The council then were desired to determine whether it was not expedient for them to advise to the calling a mutual council, to hear and judge concerning the objections of the aggrieved. This the council judged to be inexpedient. The council being satisfied with Mr. Osgood, notwithstanding the objections brought against him, which they fully[240] I believe, on the authority of these books, that God at first created man perfectly holy and upright; that, whilst in this state, he made a covenant with him, which virtually included his future offspring; that, in consequence of the breach of this covenant, mankind do now come into existence with hearts wholly corrupt; on account of which corruption, they are liable to suffer all the evils implied in the curse of the law. I believe that this corruption of the human heart has not destroyed that freedom which is necessary to moral action, but that mankind still remain the subjects of God's moral government. I believe that, though God was wholly unobliged in strict justice to provide a Saviour for these apostate creatures, he has yet done it of his own mere good pleasure, and for the display of his unmerited grace; that Jesus Christ is this Saviour, in whom the divine and human nature are united in a manner inconceivable by me; that this Saviour, by voluntarily undertaking the work of redemption, and in a federal capacity becoming obedient to the Father's will, even unto death, has so displayed the deformity of sin, and has done such honor to the divine law and government, as to render it consistent with the perfect rectitude of the supreme Governor to pardon and receive to favor sinners who believe in Christ, though in themselves they are infinitely guilty and undeserving; that this faith in Christ is not a bare speculative assent of the understanding only, but an hearty approbation of his mediatorial character; that it is an holy act, proceeding from a sanctified or good heart, which good heart is created by the power of the Holy Ghost in regeneration; that though regeneration be the immediate and powerful exertion of the Spirit of God in the soul, yet that the usual way in which sinners are thus born again, and brought to the exercise of that faith which, according to the gospel plan, entitles them to the benefits of Christ's purchased redemption, is whilst they are attending upon what are called the means of grace, are reading, hearing, or meditating upon divine truth, and are laboring after the knowledge of God and of themselves, and an acquaintance with spiritual and eternal things. In a word, I apprehend that those doctrines specified in the Assembly's Catechism are, in the main, consonant to those revealed in the sacred oracles as fundamentals in the gospel scheme,--which doctrines, as a Christian, I am bound to profess, and, as a preacher, to teach and inculcate.
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The council then were desired to determine whether it was not expedient for them to advise to the calling a mutual council, to hear and judge concerning the objections of the aggrieved. This the council judged to be inexpedient. The council being satisfied with Mr. Osgood, notwithstanding the objections brought against him, which they fully
John Wilson and son. 22 School Street. Boston. 1855.
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