SECTION II.

Saving Truth is the object of faving Faith: What TRUTH is, and what great things are Spoken of it and of the WORD. Our falvation turns upon it.

appears by the preceding fection, that Saving TRUTH is the ground and object of faving FAITH: but, "What is TRUTH?"-This is the awful queftion, that Pilate once asked of him, who was best able to answer it. But alas! Pilate was fo hurried by the lying fear of man, that he did not stay for an answer. May I venture to give one. -TRUTH is fpiritual fubftance; and a LIE, fpiritual shadow. TRUTH is fpiritual light; and a LIE, spiritual darkness. TRUTH is the root of all virtue, and a LIE is the root of all vice. TRUTH is the celeftial tincture, that makes fpirits good; and a LIE, the infernal tincture, that makes them evil. A LIE is as nearly related to the Devil, as infection to one that has the plague, or opacity to the earth: and TRUTH is as nearly related to God, as fragrancy to burning incense, and light to the unclouded fun.

According to this definition of TRUTH and ERROR, may we not give plain and fcriptural anfwers to fome of the deepest queftions in the world?-What is God? The reverse of the prince of darkness, and of the father of lies: He is the father of lights, and the God of Truth: He is Light, and in him is no darkness at all.-What is Christ? He is the brightness of his Father's glory; a light; a great light to them that dwell in the shadow of death. He is the TRUTH; the TRUE Witness; the TRUTH ITSELF; Emmanuel, God with us, full of grace and TRUTH.-What is the Holy Ghoft? The Spirit of TRUTH Yea, fays St. John, The Spirit is TRUTH, and leads into all TRUTH.-What is the Devil? The Spirit of ERROR, the multitude of LYING Spirits and

of this truth, will make way for their receiving the higher truths, that ftand between them and the top of the mysterious ladder of truth. I grant, it is impoffi ble they fhould leap at once to the middle, much less to the highest round of that ladder; but if the foot of it is upon earth, in the very nature of things, the loweft ftep is within their reach, and by laying hold of it, they may go on from faith to faith, till they ftand firm even in the chriftian faith; if diftinguishing grace has elected them to hear the chriftian golpel. The most fudden converfions imply this gradual tranfition. As in the very nature of things, when the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip from the Eunuch, and tranfported him to Azotus, he made Philip's body rapidly meafure all the distance between the wilderness of Gaza and Azotus fo, when he helped the Philippian jailor from the gates of hell to the gates of heaven in one night, he made him rapidly pafs thro' the fear of God, the dread of his juftice, and the pangs of penitential defires after falvation, before he entered into the joyous reft, that remains for those that heartily believe in Chrift. Nor is this quick, tho' gradual, tranfition from midnight darkness to noon-day light, an unintelligible myftery; fince we are witneffes of a fimilar event every revolving day. The vegetable and the animal world help us likewife to understand the nature of fudden converfions. Every philofopher knows, that a mushroom paffes thro' almost as many ftages of the vegetative life in fix hours, as an oak does in two hundred and those animalcula that frisk into life in the morning of a fummer's day, propagate their fpecies at noon, are old at four o'clock, and dead at fix, measure the length of animal life as really, as Methfelah did in his millennium,

SE C

SECTION II.

Saving Truth is the object of faving Faith: What TRUTH is, and what great things are Spoken of it and of the WORD. Our falvation turns upon it.

T appears by the preceding fection, that Saving TRUTH is the ground and object of faving FAITH: but, "What is TRUTH?"This is the awful queftion, that Pilate once asked of him, who was beft able to answer it. But alas! Pilate was fo hurried by the lying fear of man, that he did not stay for an answer. May I venture to give one. TRUTH is fpiritual fubftance; and a LIE, fpiritual shadow. TRUTH is fpiritual light; and a LIE, fpiritual darkness. TRUTH is the root of all virtue, and a LIE is the root of all vice. TRUTH is the celeftial tincture, that makes fpirits good; and a LIE, the infernal tin&ture, that makes them evil. A LIE is as nearly related to the Devil, as infection to one that has the plague, or opacity to the earth and TRUTH is as nearly related to God, as fragrancy to burning incenfe, and light to the unclouded fun.

