ly desires that all men should come to repentance, though,
for wise and good reasons, he _permits_, or does not prevent, the
existence of sin. I do _not_ believe that it can be proved that an
omnipotent God would be _unable_ to secure more good by means of
the perfect and universal obedience of his creatures, if they
would render it, than by means of their sin. But I do believe that
it may involve a dishonorable limitation of his power to suppose
that he could not do it.(3)

"I do _not_ believe that the grace of God can be truly said to be
_irresistible_, in the primary, proper import of this term. But I
do believe that, in all cases, it _may be_ resisted by man as a
free moral agent, and that, when it becomes effectual to
conversion, as it infallibly does in the case of all the elect, it
is _unresisted_.

"I do _not_ believe that the grace of God is necessary, as
Arminians and some others maintain, to render man an accountable
agent, and responsible for rejecting the offers of eternal life.
But I do believe that man would be such an agent, and thus
responsible, were no such grace afforded, and that otherwise
'grace would be no more grace.'

"I do _not_ believe that it is necessary that the sinner, in using
the means of regeneration, should commit sin in order to become
holy. But I do believe that, as a moral agent, he is qualified so
to use these means, i. e., the truth of God when present to his
mind, as to become holy at once; that he is authorized to believe
that, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, this _may be_ done;
and that, except in so doing, he cannot be truly and properly said
to _use_ the means of regeneration.

"I do _not_ believe that we are authorized to assure the sinner,
as Arminians do, and some others also, that the Holy Spirit is
always ready to convert him. But I do believe that we are
authorized to assure any sinner that it _may be true_ that the
Holy Spirit is now ready to convert him; 'that God PERADVENTURE
will now give him repentance;' and that thus, in view of the
possible intervention of divine influence, we remove what would
otherwise be a ground of fatal discouragement to the sinner, when
we exhort him to immediate repentance.

"I have dwelt the more on some of these particulars, because much
pains has been taken, by some individual