charity of some is so exquisitely favourable, that it will not allow them to offend others, if by this tenderness they should neglect a duty to God and their own souls. And they can avail themselves of the impropriety of offending a brother, or one of Christ's little ones, and the sin and woe of those who cause offences to come: not considering that those offences which the Scriptures condemn, were committed against the faith of Christ, and not against the selfish feelings of partisans. But I am thankful that all are not so weak and ignorant. It needs no proof that those warnings against offences are no impediment in the way of honest people examining into the grounds of their faith and practice, and obtaining every degree of light and help in their reach, but that they who are opposed to such freedom, are offenders in the true meaning. "Prove all things and hold fast that which is good." (1 Thes. v. 21.) The word of God is not bound; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The people of God have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but the Spirit of adoption whereby they cry Abba, Father. They are Christ's free-men, and are under no restraint from acquiring all that knowledge which is necessary to fill the soul with good things to their own satisfaction.

But I must use the freedom to mention another avowed reason with many, for their refusing to converse freely and openly on the foundation of their hope, especially with those who believe that Christ has made his second appearance, and are by many esteemed the greatest deceivers the danger of being deceived. They are, or affect to be, much afraid of deception. Yet of those whose ostensible reason is fear, many will say they are not afraid on their own account, but on the account of others who are weak. Thus will carnal professors endeavour to exculpate themselves from all unsoundness or weakness in their own standing, while they stand as sentinels to keep the truth of God from their house and neighbourhood. The danger also of giving heed to seducing spirits, has been alleged; as if to inquire soundly into the foundation of a man's faith, were the same thing as to submit to the dictates of manifest seduction.

Other particulars might be mentioned, (and perhaps some may in the sequel,) as causes of fear, real or pretended, all which to an honest man, appear at the first view to be mere bugbears, while the true source of fear is an inward conviction that all is not right towards God, and that the truth requires them to give up more for Christ than they are willing to lose. It is no part of Christianity to be afraid of being deceived; for Christians know who are of the truth and who are not, by the spirit which they possess and the doctrines which they bring. "We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error." (1 Jno. iv. 6.) Proper as it is, and justifiable, to avoid closing in with error, or countenancing it; that faith, or foundation, which can be shaken by error, is not the faith of Christ, or the foundation which God has laid in Zion; and little matter how soon it be dissolved. The promise of God is faithful and good; "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel." (Numb. xxiii. 23.) Honest souls have no cause of fear; deception belongs to those who choose it; neither need

any people, or any man, exhibit a better proof of living in deception and hypocrisy than fear of being deceived. Christianity includes too much light for those who possess it, or even know where it is, to be afraid of being deceived against their own choice. "I am," said Jesus, the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (Jno. viii. 12.) And again he said to his disciples: "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." (Matt. v. 14.)

After all the incoherent notions and various persuasions in the profession of Christianity, and all the uncertainty with which people have suffered the most exquisite distress, and all the reproaches with which the name of Christ has been blasphemed, by the ungodly and unmortified lives of professors, until it is true of them, as of the Jews of old, that the name of God through them is blasphemed among the Gentiles; and all the support which has been ministered to infidelity, by the inconsistent, jarring and irregular course of those who have named the name of Christ, and have not departed from iniquity; the foundation of God stands sure, and his Church must eventually emerge from those clouds of superstition and error, which have so long obstructed and prevented his goings forth as the morning, with that distinguished light and evidence which cannot admit of deception. And it is fully time that such a work should be seen on the earth, the true Church of God, and that the people should begin to flow together into it, that the honest sufferers may find relief, and the weary of sin may be at rest in Christ. Accordingly the day has dawned, the testimony has gone forth, and the Sun of righteousness has arisen with healing in his wings.

