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infinite purity, with one who "will by no means clear the guilty," of making your peace with him by your own doings? Are you never afraid that you may be building on a faise foundation, leaning on a broken reed," that will at length pierce through your heart? Does your confcience never tell you, that you need an all-fufficient Redeemer; one who really faves from the dominion, from the guilt, from the filth, from the prevalence, and at length, from the ve ry indwelling principle of fin? If it fpeak, for the Lord's fake do not filence it. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend." It is a miserable fituation, when a man is afraid to give his own confcience a hearing, when he is afraid of being alone with himself. It is a fituation ftill more miferable, when conscience is “hardened through the deceitfulness of fin," "feared as with a hotiron." Do you not feel at times the impoffibility of conquering your own corruptions by all the force of motives and arguments derived from the example of Chrift, while you defpife his blood as "the fountain opened for fin and for uncleannefs?" You grant that he was a perfect man, and how do you think that mere example will fuffice with one "compaffed with fo ma66 ny infirmities" as you? Do you never fear that fome fecret luft may be lurking at the root of your errors; that it may be from this fource that you cannot "endure found doctrine?" Certain it is, that errors of the head generally fpring, or at least derive their strength from errors of the heart. When men "err in heart," it is no wonder that they do not know God's ways."

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"Remember, therefore, whence you have fallen, and repent, and do the firft works." Begin the work of fearching the scriptures anew. Come to them as a little child. ny yourself. You would be none the worse, though you had as humble a fenfe of your unworthiness as the Pfalmift, when he faid: "So foolith was I, and ignorant: I was as a beaft before thee." Like him, "thus may your heart be grieved," and thus may you be " pricked in your reins !” Let me exhort you, in the bowels of Chrift, earneftly and inceffantly to pray for the Holy Spirit, whom it appears that you have not yet received. Confider the neceflity of his direction, as reprefented in the word of God. He alone can lead into all truth." Remember that "the world cannot receive him, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth

him."

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him." Implore his operation, not as a perfection of the divine nature, but as a distinct perfon in the Godhead, as the more immediate efficient caufe of all grace, and as, according to the economy of redemption, that Perfon whose peculiar work it is to apply all the bleffings purchased by the Redeemer. Perhaps, you have often pretended to fupplicate his operation. You have flattered yourself that you trusted in that promise, " Our Father in heaven will give the Holy Spirit to them that afk him." But it may be, that you have asked him under a falfe notion, as if he were a a mere attribute. If fo, no wonder that you have not received him, because you have "afked amifs." You have not really fought the Holy Spirit, but a creature of your own imagination. Be intreated, but for once, to try another method. Try it, under a deep fense of your need, in fincerity of heart, and in an humble, but confident dependence on the promise of Chrift: And affuredly you fhall be fuccefsful.

That this infallible, all-powerful Spirit may " turn you " from the error of your ways, fave your foul from death, "hide a multitude of fins," and " give you repentance to "the acknowledging of the truth," is the fincere and fervent defire of,

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An Humble ADDRESS to the MEMBERS of

the GENERAL ASSEMBLY of the CHURCH of SCOTLAND.

Reverend and Honourable Gentlemen,

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OU may juftly enquire, what right an unknown individual can have thus publicly to claim your attention. But I derive my apology from a quarter to which too few, alas refort for inftructions with respect to their deportment. It is written: "Plead with your mother, plead." This is an injunction obligatory upon every one of the church's children, according to his ftation or opportunities. This is an apology which you cannot refufe to admit. I fpeak not as an enemy, but as a friend. The real interest of the church is what I earnestly defire. "If I forget thee, "O Jerufalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If "I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the

roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerufalem above my "chief joy." Should I in any thing appear too bold, be pleased to afcribe it to the excufable ardour of fincere affection. If you condefcend to glance the foregoing letters on Dr M'Gill's Effay, you will clearly fee the juftness of the charges exhibited against him: Nay, if you only run over the Effay itself, perfons of your learning and difcernment will be at no lofs to perceive the many dangerous errors which it contains. It is evident, indeed, that he often attempts to disguife his fentiments under general expreffions which have an orthodox found. But it would be fuperfluous to remind you, that this has been the invariable custom of heretics, when they had any thing at ftake. They often take with the one hand what they give with the other. Such is the practice of the writer whofe treatise has been. reviewed. Sometimes, when you would apprehend that he has nearly acknowledged all that was requifite, he in a faw words retracts the whole. At other times, when he

would

would feem plainly to reveal his errors, he throws in an alleviating expreffion, as if he wished to recant all that he had faid. But this only makes him an enemy the more dangerous to the precious interefts of your flock. It is no new thing for those who " ferve not the Lord Jefus Christ, but their own belly, by good words and fair speeches to de"ceive the hearts of the fimple."

