whom it is due; but be not moved from your fleadfaftnefs either by names, or numbers. To judge of truth by popularity, is abfurd. Warm, zealous men, who can draw the attention, and work upon the paffions of the populace, will always be popular; Mr. W-s not excepted: but his popularity, you know, is no proof that his principles are unexceptionable. Go not then by that deceitful rule. When Truth is at ftake, mind popular applaufe as little as a fyren's fong and regard a Bonner's rack as little as a Nebuchadnezzar's dulcimer. Be calt into the furnace of perfecution with two companions, rather than to bow with thousands to the moft fhining, the most celebrated, and the richest image of error. If your two companions forfake you, Oh! do not forfake the Truth. Turn not your back upon her, when the wants you moft. Run not away from her colours, when the enemy pours in like a flood. If he is driven out of the profeffing church, follow her to the wilderness and if need be, to the den of lions. There the God of Daniel will be with you: And from thence he will bring you out for God will ftand by the Truth, and fhe will prevail at laft. Buy her therefore at any rate; buy her, tho' you should give your last mite of wealth, and your last scrap of reputation for her: and fell her not, tho' you fhould gain the whole world by the unhappy bargain. Thefe things, O men of God, have written unto you concerning them that, by fair fhows of fpirituality and voluntary humility, feduce you into pharifaifin or antinomianifm: But the anointing, which you have received of God, abideth in you, (fince ye have not been feduced) it is truth, and is no lie, abide in it therefore : Err not from the Truth. Walk in the Truth: Do nothing against the Truth, but for the Truth: And, as you have purified your fouls by obeying the Truth, thro' the Spirit, unto unfeigned love of the brethren, fee that this love extend itfelf particularly to your mistaken opponents: Love them, love one another with a pure heart fervently. You will often be obliged to part with peace in order order to maintain truth; but you never need part with love. Be you herein followers of Chritt and St. Paul. You know that the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the Devil himself, would gladly have made peace with those two champions of the truth, upon the fcandalous terms of betraying and giving her up. But St. Paul had not fo learned Chrift, and our Lord scorned to deny himself the Truth, and to worship the Father of lies. See how calmly, how lovingly, how refolutely they fight this good, this bloody fight of faith. Volleys of invectives and calumnies have already been thrown out against them; and now, reproving their perfecutors, and yet praying for them, they go and meet bonds and prifons, the stocks and the fcourge, the provoking taunt and the cruel mocking, the bloody fword and the ignominious crofs. And how many stand by them in their extremity? Have ye forgotten the amazing number? They ALL forfook him and fled-ALL men forfook me, I pray God it may not be laid to their charge. And, astonishing! Judas, Peter, and Demas led the van. Jefus, ftand by our weaknefs, and we will stand by thy truth. Thou fayft, will ye also go away? And to whom should we go, gracious Lord: Haft thou not the words of Truth, the words of everlasting life? Art thou not the light of the world and the life of men? Our light, and our life? Could all the ignes fatui in the profeffing world; could even all the fars in thy church, fupply the want of thy light to our fouls? No, Lord; Be then our fun and fhield for ever. Vifit the earth again, thou uncreated Sun of righteoufnefs and truth: Haften thy fecond advent: Thy kingdom come! Shine without a cloud! Scatter the last remains of Error's night! Kindle our minds into pure truth! our hearts into perfect love! our tongues into ardent praife! our lives into flaming obedience! Bold Bold may we wax, exceeding bold, Adverfe to earth's erroneous throng, Give us thy might, thou God of pow'r, ΑΝ APPENDIX To prevent objections. O plead for Error in an Effay on Truth would T% be prepofterous. If I have done it, it has been inadvertently; and I fhall be thankful to any of my readers, who will be at the trouble to fet me right. But I once more beg forward difputants, not to produce affertions and invectives, inftead of arguments and well-applied fcriptures; and not to wire-draw the controverfy by ftill urging objections, which I have already directly or indirectly answered; unless they fhow, that fuch anfwers are infufficient; that my arguments are inconclufive; and the fcriptures I quote, mifapplied. Two of thofe objections however, deferve a more direct and fuller answer. 