would the following flighter converfions be capable of bringing them to a gentler and more kind opinion? After all that has happened in that refpect, from those times to the prefent day, has a christian less reafon now to confider the Jews as a people forfaken by God; than then?

Finally, if, to weaken these arguments, it be advanced, that owehoera must be tranflated, will be faved, in a conditional fenfe, included in verse 23, that is, fo far as they do not remain in unbelief, and understand by nav I'ogan, all who believe; this would be fuppofing the apoftle to disclose a very important myftery. He would fay then: now Ifrael is in part blind and unbelieving, till the appointed number of the Gentiles enter into the church, and fo all Ifrael, that is, all who fhall believe, will be faved. An important discovery, indeed, and very capable of abating the pride of the believing heathen!

Nothing remains for us then, but that we underftand the mystery as relating to a future national converfion, which, little as the appearance of it may be at this time, and little as it probably can be in the prefent ftate of christianity, and with the now prevailing doctrines, will moft affuredly happen.

Whether a general converfion of the Jews will be accompanied with their reftoration to the land of Palestine, feems to me far lefs clearly determined by the prophecies of the Old Teftament, than it does to our author. The prophecies contained in the third and fifth books of Mofes, and other parts of the Old Teftament, that are commonly adduced in proof of this, contain many circumftances from which it clearly appears that thefe prophecies are already fulfilled by the Babylonifh captivity, and the return from it. At leaft it is inapplicable to the prefent state of that people, and their prefent long difperfion, as idolatry is every where announced as their prevailing fin, and the cause of their banishment: but it is well VOL. III. known,

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known, that fince their being fet free by Cyrus, and ftill more fince their difperfion by the Romans, this is a fin to which they have been by no means addicted.

Far more probable, in my opinion, and more clearly grounded on prophecies of the Old Testament, and fayings of Chrift, is the expectation that the gospel will be fome time or other preached to all nations, and that chriftianity will be the prevailing religion of the earth. Neither reason, nor experience offers any objections to the arguments in favour of this expectation, which our author adduces from the nature of chriftianity, namely, that every important truth will, fooner or later, rife victorious over and fupprefs its oppofing errors. It may be objected, indeed, that chriftianity has yet made little progrefs amongst the nations of infidels: nay, that in countries where it is the established religion, its influence and authority feem daily to decay. But the obvious reafon of both is, that the fystem of christianity which is preached to unbelievers is too much altered and corrupted by foreign additions, and must be brought back to its original purity and truth, before it can triumph over ignorance, infidelity and fuperftition. Before chriftianity is fo purified, it cannot produce the expected effects, but muft continue to experience various oppofitions; till at length thefe oppofitions will become the means and occafion of reftoring it to its first important truth and purity.

PROP.

PROP. XCIII. p. 407.

On the Terms of Salvation.

OUR author here handles the difficult and important queftion, how far faith in Chrift is to be confidered as the means of falvation. Many things that he fays on the fubject are good and juft; but as he has not developed and defined the idea of faith, what he afcribes to it will fcarcely appear fufficiently clear and methodical to the reader. "Chritt our Saviour," fays he, "is fent from heaven, God manifeft in the flesh, that whofoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life; that, though our fins be as fcarlet, they fhould by him, by means of his fufferings, and our faith, be made as white as wool; and the great punishment, which muft other wife have been inflicted upon us, according to what we call the courfe of nature, be averted. Faith then in Chrift, the righteous, will supply the place of that righteoufnefs, and finlefs perfection, to which we cannot attain. And yet this faith does not make void the law, and ftrict conditions, above described; but, on the contrary, establishes them. For no man can have this faith in Chrift, but he who complies with the conditions. If our faith do not overcome the world, and fhew itfelf by works, it is of no avail. It contains all the other chriftian graces; and we can never know that we have it, but by having the chriftian graces, which are its fruits." Hence he infers, that a mere affurance, or strong perfuafion, of a man's own falvation, or, as it is elfewhere expreffed, a mere confident acceptation and imputation of the merits of the blood of Chrift, is neither a condition, nor at

pledge of it. Such a ftrong perfuafion may be generated, whilft a man continues in many grofs corruptions: and, on the contrary, a man may poffefs every chriftian virtue, without having a firm affurance of his own falvation. Fear, in particular, cannot well be confiftent with fuch an affurance. On the question concerning the privilege and advantage of faith, he observes, firft, that the righteousness and fufferings of Chrift, with our faith in them, are neceffary to fave us from our fins, and to enable us to perform our imperfect righteousness: and, fecondly, that faith is propofed by the fcriptures as the means appointed by God for rendering imperfect righteoufnefs equivalent, in his fight, to perfect, and even of transforming it into perfect, as foon as we are freed from this body of flesh and death. Faith, he adds, improves righteoufnefs, and every degree of righteoufness is a proportional preparative for faith; and, if it do not produce faith, will end in felf-righteoufnefs, and fatanical pride.

To reduce thefe various affertions into due order, and to fhew how far they are confiftent with each other, with the nature of man, and with the moft obvious interpretations of the fcriptures, we will endeavour to give as juft, inftructive, and comprehenfive a notion of the nature of faith in general, and of faith in Chrift in particular, as an hypothetical explanation will admit. Faith, or belief, both in common language, and in the language of the fcriptures, fignifies the receiving and admitting somewhat as true, from the teftimony and authority of others, and on account of that teftimony and authority. When I confider as true any fact teftified to me by others, without any experience of it myself, or when I admit any propofition in mathematics or philofophy on the authority of a man acquainted with either fcience, without my being capable of perceiving the proofs or demonftrations of it, I may

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be faid to believe this fact, or propofition, in the true fense of the word. On the other hand, if I have experienced the first myself, or proved the latter in my own mind, I do not merely believe, I know and perceive the truth. In what follows, I fhall endeavour to prove that this notion is conformable both to the common use of words, and to the fcriptures: at the fame time, I fhall endeavour, as much as poffible, to remove any objections that may be made to it. Thus faith is oppofed to our own knowledge and judgment, and is properly a truft in the knowledge and judgment of another, which is more or lefs effectual, in proportion to the nature of the ob ject, and the scope of the faith. I fay, more or less effectual: for faith has always fome end, and, as on every occafion it is intended to produce fome good, must be confidered as an active principle. Let us now confider the natural frame of man, which renders it neceffary, that he fhould be led to a certain end by knowledge and judgment. This is most

naturally effected by his own: but, when his own are infufficient, he muft employ thofe of others. There are two ways in which a man may be guided by the knowledge of another. Either whilft his intellectual faculties are totally paffive, and at rest, as the machine of the world is governed and led by the wisdom of God; which blind guidance excludes faith, as well as all activity of the understanding or a man may be fo guided, that his mind may be employed, improved, and perfected, whilft he is himfelf an agent. This laft mode of being guided by the knowledge of another prefuppofes and requires faith ; without which it is impoffible. In this cafe, the understanding, enlightened by a fuperior knowledge, receives the conclusions and inftructions of this fuperior knowledge, following and obeying them from its own choice, not indeed on internal evidence drawn from its own ftores, but from a confidence in that wisdom

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