cular kinds of peace, and confidence, and joy, are the sole, or the principal, tests of acceptance, as the signs, or rather the actual graces of divine inspiration. To this opinion I am directly opposed. I grant that they who call themselves Christians ought, questionless, to be such as to experience peace of conscience, feel confidence in the merciful approbation of their Saviour, and entertain with joyfulness the hope of everlasting happiness. But good works are certainly an indispensable ingredient in the true test of personal Christianity; and feeling alone is no test whatever of that state, except that in an extreme case, like that of the penitent thief, who was crucified with Christ, the experience of a good disposition to obey God, were life to be extended, is a strong presumption in favour of the opinion that conversion has actually occurred. The sentiments of the heart may be admitted to be a test in conjunction with morality and devotion-the latter may be pronounced by far the principal criterions; but if a man knows his faith to be abstractedly true, it may be affirmed that obedience to the commandments of Christ remains the sole test of his acceptableness.

These points I will endeavour to establish; but as the opinion of the sufficiency of feeling for assurance is not held by members of our church, for whose use the following tract is principally

withhold from them, if they obeyed, the comforts of his Holy Spirit; which I affirm to be, according to Scripture, perfectly incredible.

It is absurd to gainsay these views of the matter, by asserting that our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. (Isa. lxiv. 6.) This would be a perversion of the prophet's words. The righteousness I speak of is by faith in Jesus Christ; the fruit of faith and of the Spirit; and is neither unnecessary nor despicable. No less injudicious is it to defend any inattention to moral duties, by urging that we are unprofitable servants, if we do all that is commanded us. This saying is true; we confer upon God no benefit, and do no more than our duty, if we keep all his commandments to perfection, and so are unprofitable. But it is still true that we ought to do all we are commanded. And while we fail in doing it all, there is room for our constant humility, or rather, humiliation.

II. It may conduce to procure a favourable reception to our design, and will, certainly, as it appears to me, lay the foundation of one of the strongest evidences of the inspiration of the New Testament, as an example of a particular kind of evidence, if we first show it to be agreeable to reason, to presume that the revelation intended to instruct men in the method of salvation, should

supply them with arguments for ascertaining the amount of obedience which, as far as obedience is concerned, is adequate for the attainment of that important object.

It will not be denied that the Scriptures contain an account of rules of life, of doctrines to be believed, and of precepts to be obeyed, in order to our admission into heaven. Whatever diversity of opinion exists among Christians, relative to the happiness which the Scriptures promise us in this life, I believe we are universally agreed that they are intended to prepare us for everlasting happiness in another; and I assume that we are also unanimous in the persuasion, that they do indicate the way to this happiness, by many and various directions. These directions, let them be called rules, or commandments, or requisitions, at pleasure, are proposed to our understandings. I conceive that it cannot require proof that we must understand these rules before we can yield them obedience. If, then, the Scriptures contain an account of rules of life, intended and able, if obeyed, to prepare us for a particular object, I contend that our reason informs us, that we must therefore be able to understand the nature of those rules. I mean, not merely that we may and ought to understand the nature of individual rules before we can execute them: I mean more, that we may and ought to understand enough for

good satisfaction, the kind and degree of obedience in the aggregate, which God will accept as sufficient to salvation-sufficient to that happiness for which the rules collectively are designed to provide.

A person enjoins upon us, we will suppose, a number of duties to perform for one certain purpose. He wishes, too, that we should perform them. But it is contrary to reason to suppose that we can discharge our obligations, unless we understand what they are. We may stumble upon the performance of a very few of them by chance. But farther than this, if so far, it is impossible for us to proceed. And this description, if we could not understand the nature of obedience sufficient for divine approbation, would strictly apply to the case between God, as our lawgiver, and ourselves. He delivers a certain complication of commandments to be obeyed in order to salvation. We are convinced, from the revelation of his will, of his attributes, and of his modes of dispensation, that he wishes them to be obeyed by all to whom they are promulgated. But our reason teaches that obedience is impossible, where there is no understanding; and that a wise Being, as God is, would not have delivered a code of laws which he designs us to obey, without at the same time conferring upon us the means of obtaining the knowledge necessa

rily pre-requisite to obedience. The Scriptures also teach the salvation of which this obedience is a means. On both accounts, therefore, we infer, that they are so constructed that we may derive from them a knowledge of its nature.

III. We have supposed it necessary for his actual happiness, that the believer in the gospel should be able to determine that he is living conformably to its dictates. As it is one of the facts attempted to be established from Scripture in the ensuing treatise,-I will extend these preliminary observations, by endeavouring to demonstrate that it is a perfectly logical presumption—that such ability is conferred upon him.

In expounding this argument, I deem it utterly unnecessary to prove that man may obey the commandments of God sufficiently for salvation; because if he is not able to perform what is necessary, then we should be driven to this conclusion, that God has made necessary to salvation that which is impossible; and this, considering that he wishes every man to be saved, is as directly in contravention of reason, as any absurdity that can be well conceived. We have already seen that it is to be expected that Scripture will afford us the means of ascertaining a competent degree of obedience for the accomplishment of salvation; I now propose to make it