By many, your late conduct, in leaving out of your inftructions to the Commiffion the ordinary injunction,-to ufe the most effectual means for obtaining a repeal of the law of patronage, has been interpreted as a candid acknowledgment to the world, that you no longer account it a griev ance. Some have reckoned it more charitable to fuppofe, that you deemed any instructions on this head unneceffary, because of the certain oppofition which any attempt to give efficacy to these would meet with from the landed intereft, which muft undoubtedly have a powerful influence in parliament: But whatever might be the motives of the majority in that affair, the world will not eafily devife an apology for your conduct, if this be overlooked; because you have no obstacles to apprehend from without. Your right to exercise the discipline of the church is unimpaired. You have no reafon to fear a prohibition from a tyrannical Privy Council, or from a bloody Star-chamber. We, bleffed be God!" fit every man under his vine, and under his figtree; and have none to make us afraid.”

Give me leave to put you in mind of the importance of the doctrines denied. If the Author of the Effay be in the right, you muft of neceffity be, not only a corrupt, but a falfe church; nay, you are no church at all: For you are conftituted in the name of a mere man. If he be in the right, you ought to avow your adherence to him. If you reckon him heretical, as you undoubtedly muft, you ought to tell the world fo. If you be filent, he will efteem it a tacit approbation of his principles: for, "he that is not against us, is on our fide." If you be filent, you fuffer him totrample under foot your Confeffion of Faith as a mafs of errors. Nay, if you be filent, how do you vindicate the honour of Him in whofe great name you affemble? Is it in the eye of man mifprifion of treafon, for a fubject to hear treafon uttered against his fovereign, and not to reveal it? And can it be confiftent with your duty, when you not only hear treafon

treafon, but fee it published to the world, not against an earthly sovereign, but against the KING of Kings, to pass it over as a matter unworthy of your attention? Are you called to be "very jealous for the Lord God of Hofts ?" When can you have a fitter opportunity for difcovering your jealoufy, than when his work of redemption is vilified, and his perfon is treated as a "root fpringing out of a dry ground?" By your ftation as rulers you are fet as "watchthe walls of Jerufalem, who fhould never hold "their peace day nor night;" and who, while they "make "mention of the Lord," ought not to "keep filence." Is it not to you that the Lord of Hofts is faying: "Hear the

men upon

word at my mouth, and give them warning from me? "When I fay unto the wicked, Thou fhall furely die, and "thou giveft him not warning, nor fpeakeit to warn the "wicked from his wicked way, to fave his life, the fame

wicked man fhall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and "he turn not from his wickedness, he fhall die in his

iniquity, but thou haft delivered thy foul." Are you bound, to warn not only the wicked himself, but all who are in danger from his wickednefs? And when will you give warning, if you give it not when the enemy "is razing foun"dations," and acting, as if he had received a commandment to "fight, neither with small nor great, fave only with "the King of Ifrael?"

Some will be ready to fay, that the undue lenity difcovered to Profeffor Simfon, fo long ago, when there was ap parently more zeal among the members of the church than appears in our time, has encouraged one of her minifters, at first inftance, boldly and publicly to deny almoft every fundamental article of religion: efpecially, as it may be thought, that this was an encouragement to profeffors of divinity after him, if not openly to teach unfound doctrine, yet fo to "ftate different opinions," as to leave their pupils to embrace what is moft agreeable to themfelves. Now this, may they fay, is not teaching them as difciples; for to teach, is to inculcate one doctrine in preference to another; but only to conftitute them judges. For this reafon, indeed, the author of the Effay commends his old Profeffor Dr Leech

man,

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