Natural impossibility of obedience in a free agent, a contradiction. case, forbid the construction of a natural impossibility, as relating to man in the case of duty; because the subject is admitted to be a free agent, and free agency is known and defined, and by the Confession itself is admitted to be, the capacity of choice, with power of contrary choice. A free agent to whom spiritual obedience is a natural impossibility, is a contradiction. By the laws of exposition, I am entitled to all the collateral evidence. which can be thrown upon the meaning of the Confession, from the several sources of expository knowledge already enumerated, and which I will not here recapitulate. Dr. Wilson insists that man is able to do nothing—but NOTHING is a slender foundation on which to rest the justice of the Eternal Throne, in condemning men to everlasting punishment, and feeble indeed would be God's gripe upon the conscience. But it will be easy to show that the strongest passages relied on to prove natural inability, are forbidden to be interpreted in that sense, by the established laws of exposition. For example, it is said, John vi. 44: No man can come unto me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him.' The nature of the inability here declared, is indicated by the kind of drawing which is to overcome it. This is taught in the verse immediately following, and elsewhere in the Bible. It is written in the prophets, they shall be taught of God: every man, therefore, that hath read and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me.' The drawing of the Father, then, without which no man can come, according to

6

Impediment to obedience overcome by moral means, not by force.

prophetic exposition, quoted and sanctioned by our Redeemer, is in being taught of God,' in reading and learning of the Father, and this is precisely the doctrine of our Confession. God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of his word, an effectual means of convincing and converting sinners.' I draw them by the cords of love and with the bands of a man.' That is the drawing: with the bands of a man, not by the attraction of gravity. Suppose the planets should stop in their course, would God, do you think, attempt to overcome the vis intertiæ of matter by the 'reading, and especially the preaching of his word? Would he send the ten commandments to start them? or would he 'draw them with cords of love and the bands of a man,' to move onward in their orbits? Yet the Confession, and the Catechism, and the Bible, all as certainly teach that the impediment to be overcome is overcome by moral means: by the truth, by the word of God, by the reading, and especially the preaching of his word, made effectual by the Holy Spirit. It cannot, therefore, be any natural inability; any such inability as renders believing a natural impossibility, which is removed in regeneration. But it is said, "the carnal mind is enmity against God,' and that this is an involuntary condition of mind. But is it a natural impossibility for any enemy to be reconciled to him? The text does not say that fallen man cannot be reconciled to God; but it says that the carnal mind cannot be subject to the law: 'It is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.'

Carnality can

The Bible expressly teaches man's ability to obey the gospel. never be so modified as to become obedience. Again, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Does this mean that an unconverted man can have no just intellectual conceptions of the gospel, of truth, and duty, in order to his obeying it? How then can he be any more to blame than the heathen, who have never heard of Christ? And what better condition are men in, with the Bible, which they cannot understand, than the heathen are with no Bible at all? But if by receiving and knowing be meant, a willing reception and an experimental knowledge, which is a common use of the terms, then the text teaches simply, that until the heart is changed, there can be no experimental religion in the soul; that a holy heart is indispensable, not to intellectual perception, but to spiritual discernment, to christian experience.

5. The Bible not only does not teach the natural inability of man to obey the gospel, but it teaches directly the contrary. The moral law itself bounds. the requisition of love by the strength of the subject. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God-with what?-with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;-and with what else?— with all thy STRENGTH. But if heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, constitute no strength-how is he bound by such a command as this? In the same manner, constitutional powers, bearing such a relation to obedience as constitutes obligation, are recognized in the Bible. See Isaiah v. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Parables of the vineyard, and the talents.

Was there nothing in the soil and culture of this vineyard which rendered fruit, in respect to the soil, a natural possibility? But the vineyard was the house of Israel, the owner was God, and the fruit demanded was evangelical obedience: and God, the owner, decided that what he had done, rendered obedience practicable, and punishment just. He calls upon the common sense and common justice of the universe to judge between him and his vineyard. He asks whether he had not done that for his vineyard which laid a just foundation for it to bring forth good, instead of wild grapes, and declares that the bringing forth of wild grapes was a thing enormous; and goes on to pronounce judgment upon his vineyard.

So in the parable of the talents. The owner committed a certain portion of his money to every man according to his several ability. These servants again, represent the Jewish nation. The talents represent gospel privileges; the improvement to be made believing and the misimprovement sloth and unbelief. The trust was graduated in proportion to the ability of each man. There was ability therefore, and the servant who improved his trust, received a reward. But the servant who made excuses, pleaded his nat ural inability: I knew that thou wert a hard master, reaping where thou hadst not sown, and gathering where thou hadst not strewed; (worse than the taskmasters of Egypt;) and I was afraid. I dared not undertake to do anything with my talent. I thought the safest way would be to hide it, and run no risk. But his Lord said to him-Thou wicked and slothful

Ability, the ground and measure of obligation.

servant, thou knewest that I was a tyrant, demanding the improvement of gifts not bestowed. How couldst thou suppose, then, that I would not exact the improvement of what was given? Why didst thou not put my money to the exchangers? and then I should have received my own with usury. Do I demand effects without causes? Take him away, thrust him into outer darkness: he has libelled his Maker, he has slandered his God.

6. The broad principle is laid down in the Bible, that ability is the ground and measure of obligation. According to that which a man hath, and not according to that which he hath not; to whom much is given, of him shall much be required; but to whom little is given, of him shall little be required, is the language of the equitable Ruler of the world. But if ability is not needful to obligation, why observe this rule? why not reverse it? Why not require little of him to whom much is given, and much from him to whom little is given? Present this principle to any man but an idiot, and see what he will say to such a proceeding. There is not a human being whose sense of justice would not revolt from it. And shall man be more just than God? Nor is the principle of graduating responsibility by ability, a limited rule of the divine government, applicable only in particular cases; the rule is general; it is universal; it applies to every free agent in the universe.

7. The manner in which all excuses are treated in Scripture, which are founded on the plea of inability, confirms our exposition. There were impenitent sin