Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

Should we shut up our compassion toward those who are of all men most miserable, because they are miserable by their own fault? If we have found a medicine to heal even that sickness, should we not, as we have freely received it, freely give? Should we not pluck them as brands out of the fire? The fire of lust, anger, malice, revenge? Your inmost soul answers, It should be done; it is reasonable in the highest degree. Well, this is the sum of our preaching, and of our lives, our enemies themselves being the judges. If therefore you allow, that it is reasonable to love God, to love mankind, and to do good to all men, you cannot but allow, that religion which we preach and live, to be agreeable to the highest reason.

¹ My friends, I have lost a day!

23. Perhaps “all this you can bear. It is tolerable enough: and if we spoke only of being _saved by love_, you should have no great objection: but you do not comprehend what we say of being _saved by_ faith.” I know you do not. You do not in any degree comprehend what we mean by that expression; have patience then, and I will tell you yet again. By those words, _we are saved by_ faith, we mean, that the moment a man receives that faith which is above described, he is saved from doubt and fear, and sorrow of heart, by a peace that passes all understanding; from the heaviness of a wounded spirit, by joy unspeakable; and from his sins, of whatsoever kind they were; from his vicious desires, as well as words and actions, by the love of God, and of all mankind, then shed abroad in his heart.

24. We grant, nothing is more unreasonable, than to imagine that such mighty effects as these, can be wrought by that poor, empty, insignificant thing, which the world _calls_ faith, and you among them. But supposing there be such a faith on the earth, as that which the apostle speaks of, such an intercourse between God and the soul, what is too hard for such a faith? You yourselves may conceive, that _all things are possible to him that thus believeth_: to him that thus _walks with God_, that is now a citizen of heaven, an inhabitant of eternity. If therefore you will contend with _us_, you must change the ground of your attack. You must flatly deny there is any faith upon earth: but perhaps this you might think too large step. You cannot do this, without a secret condemnation in your own breast. O that you would at length cry to God for that heavenly gift! Whereby alone this truly reasonable religion, this beneficent love of God and man, can be planted in your heart.

25. If you say, “But those that profess this faith are the most unreasonable of all men;” I ask, “Who are those that profess this faith?” Perhaps you do not personally know such a man in the world. Who are they that so much as profess to have _this evidence_ of things not seen? That profess to _see him that is invisible_? To _hear the voice_ of God, and to have _his Spirit_ ever _witnessing with their spirits, that they are the children of_ God? I fear you will find few that even profess _this faith_, among the large numbers of those who are called believers.

*26. “However, there are enough that profess themselves Christians.” Yea, too many, God knoweth: too many that confute their vain professions, by the whole tenour of their lives. I will allow all you can say on this head, and perhaps more than all. ’Tis now some years since I was engaged unawares in a conversation with a strong reasoner, who at first urged the wickedness of the _American Indians_, as a bar to our hope of converting them to Christianity. But when I mentioned their temperance, justice, and veracity, (according to the accounts I had then received) it was asked, “Why, if those Heathens are such men as these, what will they gain by being made Christians? What would they gain by being _such Christians_ as we see every where round about us?” I could not deny, they would lose, not gain, by such a Christianity as this. Upon which she added, “Why, what else do you mean by Christianity?” My plain answer was, What do you apprehend to be more valuable than good sense, good nature, and good manners? All these are contained, and that in the highest degree, in what I mean by Christianity. Good sense, (so called) is but a poor, dim shadow of what Christians call faith. Good nature is only a faint, distant resemblance of Christian charity. And good manners, if of the most finished kind that nature assisted by art can attain to, is but a dead picture of that holiness of conversation, which is the image of God visibly expressed. All these put together by the art of God, I call Christianity. “Sir, if this be Christianity, (said my opponent in amaze) I never saw a christian in my life.”

27. Perhaps it is the same case with _you_. If so, I am grieved for you, and can only wish, ’till you do see a living proof of this, that you would not say, _you see a christian_. For this is scriptural christianity, and this alone. Whenever therefore you see an unreasonable man, you see one who perhaps calls himself by that name, but _is_ no more a _christian_ than he is an _angel_. So far as he departs from true, genuine reason, so far he departs from christianity. Do not say, this is only asserted, not proved. It is undeniably proved by the original charter of christianity. We appeal to this, to the written word. If any man’s temper, or words, or actions are contradictory to right reason; it is evident to a demonstration, they are contradictory to this. Produce any possible or conceivable instance, and you will find the fact is so. The lives therefore of those who are _called_ christians, is no just objection to christianity.

