mind, has given every man liberty to will from every motive which he may find in his own mind. His volitions in every case will correspond with the nature of the motive and any thought, any feeling, we have often had occasion to state, may prove a motive to volition. Jehovah has established it, as firmly as the laws of gravitation, that no rational being shall ever put forth a volition except in consequence of some previous motive; for should one choose, will, or determine, in any case, without having some motive for so doing, his volition would be both unaccountable and irrational. This law of mind, however, does not in the least impair man's freedom in volition, any more than the law, that every voluntary act of writing shall Le consequent upon some volition to write, destroys a man's freedom of agency in writing.

According to these principles of moral agency, it is manifest, that an unrenewed sinner has liberty to act from all the motives that he has; but no liberty to act from motives which he has not, until he shall possess them. And here we maintain, that no unrenewed sinner has any morally and spiritually right thoughts or feelings; and, consequently, that he is not free to the exercise of holy volitions, until he is renewed in his thoughts and feelings; that is, in the operations of his intellectual faculties and heart.

If Mr. W. thinks impenitent sinners can repent, or choose to repent, without any motives, why should he in preaching from year to year labour to present to their minds some sufficient inducements? The institution of a system of religious instruction, the appointment of the Christian ministry, and the promulgation of the Scriptures, all prove the dependence of the will upon the intellectual faculties; for they are all designed to excite such thoughts in man, as will be productive of right feelings, and sub-` sequently of right volitions and actions.

It is objected against the Calvinists, that they deny that sinners have the power of refusing evil. Now every one of the accused, we are persuaded, will teach, that an impenitent sinner has power to refuse natural, and even moral evil. Many, who know nothing experimentally of Jesus and his salvation, think of many gross sins, and refuse to practise them; in other words, they choose not to perform many ac

tions that are moral evils. It is not true, then, that we deny even unrenewed .sinners to have the power of refusing evil. Nevertheless, we maintain, that no impenitent sinner refuses any moral evil, from any morally and spiritually good motive. He refuses it from some other motive; from love of reputation, from pride, from fear of shame, from habit induced by education, while he has no holy hatred of the moral evil, because it is moral evil, or opposed to the moral law which God has given. Many men refuse to drink excessively, and swear profanely, in the presence of clergymen and ladies, who will, without fear of God, be drunken and blaspheme in their absence: they refuse moral evil, but from no morally good motive; and therefore their volitions to refuse under such circumstances cannot be holy. Let any man refuse a morally evil action, because he hates it, and disapproves of it as moral evil, or because he loves God who forbids it, and we will undertake to prove from the Bible, that he is a di. vinely regenerated person. The Spirit of God has so enlightened him as to give him the power of holy volition. He is born of God.

We do deny, that any man has power to refuse a moral evil, at the very moment in which he chooses not to refuse it, but to perform it; for this would imply the co-existence of two directly contrary powers of volition in the mind, at the same time; and consequently a present choice contrary to his present choice; which is as great an absurdity as to affirm, that a man does not choose when he chooses, or that a volition can exist and not exist in the same instant.

"Well, then," the Calvinists deny, it is said, "that the government of man's will is in himself;" and so make God the author of sin. Our author has wisely abandoned the ancient Arminian doctrine, that human freedom of will consists in a self-determining power in the will itself over it's own acts. p. 105. "But happily for us, this mighty reasoner, [Dr. West,] and the still more mighty Edwards, have directed their resistless force of argument, not against ability in men themselves to originate their own acts of will,' but against the false notion of its residing in the will itself. And of its existing in contingency, in equilibrium,

&c. &c. Against these erroneous definitions of the power in question, they waged mighty warfare, and over them obtained many a victory; but against the power itself truly defined they have not obtained the like success."