1. Should I. Should it be faid, "I puzzle people by afferting "that there can be any other faving faith, but the chriftian faith; and any other object of faving faith "but Chrift crucified: " I reply, that, tho' Chrift crucified is the capital object of my faith, I dare not admit the contracted notions, that the Solifidians have of faith because, if I did, I should subscribe to the neces fary damnation of three parts of my fellow-finners out of four; and reject Christ's word, under pretence of exalting his perfon: Take a few more inftances of it. : Did not our Lord himself say to his difciples, Have faith in GOD; diftinguishing that faith, from faith in himself, as mediator, John xvii. 3? Does not St. Paul declare, that, as believing GOD was imputed to Abraham for righteoufnefs; so it fhall be imputed to us, if we believe on HIM, that raised up Jefus our Lord from the dead? Do I "forge" the following fcriptures? The righteousness of God is revealed from FAITH to FAITH According to the PROPORTION of faith - According as God hath dealt the MEASURE of faith. — If I have told you of EARTHLY things, and ye BELIEVE not; how fhall ye BELIEVE, if I tell you of HEAVENLY things? And can we read Heb. xi. without feeing, that the faith there defcribed, is more general than the faith, which characterizes the chriftian difpenfation? By what art can we make appear, that Chrift crucified was the object of those believers, of whom the apoftle fays, By faith Noah moved with fear built an ark: By faith Ifaac blessed Jacob AND ESAU [the fuppofed reprobate] concerning things to come:- By faith Jacob bleed the fons of Jofeph :-By faith Joseph gave commandment concerning his bones : By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when he had received the fpies? If you infinuate with refpect to Rahab, that Joshua fent the fpies, whom fhe entertained, and that they informed her, that Joshua was a type of Christ crucified: will you not render your orthodoxy" as ridiculous, as if you refted it upon the frivolous difference there is between if and if? Mr. B. cannot fhow, that the apoftle ever 4 diftinguished between a jervish 1F, and a chriftian IF; but I can quote chapter and verfe, when I affert, that he clearly diftinguishes between jewish and chriftian. faith. For, not to transcribe Heb. viii. and x. does he not fay, Gal. iii. 23, BEFORE FAITH [i. e. before chriftian faith] came, we were kept under the law, i e. under the jewifh difpenfation, and the obfcurer faith peculiar to it: Nor was this a daninable ftate, for St. Paul begins the next chapter by telling us, that The HEIR, as long as he is a CHILD, differeth nothing from a SERVANT, tho' he be LORD OF ALL; but is under tutors, and governors, till the time appointed of the Fas ther: Even fo we, when we were children [when we were under the jewish difpenfation] were in bondage under the elements of this world. But when the fulness of time was come, God fent forth his Son, made of a wor man, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we children differing nothing from fervants] might receive the adoption of fons, i. e. the priviledges of fons that are of age, and are no longer under tutors and governors. For after that (chritiftian) FAITH is come, we are no longer under a fchoolmafter, for we are all the [emancipated] children of God by FAITH IN CHRIST JESUS: Gal. iii. 25, 26, Is it not evident from the comparing of thefe paffages, that the faith of Jews conftituted them children of God, but fuch children as in general differed nothing from fervants - fuch children as were in a ftate of nonage and bondage: Whereas chriftian faith [emphatically called faith] by its fuperior priviledges introduces true chriftians into the glorious liberty of the adult fons of God? Before we can overthrow this doctrine, muft we not, to ufe St. Peter's words, wreft our beloved brother Paul's words, fo as to overthrow the FAITH of fome, yea of all the Jews, that lived before faith came, i, e. before Chrift brought believers from mount Sinai to mount Sion; from the earthly JeruJalem, which is in bondage with her children, tọ the new Jerufalem, which is free, and is the mother of us all — that ftand faft in the liberty, wherewith Chrift hath made |