called faith, only when it pre-supposes, and is founded upon trust or reliance on the veracity of some person on whose authority the statement is believed ;that therefore the very commencement or dawning of faith in the soul, is trust or reliance on the veracity of God, producing belief of his declarations in the Holy Scriptures;-that these declarations are calculated to induce us to place a more extended confidence in him, because they inform us of such facts respecting him as are adapted to excite our confidence ;-and consequently, that the more advanced exercises of faith, are such a trust or reliance on all his attributes, as his revelation of himself in Christ Jesus is fitted and intended to create.

This view of the subject seemed to the author to furnish such a master-key as he sought for. It appeared to him to ascertain the moral or holy nature of faith; to indicate its office in the justification and sanctification of sinners; and when the various benefits for which

we are encouraged to trust are taken into account ;-such as reconciliation with God, the pardon of sin, re-adoption into the family of God, a spirit of adoption, eternal life, preservation from evil; in short, every thing that we need for time and for eternity; it seemed to him to reach the whole extent of the subject, and satisfactorily to explain the paramount importance that is given to it in the word of God.

These sentiments were published in a volume of sermons on repentance and faith, which have for some time been before the public. In an appendix is contained the critical investigation of the original Hebrew and Greek words rendered, faith and believe, alluded to; and in the body of the work is given a history of the commencement and progress of faith in the soul, till it is transformed into sight in the heavenly world. The author of course expected that the volume would have to encounter the usual share of criticism,

and had no doubt that the view of faith set forth in it would be combated by many who held different opinions respecting it. He was not, however, prepared to find among the opponents of his conclusion, that trust or reliance on Christ are properly faith in him, such publications as the Eclectic Review and the Edinburgh Christian Monitor, which he had always understood to be conducted on the principles of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and of the older puritan writers. Had he been aware that the Sandemanian doctrine had made such progress in the country as to find its way into two such journals as these, he would have thrown his first publication more into a controversial form, by anticipating objections, and endeavouring to remove them.

The present publication is intended to make up this deficiency of the former. The author has chosen to make the sentiments of the reviewers, and of

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Mr. Erskine, the basis of it, not for the purpose of vindicating every expression that the reviewers have censured, but merely to secure to the opinions which he impugns the advantage of their latest and ablest advocates; and the reader will find, that although the former publication is occasionally referred to, the present is complete and intelligible within itself.

The author considers himself entitled to denominate the doctrine which he maintains, the Old Doctrine of Faith, because, although he commences somewhat differently from the old writers, he arrives at the same conclusion with them. They began with belief of the ✓ truth, which they regarded as the ini

tiatory or lowest act of faith, from which they proceeded to trust or reliance on Jesus Christ: he conceives that trust or reliance, namely, in the veracity of God, is pre-supposed in any belief that can be denominated faith, that it is only in vir

tue of that trust that belief is called faith; and that faith in Jesus Christ for justification, is only the extension of the same principle of trust or confidence to other attributes of God in Christ, which are presented in the Scriptures as objects of trust.

The writer earnestly solicits the attention of the respectable authors, on whose sentiments he animadverts, and of the religious public in general, to the subject. He may be in error, but he sanguinely hopes that they will find in the principles laid down, the means of bringing the various controversies connected with it to some satisfactory conclusion. We have been told by the poet laureat, that a review is by its very constitution infallible. He trusts that this sarcasm is by no means applicable to reviews conducted by men who fear God and tremble at his word. He confidently expects that his reviewers, who have expressed opinions opposed to his,