What I have chiefly in view, is the great hurt done to the consciences of many, in their most serious moments, by those leaders, who, along with what they tell the people about Jesus Christ, have the address to insinuate into their minds a high sense of their own importance; to insinuate did I say? yea, to' maintain it with a high hand, and to proclaim it with as great solemnity as any part of the gospel; by which means they have a great advantage over the minds of the people, and have it in their power to mould and fashion the gospel according to their pleasure. There is no occasion for a very nice survey of their writings in order to evince the spirit of their doctrine; we have the old striking rule to judge by, So we preached, and so ye believed. The apostles refer us to the faith and practice of such as were influenced by them, as palpable proofs of the spirit of their doctrine; so, in the case before us, we may easily perceive the spirit of our modern leaders, as it breathes and acts in multitudes who are influenced by it. And among such of their followers as are most deficient, even in their kind of devotion, we may at least, perceive a very devout regard to the preacher, which is a manifest proof of his steady attention to one favourite point.

But perhaps it will be inquired, What has all this to do with Aspasio's account of faith? We shall see presently.

Many popular preachers have considered themselves as a kind of factors, or rather ambassadors for God, commissioned and empowered by him to make offers of Christ and all his benefits unto men, upon certain terms, and to assure them of the benefits on their complying with the terms. Accordingly, they have not been negligent in setting forth the dignity of their character in this view, and they have plumed themselves not a little upon the offer they had to make, making frequent repetition of this their offer with great parade. But any one who reads the New Testament with tolerable attention, may see that there is as little foundation for any such offer, as there is for bestowing the title of God's ambassador on any man since the days of the apostles. The apostles were witnesses for God concerning Jesus of Nazareth; they laid before men the infallible proofs, arising from their own knowledge, and from the prophecies of the Old Testament, showing that Jesus is the Christ. The effect of this was, that some believed and comforted with the apostles; and some disbelieved, and opposed them. The apostles then proclaimed a truth openly in the hearing of all men. And if it be still pled that they made offers we shall very willingly say, that they offered evidence for all that they testified; yea, that they not only offered, but

freely produced it, let men make what use of it they would. They were witnesses for God to men, but they never bargained for God with men, however much some scriptural metaphors have been strained to that purpose. They never taught men to put forth any act, or to make one step of advance towards God, on the prospect that God would condescend and come down* the rest of the infinite distance to meet them. This was neither suitable to their office, nor to the honour of that God whose character they drew. As to ordinary teachers, or ministers of the gospel, it is well if they be able to declare the simple truth, as contained in the writings of the apostles, and maintain it in opposition to every lie that men would endeavour to mix with it, in order to undermine it. This will procure honour enough to them in the minds of those who love that truth; and such teachers will be far from assuming an air of importance over others, as if they had any thing to offer to them more than the meanest lover of the truth has, who will be ready, as occasion requires, to offer any man an account of the evidence by which he himself is convinced of the truth.

The preachers, whose honour is concerned in what they call the gospel-offer, commonly take hold of the promises of the gospel, which it is easy to show are made only to believers, and by the dint of their authority, with the help of a little art, extend them to all their hearers, without distinction. And to obviate the difficulty, How shall I know that the promise is to me, or that Christ died for me? they address their hearers in this manner. "We are the ambassadors of God, to us the word of reconciliation is committed; we are sent and commissioned to bring Christ near to sinners, and sinners near to Christ; we make an offer of Christ and all his benefits to you, and you, and you; in the name of the great God we declare, that the promise is to thee, and thee, O man, woman, whosoever thou art; in his name we call you this moment to stretch forth the withered hand and the withered heart, and take hold of Christ, saying, He is mine, and I am his." I give here only a short specimen of what is to be found at large interwoven in almost all their sermons; and I am sensible they would as soon allow any article of the Christian doctrine to be attacked, as suffer this their offer to be called in question. We may find them busy moving questions, and warmly disputing with one another

*The rest of the infinite distance; the impropriety of this expression must be laid to the account of the doctrine here opposed.

about the nature and extent of Christ's death, trying which of them shall lay the most convenient foundation for their universal offer, and the particular application or appropriation connected with it; but this same offer, so highly serviceable to their extravagant pride, is like to be one of the last things they will entertain a doubt of.

These men, it must be owned, receive no small encouragement to their spiritual pride from their public standards of doctrine, affirming, that," the Spirit of God maketh the reading, but especially the preaching of the word, an effectual means-unto salvation;" i. e. God concurs with the preaching of the apostles, which can only be heard now by the reading of their writings, but especially with the preaching of our modern ministers. And thus far I am disposed to agree with their public standards for once, that I frankly acknowledge, that their sermons are, by far, better adapted to the purpose of setting the minds of the people in motion to do something toward their peace with God, than the writings of the apostles, which in this respect, must appear extremely insipid. Accordingly, I find our most popular preachers, after they have given various motives and directions for stretching forth the withered hand, commonly enforcing them with this earnest and pressing call, "Up therefore and be doing."

