Mr. Hn vEV's recommendatory Letter. xi this faith and the enjoyment of thefe blefïings, we are fanaified ; confcience is pacified, and the heart puri- fied; we are delivered from the dominion of fin, pofed to holy tempers, and furnifhed for n holy praaice. Here, I apprehend, our author will appear fin.gufar. This is the place, in which he feems to go quite out of the common road. The 'generality of ferions peuple look upon thefe unfpeakable blefliings as the reward of holinefs; to be received, after we have fincerely prac tifed univerfal holinefs; not as neceffary, previously neceffary, to perform any ad of true holinefs. This is the fumbling block, which our legal minds, dingy with prejudice, and fwollen with pride, will' hardly get over. --However, thefe endowments of our new ftate are, in our author's opinion, the effehual, and the only effethtal expedient, to produce fan&ification.. They are the very method which the eternal Spirit has ordained, for our bringing forth thofe fruits of righteoufnefs, (which are by fetus Chrifi unto theglory and praifi of God *.--Whereas if there be any appearances of virtue, or any efforts of obedience which fpring not from thefe motives and means of praaice, Mr. Marshall treats them as " reprobate filver." He cannot allow them the characer of gofpel-holinefs. This is the plan, and thefe are the leading fenti:- inents of the enfuing treatife. To eRabliíh or defend them, is not my aim. This is attempted, and I think executed, in the work itfelf. My aim is, only to ex- hibit the molt diítinguiíhing principles, in one short (ketch, and clear point of view; that the reader may the more eafily remember them, and by this key enter the more perfectly into the writer's meaning. Let him that is fpiritual t judge ; and reject or admit, as each tenet íhall appear to correfpond or difagree with the infallible word. Only let candour, not rigour, fill the chair ; and interpret an unguarded expretfion, or a feemingly inconfiftent fentence; by the general tenor of the difcourfe. Phil. i. II, t I Coy ii. Ig.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=