fore, our enmity to God does not arise merely from conceiving God to be our enemy. Here let these things be considered:

1. If our enmity against God arises merely from conceiving him to be our enemy, if we have no contrariety of heart to God, but what arises merely from conceiving that he dislikes us; then God's dislike to us must have taken place while we were perfectly holy. Or our belief that God is our enemy, is a groundless sentiment, originally injected into the human mind by the devil, the father of lies, as Mr. Sandeman supposes; but for which, we should naturally love God, be perfectly pleased with his character, and from our childhood grow up truly friendly to him. And if either of these be true, then,

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2. In order to our reconciliation to God, we need not to be born again; we need no change of nature; we only need to believe that God is become our friend and so we may be reconciled to God by this belief. For it is an old maxim, remove the cause and the effect will cease. And in this view the old Antinomian scheme, relative to total depravity and regeneration, is consistent. This faith, therefore, is the first act. And by this faith we are regenerated: that is, a belief of God's

him or hate him, or to have any exercise of heart relative to him. God is not in all their thoughts. They never hated him in their lives, they will tell you; nor did they ever feel any love to him, or delight in him. The divine character, as yet, never came near enough to their view to give them pleasure or pain. The fool saith in his heart, there is no God. They wonder, therefore, what can be meant by the apostle's words, The carnal mind is enmity against God. Surely, say they, he does not mean, that every natural man hates God, for I never hated him in my life. For let our sinful nature be ever so contrary to God's holy nature, yet the contrariety will not be felt until the true and real character of the Holy One of Israel begins to come into clear view. For without the law sin was dead: but when the commandment came, sin revived. This contrariety which is between our sinful nature and God's holy nature, is the thing chiefly intended in the text. And the sense is, "The carnal mind is contrariety to the holy nature of God, as appears from this, that it is not subject to that law, which is a transcript of God's moral character, neither indeed can be, which proves the contrariety to be total, and fixed. And as the tree, such is the fruit; so then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. For God cannot be pleased with what is contrary to his own holy nature. And therefore, upon the whole, to be carnally minded, is death." Which was the point to be proved. See Rom. viii. 6, 7, 8, 9.

love to us, removes the grounds of our enmity to him, and begets love, repentance, and every Christian grace.

Mr. Sandeman's scheme, which is nothing else than the old Antinomian scheme refined, and dressed up in a new attire, teaches, that the truth to be believed in justifying faith, is, 'that there is forgiveness with God through the atonement for impenitent sinners.' A belief of this begets hope, and love, and repentance, and every Christian grace. For on his scheme, forgiveness takes place before repentance, as it does necessarily on the Antinomian scheme, whatever shape it assumes. For on this scheme, as our enmity against God arises from conceiving God to be our enemy; so our love arises from conceiving God to be our friend. And therefore we must first of all conceive God to be our friend, before love can exist; and so before repentance can exist. And so justification must necessarily take place before repentance. This is a difficulty which neither the more ancient nor the later Antinomian writers know how to get rid of.

And thus faith, even that faith by which we are justified, takes place, in order of nature, before regeneration. For it is the cause of it. But the cause, in order of nature, is always

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 Saviour 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 un 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.

en.

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 forgiv Which is contrary to the whole tenour 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, 41, 42. 1 Kings viii. 47-50. Ps. xxxii. 3, 4, 5. Prov. xxviii. 13. Isai. lv. 7. Jer. iv. 4. Ezek. xviii. 30, 31, 32. Luke iii. 3. and v. 31, 32. and xiii. 5. and xxiv. 47. Acts ii. 37, 38. and iii. 19. and v. 31. and 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 expect pardon without faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. This doctrine of pardon befure repentance, had been taught; yea, it had spread far and wide. This occasioned the assembly of divines at Westminster expressly to assent the contrary. Confession of faith, chap. xv. 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 honoured, 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 love I thy law! It is my meditation all the day. Ps. cxix. 97. 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 of 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 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 an 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' Treatise concerning Religious Affections, to show the difference between true religion and this kind of delusion. But to return:

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. For 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.—And,

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

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