28. We join with you then in desiring a religion founded on reason, and every way agreeable thereto. But one question still remains to be asked, what do you mean by _reason_? I suppose you mean the eternal reason, or, the nature of things: The nature of God, and the nature of man, with the relations necessarily subsisting between them. Why, this is the very religion _we_ preach: a religion evidently founded on, and every way agreeable to eternal reason, to the essential nature of things. Its foundation stands on the nature of God and the nature of man, together with their mutual relations. And it is every way suitable thereto: to the nature of God; for it begins in knowing him; and where but in the true knowledge of God, can you conceive true religion to begin? It goes on in loving him, and all mankind, (for you cannot but imitate whom you love:) It ends in serving him; in doing his will; in obeying him whom we know and love.

29. It is every way suited to the nature of man; for it begins in a man’s knowing himself; knowing himself to be what he really is, foolish, vicious, miserable. It goes on to point out the remedy for this, to make him truly wise, virtuous, and happy; as every thinking mind (perhaps from some implicit remembrance of what it originally was) longs to be.

It finishes all, by restoring the due relations between God and man; by uniting for ever the tender Father, and the grateful, obedient Son; the great Lord of all, and the faithful servant, doing not his own will, but the will of him that sent him.

30. But perhaps by reason you mean, the faculty of reasoning, of inferring one thing from another.

There are many, it is confessed, (particularly those who are stiled mystic divines) that utterly decry the use of reason, thus understood, in religion: nay, that condemn all reasoning concerning the things of God, as utterly destructive of true religion.

But we can in no wise agree with this. We find no authority for it in holy writ. So far from it, that we find there both our Lord and his apostles continually reasoning with their opposers. Neither do we know, in all the productions of antient and modern times, such a chain of reasoning or argumentation, so close, so solid, so regularly connected, as the epistle to the _Hebrews_. And the strongest reasoner whom we have ever observed, (excepting only _Jesus_ of _Nazareth_) was that _Paul_ of _Tarsus_; the same who has left that plain direction for all christians, _In malice_, or wickedness, _be ye children; but in understanding_, or reason, _be ye men_.

31. We therefore not only allow, but earnestly exhort all who seek after true religion, to use all the reason which God hath given them, in searching out the things of God. But your _reasoning justly_, not only on this, but on any subject whatsoever, presupposes _true judgments_ already formed, whereon to ground your argumentation. Else, you know, you will stumble at every step: because _ex falso non sequitur verum_. It is impossible, if your premisses are false, to infer from them true conclusions.

32. You know likewise, that before it is possible for you to form a _true judgment_ of them, it is absolutely necessary, that you have a _clear apprehension_ of the things of God, and that your ideas thereof be all _fixed_, _distinct_, and _determinate_. And seeing our _ideas_ are not innate, but must all originally come from our _senses_; it is certainly necessary that you have _senses_ capable of discerning objects of this kind. Not those only which are called _natural senses_, which in this respect profit nothing, as being altogether incapable of discerning objects of a spiritual kind; but _spiritual senses_, exercised to discern spiritual good and evil. It is necessary that you have _the hearing ear_, and the _seeing eye_, emphatically so called; that you have a new class of senses opened in your soul, not depending on organs of flesh and blood, to be _the evidence_ of things not seen, as your bodily senses are of visible things; to be the avenues to the invisible world, to discern spiritual objects, and to furnish you with ideas of what the outward _eye hath not seen, neither the ear heard_.

33. And till you have these _internal senses_, till the eyes of your understanding are opened, you can have no _apprehension_ of divine things, no _idea_ of them at all. Nor consequently, till then, can you either _judge truly_, or _reason justly_ concerning them: seeing your reason has no ground whereon to stand, no materials to work upon.

34. To use the trite instance. As you cannot _reason_ concerning colours, if you have no _natural sight_, because all the _ideas_ received by your other senses are of a different kind; so that neither your _hearing_, nor any _other sense_, can supply your want of _sight_, or furnish your reason in this respect with matter to work upon: So you cannot _reason_ concerning spiritual things, if you have no _spiritual sight_; because all your ideas received by your _outward senses_ are of a different kind. Yea, far more different from those received by faith or _internal sensation_, than the idea of colour from that of sound. These are only different species of one genus, namely, sensible ideas, received by external sensation: whereas the ideas of faith differ _toto genere_ from those of _external sensation_. So that it is not conceivable, that _external sensation_ should supply the want of _internal senses_; or furnish your _reason_ in this respect with matter to work upon.

35. What then will your reason do here? How will it pass from things natural to spiritual? From the things that are seen to those that are not seen? From the visible to the invisible world? What a gulph is here? By what art will reason get over the immense chasm? This cannot be, till the Almighty come in to your succour, and give you that faith you have hitherto despised. Then upborn as it were on eagle’s wings, you shall soar away into the regions of eternity; and your enlightened reason shall explore even _the deep things of God_, God himself _revealing them to you by his Spirit_.

