as well as to those who through that grace will work out their own salvation :" We reply:

1. For the same reason which made him give celestial grace to the angels who became devils by squandering it away; paradisaical grace to our first parents;—expostulating, Gentile grace to Cain; -Jewish, royal grace to Saul;-and Christian, apostolic grace to Judas. If Mr. Hill says, he does not understand what that reason is; we answer: By the same reason which induced the master, who corrected Mr. Hill for making a bad exercise at Westminster School, to give his pupil pen, paper, ink, and proper instruction, before he could reasonably call Mr. Hill to an account for his exercise. And by the same reason which would make all Shropshire cry out against Mr. Hill as against a tyrannical master, suppose he horse-whipped his coachman and postilion for not driving him, if he had taken away from them boots, whips, spurs, harness, coach, and horses; and if he had contrived himself the fall of their apartment, that all their bones might be put out of joint, when the floor gave way under them.

2. If Mr. Hill is not satisfied with these illustrations, we will give him some direct answers. God gives a manifestation of his grace to those who make their reprobation sure, by finally resisting his gracious Spirit: First, BECAUSE he will show himself as he is, gracious and merciful,' 'true and long-suffering towards all,' so long as the day of their visitation' lasts. Thus he bestows a talent upon all his slothful servants who bury it to the last, because he will display his equity and goodness, although they will display their wickedness and sloth.-Secondly, Because he is determined, that if those servants will destroy themselves, their blood shall be upon their own heads, according to the well-known scripture, 'O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself. I would, and ye would not:'- Thirdly, Because God will judge the world in righteousness,' and display his distributive justice in rendering to all according to their works;' deservedly clothing his finally unfaithful servants with shame; and making the

faithful walk with him in white, because they are [evangelically] worthy.' And, to sum up all in one,Because the two gospel-axioms are firm as the pillars of heaven and hell; and God will display their truth before men and angels, and especially before Pharisees and Antinomians. Now, according to the first axiom, there is a Saviour, a measure of saving grace, and a day of initial salvation for all. And according to the second axiom, there is free will in all, and a day of judgment, with a final salvation or damnation for all, according to their good or bad works, that is, according to their free-agency; the good works of the righteous being the product of their free, avoidable cooperation with God's grace; and the bad works of the wicked springing from their free, avoidable rebellion against that grace.

Hence it appears, that the second Article of the Fictitious Creed contains indeed a "shocking, not to say blasphemous" consequence, but that this consequence is nothing but a sprig of Mr. Hill's supposed "orthodoxy," absurdly grafted upon the supposed "heresy" which St. John and St. Paul maintain in these words:He [Christ] was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.-The grace of God, which bringeth salvation, has appeared unto all men, teaching [not forcing] us to deny ungodliness, &c., and to live soberly,' &c., if we are obedient to its teachings.

THE FICTITIOUS CREED.

ARTICLE III.

I BELIEVE it depends WHOLLY on the will of the ereature, whether he shall or shall not RECEIVE ANY benefit from divine grace."

THE GENUINE CREED.

ARTICLE III.

We believe that the benefits of a temporary redemption, of a day of salvation, and of the 'free gift' which came upon all men' to the justification mentioned Rom. v. 18:-We believe, I say, these benefits, far from "depending wholly on the will of the creature," as to the RECEIVING of them, depend no more upon us than our sight and the light of the sun. All those blessings are at first as gratuitously and irresistibly bestowed upon us, for Christ's sake, in our present manner of existence, as the divine image and favour were at first bestowed upon our first parents in Paradise; with this only difference; before the fall their paradisaical grace came immediately from God our Creator; whereas, since the fall, our penitential grace comes immediately and irresistibly from God our Redeemer ;—I say irresis tibly, because God does not leave to our option whether we shall receive a talent of redeeming grace or not, any more than he left it to Adam's choice whether Adam should receive five talents of creative grace or not; although afterwards he gives us leave to bury or improve our talent of redeeming grace, as he gave leave to Adam to bury or improve his five talents of creative grace. Our doctrine of the general redemption and free-agency of mankind, stauds therefore upon the same scriptural and rational ground, which bears up Mr. Hill's system of man's creation and moral agency in Paradise; it being impossible to make any objec.. tion against the personal loss of redeeming grace in Judas, that may not be retorted against the personal loss of creative grace in Adam or Satan.

But, with respect to all the temporal and eternal benefits, which God has promised by way of reward to his every good and faithful servant,' we believe,

that they depend upon the coucurrence of two causes, the first of which is the free grace of God in Jesus Christ; and the second, the faithfulness of our assisted and rectified free will; which faithfulness is graciously crowned by God's remunerative justice and evangelical veracity. And, instead of blushing at this doctrine, as if it were "shocking," we glory in it, as being perfectly rational, strictly scriptural, and equally distant from the two rocks against which Calvinian orthodoxy is dashed in pieces: I mean the twin doctrines of wanton free grace, and eternal free wrath, according to which, God, without any respect to the faith or unbelief, to the good or bad works of free agents, absolutely ordained for some of them the robe of Christ's imputed righteousness, and the unavoidable reward of eternal life by the mean of unavoidable faith; while he absolutely appointed for all the rest the robe of Adam's imputed unrighteousness, and the unavoidable punishment of eternal death by means of necessary, unavoidable unbelief.

THE FICTITIOUS CREED.

ARTICLE IV.

"THOUGH the scripture tells me, that the carnal mind is enmity against God, yet I believe that there is something in the heart of every natural man, that can nourish and cherish the grace of God; and that the sole reason why this grace is effectual in some and not in others, is entirely owing to themselves, and to their own faithfulness or unfaithfulness, and not to the distinguishing love and favour of God."

THE GENUINE CREED.

ARTICLE IV.

THOUGH the scriptures tell us that the carnal mind is enmity against God,' and that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit,' yet we believe, that from the time God initially raised mankind from their fall, and promised them the celestial bruiser of the serpent's head, there is a gracious free agency in the heart of every man who has not yet sinned away his day of salvation: And that, by means of this gracious free agency, all men, during the accepted time,' can concur with, and work under the grace of God, according to the dispensation they belong to.-Again, we believe that no child of Adam is a 'natural man' in the Calvinian sense of the word,-[i. e., absolutely destitute of all saving grace,] except he who has actually sinned away his day of grace. And when we consider a man as absolutely graceless, or as a child of wrath' in the highest sense of the word, we consider him in fallen Adam, before God began to raise mankind by the promise of the woman's seed. Or we must consider that man in his own person after he has done final despite to the Spirit of that grace, which has more or less clearly appeared to all men under various dispensations.

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Mr. Hill greatly mistakes if he thinks that, according to our doctrine, God's grace is "effectual in some, and not in others;" for we believe that it is effectual in all, though in a different manner. It has its first

and most desirable effect on them that "cherish it" through the above-mentioned gracious free agency. And it has its second and less desirable effect on those, who fiually reject the gracious counsel of God towards them; for it reproves their sins; it galls their con