About the time when that society to which you are still attached began to be distinguished from the common mass of professors, out of which it sprung, I felt more confirmed that I was doing the will of God, and under the direction of his special providence, than I had ever been before. Neither do I at all scruple at this day, to acknowledge the special hand of God, in selecting that society from among others, in conjunction with whom its members could not have enjoyed the free exercise of that light and power, which they had received in that mighty work of God, called the Kentucky Revival. And I always feel willing to acknowledge the good hand of God in the various ministrations of clear light, which were received from him during the work of that day. And though I now stand where I do; I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, when I attest that I have no less esteem for the work of that day, than I had then; although, to the best of my remembrance, I then esteemed it as by far the greatest which I had ever witnessed. I may add farther, that I now esteem it inexpressibly more than I did then, as being much better acquainted with its tendency. "Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof." (Eccl. vii. 8.) I can also bear witness, that my regard for the subjects of that revival, who have honestly retained the life and spirit of it to the best of their understanding, is by no means abated. And even those who have ceded their power and privilege to the spirit of fear and unbelief, or to the corrupt influence of prejudicial gainsaying, are not out of the reach of my good-will, nor the embraces of my desires and longings

for their recovery. Of whom, if accessible, I am ever willing, and would count it my joy, to travail in birth again until Christ be formed in them.

It was not from any unkind feelings towards that revival, or its subjects, that I stand where I do, or that I have not had an uninterrupted intercourse with you all to this day. I had no intention, God is my witness, of withdrawing my friendship from them, until they, to the pain of my heart, refused me access. I remained in the exercise of all the freedom which I could obtain among them, until constrained by the call of God, by the clear testimony of the truth of God in my own conscience, that a deeper work than could be had there, was necessary to my salvation, and by the all-prevailing love to truth, to step forward in the increasing manifestation of the light and knowledge of God, and leave my former brethren, who were not far from the kingdom of heaven, to give over their pursuit, and making vigorous efforts to retain and content themselves with what they had. Nay, more; many of them have receded from that, and taken refuge under the rudiments of the world, those beggarly elements in which they desire again to be in bondage.

Neither was it any thing in the testimony of the Gospel which I received, and wherein I stand, which was so agreeable to my nature as to invite me in. Every man who has but a little understanding of the self-denial and cross which we bear after Christ, has an invincible testimony in himself to the contrary-that the Gospel is not inviting to man's nature, but to the spirit that feels the need of salvaAnd the clear testimony of God corresponded with my understanding and faith, and with the light of God which I had received in the late revival, so that I must now of necessity, by the call of God, make my choice to go forward into the opening of the kingdom of Christ, or renounce what I had received. I therefore began to deny myself, to take up my cross and follow Christ in the regeneration; and have thenceforth been learning by a solid experience, that it is better to obey God than man. The same testimony agrees also to the understanding and light of every man and every woman, who were real subjects, and had a real understanding of the work of the revival of the truth of which there are many witnesses who do not obey the Gospel.

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Some years ago, the piercing cries of many were, What shall we do to be saved? And nothing then would satisfy short of that substance which could not be shaken nor disputed. But when the safe and only way appeared by the cross, they stumbled at it, being disobedient; and many of those who were piercing the heavens with their cries have settled back into the rudiments of the world. While it remains true, that the cross which we bear, and at which they stumble, and the self-denial which we practise, who are called by the everlasting Gospel, are sanctioned by the example of Christ, with such certainty that no man can with any plausibility deny it. The current argument is, that such a cross is not required of the followers of Christ; that is, that Christ does not require his people to take him as an example in ceasing from the first Adam's works in the radical distinction of their several orders. This kind of reasoning, in those who expect

to be justified by the righteousness of Christ imputed to them, is quite consistent with the rest of their views. But for those who have rejected the doctrine of vicarious sufferings and obedience, or imputed righteousness, to argue in that manner is not so consistent.

SECTION II.

FREE AND FRIENDLY OBSERVATIONS ON THE SENTIMENTS AND PRACTICE OF THE SUPERSCRIBED, AND THE SUBJECTS OF THE REVIVAL.

