your mouth, as put the enemy to flight by your own ftrength. Under this impreffion, cry to him who performeth all things for you, and who worketh all your works in you. Were the Spirit of fupplication poured out, what a happy prelude would it be of his lifting up a standard against the enemy! But, alas! our filence indicates his abfence. For, when prefent, he maketh interceffion for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, Rom. viii. 26. When he exciteth the faints to pray, it is a fign, among a thousand, that he is about to go

tranfpofition is not to be admitted without neceffity, of which there is not the fhadow here.

But the purposes for which thefe words are quoted, fuggest fomething ftronger still, in vindication of the fense we plead for. The apoftle quotes them, Rom. i. 17. Gal. iii. 11. to prove justification by faith, and not by works. And how apt, how ftriking the quotation, when the words are left in their native order! The juft by faith, shall live. From these words, The juft by faith, the apoftolic inference is clear, unavoidable, and must strike with conviction, viz. that no man is justified by the law, but by faith alone. In Heb. x. 38. the apostle quotes the prophet's words to prove the perfeverance of the justified. Now, The juft by faith, fhall live. We are not of them whe draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the faving of the foul. Here the propriety of the quotation is as evident as in the former inftance. Nominal profeffors may draw back, and vifibly fall away: Not fo with the man that is just by faith; he fhall live.

This paffage being adduced to prove juftification by faith, and the perfeverance of the faints, it is obfervable, that in Rom. i. 17. Gal. iii. 11. the hing of the teftimony turns on the firit part, The juft by faith; and in Heb. x. 38. it turns on the last, The juft-shall live. The learned reader may confult Witfius in Symbol. p. 39. Mifcel. Sacra. Vol. I. p. 303, 630 Bolton's Stigm. p. 33.

forth against the enemy; as was the found of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that he was gone forth to fmite the hoft of the Philiftines, 2 Chron. xiv. 15. But, ah! how mournful, when we must complain with our prophet, There is none that calleth upon thy name; that firreth up himself to take hold of thee! Ifa. Ixiv. 7.

Let it not be fo with you. Get ye to your knees, ye fons of prayer, and cry mightily to God: Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not filence: and give him no reft till he establish, and till he make Jerufalem a praife in all the earth, Ifa. lxii. 6, 7. If ye can do little or nothing elfe, furely ye may go to your God; and Hezekiah-like, tell him of the enemy, and of all his threatenings to destroy as with an over-running flood. As the famous Melvin prayed in his day, anno 1609, fo may we in ours. It is time, O Lord, arife; it is time, O Lord, arife; it is time: for they have made thy 'word and law irrit and of none avail; they have left Jacob in fervitude, and Judah in captivity: the heavenly fceptre of thy kingdom, they have 'wrefted out of thy hand;-and they have broken down the hedge and wails of thy vineyard *.'And let us pray in the faith, that God will arife, and have mercy upon Zion; that the time to favour her, the fet time fhall come. Diftreffed fhe may, but deftroyed fhe fhall never be. The floods may fwell, and menace an univerfal overflow. The ark may be toffed on the waters, but fhe fhall ride out every ftorm, and furvive her moft inveterate

*See Calderwood's hiftory, p. 614.

your mouth, as put the enemy to flight by your own ftrength. Under this impreffion, cry to him who performeth all things for you, and who worketh all your works in you. Were the Spirit of fupplication poured out, what a happy prelude would it be of his lifting up a standard against the enemy! But, alas! our filence indicates his abfence. For, when prefent, he maketh interceffion for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, Rom. viii. 26. When he exciteth the faints to pray, it is a fign, among a thousand, that he is about to go

tranfpofition is not to be admitted without neceffity, of which there is not the fhadow here.

But the purposes for which these words are quoted, fuggest fomething ftronger still, in vindication of the sense we plead for. The apostle quotes them, Rom. i. 17. Gal. iii. 11. to prove juftification by faith, and not by works. And how apt, how striking the quotation, when the words are left in their native order! The juft by faith, shall live. From these words, The juft by faith, the apoftolic inference is clear, unavoidable, and must strike with conviction, viz. that no man is justified by the law, but by faith alone. In Heb. x. 38. the apostle quotes the prophet's words to prove the perfeverance of the justified. Now, The just by faith, fhall live. We are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the faving of the foul. Here the propriety of the quotation is as evident as in the former inftance. Nominal profeffors may draw back, and vifibly fall away: Not fo with the man that is just by faith; he fhall live.