36. I expected to have received much light on this head, from a treatise lately published, and earnestly recommended to me, I mean, _Christianity not founded on argument_. But on a careful perusal of that piece, notwithstanding my prejudice in its favour, I could not but perceive, that the great design uniformly pursued throughout the work, was to render the whole of the christian institution both odious and contemptible. In order to this, the author gleans up, with great care and diligence, the most plausible of those many objections that have been raised against it by late writers, and proposes them with the utmost strength of which he was capable. To do this with the more effect, he _personates_ a christian: he _makes a shew_ of defending an avowed doctrine of christianity, namely, the supernatural influence of the Spirit of God; and often, for several sentences together, (indeed in the beginning of almost every paragraph) speaks so _like a christian_, that not a few have received him according to his wish. Mean while with all possible _art_ and _show of reason_, and in the most laboured language, he pursues his point throughout, which is to prove, “that christianity is contrary to reason;” or, “that no man acting according to the principles of reason, can possibly be a christian.”

37. It is a wonderful proof of the power that smooth words may have even on serious minds, that so many have mistook such a writer as this for a friend of christianity: since almost every page of his tract is filled with gross falshood and broad blasphemy: and these supported by such _exploded_ fallacies, and _common-place_ sophistry, that a person of two or three years standing in the university, might give them a sufficient answer, and make the author appear as _irrational_ and contemptible as he labours to make Christ and his apostles.

38. I have hitherto spoken to those chiefly, who do not receive the christian system as of God. I would add a few words to another sort of men; (though not so much with regard to _our_ principles or practice, as with regard to _their own_:) to you who _do_ receive it, who believe the scripture, but yet do not take upon you the character of _religious men_. I am therefore obliged to address myself to you likewise under the character of _men of reason_.

39. I would only ask, Are you such indeed? Do you answer the character under which you appear? If so, you are consistent with yourselves. Your principles and practice agree together.

Let us try whether this is so or not. Do you not take the name of God in vain? Do you remember the sabbath-day, to keep it holy? Do you not speak evil of the ruler of your people? Are you not a drunkard, or a glutton, faring as sumptuously as you can every day? Making a God of your belly? Do you not avenge yourself? Are you not a whoremonger or adulterer? Answer plainly to your own heart, before God the judge of all.

Why then do you say, you believe the scripture? If the scripture is true, you are lost. You are in the broad way that leadeth to destruction. Your damnation slumbereth not. You are heaping up to yourself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Doubtless, if the scripture is true, (and you remain thus) it had been good for you if you had never been born.

40. How is it that you call yourselves men of reason? Is reason inconsistent with itself? You are the farthest of all men under the sun from any pretence to that character. A common swearer, a sabbath-breaker, a whoremonger, a drunkard, who says he believes the scripture is of God, is a monster upon earth, the greatest contradiction to his own, as well as to the reason of all mankind. In the name of God, (that worthy name whereby you are _called_, and which you daily cause to be blasphemed) turn either to the right hand or to the left. Either profess you are an infidel, or be a christian. Halt no longer thus between two opinions. Either cast off the bible, or your sins. And in the mean time, if you have any spark of your boasted reason left, do not _count us your enemies_ (as I fear you have done hitherto, and as thousands do wherever we have declared _they who do such things shall not inherit eternal life_) _because we tell you the truth_: seeing these are not our words, but the words of him that sent us. Yea, though in doing this, we use _great plainness of speech_, as becomes the ministry we have received. _For we are not as many who corrupt_ (cauponize, soften, and thereby adulterate) _the word of God. But as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in_ Christ.

*41. But, it may be, you are none of these. You abstain from all such things. You have an unspotted reputation. You are a man of honour, or a woman of virtue. You scorn to do an unhandsome thing, and are of an unblameable life and conversation. You are harmless, (if I understand you right) and useless from morning to night. You do no hurt,――and no good to any one, no more than a straw floating upon the water. Your life glides smoothly on from year to year; and from one season to another, having no occasion to work,

“You waste away
In gentle inactivity the day.”

42. I will not now shock the easiness of your temper, by talking about a future state. But suffer me to ask you a question about present things. Are you now happy?

*I have seen a large company of _reasonable creatures_, called _Indians_, sitting in a row on the side of a river, looking sometimes at one another, sometimes at the sky, and sometimes at the bubbles on the water. And so they sat, (unless in the time of war) for a great part of the year, from morning to night.

These were doubtless much at ease. But can you think they were happy?――And how little happier are you than they?

*43. You eat, and drink, and sleep, and dress, and dance, and sit down to play. You are carried abroad. You are at the masquerade, the theatre, the opera-house, the park, the levee, the drawing-room. What do you do there? Why, sometimes you talk; sometimes you look at one another. And what are you to do to-morrow? The next day? The next week? The next year? You are to eat, and drink, and sleep, and dance, and dress, and play again. And you are to be carried abroad again, that you may again look at one another! And is this all? Alas, how little more happiness have you in this, than the _Indians_ in looking at the sky or water!

