The New Divinity Tried [pp. 278-304]

the New Divinity Tried.
fairly before his mind, and, by a great effort) choose right.
This, as we understand it, is a description, not of an entire
and radical change in the affections, but of a simple determination of the mind, founded on the single consideration of the
adaptation of the object chosen to impart happiness. If I determine to seek one thing, because it will make me more happy than another, (and if any other consideration be admitted,
as determining the choice, the whole theory is gone,) this is a
mere decision of the mind, it neither implies nor expresses any
radical change of the affections. On the contrary, the description seems utterly inappropriate to such a change. Does any
man love by a violent effort? Does he ever, by summoning
his powers for the emergency, by a volition, and in a moment,
transfer his heart from one object to another? Was it ever
known, that a man deeply in love with one person, by a desperate effort, and at a stroke, destroyed that affection and originated another? He may be fully convinced his passion is
hopeless, that it will render him miserable; but he would stare
at the metaphysician who should tell him, it was as easy to
love one person as another; all he had to do was to energize
a new volition and chose another object, loving it in a moment
with all the ardour of his first attachment. As this description of an immanent volition, does not suit the process of a
change in the affections in common life; as no man, by a simple act of the will, and by a strenuous effort, transfers his
heart from one object to another; so neither does it suit the
experience of the Christian. We have no idea that the account given in the Spectator of the process of regeneration,
was drawn from the history of the writer's own exercises, nor
do we believe there is a Christian in the world who can recognise in it a delineation of his experience. So far as we
have ever known or heard, the reverse of this is the case. Instead of loving by a desperate effort, or by a simple volition
effecting this radical change in the affections, the Christian is
constrained to acknowledge, he knows not how the change
occurred. "Whereas I was blind, now I see," is the amount
of his knowledge. He perceives the character of God to be
infinitely lovely, sin to be loathsome, the Saviour to be all he
needs, but why he never saw all this before, or why it all appears so clear and cheering to him now, he cannot tell.
We cannot but think that the impression made by the mode
of representation adopted by the New Divinity of this important subject, is eminently injurious and derogatory to true religion. That the depravity of the heart is practically repre
299