This paffage being adduced to prove juftification by faith, and the perseverance of the faints, it is obfervable, that in Rom. i. 17. Gal. iii. 11. the hing of the teftimony turns on the firit juft by faith; and in Heb. x. 38. it turns on the last, The juft-shall live. The learned reader may confult Witfius in Symbol. p. 39. Mifcel. Sacra. Vol. I. p. 303, 630 Bolton's Stigm. p. 33.

forth against the enemy; as was the found of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that he was gone forth to fmite the host of the Philiftines, 2 Chron. xiv. 15. But, ah! how mournful, when we muft complain with our prophet, There is none that calleth upon thy name; that firreth up himself to take hold of thee! Ifa. Ixiv. 7.

Let it not be fo with you. Get ye to your knees, ye fons of prayer, and cry mightily to God: Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not filence: and give him no reft till he establish, and till he make Jerufalem a praife in all the earth, Ifa. lxii. 6, 7. If ye can do little or nothing else, surely ye may go to your God; and Hezekiah-like, tell him of the enemy, and of all his threatenings to destroy as with an over-running flood. As the famous Melvin prayed in his day, anno 1609, fo may we in ours. It is time, O Lord, arife; it is time, O

Lord, arife; it is time: for they have made thy 'word and law irrit and of none avail; they have 'left Jacob in fervitude, and Judah in captivity:

the heavenly fceptre of thy kingdom, they have 'wrefted out of thy hand;—and they have broken 'down the hedge and wails of thy vineyard *.'— And let us pray in the faith, that God will arife, and have mercy upon Zion; that the time to favour her, the fet time fhall come. Diftreffed fhe may,

but deftroyed fhe fhall never be. fwell, and menace an univerfal

The floods may

overflow.

The

ark may be toffed on the waters, but the fhall ride out every ftorm, and furvive her moft inveterate

* See Calderwood's hiftory, p. 614.

No: we must undergo a faving change, ere we can do any thing truly good and acceptable unto God; or, to use the apoftle's emphatic ftyle, We must be his

Modefty would make a man rather fufpect his own intellectual weakness, than the views of fuch a conftellation of divines.

One of the most judicious friends of the doctrine of grace that I know, viz. the bleffed Boston, acknowledges that faith and holiness, may be called conditions of connexion in the covenant of grace*. He also teacheth, that there is an ufe of conditional phrases in the administration of the covenant ‡. Now, if condi tional phrases be used in administrating God's covenant to finners, I afk, what is it that makes these phrases conditional? Is it not a condition? To acknowledge that a phrafe is conditional, and to deny that there is any condition couched under it, is much as if one should say, fuch a person is beautiful, but there is no beauty in him: such a one is strong, but he has no itrength. As nothing but beauty makes beautiful; fo nothing but a condition, implied or expressed, "makes a phrase conditional. We have no authority to tell any finner in an abfolute manner, Thou shalt be faved. We can only speak in a conditional manner, "Believe, and thou shalt be saved, Acts xvi. 31.; or, If thou shalt believe, thou shalt be faved, Rom. x. 9. Beyond the conditional if we cannot go. No man can deny that the word if is a conditional particle, Gen. xliii. 4, 5. Jofh. ii. 14. As little can it be denied that this word is used, not only with refpect to faith, but also with respect to holiness, Rom. viii. 13. If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. Mean while, this bears no prejudice to the precious doctrine of grace. Still that is true which the apoftle faith, Eph. ii. 8. By grace are ye faved, through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God. Salvation is his gift; and fo is that faith, through which we are interrefted in his falvation. From this it evidently appears, that faith and holiness are not conditions in a legal fenfe, founding our right or title to falvation, No; they are as truly purchased by Christ's righteoufnefs, as our feat in heaven is. His righteoufnefs alone,

* View of the Covenant, p. 83.

Ibid. p. 255.