or reason, as the celebrated Mr. Marshall honestly owns, therefore some spirit is needed. But not the spirit of God. For it is not the office of the Spirit of God, to enable us to believe that to be true, which was not true before we believed it. But God is not our reconciled friend while out of Christ. Nor does pardon ever take place before repentance. When the unregenerate impenitent sinner has it discovered to him that God loves him, and is reconciled to him, the thing discovered is a lie; and the father of lies is the author of the discovery. But of this heretofore, in A blow at the root of the refined Antinomianism of the present age.

Rem. 3. If the carnal mind is enmity against God's true and real character, as exhibited in the moral law, and as honoured with the highest honours on the cross of Christ, notwithstanding the fullest and plainest declarations of God's readiness to be reconciled to us through Christ, if we repent and return to God through him, then the clearest possible speculative idea of this character will not beget love; the greatest possible degree of doctrinal knowledge will not render God amiable in our eyes. For if the true and real character of God itself is odious to a carnal heart, the idea of that character will excite, not love, but dislike: if the true and real character of Jesus was odious to the heart of a Pharisee, the idea of that character would excite, in the Pharisee's heart, not love, but dislike. So reason teaches; and so the fact was. They have both seen and hated both me and my Father. The longer Christ lived, the more he preached, the plainer he spake, the more the Pharisees hated him. For his character was perfectly opposite to theirs. But every impenitent, self-righteous sinner, hath the heart of a Pharisee. Therefore Christ's words to Nicodemus are equally true with respect to all mankind in their natural state. John iii. 8. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.-For,

Rem. 4. Spiritual life is, according to scripture, communicated by God to the dead soul, to enable it to see and act in a spiritual manner. For, according to scripture, we are dead in sin; as perfectly dead, as the body of Christ was when it lay in the grave. And the same power which

raised that from the dead, doth raise us from spiritual death. Eph. i. 19-23. and ii. 1-10. And we know, that a dead corpse must be restored to life, in order of nature, before it can see or hear. So the scripture teaches us, that spiritual life is necessary to enable us to see and act in a spiritual manner. For those who are spiritually dead, are spiritually blind. They cannot discern, they cannot know spiritual things, spiritually. 1 Cor. ii. 14. They are foolishness to them, and a stumbling-block. 1 Cor. i. 18. 23, 24. As the reil on Moses' face hid the glory of it from the congregation of Israel; (Exod. xxxiv. 29-35.) so the spiritual glory of God and the things of God are hid from the natural man, by a veil on his heart. 2 Cor. iii. 13-18. For that enmity to divine things, in which spiritual death consists, implies spiritual blindness. Rom. viii. 7. Eph. iv. 18. For an idea of the glory of God is always attended with love to God. 2 Cor. iii. 18. Enmity against God, therefore, implies that we are blind to his glory; yea, that his true and real character, instead of appearing glorious, and giving pleasure to the mind, appears odious, and excites disagreeable and painful sensa tions. Rom. i. 28. John xv. 18-25. It is not the design of the Gospel to accommodate the divine character to the taste of the carnal heart. Rom. iii. 31. But on the contrary, the flesh must die; it must be put to death; it must be crucified. Gal. v. 17-24. And a new, divine, spiritual life, must be communicated to the soul, to enable it to see and act in a spiritual manner. For, John iii. 3. 5. Except a man be born again he cannot see, nor enter into the kingdom of God. He must be born again, or he cannot see the glory of Christianity, or cordially embrace it. A man may be a Pharisee, as was Nicodemus; so a man may be a Socinian, a Pelagian, an Arminian, or an Antinomian, without regeneration: but no man can be a Christian, except he be born again. Experience and fact confirm the truth. For when Christ was on earth, he spake as never man spake; and yet the spiritual glory of Christianity was hid from their eyes. Mat. xi. 20-25. For although he came, not to those who had been bred up in pagan darkness, but to his own people, who had received their education under Moses and the prophets; yet

his own received him not. Not one received him, not one believed in his name, but such as were born of God. ~ John i. 11, 12, 13. So that it was indeed a universal maxim among the apostolic converts, that whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, (not will be, but gegenetai,) hath been born of God. 1 John v. 1. For this word in this tense, ever hath this signification, in the writings of this apostle, as every man of learning may see, who will look into the original. See John ii. 19. and iii. 9. and iv. 7. and v. 1. 4. 18. and John viii. 41. and ix. 32. None therefore, but those to whom good and honest hearts are thus given, understand the word and bring forth fruit. Ezek. xxxvi. 26, 27. Luke viii. 12—15. But these all with open face, (the veil being taken off,) beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image. 2 Cor. iii. 13-18. For the truth being spiritually understood, i, e. seen in its glory, is cordially believed. 2 Cor. iv. 3-6. And the truth being seen in its glory and ́believed, produces every answerable effect in heart and life. John xvii. 17. 1 Cor. iv. 15. 1 Pet. i. 3. 23. Jam. i. 18. Thus this matter is represented in the sacred writings. A more particular explanation of this subject may be seen, Essay on the Nature and Glory of the Gospel, Sec. xii. The nature of that spiritual life which is communicated in regeneration, and how it opens the eyes to see the beauty of God's moral character, is explained with great accuracy, by that great philosopher and eminent divine, president Edwards, in his Dissertation on the Nature of True Virtue, p. 121, 122, 123, 124, 125.

