with the same degree of grace, as another person would do, yet the change may be as great, because a person of a good natural temper did not behave himself so ill before conversion.

Thus having endeavored to prove that Christian practice must be the proper and most decisive evidence of saving grace; before I conclude this Treatise, I would say something in reply to Two OBJECTIONS, which may perhaps be raised against what has been advanced upon this subject.

Objection I. It may perhaps be said, that what has been insisted on, is evidently contrary to the opinion prevailing among good people, that professors should judge of their state chiefly by their feelings and experience.

I answer, This opinion is no doubt correct, and deserves to be received amongst good people; but it is a great mistake to suppose that what has been said, is at all contrary to that opinion. Evangelical, or holy practice, is spiritual practice, and not mere corporeal motion. It is the exertion of a spirit, animating, commanding and directing the body to which it is united, and over which it has power given it by the Creator. And therefore the main thing in holy practice, is the disposition of the mind. The exercises of grace, of which the believer is sensible, constitute Christian experience; and this experience consists as much in those operauons of grace upon the will, by which our actions are immediately directed, as in mere mental exercises. These exercises of grace are not the less a part of Christian experience, because they are immediately connected with our actions. For instance, ardent love to God is not the less a part of gracious experience

because it is that which immediately produces some self-denying or extraordinary action, tending to promote the honor and glory of God.

To represent Christian experience and practice as properly and altogether distinct, is wrong. Indeed, all Christian experience is not necessarily connected with practice; but all Christian practice is in reality experience. Holy practice is one kind, or part of Christian experience; and both reason and Scripture represent it as the chief, the most important, and the most distinguishing part of it. "He judgeth the cause of the poor and the needy: was not this to know me? saith the Lord." Jer. 22:16. Our acquaintance with God certainly belongs to experimental religion; but this is represented as consisting chiefly in that experience which is included in holy practice. The love of God, and the fear of God, are a part of experimental religion; but the scriptures already quoted, represent them as consisting chiefly in practice: "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments." 1 John, 5:3. See also 2 John, 6. "Come, ye children, hearken unto me-I will teach you the fear of the Lord: Depart from evil and do good." Psa. 34: 11, &c. It was such experience as this, in which Hezekiah took comfort, and said, "Remember, O Lord, I beseech thee, how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart." The Psalmist chiefly insists upon such experience as this in the 119th Psalm. The Apostle Paul insists upon this kind of experience, in many places in his epistles. See Rom. 1:9; 2 Cor. 1:12; 4: 13; 5:7 -14; 6:4-7; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:7,8; Col. 1:29. 1 Thess. 2:8-10. It was this kind of experience from which this blessed apostle derived support and comfort when he was about to suffer martyrdom: “For I am

now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 2 Tim. 4:6, 7.

And not only does the most important and distinguishing part of Christian experience consist in sɔi ritual practice; but such is the nature of these exercises of grace, that nothing else is so properly called by the name of experimental religion. For that experience which, in these exercises of grace, proves effectual at the time of trial, is the proper experiment as to the sincerity of our profession and the power of our religious principles. As that is called experimental philosophy, which brings opinions to the test of fact; so that is properly called experimental religion, which brings re ligious affections to a similar test.

There is a kind of religious practice which is no connected with experience, and which, in the sight of God, is esteemed good for nothing. And there is what is called experience, which has no connexion with practice; and this is worse than nothing. Whenever we feel a disposition to treat God as his infinite perfections and our dependance upon him demand, and at the same time are placed in circumstances of trial, and find this disposition effectual in the experiment, we are then the subjects of the most satisfactory experience. Religion consists much in holy affection; but those exercises of affection which are most characteristic of true religion, are practical exercises. Hu. man friendship consists much in affection; but these strong exercises of affection, which actually induce us to make great exertions, or sacrifices, for others, are the most, and indeed the only decisive proofs of true friendship.

There is nothing in this at all contrary to what is

asserted by some sound divines, that is, that there are no sure proofs of grace, but the acts of grace. For those operative practical exercises of grace, may still be the most decisive proofs of the existence of grace. Many of these exercises of grace, following one another, under various trials, may also render the evidence still more decisive, as one act confirms another. The disciples, when they first saw Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, had good evidence that he was alive; but by conversing with him forty days, they had still more decisive proofs that he was risen indeed.

The witness, or seal of the Holy Spirit, of which we read, is no doubt the effect of that Spirit upon the human heart, in the implantation and exercises of grace there, and so consists in experience. Neither can it be doubted, but that this seal of the Spirit is the most decisive evidence of our adoption that we can possibly obtain. But in the manifest exercises of grace, already described, the Holy Spirit gives evidence, and sets his seal in the most clear and satisfactory manner. It has been abundantly demonstrated by the experience of the Christian church, that in general Christ communicates to his people, by the Holy Spirit, the most decisive and evident marks of their sonship, in those effectual exercises of grace under trials, which have been spoken of above. This has been manifest in the full assurance and indescribable joy of many of the martyrs. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you." 1 Pet. 4: 14. "We-rejoice in hope of the glory of God, and-glory in tribulations also." Rom. 5:2, 3. This is agreeable to what the Apostle Paul often declares, in reference to what he experienced in his various trials. When the Apostle Peter, in the passage

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prefixed to this Treatise, speaks of the joy unspeakable and full of glory, which the Christians to whom he wrote experienced, he has respect to what they felt under persecution, as appears from the context. It is evident from other parts of the chapter, that when the Apostle Paul speaks of the witness of the Spirit, in Rom. 8: 15-17, he has an immediate respect to what the Christians experienced in their exercises of love to God, while suffering persecution.

Objection II. Some professors may be disposed to object against what has been said of Christian practice, as the chief evidence of grace, that this is a legal doctrine; and that by making practice of such great importance in religion, we magnify works, and lead men to depend on their own righteousness, to the disparagement of the glory of free grace, and in opposition to the doctrine "of justification by faith alone."

But this objection is altogether without foundation. In what respect is it inconsistent with the freeness of the grace of God, that holy practice should be a sign of our interest in that grace? It is our works being considered as the price by which the divine favor is procured, and not their being merely the sign of it, that is inconsistent with the freeness of that favor. A beggar, viewing the money he has received as a token of the kindness of him who gave it, may still regard the gift as being perfectly free and undeserved. It is his having received money as the reward of something done, which is inconsistent with the free kindness of the giver. The true notion of the freeness of the grace of God to sinners, is not that no holy and amiable qualifications or actions are fruits, and therefore signs of our interest in that grace; but that it is not any quali fication or action of ours which recommends us to the