TABLE OF CONTENTS. I. On the opposition to the purity of Gospel Doctrine Page IV. On some queries proposed by Mr. Bellamy . V. Of Mr. Bellamy's account of Saving Faith VI. Remarks upon a passage in a late publication. The doctrine of Mr. Marshal and Mr. Hervey concern- ing the nature of Saving Faith the same with that VIII. Of marks and evidences of a State of Grace . . . 128 IX. On the Faith of the Gospel as necessary to recon- XII. Of the work of the Holy Spirit in Conversion XIII. Some instances of a decline from the Doctrine of the Reformation.-Causes of that decline. . 236 On the eternal Sonship of Christ (Postscript). Remarks on the characters of Mr. Hervey and Mr. 283 SOME POINTS OF GOSPEL-DOCTRINE VINDICATED. LETTER I. On the opposition to the purity of Gospeldoctrine. CHRISTIAN BRETHREN, THERE is hardly any revealed truth which has not been openly contradicted or secretly undermined by one or other of the numerous errors which have troubled the church of God. But of all the parts of our holy religion none has been opposed under more plausible pretences, or with more uniform and unabated malignity, than the doctrine of justification by faith in Jesus Christ without the works of the law. This opposition was as early as the murderous envy of Cain. The apostle tells us, that by faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, Abel's faith, no doubt, respected the promise which had been given to our first parents concerning salvation by the seed of the woman. Hence it appears that Cain, whose offering was rejected for his want of that faith, was an enemy to the doctrine B of salvation by grace through faith. That the opinion of self-righteousness prevailed amongst the Israelites in the days of Moses, is evident from his caveat against it in the ninth chapter of Deuteronomy. Not for thy righteousness, says he to Israel, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess the land. A legal temper was the ruin of the Jews in the time of Christ and his apostles. Israel, who followed after righteousness, did not attain to the law of righteoussness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith; but, as it were, by the works of the law: for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. They being ignorant of God's righte ousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God*. The New Testament church, as soon as it was erected, began to be troubled with legal doctrine. To set forth the danger of that leaven is the principal design of Paul's epistles to the Romans and Galatians. He shews, in these epistles, that the righteousness, for which alone we are justified, is not to be procured by our performance of any work or by our attainment of any good qualification as the condition of our interest in it; but to be received as the free gift of divine grace through faith. Hence it is called the righteousness which is of faith; and which God imputes to us without works†. After the times of the Apostles, the opposition to the doctrine of free grace continued and increased'; but did not come to a remarkable height, till the beginning of the fifth century, when Pelagius rose. He openly denied the doctrine of the victorious work of the Holy Spirit in effectual calling; with which doctrine that of * Deut. ix. 5. Rom. ix. 30, 31, 32. x. 3:1 Rom. ix. 30. iv. 6. |