*Ah poor, dull round! I do not wonder that Colonel _M――――_ (or any man of reflection) should prefer death itself, even in the midst of his years, to such a life as this! And should frankly declare, “that he chose to go out of the world, because he found nothing in it worth living for.”

44. Yet it is certain there is business to be done: and many we find in all places (not to speak of the vulgar, the drudges of the earth) who are continually employed therein. Are you of that number? Are you engaged in trade, or some other reputable employment? I suppose, profitable too; for you would not spend your time, and labour, and thought, for nothing. You are then making your fortune; you are getting money. True: but money is not your ultimate end. The treasuring up gold and silver, for its own sake, all men own, is as foolish and absurd, as grosly unreasonable, as the treasuring up spiders, or the wings of butterflies. You consider this but as a means to some farther end. And what is that? Why, the enjoying yourself, the being at ease, the taking your pleasure, the living like a gentleman. That is plainly, either the whole, or some part of, the happiness above described.

*Supposing then your end to be actually attained, suppose you have your wish, before you drop into eternity: go and sit down with _Thleeanowhee_ and his companions, on the river side.――After you have toiled for fifty years, you are just as happy as they.

45. Are you, can you, or any reasonable man, be _satisfied_ with this? You are not. It is not possible you should. But what else can you do? You _would_ have something better to employ your time; but you know not where to find it upon earth.

*And indeed it is obvious, that the earth, as it is now constituted, even with the help of all _European_ arts, does not find sufficient employment, to take up half the waking hours of half its inhabitants.

*What then can you do? How can you employ the time that lies so heavy upon your hands? This very thing which you seek, declare we unto you. The thing _you_ want, is the religion _we_ preach. That alone leaves no time upon our hands. It fills up all the blank spaces of life. It exactly takes up all the time we have to spare, be it more or less: so that _he that hath much, hath nothing over, and he that has little, has no lack_.

46. Once more. Can you (or any man of reason) think, you was made for the life you now lead? You cannot possibly think so, at least, not till you tread the bible under foot. The oracles of God bear thee witness in every page, (and thine own heart agreeth thereto) that thou wast made in the image of God, an incorruptible picture of the God of glory. And what art thou even in thy present state? An everlasting spirit, going to God. For what end then did he create thee, but to dwell with him, above this perishable world, to know him, to love him, to do his will, to enjoy him for ever and ever! O look more deeply into thyself! And into that scripture, which thou professest to receive as the _word of God_, as _right concerning all things_. There thou wilt find a nobler, happier state described, than it ever yet entered into thy heart to conceive. But God hath now revealed it to all those who _rejoice evermore_, and _pray without ceasing_, and _in every thing give thanks_, and _do his will on earth as it is done in heaven_. For this thou wast made. Hereunto also thou art called. O be not disobedient to the heavenly calling! At least, be not angry with those who would fain bring thee to be a living witness of that religion, _whose ways are indeed ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace_.

47. Do you say in your heart, “I know all this already. I am not barely a man of reason. I am a religious man; for I not only avoid evil and do good, but use all the means of grace. I am constantly at church, and at the sacrament too. I say my prayers every day. I read many good books. I fast――――every _thirtieth of January, and Good-friday_.” Do you indeed? Do you do all this! This you may do; you may go thus far, and yet have _no religion_ at all; _no such religion_ as avails before God: nay, much farther than this, than you have ever gone yet, or so much as thought of going. For you may _give all your goods to feed the poor_, yea, _your body to be burned_, and yet very possibly, if St. _Paul_ be a judge, _have no charity_, no true religion.

48. This religion, which alone is of value before God, is the very thing you want. You want (and in wanting this, you want all) the religion of love. You do not love your neighbour as yourself, no more than you love God with all your heart. Ask your own heart now, if it be not so? ’Tis plain you do not love God. If you did, you would be happy in him. But you know, you are not happy. Your _formal_ religion no more makes you happy, than your neighbour’s _gay_ religion does him. O how much have you suffered for want of plain-dealing! Can you now bear to hear the naked truth? You have _the form of godliness_, but not _the power_. You are a mere whited wall. Before the Lord your God I ask you, are you not? Too sure. For your _inward parts are very wickedness_. You love _the creature more than the Creator_. You are _a lover of pleasure more than a lover of God_. A lover of God! You do not love God at all, no more than you love a stone. You love the world; therefore the love of the Father is not in you.

