In
a word, they argue that the gospel would not be what it is held forth to
be,--glad tidings of great joy,--if it did not bring full personal assurance
of eternal salvation to the believer; which assurance, they insist, is the
present infallible privilege and portion of every individual believer of
the gospel.

3. Consistently with the above definition of faith, they say that the sin
against the Holy Ghost, which has alarmed and puzzled so many in all ages,
is nothing else but unbelief; and that the expression, "it shall not be
forgiven, neither in this world nor that which is to come," means only
that a person dying in infidelity would not be forgiven, neither under the
former dispensation by Moses, (the then present dispensation, kingdom, or
government, of God,) nor under the gospel dispensation, which, in respect
of the Mosaic, was a kind of future world, or kingdom to come.

4. The Bereans interpret a great part of the Old Testament prophecies,
and, in particular, the whole of the Psalms, excepting such as are merely
historical or laudatory, to be typical or prophetical of Jesus Christ, his
sufferings, atonement, mediation, and kingdom; and they esteem it a gross
perversion of these psalms and prophecies, to apply them to the
experiences of private Christians. In proof of this, they not only urge
the words of the apostle, that no prophecy is of any private
interpretation, but they insist that the whole of the quotations from the
ancient prophecies in the New Testament, and particularly those from the
Psalms, are expressly applied to Christ. In this opinion, many other
classes of Protestants agree with them.

5. Of the absolute, all-superintending sovereignty of the Almighty, the
Bereans entertain the highest idea, as well as of the uninterrupted
exertion thereof over all his works, in heaven, earth, and hell, however
unsearchable by his creatures. A God without election, they argue, or
choice in all his works, is a God without existence, a mere idol, a
nonentity. And to deny God's election, purpose, and express will, in all
his works, is to make him inferior to ourselves.

The Bereans consider infant baptism as a divine ordinance, instituted in
the room of circumcision, and think it absurd to suppose that infants,
who, all agree, are admissible to the kingdom of God in heaven, should,
nevertheless, be incapable of being admitted into his visible church on
earth.

They commemorate the Lord's supper generally o