'

happiness, is equally selfish and spurious. It is the peculiar property of true faith, to endear Christ: Unto you that believe, HE is precious. And, where this is the case, if there be no impediments, arising from constitutional dejection, or other accidental causes, we shall not be in doubt about an interest in him. Consolation will accompany the faith of the gospel: Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Fourthly: All those exercises of faith which our Lord so highly commends in the New Testament, as that of the centurion, the woman of Canaan, and others, are represented as terminating on his all-sufficiency to heal them; and not as consisting in a persuasion that they were interested in the divine favour, and, therefore, should succeed. Speak the word only, says the one, and my servant shall be healed: for I am a man in authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, go, and he goeth; and to another, come, and he cometh: and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. Such was the persuasion which the other entertained of his all-sufficiency to help her, that she judged it enough, if she might but partake of the crumbs of his table-the scatterings, as it were, of mercy. Similar to this is the following language:-If I may but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be made whole.— Believe ye that I am ABLE to do this? They said unto him, yea, Lord.-Lord, if thou wilt, thou CANST make me clean.— If thou CANST do any thing, have compassion on us, and helps us: Jesus said, if thou CANST believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. I allow that the case of these people, and that of a sinner applying for forgiveness, are not exactly the same. Christ had no where promised to heal all who. came for healing: but he has graciously bound himself not to cast out any who come to him for mercy. On this account, there is a greater ground for faith in the willingness of Christ to save, than there was in his willingness to heal: and there was less unbelief in the saying of the leper, IF THOU WILT, thou canst make me clean, than there would be in similar language from one who, convinced of his own utter insufficiency, applied to him for salvation. But a persuasion of Christ being both able and willing to save all them that come unto God by him, and, consequently, to save us, if we so apply, is very

different from a persuasion that we are the children of God, and interested in the blessings of the gospel.

Mr. Anderson, an American writer, has lately published a pamphlet on the Scripture-doctrine of the Appropriation which is in the Nature of saving Faith. The scheme which he attempts to defend, is that of Hervey, Marshall, &c. or that which, in Scotland, is known by the name of the Marrow doctrine. These divines write much about the gospel containing a gift, or grant of Christ and spiritual blessings to sinners of mankind; and that it is the office of faith so to receive the gift, as to claim it as our own; and thus they seem to have supposed that it becomes our own. But the gospel contains no gift, or grant, to mankind in general, beyond that of an offer, or free invitation; and thus, indeed, Mr. Boston, in his notes on the Marrow of Modern Divinity, seems to explain it. It warrants every sinner to believe in Christ for salvation; but no one to conclude himself interested in salvation, till he has believed: consequently, such a conclusion, even where it is well founded, cannot be faith, but that which follows it. Mr. Anderson is careful to distinguish the appropriation for which he contends, from "the knowledge of our being believers, or already in a state of grace." (p. 61.) He also acknowledges, that the ground of saving faith " is something that may be known before, and in order to the act of faith;" that it is" among the things that are revealed, and which belong to us and to our children." (p. 60.) Yet he makes it of the essence of faith, to believe "that Christ is ours." (p. 56.) It must be true, then, that Christ is ours, antecedently to our believing it, and whether we believe it or not. This, it seems, Mr. Anderson will admit: for he holds that "God hath made a gift or grant, of Christ and spiritual blessings, to sinners of mankind;" and which denominates him ours "before we be lieve it." Yet he does not admit the final salvation of all to whom Christ is thus supposed to be given. To what, therefore, does the gift amount, more than to a free invitation, concerning which his opponents have no dispute with him? A free invitation, though it affords a warrant to apply for mercy,

* Alluding to a work published some years since, under the title of The Marrow of Modern Divinity.

and that with an assurance of success; yet gives no interest in its blessings, but on the supposition of its being accepted. Neither does the gift, for which Mr. A. contends: nothing is conveyed by it, that ensures any man's salvation. All the author says, therefore, against what he calls conditions of salvation, is no less applicable to his own scheme, than to that of his opponents. His scheme is as really conditional as theirs. The condition which it prescribes for our becoming interested in the blessings of eternal life, so interested, however, as to possess them, is to believe them to be our own; and without this, he supposes, we shall never enjoy them.

