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great plot to tempt man to disbelieve the threatning of the covenant of works; so it is now his great plot to tempt men to disbelieve the gospel-promise. The apostle assures us, that the god of this world blinds the eyes of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine unto them. Now though Mr. Bellamy makes many professions of deep concern for men's salvation and for the danger of delusion; though he appears zealous for experimental religion; yet when all these things (which are in themselves commendable) are made subservient to a scheme, which debars poor sinners of mankind from any application of Christ or of the promise to themselves, till they certainly know they have the marks of regeneration ; we may well be apprehensive, that, in this case, Satan is transforming himself into an angel of light; while he is taking the most effectual way to prevent persons who enjoy the gospel-dispensation from having any saving benefit by it. The plot is the deeper, that it is carried on under a plausible pretext of ardent zeal against diabolical delusion.

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The divines, whom Mr. Bellamy opposes, were far from neglecting to warn men against that misapplication of the promises to which they are tempted by saWhen you flatter yourselves, they would often say to their hearers, that you have such good qualifications as entitle you to the righteousness of Christ and to the promise; when you are induced to apply the promise to yourselves, rather by an imagination of something in it suitable to your depraved inclinations or to the exaltation of corrupt self, than by any spiritual view of the glorious authoriiy, power, righteousness, mercy and faithfulness of God shining in it; or when you apply a promise to yourselves without any regard

to the true meaning of it; or when your application of it tends to make you more secure in a sinful course; in such cases, you are chargeable with a misapplication and presumptuous abuse of the promise; an abuse which satan will not fail to promote by his delusive suggestions. "Satan's design," as Mr. Ralph Erskine observes in one of his sermons, " in bringing a pro"mise to our mind is, to fill the soul with spiritual "pride or false peace; to make it rest in itself; and to "drive it away from its true resting-place." No human writing, abound more with salutary cautions of this sort, than those of Mr. Boston and the two Erskines.

QUERY VIII. "Did ever Christ or his apostles ❝ define faith to be a real persuasion, that Christ died "for me in particular; and that pardon, grace and "glory are mine? They call it coming to Christ, re"ceiving Christ, trusting in Christ, believing in << Christ, believing on Christ, &c. but never call it "believing that Christ is mine, and that my sins are

forgiven. It is true, the saints in the Old Testa❝ment and in the New, usually speak the language of "assurance. And it is as true, that they had suffi❝cient evidence of their good estate from their sancti"fication. All who pretended to belong to Christ "without this, are branded as liars, 1 John ii. 4. But " where do we ever read of their endeavoring to work (6 up themselves to an assurance professedly without. " evidence?"

ANSWER. In what sense the expression, "Christ "died for me" may be admitted to be the language of justifying faith, was shewn in the answer to the 3d query. Mr Bellamy's charge against his opponents,

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of calling men to believe without evidence, must appear, from what has been said, to be a gross misrepresentation. We have seen, that the phrases which are used to denote the exercise of faith, such as, coming to Christ, receiving Christ, believeing in or on him; trusting in him, include the notion of appropriation. It cannot be shewn satisfactorily, that a person has or may have such a sure trust in Jesus Christ for his own everlasting salvation as is answerable to the gospel promise, without some real persuasion, that Christ is his own Saviour in particular. That such a persuasion belongs to the nature of saving faith has been evinced from the necessary import of the Hebrew and Greek words rendered faith and believeing: from the terms of the gospel-record or promise; and from what the scripture calls believing or trusting in the Lord. In the xxxi. Psalm, David says, I trusted in thee, O Lord: and then he adds, I said, Thou art my God: where the latter expression is an explication of the for mer. The apostle, in the iv. chapter of the epistle to the Romans, teacheth us, that to believe on God, in a saving manner, is to believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences, and raised again for our justification. And in another place, having said, I delivered unto you first of all, how that Christ died for our sins; the apostle adds, So we preach, and so ye believe*. Where shall we find passages of scripture that shew more clearly, than these and other tex cited in the second of the preceding letters, what is it that a person believes, when he believes to the saving of the soul? We have seen, that the exercise of the faith of God's people, in scripture, is still expressed in the language of appropriation. But, says Mr.

* 1 Corinth. xv. 3, 11.

Bellamy, "They spake the language of assurance, “because they had sufficient evidence of their good "estate from their sanctification." But it may be asked, whether the gospel-promise be not a promise of sanctification? And, if it be so, whether we are not warranted to trust in the promise for this blessing, till we are conscious, that we have already attained it! And whether we can trust in Christ and in the promise for any blessing; without a real persuasion, that Christ is our Saviour, and that the promises are yea and amen to us in him? When Moses taught the Israelites at their coming out of Egypt, to sing, The Lord is my strength and my salvation; he is my God; shall we suppose, that he intended, that none should sing these words, but such as were conscious of their sanctification? This supposition must appear very unreasonable to one who considers the corrupt and degenerate state of that people, when they came out of Egypt. Even in the most thriving state of the visible church, we cannot suppose, that the generality of church-members will be so certain of the truth and sincerity of their gracious attainments as to be able, upon the ground thereof, to assert their interest in the Lord as their God. Hence it appears, that when the Lord promises to bring church-members in general to join in the exercise of calling God their God, their Husband, it is implied that they were to do so upon some other ground, than the consciousness of their own attainments; that is, upon the ground of his own free grant and promise, Hosea ii.. 16, 23. Zechar. xiii. 9. The apostle Paul, in writing to the churches in his time, speaks of them as consisting of members, who called God their Father in Christ; who considered themselves as members of Christ and temples of the Holy Spirit.

Shall we suppose, that the apostle means, that church members in general were then so conscious of their sanctification, that they could always found their claim to these privileges upon it? Or is it not rather evident, that he speaks of these privileges as what they receiv ed by faith in Christ, and even by the very first act of it? Hence he directs the members in general of these churches, to which he wrote, to consider themselves as partakers of these privileges and to walk according to them. He teaches them to seek the attainment of peace and joy in the very act of believing, and not merely by reflection upon that act or its effects*. Besides, if our sanctification be the only ground of the warrantable application of Christ to ourselves, then our -sanctification must be the only ground of our hope. But the legalism of Mr. Bellamy's scheme may be considered more particularly afterward: and also his calumnious insinuation, that the doctrine of his oppoments allows persons to conclude themselves to be in a gracious state, without any solid evidence of a work of sanctification begun in their souls.

QUERY IX. "Is there one in all St. Paul's cata logue of believers in Heb. xi. whose faith consisted " in believing without any evidence?"

ANSWER. Their believing was undoubtedly agreeable to Mr. Marshal's doctrine; for, when it is said, that by faith they obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, out of weakness were made strong; it is plainly implied, both that these things were promised; (for the promise was the ground of their faith ;) and also, that there was no evidence, that they would ever have obtained

* Rom, xv.