hath rendered them more assiduous, since the revolution and your majesty's happy accession to the crown, in diffusing their poison, which they have the more easy access to do by reason of the great extent of the northern country, the small number of churches, the utter inactivity of inferior judges in executing the laws against popery, and the many defects which yet appear in these laws, which we, with great humility, apprehend does render it necessary that some further laws on that subject should be enacted, and that a more effectual method of executing them be provided than that which the ordinary course of proceedings, as the law now stands, does afford, which we humbly submit to your majesty's great wisdom.

"We embrace this opportunity of laying these particulars before your majesty, when you have been graciously pleased to declare that you have repeated and unquestionable advices of the designs of your indefatigable subjects, in concert with traitors abroad, to raise a rebellion against your majesty in your kingdom of Great Britain, the rather that we apprehend those unnatural and traitorous conspiracies are the native produce of a popish influence, and of the practices of Romish emissaries connived at by others, inexcusable protestants," &c.

This zeal, on the part of the assembly, was certainly laudable, and abundantly called for by the conduct of the papists and nonjurant episcopalians, many of whom were equally zealous, and equally intolerant with the papists, and, whatever any of them pretended with regard to liberty of conscience, the power of repressing that liberty in others was their real, though not their avowed object, their slavish maxims of government being utterly incompatible with the unfettered exercise either of the conscience or the understanding. At the same time, the assembly abated much of the credit due to it for this beneficent exercise of authority, by the manner in which it treated the truths of the gospel, and the worthy men' who came before it in defence of these truths, as attacked through the book entitled the " Marrow of Modern Divinity."

We have already noticed the procedure of the assembly, 1720, against that book, and the representation and petition prepared by some ministers respecting it, which representation and petition, from the sudden dissolution of the assembly, 1721, was

left in the hands of its commission. On the day after the breaking up of that assembly, the twelve brethren who had subscribed the representation, were called before the com

* Having given in a former note the act of assembly, justice requires that we now give the representation and petition given in against it, which was as follows:-To the Right Reverend, &c. the Representation and Petition of us under-subscribing, Ministers of the Gospel,

Humbly Sheweth,

THAT whereas it is the unquestionable duty of all the members, ministers, and assemblies of this church, to endeavour in their several capacities the preservation of the purity of doctrine contained in the holy scriptures, and in our Confession of Faith and Catechisms, agreeable thereunto, that the same may be faithfully submitted to succeeding generations: We find ourselves obliged in conscience, with all due deference, to lay some things relative to that and some matters which are grievous to us, before the venerable Assembly, whose province it is, in a special manner, to maintain the truths of the gospel, and to take care that every thing in the house of the God of heaven be moulded in a conformity to his will, and the pattern he hath shewed us in his holy word.

We are fully persuaded, That although the grace of God which bringeth salvation, teacheth us," that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;" yet there is such a propensity in the corrupt nature of man to licentiousness and profanity, that he is apt to turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness; whence have proceeded these monstrous opinions of some,—that the law is not a rule of life to believers, that holiness is not necessary to salvation, and the like; all which our hearts do abhor, as egregious blasphemy against our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, making him the minister of sin: And, therefore, we cannot but own it to be commendable zeal in the members, ministers, and Assemblies of this Church, to endeavour the stifling of such monstrous brats in the birth, whensoever they do really begin to appear.

But withal, on the other hand, we are no less persuaded, that in point of seeking righteousness and salvation, there is such a bias in the same corrupt nature towards the old way of the first covenant, that men seek the same naturally not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law: the which bias of the heart of man, in opposition to the gospel-doctrine, known only by a new revelation after the fall, being more subtile, and not so easily discerned as the other, which is opposite to the law, the knowledge of which was impressed on man's mind in creation; there is an evident necessity of guarding equally, at least, against the latter as against the former, lest the purity of gospel-doctrine suffer, and man frustrate the grace of God, seeking righteousness by the law. And since we do apprehend, that the late General Assembly of this Church has not sufficiently adverted to the danger on that side, but that by their act, entitled, "Act concerning a book, entitled, the Marrow of Modern Divinity," dated at Edinburgh, May 20th, 1720, gospel truth has suffered, and it is likely will suffer more in the rising and succeeding generations, unless a remedy be

mission, when several speeches were made on both sides, and the representers being removed, the commission appointed a new committee to consider the affair. This committee

timely provided; we beg leave, with all humility and deference, to lay before this venerable Assembly, some (of the many) things, which in the said act are stumbling to us, and many others in this church.