He contends, indeed, that the belief of the promises cannot be called a condition of our right to claim an interest in them: because, if such belief be claiming an interest in them, it would be making a thing the condition of itself. (pp. 50, 51.) But to this it is replied: First, Although Mr. A. considers saving faith as including appropriation, yet this is only one idea which he ascribes to it. He explains it as consisting of three things: a persuasion of divine truth, wrought in the heart by the Holy Spirit; a sure persuasion; and an appropriating persuasion of Christ's being ours. (pp. 54-56.) Now, though it were allowed that the last branch of this definition is the same thing as claiming an interest in the promises, and, therefore, cannot be reckoned the condition of it; yet this is more than can be said of the former two, which are no less essential to saving faith, than the other. Secondly, The sense in which the promise is taken, by what is called appropriating faith, is not the same as that in which it is given in the promise itself. As given in the word, the promise is general, applying equally to one sinner, as to another; but, as taken, it is considered as particular, and as ensuring salvation. Thirdly, If an interest in the righteousness of Christ were the immediate object of saving faith, how could it be said, that unto us it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus from the dead? If Christ's righteousness be ours, it must be so as imputed to us: but this would be making the apostle say, if we believe Christ's righteousness to be imputed to us, it shall be imputed to us.

I have no, partiality for calling faith, or any thing done by us, the condition of salvation; and, if by the term were meant

a deed to be performed, of which the promised good is the reward, it would be inadmissible. If I had used the term, it would have been merely to express the necessary connexion of things, or, that faith is that without which there is no salvation; and, in this sense, it is no less a condition in Mr. A.'s scheme, than in that which he opposes. He thinks, however, that the promises of God are, by his statement of things, disencumbered of conditions: yet, how he can prove that God has absolutely given Christ and spiritual blessings to multitudes who will never possess them, I am at a loss to conceive. I should have supposed, that whatever God has absolutely promised would take effect. He says, indeed, that “the Lord may give an absolute promise to those who, in the event, never come to the actual enjoyment of the promised blessing, as in the case of the Israelites being brought to the good land; (Exod. iii. 17.) though the bulk of them that left Egypt perished in the wilderness through unbelief." (p. 43.) It is true, God absolutely promised to plant them, "as a nation, in the good land, and this he performed; but he did not absolutely promise that every individual who left Egypt should be amongst them. So far as it respected individuals, (unless it were in reference to Caleb and Joshua,) the promise was not absolute.

Upon the mere ground of Christ being exhibited in the gospel, "I am persuaded," says Mr. A. "that he is my Saviour; nor can I, without casting reproach upon the wisdom, faithfulness, and mercy of God, in setting him forth, entertain any doubts about my justification and salvation through his name." (p. 65.) Has God promised justification and salvation, then, to every one to whom Christ is exhibited? If he has, it doubtless belongs to faith to give him credit: but, in this case, we ought also to maintain, that the promise will be performed, whatever be the state of our minds; for, though we believe not, he abideth faithful. On the other hand, if the blessing of justification, though freely offered to all, be only promised to believers, it is not faith, but presumption, to be persuaded of my justification, any, otherwise than as being conscious of my believing in Jesus for it.

Mr. A. illustrates his doctrine by a similitude. "Suppose that a great and generous prince had made a grant, to a certain class of persons therein described, of large estates, in

cluding all things suitable to their condition; and had publicly declared, that whosoever of the persons so described would believe such an estate, in virtue of the grant now mentioned, to be his own, should not be disappointed, but should immediately enter upon the granted estate, according to the order specified in the grant. Suppose, too, that the royal donor had given the grant in writing, and had added his seal, and his oath, and his gracious invitation, and his most earnest entreaty, and his authoritative command, to induce the persons described in the grant to accept of it. It is evident, that any one of these persons, having had access to read or hear the grant, must either be verily persuaded that the granted estate is his own, or be chargeable with an attempt to bring dishonour upon the goodness, the veracity, the power, and authority of the donor; on account of which attempt, he is liable, not only to be debarred for ever from the granted estate, but to suffer a most exemplary and tremendous punishment." p. 66.

I suppose the object of this similitude is expressed in the sentence, "It is evident, that any one of these persons, having had access to read or hear the grant, must either be verily persuaded that the granted estate is his own; or be chargeable with dishonouring the donor." In what sense, then, is it his own? He is freely invited to partake of it: that is all. It is not so his own, but that he may ultimately be debarred from possessing it: but, in whatever sense it is his own, that is the only sense in which he is warranted to believe it to be so. If the condition of his actually possessing it, be his believing that he shall actually possess it, he must believe what was not revealed at the time, except conditionally, and what would not have been true, but for his believing it.

The above similitude may serve to illustrate Mr. A.'s scheme; but I know of nothing like it, either in the concerns of men, or the oracles of God. I will venture to say, there never was a gift, or grant, made upon any such terms; and the man that should make it, would expose himself to ridicule. The scriptures furnish us with an illustration of another kind. The gospel is a feast, freely provided; and sinners of mankind are freely invited to partake of it. There is no mention of any gift, or grant, distinct from this; but this itself is a ground sufficient. It affords a complete warrant for any sin