4 S. ¢ .
43 lines✦
l —— = Se BARTON W. STONE. 45 Son to save them, on condition that they believed inhim—that the gospel was the means of salvation—butthat this means would never be effectual to this end,until believed and obeyed by us—that God requiredus to believe in his Son, and had given us sufficient.evidence in his Word to produce faith in us, if attend-ed to by us—that smners were capable of understand-ing and believing this testimony, and of acting upon itby coming to the Saviour and obeying him, and fromhim obtaining salvation and the Holy Spirit. Weurgedupon the sinner to believe now, and receive salvation—that.in vain they looked for the Spirit to be given them,while they remained in unbelief—they must believe be-fore the Spirit or salvation would be given them—thatGod was as willing to save them now, as he ever was,or ever would be—that no previous qualification wasrequired, or necessary in order to believe in Jesus, andcome to him—that if they were sinners, this was theirdivine warrant to believe in him, and to come to himfor salvation—that Jesus died for all, and that all thingswere now ready. When we began first to preach thesethings, the people appeared as just awakened from thesleep of ages—they seemed to see for the first time thatthey were responsible beings, and that a refusal to usethe means appointed, was a damning sin. The sticklers for orthodoxy amongst us writhed un-der these doctrines, but seeing their mighty effects onthe people, they winked at the supposed errors, andthrough fear, or other motives, they did not at first pub-licly oppose us. ‘They painfully saw their Confessionof Faith neglected in the daily ministration by thepreachers of the revival, and murmured at the neglect.In truth, that,book had been gathering dust from the_commencement of the excitement, and would havebeen completely covered from view, had not its friends |interposed to prevent it. At first, they were pleased tosee the Methodists and Baptists so cordially unitingwith us in worship, no doubt, hoping they would be-come Presbyterians. But as soon as they saw these £ : on SS
✦