before the effect. But if faith takes place before regeneration, it is in its own nature not a holy, but a graceless, unregenerate act; for it is the act of a graceless, unregenerate heart; and so faith is not "a saving grace, but a saving sin." But can we be married to a holy Savior by an unholy act? by an act in its own nature perfectly opposite to his mediatorial character ? Can we receive Christ by an act of rejection? Can we be united to Christ by an act of disunion? Can we become one with Christ by an act of sin? Perhaps it may be thought that Mr. Sandeman gets rid of this difficulty by teaching that faith is not an act; that there is no volition or exercise of heart implied in it. But nothing is gained, if, while we avoid one difficulty, we run upon another as great.

For, if it is not an act, if no volition or exercise of heart is implied in it, then we are married to Christ" without our consent;" just as Mr. Mather supposes that the Israelites, on the plains of Moab, were taken into covenant "without their consent.' But this is inconsistent with the very notion of marriage; which is a transaction which implies the mutual consent of both parties; and therefore, on this scheme, the marriage union, as it takes place among mankind, could not be used, with any propriety, to represent our union to Christ by faith. For if the soul is married to Christ at all, the consent of our hearts must be implied; or, to use Mr. Stoddard's words, "when the soul marries to Christ, he doth it with a spirit of love; this act of faith doth include all other graces. It is virtually all grace."- Nature of Conversion, p. 19-24. (See Rom. vii. 4. 2 Cor. xi. 2. Eph. v. 19, 30. John xvi. 27.) But can we be married to Christ by an act of sin? But if justifying faith is the act of an unregenerate heart, dead in sin, totally depraved, then it is an act of sin; for as is the tree, such is the fruit; as is the fountain, such are the streams; as is the heart, such are its acts. Besides, if justifying faith is the act of an unregenerate sinner, then it is the act of an impenitent sinner; and then pardon is, in order of nature, before repentance. And so it is not necessary that we repent of our sins, in order to our being forgiven; which is contrary to the whole tenor of Scripture, and to the plainest and most express declarations of Almighty God. Pray, reader, stop a minute, take your Bible, and turn to, and read, Lev. xxvi. 40-42. 1 Kings viii. 47-50. Ps. xxxii. 3-5. Prov. xxviii. 13. Isai. lv. 7. Jer. iv. 4. Ezek. xviii. 30-32. Luke iii. 3; v. 31, 32; xiii. 5; xxiv. 47. Acts ii. 37, 38; iii. 19; v. 31; x. 21. And then lay your hand on your heart, and say, Does God offer to pardon impenitent sinners, while such? Did the Son of God die that pardon might be granted to impenitent sinners, as such?

Or can God, consistent with the gospel, forgive the impenitent, while such, and as such, any more than if Christ never had died? If any doctrine tends to delude sinners, it is this—that they may expect pardon without repentance. They have no heart to repent; they wish to escape punishment; they hope they shall escape: if they can believe that they shall escape, it will give them joy. This doctrine is suited to give joy to an impenitent heart. But to teach impenitent sinners, that they may expect pardon without repentance toward God, is as contrary to Scripture, as it is to teach them, that they may expect pardon without faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. This doctrine of pardon before repentance, had been taught; yea, it had spread far and wide. This occasioned the Assembly of divines at Westminster expressly to assert the contrary. "Repentance is of such necessity to all sinners, that none may expect pardon without it." In fine, if the first act of justifying faith is an unregenerate, graceless, sinful act, so are all succeeding acts of the same faith; and if so, then to live a life of faith on the Son of God, as the holy apostle Paul says he did, (Gal. ii. 20,) is to live a life of unregenerate, graceless, sinful acts. For it is an agreed point, that the first act, and the succeeding acts of justifying faith, are of the same nature and kind; and so a life of faith is a life of sin, a course of unregenerate, graceless acts. And this graceless faith will bring forth selfish, graceless fruits. All our love and joy will arise merely from self-love; in a belief that our sins are pardoned, and that God loves us. The holiness, justice, and goodness of the divine nature, exhibited in that law which is holy, just, and good, (Rom. vii. 12,) which Christ loved and honored, living and dying, instead of appearing perfect in beauty, without a blemish, in our eyes, can never be thought of with pleasure; we never can say with David, "O, how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day." In a word, as our faith is of the Antinomian kind, so our whole hearts will be all over Antinomian. No wonder "ninety-nine in a hundred" of such converts are in the dark about their good estate; and feel as much need of an external, graceless covenant, as though they never had been converted.

A late writer, in order to prove, "fide nos regenerari," that we are regenerated by faith, quotes Gal. iii. 26: "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ." But this text speaks not of regeneration, but of adoption. Again he refers to John vi. 53: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." Just as if eating and drinking were acts of the dead, and not of the living. Just as if the dead might eat and drink while they are dead, and by so doing be made alive. However, this is certain, that that is a

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dead corpse, and not a living man, which neither eats nor drinks. He who does not live a life of faith in Christ, is dead in sin; yet still repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," are acts of spiritual life, and not of spiritual death.

