in the Acts of the apostles; and also we may yet suppose one thing further, viz. that in that extraordinary state of things so particular a profession was not requisite in order to the church's satisfaction, either of doctrines assented to, or of the consent and disposition of the heart, as may be expedient in a more ordinary state of things; for various reasons that might be given, would it not too much lengthen out this discourse.

One thing which makes it very evident, that the inspired ministers of the primitive Christian church looked upon saving faith as the proper matter of the profession requisite in order to admission into the church, is the story of Philip and the eunuch, in Acts viii. For when the eunuch desires to be baptized, Philip makes answer, verse 37. "If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest." Which words certainly imply, that believing with all his heart was requisite in order to his coming to this ordinance properly and in a due manner. I cannot conceive what should move Philip to utter these words, or what he should aim at in them, if he at the same time supposed, that the eunuch had no manner of need to look at any such qualification in himself, or at all to inquire whether he had such a faith or no, in order to determine whether he might present himself as the subject of baptism; many that are without it, being as properly qualified for this, as they that have it.

It is said by some, that Philip intended nothing more by believing with all his heart, than that he believed that doctrine, that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, with a moral sincerity of persuasion. But here again I desire the scripture may be allowed to be its own interpreter. The Scripture very much abounds with such phrases as this, with all the heart, or with the whole heart, in speaking of religious matters. And the manifest intent of them is to signify a gracious simplicity and godly sincerity. Thus, Sam. xii. 20. « Turn not aside. from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart." So verse 24. "Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth, with all your heart." 1 Kings viii. 23. "Who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants, that walk before thee with all their heart." Chap. xiv. 8. "My servant

David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart." 2 Kings x. 31. "But Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart." 2 Chron. xxii. 9. "Jehoshaphat sought the Lord with all his heart." Chap. xxxi. 20, 21. "Hezekiah wrought that which was good and right and truth before the Lord his God; and in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, and in the law and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart." Psal. ix. 1." I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart." Psal. lxxxvi. 12. "I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart, and will glorify thy name." Psal. cxi. 1. "I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright." And cxix. 2. "Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart."

my whole heart have I sought thee."

Verse 10. « With Verse 34. "Give

me understanding, and I shall keep thy law, yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart." Verse 69. "The proud have forged a lie against me, but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart." Jer. xxiv. 7. "And I will give them an heart to know me.....for they shall return unto me with their whole heart." Joel ii. 12, 13. "Turn ye even unto me with all your heart....and rent your heart, and not your garments." And we have the like phrases in innumerable other places. And I suppose that not so much as one place can be produced, wherein there is the least evidence or appearance of their being used to signify any thing but a gracious sincerity. And indeed it must be a very improper use of language, to speak of those as performing acts of religion with all their hearts, whose heart the Scriptures do abundantly represent as under the reigning power of sin and unbelief, and as those that do not give God their hearts, but give them to other things; as those who go about to serve two masters, and as those who indeed draw near to God with their lips, but have at the same time their hearts far from him, and running more after other things; and who have not a single eye, nor single heart. The word believe, in the New Testament, answers to the word trust in the Old; and therefore

the phrase used by Philip, of believing with all the heart is parallel to that in Proverbs iii. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart." And believing with the heart, is a phrase used in the New Testament to signify saving faith....Rom. X. 9, 10. "If thou shalt believe in thine heart, that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved; for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." The same is signified by obeying the form of doctrine from the heart, Rom. vi. 17, 18. "But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you; being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness." Here it is manifest, that saving faith is intended by obeying the form of doctrine from the heart. And the same is signified as if it had been said, ye have believed with the heart the form of doctrine. But Philip uses a yet stronger expression, he does not only say, if thou believest with the heart, or from the heart, but with ALL thine heart. And besides, for any to suppose, that those same persons which the Scriptures represent in some places as under the power of an evil heart of unbelief; and as double minded with regard to their faith (James i. 6, 7, 8) and as those who though they believe for a while, yet have their hearts like a rock, in which faith has no root, (Luke viii.) and yet that this same sort of persons are in other Scriptures spoken of as believing with all their heart; I say, for any to suppose this, would be to make the sound or voice of God's word not very harmonious and consonant to itself. And one thing more I would observe on this head, there is good reason to suppose that Philip, while he sat in the chariot with the eunuch, and (as we are told) preached unto him Jesus, had shewed to him the way of salvation, had opened to him the way of getting an interest in Christ, or obtaining salvation by him, viz. believing in him, agreeably to Christ's own direction, Mark xvi. 15, 16. And agreeably to what we find to be the manner of the first preachers of the gospel: And therefore now when after this discourse he puts it to the eunuch, whether he believed with all his heart; it is natural to suppose, that he meant whether he found his heart acquiesc

