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to the awful censure of the Apostle James; for their acts of faith serve equally to set aside the precious faith of the apostles, and the works of love, by which that faith is evidenced and perfected.

LETTER VI.

DEAR SIR,

It is time that I should now, in my turn, contend for acts of faith properly so called; I mean those works which Jesus Christ, in his new commandment, enjoins all who believe on him for righteousness, and by which he would have them known to one another, and to all men for his disciples. And I the rather hope for your favourable attention on this subject, as I have some reason to presume that you have got your bias to the popular doctrine, more from a certain air of piety running through some books, than by observing the avowed temper and conduct of those who are most influenced by it.

We are now, then, to consider faith as a principle of life and action. And here we must carefully distinguish betwixt all works by which men would pretend to acquire faith, and those which faith produces: for if we will contend, that justification comes by faith without works, and that there is no acceptable working but what follows upon this, and yet maintain that faith is acquired by works, we undoubtedly reason in a circle ; and the justification thus obtained may justly wear the motto, Sequiturque sequentem. And, however seriously and devoutly we may be occupied in this kind of reasoning, it is evident that we are employed in nothing else but solemn trick and dissimulation; unless it may be pled in our behalf, that we are imposing on ourselves by the same means by which we impose upon others.

Men are justified by the knowledge of a righteousness finished in the days of Tiberius; and this knowledge operates upon them, and leads them to work righteousness. If ye know" says the Apostle John, "that he is righteous, ye know

* It follows its followers.

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that every one that doth righteousness is born of him." Faith is not acquired, but is obtained as Peter says, (ros daxovio) to them who have OBTAINED BY LOT like precious faith with us. Of two criminals justly condemned to die, if one escapes by a favourable throw of the dice, and the other dies for his crime, we see mercy in the deliverance of the former, and no injustice in the death of the latter. Two men may be employed with equal diligence in studying the Scripture, and with equal seriousness in praying for Divine assistance; the one may come to know the truth, and the other may grope in the dark all his lifetime. But he who comes to know it, plainly perceives that he has found what he was not seeking after. plainly sees, that, instead of having taken the direct and certain way to obtain substantial comfort," his most serious devotion was pointed in direct opposition to what now comforts him so the new knowledge he has got, sets him to work on another plan, and furnishes him with quite other employment than he was formerly engaged in. God brings men to the faith, without any willing or doing of theirs; yet he continues to work in them by the faith, both to will and to do. Unbelievers obtain faith without working. Believers work together with God.

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The sacred truth, which the apostles declared as the import of the ancient prophecies, implied not only that Christ was to be preached unto the Gentiles, and believed on in the world; but also that men would obey him, and accordingly have their joy made full; and so, by way of earnest and foretaste, receive the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls. In both these respects the Holy Spirit bears witness unto the truth. He bears witness to the truth when he persuades men to believe it; and he bears witness to its genuine effects, when he comforts them who obey it. When the apostles found the gospel believed by any of mankind, they saw the arm of the Lord revealed and glorified God on that account; because they knew it was above nature for any man to take in the notion of Divine grace reigning through righteousness to save the worthless, or of God appearing just in justifying the ungodly. Again, we find it greatly increased their delight, and filled their hearts with thanksgiving to God, when they found men joyfully practising the works of self-denied love. In both these respects, then, the gospel daily receives fresh confirmation in the eyes of all who see it believed and obeyed. Thus the word of life is held forth in the world for the mutual confirmation and encouragement of them that believe, and for awakening the attention of unbelievers; serving as a

mean of Divine appointment to lead some to the faith, and to render others inexcusable.

THE change made upon a man by the belief of the gospel, may be thus illustrated. When Lazarus was revived to the enjoyment of this mortal life, neither his will nor his power were concerned in the obtaining of life. Yet his life could no otherwise be continued and enjoyed, but in his voluntary exercise of it. As soon as he revived, the principle of selfpreservation, with all its hopes and fears, behooved immediately to be set in motion. No sooner was he possessed of life, than the active love of it behooved to take place. Accordingly, no sooner does any man know the grace of God in truth than love to it takes place in his heart. Love is the activity of that life which a man obtains by faith; for faith worketh by love. No man, then, however sound his profession of the faith may be, can enjoy that life which lies in God's favour, further than he loves God and keeps his commandments. Let a man talk like an angel about the things of God, if he wants this love, he is nothing.