P. 107.

It is well that President Edwards has forced a few of the more sensible Arminians to abandon their former ground, for a position, which, so far as we have learned, he never assailed, that every man is the author of all his own volitions. Every man has, moreover, we assert, and think it a doctrine of Calvinism, much power of government over his own faculty of volition. He cannot, indeed, by a voli. tion change the nature of a volition past; nor can he, by willing it, instantly produce any contemplated volition; for every volition is consequent upon some motive; but he may will to exercise holy volitions in future from some present apprehension of a holy motive, and may will to employ his thoughts upon such subjects as he has learned from experience, or the word of God, ordinarily occasion holy volitions. He may employ his faculties of thinking according to his volition in this case; and thus, through the intellectual faculties, and through them alone, the man who wills it may govern his own will. In the same way, if he wills it, he may govern his heart, and in some sense make himself a new heart, in obedience to divine command. Before, however, any man can thus govern his own will, so as to promote holy volitions, he must will to do it; and before he can will to do it, he must have some motive for doing it; he must have some holy thoughts or feelings. Now, the man that, from a sense of duty and the love of God, wills to will hereafter aright, has some right thoughts, and some right feelings, and of course is a regenerated man. Should it be demanded, Can any impenitent sinner will, without divine and saving illumination, rectifying his thoughts and feelings, to have holy vo. litions in future? we answer decisively, He cannot; for if he could, a man might come to Christ without being drawn of the Father, which Christ declares to be impossible. It is not true, then, that Calvinists wholly deny men to have a power of government over their own vo litions. If they will to govern them, and to take the requi

site measures for doing it, they can govern them to a very great extent.

Last of all, then, Mr. Wilson must elicit the doctrine. of the divine causation of sin from our theory of the introduction of moral evil, into the world, or withdraw his imputation of the Hopkinsian inference from Calvinism, that God is the author of sin. Calvin did teach," that the fall of man proceeded from the wonderous counsel of God;" and that "when we affirm that God foreordained that man should sin freely, he could not but sin freely, unless we would have the event not to answer to the preor. dination of God." We have already shown, that the foreordination of a moral action does not interfere with the freedom of the moral agent in performing it. The laws of moral agency which we have enumerated were all in force in the days of Adam and Eve. Neither before the apostacy, nor after it, nor at the time of it, was any physical energy exerted upon the wills of our first parents to make them choose in any instance. They could will only from some sufficient inducement, or motive. For a time they freely exercised holy volitions, and holy ones alone: but, in a sad hour, they chose to perform a forbidden action. They ate of the interdicted fruit because they will ed to eat of it: they willed to eat of it, because they desired it; and they desired it, because the perception of it through their eyes produced a pleasant sensation, and they conceived that it was fruit desirable to make one wise. To this we may add, that with Eve the fear of eating it was taken away, by believing that she should not surely die; and Adam was probably much influenced by a desire to please his fair companion. Such were the inducements which moved them to resolve, that they would touch, and taste the forbidden fruit. Every one of these mental operations was performed according to the established laws of mental empire, by which Jehovah as undeviatingly governs human minds as he does matter, by certain well known physical laws. Adam and Eve, of course, were the efficients of all their own mental operations, and God was the efficient cause of none of them.

Nevertheless, it is certain, that Adam would not have acted at all, had not God made and upheld him in be

ing; that he would not have eaten had he been destitute of a mouth; that he would not have willed to eat, unless he had felt some desire to eat; that he would not have desired to eat, had he not perceived the fruit, and conceived that, for some reason, it was desirable for him to eat it. It is equally clear, that he could not have perceived it, had not the fruit been created, and placed in a situation to be seen; that he would not have conceived it to be desirable, when he did, had not his partner persuaded him to partake with her; that Eve would not have persuaded Adam, had she not previously tasted of it; that she would not have eaten of it, had she not believed that she should not surely die, but should acquire desirable knowledge; and that she would not have believed as she did, had she not heard the devil utter the lie. She would not have heard him utter this lie, had she not been endowed with the faculty of hearing through her ears. Nor would she have heard the lie which she believed, had there been no devil to utter it in her hearing. We have now got back to the origin of sin in our world; and we perceive that every act introductory to it, is the result of some creature's efficiency; while each creature was made by a predestinated act of the Almighty; and by his providence so upheld and situated, that the voluntary transgression of man was a foreordained event. If any choose to enquire how the devil became a sinner, and felt an inclination to tempt Eve, they must ask of Heaven some additional revelation, or resort to the ingenious speculations of Milton's Paradise Lost.

God foreknew that Adam, placed in the state of probation, and left to the freedom of his own will, would sin; and foreknowing it, resolved still to make him a free agent, and place him in that very state of probation and of freedom, in which his fall was certain to the Divine Mind, and not physically necessary from any predestinated divine agency. In determining to make him, his partner, and the fruit, and to place him in a state of probation, Jehovah predestinated his own actions; and by actually performing those actions, foreordained the foreknown event.

Thus, we have shown, that God immutably foreordains every event, by performing his own predestinated actions.