christian character, in exceedingly bad taste.-That the God of grace intends his people to "know that they have eternal life," might be shown not only from these words, but from the many passages of scripture in which they are exhorted to constant confidence and joy" Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice:"* Rejoice evermore :"+ such exhortations clearly implying a satisfactory knowledge or confidence of their state.-But this leads me immediately to the subject of another Proposition.

PROPOSITION V.

THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS WRITTEN, BY WHICH BELIEVERS ARE TO KNOW THAT THEY HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

"These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life."

In order to the reader's having a clear view (if it be in my power to give it) of this important part of my subject, I shall first very briefly advert to certain mistakes respecting the way in which it is to be known by believers that they have eternal life; and shall then

endeavour, having cleared the ground, to answer the question more directly, What saith the scripture?

SECTION I.

I begin with observing in general, that the knowledge must arise from, or be founded in, something written that is, it must, in some way or other, rest on the testimony of God in his word.-This it is of the very first importance to bear in mind. The observation is intended to dispose, in one lot, of all those pretensions to personal assurance of state before God, which have their origin in alleged suggestions and impressions, whispers and voices, and all descriptions of direct divine intimation, to the mind of the individual, of his safety. I have no faith in any thing of the kind; but hold every pretension to it as enthusiasm and unscriptural delusion. The sinner who builds his confidence upon such fancied intimations, rests on an imaginary and "airy nothing;" not on the word of God, but on the illusions of his own mind.— It is not even on any thing in the particular manner in which divine truth may have been brought home to the mind, that the sinner's confidence must repose. The dealers in this kind of ware often tell us, how texts have been unaccountably borne in upon them (such is their phrase), even when, perhaps, they were thinking on something entirely different; and from this or some other peculiarity in the circumstances of

their own case, they derive much of their personal confidence. They cannot but regard the intimation as having come from God, because it has come in a way which appears to them so extraordinary.-This will not do. Our confidence must arise from that which is written, and not from any specialty in our own case as to the way in which what is written has been suggested to us. This Book is the word of God: and here are the things that are written-be they what they may-by which it is that we are to "know that we have eternal life."

Farther, then it is not less clear, that in this book there is nothing written respecting the spiritual state and eternal prospects of any sinner individually.Surely this is a proposition, which ought not to require either illustration or proof. The Bible contains no register of the names and designations of the elect, or the saved. It is not "The Lamb's Book of Life;" nor is that Book at all within our reach,—its contents being among the " secret things which belong unto the Lord our God," into which it is not ours to pry. Certainly, to every man of ordinary reflection, nothing ought to be more self-evident, than that no sinner can legitimately found his confidence of his having eternal life, or his knowledge of the safety of his state, on any thing of the nature of direct divine testimony of his personal salvation. No such testimony existing, all such confidence must be delusive. This has, how

D

ever, been questioned; and that in no qualified or ambiguous terms. It has, for example, been said:"Thus verily, before God, by whatever evidence I hold the resurrection of Jesus for a truth, by the same precise evidence I must hold it for a truth that I am justified, else I do verily hold God for a liar, for God himself hath equally asserted both the one and the other, in words of inseparable connexion."* Again: after quoting Acts xiii. 32, 33, and 38, 39. " And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers God hath fulfilled unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins; and by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses :"-after, I say, quoting these words, the same writer affirms:-"It is obvious, from the terms in which both these declarations are delivered, that by whatever evidence it was possible for the persons to whom they were addressed to KNOW that God had raised up Jesus again, by the same precise evidence it became impossible for them NOT TO KNOW that God had forgiven their

* Barclay's (John) Assurance of Faith Vindicated, p. 55.

sins; ness.

unless they esteemed him an unfaithful wit

Now surely there is here a singular confusion of ideas.—That God raised up Jesus from the dead, and that by so doing he attested the sufficiency and acceptance of the atonement made by his death, is a part of "what is written :"-it is also a part of the divine testimony, and, if you will, the sum of it-that "if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart" (that is, shalt really and sincerely believe) "that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved;" or, in other terms, that "he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life." These things "are written." They are in the inspired record. But is it, I would ask, written there, with regard to any individual on earth, that he or she, is a believer on the Son of God? Clearly not. And yet unless it be so written, whencesoever the knowledge of our personal salvation is to be derived, —legitimately and scripturally derived,—it cannot be from any direct divine testimony to the fact; for there is no such thing; no such testimony exists. We must deny its existence, till he who affirms it has shown us his name and surname, accompanied with such distinctive marks as exclusively appropriate them to himself, and a divine attestation of the owner of the name

* Barclay's Assurance of Faith Vindicated, p. 56.