greatly funk and debafed. If it had been poffible, the falfehoods they maintain about faith and the Pfalms, &c. had been mentioned without the perfons or parties who maintain them at all-and if fome find themselves more exactly defcribed than they would wifh-if the cap fit them, they are welcome to wear it-if it do not, there is no harm done, they are not the perfons meant. But as men, and fects of men, have given the stamp and authority of their respective names and fects to their notions and noftrums, these behoved to be defcribed by fuch ftamps and marks as they were not afhamed to give them. And he ought to be ashamed, who would be ashamed or afraid to expofe, as far as in him lies, whatever is found in opposition to the truth of God. Here obferve, notwithstanding the paragraph may appear fomewhat disjointed, that though the affurance of faith and the affurance of hope be indeed most justly diftinguished, as differing in nature one from another, yet the diftinction and foundation of it, which fome men make between them, is evidently weak and ridiculous, being the most foreign thing in the world from the meaning of the Holy Ghoft, who does not even infinuate, (as thofe men say he declares), that the affurance of hope is lefs certain than the affurance of faith, but only that the affurance of hope regards the good thing as certainly to come, which the affurance of faith regardeth as certainly true: fo that the affurance of faith, or the good hope through grace is not oppofed to, or diftinguifhed from, the certainty, but the futurity only, of the good thing to come, which is equally the object of the hope and faith, and of the hope, because first of the faith fo that the affurance of hope, were there any degrees in the cafe, is rather an advance upon the affurance of faith, than a lefs or more uncertain thing; feeing, by the grace of faith, whatever good thing one locks upen to be true, by the grace of of hope, with equal affurance, he looks for (if abfent) to come: fo that, whatever affurance there was in the faith, there is precisely as much in the hope built upon that faith. Both the affurance of faith and the affurance of hope are found in the Lord Jefus, in whom furely they included equal certainty and, from the application of them both to him, take the meaning of them both, as exifting by his Spirit in his followers, who have the fame fpirit of faith and hope with him, their head and pattern, concerning whom it is written that he faid, I believed, and therefore have I fpoken,' 2 Cor. iv. 13. Behold the affurance of faith in him-Was the affurance of his hope lefs certain? Moreover alfo, my flefh fhall • rest in hope,' Acts ii. 26. Behold the affurance of hope, which is founded, as certainly as God is true, in the affurance of faith. * To conclude: if these loose hints, thrown together in the order in which they occurred, do not make their own apology, it will be in vain to attempt a vindication of them, or of the following paraphrafe: those who are convinced, and love the caufe, will need none; those who are otherways will receive none. The Scripture of itself is our only poffible rule, both for faith and good manners, and not any human book, or pretended ftandard whatsoever; for so it is written, 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17, All Scripture is • given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for inftruc•tion in righteoufness; that the man of God may * be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good • works.' PRA RAY tell me, friend, what will And though you fhould the meaning find, And meffage of the Holy Ghoft,' Yea, though according to the mind Now, how can you perceive it so, Whence I most firmly do conclude, THE THE PSAL M S, PARAPHRASED ACCORDING TO THE New-Teftament Interpretation. PSAL M I. THAT the Perfon who is described and praised in this Pfalm, can be none other but the very SON of GOD, 'made of the woman, made under the law, become in all things like unto his brethren, except fin,' may be confidently collected from the abfolute purenefs and perfection of that character, which is here delineated, and attributed to him: for, as the Lamb of God behoved to be without fpot and without blemish, fo this perfon is reprefented, or the one hand, as free of tranfgreffion, and, on the other, as conformed to the law of the Lord; which is his perpetual delight and meditation. Upon which account he is pronounced BLESSED, and, by a refemblance abundantly familiar to the infpired writers, likened to a tree planted by streams of water, bearing fruit round all the feafon, profpering every way, and flourishing, with undecayed leaf, in full, undiminished, everlafting glory. Now, all this exactly corresponds with the glorious things, every where spoken of that Holy One of God EMMANUIL, under thefe facred appellations, The Stem of the Root of Jeffe; the Root and Offspring ' of David; the Branch; the Good Olive; the TREE OF LIFE in the midst of the paradise of 'God, and on either fide of the river, which • beareth A beareth twelve manner of fruits, and yieldelh fruit every month; and whofe leaves are for the healing of the nations,' &c. We find the Lord himself alfo, in the fame parabolical ftyle, addreffing his difciples to the following purpose, Now are ye clean through the word which I have fpoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the VINE, ye are thebranches; he that abideth in me, and I in him,the fame bringeth forth much fruit: for with"out me ye can do nothing.'-And, on other occafions, dropping the figure, My meat is to do the will of him that fent me, and to finish his work-Lo, I come to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart-Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son alfo may glorify thee—I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work' which thou gaveft me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own felf, with the glory which I had with thee before the world < was. -For this, in answer to his prayer, he was raifed from the dead, crowned with glory and honour, and highly exalted, and a name 'given him, which is above every name; that at the name of JESUS every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue fhould confefs that Jefus Chrift is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Thus the Son, who became the fervant of the Father to bring many fons and daughters to glory, was recompenfed, made most blessed for ever, and ex-" ceeding glad with his Father's countenance.-Now, furely, fuch a character, and fuch a blef-i fedness, as the legal due reward of that character, muft originally, and in the first instance, belong to the Son of God, confidered perfonally, or by himfelf; and to others only by way of imputation, 1 commu |