CHAP. IV. Phil. i. 29. 1 Cor. iii. 5. Acts v. 31. Acts xi. 18. 2 Pet. i. 1. John iii 3-8. John i. 12, 13. Jas. i. 18 believing on Christ was given to them, ἐχαρίσθη τὸ εἰς αὐτὸν πιστεύειν, and they became believers as to each the Lord did give, ἑκάστῳ ὡς ὁ κύριος ἔδωκεν. Upon the whole process of conversion, as exhibited in the Church and world, on those within and those without the pale of the Church, must those memorable words be inscribed, 'Him God exalted with his right hand as a Prince and a Saviour, to give (doûvaɩ) repentance to Israel and remission of sins'; 'Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life.' As a believer writing to believers, St. Peter comprehends himself and them under one characteristic designation, as those who obtained like precious faith with us, τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχούσι πίστιν. And what the consciousness and experience of every regenerate and converted man uniformly bears witness to, Holy Scripture distinctly and dogmatically enunciates; namely, that he is no more the author of his own spiritual being than of his natural life. 'Ye must be born again' it declares, and that new birth is of the Spirit.' They to whom the power has been given to become the sons of God are said to be born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, èk Оeoû. Therefore are they described as begotten of God. Of his own will begat He us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his John vi. 44 65. creatures.' 'No man,' said Christ to the Jews, 'can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him . . . except it be given unto him of my Father.' And as the initiation of spiritual life is ascribed to a divine source, so also is its con tinuance. Abide in me, and I in you,' said Christ CHAP. IV. to his disciples; 'Even as the branch cannot bear John xv. 4. fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye except ye abide in me . . . for apart from me ye can do nothing.' This was the confidence of St. Paul concerning the Philippians, that He who had begun a good work in them would carry it Phil. i. 6. on to completion; and therefore does he exhort them to work out their salvation, because it was God who was working effectually (èvepy@v) in them Phil. ii, 12, 13. both to will and to work, τὸ θέλειν καὶ το ἐνεργεῖν, in fulfilment of his own good pleasure. And this was the prayer of the writer of the Epistle to the Heb. xiii. 20, 21. Hebrews, that the God of peace would perfect them in every good work for the doing of his will, doing in them that which was well pleasing in his sight. If we consider the state and condition of the human will, the necessity of such preventing and continuous grace becomes at once apparent. When we speak of the free will of man, it is obviously with some distinction and reserve we must use the term. It cannot, for instance, be predicated of man in the same sense as of angels, or even as of Adam in his first estate. The free will of angels is that of beings having no inherent tendency of nature to evil, nor exposed to temptation from without. The free will of Adam also, as God created him, was that of one with no innate propensity to sin, though liable to temptation. But the free will of man is that of a creature born with a nature predisposed to evil, and throughout his life on earth plied with seductions and provocations to sin from the world and the devil. Plainly, therefore, we can speak of the free CHAP. IV. Rom. vi., vii. will of man only in a modified and restricted sense. So far, then, as the freedom of the human will is concerned, no more objection seems to lie against CHAP. IV the hypothesis of the ultimate conversion of all men, than lies against the generally received doctrine of grace in effecting conversion now, seeing that no greater interference with the freedom of the human will is implied in the one than in the other. If we acknowledge that the will of man is such that without preventing grace he neither would nor could turn to God, and if we do not call it a violation or coercion of the will when grace so operates upon it as to bring it into captivity to the obedience of 2 cor, x. 5. Christ,' why is the hope of the ultimate subjection of all souls to God to be rejected as involving a coercion of the human will, seeing that the one would be just what the other is, simply the effect of divine grace? Whether that grace, which in the present alov is producing conversion now, will in another alwv continue to operate to the same end, is indeed a separate question, to be argued upon other grounds. But, for the moment, my simple contention is that the hypothesis of the final subjection of all souls to God is not to be dismissed as necessitating a violation and coercion of the freedom of the human will. That the grace which produces conversion now will not cease to operate in the ages to come, till all souls have been brought back to God, follows as a matter of course, if it be true, what the two previous chapters have aimed to establish, that the kingdom of Christ is to culminate in the reconciliation and subjection of all things to God. But over and above the reasons already adduced, the question may, I think, be argued out from yet another point of view. It is declared in the Inspired Word that God willeth 2 Pet. iii. 9. CHAP IV. 1 Tim. ii. 4. Tit. ii. il. not (un Bovλóμevos) that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; that He willeth (Bée) that all should be saved and come to the John iii. 16, 17. knowledge of the truth; that He so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son, in order that every one believing in Him should not perish but have everlasting life; that He sent not his Son to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved. Hence, the grace of God, of which the incarnation and mission of Christ was the great manifestation, is called ἡ χάρις τοῦ θεοῦ ἡ σωτήριος πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις, the grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men. From these passages, then, we gather the following truths: (1) that God doth not wish that men should perish, but that all should come to repentance; (2) that He willeth that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; (3) that in accordance with this Bovλý and Déλnua, and in his great love, He gave and sent his Son to save the world; (4) that the mission of the Son contemplated the saving of the world, and that the grace manifested in this mission is ἡ σωτήριος πâσш ȧvoρóжоis; (5) that repentance, faith, and knowledge of the truth are the links, the conditions of connection, between man and this salvation. But men cannot repent, cannot believe, cannot come to the knowledge of the truth, without the grace of conversion; the Spirit must convict them of sin; it must be given to them to believe; the Spirit must take of the things of Christ and show them unto them. All divines alike acknowledge this; all, too, who have repented, believed, and come to the knowledge of the truth, unanimously confess |