"Bible, namely, Theron, Christ died for thee. Is "this proposition contained in the Bible? Is it taught "in Scripture? If it had been, would it not have been "true, before it was believed, and whether it was be"lieved or not? If Theron venture his soul upon the "truth of this proposition, and find himself at last "deceived, can he blame the Bible? Was it contained "in that book? Did he learn it thence? Nay, he owns "he did not. But then he thinks, God has required "him to work up himself to such a belief, and pro"mised, that according to his faith, so shall it be unto ❝ him. And yet owns, he has no evidence of the thing "from scripture, sense or reason.

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ANSWER. The solemn manner in which Mr. Bellamy speaks here and in other places, of the unspeakable danger of deceiving our own souls, is, in itself, scriptural and highly becoming a minister of Christ : but how awfully is it abused, when it is connected with an attempt to corrupt the truth of the gospel! in such a case, it can only serve as an example of those good words and fair speeches which deceive the hearts of the simple, Rom. xvi. 18. It seems unnecessary to add to what has been already observed concerning the absurdity of what Mr. Bellamy repeats so often, namely, that the gospel-promise is not to be believed, (or, which is the same thing, depended upon) unless it would be true to us whether we believe it or not; and that our act of applying that promise to ourselves is not contained in the Bible. But Mr. Bellamy's followers might be asked, Whether it be the safer course to believe in God giving us the true bread from heaven, and to receive it thankfully in his appointed way, that is, by embracing the promise as directed to us ; or to stand disputing against the propriety of God's

way of dealing with us in this matter; and alleging, that, if Christ be given to us in the promise, the exercise of faith is unnecessary and superfluous; for then the promise must be true to us, whether we believe or disbelieve it? The manifest arrogance and presumption of the latter course may well make a thinking person tremble.

Mr. Marshal, in the explication of the tenth direc-. tion in his Gospel Mystery of Sanctification, has the following words: "We have an absolute promise or "declaration in scripture, that God certainly will or "doth give Christ and his salvation to any one of us " in particular, neither do we know it to be true already "by scripture or sense or reason, before we assure "ourselves absolutely of it. Yea we are without "Christ at present (or before we believe) in a state of "sin and misery." Hence Mr. Bellamy infers, that Mr. Marshal teaches us to believe without evidence. from scripture, sense and reason. Mr. Marshal indeed teaches us, that, in believing, we attain a saving interest in, and the begun possession of, Christ; but that, before we believe in him, we have no evidence from scripture, sense or reason, of either of our present or future possession of him. Just as a person, in receiving a free gift presented to him, may warrantably believe it to be his own in possession; though, while he rejected the gift, he could not know either by scripture, sense or reason, that ever he would attain the possession of it. In order to make Mr. Marshal appear ridiculous, Mr. Bellamy represents him as owning, that the faith, to which he directs his readers, is totally unsupported by scripture, sense and reason. But, with the candid and judicious, the ridicule must fall upon Mr. Bellamy's grossly mistaking the sense of

the author. Mr. Marshal is so far from making such an absurd concession, that it is the design of that part of his treatise, from which the above quotation is taken, to shew that there is not only one, but many sufficient grounds in the scripture for this appropriating faith. Accordingly he evinces, with abundance of scriptural evidence, that there are sufficient grounds for this faith in the promises, calls and commands of God in his word; that it is only an appropriating faith that corresponds with the scriptural account of saving and justifying faith; that it is the faith exemplified by the professors of true godliness through the scriptures of the Old and New Testament; that it is the only faith by which we receive Christ and his salvation into our hearts, and live to him in the practice of all holy duties; and, in fine, that any pretended faith, which excludes this appropriation, shews itself to be not the faith of God's elect by the evil fruits which it produceth.

Mr. Bellamy observes that the proposition, that Christ died for Theron, is not contained in scripture : and that therefore Theron had no ground to say, in the direct act of faith, The blessed Jesus died for me. And it is granted, that if the knowledge or belief, thus expressed, mean a person's knowledge or belief, that he was one of those whom Christ intended to redeem by his death; that knowledge, however attainable it is, yet, being the same with the person's knowledge of his election, is by no means that which constitutes justifying faith. But when we believe or trust in Christ for all our salvation, it is evident, that we have a real apprehension of his death, nay, of all that he did and suffered, as for us; not meaning any immediate view of God's decree or of Christ's intention in laying down.

his life; but an immediate view of his death as presently exhibited to us in such a manner, as to warrant our entire dependence upon it as the meritorious and procuring cause of all our salvation. When a traveller

goes into a house and eats the food set before him; he may justly say, This food is for me, both as being suitable to my present need, and as being now freely given to me, without any regard to what particular persons the people of the house might have had in view, when they prepared that food*.

QUERY IV.

"Did God ever require any one of "the sons of Adam to believe any thing to be true, "without sufficient previous evidence, that it was true? "Look through the Bible. Where shall we find one "instance? Not in the Old Testament-nor in the "New Testament-no, not even in one of these parti

In Dr. Preston's treatise of faith we have the following paraphrase of our Lord's commission to his apostles and with them to the ordinary ministers of the word, Go and preach the gospel to every creature, Mark xvi. 14. "Go and tell every man

without exception, that here is good news for him, Christ is "dead for him; and, if he will take him and except of his ❝righteousness, he shall have him." On this passage, quoted in the Marrow of Modern Divinity, Mr. Boston remarks, that the design of it is not to determine concerning the extent of Christ's death; but to discover the warrant sinners have to believe in Christ. Therefore Dr. Preston saith not, Tell every man, that Christ died for him; but, Tell every man that Christ is dead for him; that is, for him to come to and believe on; even as if one had said of old, Tell every man who hath slain a person unawares, that the city of refuge is for him, namely, to flee to, that he may be safe: and every one bitten by a fiery serpent, that the brazen serpent set upon a pole is for him, namely, to look to that he may be healed. Both of these were eminent types of Christ; and upon the latter the Scripture is full and clear to this very point. Numb. xxi. 8. And the Lord said unto Moses, make thee a brazen serpent and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. John iii. 15, 16.

"culars, these writers usually refer to, to illustrate " and confirm this strange kind of assurance."

ANSWER. With regard to the charge, which Mr. Bellamy brings against his opponents, of calling men to believe without sufficient previous evidence, enough has been said already. The sneering way in which he repeats an expression which had been used by Mr. Marshal in a grave and serious manner, is very unbecoming. What Mr. Marshal meant by that expression was, that the assurance of faith, like other things of the Spirit of God, is a strange thing to natural men : and, by reason of mens natural bias towards the old covenant way of obtaining life, they reject the way of receiving spiritual blessings by believing the free promise of God in Christ, as absurd. Hence we need not wonder, that many reckon, that we bring strange things to their ears, when we say, that it is the immediate duty of sinners to believe the gospel-promise as directed to themselves; and yet allow, that, while they do not believe it, there is no manner of evidence, that it will ever be actually fulfilled in their case. Several instances, however, are given by Mr. Marshal and others, as, in this respect, parallel or very similar to that of this faith in the gospel-promise; Abraham's believing the promise that God gave him about a son in his old age; the faith which the generation of Israel that came out of Egypt ought to have had in the promise of the land of Canaan; David's faith in the promise of his advancement to the kingdom of Israel; the faith of miracles; and, particularly, that which Peter exercised in walking upon the water. Let us see how Mr. Bellamy deals with these instances in order to shew that they are no way to the purpose of his opponents.

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