and especially in the writings of Paul, who being the apostle of the gentiles, possessed more frequent opportunities than others of being witness to this wonderful transformation, under the figure of a new birth, a new creation, or a resurrection from death to life. Moreover, the Jewish nation, being the chosen people of God, the declared enemies of heathen idolatry, professed worshippers of the only true God, endued with certain external privileges, and favoured with a revelation from Heaven, are, for these reasons, represented in Scripture, as in a state of amity with God, as a holy people, a nation separated from the rest of mankind, and consecrated to the service of God. In correspondence with this representation of things, the gentiles, who were destitute of these privileges, and who remained out of the pale of the mosaic covenant, are for that reason spoken of as unholy, as enemies to God, as afar from him, and as criminals under sentence of death. When therefore, the gentiles, by their conversion to the christian religion, were admitted into covenant with God; when they were received to equal privileges and equal favour with the descendants of Abraham, and exalted to the hope of immortality, they were said, in consequence of this conversion, to be justified, or acquitted of the sins of their heathen state; from having been enemies, they are introduced into a state of friendship with God; having before been sinners, they then became saints, or holy ones; they were separated from the mass of the unbelieving world by their profession of the christian religion, and their admission to peculiar privileges. All these high expressions import nothing more than a great change in their external state; and in this sense they were no doubt well understood both by the writers who used them, and by the persons to whom they were addressed, and whose situation they described. But these phrases not being sufficiently familiar to persons not conversant with Jewish habits of thinking, and forms of speech, have been interpreted in a sense widely different from their original meaning; and have been supposed to teach, or to imply, that all mankind are born sinners, and as such, children of wrath; that all are liable to eternal punishment in hell for Adam's sin; that God, out of mere good pleasure, elected some to everlasting life; that the few who are so chosen, will, at the appointed time, be effectually called; that a principle of grace, as it is called, is implanted in the hearts of such by the spirit of God, or the holy ghost; and that by the continued operation of the same spirit, it is supported, and carried on in the hearts of the elect, in spite of all opposition, till is finally completed in glory. And such expressions as elect, regenerated, saints, called, justified, and the like, by which the sacred writers express the extraordinary change which took place in the idolatrous gentile, when he became a convert to the christian religion, are applied by such persons to express a supposed supernatural change, which, according to their grace system, takes place from a state of nature to a state of grace, in those who are elected by the sovereign pleasure of God from the rest of the world. Religion, therefore, according to this system, is not a state of mind acquired by the use of natural and efficient means, in the way that mental and moral habits are usually acquired; it is something extrinsic and superinduced by a foreign and supernatural influence, and is only to be found in those who, by special favour, are chosen to salvation. The influence of this strange opinion is perhaps more extensive than is generally imagined. For many who do not fall into the extreme of supposing that the religious principle is the effect of supernatural influence, nevertheless entertain a confused notion, that religion is a sort of thing by itself, and that a habit of piety is different in its nature, origin, and progress, from all other acquired habits and affections of mind; so that the same principles and rules which apply to the formation, discipline, and im provement of the one, are not equally applicable to the other. This erroneous judgment concerning the nature of true religion, has been the source of many speculative errors, and of many mischievous practical consequences. It has led superficial thinkers to combine the notion of something mysterious, unintelligible, and impracticable, with religion; that it is either irrational, and contradictory to the laws of human nature, or impracticable by any human exertions; and thus it has served as a pretext for ticism. scep It has been a source of much anxiety and uneasiness to many truly pious and upright minds; and has deprived them of the satisfaction to which they were entitled, from the consciousness of general integrity, by leading them to imagine that something else was necessary to entitle them to the favour of God, besides a conscientious and faithful discharge of duty; and not having any distinct notion what this quality is, they have been tormented with |