140 $IE1W0111S OF PEItIOD`YII7, in writing; particularly thefe three points, vi$. 1. Whether or not the fins of believers, while unrepented of, make them liable to eternal punifhment? 2. Whether or not all fins, paft, prefent, and to come, arepardoned together and at .once ? 3. Whether or not repentance be necefláry, in order to the obtaining of the pardon of fin ? Meanwhile, after I was let into the knowledge of the dodîrine of grace, as to the ftate and cafe of believers in Chrift, I was {tilt confucad, indiitindt, and hampered in it, as to the free, open, and unhampered accefs of (inners unto him. And thus, I am fare, it was with me, till the year 170 How long I continued fo thereafter, I know not. But, through the mercy of God, I was by the year 1704 let into that point a1(ó ; and fo far confirmed therein, that, on the 9th of July that year, at a comrxpanion in Coidinghamé, I preached on Matth. xi. 28. " Come unto me, " all ye that labour and are .heavy laden," &c. then and there :giving the true fenfe of that text, fince publifhed in the notes on the Marrow, and profecuting it accordingly. And by the fame time alfo, I reckon I had the true fenfe of the parallel texts, If. lv. 1. Matth. ix. 12, 13. fince!. that tune alfo publifhed in the notes aforefaid. How I was led thereto, I cannot diftinc`tly tell; but I apprehendl had taken the hint from the Marrow ; and I had no great fondnefs for the doótrine of the conditionality of the covenant of grace. With relation to the point laft named, I remember, that upon a young man's mentioning, in a piece of trial before the prefby- tery, the conditions of the covenant ofgrace ; I quarrelled it, hav- ing no great gull for faith's being called the condition thereof, but abhorring the joining of other conditions with it. There- upon he was appointed to deliver an exegefis on the queftión, An fredus graticefit conditionatuna 2 This the young man, in his exegefis, refolved in the affirmative ; though, I.think, he held by faith only as the condition. I impunged his thefts, uling this ar- gument, viz. " I will be their, God, and they (hall be my peor . pie," is not conditional, but abfolute : But this is the covenant : Ergo, The covenant is not conditional. To which Mr Ramfay afbretàid ani'wered for theyoung man, That the covenant ofgrace was indeed a tettament, and not, properly fpeaking, conditional. I3erewith I was fatisfied, and declared I would not infift, face I had been in earned: but withal that I thought it was pity, that filch an improper way offpeaking of faith fhould be ufed ; lince it was not tëriptural, was liable to be abufed, and ready to lead people into miftakes. There things, in thefe days, while I was in the Merle, gave my fermons a certain tincture, which was difcerned ; though the Marrow, from whence it {prang, continued in utter obfcurity but they were acceptable to the faints; neitherdid brethren fhew difgutt of them. I converfed occafionally on force of thefe points with brethren, particularly with Mr Ramfay, then in Lytnoutb;
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