when he commanded the man, with the withered hand to stretch it forth, and the paralytic sufferer to rise, take up his bed and walk; and being so commanded, they were under obligations to obey-to do the very things required, which may be said to have been physically impossible. But when these commands, and the circumstances under which they were given, are attentively considered, they will not be found to invalidate the position stated. It will be admitted on all hands, that, in these cases, the Saviour exerted physical power, by a direct, miraculous exercise, which made its appeal to the senses of men, and was designed to confirm the fact of his own divine mission; so that it is altogether illogical and unallowable, to cite them as proofs, or exact illustrations of the sinner's inability, for there was no guilt in the case. But this plea is unnecessary, in order to sustain the position advanced. For let us inquire what it was the diseased persons were morally bound to do. They were bound to put confidence in Christ, and believe that He would co-operate with their efforts of will, and give them the energy, requisite to do what He required. They had mental capacities for such an .exercise. Evidence, sufficient to convince the mind of His ability and willingness to co-operate with them, was furnished. They were convinced by it. That conviction brought the power of motive to bear upon their wills. They did will-forthwith the energy, requisite to stretch out the hand, and rise up and walk, accompanied the effort of mind and will, and they were healed; so that even these miracles in nature, which were intimately connected with the conduct of men, as voluntary and responsible agents, do not violate the fundamental principle of all moral government, viz: that moral responsibility implies a capacity to act. If men were destitute of all capacity to know and understand and do the will of God, it would be physically or natural ly impossible for them to call into exercise that mental energy, requisite to arrive at the knowledge of God, and to obey his commands. In such case, the common sense of mankind proclaims, there could be no more obligation to act, nor guilt incurred by not acting, than a deaf-mute would be chargeable with, who did not vocally sing the praises of God. Now to apply the above remarks to the case of the sinner's ability to meet the ordinary claims of God. It will be admitted, that God does not require his creatures to du what they have no capacities for doing. He does not require the ox to reason, or the ass to speak. Neither does he require men to do those things, which are not adapted to their intellectual and moral capacities. He commands us to believe-but we are furnished with minds, which are capable of perceiving and examining the evidence of truth, To believe Himself, is an exercise which differs characteristically, but not essentially, from our believing a neighbour or a friend. No other intellectual capacities are nein the one case, than in the other. cessary He commands us to repent;-and'we are furnished with sensibilities, which are capable of being excited in sorrow, by means of appropriate objects or considerations, presented to our senses or our minds. To repent of our sins, for having displeased Him, may differ, characteristically, from the sorrow of a child, for having displeased its parent; but the constitutional capacities for feeling, are essentially the same in both cases. He commands us to love Him, fear Him, hope in Him, &c. but none of these are exercises, for which we are not furnished with the requisite constitutional capacities. Why then are they not exercised in the way that God requires? Why does not man believe, and repent, and love, and fear, and hope in God? "All this," it is admitted, is his duty, because his maker requires it from him; but," it is added, with confident asseveration, "the work far transcends his ability, and can be accomplished only by the mighty power of God." That is, God requires man to do things, which it would be unreasonable and absurd to expect him to do, unless He Himself does it for him! Be it far from us, thus to traduce the character of God. We are persuaded that those who make such assertions, see not their bearing in this respect. What, then, can be meant by such declarations? That men are destitute of the natural ability, i. e. the constitutional capacities requisite to believe and repent, &c. none will explicitly affirm. For, "it must be observed," says Dr. Owen, "that there is, or may be, a two-fold capacity or ability of receiving, knowing, or understanding spiritual things in the mind of a man. 1. There is a natural power, consisting in the suitableness and proportionableness of the faculties of the soul to receive spiritual things, in the way that they are proposed unto us. This is supposed in all the exhortations, promises, precepts, and threatnings of the gospel; for in vain would they be proposed unto us, had we not rational minds and understandings, to apprehend their sense, use, and importance; and also meet subjects for the faith, grace, and obedience, which are required of us. "2 God requires no exercise, for which we have not capacities. The inability, therefore, which is predicated of unrenewed sinners, must be, either something which has destroyed those established laws or modes of the divine agency, according to which He co-operates with, and gives efficiency to human volitions; or it must be something which affects the will itself—not the faculty itself, but its exercise--and prevents it from summoning to its aid the agency of God, in and through the appropriate capacities. This latter is denominated moral inability. 1. Essay on the Inability of Sinners, p. 12. 1 That the great established laws, by which God governs mind, and according to which He regulates his own co-operating and sustaining agency, have undergone a change by the fall, we presume will not be affirmed. That the sin of man however, has greatly deranged the divine constitution, and that, in many respects, there can be doubt; but in so far as it relates to the agency of God Himself, His constitutions remain immutable. The laws of nature are fixed and uniform, and whatever change has taken place in them, consequent on the sin of man, as in the sorrows of gestation, the pains of parturition, and the sterility of the earth, there is no evidence, that those which affect the development of his mental constitution have been changed, however great may have been the moral changes, affecting the development of its exercises. He still supports and invigorates the rebel mind, preserving inviolate the laws that He ordained, to regulate His agency. His moral constitution has not been annulled. "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." We are not at all justified in supposing, that God changed the fixed laws of either the mental or moral constitution, which He had ordained, and that therefore, in consequence of a lack of energy, or refusal to co-operate on His part, the capacities of men are left imbecile and inefficient. It is true, that such an idea has been entertained, and by some it is boldly asserted, that even the natural capacities of men have suffered, not only by virtue of their deranged moral exercise, but directly from the cessation of that divine agency, vouchsafed at the first. Dr. Owen says, "It were easy to evince, not only by testimonies of the scripture, but by the experience of all mankind, built on reason, and the observation of instances innumerable, that the 1. Mat. v. 18. whole rational soul of man, since the fall, and by the entrance of sin, is weakened, vitiated in all its faculties and all their operations, about their proper and natural objects. Neither is there any relief against these evils, with all those unavoidable perturbations, wherewith it is possessed, and actually disordered in all its workings, but by some secret and hidden operation of the Spirit of God, such as he continually exerts in the rule and government of the world." If these positions can be maintained, we see not but that we are all no better than maniacs, destitute of every thing requisite to bring us under the government of law. We should rather be provided for as idiots and insane, and the government established over us by God, be that of simple force and power, instead of that benevolent and equitable constitution, in which He addresses and adapts His laws to our rational nature. But such a state of things is not more frightful, in relation to the condition of men, than it is fraught with appalling implications, in reference to the character of God. If He has changed the modes of His agency, and withdrawn His support and co-operation from His creature man-without which he can have no energy nor act-and thus has left the human mind a perfect wreck of imbecile, deranged and vitiated capacities and powers,--who is the author of such confusion but Himself? Individual man assuredly is not. He has become the sport of misfortune-the prey of wretchedness. God has withdrawn from him his natural ability, and he can be no longer held accountable. He may will, but all to no purpose. God will not co-operate with him. He has brought him into being with palsied powers, and abandoned him to his own weakness. He is an imperfect creation, an intellectual deformity, a moral monster. How truly is he to be pitied! He labors under à dire 1. Owen on the Spirit, vol. 1, p. 391. |