St. Paul says,

"awake thou that sleepest and arise. from the dead." And again, "you hath he quickened who were dead." In these and in similar places, death means only a torpid condition, capable of stimu lation into moral and spiritual perception and activity; not like to Lazarus in his grave, but rather resembling a man benumbed with the palsy, capable of seeking and subjecting himself to the electrick shock.

This same apostle again saith, "we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works." But he also saith, "Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Here we discover a creation, not passive like Adam's during the formation of his body, and the infusion therein of a living soul; but one active, in which the Ephesian christians, as efficients, co-operated in the putting on of the new man divinely created. And this ef ficiency is still more fully expressed of the Colossian christians, thus, "Ye have put off the old man with "his deeds, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him." As the evangelical ideas of a spiritual resurrection and spiritual new creation, thus, unquestionably, involve in them agency as exercised by the subjects under such divine influence; so, in a still more expressive manner, agency is implied in the subjects of the new birth. In partruition, according to the course of nature, a being already formed, and already alive, struggles (in conjunction with the efforts of the mother in anguish) not into life or existence,

but into the light and manner of life in this world. But the spiritual birth involves therein much greater degrees of intelligent agency in the subject, than is implied in the subject of the natural birth. For the agency of both mother and child in the natural birth, is allegorically implied as all concentrating in the subject spiritually born. It is the subject spiritually born that conceives the impression of divine truth upon the heart. It is the persons own heart and mind eventually so born that nourishes up the divinely implanted principle, until Christ's mind and spirit becomes fully formed in them; "for the change which God produces in men's dispositions and actions, by the truths of the gospel impressed on their minds, is so great, that it may be called a begetting them anew." (Macknight.) It is the soul itself struggling into a new life of faith working by love, that practises the self denial of ceasing to do evil-that takes up the cross of learning to do well-that drinks of the bitter waters of repentance-and that laboriously brings forth the fruits meet therefor. Actively he hears, reads and meditates the divine word, which kills and yet makes him alive. He falls under the threatenings of the law, but taking hold of that truth that God is, and is a rewarder of all who diligently seek him, (Hebrews x1, 6) he draws nigh to God by the importunity of prayer, by humble confessions of sin, and by pleading the promses of the Saviour to such as ask, seek and knock. Seeking forgiveness of sins, he endeavours heartily to Forgive all who may have offended him. And recolecting the great promise of Christ, that God will

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give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him." (Luke XI, 13.) He asks for the Spirit, and in due time, being baptized therewith, and believing on Christ with the heart unto righteousness, he joyfully emerges the light, liberty and privileges of God's children.*

into

But to close all further allusions to the circumstan ces of birth, I would here observe, that other similitudes strongly indicate the indispensable necessity of human co-operation with divine agency in order to true conversion. This is clearly manifest from the case of the stony ground hearer, who perished, not through lack of divine influence, but because he had not "root in himself." (Matthew x111, 21.) It also is further denoted in the crop of a matured harvest,

that be saved?

*In opposition to the doctrine of the new birth being gradual and progressive, and not the production of an instantaneous, ir resistible divine energy, it is sometimes asked, "what would be come of a person in whom it commenced and was progressing, should he die before its completion? Would he be saved or lost?" To such queries, perhaps the best reply occurs in Luke XIII, 23, 24. "Then said one unto him, Lord, are there few And he said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." Should this admonitory reply not silence the caviling objector, then let him reply to the following que ries. What becomes of an unborn infant, which, being quickened, yet expires in the womb? Does its soul exist amongst separate spirits? And will its body be raised up in the day of resurrection? Perhaps a due and satisfactory solution of the difficulties in the latter questions, might open the way to obviate, by a more direct reply, all difficulty existing in the ques tions first proposed.

where "the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself." (Mark IV, 28.) And still much more explicitly and strenuously is it taught, in complaints against sinners for neglect of repentance and reformation; and in exhortations, commandments and promises, all tending to excite them, under the influence of hope, and fear, of threatenings, and of promises, to turn "from disobedience to the wisdom of the just," and from the condemnation through unbelief, to that salvation which is by faith in the Son of God.

As it is inexpedient to cite here the multitude of texts, all incontestibly urging sinners to a co-operation with the efforts of the divine spirit, in reclaiming them from sin to holiness; so I shall here conclude the subject of an hereditary universal depravity of human nature as taught by Calvinism, by remarking thereon, as follows, viz. First. That if it were possible to involve mankind in such a depravation of all their natural and moral powers and faculties, such depravity being hereditary, and not in consequence of their own personal violation of law, would be a mere nullity, as it would utterly disqualify its subjects from all moral agency whatsoever, and consequently from every degree of accountability.

Remark second. The necessity of a spiritual birth as taught by Christ, and as is made manifest in the foregoing researches, arises not from a total corruption of our whole nature by Adam, but from our nature as derived from him being but mere human nature. For the first Adam was "made a living soul," and hath transmitted the living soul to us, but the "last Adam

was made a quickening spirit." "And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." (1 Corinthians, xv, 45, 49.) In this gospel view of the subject, we behold Christ, by his spiritual energy, producing the new birth, raising men, not merely from the effects of their own personal depravation through "the deceitful lusts," but also above the nature wherewith born, before such corruption of it. We behold him raising them not only above Adam's state after his fall, but also as to the real principle of righteousness and true holiness, above any possessed by Adam and Eve in paradise. For the condition of faith in Christ is preferable to a mere state of innocency, separate from the advantages of grace by him.

And lastly. As sinners, called to partake of the spiritual birth, are not only rendered capable of co-operation with divine regenerating influences of grace; but also, as God requires of them such co-action, and as the failure of such required co-operation is the reason why all men are not born again; so it is a most lamentable and deadly errour of Calvinism, to tell sinners they have no power to do any thing towards their own salvation; they being through an hereditary depravity as spiritually impotent as stocks and stones, or as Ezekiel's dry bones.