ing in the gospel way of salvation, or whether he sincerely exercised that belief in Christ which he had been inculcating; and it would be natural for the eunuch so to understand him.

Here if it be objected that the eunuch's answer, and the profession he hereupon made (wherein he speaks nothing of his heart, but barely says) I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, shows that he understood no more by the inquiry than whether he gave his assent to that doctrine: To this I answer; we must take this confession of the eunuch's together with Philip's words, which they were a reply to, and expound the one by the other. Nor is there any reason but to understand it in the same sense in which we find the words of the like confession elsewhere in the New Testament, and as the words of such a confession were wont to be used in those days, as particularly the words of Peter's confession, Matth. xvi. 16. "And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art Christ, the Son of the living God:" Which was a profession of saving faith, as appears by what Christ says upon it. And we read, 1 Cor. xii. 3. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." Not but that a man might make a profession in these words without the Holy Ghost, but he could not do it heartily, or WITH ALL HIS HEART. So 1 John iv. 15. "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." i. e. Whoever makes this Christian confession (this profession which all Christians were wont to make) cordially, or with his whole heart, God dwells in him, &c. But it was thus that the eunuch was put upon making this confession.

VIII. It is apparent by the epistles of the apostles to the primitive Christian churches, their manner of addressing and treating them throughout all those epistles, and what they say to them and of them, that all those churches were constituted of members so qualified as has been represented, haying such a visibility of godliness as has been insisted on ; those who were reputed to be real saints, were taken into the church under a notion of their being truly pious persons, made that profession, and had this hope of themselves; and that

natural and graceless men were not admitted designedly, but unawares, and beside the aim of the primitive churches and ministers; and that such as remained in good standing, and free from an offensive behavior, continued to have the reputa tion and esteem of real saints, with the apostles, and one with another.

There were numbers indeed in these churches, who after their admission fell into an offensive behavior; some of which the apostles, in their epistles, speak doubtfully of; others that had behaved themselves very scandalously, they speak of in language that seems to suppose them to be wicked men. The Apostle Paul in his epistles to the Corinthians, oftentimes speaks of some among them that had embraced heretical opinions, and had behaved themselves in a very disorderly and schismatical manner, whom he represents as exposed to censure, and to whom he threatens excommunication; and upon occasion of so many offences of this kind appearing among them that for a while had been thought well of, he puts them all upon examining themselves, whether they were indeed in the faith, and whether Christ was truly in them, as they and others had supposed, 2 Cor. xiii. And the same apostle speaks of great numbers among the Galatians, who had made a high profession, and were such as he had thought well of when they were first admitted into the church, but since had given him cause to doubt of their state, by giving heed to seducers, that denied the great gospel doctrine of justification by faith alone: Yet notwithstanding, the apostle speaks of them in such language as shews surprise and disappointment, and implies that he had looked upon them as true Christians, and hoped that his labors among them had had a saving effect upon them. Gal. i. 6. "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel." Chap. iv. 11. " I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain." And ver. 20. "I desire to be present with you now, and change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you." As much as to say, "I have heretofore addressed you with the voice of love and charity, as supposing you the dear children of God; but now I begin to think of