LETTER V.

DEAR SIR,

You never appear in a more amiable light to me, than when I find you accounted a sick-brained enthusiast, or sometimes, in softer terms, a man of a good enough heart indeed, but a weak judgment, by many who would take it much amiss not to be held for good Christians. These men despise you on the account of the likeness your doctrine bears to that of the apostles, or rather judging yours and theirs to be the same. The very sound of imputed sin, or imputed righte ousness, is disagreeable to their ears; and the subject does not appear to them to be of sufficient importance to draw their serious attention, or to lead them to inquire what the Scripture says or means concerning it. Thus you are vile in their eyes; and it would complete my esteem for you, could I hear you saying, with the man after God's own heart, And I will be yet more vile than thus.

And

For when I would think of you with pleasure, and sympathize with you as an honourable sufferer by the reproach of these men, my satisfaction is abated, by hearing the applause given you by those votaries of a perverted gospel, who prefix to your name the title of THE INCOMPARABLE. what chiefly gives me concern is, to think, that in your writings, any just occasion should be given to expose you to their commendation. As men of this sort bear the deepest grudge against the ancient gospel preached by the apostles, he who stands high in their esteem, must either be a great deceiver, or greatly deceived himself, or at least much mistaken by them. As I am far from being willing to consider you in the first of these views, I shall make it the business of this letter to take notice of some of the leading sentiments and ways of speaking, which I apprehend you have adopted from such men without sufficient examination.

As man was formed a religious creature, and mankind every where behooved to have some religion, great men and politicians have in all ages taken advantage of this, and instituted some public leading in religion, that might best answer the ends and purposes of worldly society. The religion of

Jesus, who was born to bear witness to the truth, and thereby o reign, serves to form individuals of all nations to be members of one grand society in the world to come. So it may justly be reckoned the only religion in the world that is not political, or which cannot be adapted to promote any system of politics, without being greatly corrupted, or becoming the reverse of what it was when first instituted.

As human nature has in all ages been found to be depraved, and men every where acknowledged to be more or less blameworthy, some atonement or consideration for averting the displeasure of the Deity has readily been admitted in the framing of all national religions. In this respect the religion. of Jesus stands distinguished above all others, as it exhibits an atonement of the highest dignity, proved to be effectual by the highest evidence.

Religion holds and draws man by the two strongest movements of his heart, fear and hope, which are sometimes resolved into one, namely, self-preservation. Real, as well as fictitious causes of fear, are every where ready at hand; but in all religions, except the true, the grounds of hope are entirely fictitious.

The true religion sets forth in a full and clear light a distinction in man's heart, which, though not utterly lost, has been greatly obscured and confounded in all other religions; even a distinction betwixt that in him which witnesses for God, and the principle of all his disloyalty; or, in a fewer words, betwixt his conscience and his pride, or self-conceit. In all others the concerns of conscience and of pride, are in many respects intimately blended together, so that agreeably to the genius of any one or all of them, a man may be very religiously, very conscientiously, very piously or devoutly proud. But the word of God which is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, fairly divides asunder these two real opposites, which the wise and religious in all ages have taken much pains to reconcile. Paul himself, who had been from his youth a diligent student of religion, and a notable proficient, assures us, that he did not understand this distinction till he became a Christian: and, indeed, no body else can have courage to attend to it.

The genuine product of sinful man's conscience is fear: and he can have no hope naturally, but what is suggested by, or grafted on his pride,

HAVING promised this much in the general, we may now turn our eyes more particularly to those who are most suc

cessful in propagating a perverted gospel, the popular preachers. These men do indeed press very hard upon the conscience to awaken fear; but when they have driven the serious hearer almost to despair, by an awful description of his miserable condition, and by representing him as utterly unable in every respect to contribute anything toward his own de liverance, they at last condescend, with no small art and address, to make some comfortable exceptions from the foregoing awful doctrine, which comes now to be wrapped up in more loose and less absolute terms. And the audience is addressed thus: " Ye will do for yourselves as if ye were to do all; and yet overlook all ye do, as if ye had done nothing. Will do nothing for yourselves, because ye cannot do all? Lay down no such impious conclusion against your own souls."

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It would be a reflection on their skill and understanding to suppose, that such reserves were not all along in their eye; but, then, we must consider that it was by no means seasonable to disclose them till now. Now is described, in a variety of particulars, a convenient resource where the pride of the serious hearers may exercise itself with great hopes of success. And he is animated thus: Do what you can, and it may be, while you are doing what ye can for yourselves, God will do for you what you cannot. 'Tis probable this course may succeed. God is good and merciful." &c. Now the field is open for every one who wills to run. The Scripture, 'tis true, says, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, &c. However, the preacher finds it necessary on this occasion, to warn his hearers to avoid all thoughts of this doctrine of election at present as the suggestions of Satan; because (says he) there is in this doctrine no visible ground for faith to rest upon. And, indeed, it must be owned, that this doctrine affords no visible resource for the pride of any man; while yet it always hath, and ever will prove the most comfortable of all resources for them who have lost sight of every other.

