we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him*. If any one imagine that God has revealed to him his interest in his love; and this, in a special, immediate, and extraordinary manner, and not by exciting in him the holy exercises of grace, and thereby begetting a consciousness of his being a subject of grace, let him beware, lest he deceive his soul. The Jews were not wanting in what some would call the faith of assurance: We have one Father, said they, even God: but Jesus answered, If God were your Father, ye would love me.

Secondly: The scriptures always represent faith as termi nating on something without us; namely, on Christ, and the truths concerning him: but, if it consist in a persuasion of our being in a state of salvation, it must terminate, principally, on something within us; namely, the work of grace in our hearts: for to believe myself interested in Christ, is the same thing as to believe myself a subject of special grace. And hence, as was said, it is common for many who entertain this notion of faith, to consider its opposite, unbelief, as a doubting whether we have been really converted. But, as it is the truth and excellence of the things to be interested in, and not his interest in them, that the sinner is apt to disbelieve; so it is these, and not that, on which the faith of the believer primarily terminates. Perhaps, what relates to personal interest may, in general, more properly be called hope, than faith; and its opposite, fear, than unbelief.

Thirdly: To believe ourselves in a state of salvation, (however desirable, when grounded on evidence,) is far inferior, in its object, to saving faith. The grand object on which faith fixes, is the glory of Christ; and not the happy condition we are in, as interested in him. The latter, doubtless, affords great consolation; and the more we discover of his excellence, the more ardently shall we desire an interest in him, and be the more disconsolate, while it continues a matter of doubt. But, if we be concerned only for our own security, our faith is vain, and we are yet in our sins. As that repentance which fixes merely on the consequences of sin, as subjecting us to misery, is selfish and spurious; so that faith which fixes merely on the consequences of Christ's mediation, as raising us to

* 1 John ii. 3. 5. iii, 18, 19,

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, thoù CANST make me clean.If thou CANST do any thing, have compassion on us, and help 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 believe 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, con cerning 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