the Judge is at the door! Thou shalt speedily be numbered with the dead! Hast thou forsaken thy sin, and repented of thine iniquity? Hast thou found redemption in the blood of the New Covenant? Can thy heart rejoice in hope of the glory of God? Art thou a lover of money? of dress, high living, and worldly honours? then the love of the Father is not in thee; and if thou die in this state, because thou hast neglected a great salvation; because God is just, and thou art guilty; because he is pure, and thou art unholy; and because no human spirit can ever find happiness but in union with God, the Fountain of it, and thou art unfit for that union, because unlike thy Maker; therefore, thou must perish!-But thou hast yet a little time-thy day of probation is not yet ended :thou art still within the reach of the utmost salvation of God:-Hear the groans of this damned soul, and be alarmed! Hear the merciful voice of the Lord Jesus, and be encouraged. Cast aside thy sins, come unto him, and believe on his name, and thou shalt not perish, but have everlasting life!

Manchester, Nov. 27, 1803.

THE DOCTRINE OF

SALVATION BY FAITH PROVED;

OR AN ANSWER TO THE IMPORTANT QUESTION, WHAT
MUST I DO TO BE SAVED?

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE writer of this discourse seeks truth of every description; especially religious truth. For nearly half a century he has been in pursuit of it; and has neglected no means to attain it. He has watched with the ancients; has laboured with the moderns; and has searched the Scriptures; and earnestly prayed for the succours of the Spirit of Wisdom, that he might know the Truth, acknowledge it, and spread it abroad according to the power with which the Father of lights might endue him. He has acquainted himself with religious systems in general; he has examined with diligence, and he hopes, he may say, with conscientious candour, creeds and catechisms, confessions of faith, and bodies of divinity, in great numbers. All these have professed to refer him to the BIBLE; and from them all he turned to his Bible-he has read it carefully, with intense study and fervent prayer. As far as it was possible, he has divested himself of all the prejudices he might have received from preconceived opinions; and that he might not be warped by the common phraseology of religion, and theological expressions in general use, he has examined the originals of the Sacred Books; and, for his own use and satisfaction, translated every word of the Old and New Testaments; and conferred the originals with all the ancient and modern versions, which were within his reach; not neglecting the commentaries of the ancient Fathers, nor those of learned and pious men in modern times. He could do no more and after all this labour, what has he found? -Should he answer, I have found the TRUTH; every man, whose religious creed might differ from his, would pronounce him arrogant; while believing in the same moment that his own was the truth, though he had not

taken the hundredth part of the trouble to form it which the writer of this discourse has done to form that which he has published to the world. To save all such persons from the pain of harsh judgment, and to show others that this trumpet gives no indeterminate or uncertain sound; he says he has found the truth, as far as the satisfaction of his own mind, and his personal salvation, are concerned. If there be still many branches of truth, relating to God and the eternal world, which he has not discovered; it is because they either cannot be known in this state of being; or, his understanding cannot comprehend them.

How a man may obtain and retain the favour of his Maker? how a sinner may be reconciled to his God and be saved from his sins? have appeared to him questions of the highest importance, and he has attempted their discussion in the following pages. He has not pretended to examine systems of religion in detail, but merely the plans of what may be called initiatory salvation. On the awfully important subject of the question in the text, he lays the result of his own researches and convictions before his readers. It is true that they will all be found to issue in what is commonly called orthodoxy. But he begs leave to say that they have not arrived at this issue by any sinuous ways. The conclusion is the spontaneous natural result of the principles laid down, and the reasonings founded upon them. With a heart full of charity for all mankind, and with respect and reverence for the good and pious of every denomination, he dismisses the whole, with the fullest conviction that the doctrine of justification by faith, through the atoning sacrifice of that Eternal Word which was manifest in the flesh, is the only way by which a fallen soul can regain the favour, and be restored to the image, of its Maker; and be at last brought, through the sanctification of the Divine Spirit, to the ineffable glory of God.

Milbrook, Dec. 25, 1815.