is the doctrine of the Bible and is confirmed by the universal con- sciousness of men, and especially by the experience of all the people of God. They with one voice deplore their helplessness and their perfect inability to live without sin, and yet acknowledge their obli- gation to be perfectly holy.
We are responsible for external acts, because they depend on our volitions. We are responsible for our volitions because they depend on our principles and feelings ; and we are responsible for our feelings and for those states of mind which constitute character, because (within the sphere of morals and religion) they are right or wrong in their own nature. The fact that the affections and permanent and even immanent states of the mind are beyond the power of the will does not (as has been repeatedly shown in these pages), remove them out of the sphere of moral obligation. As this is attested by Scripture and by the general judgment of men, the assumed axiom that ability limits obligation in the sphere of morals cannot be admitted.
Moral obligation being founded upon the possession of the attrib- utes of a moral agent, reason, conscience, and will, it remains un- impaired so long as these attributes remain. If reason be lost all responsibility for character or conduct ceases. If the consciousness of the difference between right and wrong, the capacity to perceive moral distinctions does not exist in a creature or does not belong to its nature, that creature is not the subject of moral obligation; and in like manner if he is not an agent, is not invested with the faculty of spontaneous activity as a personal being, he ceases, so far as his conscious states are concerned, to be responsible for what he is or does. Since the Scrij)tural and Augustinian doctrine ad- Tnits that man since the fall retains his reason, conscience, and will, it leaves the grounds of responsibility for character and conduct unimpaired.
It does not weaken the Motives to Exertion.
2. Another popular objection to the Scriptural doctrine on this subject is, that it destroys all rational grounds on which rests the use of the means of grace. If we cannot accomplish a given end, why should we use the means for its accomplishment? So the farmer might say, If I cannot secure a harvest, why should I culti- vate my fields? In every department of human activity the result depends on the cooperation of causes over which man has no con- trol. He is expected to use the means adapted to the desired end, and trust for the cooperation of other agencies without which his
276 PART II. Ch. vin. — sin.
own efforts are of no avail. The Scriptural grounds on which we are bound to use the means of grace are, (1.) The command of God. This of itself is enougli. If there were no apparent adapta- tion of the means to the end, and no connection which we could discover between them, the command of God would be a sufficient reason and motive for their diligent use. There was no natural adaptation in the waters of the Jordan to heal the leprosy, or in those of the pool of Siloam to restore sight to the blind. It had, however, been fatal folly on the part of Naaman to refuse on thai account to obey the command to bathe himself seven times ; and in the blind man to refuse to wash in the pool as Jesus directed. (2.) If the command of God is enough even when there is no appar- ent connection between the means and the end, much more is it enougli when the means have a natural adaptation to the end. We can see sucli adaptation in the department of nature, and it is no less apparent in that of grace. There is an intimate connection between truth and holiness, as between sowing the grain and reaping the harvest. Man sows but God gives the increase in the one case as well as in the other. (3.) There is not only this natural adapta- tion of the means of grace to the end to be accomplished, but in all ordinary cases, the end is not attained otherwise than through the use of those means. Men are not saved without the truth. Those v^^ho do not seek fail to find. Those who refuse to ask do not receive. This is as much the ordinary course of the divine ad- ministration in the kingdom of grace, as In the kingdom of nature. (4 ) There is not only this visible connection between the means of grace and the salvation of the soul, as a fact of experience, but the express promise of God that those who seek shall find, that those who ask shall receive, and that to those who knock it shall be opened. More than this cannot be rationally demanded. It is more than is given to the men of the world to stimulate them in their exertions to secure wealth or knowledge. The doctrine of inability, therefore, does not impair the force of any of the motives which should determine sinners to use all diligence in seeking their own salvation in the way which God has appointed.
The Doctrine does not encourage Delay. 3. Still another objection is everywhere urged against this doc- trine. It is said that it encourages delay. If a man believes that he cannot change his heart, cannot repent and believe the gospel, he will say, "I must wait God's time. As He gives men a new heart, as faith and repentance are his gifts, I must wait until He is pleased