BARTON :-Whereas in your Address you have expressed a warm disapprobation of the insinuation that your doctrines lead to Shakerism, to be consistent you will heartily consent that Shakers should object to your views. And whereas you so earnestly plead for freedom among Christians, or professors, and insist on the propriety of scriptural and rational arguments, you cannot with propriety feel any chagrin, if I should examine your writings, and state my objections in a few particulars. And as the first LETTERS ON ATONEMENT, the REPLY to Campbell, and your late ADDRESS, are mainly on the same subjects, I shall consider them as containing your full faith on those points, and as showing the substance of the difference between the society with which you are connected and professors in common. intend not to be at the pains to make remarks on every particular, but only to attend to some leading points.

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These doctrines have thoroughly undermined the doctrine of imputed righteousness and surety payment. At the same time you must allow me the liberty to remark; That they have not removed all difficulties, nor carried the matter clearly through to full satisfaction, although they have effectually refuted the doctrine itself. Some talk of the righteousness of Christ imputed, and some, of the same righteousness applied, or imparted, to believers, for their justification. But as there is no account nor authority for such doctrines in the revelation of God to men, you have justly rejected the whole plan. But in the accomplishment of this object there is something lacking, which is of no small consequence.

You appear to have left the people without any clear ground of justification. Having taken away the righteousness of Christ imputed and received by faith, and yet left the righteousness of God to be received by faith, you have laid open no safe and unequivocal ground on which for the believer to make use of Christ. "But how do we

get this righteousness? By faith. Hence it is called, the righteousness of faith; the righteousness which is by or through faith." (Atonement, p. 13.) Now the Calvinist, who maintains the doctrine of vicarious sufferings and obedience, and imputed righteousness, will not hesitate to acknowledge, that the righteousness of God is received by faith. The same will be granted by those who teach that justifi

cation is by the righteousness of Christ applied or imparted. In a word; faith is acknowledged by all professed Christians, with whom I have been acquainted, as the sine qua non of the Christian religion, without which it is impossible to please God. So that the Letters thus far afford no definitive information on which the mind can rest. If I believe in Christ and receive his righteousness, or the righteousness of God in him, one calls this receiving, imputation; another, to avoid that term and its offensive consequences, calls it, application or impartation; and what shall I call it? To avoid the terms and consequences of them both, as I intend it, I say, By or through faith, and leave them to apply their peculiar terms: but the subject matter is the same without farther explanation.

But the Letters have carried the subject some farther. "How do we get the righteousness of God by or through faith? Because by faith we are ingrafted into, or in Christ; and by this union with him we become partakers of his nature, which is righteousness or holiness. Therefore we are justified, made just and declared just or righteous by faith, without the deeds of the law." (Ibid.) And again; "How is he made unto us righteousness? By making us righteous; for, as I have already shown, the branch ingrafted partakes of the nature of the vine; so they, who are in Christ Jesus, are partakers of his divine nature, which is righteousness. This is called "the righteousness of God-the righteousness of faith-the righteousness which is of God by faith of Jesus Christ." (p. 9.) According to these statements then, justification is the fruit of holiness or righteousness; "that is [we are] made just and righteous, even as he is righteous, and then declared so of God because we are so." (p. 17.) This effect you have every where attributed to faith alone, or without carrying the matter any farther. But we may remember, that in all which the Apostle has said of justification by faith and without the deeds of the law, he has never said by faith alone, nor ever excluded obedience to God according to the Gospel, but ever enjoined it. "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision: but faith which worketh by love." And again: "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God." Now Christians, though free from the Mosaic or ceremonial law, are not without law to God but under the law to Christ." (1 Cor. ix. 21.) Obedience therefore is the end of faith, the point to which it leads the man for justification and final salvation; "According to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith."

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And the apostle John proposes a very different method for a man to be righteous and so called, from that by faith and there stoppingthat of doing righteousness; "He that doeth righteousness is rightYet none were more swallowed up in faith than John. And this is quite consistent with what you have stated in your Letters, (p. 9.) "Therefore he is the end of the law, and answers it completely to all believers; for "the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us [not for us] who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Thus