upon us in one way, our Creator acts upon us in another-they act upon us by an external presentation of motives, He acts by an internal communication; but neither mode of action destroys our freedom. God at first organized our bodies and constituted our souls; and when we began to act we must have acted according to the constitution which we received from him. Were we not then free agents? Did the fact, that our choices were the result of the constitution he had given, prevent us from being free? The idea, that immediate divine action upon us would deprive us of freedom, would, if correct, prove that the Al. mighty could never create a free agent. And if he should now exert an influence upon us, as he certainly did when we were created, would such an influence leave us less free than we were, the moment after his creative energy had formed us? It appears strange that men should ever have conceived the wild phantasy, that God, in his action upon his creatures, was limited to the use of such an instrumentality as man is obliged to employ in acting upon his fellows. What can be imagined more weak than the argument, we cannot act upon men, as long as they are free agents, except by the presentation of motives, therefore God cannot? Thus to take our power as the measure of omnipotence, is less wise than to hold up a fathom cord as a line that can sound the depths of the ocean. Should we assert that the stars, which the telescope brings within the field of vision, were all the bright orbs which even the eye of omniscience could discern, it would not be more reckless or im pious than to look at the extent of human power, and then assert the Creator can do no more. But it may be said, we cannot conceive how the divine power can act upon the soul. Trues nor do we comprehend how he created us. No man can conceive how one disembodied spirit can communicate its thoughts to another. It is beyond the range of our experience and analogies; for now we communicate ideas by the intervention of the material organs of sight and sound. Do we, then, conclude that spirits, without a corporeal organization, cannot communicate with each other? We cannot conceive even how the mind acts upon the body. And from the inconceivableness of the mode of this action, some philosophers, acting in the full spirit of this objection to divine influence, have denied that there was any such action. They have affirmed that the mind and body of a man do not act upon each other, but only move in harmony, like two independent and well-regulated clocks keeping time together-that there is no more action of the mind on the body with which it now moves in concert, than on the body of one who died before the flood. There is no end to the absurdities which must be forced upon our belief, if the principle be adopted, that nothing can be done unless we can conceive the mode of operation. This principle would, indeed, not only exclude all divine influence from the soul in conversion, but it would place even the material world beyond the reach of divine power: for we can no more conceive how the energy of Deity acts upon matter, than we can conceive how it acts upon mind. The creation, then, or even the arrangement of matter could never have been a work of God, as the mode of performing such a work is to us utterly incomprehensible. Thus, we see the fallacy of the only important objections which can be urged in opposition to the strong array of scriptural proof sustaining the doctrine, that divine influence is imparted to man in conversion. SERMON LXIV. BY JOHN C. YOUNG, PRESIDENT OF CENTRE COLLEGE. JOHN 6:44. "No man can come to me, except the Father who hath sent me, draw him." While we should avoid the destructive error, that man is the sole agent in his own spiritual renovation, we should shun the opposite and equally fatal mistake, that man has nothing to do in this important work. The scriptures represent the influence of the Spirit not as superseding, but securing the action of man; not as destroying, but quickening his powers. We shall proceed, then, to show that HUMAN AGENCY IS EXERTED IN MAN'S CONVERSION. 1. The instrumentality of the truth in conversion shows, that men are not spiritually renewed without their own exertions. The inspired writers furnish us with ample proof, that, by God's word as a means, our change is effected. "Seeing ye have purified your souls in (or by) obeying the truth.* "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God." The word is here, as in the parable of the sower, represented figuratively as seed which produces the new nature of man. "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." "Chosen to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth."§ The use of the word of God as means necessarily implies action on the part of man. For this word can only operate * 1 Pet. 1:22. †1 Pet. 1:23. James 1:18. § 2. Thess. 2:13. in the operation of the mind. If man, then, does nothing, conversion, by the means which God has appointed, is impossible. 2. The language used to express what takes place in conversion, shows that the work is not effected without our own agency. There are found in scripture various phrases, denoting what occurs when a sinner is converted. They all represent the same essential change, but it is represented in its different aspects by different phrases. Thus the fact that a sinner was converted is sometimes expressed, in the sacred writings, by saying, "he believed," sometimes by saying "he repented,” sometimes by saying he "received Christ," and sometimes by saying "he came to Christ." All these terms, unequivocally and clearly signify action-they indicate something done by the man. And we are taught that, unless these terms can be applied to an individual, he is not renewed-unless it can be truly said of him, he has "repented," "believed," "come to Christ," and "received Christ," he is not a new creature. The use of such language, then, is scriptural declaration of the fact of human agency, expressed in the strongest form. 3. These direct scriptural proofs of man's activity in conversion are corroborated by our observation of the successive changes through which the soul passes, before it is united to Christ. The fact that there are successive acts of the soul which take place before it has passed from death unto life, does not imply the idea, that a change of heart is necessarily a protracted and slow process. The rapidity of thought and feelings is such as to render it possible for the mind to be the subject of various changes of state, even in a moment. Of the truth of this every one has been often made sensible. There