you have felt a defire to be there. Upon this fcheme of doctrine, Lot's wife might have fat down at the gate of Sodom, concluding that because the angels had taken her by the hand, fhe was already in Zoar. A dangerous delufion this, against which our Lord himself cautions us by crying aloud, REMEMBER LOT'S

WIFE.

I would take the liberty to expoftulate with you, honored Sir, about this paradox, if I had not fome hope, that it is rather owing to the printer's mistake than your own. If you wrote in your manuscript, pardon is already obtained FOR, not BY, fuch an one, we are agreed; for "Chrift made upon the cross a fufficient facrifice and satisfaction for the fins of the whole world." But what he procured FOR us is not obtained by us, till the Holy Ghoft makes the application by faith. "If I had a mind, faid the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, to hinder the progrefs of the gospel, and to establish the kingdom of darkness, I would go about telling people, they might have the Spirit of God and yet not feel it ;" or, which is much the fame, that the pardon which Chrift procured for them, is already obtained by them, whether they enjoy a sense of it or not.

XVI. In the next paragraph, page 7, (who could believe it!) you come fully into Mr. W.'s doctrine of doing fomething, in order to obtain juftification." You was reminded (Vind. page 48.) that "St. "Paul and Mr. W. generally mean by juftification, "that wonderful tranfaction of the Spirit of God in "a returning prodigal's confcience, by which the

forgiveness of his fins is proclaimed to him thro' "the blood of fprinkling." Nevertheless, fpeaking of the fenfe of pardon, and the testifying of it to a finner's confcience, you grant that this knowledge of our intereft in Chrift, (this experienced juftification is certainly to be fought in the uf of all appointed means; we are to feek that we may find, to afk that we may have, to knock that it may be opened unto us. In this fenfe, (the very

fenfe

fenfe we generally fix to the word juftification) all the texts you have brought to prove that man is to do fomething in order to obtain juftification and to find favour with God, admit of an EASY SOLUTION." That is, in plain Englifh, easily demonftrate the truth of Mr. W's. propo-: fition, which has been fo loudly exclaimed against as dreadfully heretical.

SOLUTION which

O prejudice, thou mifchievous brother of difcord, why didit thou caft thy black vail in June, and the following months, over the EASY has been found out in December? And what a pity is it, dear Sir, you did not fee this folution before yo had attempted to expofe our grey-headed Elisha, by the publication of that weak and triiling dialogue with the Popish friar at Paris!

XVII. The next page, the 8th, is already anfwered, Vind. page 59, &c. and the 9th page is anfwered in the fecond check, page 22, in the note upon the Verfifier's performance.

Page 10, After fhewing that you confound the atonement with the application of it, the work of Christ with that of the Holy Ghoft, you produce one of my arguments, (the first you have attempted. to refute,) to prove that we must do fomething in order to juftification; I had afferted that we must believe, faith being previous to juftification. You fay, I deny the affertion. Do you indeed, honored Sir! Upon what ground?" The Holy Ghoft teaches, fay you, that all who believe ARE juftified." And does this prove the point? The king fays to a deferter, Bow to my Son, and thou shalt not be fhot. Bow to the prince, adds an officer; all who bow to him ARE pardoned. Muft the foldier conclude from the words ARE pardoned, then the pardon is previous to the bow? Again, You are fick, and your phyfician fays, Take this medicine; all who take it ARE cured. Very well,, anfwers your nurfe, you need not then diftrefs and perplex my Mafter, by making him take your remedy. The taking of it cannot poffibly be previous to recovery, for you fay, all who take it ARE cured.

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This is juft fuch an other argument as that of my nored friend. O Sir, how tottering is that fyftem, which even fuch a writer as yourself cannot prop up, without putting fo forced a construction upon apoftle's words, All that believe ARE justified!