And, First, It is surprising, and exceedingly grievous unto us, that by the said act, the following position is condemned; namely," That as the law is the covenant of works, believers are altogether and wholly set free from it; set free, both from the commanding and condemning power of the covenant of works" We acknowledge and profess, we look upon our freedom, as believers in Christ, from the covenant of works, or the law as that covenant, to be the chief branch of that precious liberty, wherewith Christ hath made us free, and in which the eternal salvation of our souls is wrapt up. We know no commands of the covenant of works, but that command of perfect obedience, under the pain of the curse. And if the law, as to believers, be divested of its promise of life, and threatening of death, (which superadded to its com mands made it a covenant of works,) as it really is, since they are not under it to be thereby justified or condemned, we cannot comprehend how it continues any longer to be a covenant of works to them, or such as to have a commanding power over them, that covenant-form of it being done away in Christ, with respect to believers. And to suppose that a man cannot be under the law as a rule of life, unless he be under the covenant of works, which the act above specified plainly imports, is contrary to our Confession of Faith, chap. xix. sect. 6. and Larger Catechism, question anent " the use of the moral law to the regenerate," which bear, " That although believers be not under the law as a covenant of works, yet it is of use to them as a rule of life, or as the rule of their obedience."

Secondly, Of the same dismal tendency we apprehend to be, the declaring of that distinction of the law as it is the law of works, and as it is the law of Christ, as the author applies it, pages 198, 199. to be altogether groundless. We find the author doth there apply this distinction, so as to shew that believers are not under the law, as it is the law of works, though under the law, as it is the law of Christ. And he tells us in express words, page 6. That the law of works is as much as to say, the covenant of works; the which covenant (saith he) the Lord made with all mankind, in Adam, before his fall. To what purpose, then, can this distinction thus applied be rejected, and declared altogether groundless, but to stake down believers under the covenant of works, as in the former head, and contrary to the great design of the gospel-contriv ance, to direct them to an obedience upon which they may boast, since by the law of works boasting is not excluded? It were much to be desired, that another method had been taken to expose the Antinomian paradoxes, viz. "That a believer doth not commit sin,-the Lord can see no sin in a believer," and the like, than by condemning the distinction of the law above mentioned as applied by the author, to assert, in effect, that believers sin against the law,

met on the Friday following, when the representers were called before them; but the committee could not agree upon a mode of management. On the Tuesday after, the

(or covenant of works,) while, in the mean time, according to the holy scriptures, and our Confession of Faith, they are not under it. Which exemption, we are fully satisfied, carrieth no prejudice unto the indispensable obligation of the creature to the strictest obedience, flowing from the unalterable authority of the Lawgiver, and the nature of the precepts themselves. Nevertheless, we firmly believe, that no small portion of the believer's safety and comfort, turns upon these following points;-namely, That the guilt of believers' sins, is not such as the guilt of their sins who are under the covenant of works;— that God doth not look upon the sins of believers after their union with Christ, as breaches of the covenant of works;-that when, in his anger against them for their sins, he smites them, yet he doth not proceed against them in the way of that covenant, and that in their confessions, and addresses for pardon, fastings, mournings, and humiliations, they ought to eye him as their Father in Jesus Christ, and not as their wrathful Judge, proceeding against them according to the law (or covenant) of works. All which truths seem to us to be buried in the ruins of the above-mentioned distinction of the law, as applied by the author of the Marrow.

