No. IX.

LETTERS TO A FRIEND IN SCOTLAND.

1794-1811.

THIS correspondent, in communicating my father's letters to me, says: "I set a high value upon them: they were to me very seasonable and very useful; and, I may add, were of use to many of my friends here, who generally saw my correspondence. I trust I shall always retain a grateful sense of the Lord's kindness towards me in bringing me to an acquaintance with his writings, and to the enjoyment of his correspondence.......That I derived no more benefit from his writings and correspondence is my sin, and what I desire to be humbled for daily before God: but I would acknowledge, to the praise of His name, that any just, scriptural, and judicious views which I have of divine truth, both in matters of faith and practice, I owe, under God, to your father; and particularly in those things which may, in a certain sense, be called his peculiar sentiments-such as relate to man's responsibility, the holy nature and tendency of faith, and the spiritual exercise of genuine godliness. From him I was led to an acquaintance with Fuller's and Ryland's writings, and some of the Americans, particularly Edwards and Bellamy; all of whom in a great measure, have been taught in the same school. And, the more I read in his Life, and such of his letters as you have already published, the more the beauty and excellence of these sentiments appear. The letters I now send you confirm the same views. In fact he was invariably one and the same: in his Commentary, his other works, his correspondence, and at his own fireside, the same correct uniform sentiments prevail; universal holiness of heart and life, arising from a living faith in

the doctrines of free grace, received by divine teaching. You will perceive many things about our transactions in books that will have to be left out.......We did a good deal of business together in the way of selling his various publications and I reckon it one of the happiest circumstances of my life, that I was the means of first introducing his works, in any general way, among the middling and lower classes of people in this north country. His great disinterestedness you will perceive very prominent in all he wrote to me on matters of business.-Our correspondence gradually dropped away about the years 1811, 1812, which I exceedingly regret. It arose chiefly from his declining years and numerous engagements preventing his corresponding so fully on general subjects: and also from my being able to do much less in the way of disposing of his works the booksellers finding it their interest to keep them on hand as they came into notice."

66 SIR,

ON THE DIVINE DECREES.

"Chapel Street, December 24th, 1794.

"I MIGHT be surprised, but could not perceive the least cause of being offended, by your very frank and respectful address, which surely was more suited to please than to displease any man of tolerable candor. I desire to be thankful if any human being derive advantage from what the Lord enables me to attempt; and, as far as my many engagements will allow of it, I would be willing to take up the stumbling blocks out of the way of Zion's travellers, by private and particular counsel, as well as by more public and general instructions.

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"In respect of the deep points on which you desire my opinion, I shall be glad to give you any satisfaction: but a thinking mind will always be impeded by difficulties about them, till increasing acquaintance with the human heart, and the state of the world, gradually dissipate the darkness and I should judge from the style of your letter, that you are seeking in the right way to him who makes dark things light, and crooked things straight, before his people. I have long been very decided in my judgment in respect of the truth and reasonableness of these doctrines, which

I once quarrelled with even to blasphemy; yet I hold them in such a way, and assign them in so moderate a proportion to other parts of revelation, that the vehement Calvinists own me not as staunch to their party; but, though I am by no means disposed to consider the belief of them as essential to salvation, I find myself not more approved by the zealous Armenians: for I always insist upon it, that, if men cannot receive them, they ought not to venture a single word, which, in case they should be true, would prove to be derogatory to the honour of the divine character and government.

"I consider the doctrine of the divine decrees as insepa rable from that of the prescience or omniscience of God; and I cannot conceive it possible for any man to answer the reasoning of a competent logician in proof of this philosophical position. Mr. Locke, though no friend to Calvinism, has made extraordinary concessions in this respect. Bur then, I do not think myself allowed to mix the philosophy of the doctrine with the divinity of it; but bound to confine myself, as a preacher, to the word of God, without tracing revealed truths to unrevealed causes and consequences; by which some reasoning Calvinists have clogged the doctrine with difficulties, and exposed it to objections, which have nothing to do with the scriptural statement of it.—The sovereignty of God is, I apprehend, a very different thing from arbitrary power it is the sovereignty of infinite wisdom; knowledge, justice, truth, goodness, and mercy; and, therefore, nothing can be decreed by it, which is not the best possible, all things considered. Now if the best plan possible be selected and executed, what does it signify whether it was formed, in every part from eternity, or whether it was formed at the moment, as circumstances required ?—God does nothing without the best possible reasons, but he does not gratify the pride and curiosity of fallen rebels, by assigning his reasons to them. He doubtless has reasons for choosing a sinner to salvation: but the sinner's merit, or inferior degree of criminality, or more docile disposition, or natural voluntary concurrence with his grace, is not of the number of these reasons: but the desert of those that perish is the assigned and proper reason why he punishes them.

