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characterise the prefent age; and whilst I admit, as in truth I muft, that fome of our clergy do not feel that interest for the Christian cause which they ought to feel, and by their injudicious conformity to the manners of a diffipated age leffen that influence which their facred profeffion ought to have in the world; I still am inclined to think, that, taken as a body, they are more wanting in zeal than in knowledge. But upon this fubject, were I difpofed, it would not well become me, fenfible as I am of my own manifold defects, to enlarge." Guide, p. 304.

But though I feel myself juftified in declining to enter on the general defence of my condemned brethren, yet it may be expected that I should make fome anfwer to what is particularly addreffed to myself.

In page 131 you make an extract from my book, which appears to me to fpeak plain language; but to you, it seems, it is perfectly unintelligible. Your comment upon it is this: "Now if any man upon earth can find out what meaning, drift, or fyftem is to be collected from the above jumble; or, to use the words of that good old martyr Bishop LATIMER, mingle mangle of law and Gofpel, grace and works; I fhall much extol his ingenuity, especially if he can explain the latter part of the quotation."

I thought that I had written with fufficient clearness upon this fubject not to be misunderstood by any confiderate reader. The idea in my mind, upon it, appeared to myself to be perfectly clear; but as an author is not always fo fortunate in his expreffions, as to leave his reader fully poffeffed of his meaning, I am obliged to you, Sir, for giving me this opportunity of reviewing my ground. It is certainly most important ground. As fuch, if it be not maintainable upon my plan, I fhall, upon conviction, be the first to give it up.

In the paffage to which you fo ftrongly object, describing it as a mingle mangle of law and Gofpel, grace and works, the pofition laid down is thisthat fallen man, through the redemption by JESUS CHRIST, has been placed in a salvable condition; and that obedience to the moral law upon the Gofpel plan is neceffary to render the Christian scheme complete, by qualifying fallen man for (or in the language of the Apostle, making him meet to be partaker of) the falvation that has been purchased for him by the merits of a crucified SAVIOUR.

Thus far Iftill think the ground firm. The redemption of the world by JESUS CHRIST was general. The benefit of CHRIST's righteousness, we are in

formed by the Apostle, was co-extenfive with the fatal effects of ADAM's fall. Rom. v. 18. If the redemption of the world by CHRIST had placed man in a state of abfolute falvation, all men must in confequence have been saved.

But even among thofe to whom the Gospel was first preached, we are told, that many were called, but few chofen. So it is in all ages of the church. Many are called by the preaching of the Gospel, but few, comparatively fpeaking, embrace it; confequently few will be faved by it. What, then it may be asked, did the redemption by CHRIST do for fallen inan in general? I anfwer, it removed a fatal ftumbling-bock out of his way; it opened a door which had been shut against him, and at the fame time furnished him with the ability to enter in at it.

In a word, it restored fallen man to that right to eternal life, which had been forfeited by ADAM'S breach of the condition on which it was originally fufpended; a right derived only from Divine promise, and which by the mercy of the fecond covenant in JESUS CHRIST was re-established on a different but more fecure condition. When we fpeak, therefore, with reference to man being removed out of the condemned state of fallen nature, into a renewed

ftate of grace under the fecond covenant, we may be understood to mean, that he has thereby been placed in a ftate of actual falvation; but when, fpeaking with an eye to his final condition, we fay that redemption by CHRIST placed him, not in a state of actual, but of poffible or conditional falvation; a falvation in fome measure dependent upon his conduct under the appointed means of grace. A conclufion which evidently follows from the nature of that judgment which is finally to be paffed upon him: for the Son of Man "fhall come in the glory of his Father, and then shall he reward every man accord ing to his works."

Poffeffed of this leading idea, the reader will be prepared for the explanation of the latter part of the quotation. "The line between the covenant of works and covenant of grace cannot, I fay, be too exactly or too frequently marked out; because, as man is now circumftanced, the one is a covenant of death, the other a covenant of life."

On this part of my work, I have to thank you, Sir, for the opportunity your comment has afforded me for re-confideration. By reference to the learned Bishop BULL, I have certainly acquired information

*

* "Difcourfe on the State of Man before the Fall." See BULL'S Works, octavo edit. vol. iii. disc. v.

more correct than I poffeffed when I originally handled the point under review; and confidering the imperfection of the human intellect, together with the progreffive state of all acquired knowledge, I feel more cause for fatisfaction than humiliation in the acknowledgment of my being wifer to-day than I was yesterday. From the fubftance of the information that has been received, my conclufion is, that the language above made ufe of, by which two covenants, one of works, another of grace, appear opposed to each other, as characteristic of the two different difpenfations under which man fince his creation has been placed, is certainly incorrect. "For it is not

true," as my able reviewer (probably on the fame authority) has obferved," that according to the first covenant he who kept the law, would have had a claim of right to life, as the covenanted reward of duty performed; if by life be meant eternal life, and by duty be meant moral virtue and rational piety; eternal life under every difpenfation having been a free gift,"* to be secured only on the performance of a ftipulated condition. Could man even in his state of innocence by his works have acquired a right to

* See Review of the "Appendix to the Guide" in the "British Critic" for March 1800.