"believe other things on the clear evidence that "they are true and will remain true whether "we believe them or not, fo that we cannot "deny our affent, without rebelling against the "light of our fenfes, reafon, or confcience. "But here our affurance is not impressed on our thoughts by the evidence of the things; but "we must work it out in ourselves by the affist"ance of the Spirit of God, and thereby we "bring our own thoughts into captivity to the "obedience of Christ. None but God can juftly "require of us this kind of affurance, because "he only calleth those things that are not, as though they were, he only can give existence to thofe things that yet are not, and make a thing to "be true upon our believing it, that was not "true before." Marfball's Gospel Mystery of Sanctification. It is acknowledged in the above citation, that there is no evidence of any kind, that God gives Chrift and his falvation to any one in particular, before we abfolutely affure ourselves of it-that this is not a truth before we believe it, and moreover, will never be true except we do perfuade and affure ourselves that it is fo; but that which was not true before, becometh a certain truth when we believe it!!! Yet it is confeffed, this doctrine of faith will not hold good in any other things; for we are concerned to believe them on the clear evidence we have that they are true, and will remain true, whether we believe them or no. To believe without evidence is not faith, but fancy and prefumption, whether the thing believed be human or divine. And it is moft certain, that the very attempt to perfuade perfons to believe, without knowing what they are to believe, or without plain evidence that what they are called to believe is true, whether they believe it or no, would be hiffed out of the world as an affront to common fense in any thing but religious matters: in which, grievous to think, nothing is too abfurd to be propagated, or too ridiculous to be received! Is it then peculiar to the God of heaven, the fource of intelligence, to fet falsehoods before · his creatures, to be transformed into truths by a confident belief of them, and to bind them by his command to perform the strange operation? Far be it from him! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? We conclude this general view of the various notions of faith in the profeffing world, with obferving, that divine truth is always confiftent with itself, and evidence is its infeparable characteristic; whereas falfehood wears many faces, and fets the invention of its propagator upon the rack to cover its hateful appearance with the mask of truth, in order to blind the understanding, fear the confcience, and delude the foul. Whether this appropriation therefore be supported by fuppofed qualifications-the imaginary deed of gift" or the courageous act of faith without evidence either from Scripture, fenfe, or reason, it is moft effentially different from believing the record that God has given of his Son. -So that however well pleafed any may be, in a full perfuafion that they have exerted the appropriating act, unlefs more folid evidence of their actual intereft in Chrift be given, their' claim will, in the end, be found miferably deficient. And though perfons may ftrain every nerve in labouring to believe that their state is good, or to make that true which is not true.before they believe it, it will remain an unchanging truth that, he that believeth not (that very gofpel gofpel which Chrift and his Apostles preached) fball be damned. TO THE EDITORS OF THE ADVOCATE, &c. Gentlemen, Dublin, April 28, 1804. " I HAVE avowed myself « a Friend to Truth,” even that glorious Truth which alone gives freedom to the bond-flaves of fin and Satan, and therefore I fhall make no apology to you for the liberty I now take, in addreffing The Advocate for Revealed Truth a fecond time. And I do a fecond time declare my joy and rejoicing of heart, that the Lord has stirred up the spirit of men who are not ashamed of Chrift and his Gospel, in this apoftate age, wherein Truth is fallen in the ftreet, and in which he that departeth from the infidel piety and devotion of the Religious World, fo called, maketh himself a prey. I cannot but return you my fincere thanks, for the manner in which you have answered my letter in your fourth number. But before I proceed any further in this, I beg leave to inform you, that I did not borrow any thing contained in my firft, from the letter figned " Fidus;" because I did not confider any of his remarks or obfervations of such importance as to make them the fubject of public difcuffion; and I think that Fidus's letter was rather calculated to retard your progrefs in vindicating that Truth, which alone is worthy of all acceptation. It is true that Fidus takes notice of what you faid concerning the perfeverance perfeverance of the faints being a popular doctrine, but his making mention of it was not the caufe of the observations which I made in my letter. As you only spoke of it in general terms, I thought it incumbent on me to require an explanation; what you have faid on that fubject, in the part of your answer to Fidus, contained in your fourth number, fully fatisfies me on that. point.. But I am not satisfied with the answer you have given to my objections to your application of Job iv. 18. Indeed I acquiefce in your explanation of "the heavens": But, though I freely confefs that I do not understand the original, yet I think that I am not mistaken in the meaning of the above-mentioned 18th verse, and I will fubmit to your confideration my reafons for thinking fo. -Job was a partaker of that Grace which bringeth falvation, and teacheth all its fubjects to deny ungodliness and worldly lufts, and to live foberly, righteously, and godly in this present world: and thus it taught Job to live. But his cenforious friends would not acknowledge that he was that character which the Moft High declares him to have been, but endeavored, as far as they could, to prove that he was a very hypocrite, and that all his calamities and afflictions were fent, as just judgments from a righteous God, on account of his hypocrify and although they could not really prove any thing against him, yet they declared that there must be fomething uncommonly wicked (though lying hid from them), which provoked God to afflict him in fo diftinguifhed a manner. This opinion they endeavor to eftablish by a variety of false reasonings and fallacious arguments, but notwithstanding all their endeavors, Job confutes them, and still marks his integrity, and vindicates the character of that God, whom the oracles of truth reveal. Now it feems to me, that in the fourth chapter Eliphaz begins at the 3d verse, to speak to Job in an ironical manner; from the beginning of the 7th verfe to the 12th verfe, he endeavours to prove that God does not afflict the upright or the righteous, but that only hypocrites and notorious tranfgreffors are the objects of Divine indignation. In the 13th, 14th, and 15th verses, Eliphaz mentions a vifion which appeared unto him in the night feafon; in the 16th verfe, he defcribes the manner and form of the vifion or Spirit's appearing unto him, as he terms it; in the 17th verfe, he relates what he heard the Spirit utter, and then comes on the 18th verse. Now upon the whole, it appears that Eliphaz's defign, in all that he said in the fourth chapter, was to perfuade Job, that his affliction was in confequence of his rebellion against God; and that God dealt with Job more gently than with others, as a proof of which he declares that the Lord charged his angels with folly. I know that both in the Old and New Teftament, the meffengers of God, and particularly the minifters of the gofpel, are called Angels. But you think that if the fallen angels were fpoken of in the 18th verse, there would have been fome degrading term annexed to the name Angels, to denote their fallen nature; but confider what the Apoftle Jude fays, in the 9th verfe of his epiftle, that when Michael the Archangel contended with Satan, he durft not bring against him a railing accufation, but faid, The Lord rebuke thee. Another reafon for my opinion is, that throughout the whole of God's word, wherever folly is applied to any perfon, it is marked as one of the most degrading |