Agreeably to what has been said, we find that the gospel offer, or the universal offer, or, as it is sometimes called with great propriety, the ministerial offer, has been admitted as fixed and uncontroverted style, in place of the ancient apostolic style, the record, the witness, or the testimony of God; and the embracing or accepting of an offer, with all the formalities and requisites necessary to constitute a genuine acceptance, has come in place of believing the record, or crediting the testimony of God.

The preachers I speak of, seem to be sensible of the difficulty there is in laying a sure foundation for every one of their hearers to conclude, that Christ died for him; and they suppose that the same difficulty must press the minds of their hearers, as is evident from the many objections which they put in their mouths, not easy to be answered: however, after they have laboured the point sufficiently, and done their best to set the minds of the people in motion, they boldly declare, by virtue of all the titles and all the authority with which they are clothed, that they are bound to believe this, otherwise they shall perish eternally. Such a declaration must be of considerable weight with people who are used to have

their hearts affected, and their religious conduct influenced, more by the preaching of their minister, than by the words of God in the Scriptures.

ASPASIO, unadorned with any religious title or dignity, is indeed far from assuming any airs of importance; yet in his zeal for the doctrine of these ministers, or in the warmth of his friendship for Theron, he seems to go a step beyond them in asserting upon this point. He affirms to Theron, while yet an unbeliever, or an opposer of the imputed righteousness, that the obedience of Christ was wrought out in his name and in his stead. So we find Theron, who had been opposing the imputed righteousness in dial. 13, ruminating on this assertion of Aspasio, in his soliloquy at the beginning of dial. 14. -Aspasio urges me to fly, without any delay, to the covert of Christ's meritorious obedience. This, he says, was wrought out in my name and in my stead: this will be admitted both at the throne of grace and the bar of judgment, as my justifying righteousness."

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Now, the abovementioned ministers, at least the two celebrated gentlemen who flourished lately, to whom we are referred for the fullest account of Aspasio's doctrine about conversion and faith, will not allow this assertion of Aspasio to be true or certain with respect to any man till once he believe it. They would not have affirmed to Theron, before he believed, that Christ died for him; but they would have affirmed to him that it was his duty to believe so; and they would have strongly encouraged him to make a bold venture to exert an act of faith to that end, assuring him, that the truth and certainty of this matter would some how turn out clear and evident in his believing it. And thus, I find some propriety in the term which they have chosen to express their belief by, when they call it the appropriating act of faith; that is, an act by which I am enabled to conclude that to be mine, which could not appear to be so by any evidence, till once I exerted that act.

Hence, we see, that, according to them, This is mine, or, This was done for me, is a truth whose evidence takes its rise from the pains that I take to believe it; or it is a proposition which begins to serve the name of truth, when I begin to believe it, and not till then. This, I must say, is indeed a very strange and uncommon way of finding truth; and they themselves, acknowledge as much, while they call it a mystery which we cannot comprehend or account for." The forecited assertion of Aspasio to the unbelieving

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Theron, would indeed remove the difficulty, and afford a very intelligible foundation for faith, provided it were supported by any sort of evidence, or enforced by sufficient authority. But I cannot help thinking, that such an assertion makes but a very naked and defenceless appearance, from the mouth of the modest and untitled Aspasio.

I made a shift formerly, the best way I could, to account for Aspasio's making the like assertion to the young Eugenio; but I would not choose to account for him in that manner often. I was, then, and still am, very loath to charge Aspasio with maintaining, that Christ died for any but those who shall be eternally saved by him; for if he died for them who perish, then the happiness of them who are saved, must be owing to something else beside his death. And then I behooved to look on all that Aspasio has said about the necessity and excellency of the imputed righteousness, as words without meaning. Christ, speaking of himself as the good shepherd, says, John x, I lay down my life for the sheep. But to unbelievers he says, Ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. How then can Aspasio say to any not hearing Christ's voice and following him, that they are of his sheep, for whom he laid down his life?

If I look for an illustration of Aspasio's meaning in the two volumes of Meditations, &c., I find there* a way of speaking, for which, I must at least say, I find no foundation in the Scriptures. That I may not be led away too far from my purpose, I shall only copy a sentence or two from the note on these words. The first Adam being disinherited, the second Adamt was appointed heir of all things, visible as well as invisible." The note proceeds thus:

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"† Heb. i. 2. In this sense, at least, Christ is the Saviour

of all men. The former and latter rain; the precious fruits of the earth; food to eat, and raiment to put on; all these he purchased, even for his irreclaimable enemies.-The Christian should ever keep in mind his forfeiture of them, and the price paid to redeem them."

This way of speaking, savours much of the Jewish apprehensions about their Messiah. And, since the corruption of Christianity has taken place, the bulk of its professors have

* Vol. I. pp. 146, 147, 9th edition, 1752.