And now, Sir, will you indulge me the fame freedom, which you have hitherto borne with; and allow me to be your faithful monitor, in an instance or two?

I would first put you in mind, that it is of much greater confequence to your highest interests, to make it evident to yourself, that you are indeed juftified in the fight of God, than to exercife your mind with this arbitrary diftinction of a first and fecond juftification. If you are indeed interested in Chrift by faith, if you do indeed experience a change of heart and life, in confequence of your faith in him; and make a progress in the divine life, in the mortification of your corruptions, in love to God and your neighbour, and in heavenly mindedness and fpirituality, you will not be examined at the bar of your Judge, about your acquaintance with thefe modern diftinctions; or whether those qualifications which will then be gloriously rewarded, are the fruits of the first, or the conditions of a fecondary juftification. I would again intreat you to confider, that the life of a Chriftian is a life of faith in the Son of God. We are not only juftified by faith, but we are faved by faith; and the just must live by faith. Whatever becomes of this debate, you may be therefore certain, that you can be no longer fafe, than while you are humbly committing your foul to Chrift as to the author of your eternal falvation, depending upon him as the Lord your righte oufnefs; and expecting all fupplies of grace from his fulness. And believe me, Sir, a lively exercife of faith in Chrift will afford you more prefent comfort, will much more quicken you in devotion and true holiness; and more ftrengthen and establish you in every good work, in your progrefs to the heavenly kingdom, than all your ftudies in thefe fruitless doctrines, about a first and fecondary juftification.

I will take leave to add once more, that the way to heaven is certainly a way of holiness; and without holinefs you can never fee God. It therefore concerns you to look to the Fountain of holiness for all fupplies of grace, to watch over your heart and life, to endeavour and pray for a holy conformity to the whole will of God; and amidst and after all, to bring your great defects to the blood of Chrift for pardon; and continually implore

U

the divine influences, that the work of grace may be carried on in your foul with power, untill you arrive without spot and blameless, before the throne of your fovereign and righteous Judge.

That you may thus be directed fafe amidst all the fnares and delufions in your way, is the prayer of,

Sir,

Yours, &c.

LETTER XV. Wherein the Apostle JAMES's Doctrine of JUSTIFICATION BY WORKS, in his fecond Chapter, is distinctly reviewed, and fet genuine light, by a comparifon with the Apostle PAUL's Doctrine of JUSTIFICATION BY

in its

FAITH.

SIR,

YOU acknowledge, that if it were not for one dif

Yficulty in your way, you should think the evi

dence offered against the doctrine you have propofed, • must be conclusive: but you do not know how to give into a scheme, that is not only exprefly contradicted, but particularly refuted in the word of God. The apostle Paul (you fay) does indeed feem to fpeak in favour of my principles: but he ought to be interpreted by the apoftle James, who exprefly rejects my interpretation of St. Paul's difcourfes on the fubject be ⚫fore us. What appearance therefore foever there may be, in favour of my principles, in St. Paul's epiftles, • these must not be understood in direct contradiction to the express declarations of another infpired writer. • You therefore defire me to fhew, how it is poffible to • reconcile my scheme with the doctrine of St. James, in the fecond chapter of his epiftle, from the fourteenth verfe to the end.'

If this be all your remaining difficulty, I hope, it will not prove an hard matter to give you full fatisfaction, that the doctrine of the apostle James in the place referred to, is no ways inconfiftent with the doctrine of our juftification by faith, fo plainly and fully taught by the apoftle Paul in all his epiftles; and therefore, that our

juftification by works (in the fense that I oppose it) has no foundation at all in the whole word of God.

That this may be set in a proper light, there are two or three things neceffary to be premised, and diftinctly confidered, previous to a direct and immediate view of the confiftency and concurrence of these two apostles, in the doctrine of a finner's juftification by faith, notwithstanding theirfeeming difagreement and repugnancy.

.

It should first be premifed, that thefe two apoftles must be understood in fuch a fenfe, as will make them confiftent. We must take this for a principle, that whatever becomes of our schemes, on one fide or the other, the Spirit of God cannot be inconfiftent with himself, nor teach contrary doctrines. That interpretation therefore must be right, which will make them confistent; and that must be rejected, which fets them at variance, and makes their doctrines utterly irreconcileable.

