means. He is fovereign in the appointment of the means, as well as of the end. The fame glorious fovereign who affures us, it is not for our fakes that he beflows his fpecial grace upon us, but for his own name's fake, does alfo let us know, that he will be enquired of by the houfe of Ifrael, to do this for them. Whence it follows, that if we have not a heart to feek with earnest di ligence, for the gracious influences of the Spirit of God, there is no profpect we shall ever obtain. For God will make us feel the want of his mercy, and will make us esteem his falvation worthy of our care and pains; or leave us to the unhappy effects of our own madness and folly. But if we have hearts given us, to be humbly and carne Aly attending upon the means of grace, it is an encouraging fign, that he who has excited our diligence, intends to crown it with fuccess.

You fee, Sir, I have obeyed your commands; and have addreffed you with as much plainnefs and familia rity as the cafe requires, and you yourself have demanded. That God may effectually bring you to fubmit to the terms of his grace, and enable you so to run, as that your may obtain, is the prayer of,

Sir,

Yours, &c.

LETTER VIII. Wherein the DIFFERENCE between a true faving FAITH, and a dead tent porary FAITH, is diftinctly confidered.

SIR,

Ytions. It is not your

un

YOUR complaints do exactly answer my expecta cafe alone, to have worthy apprehenfions of God, vain trifling imaginations, and strange confufion of mind, accompanying the exercises of religion." It is no new thing for those who are fetting out in earneft in a religious course: to find by experience, that their progrefs in religion bears no proportion to their purposes: And that their good defigas and refolutions, come to but little more: ← than, outside appearances, and no way answer their

hopes. It's matter of thankfulness, that you have a feeling sense of this. I hope, if no other arguments will convince you of the truth of what was infifted on in my laft, you will at least be convinced by your own experience, that you lie at mercy.

You thank me for my plainnefs and faithfulness to a poor wretched infidel, who yet breathes, out of hell, by the mere patience of an affronted Saviour. I had not only the warrant of your commands, but the vaft importance of the concern before us, to embolden me to lay by all referves: and even to tranfgrefs the common rules of decorum and refpect, in my former letters. And you need not conjure me to retain the fame freedom. I am no courtier; nor am I at all acquain ted with the fashionable methods of the Beau Monde. I fhall therefore apply myfelf, according to my capacity, in my accustomed methods of addrefs, to answer your defires.

You Obferve, that I infinuate as if men may be. lieve the truth of the Gofpel, without a faving faith in Chrift, without an intereft in him, or a claim to the ⚫ benefits of his redemption. You therefore defire I would give you the diftinguishing characters of a saving faith, and fhew you wherein the difference lies, between a true faith, and that which is common to hypocrites, as well as to Chriftians indeed.'

I do indeed infift upon it, that men may notionally and doctrinally believe the truth of the Gofpel, without a faving faith in Chrift, and without an intereft in him, or a claim to the benefits of his redemption. This is a truth clearly taught in the fcriptures; and abundantly evident from the reafon and nature of things. If any therefore fhould expect falvation, from a mere doctrinal and hiftorical faith in Chrift, they will in the conclufion find themselves disappointed, and afhamed of their hope.

We read (John xii. 42, 43.) of many of the chief rulers who believed in Chrift, but dared not confefs him: for they loved the praise of men, more than the praife of God. And will any man imagine, that fuch believers who dare not confefs Chrift before men, fhall be confeffed by him before his heavenly Father and his broly angels, in the great day of retribution? Will any man ima

gine, that our bleffed Lord will own fuch for his fincere difciples and followers, who love the praife of men, more than the praife of God? Here then is a clear instance of a doctrinal and hiftorical faith, which was not saving; and could give no claim to the promise made to true believers. We have this matter further illustrated and confirmed by the apoftle James, in the fécond chapter of his epiftle; where we are fhewn, that fuch a faith is dead, being alone; that it is but a carcafe without breath. As the body without the Spirit is dead, fa faith without works, is dead also. Of fuch a faith we may therefore fay with the fame apoftle, what doth it profit, though a man fay that he has faith? can faith fave him?

But I need not multiply fcripture-quotations in this cafe. It is what is continually confirmed to us by our own obfervation. How many do we fee every day, who acknowledge the truth of the gospel, and yet live worldly, fenfual, and vicious lives; who profefs they know Chrift, but in works deny him; who call themselves by his name, and yet value their lufts and idols above all the hopes of his falvation; and even run the venture of eternal perdition, rather than deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him? Now there can be nothing more certain, than that thefe men are utterly unqualified for the kingdom of God; and that they can have no fpecial intereft in him, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us. from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar peaple, zealous of good works.

