the love of God, and always holds pace with it; even as that experience is founded on the self-denied labour of charity, and always holds pace with it; and I may add, even as the self-denied labour of charity is founded on the simple belief of the truth, and always holds pace with it. So that, if either more or less than the simple truth of the gospel be admitted in the heart of any man as the ground of acceptance with God, if either more or less than the bare persuasion of the truth be admitted as requisite to justification, the whole superstructure of the Christian practice and consolation is effectually undermined and overthrown. Neither more nor less than the bare persuasion of the truth can give birth to the genuine works of love; and to these alone the Holy Ghost bears witness as the Comforter.

The Scripture always maintains the connection of these things. So Paul," Now the end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." The simple truth alone can quiet the sense of guilt, and furnish a man with the answer of a good conscience toward God, or give that perfection of the conscience which the same Apostle says could not be obtained by the legal sacrifices. And thus alone the heart is purified from evil affections, and fitted for abounding in the work of charity. They alone, who being led by the evidence of the truth to submit to it, so had their hearts purified, not only by a taste of forgiveness for past offences, but also by the prospect of greater objects for interesting their affections than those which influence worldly lusts: they alone, I say, were fit to perceive the force of the apostolic exhortations to abound in charity. So Peter says, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently."

The greatest saints on earth, when disquieted with the sense of guilt, or fear of condemnation, can no otherwise find relief, but by the same truth that relieved them at first when sitting in darkness, and under the shadow of death: even the same truth that relieved the thief on the cross. When Paul was in distress of mind, he heard nothing from Jesus Christ to relieve him, but these words, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." And by these words he was relieved effectually. When John, in the Isle Patmos, was ready to die for fear, on having a vision of the Divine glory, Jesus Christ did not comfort him by reminding him of his apostolic labours, of his being the

beloved disciple, nor of his presently suffering banishment for his sake; but he said unto him, "Fear not: I am the first and the last; I am he that liveth, and was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore," &c. He encouraged him, by reminding him of the same truth which encourages the worst of mankind when they first understand it.

The greatest saint cannot be relieved from the pain occasioned by the conviction of sin, by imagining there is any thing about him on account of which it becomes God more readily to forgive him than the most profane of mankind. Yea, nothing can be more opposite to every degree of religious pride, than the assurance of hope itself; for it proceeds on the consciousness of loving from the heart that very truth which asserts the Divine sovereignty in the strongest manner, and sets at nought every distinction on account of which any one of mankind can glory over another.

No man, then, by enjoying the Holy Spirit as the Comforter, can find any ground for being less afraid of sinning, or of its consequences, than he was before; for he no sooner indulges an evil affection, or any thought opposite to charity, than he loses that enjoyment. Paul supposes that men who have tasted of this enjoyment, may, by indulging the passions opposite to charity, grieve the Holy Spirit, and so lose that enjoyment. So he says, Eph. iv, 30, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." They who thus grieve the Holy Spirit, must find mercy and forgiveness in the same way as at the first. And their love must be left to work in the way of painful desire and fear, till it be again crowned with enjoyment and so perfected.

No confessor of the Christian faith can find any ground in the Scripture to think, with the popular doctrine, that his sins are less displeasing to God than those of other men; that they expose him less to the Divine wrath, or make him less obnoxious to the curse of that law which saith," Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them." If any man imagines, on account of some acts of faith he has exerted, that his sins expose him only to some fatherly chastisements in this life, and not to the curse of the Divine law, and the wrath to come, he is ignorant both of the gospel and of the true God. A believer can find ease to his guilty conscience only by that truth which relieves the most openly profane. If he seek it any other way, he ceases to be a believer; or rather it appears he never was one, however just a title he had to the name from others.

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The language of Christians runs thus: Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us hold the grace whereby we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear; for our God is a consuming fire." Not according to the jargon of the popular doctrine, "A God out of Christ is a consuming fire to all the workers of iniquity," or those deemed the unconverted. For Christians are at full liberty to deny that there is any such God, as also the Absolute God much talked of in sermons.

The assurance of hope is obtained by means very opposite to those prescribed by the popular doctrine for the improvement of its votaries. When the saving truth first shines into the hearts of men, the effect is suitable to the Divine promise, Jer. xxxii, 40, I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. This fear dwelling in their hearts, checks and recalls them when ready to be utterly led away by their former evil inclinations. They are preserved from falling away, by the fear of falling away. Paul says to the Hebrews, "Let us fear, lest a promise being left of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."Yea, he says of himself, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached the gospel to others, I myself should be a cast-away." Thus they that believe come to be settled in the assurance of hope. Accordingly, Peter prays for the Christians he writes to, "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Jesus Christ, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."

