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Cal. If you have not, I have. Imagine that some lounger of fifteen has taken up a resolution to be a brave fellow. He procures a large box, and fills it with the Indian plant. he reels to and fro, like a drunken man; but finally he loves the bane of his life. According to your plan he is making a new heart. By habit he has acquired a taste for that, which, in its own nature, is poisonous to the constitution! O shame, shame on such divinity! Brethren, let me warn you of the tendency of your doctrines. You open wide the door to infidelity, and every

enemy of Christianity.

Arm. I will not suppose, that you are so unfriendly as to intend that sarcasm for me, or for any follower of Arminius.

Cal.

Arm.

Do you not make piety a habit ?

Do not the strict Calvinists make the new heart consist in the habit of soul, which is formed by exercise?

Cal. Those who lay claim to strict Calvinism, in opposition to the standard works of Calvinism, must answer for themselves.

Hop. I am ready to answer for them, that they do not use the word habit to denote the new heart. They merely say, that no one can form an idea of the heart, in distinction from moral exercises. The man who habitually loves what is morally good has indeed what some call the habit of holiness; for a continued mode of action may be called a habit.

Arm. You grant, what I affirm, that to continue the train of good exercises forms a virtuous habit. This HABIT I call the new heart; and those EXERCISES which form the habit, you call the new heart.

Cal. Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the Leopard his spots ?

By

Here the servant entered with an invitation to supper. mutual consent the discussion ceased; but it was proposed that each one, at some more convenient season, should resume the vindication of his peculiar doctrines.

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"Now we shall have a perfect definition of faith, if we say, that it is a steadfast and as, sured knowledge of God's kind ness towards us, which being grounded upon the truth of the free promise in Christ, is both, revealed to our minds, and sealed in our hearts by the Holy Ghost."

Institution, B. 3. ch. 2. sec. 3.

"The object of faith is not barely God, as the schoolmen coldly affirm, but God displaying himself in Christ."

B. 3. ch. 2. sec. 1. "Faith beholdeth Christ in no other glass than the gospel." "There is a general relation of faith to the word, and faith can no more be separated from the word, than the sun-beams from the sun from which they proceed. Therefore in Isaiah (lv. 3.) God crieth out; hear

OTHERS.

"Justifying faith is a saving grace, wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit and word of God, whereby he, being convinced of his sin and misery, and of the disability in himself and all other creatures to recover him out of his lost condition, not only assenteth to the truth of the promise of the gospel, but receiveth and resteth upon Christ and his righteousness, therein held forth, for pardon of sin, and for the accepting and accounting of his person righteous in the sight of God for salvation.”

Larger Cat. Q. 72.

This faith is the gift of God. Larger Cat. Q. 71. Con. C. Scot. Con. P. C. U. S. and Say. Plat. ch 11. sec. 1.

Faith is given only to the elect. The manner of giving is, by the working of the Holy

* The primary Christian Graces, according to all theological writers, are FAITH, REPENTANCE, HOPE, and LOVE. To this order, however all do not assent. Some invert it, either wholly or in part; and others virtually reduce them all to one. These Christian graces are all comprehended under the general phrase, "evangelical obedience;" because the gospel requires them; and the person who believes, repents, has good hope through grace, and loves God and his neighbour, obeys the gospel,

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"In order to believe on Christ, men must be born again."

Dr. Hopkins' statement of his own creed, in the Memoirs of his life, published by Dr. West, p. 205.*

"I. Saving faith is represented in many passages of scripture as consisting in a belief and assurance of the truth and reality of those things which are revealed and asserted by God in the divine oracles. Or a conviction and an assured knowledge, that the gospel is true; that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and the Saviour of the world; and they who have this belief, assurance or knowledge, are considered and declared to be in a state of salvation." Syst. Vol. 2. p. 2.

OTHERS.

"Disinterested affection is the tree, which supports repentance and faith and all the other branches of Christianity." Mass. Miss. Magazine, Vol. 3.p. 341.

One of the first and most important duties included in this disinterested love, is unconditional submission to God, without any view to his mercy.

Emmons, p. 29. Hopkins' Syst. Part 2. ch. 4. and Hopkins' Sermons, p. 307 and 311.

* Dr. Hopkins has clearly taught that men must first be born again, and then believe, while Calvin taught, that the communication of the saving grace of faith, was itself the beginning of spiritual life. In the 4th chapter, of the 2nd Part of the System, we find five general observations concerning faith, and then a definition, which is afterwards supported by three general heads, some miscellaneous remarks, and an "improvement." That the reader may form some idea of the doctrine concerning faith, he is presented with most of the observations, which are connected, (by arithmetical concatenation) in their øystematical order.

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me, and your soul shall live.' And that the same is the fountain of faith, John sheweth in these words: (John x. 13.) 'these things are written that ye may believe.' And the prophet meaning to exhort the people to believe, saith, (Ps. xcv. 8.) this day if ye shall hear his voice.' &c. And to hear is commonly taken for to believe.” "Therefore take away the word and then there shall remain no faith. We do not here dispute whether the ministry of man be necessary to sow the word of God that faith may be conceived thereby, which question we will elsewhere treat * but we say that the word

of ;

OTHERS.

Spirit, and the manner of working is ordinarily, through the ministry of the word, persua ding and enabling the sinner to embrace the offered Saviour..

Con. C. Scot. Say Plat. Con. P. C. U. S. ch. 14. sec. 1 Larger Cat. Q. 67. and Shorter Cat. Q. 31.

Saving faith is of such a nature, that it is capable of increase and diminutión, of being strengthened and weakened, and of growing up to a full assurance.

Say. Plat. Con. C. Scot. and Con. P. C. U. S. ch. 14. Sec. 1. and 3. and Larger Cat. Q. 80.

It was the office of the second Elias, (as Malachi witnesseth, iv. 6.) to enlighten the minds and to turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and unbelievers to the wisdom of the righteous. Christ pronounceth that he sendeth apostles, that they should bring forth fruit of their labour. John xv. 16. But what that fruit is Peter shortly defineth, saying that we are regenerated with incorruptible seed 1 Pet. i. 23. And therefore Paul glorieth that he by the gospel begat the Corinthians, and that they were the seal of his apostleship. 1 Cor. iv. 15. Yea, that he was not a literal minister. 1 Cor. ix. 2. such as did only beat the ears with the sound of voice, but that there was given him an effectualness of spirit, that his doctrine should not be unprofitable. 2 Cor. iii. 6. In which meaning also in another place he saith, that his gospel was not in word only, but in power. 1 Cor. ii. 4. He affirmeth also that the Galatians, by hearing received the spirit of faith. Gal. iii. 2. Finally, in many places he maketh himself not only a worker together with God, but also assigneth himself the office of giving salvation. 1 Cor. iii. 9. Truly he never brought forth all these things to this intent, to give unto himself any thing, were it never so little, separately from God; as in another place he briefly declareth, saying, our labour was not unprofitable in the Lord, according to his power, mightily working in me.

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