If we consider these gentlemen in their assumed character of mediators between the Deity and men, we shall find them, in their own way, very careful of the honour of both parties. In speaking of the former, they can declaim in such a manner about his glory, as it would seem no flesh had any room left to glory in his presence. In their animating addresses to men, they elevate them in such a manner, as to leave them no other use for the Deity, but to be an assistant to their pride. Meantime they are far from forgetting their own honour; for while they are thus employed, they effectually secure to

themselves the devotion of the people, who find their concurrence necessary to help them in putting forth their acts of faith, of which it is difficult to form any distinct notion unless we consider them as acts of sympathy, or rather sympathetic feelings corresponding with the doleful or animating notes of the preacher, by turns. Such of the hearers as may be reckoned proper adepts in this doctrine, must find no small pleasure in these transitions from fear to hope, wherein they behold the success of their serious endeavours, and find an exquisite gratification of their pride. Here we are readily reminded of the desirable things, the incentives to, and objects of religious desire against which the Divine judgments are so often pointed in the prophetic writings.

The forementioned gratification may, I think, be justly deemed the highest criminal pleasure that human nature is capable of. We need not wonder, then, that such people should highly adore the ministers of such pleasure; and that they should show but a very cold regard to the writings of the apostles, which are extremely unfit for gratifying their favourite passion. Accordingly, we may daily perceive, or, as often as the trial is made, that nothing is more odious to these people than to hear of the comfort of the guilty arising solely from the simple belief of the truth, or, which is the same thing, from the bare truth itself. To see one of those people converted to Christianity, would be seeing such another miracle (abating the extraordinary signs) as the conversion of Paul. If we have known any such converts, we have no doubt observed them showing the like remorse and shame as upon the gratification of any other guilty passion.

After

Though it is natural to expect, that these preachers, in their double dealing with God and man, should be expert in using the maxim. That the perfection of art lies in concealing the artifice; yet while they proceed, twisting together the language, or even the doctrine of the Scripture with their own, the difference betwixt the former and the latter, which is indeed very great, and the absurdity of joining them together, must often strike our eyes if we do not shut them. they have told us at large, that we can do nothing to justify ourselves, we may perceive them greatly embarrassed in directing us, what we must do in order to attain justification. They say, and unsay, so much about working and doing, that though it is evident all along, that the doing of something is necessary; yet neither they nor their hearers can have any distinct notion of what is to be done. In this respect they answer exactly to the description given by Paul of their pre

decessors, who swerved from the faith in much the same manner. In his first epistle to Timothy, having made mention of faith unfeigned, he adds, From which some have swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. Accordingly, we find them, for the ease of their own understanding, and that of their hearers, betaking themselves alternately, now to reasoning agreeably to nature, then to what they call mystery, or rather their favourite depths.

Sometimes, they take great pains to show us how very little we do when we put forth an act of faith; yet, again, this act, however little, when narrowly inspected, is found to contain such a variety of particular acts of great importance, as would require a whole sermon to display them. It now resembles a little green bud, containing both the flower and the fruit; though the several parts, and the leaves of them, are not yet un folded, nor appear to sight; it is found to contain in miniature, or in embryo, every justifying qualification in the natural way. Or, we may say, it resembles a small piece of paper, which, when put in the scale, is found so light as scarcely to move the balance, but when examined by the eye, is found to be a note of many thousand pounds value. This small piece of paper we are to hold forth for our justification; and though we ourselves are, in our secret thoughts, sufficiently sensible of its value, we are to hold it forth, humbly acknowledging that it is light even as vanity, and thankfully to receive in return the expected benefit, under the notion of a mere favour or free gift bestowed upon us, without money and without price. For thus Mr. Boston presumes we will behave when under right influence; "Ye will do for yourselves as if ye were to do all; and yet overlook all ye do, as if ye had done nothing."

As it is in confounding the simple notion of the faith given us in the Scripture, that such men more especially play their game, and put the change upon us, leading us most effectually to establish our own righteousness, while they entertain our ears with many swelling words of vanity concerning the Divine; we may find them, among other arts, very remarkable for an uncommon use of similitudes and metaphorical expressions in their descriptions of faith. The common use of these is to help our attention and understanding to a more ready apprehension of the things reported to us. Their use

of them serves to amuse our fancy, and to confound our understanding; while the main tendency of the discourse is, to stimulate our pride, and set in motion our several passions in subserviency thereto. They give us parables without things,