bid! Yea, we establish the law. God for bid! How shall we that are dead to fin, live any longer therein? They which do the works of the fleft fhall not inherit the kingdom of God. Continue in faith and holiness. Without holiness no man fhall fee the Lord. This is a faithful faying, and these things I will that thou affirm conftantly; that they which have believed in God, might be careful to maintain good works (j). Is additional refutation neceffary? Let it be given in the words of St. James. Know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead. By works faith is made perfect. By works a man is juftified, and not by faith only (x). But here new difficulties feem to arife. "If St. Paul acknowledges that holinefs must be conftantly added to faith; if St. James affirms "that a man is juftified, not by faith only,

but by works; where is the unity of Chrif "tian doctrine? Is the apoftle of the Gen"tiles inconfiftent with himself? Do the two "apoftles contradict each other? Will you plead "that they speak of a firft and of a fubfequent 'juftification? Or do you contend that they "refer, the one to juftification in the fight "of God, the other only to juftification in "the fight of men?" St. Paul is in no degree inconfiftent with himself. The two (y) Rom. iii. 31. vi. 1, 2. Gal. v. 19-21. 1 Tim. ii. 15. Tit. iii. 8. Heb. xii. 14. (x) James, ii. 20. 22. 24.

apoftles

apóftles accord in perfect harmony of fenti ment: they fpeak of one and the fame juftification; and of juftification in the fight of God. The juftifying faith of St. Paul is faith that worketh by love (a). The justifying, or perfect, faith of St. James, is faith which bringeth forth good works. The fame faith is defcribed by the two apoftles, and in terms of the fame import. A dead, barren, and specu lative faith is equally condemned by both. According to the doctrine, the uniform doctrine of both, a living faith is a faith that justifies; and no faith is a living faith, which does not evince itself to be fuch by the fruits which a living faith cannot but produce, boli nefs and good works. "Yet when St. James "pronounces that a man is justified not by faith only, but by works; is not this," it will finally be objected, "to pronounce that good works

pay a part of the price of our juftification?" Impoffible! "How is the impoffibility mani"fefted?" By the two following confiderations. First Because fuch an interpretation of the words of the apoftle, an interpretation in no degree required by the ordinary ufe of language, is utterly inconfiftent with that righteoufnefs of God, that method of juftification (a) Gal. v. 6.

by

by faith alone, which is witneffed by the law and by the prophets; and is completely unfolded in the New Teftament. And, fecondly; because it is equally inconfiftent with the nature of good works. The best of human works are imperfect in the fight of God. They cannot ftand the inquifition of his juftice. They are rendered complete and acceptable before him, only through the atonement of his Son. Admit any human work to have been perfect. It might have stood by its perfection. Perfect however it ought to be; and more than perfect it could not be. It could boaft no fuperfluous merit. It could advance no overplus of worth which might be applied to make atonement for evil deeds. He who had wrought that work would ftill have been, as to that very work, an unprofitable fervant; he would have done no more than it was his duty to do. Good works, persevering good works, ftedfaft and habitual holiness of heart and of conduct, are indifpenfable to falvation. By requiring them as indispensable, faith establishes the law, grace profcribes and anathematifes, continuance in fin. But they cannot buy falvation: they can pay no part of its price: they must let that alone for ever. Indifpenfable as they are, they are va

luable,

luable, but as evidences, the fole evidences, of that faith, which juftifies through the grace that is in Chrift Jesus.

My Chriftian brethren, I have now endeavoured to fet before you, conformably to the fimplicity and the genuine doctrine of the fcriptures, this most important, this frequently misunderstood and mifreprefented fubject, the method of justification through the Lord Jefus Chrift. Let me conclude, with briefly recapitulating the fubftance of this divine plan, in the way of general application.

If you are feeking pardon and eternal life, seek them not by ftanding on the deeds of the law feek them not by claiming them as in the flightest degree or portion due to any works of your own. The law worketh wrath. By the deeds of the law fhall no flesh be justified in the fight of God. Enter not into judgement with thy fervant, O Lord: for in thy fight fhall no man living be justified. The law of a God of perfect holiness is itself a law of perfect holiness, and requires perfect obedience. If you fail in any one point, it denounces the penalty of eternal death. Curfed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. You are confcious that, in common with the rest of mankind, you have failed,

you have tranfgreffed in numberless inftances. What day has paffed without your having done, either in thought, or in word, or in deed, that which you ought not to have done; and without your having left undone that which you ought to have done? Were the very best of you to examine fairly the very best of your works, you would find them to have been fo imperfect; to have fallen fo far below the ftandard towards which a higher measure of antecedent holiness would have advanced them; to have been fo far from proceeding from truly Christian motives, and from thofe only; to have been fo ftained in part, either in the intention, or in the execution, or in both, with various degrees of guilt; that you would tremble at the thought of producing them as pure, as examples of perfect obedience before God, Before him we all ftand condemned finners. From the law it is impoffible to derive forgiveness. If we are faved, we must be faved by one able to make an atonement. We must be faved by unmerited grace through a Redeemer. We must receive falvation as a free gift through faith in Jefus Chrift the Son of the Moft High. Renounce then, unreservedly renounce, all prefumptuous ideas of merit in yourselves. Look to the cross on which the

promised