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Now we have feen upon what fcriptural ground you maintain, that believing cannot be previous to juftification, permit me, honored Sir, to quote fome of the many fcriptures which induce us to be lieve just the reverfe. BELIEVE in the Lord Jefus Chrift and thou fialt be faved-that is, in the lowest fenfe of the word, thou shalt be juftified; for God juftifies the ungodly that BELIEVE in Jefus. We have BELIEVED in Jefus Chrift, that we mi ht be juftify'd by the FAITH of Chrift-Whom he hath fet forth to be a propiti ation, thro' FAITH in his blood, for the remiffion, of fins that are paft.- As Mofes lifted up the ferpent even fo muft the Son of man be lifted up, that whofoever BELIEVETH in him fhould not perish, fhould be pardoned,, &c.Faith fhall be imputed to us for righteoufnefs, if we BELIEVE on him who raifed up Jefus.-Being there fore juftified by FAITH we have peace with God.Without FAITH it is impoffible to pleafe God. He that BELIEVETH NOT, far from being juftified, as is infinu ated, fhall be damned, the wrath of God abideth on him, he is CONDEMNED ALREADY. John iii. 18. Light cannot be more oppofite to darkness, than this doctrine of Chrift to that which my honored friend thinks it his duty to patronize.

XVIII. When you have endeavoured to defend your fentiment from feripture, you attempt to do it from reafon. Faith, fay you, can no more fubfift without its object, than there can be a marriage without an hufband. This is as proper an argument as you could advance, had you intended to disprove the doctrine you feem ftudious to defend, for it is evident that a woman must be married, before she can have an hufband. So fure then as marriage is previous to hav.

ing an husband, faith is previous to receiving Chrift; for we receive him by faith. John i. 12.

However, from this extraordinary argument, you conclude that the doctrine of believing before juftification is not lefs contrary to reafon than it is to fcripture; but I flatter myfelf that my judicious readers will draw a conclufion diametrically oppofite.

XIX. A quotation from St. Augustin appears next, and secures the ruin of your scheme. For if faith is compared to a lantern, and Chrift to the light in the lantern, common fenfe tells us, we must have the lantern before we can receive the candle which is to give us light. Or, in other words, we must have faith before we can receive Chrift; for you very juftly obferve, that faith receiveth Chrift who is the true light.

XX. St. Auguftin's lantern makes way for the witticifm with which you conclude your fecond epiftle.

"No letters fays my honored friend, were fent "thro' the various provinces against old Mordecai for fuppofing that the woman, Luke 15, lights a candle, &. in order to find her loft piece; but "because he infifts upon it, that the piece lights the "candle, fweeps the house, and fearches diligently

in order to find the woman." Permit me to afk dear Sir, whether your wit here has not for a moment got the start of your judgment? I introduced the woman feeking the piece fhe had loft, merely to fhew that it is neither an herefy, nor an abfurdity to

feek fomething in order to find it ;" and that inftance proved my point full as well, as if I had fixed upon Saul feeking his father's affes, or Jacob feeking his brethren in Dothan.

If it is as great an abfurdity to say, that finners are to feek the Lord, as it is to say that a piece feeks the woman who has loft it; let me tell you, dear Sir, that Mr. W. has the good fortune to be countenanced in his folly, firft by yourself, who tell us, page 7, that the knowledge of Chrift and our intereft in him is certainly to be fought in the ufe of all the appointed means:

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and

And fecondly by Ifaiah, who fays feek ye the Lord while he may be found: by St. Paul, who tells the Athenians that all nations of men are to feek the Lord: and by Chrift himself who fays, they that feck me early fhall find me -feek that you may find c.

I leave you to judge, honored Sir, whether it was worth your while to impeach Mr. W's good fenfe not only by reflecting upon your own, but by inevitably involving Ifaiah, St. Paul, and our Lord himfelf in the ridicule caft upon my vindicated friend! For the fame finner, who is reprefented by the loft piece, is a few verfes before reprefented by the left fon and you know Jefus Chrift tells us that he came from far to feek his father's pardon and affiftance. You begin your

THIRD LETTER By faying, "how God may deal with the Heathen world, is not for us to pry into." But we may believe what God has revealed. If the Holy Ghost declares, that in every nation he that feareth God, and worketh righteoufnefs, is accepted of him, we may credit what he fays, without being wife above what is written."

If you cannot fet afide that apoftolic part of the minutes, you try however to press it into the fervice of your doctrine. "There is, fay you, a material difference between faying, He that feareth God and worketh righteoufnefs is accepted, and SHALL BE accepted," and because "the verb is in the present tenfe" you conclude, there is no need of fearing God or working righteoufnefs, in order to find acceptance. This is exactly such another argument as that which I just now refuted, "we need not believe in order to be juftified, because it is faid, all that believe ARE juftified, and not SHALL BE juftified." You can no more prove by the one, that Cornelius provoking God and working unrighteoufnefs, was accepted of him; than by the other that unbelievers ARE juftified, becaufe it is faid that believers are fo.

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