this act of the soul as a legal term, or meritorious condition of salvation; especially when faith itself is as really conferred by God as the crown of life.

If the absolute gratuitousness of the gospel is endangered or impaired by the presence of a condition, by which the soul is connected with Christ, translated from darkness to light, and put in possession of his salvation; this fatal effect is produced as completely by their own scheme as that of their opponents. They retain a condition in their own system. For though they assert that every man is redeemed, pardoned, and interested in Christ; they deny that all men are saved. There is no salvation, they affirm, until we are justified; but no man can be justified till he believes that his soul is safe. Though the pardon is unlimited, heaven is limited to those who are sanctified by the belief of the pardon. The soul is diseased, and its diseases can be healed only by a knowledge of the holy love of God.

By thus limiting heaven and salvation to those who believe or know that they are pardoned, and who are sanctified by this knowledge; they admit a condition of salvation, as fully as the friends of evangelical religion: and, until they take refuge in the doctrine of universal salvation, and affirm that all, by birth, possess an undefeasible right to heaven, in spite of all their efforts to exclude a condition, it will firmly adhere to every theory which they can form.

They will tell us, indeed, that their condition is perfectly harmless; that it is destitute of merit; that it is no equivalent for any part of salvation; that it is only the turning point betwixt nature and grace; the commencement of salvation; and therefore that it cannot interfere with the perfect freeness of the gospel.

Now, we beg credit, when we assure them, that we ascribe no more worth or merit to faith, than they to knowledge or belief. We regard faith merely as the turning point betwixt nature and grace; as the beginning of religion; as the commencement of the Divine life; as the circumstance by which we receive the unspeakable gift of God, and are made partakers of the great salvation. The man who is without faith has neither part nor lot in the gospel. By faith the soul renounces all for Christ; cleaves to him simply; trusts in him entirely;

Faith is the gift of God,

and makes him its all. and wrought in the heart by the Holy Ghost; and from its first act to its last exercise, tramples on self, grapples the soul to Jesus, and clings to him alone. And how can such a principle infringe on the absolute freeness of the gospel; any more than the use of our eyes can destroy the freeness of light, or the act of respiration, the freeness of the air? Pardon, according to our system, is no more than salvation is on theirs-a premium to faith. The blind and the lame, whom our Lord miraculously healed, were cured gratuitously,

though he previously inquired if they believed that he was able to grant them the blessing which they needed. We contend for justification by faith in order to shut out the idea of merit; and establish the invaluable truth for which Paul contended, when he declared, "It is of faith, that it might be by grace."

We have no love for the word, condition, and would gladly drop it, if we could only find a more unexceptionable term to express the necesity of a connection betwixt the soul and Christ, in order to enjoy his salvation. By admitting the necessity of such a connection; though they reject the offensive term, the Bereans still retain the thing. The great misfortune, however, is, that in their system the condition is thrown into a position, where it is calculated to produce mischief, tenfold greater than can be apprehended from the common hypothesis.

We boldly and openly tell our hearers, that, till they believe on Christ for their own salvation, instead of being redeemed and pardoned, they are the children of disobedience and wrath, in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity. We leave this awful truth to work in their guilty consciences, till, by the blessing of the Holy Ghost, they are roused from their dreadful lethargy, and compelled to flee from the wrath to come. To a man who understands our language, it is no easy matter to succeed in preserving his fallacious and fatal peace.

But to tell one and all, that Christ

has redeemed them; that their sins are forgiven; that the Saviour is theirs, and that the only thing a-wanting to their complete salvation, is merely to believe these things: this is to administer the strongest opiate that delusion can supply to lull secure and carnal consciences to rest. The only idea, in general, entertained of salvation is, that it is the pardon of sin, and the possession of an interest in Christ. Whenever the hardened transgressor hears that his sins are already 'pardoned, and that he is already interested in Christ, his fears and solici tude vanish. His ungodly confidence might be previously strong: but it now acquires unbounded strength. He has obtained all that he wants. He goes on his way rejoicing; and is prepared to work every abomination with as much avidity, and far greater coolness than before.

slumbers, nor rouse him

All that he wished was

From the moment that a graceless man swallows this delusion, his case is desperate. He finds no difficulty in keeping his conscience quiet. The soporific he has taken, effectually composes all his alarm and uneasiness. Neither men nor angels are able to disturb his from his mortal repose. the authority of Heaven to assure him that his sins were forgiven, and that he had a personal interest in Christ. And such is the information with which this system furnishes him. It says to him, that it has the authority of Heaven to declare, that God, for Christ's sake, loves every

man, that Christ has died for every human creature, and blotted out every sin. The system also certifies him, that to believe these things, and yet doubt if Christ has died for himself, and forgiven his own offences; is not only a gross and palpable contradiction, but is also in plain terms telling God that he is a liar.

He may be told that there is a difference betwixt pardon and justification, betwixt an interest in Christ and salvation. But he has no desire to trouble himself about metaphysical distinctions, and theological niceties. The great thing which he needs is the pardon of sin, and an interest in the redemption purchased by Christ. Higher authority than God's he cannot enjoy. And it is on this authority that he is assured that his sins are forgiven, and that he is redeemed by Christ. Having thus secured the grand object of his ambition, he is satisfied; and resolves to give himself no farther concern about the matter. He has been taught that, after acknowledging that Christ is the propitiation for sin, and the Saviour of the world, to doubt if Christ has expiated his own sins, and is his own Saviour, is to make God a liar. And this is a lesson which he is determined not to forget. The last vestige of religious feeling left, is the purpose firmly to believe in his own safety, lest the admission of a doubt should involve him in the unparelleled guilt of making God a liar. In the vain hope of honouring the truth of God, the more dreadful his condition