It should be likewife premised, that the apoftle James must be understood in fuch a fenfe, as will make him confiftent with himself. We may not fuppofe that he teaches fuch a doctrine in this part of the fecond chapter, as is repugnant to the doctrine which he himself teaches elsewhere, in the fame epiftle. Let us then fee if we cannot find the doctrine I am pleading for, taught in this very epiftle of James, particularly in chap. i. ver. 5, 6, 7. If any of you lack wifdom, let him afk of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not; and it fball be given him. But let him afk in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the fea, driven of the wind, and toffed. For let not that man think, that he fball receive any thing of the Lord. From whence I argue, if faith be the way to divine acceptance and audience of our prayers, the means by which our duties will find a gracious reception with God, and without which they will be rejected; then we are juftified by faith and not by works. For it is undoubtedly true, that what juftifies our obedience, and renders that acceptable to God, does likewife juftify our perfons, and render them acceptable to him. And our works can have no hand in juftifying our perfons, if our works. themselves are juftified by faith; but condemned and rejected without it, as the apoftle teaches in the cited text.

So we learn from chap. v. 15, 16. that the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man is the prayer of faith.

Moreover, if fpiritual wifdom, or practical holiness, be the fruit and effect of faith (as we are told that it is in the quoted text) then our juftification and acceptance with God (by which we do, and without which we cannot obtain the divine influences to our progreffive fanctification) is by faith, and not by works. I think, no man will pretend, that we are fo acceptable to God, as to obtain his fanctifying influences, in a progrefs of wisdom and grace, before we are juftified: or that we are fanctified by faith, and juftified by works. Whence it follows, that faith is the mean or term of our justification, because it is the mean or term of our fanctification; and that a holy life cannot be the condition of our acceptance with God, because it is the confequence and fruit of that faith, by which we find acceptance with him.

Another text to the fame purpofe, we find, in chap. ii. 5. Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God cho fen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which God hath promised to them that love him? It might be read, hath not God chosen the poor, to be rich (as a fimilar phrafe is tranflated, Rom. viii. 29.) to be rich with or by faith, and heirs. Does it not plainly teach us, as that the end of God's chafing the poor, was that they might be fpiritually rich, fo that it is faith which enriches them, and conftitutes them heirs of the kingdom? And you will readily own, that if we are heirs of the kingdom by faith, we are juftified by faith. The kingdom is prepared for them that love God: and faith is the fource of that love to God, by which we are qualified for the kingdom. Faith worketh by love, Gal. v. 6. And therefore faith is the term or medium of our acceptance with God, and title to the kingdom. These texts must therefore be remembered, in our explication of the context you refer to, that we may not represent the apostle as teaching contradictions or in confiftencies.

It must also be premifed, that we should underftand the reasonings and conclufions of the two apoftles Paul and James, according to the profeffed fcope and defign f their difcourfes, and according to the subject they are.

profeffedly treating upon : and we fhould confider the expreffions they each of them ufe upon the point in view, not as words occafionally and tranfiently spoken: but as what relate to, and are connected with, the fubject matter profeffedly undertaken to be explained. This must be always allowed to be a natural and rational rule, which ought to be strictly adhered to, in the interpretation of scripture. Now then, let us look a little into this cafe; and fee if we do not find the fcope and defigu of these two apostles very different, where they fpeak fo very differently of juflification by faith, and by works.

Paul defignedly handles this queftion, How a guilty, condemned and convinced finner fhall get reconciled to God, find acceptance with him, and have a title to the heavenly inheritance? He treats of fuch who are under fin, whofe mouths must be stopped, who are all become guilty before God; and who have all finned, and come fbort of the glory of God, Rom. iii. 9, 19, 23. He confiders the impoffibility in the nature of the thing, that such as these can be juftified by works; becaufe when they have done all they can do, they yet in their highest attainments continue finners, and remain under guilt. This is the plain and manifeft fcope of the two firft, and part of the third chapters to the Romans. He thence proceeds to fhew which way, and which only, they may hope for acceptance with God; in the remaining part of the third, and in the following chapters of that epiftle. This cannot be by the deeds of the law. Therefore by the deeds of the law, fball no flesh be juftified in his fight, chap. iii. 20. But it must be by the righteoufness of God without the law, by the righteoufnefs of God by faith of Jefus Chrift; and by faith without the deeds of the law. ver. 21, 22, 28. This is the fubject, that the apoftle Paul keeps conflantly in view, in his epiftles to the Romans and Galatians.

But then on the contrary, the apostle James defigned. ly handles this queftion, whether carelefs licentious profeflors of Chriftianity may prefume upon their ob.. taining falvation, from their doctrinal faith, or from their notional and hiftorical affent to the truth of the gofpel? and thence he takes occafion diftinctly to confider, which