49. You are on the brink of the pit, ready to be plunged into everlasting perdition. Indeed you have a zeal for God: but not according to knowledge. O how terribly have you been deceived! Posting to hell, and fancying it was heaven. See, at length, that _outward religion_ without _inward_, is nothing; is far worse than nothing, being indeed no other than a solemn mockery of God. And _inward religion you have not_. You have not the faith _that worketh by love_. Your _faith_ (so called) is no living, saving principle. It is not the apostle’s faith, _the substance_ (or subsistence) _of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen_. So far from it, that _this_ faith is the very thing which you call _enthusiasm_. You are not content with being without it, unless you blaspheme it too. You even revile that _life which is hid with_ Christ _in_ God; all seeing, tasting, hearing, feeling God. These things are _foolishness unto_ you. No marvel; _for they are spiritually discerned_.

50. Oh! no longer shut your eyes against the light. Know you have a name that you live, but are dead. Your soul is utterly dead in sin; dead in pride, in vanity, in self-will, in sensuality, in love of the world. You are utterly dead to God. There is no intercourse between your soul and God. _You have neither seen him_ (by faith, as our Lord witnessed against them of old time) _nor heard his voice at any time_. You have no spiritual _senses exercised to discern spiritual good and evil_. You are angry at infidels, and are all the while as mere an infidel before God as they. You have _eyes that see not, and ears that hear not_. You have a _callous, unfeeling_ heart.

51. Bear with me a little longer: my soul is distrest for you. _The God of this world hath blinded your eyes_, and you are _seeking death in the error of your life_. Because you do not commit gross sin, because you give alms, and go to the church and sacrament, you imagine that you are serving God; yet in very deed you are serving the devil. For you are doing still your own will, not the will of God your Saviour. You are pleasing yourself in all you do. Pride, vanity, and self-will, (the genuine fruits of an earthly, sensual, devilish heart) pollute all your words and actions. You are in darkness, in the shadow of death. Oh! That God would say to you in thunder, _Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light_.

52. But blessed be God! He hath not yet left himself without witness!

“All are not lost! There be, who faith prefer,
Tho’ few, and piety to God!”

Who know the power of faith, and are no strangers to that inward, vital religion, _the mind that was in_ Christ, _righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost_. Of you who _have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come_, I would be glad to learn if we have _erred from the faith_, or walked contrary to _the truth as it is in_ Jesus. _Let the righteous smite me friendly, and reprove me_; if haply that which is amiss may be done away, and what is wanting supplied, till we all come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

53. Perhaps the first thing that now occurs to your mind, relates to the doctrine which we teach. You have heard, that we say, “Men may live without sin.” And have you not heard that the scripture says the same? (We mean without committing sin.) Does not St. _Paul_ say plainly, that those who believe, _do not continue in sin_?――――That they cannot _live any longer therein_? Romans vi. 1, 2. Does not St. _Peter_ say, _He that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sin?――――that he no longer should live――――to the desires of men, but to the will of God_, 1 Peter iv. 1, 2. And does not St. _John_ say expressly, _He that committeth sin is of the devil.――For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God, doth not commit sin: for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot commit sin, because he is born of God_, 1 John iii. 8. &c. And again, _We know that whatsoever is born of God sinneth not_, chapter v. 18.

54. You see then, it is not we that say this, but the Lord. These are not our words, but his, And who is he that replieth against God? Who is able to make God a liar? Surely he will be justified in his saying, and clear when he is judged! Can you deny it? Have you not often felt a secret check, when you was contradicting this great truth? And how often have you wished for what you was taught to deny? Nay, can you help wishing for it at this moment? Do you not now earnestly desire, to cease from sin? To commit it no more? Does not your soul pant after this glorious liberty of the sons of God? And what strong reason have you to expect it? Have you not had a foretaste of it already? Do you not remember the time when God first lifted up the light of his countenance upon you? Can it ever be forgotten? The day when the candle of the Lord first shone upon your head?

“Butter and honey did you eat,
And lifted up on high,
You saw the clouds beneath your feet,
And rode upon the sky.

“Far, far above all earthly things
Triumphantly you rode;
You soar’d to heav’n on eagle’s wings,
And found, and talk’d with God.”

You then had power not to commit sin. You found the apostle’s words strictly true, _he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not_. But those whom you took to be experienced Christians, telling you, “This was only the time of your espousals; this could not last always: you must come down from the mount,” and the like, shook your faith. You looked at men more than God, and so became weak, and like another man. Whereas, had you then had any to guide you according to the truth of God, had you then heard the doctrine which now you blame, you had never fallen from your stedfastness: but had found, that in this sense also, _the gifts and calling of God are without repentance_.

