, unable to turn to God without the Spirit. 2. The Scripture expressly declares the consequence, that is, that man cannot know or understand the things of the Spirit without divine illumination. His incapacity to believe is ascribed not only to the hardness of his heart, and to a perverse disposition, but also to the blindness of his eyes. "Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, He hath blinded their eyes,” John xii. 39, 40. And again, our Lord says, "No man can come unto me, except the Father, who hath sent me, draw him," John vi. 44. I have not space to notice the weak and superficial observations of Mr. Hinton on this text, in page 199; but I only remark that the reason our Lord gives for this incapacity is not want of inclination, as Mr. Hinton suggests, but want of understanding; for he adds, "It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me." By this we may see, that because man has no understanding, therefore he has no power to come to Jesus without the illumination of the Father. Agreeably to this our Lord declares, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing," John vi. 63; and again, "Without me ye can do nothing,” John xv. 5.

SECOND. The Holy Spirit, in conversion, imparts power to the sinner, which he would not do, if the sinner were not