One may be allowed to suppose that no one, besides Doctor Hawker, would give a man's birth, in which he is altogether passive' as a feature, as the leading and most prominent feature of his character.

The reason of the Doctor's selecting the act of the Holy Spirit in regeneration, rather than its nature, or conversion and its other effects and fruits, is easily divined. The natures of regeneration, which is a new creation im righteousness and true holiness, and the fruits of the Spirit, as indicative of the christian character, imply personal holiness, moral agency, and the moral government of God; whilst the act of the Spirit on man in a pas sive state, can be contemplated as solely an act of sovereign grace.

In presenting us with the work in preference to the fruit of the Spirit, as the evidence of christian character, Doctor Hawker would teach us to discover the trees of righteousness, not by their productions, but by their roots; not by that which appears, but by that which is secret; not by the graces and fruits of the Spirit produced by them,

but by the work of God upon them; not by the effects, but by the cause: reversing the maxim of our Lord who says, " by their fruits ye shall know them."*

1

It is by no means through necessity, but wholly by choice the Doctor is, led to this expedient. He well knows that the fruits of the Spirit are features of character, and that they are, as stated by the apostle, "Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." That they are in all goodness and righteousness; and that they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts." To exhibit these and other fruits of the Spirit as features of the christian character, would have implied that the trees which bore them were first made good, and so far have shown the Doctor's accordance with Christ and his apostles; but it would have been at a great remove from a perfect agreement with his theological sys

Matt. vii. 20.

+ Gal. v. 22-24.

tem, which Dr. Hawker, like a true partizan, never designedly forsakes.

The holy scriptures preserve not only a relation, but also an uniformity between privilege, character, and duty; and this is a powerful argument against a system which either separates them, or gives them a disproportioned relation to each other.

Dr. Hawker would give place to no man living in supporting what he conceives to be the privileges of the church. The church's privilege is not only his chief, but nearly his entire subject. He is great and high in privilege, but, as we have seen, low and very deficient in character. His deficiency in the delineation of the christian character, obtains no degree of compensation by the manner in which he states and enforces the christian duties.

The Doctor has a happy method of giving his reader an extended view of his subject in a few words. his full view of the very short compass:

Thus he has given christian duties in a All, all, is of God's

will, God's work, God's act; the church is merely a receiver and no worker. The Lord undertakes for both. God saith, I will not; and the same God saith they shall not; and what can be needed more? Do not overlook these things. It is God

who undertakes for them. He will do it, and there is nothing expected from themselves: and what God undertakes he will perform. The regenerated child of God, however slender his knowledge of divine things may be, manifests more of the sovereign work of grace upon his soul, by those two simple acts of spiritual life, than all the sermons and writings of unregenerate men; namely, by the incomings of grace being received spiritually; and the out goings of faith in spiritual enjoyment upon the persons of the Father, Son, and Spirit, through Jesus Christ.'* This summary of the duties which devolve on the disciples of Christ, forms a striking contrast with that given by the apostle in the 12th of Romans, and shews

God's Will and Man's Shall, pp. 7, 8.

how vain is the Doctor's boast that his writings are in' perfect harmony with those of Christ and his apostles.'

The views of Dr. Hawker on christian duties, as contained in the above assertions, are not more remarkable than are his omissions. Whilst writing, I have lying on the tableteno different tracts written by the Doctor, all of which I have read with more than common diligence, and am really not aware that a single gospel precept is enforced in any one of them; or that the Doctor, in any instance, presses upon his readers those obligations to obey God, which arise either from his high commands, or from the aboundings of his grace and mercy in Jesus Christ.

The Doctor will not enforce the command of God, on men every where to repent; nor does he enforce the preceptive part of the gospel upon believers. Never did a divine cleave with greater partiality to the sovereignty hof God in the dispensations of his grace; nor could any divine more carefully or uniformly exclude from those merciful dis