is only after they have succeeded in dressing them out in the garb of self-righteous duties and observances, that they venture to encourage hope, or speak to them of the Saviour. They block up the road to Calvary with so many obstacles, as to render the path impassible, and the cross inac- L cessible; and, in direct opposition to the instructions of Scripture, instead of holding up Christ as the end of the law for righteousness, send men upon the impracticable task, to work out a righteousness of their own.

The prototypes of the Sandemanians were found in those who affirmed that there was no occasion to look at the brazen serpent; that it was enough to know that such a figure existed; and that it was erected for the benefit of those who were bitten by the fiery flying serpents. The essence of saving faith, on their hypothesis, consists in believing that Christ died for the ungodly. The moment that a sinner is convinced of this, he is a believer. In perceiving this truth, the mind is no more active than in perceiving the light that blazes before the eye, or the sound that rattles in the ear. Divine truth carries its own evidence along with it; and the simple declaration, Christ died for the ungodly, is a sufficient ground of hope to every one who believes it, without any thing wrought in him or done by him, to give it a particular direction to himself. To seek comfort from evidences of grace, is the effect of ignorance, and the work of a legal unbelieving spirit. There is acceptance with God

for sinners, while sinners, without any act, exercise, or exertion of their mind whatever; and consequently before repentance. The passive belief of this quiets the guilty conscience, begets hope, and lays the foundation for love. If the man can infer his own interest in Christ from the general language of the gospel, it is well. But if its general declarations will not satisfy him respecting his own salvation, he must be content to go without assurance; for the gospel contains no other provision for his personal comfort.

This system is commendable for its strenuous efforts to suppress the prevalence of self-righteousness. No principle is more hostile to the grace of the gospel, and more ruinous to the soul, than legality. Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid already, which is Christ Jesus. Our character and condition by nature are most vile, wretched, and deplorable. We are altogether as an unclean thing; and dead in trespasses and sins. And, until we are brought to discover our total depravity and absolute ruin, and led cordially to renounce all for the righteousness of Christ; we are utterly disinclined to welcome the provisions of redeeming mercy, and alike disqualified to relish the grace, and enjoy the blessings of the great salvation. In such a case, notwithstanding the unparalleled compassion, kindness, and liberality of the Son of God,

we must labour on under the burden of guilt and condemnation, till we sink into perdition.

It is, therefore, impossible to lay too firm a restraint upon this God-dishonouring and soulruining principle: and so far as Sandemanianism is calculated to expose its criminality, and counteract its danger, it is entitled to praise.

But, if not the sole, this, at the utmost, is the principal recommendation which it possesses. It is at once chargeable with many defects, and beset with insurmountable difficulties.

No system can be true unless it correspond with the whole doctrines of revelation. But by branding the exercise of self-examination as legal and ruinous, it places itself in flat and complete opposition to the letter and spirit of every injunction, which God has given to search and try our ways, to prove our own work, to judge ourselves lest we be condemned of the Lord; and to examine ourselves, to prove our own selves, whether we be in the faith.

By representing faith as a perception of the truth, or a passive reception of the testimony of God, it destroys the obligation of sinners to believe on Christ. If the mind is passive in receiving the truth, it is the misfortune and not the fault of any who are destitute of the perception of what God has testified. Unbelief is deprived of guilt, and the infidel cannot be justly condemned for not believing on the Son of God.

This system treats man as if he were all reason

and intellect. It makes no provision for the prodigious influence which the affections exercise over the operations of our minds, the choice of our wills, and the pursuits in which we engage. The stiffness and frigidity of this system are frightfully unlike that disclosed in the pages of inspiration, where love reigns supreme; where affection pervades every part, and forms the life and soul of all; where we are taught to love God because he first loved us; where the love of Christ constrains us to live to him, who died for us, and rose again; and where we are told, that when prophecies shall fail, when tongues shall cease, and knowledge shall vanish away, love shall retain its blissful power, and bind the heart of the believer more firmly to the God of grace.

When we hear the Apostles rejoicing in the hope laid up for them in heaven; declaring that they knew in whom they had believed; and that they lived by faith on him who loved them, and gave himself for them: it is melancholy to hear the Sandemanians affirm that the gospel contains no other provision for personal comfort than the general statements that Christ is the propitiation for sin, and died for the ungodly. It is painful to find them maintaining that this is all that, in the present world, we can know of our everlasting state; and that we must leave all certainty about our future condition till death decide it. And it is strange that they can succeed in schooling down

their disciples to perfect apathy on a matter of infinite magnitude and endless duration.

In attempting to drive men out of self-righteousness, this system unfortunately stops before it shuts them up to the righteousness of Christ. The bare belief that there was a brazen serpent, could not cure a single Israelite. To secure their recovery, the wounded were obliged to look towards it. And the mere belief that Jesus is the Son of God, and that for his sake God justifies the ungodly, is no more than what devils admit into their creed; and can no more save one of Adam's race than a fallen angel. Could such a cold and unfeeling assent to the truth land any man in heaven, very few would be lost. For, with the exception of deists and atheists, all the inhabitants of Christendom believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and the Saviour of sinners. In such a case the language of revelation would be reversed; and we should say, Wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to life, and many there be who go in thereat.

This hypothesis is designed to overturn the errors of legality: but there is no scheme which more effectually cherishes a self-righteous spirit. There are few publications in the English language which indicate greater insensibility, hardheartedness, and self-sufficiency, than the letters of Mr Sandeman. And the pride with which Sandemanians contemplate their own superior discernment, and the bitter contempt and scorn B