is nothing in the nature of the human mind, which renders it necessary, that a sinner should delay and hesitate before he accepts the mercy of God, and reposes faith in the merits of the Redeemer. And the sudden conversions, recorded as the results of apostolic preaching, show that, when faithful exhibitions of evangelical truth are accompanied by the divine influence, the sinner is not long in turning to Christ. A serious concern for its eternal welfare is, usually, the first act of the soul in coming to Christ—the first effect of the drawing of the Father. From stupidity and false security the sinner awakes to some apprehension of his danger as an enemy of God-he begins to feel that the world beyond the grave is a dread reality. The power of God in producing this effect on the soul, is, as far as we have observed, always connected with the operation of some suitable means. A signal display of God's majesty and power, is often used to arouse the soul from its false repose. The storm, the pestilence, or the earthquake-the stroke of calamity which paralyses the energies, destroys the hopes, and humbles the pride of man, often compels the sinner, who witnesses it, to behold the terrors of his Judge, and extorts from his lips the cry of the trembling jailer, "what must I do to be saved?" The personal afflictions with which God visits men, are frequently used as the means of exciting forebodings of future wrath. Thus, fetters of iron and the gloom of a dungeon forced even an idolatrous and bloody Manasseh to feel that there was a sin-avenging God, whose hand was upon him. Thus, we sometimes see the stroke of disease, the destruction of property, or the loss of beloved friends, imparting new perceptions to the soul. The special mercies of God, too, often impress us with our first strong sense of accountability. A strikingly undeserved and extraordinary manifestation of the divine kindness often drives the dagger of reflection deep into the bosom, and effectually destroys its false peace. Thus, the condescending visit of the Savior penetrated the heart of Zaccheus, and he found rest only in the renunciation of sin. The holy lives of the followers of the Lord are often the means by which the security of the ungodly is disturbed. They are made to feel that there must be a reality and power in religion, when its effects are so peculiar and decisive-that its objects must possess value, when they induce so much exertion and self-denial. They are harassed with the reasonable reflection that so great a difference of principle and conduct as exists in this life, between them and the righteous, must be followed by a difference of destiny in the life that is to come. is the instrument most frequently employed for symptom of life to the soul that is dead in sin. God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." Its simple, solemn, and earnest warnings of a judgment to come fill the mind with forebodings and fears. That these means, however, have not intrinsic power sufficient to break the sleep of the soul, is not only proved by the declarations of holy writ, but might be strongly inferred from the fact that, in many cases, their effects are directly the reverse of those which we have described. Displays of divine power, often furnish occasions for impious levity— personal judgments draw forth blasphemy-signal mercies communicate a stronger sense of security in sin-the faithful conduct of the pious induces a more determined opposition to holiness-and the preaching of the gospel excites rancorous hatred. Thus, the means of life often become "a savor of death unto death." But the word of God imparting this first In it "the wrath of A deep conviction of sin is the next feeling, which rises in the soul, after the apprehension of danger. When the attention is fairly fixed on God's law, and it is seen requiring perfect purity, and reaching, in its prohibitions and commands, even to the thoughts of the heart; then is realized the experience of the apostle, "when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died." There is a clear perception of the mournful fact, that we have been "alienated from the life of God," that we have "walked according to the course of this world, according to the Prince of the power of the air," that we have "fulfilled the desires of the flesh and of the mind," and that we are "children of wrath." The law is seen to be "holy, just, and good;" and the holiness of Him against whom we have sinned, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and in whose sight we stand exposed, is flashed upon the soul. The beauty, which the sinner had imagined he saw in his own character, has fled he sees in it only deformity: his former self-complacency is gone, and he is filled with self-loathing. He feels like one beholding. himself for the first time in a glass, after some dreadful disease has swept from his countenance every lineament on which his eye had for merly lingered with pleasure, leaving it seamed and disfigured with hideous and loathsome scars. Earnest purposes of amendment follow this conviction of sin. Not yet sensible of the nature as well as acquired strength of its depravity, the soul determines to eradicate the cause of its self-loathing, by abandoning all its iniquities, and commencing a rigid and thorough course of obedience to God. Vague ideas of the divine mercy encourage also the hope that reformation will, in some way or other, procure pardon for past offences. And conscious that all the sins, which have wrought his degradation, have been voluntary, the sinner imagines, that, for an entire reformation, nothing more is requisite than a firm determination, that he will henceforth abandon them. Under this delusion resolutions are formed, and vows often recorded. A sense of entire moral helplessness is soon the result of his purposes of amendment. Every effort that is made in conformity with his resolutions, shows him their inefficiency as well as his own weakness: he is thus made to feel, that determinations to do good will not change his love of evil and aversion to holiness; and that, though his transgressions are voluntary, it is still as certain, that he will not of himself forsake them, as it is that the Ethiopean will not change his skin, or the leopard his spots. He thus becomes experimentally acquainted with the truth, that "the carnal mind is enmity against God," while he loathes his own degradation and vileness, he sees, that still he loves sin too well to forsake it. It is impossible to describe the distress and horror which often seize upon the soul while engaged in this struggle, in its |