they borrow from the Scriptures. And as I espouse that faith which Aspasio pronounces to be "certainly of the enfeebled and infantile kind," when he condescends to "suppose" it "to be sound and genuine," vol. 3, p. 290; I shall at present, knowing no reason for being either anxious to conceal, or yet forward to publish my own, content myself with assuming the name, under which that faith is introduced, as not knowing any particular person intended by it. And as I have not the pleasure of being personally acquainted with you, nor had any opportunity of seeing or knowing you, but by your writings, I have chosen the same public channel of the press, by which you have communicated your sentiments to me, among the rest of your readers, for returning mine to you and them.

On the whole, the result of all that has been said amounts to this, That every man's great concern turns upon what issue his mind comes to about the question, which Pilate once moved, without waiting for an answer, What is truth? He who knows what is the truth, has no occasion to give himself any disturbance with any of the controversies that have been moved about, What is faith? Yea, he may, with the greatest confidence and safety, dismiss all the modern descriptions of it, whether fashionable or popular, and send them back to the regions of darkness from whence they

came.

To conclude, were it needful, I would willingly produce here many passages from the Dialogues, containing sentiments, which never owed their birth to the popular doctrine, and as to which, it is enough to awaken the highest regret and resentment, to think that they should ever be confounded with it. But I shall content myself with transcribing,

* That the saving truth is effectually undermined by this confusion, may readily be seen in the following easy view. He who maintains that we are justified only by faith, and at the same time affirms, with Aspasio, "that faith is a work exerted by the human mind " undoubtedly maintains, if he has any meaning to his words, that we are justified by a work exerted by the human mind.

I have all along studied to make use of every form of expression I could think of, for evincing, in the most clear, palpable, and striking manner, a difference of the last importance, which thousands of preachers have laboured to cover with mist. If I have made that difference manifest to those who have any attention for the subject, my great end in writing is gained, on whatever side of it men shall choose to rank themselves. It has frequently appeared to me a thing no less amazing than provoking, when the great difference betwixt the ancient gospel here contended for and the popular doctrine, has been pointed out, as clear

out of many, one passage on the article of justification, from vol. 1, p. 276.

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Both grace and faith stand in direct opposition to works; all works whatever. Whether they be works of the law, or works of the gospel; exercises of the heart, or actions of the life; done while we remain unregenerate, or when we become regenerate; they are all, and every of them, equally set aside in this great affair.

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That the bill of exclusion is thus extensive, or rather quite unlimited, appears from the reason assigned: Lest any man should boast. That all pretence of glorying may be cut off from fallen creatures. That the whole honour of obtaining salvation, may be appropriated to him, who hid not his face from shame and spitting. And is he not worthy, unspeakably worthy, to receive this unrivalled honour, as a recompense for his unparalleled humiliation ?"

May the truth set forth here, be the strength of your heart in the hour of death. And, meantime, may fellowship with this truth, in all the afflictions and joys which attend it, be your hearty choice. Many, indeed, will be your enemies, and few your friends on earth; but all in heaven will be on your side. After what is now said, it would be a very small thing to add, that to hear of this being your determined choice, will greatly heighten the affectionate esteem of,

Your friend and servant,

DEAR SIR,

May, 1757.

PALEMON.

as words could make it, to find many, after all, so obstinately stupid as to declare they saw no real difference. This I cannot account for, by assigning any other cause than the special agency of the prince of darkness. All such will be ready to complain that I have treated the popular preachers with too great severity. And to such I can only say, that I cannot pretend to explain myself more clearly than I have already done. Only they will be pleased to remember, that where there is a real difference from the apostles on the point of acceptance with God, however small and insignificant it may seem, when obscured with a multitude of words, either without meaning, or fitted only to deceive, it will be found in its effects and consequences, wide as the difference betwixt Christ and Belial, light and darkness, heaven and hell.

To lead Christians to distinguish, with the utmost jealously and care, upon this point, is the great scope and constant aim of the apostles in all their writings; yea, this is the principal branch of instruction inculcated throughout all the Scriptures. And in nothing more evidently does it appear how cheap the gospel is held by many of its professed friends, than in their want of this jealousy, and their readiness to count differences about faith of small importance.

APPENDIX.

'Tis agreed, by the great majority in all Christian countries, that there is no salvation but by Jesus Christ. Thus far general consent agrees with the apostolic doctrine. But, then, a capital difference between these two arises in the following manner.

The apostles maintained, that Christ did enough to save sinners in his own person, without their concurrence, and that all who were so persuaded, accordingly found salvation in him. As the natural counterpart of this, they at the same time maintained, that if any man went about to deny or undermine the all-sufficiency of Christ's work to save, by insisting on the necessity of any other concurring requisite whatever, Christ should profit him nothing.

On the other hand, since Christianity began to flourish and prevail in the world, the majority of those wearing the Christian name have been agreed in maintaining the necessity of something beside Christ's work to save them, or procure them acceptance with God. Yea, long before that time, even in the apostolic age, the Judaizing Christians, who were far from being few in number, proceeded upon the same plan. This we are taught by the apostles to call a corrupted or perverted gospel. And here chiefly we may perceive the consent of the Christian world all along opposed to the apostolic doctrine.

But while we behold the Christian world consenting, against the apostles, about the necessity of some addition, we see them at the same time very far from being agreed among themselves about what ought to be added, and how much, the nature of the assistance needful to promote the addition, and the properest means of soliciting the concurring assistance, with various other considerations depending on these. So, when Israel once departed from the worship of the one God, who led them out of Egypt, they could never settle upon the worship of any other, but lay open to all the innovations of the neighbouring nations. Thus, when a wife once departs from her husband to admit another, she may easily be pre

vailed upon to admit a second, third, and fourth, till at last she become a downright prostitute.

In the apostolic age, the favourite addition was, to become a Jewish proselyte by circumcision. And it is evident, that much more could be said in favour of that, than could be urged in behalf of any other that has been adopted since. In the Roman church, the additional grounds of acceptance with God have been multiplied in a very extravagant manner. Protestants have in many respects discarded the extravagance of that church, yet they still generally agree in establishing their own righteousness as the ground of their acceptance with God, according to various schemes of their own, some in a more open, others in a more secret and ambiguous manner frustrating the all-sufficiency of the righteousness finished by Jesus Christ. Now it is evident, that the scheme of doctrine which most resembles the apostolic in honouring Christ's work, yet find means of rendering it of no effect, must in a more especial manner awaken the jealousy and move the resentment of such as maintain the allsufficiency of that work exclusive of every reserve. And such is the scheme contained in the dialogues between Theron and Aspasio.

The reader will perceive by my first letter, with what reluctance and respect I commenced an opponent to the author of these dialogues; and that I was willing to consider him as rather imposed upon than sufficiently aware what he was doing. But not many months after the publication of these letters, I found, by three sermons* he published in August, 1757, that I had presumed too much in favour of my author, and that, accordingly, the effectionate esteem I had expressed for him had proceeded upon a fond mistake. In short, I found I had no reason to distinguish him from other preachers of the same doctrine. Those who know the difference between the strain of doctrine in his three sermons and that in my letters, will easily understand me here; and to others, I apprehend it would be but so much lost labour to attempt a large explanation.

Though I found reason to change my thoughts of Mr. Hervey, yet, in forwarding this second edition, (which was mostly printed before his death,) I thought it best to retain the same form of address all along as in the first, that the reader might still have in his eye a full view of the genuine

*Called, The Time of Danger, The Means of Safety, and, The Way of Holiness.