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the sufficiency of Christ as a mediator: for it is only by the discovery of the beauty of the moral perfection of Christ, that the believer is let into the knowledge of the excellency of his person, so as to know any thing more of it than the devils do and it is only by the knowledge of the excellency of Christ's person, that any know his suffi ciency as a mediator; for the latter depends upon and arises from the former. It is by seeing the excellency of Christ's person, that the saints are made sensible of the preciousness of his blood, and its sufficiency to atone for sin for therein consists the preciousness of Christ's blood, that it is the blood of so excellent and amiable a person. And on this depends the meritoriousness of his obedience, and sufficiency and prevalence of his intercession. By this sight of the moral beauty of divine things, is seen the beauty of the way of salvation by Christ: for that consists in the beauty of the moral perfections of God, which wonderfully shines forth in every step of this method of salvation, from beginning to end. By this is seen the fitness and suitableness of this way: for this wholly consists in its tendency to deliver us from sin and hell, and to bring us to the happiness which consists in the possession and enjoyment of moral good, in a way sweetly agreeing with God's moral perfections. And in the way's being contrived so as to attain these ends, consists the excellent wisdom of that way. By this is seen the excellency of the word of God: take away all the moral beauty and sweetness in the word, and the bible is left wholly a dead letter, a dry, lifeless, tasteless thing. By this is seen the true foundation of our duty;

the worthiness of God to be so esteemed, honoured, loved, submitted to, and served, as he requires of us, and the amiableness of the duties themselves that are required of us. And by this is seen the true evil of sin: for he who sees the beauty of holiness, must necessarily see the hatefulness of sin, its contrary. By this, men understand the true glory of heaven, which consists in the beauty and happiness that is in holiness. By this is seen the amiableness and happiness of both saints and angels. He that sees the beauty of holiness, or true moral good, sees the greatest and most important thing in the world, which is the fullness of all things, without which all the world is empty, no better than nothing, yea worse than nothing. Unless this is seen, nothing is seen, that is worth the seeing: for there is no other true excellency or beauty. Unless this be understood, nothing is understood that is worthy of the exercise of the noble faculty of understanding. This is the beauty of the godhead, and the divinity of divinity, (if I may so speak) the good of the infinite fountain of good: without which God himself (if that were possible to be) would be an infinite evil, without which we ourselves had better never have been, and without which there had better have been no being. He therefore in effect knows nothing, that knows not this: His knowledge is but the shadow of knowledge, or as the apostle calls it, the form of knowledge. Well therefore may the scripture represent those who are destitute of that spiritual sense, by which is perceived the beauty of holiness, as totally blind, deaf, and senseless; yea, dead. And well may regeneration, in which this

divine sense is given to the soul by its Creator, be represented as opening the blind eyes, and raising the dead, and bringing a person into a new world. For if what has been said be considered, it will be manifest, that when a person has this sense and knowledge given him, he will view nothing as he did before: though before he knew all things after the flesh, yet henceforth he will know them so no more; and he is become a new creature, old things are passed away, behold all things are. become new; agreeable to 2 Cor. v. 16, 17.

"And besides the things that have been already mentioned, there arises from this sense of spiritual beauty, all true experimental knowledge of religion; which is of itself, as it were a new world of knowledge. He that sees not the beauty of holiness, knows not what one of the graces of God's Spirit is; he is destitute of any idea or conception of all gracious exercises of soul, and all holy comforts and delights, and all effects of the saving influences of the Spirit of God on the heart : 'and so is ignorant of the greatest works of God, the most important and glorious effects of his power upon the creature: and also as wholly ignorant of the saints as saints; he knows not what they are : and in effect is ignorant of the whole spiritual world.

"Things being thus, it plainly appears, that God's implanting that spiritual supernatural sense which has been spoken of, makes a great change in a man. And were it not for the very imperfect degree, in which this sense is commonly given at first, or the small degree of this glorious light that first dawns upon the soul; the change made by

this spiritual opening of the eyes in conversion, would be much greater, and more remarkable, every way, than if a man, who had been born blind, and with only the other four senses, should continue so a long time, and then at once should have the sense of seeing imparted to him, in the midst of the clear light of the sun, discovering a world of visible objects. For though sight be more noble than any of the other external senses, yet this spiritual sense which has been spoken of, is infinitely more noble than that, or any other principle of discerning that a man naturally has, and the object of this sense infinitely great and more important.

"This sort of understanding or knowledge is that knowledge of divine things from whence all truly gracious affections do prceeed: by which therefore all affections are to be tried. Those affections that arise wholly from any other kind of knowledge, or do result from any other kind of apprehensions of mind, are vain !" pp. 225, 232. Yours, &c.

LETTER VII.

An inquiry whether if believing be a spiritual act of the mind, it does not presuppose the subject of it to be spiritual.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

Mr. SANDEMAN, and many of his admirers, if I understand them, consider the mind as passive in believing, and charge those who consider faith as an act of the mind with making it a work, and

so of introducing the doctrine of justification by a work of our own.

Mr. ECKING sometimes writes as if he adopted this principle, for he speaks of a person being "passive in receiving the truth." (Essays, p. 73.) In another place however he is very explicit to the contrary. "Their notion is absurd, (he says) who in order to appear more than ordinarily accurate, censure and solemnly condemn the idea of believing being an act of the mind. It is acknowledged indeed that very unscriptural sentiments have prevailed about acts of faith, when they are supposed to arise from some previous principle, well disposing the minds of unbelievers toward the gospel. Yet if it be admitted possible for the soul of man to act, (and who will deny that it does?) there is nothing more properly an act of the mind than believing a truth; in which first the mind perceives it; then considers the evidence offered to support it; and finally, gives assent to it. And can this comport with inactivity? We must either say then, that the soul acts in believing the gospel, or that the soul is an inactive spirit, which is absurd." (Essays, p. 98.) As Mr. E. in this passage, not only states his opinion, but gives his reasons for it, we must consider this as his fixed principle; and that which he says of the truth being "passively received" as expressive not of faith, but of spiritual illumination previous to it. But if so, what does he mean by opposing a previous principle as necessary to believing? His acts of faith arise from spiritual illumination, which he also must consider as "well disposing the minds of unbelievers toward the gospel."