3. It is objected that a doctrine which supposes the intervention of the immediate agency of the Great First Cause in the develop- ment of history, or regular series of events, is contrary to all true philosophy, and inconsistent with the relation of God to the world. This is a point, however, as to which philosophy and the Bible, and not the Bible only, but also natural religion, are at variance. The Scriptures teach the doctrines of creation, of a particular prov- idence, of supernatural revelation, of inspiration, of the incarnation, of miracles, and of a ftiture resurrection, all of which are founded on the assumption of the supernatural and immediate agency of God. If the Scriptures be true, the philosophy which denies the possibility of such immediate intervention, must be false. There every Christian is willing to leave the question.
§ 7. Hi-story of the Doctrine of G-raee.
The doctrines of sin and grace are so intimately related, that the one cannot be stated without involving a statement of the other. Hence the views of different parties in the Church in reference to the work of the Spirit in the salvation of men, have already been incidentally presented in the chapter on Sin. With regard to the period antecedent to the Pelagian controversy, it may be sufficient to remark, (1.) As there was no general discussion of these sub- jects, there were no defined parties whose opinions were clearly announced and generally known. (2.) It is therefore, not the creeds adopted by the Church, but the opinions of individual writ- ers, to which reference can be made as characteristic of this pe- riod. (3.) That the statements of a few ecclesiastical wnters are verv insufficient data on which to found a judgment as to the faith of the people. The convictions of believers are not determined by the writings of theologians, but by the Scriptures, the services of the Church, and the inward teaching of the Spirit, that is, by the unction from the Holy One of which the Apostle speaks, 1 John ii. 20. (4.) There is abundant evidence that the Church then, as always, held that all men since the fall are in a state of sin and Condemnation ; that this universality of sin had its historical and causal origin in the voluntary apostasy of Adam ; that deliverance from this state of sin and misery can be obtained only through Christ, and by the aid of his Spirit ; and that even infants as soon