According to this definition of TRUTH and ERROR, may we not give plain and fcriptural anfwers to fome of the deepest queftions in the world?-What is God? The reverse of the prince of darkness, and of the father of lies: He is the father of lights, and the God of Truth: He is Light, and in him is no darkness at all.-What is Christ? He is the brightness of his Father's glory; a light; a great light to them that dwell in the shadow of death. He is the TRUTH; the TRUE Witness; the TRUTH ITSELF; Emmanuel, God with us, full of grace and TRUTH.-What is the Holy Ghoft? The Spirit of TRUTH Yea, fays St. John, The Spirit is TRUTH, and leads into all TRUTH.-What is the Devil? The Spirit of ERROR, the multitude of LYING Spirits and

their prince; he that abode not in the TRUTH; in whom there is no TRUTH, and who deceives the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth. Again,

What is the Gofpel? The WORD of TRUTH, the word of God, the word of faith, the word of the kingdom, the word of life, and the word of falvation.· What are Gofpel-minifters? Men that bear witness to the TRUTH; that rightly divide the word of TRUTH; that are fellow-helpers to the TRUTH; that speak forth the words of TRUTH; and are valiant for the TRUTH upon the earth.What is the preaching of the Gospel ? The manifeftation of the TRUTH.-What is it to believe the gofpel? It is to receive the KNOWLEDGE of the TRUTH; to receive the LOVE of the TRUTH; and to obey the TRUTH. What is it to millake the gofpel? It is to err from the TRUTH; to turn after fables; and to give heed to feducing spirits, and doârimes of devils. What is the true Church? The pillar and ground of TRUTH, against which the gates of hell fhall not prevail.-What is the first fruit of fincere repentance? The acknowledging of the TRUTH.. What are believers? Perfons that are chosen to falvation thro' the unneceffitated belief of the TRUTH; that are of the TRUTH; that know the TRUTH; that have the TRUTH in their inward parts; that have a good report. of the TRUTH; in whom dwells the TRUTH; who have been taught the truth as it is in Jefus ; in whom is the TRUTH of Chrift; who have learned Chrift; have purified their fouls by obeying the TRUTH; and walk in the TRUTH. What are unftable fouls? People ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the TRUTH, with whom the TRUTH of the gospel does not continue, and who are wilfully bewitched, that they fhould not obey the TRUTH. What are obftinate unbelieve s? Men of corrupt minds, deftitute of the TRUTH; unreasonable men, that refift the TRUTH; that glory and lie against the TRUTH; that walk in darkness, and do not the TRUTH. What are apoftates? Men that fin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the TRUTH, and, instead of repenting, count the blood of

the

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the covenant, wherewith they WERE fanctified, an unholy thing. What are perfect men in Christ? Men that are eftablished in the prefent TRUTH, i. e. in the TRUTH revealed under the chriftian difpenfation, and that can do nothing against the TRUTH, but for the TRUTH.

If all turns thus upon TRUTH, and if TRUTH is at once fpiritual light, and the object of faving faith, it follows: (1) That to walk in the TRUTH, to walk in the LIGHT, and to walk by FAITH, are phrafes of the fame import: (2) That to be converted is to be turned from darkness to LIGHT, that is, from the practical belief of a lie to the practical belief of the TRUTH; or, as St. Paul expreffes it, from the power of Satan unto God: And (3) That the chief business of the Tempter, is to take the word of truth out of our hearts, left we should believe and be faved: or, in other terms, to blind our minds, left the light of the glorious gofpel of Chrift fhould fhine unto us.

If Jefus Chrift is the Truth, the Light, the Life, and the WORD, that was in the beginning with God, and was God; the wORD, by which all things were made, and are preferved- If he is the Light, that fhineth in darkness, even when the darkness comprehendeth it notIf he is the true Light, which lighteth every man, that cometh into the world, while the day of falvation laits -If he is the archetype, the eternal, living pattern of all faving Truth-If he is the effential, almighty WORD, from whom revealed Truth, and the Word of our falvation flow as conftantly, as light and heat from the fun do we not flight him, and defpife eternal life; when we flight the TRUTH, and defpife the WORD? And may not the great things fpoken of the Word, confirm what has been faid of the Truth, and help us to answer the questions already proposed in a manner equally fcriptural and conclufive?

Not forgetting that there is fuch a thing as the Word nigh, the Word behind us, the ftill small voice, and the word of that grace, which has appeared unto all men, teaching them to deny worldly lufts, and to live Soberly, &c. I afk: What are evangelifts? Men, who

bear

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