Question IV. What contrariety is there between the carnal mind, and God's true and real character?

Answer. Without entering largely into this question, on which a volume might be written, it will be sufficient for the present purpose, only to say, that the contrariety between the carnal mind and God's true and real character, is the same as is the contrariety between sin and holiness. For the contrariety between God's nature and ours arises merely from this, viz. that God's nature is holy, and our nature is sinful.

e But, 1. Sin is as contrary to holiness, as holiness is to sin. And therefore our sinful nature is as contrary to God's holy nature, as God's holy nature is to our sinful nature. And, 2. Our contrariety to God is as universal as is our sinful

And that this is the truth, is evident from this, that originally God's nature and the nature of man were alike. As it is written, Gen. i. 26. And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Ver. 27. So God created man in his own image. And therefore there was no contrariety between the holy nature of God and the nature of man, originally. When man began to exist, he viewed things as God did, and was affected accordingly. And as God loved his own character exhibited in that law which he gave to Adam ; so Adam loved it too. There was then no principle of enmity against God in his heart; no disposition to dislike the strictness of the law, or the severity of the penalty, upon the most mature deliberation. Yea, he was perfectly pleased with both. For as God perfectly loved his own law; so Adam, being like God, created in his image, perfectly loved

ness. If we are totally depraved, our contrariety to God is total. 3. Contrariety to the doctrines and duties of revealed religion, in which God's moral character is exhibited, is contrariety to God's moral character. Every objection against the doctrines, and all backwardness to the duties of religion, are so many expres. sions of contrariety to God's true and real character. 4. If the true God and the true scheme of religion suited the human heart, mankind would as naturally be united in love to the one true God, and to the one true scheme of religion, as they are in love to the world. Had mankind liked the true God, they never would have set up a false God; and had they liked the true scheme of religion, they never would have invented a false one. 5. Love to a false god, and to a false scheme of religion, is the exercise of a spirit of contrariety to the true God, and to the true religion. 6. Love to God's moral character, properly expressed, was the only thing which exposed the prophets, Jesus Christ, and his apostles, to be hated, reviled, and murdered. 7. Christ on the cross shows that the enmity of the carnal mind against God, is mortal enmity. 8. The Jews expressed and justified their enmity against Christ, both at once, by calling him by reproachful names. John viii. 48. Say we not well, that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil. Meantime saying, (Mat. 23, 30.) "If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets." So while they hated and crucified him, who was foretold by all the prophets; they thought themselves doing God good service. 9. They knew they hated Jesus, and had they known him to be true God, their contrariety to the true God would have been ascertained to their consciences. 10. Let God's true and real character be agreed upon, and we shall no longer differ about the character of man. 11. God's true and real character would be agreed upon, if we did not hate to admit the truth. 12. The contrariety of our sinful nature to God's holy nature, is the source of all the heresies in the world.-Men love to have a God and a religion to suit their own hearts.

it too. So that there was originally no contrariety to God in Adam's nature. And therefore there is no contrariety now, in man's nature to God, but only and merely so far as man's nature is become sinful. For as before sin took place in the human heart, there was no contrariety to God in human nature; so now there is no one thing in human nature, that is contrary to God, but sin; nor is there any root of bitterness, but wickedness. But nothing which is now, or which originally was essential to moral agency, is of the nature of sin. For Adam was a moral agent when he had no sit; when he was in the image of God. Besides, if something essential to moral agency were sinful, it would be a sin to be a moral agent. There is therefore in the essential properties of å moral agent, no contrariety to the divine nature. For there is nothing in the universe that is contrary to the holy nature of God, but sin. And whatsoever is contrary to the holy nature of God, is sin. To say that there is something in us which is opposite to the holy nature of God, which is not sin, but a duty; is to say, that opposition to God himself, is not sin, but a duty, And if opposition to the holy nature of God is not sinful, there is no sin. For if it is no sin to be opposite to the holiness of God, there can be no sin. For if opposition to the holy nature of God is lawful, by fair construction, God is legally dethroned, his law is vacated, we are become gods, too big to be under any government. For if it be lawful for us to oppose God, much more to oppose all other beings. So that to say that opposition to the holy nature of God is not sinful, is itself perfect wickedness. Yet, according to Mr. M. that self-love which in us is opposite to the holiness of the divine nature, and absolutely inconsistent with the love of God, is not sinful, but a duty. This is the most shocking sentiment in his book. It is, in effect to say, that it is our duty to be at enmity against God. Besides,

Adam rebelled against his Creator, while God was his friend; prompted not by despair, but in a belief of satan's lies, Ye shall be as Gods, ye shall not surely die; he took and eat, contrary to the express prohibition of his Maker. And we, his posterity, for near six thousand years, have gone on in rebellion, while God has offered to be our friend again. And