However, it is granted that there is a kind of faith which may be exercised by a graceless, unregenerate, impenitent sinner. For such a one, although he rejects Christ Jesus with his whole heart, yet he may firmly believe that God loves him, and that his sins are forgiven, and be ravished in this belief. But the thing believed is a lie; and all the affections which result from this belief are founded in delusion. And yet, this is the very thing which is sometimes called regeneration by faith, and beholding the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.. And it was one chief design of President Edwards's Treatise concerning Religious Affections, to show the difference between true religion and this kind of delusion. But to return:

For

3. If a belief that God is become our friend, without any change of nature, will reconcile us to God, then Satan, transformed into an angel of light, is able to do the business. when the sinner is terrified with the thoughts of death and hell, Satan can bring to his mind such texts as these: "Son, be. of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee; "O thou of little. faith, wherefore dost thou doubt?" and at the same time strike the sinner's imagination with a view of heaven, of God upon a throne, of Christ sitting at his right hand, till every doubt is banished, and until the sinner cries out in transport," I believe, I believe."

4. If our enmity against God arises only from conceiving God to be our enemy, then all those graceless, deluded sinners, who believe that God loves them, are truly regenerate; that is, the love to God, which they experience in this belief, is true love. For, as the cause of our enmity is believing God to be our enemy, so, in every instance where the cause is removed, the effect will cease. But in all deluded sinners, who believe that God loves them, the supposed cause of enmity is removed, and accordingly they really think that they love God. Thus gross Socinians, who deny the eternity of hell torments, who believe the universal salvation of devils and damned, and in this belief view God as the friend of the whole intelligent system, all made up of love to his creatures, do, in this view of his character, love. him, and so are all of them, on this scheme, truly reconciled to God: rather, these men, if they were instructed in these principles from their childhood, and believed them, were never totally depraved; for they always loved God. And accordingly we find they universally deny the doctrine of total depravity;

and say, that it is natural for all mankind to love God; and that in fact they all would love him, were his true and real character brought into their view. And so would the devils too, on this scheme, were the divine character what the Socinians suppose it to be. And while Socinians love God, viewed as they view him, Antinomians, of the grossest sort, whose faith professedly consists in a belief that God loves them, are often full of love to God, in this view of him. And why may not Socinians and Antinomians have charity for each other? for their schemes are not so different in reality as in appearance; for both look upon God as a lovely being; and both love him; and both profess to love him "for the transcendent excellency of his perfections." The one does this, because God loves all, and so loves him; the other, because, although God does not love all, yet he loves him in particular. And why is not the love of the one of as good a kind as the love of the other? And the Pharisees, concerning whom Christ declared, that the love of God was not in them, (John v. 42,) and who hated and crucified the Son of God, ought also to be received to charity, on this scheme; for they really believed that God was their Father and their Friend, and in this belief, they experienced this kind of love, of which we are speaking. Yea, our charity ought to be more extensive still.

5. For on this scheme they who are totally depraved, have as much of a principle of grace, as they that are regenerate; that is, sinners are at heart as well disposed to love God, before regeneration, as after; for after regeneration they are disposed to love God, only considered as one that loves them; and before regeneration, they are disposed to love God, considered and viewed in this light; for it is written, "Sinners love those that love them;" and they need no new principle of grace to incline them to it. And so the unregenerate only need light to see that God loves them; and could they but have this light, they would love God as much as others; and therefore,

6. On this scheme, Satan's charge against Job, that he was at heart no better than other men, was true and just; and the high commendation which God had given of him, that there was none like him in the earth, was without reason. "And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth; a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast thou not made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land." As if he had said, "No wonder he loves

en.

God, while God is so full of love and kindness to him; and who is there under the like circumstances that would not love God as ruch as he does?" "But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face; " "just as we fallen spirits have done, ever since we were turned out of heavAnd therefore this Job, who is commended as a nonesuch, has in reality no more grace in his heart than we have." And if the enmity of fallen creatures against God arises only from conceiving him to be their enemy, and their love only from conceiving God to be their friend, Satan's reasoning was just. All Job's seeming superior goodness was entirely owing to the more abundant tokens of the divine love; and therefore he would have turned to be like the devil, in an instant, if God had only touched all that he had. He would have cursed God to the face.

7. On this scheme, indeed, Adam had no more grace before the fall than he had after; but his different affections toward the Deity were entirely owing to the different external circumstances which he was under. For, on this scheme, before the fall God loved him, and so he loved God; and after the fall, had God continued to love him, he would have continued to love God also; for the "true reason, and the only reason, why Adam could not love God after the fall, was because, as he thought, God was become his irreconcilable enemy. As soon as he found out his mistake, and perceived that God was ready to be reconciled, he returned to the love of his Maker, without any new principle of grace." Before the fall, that principle of self-love, which, according to Mr. M., was "essential to him as a moral agent," naturally inclined him to love God with all his heart, as his greatest good." And after the fall, this same principle did as naturally incline him to hate God with all his heart, as his greatest evil. His love and his hatred arose from the very same principle; and his different affections were entirely owing to his different external circumstances. As soon, therefore, as his external circumstances were altered, and God became friendly again, he immediately returned to the love of God, without any new principle of grace; "there was nothing in his fallen circumstances to prevent it," according to Mr. M. Adam therefore, on this scheme, had no more grace before the fall than after. It is true, the fall made an alteration in his external circumstances, which different external circumstances occasioned different affections; even as it was with the Israelites at the Red Sea, when Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned, and their expectations of a prosperous journey to the land of Canaan were raised very high, they were full of love, and joy, and praise ; but three days after, when they came to the waters of Marah, they murmured; and that from the same principle from which they before rejoiced. It is true,