Man capable of choice, with power of contrary election. portions as please him. I hold, with the Confession, the doctrine of free agency, before and since the fall, sufficient, while upheld, to make holiness obligatory, and account for sin without supposing God to be its author, in a way which would make him contradict himself, and oppose his own laws and government, and do violence to the will of the creatures, and destroy the liberty of choice, determining it to evil by an absolute necessity of nature. To the system of free agency, then, which teaches that to fallen man 6 no ability of any kind' exists to obey the gospel, or is required to constitute a perfect obligation to do so, and a just desert of eternal punishment for not obeying; I oppose the testimony of the whole orthodox church, and that of the Bible.

XVI. Finally. The Confession of Faith teaches plainly and unanswerably, the free agency and natural ability of man, as capable of choice, with the power of contrary election.

In confirmation of this position, I refer to the Confession, chap. ix. sec. 1.

'God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature, determined, to good or evil.'

Now if this declaration has respect to man, as a race, if the term man, as here employed, is generic, including Adam and all his posterity, then the passage quoted settles the question. The whole turns on-what is the meaning of the word man? Because, if it means man as fallen, if it means Adam's posterity, my opponent is gone-the ground is swept

The term 'man' used in a generic sense.

from under him. He must prove that man means Adam, and Adam only, and Adam before the fall, or else the Confession is against him. Now, what is the subject of the chapter to which this section belongs? It respects free will; i. e. free will in the theological sense of that phrase, as the doctrine was discussed between Augustine and Pelagius, a considerable time since the fall, and has respect to man in the generic sense. That this is so, is plain, from the scriptural references, quoted in support of the posi tions taken. If the declarations of the chapter had respect solely to Adam, the scriptural references would be to Adam; but these references, do not refer to him, but do refer to his fallen posterity. They drive the nail, and clinch it. See what they

are:

'But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.' James i. 14.

'I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.' Deut. xxx. 19.

These are the scriptural proofs, selected and adduced by the Assembly of Divines, as exhibiting the scripture authority on which the declarations in the chapter are made: and what are they? Listen to them:

"God hath endued the will of man with that natural liberty, that it is neither forced, nor by any absolute necessity of nature determined, to good or evil.' Confess. of Faith, ix. 1.

Man in a state of innocency had power to do good or evil.

If this means Adam, all I say is, that they use very bad grammar, and have made a most wonderful mistake in the references quoted. To say that the will of Adam before the fall, is neither forced nor determined by necessity, is nonsense, and makes the second section tautology.

The first, if it refers to Adam in innocency, says he had natural liberty of will, and was not forced or determined by necessity to choose good or evil; and the second section repeats the same thing; that man in his state of innocency had freedom and power to do good or evil.

I take the question as settled then, that 'man' here means man as a race, and that 'will' here means the will of man as a race; and it is what I hold, and what all the church hold; and it is the fair meaning of the Confession. What follows in the next section, with respect to man in a state of innocency, is a confirmation and an illustration of the doctrine as thus explained.

'Man, in his state of innocency, had freedom and power to will and to do that which is good and well pleasing to God; but yet mutably, so that he might fall from it:' (Confess. of Faith, ix. 2.) i. e. his free agency included the natural power of choosing right or of choosing wrong.

Adam had the natural ability to stand, and he had it in a state of balanced power, in which he was capable of choosing, and liable to choose either way.

Then comes section the third, which contains a description of the change induced by the fall, a

The fall changed the will, not the constitutional powers.

change which respected the will of man, not his constitutional powers; a change in the voluntary use of his will.

'Man, by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly lost'

Lost! what? The natural liberty of his will, so that it is now forced and determined by an absolute necessity to good or evil? Not a word of it. It was not that; it was something else he lost: and thereupon turns the question between us. The Con

fession says:

Lost all ability of will to any spiritual good accompanying salvation; so, as a natural man, being altogether averse from that good, and dead in sin, is not able, by his own strength, to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.'

He lost all ability of will.' Does this mean that, in respect to the power of choice, his will fell into a state of natural inability? Not at all. He had the power of choice as much as ever. But he had lost all moral ability, that is, inclination to choose what was good. His will was altogether averse from it. He was altogether unwilling. He fell into an inability of will, i. e. into a state of obstinate unwillingness. This is the common use of terms until this day. Moral inability means not impossibility, but it means unwillingness. Man became dead.' But how? Not by the annihilation of his natural powers, not dead in respect to the natural liberty of his will, but dead in sin; so as not to be able, by his own strength (of will) to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto.' I say

The words, 'able' and 'strength,' employed in a moral sense only. 'Amen!-this is my doctrine. The word 'able,' and the word 'strength,' are both employed in a moral sense, and in a moral sense only; and thus interpreted, the Confession is perfectly consistent with itself. The fourth section of this chapter is a corroboration of the same position:

"When God converts the sinner, and translates him into the state of grace, he freeth him from his natural bondage under sin, and by his grace alone, enables him freely to will and to do that which is spiritually good; yet so as that, by reason of his remaining corruption, he doth not perfectly nor only will that which is good, but doth also will that which is evil.'

Frees him from what? From his free agency? from the constitutional powers of his being? No. Frees him from his bondage under sin, i. e. from his bias to evil, from his moral inability. And how is he freed? The Confession says it is by grace. Wonderful grace it would be, to restore his natural powers! One would think this was more like justice than grace. But it is argued, that if this bondage means mere obstinacy of will, man would not need divine aid. Indeed, so far is this from being true, that no creature does need divine aid so much as a free agent obstinately bent upon evil. My children were free agents, but they needed aid, to secure the performance of such duties as they were naturally able, but as fallen creatures disinclined to perform. None possess such a power of resistance, as a free agent under moral inability or aversion to good. It is a bias which he himself never will take away. God must deliver him;