The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation

ADVERTISEMENT

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE author had no thoughts of reprinting the present publication, till he was repeatedly requested to do so from very respectable quarters.

The corrections and additions, which form a consider** able part of this edition, are, such as, after a lapse of Jisteen years, the writer thought it proper to make. It would be inexcusable for him to have lived all this time, without gaining any additional light, by what he has seen and heard upon the subject ; and still more so, to publish a second edition, without doing all in his power towards improving it. The omission*) however, which also are considerable, are not always owing to a disapprobation of the sentiment ; but to other things presenting themselves, which appeared to be more immediately in point.

CONTENTS.

PACK.

Preface • ~ v

PART THE FIRST.

The subject shewn to be important, stated, and

PART. THE SECOND.

Argument* to prove faith in Christ to be the Duty of all men who hear or have opportunity to hear the gospel 29

Prop. I. Unconverted sinners are commanded, exhorted, and invited to believe in Christ for salvation .» ib.

II. Every man is bound cordially to receive and approve whatever God reveals ~ 46

III. Though the Gospel, strictly speaking, is not a law, but a message of pure grace ; yet it virtually requires obedience, and such an obedience as includes saving faith 55

IV. The want of faith in Christ is ascribed to men's depravity, and is itself represented as a heinous sin - 6l

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V. God hath threatened and inflicted the most awful punishments on sinners for their not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ 70

VI. Other spiritual exercises which sustain an inseparable connexion with faith in Christ, are represented as the duty of men in general • 76

PART THE THIRD.

Objections answered 91

The principle of holiness possessed by man

in innocence 97

v The Decrees of God : 105

Particular Redemption 1 1 1

The Covenant of Works 116

Inability to believe 1 18 The work of the Spirit 128

Necessity of a Divine Principle in order to

COMCLUDIMG REFLECTIONS.

On the warrant to Believe 137

The influence of Faith on Justification....... 139

Alarming situation of Unbelievers 141

The Duty of Ministers in dealing with the

APPENDIX.

On the Question, Whether the existence of any Holy Disposition tf Heart be necessary in order to Believing in Christ.*. *. 164

TO THE

FIRST EDITION.

W HEN the following pages were written, which was in 1781, the author had no intention of publishing them. He had formefly entertained different sentiments. For some few years, however, he had begun to doubt whether all his principles on these subjects were scriptural. These doubts arose chiefly from thinking on some passages of scripture ; particularly the latter part of the second psalm, where kings who set themsehes against the Lordy and against his anointed, are positively commanded to kiss the Son : also the preaching of John the baptist, Christ and his apostles ; who, he found, did not hesitate to address unconverted sinners, and that in the most pointed manner ; saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand — Repent , and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. And it appeared to him, there must be a most uiv

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warrantable force put upon these passages, to make them mean any other repentance and faith, than what are connected with salvation.

Reading the lives and labours of such men as Elliot, Brainerd) and several others, who preached Christ with so much success to the American Indians, had an effect upon him. Their work, like that of the apostles, seemed to be plain before them. They appeared to him, in their addresses to those poor benighted heathens, to have none of the dissiculties with which he felt himself encumbered. These things led him to the throne of grace, to implore instruction and resolution. He saw that he wanted both ; the one to know the mind of Christ, and the other to avow it.

He was for some time, however, deterred from disclosing his doubts. During nearly four years they occupied his mind, and not without increasing. Being once in company with a minister whom he greatly respected, it was thrown out as a matter of enquiry, Whether he had generally entertained just notions concerning unbelief. It was common to speak of unbelief as a calling in question the truth of our own personal religion : whereas, he remarked, " It was the calling in question the

truth of what God had said." This remark appeared to carry in it its own evidence.

From this time his thoughts upon the subject began to enlarge. Her preached upon it more than once. From hence, he was led to think on its opposite, faith, and to consider it as a persuasion of the truth of what God hath said; and of course, to suspect his former views concerning its not being the duty of unconverted sinners.

He was aware that the generality of Christians with whom he was acquainted, viewed the belief of the gospel as something presupposed in faith, rather than as being of the essence of it ; and considered the contrary as the opinion of Mr. Sandeman, which they were agreed in rejecting, as favourable to a dead or inoperative kind of faith. He thought, however, that what they meant by a belief of the gospel, was nothing more than a general assent to the doctrines of revelation, unaccompanied with love to them, or a dependance on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. He had no doubt but that such a notion of the subject ought to be rejected : and if this be the notion of Mr. Sandeman, (which by the way he does not know, having never read any

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of his works) he has no scruple in saying, it is far from any thing which he intends to advance.*