CHAP. XV.

Objections answered.

OUR argument has not been pursued thus far, without meeting with some of the topics commonly adduced in the form of objections to the sentiment of man's ability. We trust satisfactory attention has been paid to these as they occurred; but there are some others of considerable prominence, which it would be improper to overlook.

1. It has been conceived that, if power in man to come to Christ be allowed, nothing will remain to prevent him from actually coming: and this would be contrary to the scriptures, which, at all events, declare that no man will come to Christ, except the Father draw him.

We believe, in the most unequivocal and decided manner, than no man ever did or ever will come to Christ, unless drawn by the Father; and if the sentiment of man's ability were inconsistent with this belief, we could hold it no longer.

The objection, however, proceeds upon a principle which may be shown to be fallacious. The argument is this: Allow that a man can come to Christ, and then he will be sure to come; or at least you cannot be sure that he will not' that is to say, all that a man can do he will be sure to do; or, at least, there is nothing that he can do which you can be sure he will not do. This is manifestly false. Of the many things which a man can do, he may do some, and leave others undone; nay, he infallibly will do so; and which he will do, and which he will leave undone, may be infallibly known by any being who can search his heart,which God can do, though we cannot. Take any action that you please, therefore, which a man can perform, still it does not follow that he will perform it; nay, I may be infallibly assured that he never will perform it.

The fact is, that, in order to the performance of any action, two conditions are essentially necessary: the one is the possession of power, or means of performing it, and the other is an inclination to do so. If it be to walk into the street, or to rise from my chair-I shall never do this if I have not power to do it: but neither shall I do it, although I have power, unless I

have also inclination. Power is not of itself active; it is merely the means of acting, and it sleeps till inclination arouses it. My disinclination to rise from my chair will as certainly prevent my doing so as if I wanted power, since it is one of the conditions essential to the action; so that if by any means you can ascertain how long my disinclination to do so will last, you may predict, with an infallible certainty, that so long I shall not rise from my chair.

This familiar illustration we have taken for the purpose of setting the principle in a clear light; but the principle itself will be found to extend to all our actions, the greatest and most important not excepted. Our coming to Christ depends upon two conditions: first, our power to come; secondly, our inclination to come. We certainly shall not come if we have not power; neither, if we have power, shall we come, if we have not inclination. If we have power, therefore, still it may be true that we shall never come to Christ, because we may never have an inclination to do so.

The whole question, therefore, whether a man who has power to come to Christ, ever will come, resolves itself into this, What is the state of his inclination? Is he inclined to come?

Or is he indifferent, yet willing to consider why he should come? Or is he disinclined to come; but only to such a degree, that he still is ready to listen and reflect? Or is his disinclination so strong as to become the habitual and prevailing state of his heart, and to induce a determined disregard of all that might influence him? If the state of a man's mind be such as is described in the earlier of these questions, then we may perchance see the wonder of one coming to Christ of himself: but if it be truly represented by the last of them, it is plain that he never will come of himself, his disinclination leading to the abandonment of the only means by which he might be brought to such a result.

We have only to ask, then, whether the state of a man's mind can be known in this respect; and if so, what it is declared to be. We have all of us means of estimating the inclinations of others and our own to some extent, but not so far as to speak certainly of what will or will not be done, either by others or ourselves. There is one Being, however, though only one, to whom all hearts are open, and all thoughts are known; and to him it is fully known whether any man will of himself come to Christ. He has given us the advantage of his knowledge in

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his holy word, which teaches us that no man ever will so come. The heart he declares to be desperately wicked;" the thought and imagination of it "only evil continually;" adding, that it is" enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Jer. xvii. 9; Gen. vi. 5; Rom. viii. 7. We might quote much to this effect; but the sense is, that God, who knows the end from the beginning, has forewarned us that the evil disposition of a sinner will, in every case, induce him to reject the Saviour.

What more does the objector want, to satisfy him of this melancholy truth, and to relieve him of his fears that some poor sinner may come to Christ of himself? Why should he deem it necessary to add to this impediment another, consisting in the want of POWER? One would be ready to imagine that he does not believe the divine testimony concerning the wickedness of the heart, that he cannot think any man will be so mad, or so wicked, as to keep aloof from Christ if he has power to come to him; that he finds a difficulty to entertain so dreadful an opinion of another, or of himself. There is probably more of this scepticism at the bottom of the efforts made to maintain the inability of