When an individual is in a state of actual obedience, the tendency of
this doctrine upon him is no better; since it produces the conviction,
that while a Divine influence, independently of ourselves, produces in
us a spirit of dependence, we shall and must exercise it; and that while
it does not produce that spirit, we do not and cannot exercise it. Where
is the tendency to induce a spirit of dependence, in such a conviction?
According to the doctrine of Necessity, nothing but the actual
interposition of Divine grace has any tendency to induce a spirit of
dependence. The _belief_ of this doctrine has no such tendency whatever.
The grand mistake of the Necessitarian here, consists in the assumption,
that, because his _doctrine has a manifest tendency to produce the_
CONVICTION _of dependence, it has a tendency equally manifest to induce
the_ SPIRIT _of dependence;_ when, in fact, it has no such tendency
whatever.
2. We will now contemplate the intrinsic tendencies of the doctrine of
Liberty to induce the spirit of humility and dependence. Every one will
see, at once, that the consciousness of Liberty cannot itself be a
ground of dependence, in respect to action, in favor of the right and in
opposition to the wrong: for the possession of such Liberty, as far as
the power itself is concerned, leaves us, at all times, equally liable
to do the one as the other. How can an equal liability to two distinct
and opposite courses, be a ground of assurance, that we shall choose the
one, and avoid the other? Thus the consciousness of Liberty tends
directly and intrinsically to a total annihilation of the spirit of
self-dependence.
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