From the passages of Scripture we have been considering, it is evident, that to have the Holy Spirit, as the Comforter, and earnest of the heavenly inheritance, is an attainment far beyond any influences of the Spirit that are common to those who believe for a time, and those who believe to the saving of the soul; yea, beyond the regenerating work of the Spirit by which men are at first brought to the knowledge of the truth, and taught to love it. So it must be distinguished from any joy or spiritual delight which necessarily attends the obtaining of faith, or its beginning to work by love; because it presupposes the work and labour of love, and the testimony of our conscience, that love is the spring of our work and labour. Hence, also, we see, that it is vain and absurd to call men to be assured of their being the children of God, when they are not enjoying his Spirit as the Comforter, and much more so when their faith is not working by love.-It is likewise evident, that it cannot further appear that any man

has known the grace of God in truth, than he is led by that knowledge to give all diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end. It is also plain, that the promise of the Spirit, as the Comforter, is common to all those who follow the faith and practice of the apostles, even as it was uniformly enjoyed by all who walked in their footsteps at the beginning.

Before we go further, the substance of what has been said may be thus shortly summed up. The gospel presents a faithful testimony to be believed, exhibiting an amiable object to be loved, and good things to come to be hoped for. Faith, then, respects the truth of the testimony, love what is amiable in it, and hope the good things in prospect.-Faith comes by the evidence of testimony, and the assurance of hope through faith working by love, to which the Holy Spirit never fails to bear witness as the Comforter.

WE may now proceed to observe, that every claim to peculiar relation to God, that rests not on the Spirit bearing witness as the Comforter to the work and labour of love, serves not only to slacken our diligence in that work and labour, but also to feed our natural pride, which may be more exquisitely gratified in the religious way than in any other; and so to strengthen our inclinations to all the lusts of the world. Men may make as many bold assertions, and urge as many confident questions as they please, in favour of any such claim; but it is very easy to find an answer to them. In Dial. 14, vol. 2, p. 270, Aspasio, speaking of his appropriating faith, says," Then let me ask, Will this alienate your affections from your ALMIGHTY BENEFACTOR! Will this irritate evil concupiscence, or send you to carnal gratifications in quest of happiness? Quite the reverse. When this faith is wrought in your heart, nothing will be so powerful to produce holy love and willing obedience; to exalt your desires, and enable you to overcome the world."

Here I will take the liberty to say in my turn, QUITE THE REVERSE. And, accordingly, the case will appear if we attend to matter of fact. The experiment has already been tried in the most advantageous manner; and the effects are recorded for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Were not the Jews very confident of their peculiar relation to God as his children, and full of the fondest expectations from their Messiah? But what was the result? Jesus tells us, Now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father. The appropriating claim was in some degree common to the whole nation, but it was much

improved and carried to a great height by the leaders in devotion, who looked on the more ignorant and profane part of the people as accursed. The more refined appropriation served indeed to form many such eminent characters as the world admire; yea, generally speaking, its votaries were justly respected for having greater regularity of life than their fashionable opponents, the philosophical reasoners, and accordingly had the designation of the strictest sect. Yet so the fact turned out; the more men excelled in this way, they proved the more hardened enemies to the true God, and the eternal happiness of mankind.

We may easily see their appropriation imitated in its several degrees in our own age. Is there any sentiment more commonly indulged among us, than, when we think on the wide extent of Pagan darkness, Jewish obstinacy, the delusions of Mahomet, and superstitions of Popery, to reflect with no small self-applause that we are Christians and Protestants; so at least in some better terms with the Deity than multitudes of our deluded fellow-creatures, whom we look down upon with a sort of contemptuous pity? Moreover, what an important sound do we hear, when one acquaints us, that he has the honour to be a member or minister of the Church of England, by law established, or of some other church reformed after the best pattern?

But, more particularly, it is common with popular preachers to encourage their hearers to make the more refined appropriation, by reminding them, that they have already some peculiar relation to God, as having been devoted to him in

* In the zealous opposition shown to the Jew-bill, it evidently appeared how much we are influenced by the national pride of our Christian character, and that we have thoroughly imbibed the same temper of mind for which the Jews were remarkable in the days of the apostles. But why should this good Christian nation be so much disgusted at Jews, seeing we differ from them only in a few circumstances about time and place? Our leading sentiments and theirs at this day are much the same, as the great majority of pulpits throughout the island can weekly bear witness let the doctrine delivered from them be only compared with the printed sermon given us last year by Isaac Netto, the Jewish Doctor. Yea, the Jews to this day, notwithstanding the many rubs and disappointments they have met with, still persist in exerting as vigorously as the most forward among us their appropriating acts. I shall only quote a few words from the prayer at the close of the sermon now mentioned. "Take away fear from our hearts, and instead thereof, inspire us with confidence; for thou art our God, our Saviour, and our strength; from thee alone we expect our salvation: that we may offer thee, as a sacrifice, tears of devotion, tears of gratitude, tears of joy and pleasure, drawn from the fountain of salvation."