The change made upon a man by the gospel, is called repentance unto life. The gospel is always held forth as the great persuasive argument to lead men to repentance. So the Evangelist Matthew informs us, that John the Baptist, and Jesus Christ, began to preach, saying, Repent; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Mark declares the same thing in fewer words, Repent ye, and believe the gospel. Peter, preaching the gospel to the Jews, says, Repent ye therefore. And Paul declares, that God now commandeth all men every where to repent by the same argument. he tells us, that the scope of all his preaching was, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance, then, is the change of a man's mind to love the truth, which always carries in it a sense of shame and regret at his former opposition to it. And he who knows the truth, so as to love it, will daily find occasion for repentance, and so of having his attachment to the truth increased, as finding his daily comfort depending upon it.

And

Thus he will be more and more set free from the service of sin, and engaged in that of righteousness. And it may be added here, that no man can be assured that his sins are forgiven him, but in as far as he is freed from the service of sin, and led to work righteousness. For we must still maintain, that the favour of God can only be enjoyed in studying to do those things which are well pleasing in his sight. I cannot

pretend to give a similitude that will answer this case in all respects, yet, we may say, if a man of low condition is by a royal patent ennobled, and entitled to a place in the politest assemblies, he cannot enjoy the pleasure of his promotion, but in as far as he loves and studies to learn the manners suitable to his rank and new company. If he delights in the honour conferred upon him, he will naturally be anxious to improve his manners; he will regret his former low breeding, he will readily be touched with shame at finding it so naturally recur upon him, and be sorry at the difficulty he feels in throwing it off; nor will his satisfaction be complete, till his manners are formed.

MOREOVER, this change gets likewise the name of selfdenial, which is commonly joined with other expressions, importing the prospect and pursuit of supernatural happiness; as when Jesus calls men to deny themselves and follow him; or when he says, "He that findeth his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it; or, He that loveth his life, shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, shall keep it unto life eternal." In the common course of the world, we often see men change the objects of their fond pursuit, and their conduct in life in many respects greatly influenced, in consequence of some fresh intelligence or new sentiment they have occasionally received. But the change we speak of will be best viewed, as contrasted with its opposite, the fall of man.

For if human nature was at first depraved by impious falsehood, what can be more proper for restoring it than Divine truth? Man had originally a natural sense of dignity, as being made to enjoy dominion, in subjection to and friendship with his Creator. He forfeited his dignity, when his sense of it was corrupted, or when he entertained such a notion of it as emboldened him to throw off his allegiance. That sense of dignity, then, which still remains with men, and encourages them in disobeying the Divine law, as well as despising the gospel, is deceitful, being founded on a lie, even the lie originally instilled, and constantly cherished in human nature by the father of falsehood. This lie is the root of all ungodliness and inhumanity; the root of all disobedience to God, and of all the mutual hatred and variance among men. Every man imagines, there is at bottom some excellency about his own self, on account of which he thinks it would be a reflection against the goodness of the Deity, to conclude

that misery should be the certain consequence of his following the bent of his inclinations.

This lie works by pride, even as faith works by love.Pride, with all its subservient passions, is the exercise of that life which men live in opposition to God. Every man cherishes his favourite lie, as the dearer half of himself, and hates every ray of light that tends to undeceive him about it; yea, the very principle of self-preservation leads him to do so; for this lie being the hinge of his pride, so the very centre of his life, he cannot part with it, but at the rate of falling headlong into despair and death.

The gospel alone can comfortably undeceive men, and effectually cut the sinews of their pride, by bringing them a report concerning foreign worth, sufficient to entitle them to a much more glorious life than that which was forfeited by transgression. He, then, who knows the gospel, so as to love it, may well be said to deny himself, and to lose or hate his former life, and to receive the beginning of a better from an unexpected quarter.

But as our constitution was framed for the enjoyment of no other than the forfeited life, and as the life which comes by faith is supernatural, so the Spirit of grace, which bestows it by the words of the gospel, must continue to support it against the natural bias. Hence arises the opposition betwixt nature depraved and grace, betwixt the earthly and the heavenly life, or betwixt the flesh and the spirit, which Paul describes from his own experience, Rom. vii. Here he makes a distinction in some sort as betwixt two persons. Yet he plainly places his proper self, on the side of the supernatural life, which he preferred, inclining to speak of it in the first person, and of the other in the third: which last he in the strongest manner, denies to be life, and accordingly he groans to be delivered from it, as opposing his true happiness.

The life-giving truth lays the only proper foundation among men for that love which is the fulfilling of the law, enjoined in these words, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. For it teaches every one to renounce his favourite distinction, by which he secretly claims the superiority over his neighbour. It furnishes all who believe with one common sense of foreign worth, one common source of life and joy, so leads them to boast and glory only in that which abolishes all differences among them. Thus it teaches them to delight in one another on account of that which is common to them all, by which the pride of none of them can be flattered, and which gives the precedence to none of them above another.

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