55. Have you not another objection nearly allied to this, namely, that we preach perfection? True; but what perfection? The term you cannot object to; because it is scriptural. All the difficulty is, to fix the meaning of it, according to the word of God. And this we have done again and again, declaring to all the world, that Christian perfection does not imply an exemption, from ignorance, or mistake, or infirmities, or temptations: but that it does imply, the being so crucified with Christ, as to be able to testify, _I live not, but Christ liveth in me_, (Galatians ii. 23.) and _hath purified my heart by faith_, (Acts xv. 9.) It does imply, _the casting down every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ_. It does imply, _the being holy, as he that hath called us is holy, in all manner of conversation_, (2 Corinthians x. 5. 1 Peter i. 15.) And, in a word, _the loving the Lord our God with all our heart, and serving him with all our strength_.

56. Now, is it possible for any who believe the scripture, to deny one tittle of this? You cannot. You dare not. You would not for the world. You know it is the pure word of God. And this is the whole of what we preach; this is the height and depth of what we (with St. _Paul_) call perfection: a state of soul devoutly to be wished, by all who have tasted of the love of God. O pray for it without ceasing. It is the one thing you want. Come with boldness to the throne of grace, and be assured that when you ask this of God, you shall have the petition you ask of him. We know indeed that to man, to the natural man, this is impossible. But we know also, that as _no word is impossible with God_, so _all things are possible to him that believeth_.

57. For _we are saved by faith_. But have you not heard this urged as another objection against us, that we preach salvation by faith alone! And does not St. _Paul_ do the same thing? _By grace_, saith he, _ye are saved through faith_. Can any words be more express? And elsewhere, _Believe in the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt be saved_, Acts xvi. 31.

What we mean by this (if it has not been sufficiently explained already) is, that we are saved from our sins, only by a confidence in the love of God. As soon as we _behold what manner of love it is which the Father hath bestowed upon us, we love him_, (as the apostle observes) _because he first loved us_. And then is that commandment written in our heart, _that he who loveth God love his brother also_: from which love of God and man, meekness, humbleness of mind, and all holy tempers, spring. Now these are the very essence of salvation, of Christian salvation, salvation from sin. And from these, outward salvation flows, that is, holiness of life and conversation. Well, and are not these things so? If you know in whom you have believed, you need no further witnesses.

58. But perhaps you doubt, whether that faith whereby we are thus saved, implies such a trust and confidence in God as we describe. “You cannot think faith implies assurance: an assurance of the love of God to our souls, of his being now reconciled to us, and having forgiven all our sins.” And this we freely confess, that if number of voices is to decide the question, we must give it up at once; for you have on your side, not only some who desire to be Christians indeed, but all nominal Christians in every place, and the _Romish_ church, one and all. Nay, these last are so vehement in your defence, that in the famed council of _Trent_, they have decreed, “If any man hold (_fiduicam_) trust, confidence, ♦or assurance of pardon to be essential to faith, let him be accursed.”

♦ word missed in typeset “or”

59. Thus does that council anathematize the church of _England_. For she is convicted hereof, by her own confession. The very words in the Homily on Salvation are, “Even the devils believe, that Christ was born of a virgin; that he wrought all kind of miracles, declaring himself very God; that for our sakes he suffered a most painful death, to redeem us from death everlasting. These articles of our faith the devils believe; and so they believe all that is written in the Old and New Testament. And yet for all this faith, they be but devils. They remain still in their damnable estate, lacking the very true, Christian faith.”

“The right and true Christian faith is, not only to believe the holy scriptures, and the articles of our faith, are true; but also to have a sure trust and confidence, to be saved from everlasting damnation through Christ.” Or, (as it is exprest a little after.) “A sure _trust and confidence which a man hath in God, that by the merits of Christ his sins are forgiven, and he reconciled to the favour of God_.”

60. Indeed the bishop of _Rome_ saith, “If any man hold this, let him be an Anathema Maranatha.” But ’tis to be hoped, _Papal_ Anathemas do not move _you_. You are a member of the church of _England_. Are you? Then the controversy is at an end. Then hear the church. Faith is a sure trust which a man hath in God, that his sins are forgiven. Or if you are not, whether you hear our church or no, at least hear the scriptures. Hear believing _Job_, declaring his faith, _I know that my Redeemer liveth_. Hear _Thomas_, (when having seen, _he believed_) crying out, _My Lord and my God_! Hear St. _Paul_ clearly describing the nature of _his faith_, _The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me_. Hear (to mention no more) all the believers who were with _Paul_, when he wrote to the _Colossians_, bearing witness, _We give thanks unto the Father, who_ hath delivered _us from the power of darkness, and_ hath translated _us into the kingdom of his dear Son: in whom_ we have _redemption thro’ his blood_, even the forgiveness of sins, Colossians i. verses 12, 13, 14.

