was in any degree or in any respect, begotten of the Father in the same sense. Though the Son's being begotten of the Father be an incomprehensible mystery, yet one thing is certain from Divine revelation, which is, that it necessarily carries in it, the Son's possessing the same individual Godhead or Divine nature with the Father. In this respect, he is the only begotten Son of God; and also his own, or his proper Son, as he is called in Rom. viii 32. and God is called his own Father, his proper Father, John v. 18. If Christ's Sonship were founded in his Mediatory office, then he would be the Son of God in a metaphorical or figura tive sense, not, as the texts now quoted import, in a strict and proper sense.

III. This truth appears from these texts which represent the sending of Christ to be our Saviour as the greatest demonstration that ever was given of the love. of God to mankind, in this respect, that the Person sent was his only begotten Son, his own, his proper Son, John iii. 16. Rom. viii. 32. The force or emphasis of this representation is, in a great measure, if not entirely destroyed, when we understand the mediatory office of Christ as founding or constituting his Sonship. According to this opinion, he is the Son of God, because he was sent as our Mediator: whereas it is evidently the sense of these texts, that he was sent as our Medi ator, because he was the Son of God; and consequent-ly the only fit Person for that wonderful office. Nay, this opinion would reduce some texts, pregnant with heavenly instruction, to something little better than tautology. Thus when it is said, in John iv. 14. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. These words according to this opinion, would mean, that the Father sent the Saviour to be the Saviour, or the Me-diator to be the Mediator; for the character of Christ as a Mediator includes his character as a Saviour; and therefore there can be nothing in the latter but what is in the former

IV. Christ is also called the Son, where there appears to be no reference to his Mediatory office, as in Prov. xxx. 4. Who hath ascended up into hraven, or des-ended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Whe

hath hound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of hearth? What is his name and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell? God who is the supreme Governour of ali nature, the only true God is here represented as having a Son, whose Sonship, name and glory are incomprehensible.

V. The title Son of God is continually distinguished from such titles as Jesus Christ, the sent of God, High Priest, &c. signifying his Mediatory office, Matth. xvi. 16. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Acts viii. 37. John vii. 29. I am from him, as his eternal Son; and he hath sent me, in the character of Mediator. John viii. 42. The apostle, in Heb. v. 5, 6. opposes the character of Christ as a Son to that of a servant in prefering him to Moses, saying, Moses was faithful in all his house as a servant; but Christ as a Son over his own house. If by Son here we understand the office of Mediator, we destroy the opposition: for, as Mediator, Christ was the Father's servant Isai. xlii. 1. The same observation holds with regard to the opposition implied in Heb. v. 8. For to suppose his being the Son denotes only his being the Messiah, whose office it was to suffer and die for sinners: would make the apostle say, though it was his work to learn obedience by sufferings, yet he learned obedience by sufferings. He was made Lord and Christ, Act. ii. 16. He was made an High Priest, Heb. vii. 16, 28. But he is never said to be made the Son of God.

VI. This truth appears from Matth. xxviii. 19. and 1 John v. 7. Father and Son are correlates; and if the second Person was not a Son previous to the Mediatory office; neither was the first Person a Father previous to it if the one be not the eternal Son, neither is the other the eternal Father. "These glorious persons," as one observes," are distinguished from each other by per"sonal characters, by personal properties and relations. "But if there be no Father and Son in the Trinity, there can be no such distinctions. And if all personal ❝ distinctions be lost, a Trinity of persons must be given "up with, or it must land in the distinction of three "Divine Beings,-three Gods."

See a view of the Covenant of Grace by Mr. Gib.

The following observation was intended to be added to the Latin quotation from Turretine in pages 255 and 256.