"The decrees of God respecting man do not relate to him merely as a rational creature, but as a fallen rebel. God sees the whole human race in the ruins of the fall;

and, while he judges, with infallible truth, that they all deserve to perish, and must perish unless infinite wisdom devise a plan, infinite love provide a remedy, and infinite power apply it; he determines, for reasons best known to himself, to glorify his awful justice in punishing some according to their deservings, and to glorify his most abundant mercy and grace in saving others, in a way that shews them to be deserving of the same condemnation. The indissoluble knot in this business is the first entrance of evil into God's creation: this he could have prevented, but has not; nor could his almighty intervention have consisted with his moral government; as an invincible barrier to all disobedience must have made all laws, &c. useless, and all displays of his moral perfections comparatively feeble and indistinct. But silence becomes ignorance :' and further I dare not speculate. He does all to the praise of his own glory: and, at last, that will be most displayed by the plan he has adopted. However, the difficulty is the same on every system; for evil does exist.

"It is plain, from the fulfilment of many prophecies, by the voluntary actions of numerous agents combined against God and his cause; that his decrees are in no respect either the motive of men's actions, or inconsistent with their free agency. But, by a wisdom to us incomprehensible, he leaves men to follow their own inclinations, and places them in such circumstances as infallibly secure the accomplishment of his secret purposes. The whole world lieth in wickedness; and you justly observe that the apostle ascribes this to their evil dispositions: idolatry arose from men's not liking to retain God in their knowledge. Ever since the fall, men have been carnal, as born of the flesh : and the carnal mind is enmity against God. This enmity induces every man, as left to himself, and as tempted by Satan, to break and hate the law of God: and, even after all that Christ has done and suffered for sinners, if men were left to themselves, they would universally hate and reject the gospel, because it honors the law, and is diametrically opposite to their pride and lusts. Ye must, then, be born again. Now this is a resurrection from a spiritual death, a new creation, an act of omnipotence. No sinner can merit it; none is disposed to claim it; none can do, or will attempt, any thing to effect it: but God, as a sovereign, has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and leaves whom he will of his proud enemies to be hardened. Of

his great love wherewith he loved us when dead in sin, he quickened us; and made us willing in the day of his power. This, I apprehend, is the only reason, why one sinner repents, believes, fears, prays, hopes, loves, and obeys, while another continues obstinate in impenitence, unbelief, and disobedience. So that none are rejected because not elect, without respect to the sin of their conduct, and the determined sinfulness of their hearts; and the promises are all made to such holy dispositions as are the fruits of special grace, the effects of regeneration.-This, therefore, is perfectly consistent with commands, exhortations, invitations, and expostulations. If any man find a willingness to comply with the exhortation, and embrace the invitation of the gospel; let him come and take of the water of life freely: for Christ will in no wise cast out him that cometh. Nor is it requisite that he should determine the nature and source of this willingness, before he comes; though he will in due time be led to ascribe it to special grace, if indeed it be a willingness to be saved, in the Lord's way, from sin and all its consequences, to use the prescribed means, and to renounce all things for the sake of Christ. But, if any man be not thus willing, whatever he may pretend now, he will at length find that his unwillingness arose from enmity to God and holiness, from pride of heart, and love of sin; and that God only purposed to leave a perverse rebel to his own mad choice, without exerting his omnipotence to conquer his obstinacy. So that nothing can be more false, than the representation some give of the doctrine, as if God determined to save some men, however wicked and slothful they were; and to damn others, however desirous of salvation, and diligent in seeking it: though some zealous Calvinists have said unguarded things, which give plausibility to such cavils.

"No man can know his election, except by the evidence of regeneration, especially repentance and its fruits, and faith in Christ working by love to him, his people, and his commands. In proportion as these are clear, he may infer his election of God, and conclude that he will perfect the good work he hath begun: but, if these be obscure, it is proportionably presumptuous for men to conclude themselves elect, or to encourage themselves with the doctrine of final perseverence.-Hence you will perceive, that many objections to the doctrines, and abuses of them, are the effects of human depravity, and have no