61. But what need have we of distant witnesses? You have a witness in our own breast. For am I not speaking to one that loves God? How came you then to love him at first? Was it not, because you knew that he loved you? Did you, could you love God at all, ’till you tasted and saw that he was gracious? That he was merciful to you a sinner? What avails then controversy, or strife of words? Out of thy own mouth! You own, you had no love to God, ’till you was sensible of his love to you. And whatever expressions any sinner who loves God uses, to denote God’s love to him, you will always upon examination, find, that, they directly or indirectly imply forgiveness. Pardoning love is still at the root of all. He who was offended is now reconciled. The new song which God puts in every mouth, is always to that effect, O Lord, _I will praise thee: tho’ thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song: he is also become my salvation_, Isaiah xii. 1, 2.

62. A confidence then in a pardoning God, is essential to saving faith. The forgiveness of sins is one of the first of those unseen things, whereof faith is the evidence. And if you are sensible of this, will you quarrel with us concerning an indifferent circumstance of it? Will you think it an important objection that we assert, that this faith is usually given in a moment? First, let me intreat you to read over that authentic account of God’s dealings with men, the Acts of the apostles. In this treatise you will find, how he wrought from the beginning on those who received remission of sins by faith. And can you find one of these, (except perhaps St. _Paul_) who did not receive it in a moment? But abundance you find of those who did, besides _Cornelius_ and the three thousand, and to this also agrees the experience or those who now receive the heavenly gift. Three or four exceptions only have I found in the course of several years, (perhaps you yourself may be added to that number, and one or two more whom you have known.) But all the rest of those, who from time to time among us have believed in the Lord Jesus, were in a moment brought from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.

63. And why should it seem a thing incredible to you, who have known the power of God unto salvation; (whether he hath wrought thus in your soul or no; _for there are diversities of operations, but the same Spirit_) that _the dead should hear the voice of the Son of God_, and in that moment live? Thus he useth to act, to shew that when he willeth, to do is present with him. _Let there be light_, said God, _and there was light. He spoke the word, and it was done. Thus the heavens and the earth were created, and all the hosts of them._ And this manner of acting in the present case, highly suits both his power and love. There is therefore no hindrance on God’s part; since _as his majesty is, so is his mercy_. And whatever hindrance there is on the part of man, when God speaketh, it is not. Only _ask_ then, O sinner, _and it shall be given thee_, even the faith that brings salvation: and that, without any merit or good work of thine; for _it is not of works, lest any man should boast_. No; it is of grace, of grace alone. For _unto him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted to him for righteousness_.

64. “But by talking thus you encourage sinners.” I do encourage them――to repent: and do not you? Do not you know how many heap sin upon sin, purely for want of such encouragement? Because they think, “they can never be forgiven: there is no place for repentance left?” Does not your heart also bleed for them? What would you think too dear to part with? What would you not do? What would you not suffer, to bring one such sinner to repentance? Could not your love _endure all things_ for them? “Yes――if you believed it would do them good; if you had any hope that they would be better.” Why do you not believe it would do them good? Why have you not a hope that they will be better? Plainly, because you do not love them enough; because you have not that charity, which not only endureth, but at the same time believeth and hopeth all things.

65. But that you may see the whole strength of this objection, I will shew you without any disguise or reserve, how I encourage the chief of sinners: my usual language to them runs thus:

O ye that deny the Lord that bought you, yet hear the word of the Lord. You seek rest, but find none. Even in laughter your heart is in heaviness. How long spend ye your labour for that which is not bread, and your strength for that which satisfieth not? You know, your soul is not satisfied. It is still an aking void. Sometimes you find (in spite of your principles) a sense ♦of guilt, an awakened conscience. That grisly phantom, religion, (so you describe her) will now and then haunt you still. Righteousness looking down from heaven, is indeed to us no unpleasing sight. But how does it appear to you?

_Horribili super aspectu mortalibus astans?_

How often are you in fear of the very things you deny? How often in racking suspense? “What if there be an hereafter? A judgment to come? An unhappy eternity?” Do you not start at the thoughts? Can you be content to be always thus? Shall it be said of you also,

“Here lies a dicer, long in doubt
If death could kill the soul, or not?
Here ends his doubtfulness; at last
Convinc’d.――――But, O the die is cast!”

Or, are you already convinced, there is no hereafter? What a poor state then are you in now? Taking a few more dull turns upon earth, and then dropping into nothing! What kind of spirit must you be of, if you can sustain yourself under the thought! Under the expectation of being in a few moments swept away by the stream of time, and then for ever

“swallow’d up, and lost
In the wide womb of uncreated night!”

