lute necessity of each of these, as belonging to the temper and character of every Christian. It is so as to a forgiving spirit, or a disposition to overlook and forgive injuries. Christ gives it to us both as a negative and positive evidence; and is express in teaching us, that if we are of such a spirit, it is a sign that we are in a state of forgiveness and favor ourselves: And that if we are not of such a spirit, we are not forgiven of God; and seems to take special care that we should take good notice of it, and always bear it on our minds, Matth. vi. 12, 14, 15. " Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses." Christ expresses the same again at another time, Mark xi. 25, 26, and again in Matth. xviii. 22, to the end, in the parable of the servant that owed his lord ten thousand talents, that would not forgive his fellow servant an hundred pence; and therefore was delivered to the tormentors. the application of the parable Christ says, ver. 35. " So likewise shall my heavenly father do, if ye from your hearts for give not every one his brother their trespasses. In And that all true saints are of a loving, benevolent, and beneficent temper, the scripture is very plain and abundant. Without it the apostle tells us, though we should speak with the tongues of men and angels, we are as a sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal; And that though we have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, yet without this spirit we are nothing. And there is no one virtue or disposition of the mind, that is so often, and so expressly insisted on, in the marks that are laid down in the New Testament, whereby to know true Christians. It is often given as a sign that is peculiarly distinguishing, by which all may know Christ's disciples, and by which they may know themselves; and is often laid down, both as a negative and positive evidence. Christ calls the law of love, by way of eminency, his commandment, John xiii. 34. " A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." And chap. xv. 12. "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you." And ver. 17. " These things I command you, that ye love one another." And says, chap. xiii. 35. " By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" And chap. xiv. 21, (still with a special reference to this which he calls his commandment) " He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." The beloved disciple who had so much of this sweet temper himself, abundantly insists on it, in his epistles. There is none of the apostles so much in laying down express signs of grace, for professors to try themselves by, as he ; and in his signs, he insists scarcely on any thing else, but a spirit of Christian love, and an agreeable practice, i John ii. 9, 10. " He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. Chap. iii. 14. We know that we are passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren: He that loveth not his brother abideth in death, ver. 18. 19. My little children, let us not love in word and in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him, ver. 23, 24. This is his commandment, that we should love one another. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him; and hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the spirit which he hath given us. Chap. iv. 7, 8. Beloved, let us love one another: For love is of God; and every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: For God is love, ver 12, 13. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, because he hath given us of his Spirit, ver. 16. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him, ver. 20. If a man say I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: For he that loveth not his brother, whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen ?" And the scripture is as plain as it is possible it should be, that none are true saints, but those whose true character it is, that they are of a disposition to pity and relieve their fellow creatures, that are poor, indigent, and afflicted, Psal. xxxvii. 21. "The righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth, ver. 26. He is ever merciful, and lendeth, Psal. cxii. 5. A good man sheweth favor, and lendeth, ver. 9. He hath dispersed abroad, and given to the poor, Prov. xiv. 31. He that honoreth God, hath mercy on the poor, Prov. xxi. 26. The righteous giveth, and spareth not, Jer. xxii. 16. He judgest the cause of the poor and needy, then it was well with him: Was not this to know me? Saith the Lord, Jam. i. 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, &c. Hos. vi. 6. For I have desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God, more than burnt offerings, Mat. v. 7. Blessed are the merciful; for they shall obtain mercy. 2 Cor. viii. 8. I speak not by commandment, but by occasion of the forwardness of others, and to prove the sincerity of your love. Jam. ii. 13....16. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy. What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food; and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, be you warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? 1 John iii. 17. Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" Christ in that description he gives us of the day of judgment, Mat. xxv. (which is the most particular that we have in all the Bible) represents that judgment will be passed at that day, according as men have been found to have been of a merciful spirit and practice, or otherwise. Christ's design in giving such a description of the process of that day, is plainly to possess all his followers with that apprehension, that unless this was their spirit and practice, there was no hope of their being accepted and owned by him at that day. Therefore this is an apprehension that we ought to be possessed with. We find in scripture, that a righteous man, and a merciful man are synonymous expressions, Isa. lvii. 1. "The righteous per isheth, and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.", Thus we see how full, clear, and abundant, the evidence from scrípture is, that those who are truly gracious, are under the government of that lamblike, dovelike Spirit of Jesus Christ, and that this is essentially and eminently the nature of the saving grace of the gospel, and the proper spirit of true Christianity. We may therefore undoubtedly determine, that all truly Christian affections are attended with such a spirit, and that this is the natural tendency of the fear and hope, the sorrow and the joy, the confidence and the zeal of true Christians. None will understand me, that true Christians have no remains of a contrary spirit, and can never, in any instances, be guilty of a behavior disagreeable to such a spirit. But this I affirm, and shall affirm, until I deny the Bible to be any thing worth, that every thing in Christians that belongs to true Christianity, is of this tendency, and works this way; and that there is no true Christian upon earth, but is so under the prevailing power of such a spirit, that he is properly denominated from it, and it is truly and justly his character: And that therefore ministers, and others, have no warrant from Christ to encourage persons that are of a contrary character and behavior, to think they are converted, because they tell a fair story of illuminations and discoveries. In so doing, they would set up their own wisdom against Christ's, and judge without, and against that rule by which Christ has declared all men should know his disciples. Some persons place religion so much in certain transient illuminations and impressions (especially if they are in such a particular method and order) and so little in the spirit and temper persons are of, that they greatly deform religion, and form notions of Christianity quite different from what it is, as delineated in the scriptures. The scripture knows of no such true Christians, as are of a sordid, selfish, cross and contentious spirit. Nothing can be invented that is a greater absurdity, than a morose, hard, VOL. IV. 2 P close, high spirited, spiteful, true Christian. We must learn the way of bringing men to rules, and not rules to men, and so strain and stretch the rules of God's word, to take in ourselvés, and some of our neighbors, until we make them wholly of none effect. It is true, that allowances must be made for men's natural temper, with regard to these things, as well as others; but not such allowances, as to allow men, that once were wolves and serpents, to be now converted, without any remarkable change in the spirit of their mind. The change made by true conversion is wont to be most remarkable and sensible, with respect to that which before was the wickedness the person was most notoriously guilty of. Grace has as great a tendency to restrain and mortify such sins, as are contrary to the spirit that has been spoken of, as it is to mortify drunkenness or lasciviousness. Yea, the scripture represents the change wrought by gospel grace, as especially appearing in an alteration of the former sort, Isa. xi. 6....9. "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid : And the calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed, their young ones shall lie down together: And the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play or the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." And to the same purpose is Isa. lxv. 25. Accordingly we find, that in the primitive times of the Christian church, converts were remarkably changed in this respect: Tit. iii. 3, &c. " For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared; he saved us by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost. And Col. iii. 7, 8. " In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. But now you also put |