As on the one hand, there is a gracious promife of final falvation, to all who believe on the Lord Jesus Chrift. He that believeth, and is baptized, fhall be faued: he that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life.. So on the other hand, there is a fort of believers, who can have no claim to this promife, nor any interest in the falvation by Chrift. It must therefore be of infinite confequence, that we have indeed the faith of God's e lat, that we may become the children of God by faith in Jefus Chrift; and therefore that our faith be distinct, ins its nature and operations, from fuch an empty, lifelefs, and fruitless belief, with which the formal, worldly, and fenfual profeffor may deceive and deftroy his own foul. From whence it appears, that your question is most im

portant; and deferves a moft careful and diftinct answer; which I fhall endeavour in the following particulars.

1. A true and faving faith, is a realizing and fenfible impreffion of the truth of the gofpel: whereas a dead faith is but a mere notional and fpeculative belief of it. Faith is by the apostle defcribed, the fubftance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not feen: that which brings eternal things into a near view; and representsthem unto the foul as undoubted realities. Whence it is, that the true believer, when he has experienced the defect of his own purposes and endeavours, when he is wearied out of all his falfe refuges, emptied of all hope in himself, and is brought to fee and feel the danger and mifery of his ftate by nature, he is then brought in earneft to look to Jefus, as the only refuge and fafety of his foul. He then fees the incomparable excellency of a precious Saviour, breathes with ardent defise after him, repairs to him as the only foundation of his hope; and proportionably to the evidence of his intereft in him, rejoices in Chrift Jefus, having no confidence in the fefb. Now, the bleffed Saviour and his glorious falvation is the subject of his ferious, frequent, and delightful contemplation. Now, an intereft in Chrift is valued by him above all the world; and he is in earnest to obtain and maintain good evidence, that his hope in Chrift is. well founded. Now, the favour of God, and the concerns of the unfeen and eternal world, appear of greater importance than every thing elfe. He now mourns under a fenfe of his former fins; he groans under the burden of his remaining corruptions and imperfections; and with earneft diligence follows after holinefs, endeavouring to work out his own falvation with fear and trembling. And in a word, he has such an impression of thefe invifible realities, that whatever temptations, defertions, or prevailing corruptions he may conflict with, nothing can fo banish the great concern from his. breaft, as to make him habitually flothful and indifferent about it: nothing can quiet him, fhort of having his heart and affections engaged in the things of God and godliness and his appetites and paffions under the re-Araint and governing influence of the law of the Spirit life

But now, on the other hand, if we take a view of the influence which a dead faith has upon the foul, it is vi fible that this usually leaves the subjects of it secure and careless, trifling and indifferent, in the concerns of the eternal world. These appear to such a perfon but diftant futurities, which does not engage his folemn attention, and make him in earnest folicitous about the event; nor give any effectual check to his inordinate appetites and paffions. Or if (as it fometimes happens) any awakening difpenfation alarms the confcience of fuch a perfon, to a diftreffing apprehention of his guilt and danger, drives him to duties and external reformations, and makes him more careful and watchful in his conduct, he has yet no fenfible impreffive view of the way of falvation by Jefus Christ. He either endeavours to pacify the justice of God, and his own confcience, by his du ties and religious performances; and fo lulls himfelf afleep again in his former fecurity: or elfe continues to agonize under moft dark; dreadful, and unworthy appre henfions of the glorious God, as if he were implacable and irreconcileable to such sinners as he. Such a per fon would readily acknowledge, but he cannot feel this bleffed truth, that Chrift Jefus is a fufficient Saviour. He allows it to be truth; but it is to him fuch a truth, as has no effectual influence upon his heart and life. Though he owns this to be true: yet he can never comfortably venture his foul and his eternal interefts upon it, unless a ray of divine light fhine into his foul, and give him a lively and fenfible view of what he could before have but a flight and fuperficial apprehension, of.

Here then you fee an apparent difference between a true and a falfe faith. The one realizes the great truths of the gospel, by a lively and feeling difcovery of them; giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jefus Chrift. The other gives but a lifeless and unactive affent to these important truths. The one influences the heart and affections, and by beholding with open face, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, changes the foul into the fame image, from glary to glory: the o ther only fwims in the head, and leaves the heart in a ftate either of fecurity or defpondency. The one is an abiding principle of divine life, from which there flow