If man's inability to do what is spiritually good were only moral in the sense now explained, then we might admit the Pelagian opinion, that no other cause is necessary to saving conversion than moral suasion. The Arminian scheme is, at bottom, much the same with the Pelagian: for whatever internal work of the Spirit they acknowledge, they still insist that it has no other effect, with regard to the will, than that of persuasion; the will, according to them, having sufficient ability to choose what is spiritually good. Nay, some professed Calvinists, such as John Cameron, who taught divinity at Saumur in France in the first part of the 17th century, and his followers, seem to have gone into the same opinion. For, though they allow the work of the Spirit to be always victorious in the case of the elect, yet they ascribe the whole success of it to a high degree of moral suasion. But the Reformers in the 16th century, and such as adhere to their doctrine, acquiescing in the simplicity of the scripture on this head, maintained, that, in order to conversion a real creation is necessary, though not of the substance of the soul, yet of those gracious habits and dispositions, without which it is as incapable of acts spiritually good, as a dead body is of performing the actions of a living man. This new creation extends to all the faculties of the soul, on account of the total corruption of our nature. Such is the doctrine of the tenth of the thirty-nine articles of the church of England. "The condition of man after the fall of Adam is, "that he cannot turn or prepare himself, by his own natural strength and good works, to faith and calling upon God. "Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God,-without the grace of God by Christ pre"venting us, that we may have a good will,-and working with "us, when we have that good will." To the same purpose in the ninth chapter of the Westminster Confession of Faith, it is declared, that "Man by his fall into a state of sin, hath wholly "lost ALL ABILITY OF WILL to any spiritual good accompa"nying salvation: so as a natural man, being altogether averse "from that good, and dead in sin, is not able by his own strength, "to convert himself, or to prepare himself thereunto."

56

Among many instances, which might be given, of the truth of the remark at the foot of page 12, the following testimony of Mr. William Cowper, the author of The Task and other celebrated poetical compositions, is here added, as recent and striking. It-is taken from some Letters published in the account of s life by Mr. Hayley, vol. 1st, p. 52, 60, 62 "I think Mr. Hervey one of the most scriptural writers in. the world."

*Marshal is an old acquaintance of mine; I have both read him and heard him read with pleasure and edification. The doctrines he maintains are, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ, the very life of my soul, and the soul of all my happiness; that Jesus is a present Saviour from the guilt of sin by his most precious blood, and from the power of it by his Spirit; that corrupt and wretched in ourselves, in Him, and in Him only, we are complete; that being united to Jesus by a lively faith, we have a solid and eternal interest in his obedience and sufferings, to justify us before the face of our heavenly Father, and that all this inestimable treasure, the earnest of which is in grace, and its consummation in glory, is given, freely given to us of God; in short, that he hath opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. These are the truths, which, by the grace of God, shail ever be dearer to me than life itself; shall ever be placed next my heart as the throne whereon the Saviour himself shall sit, to sway all its motions, and reduce that world of iniquity and rebellion to a state of filial and affectionate obedience to the will of the most Holy.

"These, my dear cousin, are the truths to which by nature we are enemies they debase the sinner, and exalt the Saviour to a degree which the pride of our hearts (till almighty grace subdues them) is determined never to allow. May the Almighty reveal his Son in our hearts continually more and more, and teach us to increase in love towards him continually, for having given us the unspeakable riches of Christ."

"I think Marshal one of the best writers, and the most spiritual expositor of Scripture, I ever read. I admire the strength of his argument, and the clearness of his reasonings upon those parts of our most holy religion, which are generally least understood (even by real Christians) as master-pieces of the kind. His section upon the union of the soul with Christ, is an instance of what I mean, in which he has spoken of a most mysterious truth with admirable perspicuity, and with great good-sense, making it all the while subservient to his main purport of proving holiness to be the fruit and effect of faith.

"I subjoin thus much upon that author, because though you desired my opinion of him, I remember that in my last, I rather left you to find it out by inference, than expressed it as I ought to have done. I never met with a man who understood the plan of salvation better, or was more happy in explaining it.”

To this testimony the following extract from p. 179 of the 2d vol. of Mr. Hayley's work, adds weight.-" Few ministers of the gospel have searched the scripture more diligently than Cowper; and in his days of health, with a happier effect; for a spirit of evangelical kindness and purity pervaded the whole tenor of his language and all the conduct of his life.”

END OF THE LETTERS.

STONE ROLLED AWAY;

OR

THE HAPPY ISSUE

OF THE

BELIEVER'S EXERCISE

ABOUT HIS DIFFICULTIES;

A Sermon,

PREACHED BEFORE THE CELEBRATION

OF THE LORD'S SUPPER.

BY THE REV. JOHN ANDERSON.

Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.

John xii. 40.

PITTSBURGH,

FROM THE ECCLESIASTICAL AND LITERARY

PRESS OF ZADOK CRAMER.