Thirdly, It is astonishing to us to find, that part of the Marrow, which lies from page 150, to 153. condemned in cumulo, as contrary to the scriptures, and Confession of Faith; while we must frankly own, if we understand the gospel, the forecited pages contain a bundle of sweet and pleasant gospel-truths, which, instead of slackening people's diligence in the study of holiness, as is alleged in the act, do discover the true spring of evangelical obedience to the holy law as a rule; particularly in the Assembly's act, we find the believer's plea, in the case of justification in answer to the demands of the law, cut off and condemned; viz. “I am already saved before thou camest, therefore I have no need of thy presence." (Here the book adds, what the Assembly's act omits, namely,)" For in Christ I have all things at once, neither need I any thing more that is necessary unto salvation." Then proceeds," Christ is my righteousness, my treasure, and my work. I confess, O law! that I am neither godly nor righteous; but yet this I am sure of, that he is godly and righteous for me." In which terms, that blessed and famous reformer, Martin Luther, in his strenuous and courageous defence of the evangelical doctrine of justification, asserted the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus as our Surety, to be the only righteousness upon which we may rely, in the case of justifica tion before God: The which, that great champion for Jesus Christ maintained against the Antichristian world, with astonishing success in his time. We do believe, That the law, or covenant of works, being broken, had a twofold demand upon all mankind; without a valid answer to each of which, sustained by the Judge of all the earth, no man can see the Lord:-the one, the demand of satisfaction to justice for sin;-the other, the demand of obedience. And as we have no plea in answer to its former demand, but the sufferings of Jesus

representers were again before the committee, and on Wednesday before the commission, when they were warned to wait upon the committee and commission in August. In

Christ our Surety; so we have none, we dare pretend none, in answer to the latter demand of it, but that which stands here condemned; in regard, that as, in the language of the law, there is no obtaining of salvation but by works, (for the law is not of faith, but the man that doth them shall live in them,) so it acknowledgeth no good works, no keeping of the commandments, no godliness nor righteousness, but what is every way perfect. And we conceive, that believers being united to Christ, this their plea is sustained in the court of heaven, as the plea of the Surety's having paid the debt for them, whereby the demand which the law makes upon them for works, if they will obtain salvation, is cut off, they being appointed to obtain salvation another way, namely, by our Lord Jesus Christ: Yea, being already actually, though not completely saved, not according to the works of righteousness which they have done, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost; of which salvation, conferred on them through Jesus Christ our Saviour, their deliverance from the law as a covenant of works, and consequently from its demands aforesaid, is a chief part.

Fourthly, With respect to the passages concerning the nature of faith condemned by the foresaid act:

1. It is grievous to us, that thereby that act of faith, by which a person appropriates to himself, what before lay in common in the gospel-offer, and without which there can be no receiving and closing with Christ for salvation, is in effect excluded from the nature of faith, which, as we apprehend, is thereby turned into that general and doubtsome faith abjured in our national

covenant.

2. Whereas it is notour, that our first reformers, and the body of reformed divines since, have taught concerning the nature of faith, in the same strain as in the condemned passages, and thereby cut the sinews of Popery; which doctrine of theirs, in the same manner of expression, stand in the Confessions of our Reformed Churches, and in the public standards of doctrine in this Church, before the year 1647, such as Confession 1560, the Helvetian Confession, received and approved by this Church, with exception only to holy days; CALVIN'S Catechism, which was commonly annexed to Knox's Liturgie; Mr. JOHN DAVIDSON's Catechism, approven and recommended by the Synod of Lothian and Tweedale anno 1599: As also, that little Latin Catechism, annexed to the Rudiments so long taught in Scotland; the famous and learned Mr. BOYD of Trochrig's commentary upon the Ephesians, a work promoted and encouraged by the Assembly of the Church of Scotland. It seems to us no small disservice to the interest of religion, and a handle given the Papists against the Reformation, that by an act of a General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, that doctrine, or way of expressing it, is now condemned. And although we freely own, that in latter times saving faith has been well described, especially in our Confession of Faith and Catechisms, and the manner