timidate him in his reafoning, and thus caufe him to make but an indifferent if not forry figure before a haughty, fupercilious antagonist. Befides, what operates upon the paffions has ordinarily a more fpeedy and fenfible effect upon the far greater part of mankind, than that which is chiefly calculated to influence and regulate the judg ment. - The author of the letters would make his readers believe, that the leading scope of his performance is to fhew, that the gospel, when rightly understood, cuts off all occafion for boafting and glorying in the creature, and leaves no room for any fuch selfpleafing imagination in the minds of any of the human race; as that, on account of their own good qualifications, experiences, or any pious endeavours they may be fuppofed to be conscious of, call them works of the law, acts of faith, or whatever elfe you please, they have a better claim to the favour of God, or are more worthy of his mercy than others, even the moft guilty, and the vileft of mankind. And there is ground to think, that fome through weakness, or a strange kind of inadvertency, apprehending that fome fuch thing as this was what he really had in view, have been difpofed to entertain a more favourable opinion of him and his fcheme, than otherwise they would have had. But, But, had this Gentleman honeftly intended to vindicate the doctrine of juftification, through the imputed righteoufnefs, and to detect and rectify miftakes, which either divines in preaching and writing, or Chrif tians in their exercife, might be apt to fall into, concerning the matter of acceptance with God, he would never have discovered fuch a warm oppofition to those eminent preachers of the gofpel, who made it their bufinefs, and whofe leading aim it was, in all their difcourfes and writings, to teach, prove, illuftrate, inculcate, and vindicate the fame doctrine; and to fhew the folly and danger of the like mistakes, and warn their hearers of the evil and fatal tendency of them; who, when addreffing themselves to the confciences of the guilty, did not fail to fhew them the extreme hazard of feeking righteousness and life by, or, as it were, by the works of the law; of doing or attempting to do any thing, with a view. to recommend themselves to the favour of God, or lay a foundation for any peculiar claim to his mercy, or the benefit of the divine righteousness; conftantly affirming, that no good qualifications a finner may imagine he is poffeffed of; no good done by him, or even wrought in him by the divine Spirit, is ever to be confidered, relied upon, or confided in, as any part of his juftifying righteoufnefs before God God; or as furnishing him with any better claim to the divine mercy and salvation, than the greatest and most guilty finners upon earth are fuppofed to have, in confequence of the indefinite call, free promise and offer of the gofpel directed to finners of mankind as fuch; that the falvation of every believer from firft to laft is wholly of grace; and that, not any duties or endeavours of his own; no inward motion, feeling, impression, or experience of any kind; nothing on account of which he can be supposed to excel the reft of mankind, even the most wretched and unworthy; but the Lord Jesus Christ, as exhibited in the word and promifes of the gofpel, is his righteoufnefs, his life, his hope, and the all of his falvation. This is the doctrine; these are the fentiments of thofe worthy men whom the letter-writer, with a degree of affurance that can hardly be paralleled, reproaches as corrupters and perverters of the ancient gofpel, deceitful workers, modern Pharifees, fworn enemies to the belief of the truth as the fole ground of hope, &c. He endeavours to throw an odium upon their characters and doctrine by a method truly extraordinary; not by fhewing that their fentiments, or any principles that they held, are contrary to the Scriptures; for he himfelf acknowledges, that, having large ly infifted on the corruption of human "nature, concluded the whole world guilty "before God, and eloquently fet forth the "neceffity of an atonement, they zealouf"ly maintained the fcriptural doctrine con"cerning the perfon and work of Chrift *," which, even according to his own view of the matter, must include the whole apoftolic gofpel; but by infinuating, that all the improvement they made of that doctrine was intended to gratify the pride of their hearers, and put them upon doing fomething for their own juftification, or in order to acceptance with God, and "that they might be "in a condition to advance fome claim up on the Deity, and treat with him on some "rule of equity; or fo as they might "find fome reafon why he fhould regard "them more than others, and accordingly grant the favours they defire of him +." What has he to support this charge against the eminent preachers above-mentioned?? After all his cavilling and fophiftical reafonings, it, indeed, amounts to no more than this, that they not only taught and ex plained the pure truths of the gospel, but endeavoured to inculcate and urge them upon the confciences of their hearers, and directed them to make a fuitable improvement of *Pag. 8. of his Letters on Theron, &c. 1ft edit: † P. 345, 346. the the fame; accommodating them, in the mean time, to their various conditions and circumstances; that, not content with declaring that Jefus Chrift is come in the flesh, bath fulfilled all righteousness, died and rofe again; they exhorted their hearers to believe on his name, ufing fuch motives and arguments, for enforcing the exhortation, as the Infpired Writings plentifully furnished them with, and directed them to ufe; or in other words, that, not accounting it fufficient, merely to fet the food or bread of life before needy ftarving finners in a doctrinal way, they exhorted and intreated them, with much fervency and earnestness, to take and eat, or apply it to their own ufe; that they not only declared, agreeably to the Scriptures, that Jefus Chrift is the gift of God to perishing finners of mankind; but called and befeeched them, every one of them in particular, to accept of the gift, and not defpife or neglect, but take the benefit of the proclamation and promifes of grace made to them in the everlafting gofpel; at the fame time warning them of their danger, if they fhould, by obferving lying vanities, neglect their own mercy, and thus, with the unbelieving Jews of old, judge themselves unworthy of eternal life. In fhort, what he feems to quarrel with them chiefly for, is, that following the example of the bleffed apoftle, according to the measure of grace |