But neither indeed are you certain of this; nor of any thing else. “It may be so; it may not. A vast scene is behind. But clouds and darkness rest upon it.” All is doubt and uncertainty. You are continually tossed to and fro, and have no firm ground for the sole of your foot. O let not the poor wisdom of man any longer exalt itself against the wisdom of God. You have fled from him long enough: at length suffer your eyes to be opened by him that made them. You want rest to your soul. Ask it of him, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not! You are now a mere riddle to yourself, and your condition full of darkness and perplexity. You are one among many restless inhabitants of a miserable, disordered world, _walking in a vain shadow, and disquieting yourself in vain_. But the light of God will speedily disperse the anxiety of your vain conjectures. By adding heaven to earth, and eternity to time; it will open such a glorious view of things, as will lead you, even in the present world, to a peace which passeth all understanding.

♦ duplicate word “of” removed

66. O ye gross, vile, scandalous sinners, hear ye the word of the Lord. _Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn and live._ O make haste; delay not the time. _Come, and let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.――――Who is this that cometh from |Edom|, with dyed garments, red in his apparel?_ It is he on whom the Lord _hath laid the iniquities of us all_! Behold, behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away thy sins! See the only begotten Son of the Father, _full of grace and truth_! He loveth _thee_. He gave himself for _thee_. Now, his bowels of compassion yearn over thee! O believe in the Lord Jesus, and _thou_ shalt be saved! _Go in peace, sin no more!_

67. Now cannot _you_ join in all this? Is it not the very language of your heart? O when will you take knowledge, that _our_ whole concern, our constant labour is, to bring all the world to the religion which you feel, to solid, inward, vital religion! What _power_ is it then that keeps us asunder? _Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? If it be, give me thy hand. Come with me and see_, and rejoice in _my zeal for the Lord_. No difference between us (if thou art a child of God) can be so considerable as our agreement is. If we differ in smaller things, we agree in that which is greatest of all. How is it possible then that _you_ should be induced, to think or speak evil of us? How could it ever come into your mind, to oppose us, or weaken our hands? How long shall we complain of the wounds which we receive in the house of our friends? Surely the children of this world are still _wiser in their generation than the children of light_. Satan is not divided against himself: Why are they who are on the Lord’s side against us? How is it that _wisdom is_ not _justified of her_ own _children_?

68. Is it, because you have heard, “That we only make religion a cloak for covetousness? And because you have heard abundance of particulars alleged in support of that general charge?” ’Tis probable, you may also have heard, “How much we have _gained_ by preaching already:” and, to crown all, “That we are only papists in disguise, who are undermining and destroying the church?”

69. “You have heard this.” Well: and can you believe it? Have you then never heard the fifth chapter of St. _Matthew_? I would to God you could believe it. What is written there? How readest thou? _Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name’s sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you_: namely, by _reviling_ them, and _saying all manner of evil_ of them _falsely_. Do not you know, that this (as well as all other scriptures) must needs be fulfilled? If so, take knowledge, that this day also it is fulfilled in your ears. For our Lord’s sake, and for the sake of his gospel which we preach, _men do revile us and persecute us, and_ (blessed be God, who giveth us to rejoice therein) _say all manner of evil of us falsely_. And how can it be otherwise? _The disciple is not above his master. It is enough for the disciple, that he be as his master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his houshold?_

70. This only we confess, that “we preach _inward_ salvation, _now_ attainable by faith.” And _for preaching this_, (for _no other crime_ was _then_ so much as pretended) we were forbid to preach any more in those churches, where, till then, we were gladly received. This is a notorious fact. Being thus hindered from preaching in the places we should first have chosen, we now declare the _grace of God which bringeth salvation, in all places of his dominion_: as well knowing, that God dwelleth not only in temples made with hands. This is the real, and it is the only real ground of complaint against us. And this we avow before all mankind, we do preach this salvation by faith. And not being suffered to preach it in the usual places, we declare it ♦wherever a door is opened, either _on a mountain_, or _a plain_, or _by a river side_, (for all which we conceive we have sufficient precedent) or in prison, or, as it were, _in the house of Justus_, or _the school of one Tyrannus_. Nor dare we refrain. _A dispensation of the gospel is committed to me; and woe is me, if I preach not the gospel._

♦ “whereever” replaced with “wherever”

71. Here we allow the fact, but deny the guilt. But in every other point alleged, we deny the fact, and call upon the world to prove it, if they can. More especially we call upon those who for many years saw our manner of life at _Oxford_. These well know, that _after the straitest sect of our religion, we lived Pharisees_: and that the grand objection to us for all those years, was the being _righteous overmuch_: the reading, fasting, praying, denying ourselves; the going to church, to the Lord’s table; the relieving the poor, visiting those that were sick and in prison; instructing the ignorant, and labouring to reclaim the wicked,――more than was necessary for salvation. These were our open, flagrant crimes, from the year 1729 to the year 1737; touching which our Lord shall judge in that day.