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that day, when the body of mankind shall be fummoned to give up their account to Chrift Jefus our Lord. Then fhall every true christian, that is, every one in whom the forementioned. pre-requifites are found, partake of God's act of grace, by being acquitted or abfolved, and so difcharged from that punishment and condemnation to which their fins had juftly expofed, and the righteous law of God had bound them over. For the proof of this obfervation, fee Ecclef. iii. 17. I faid in mine heart, God foall judge the righteous and the wicked. Chap. xii. 14. God fhall bring every work into judgment, with every fecret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil. Acts x. 42. To teftify that it was be which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead. Chap, xvii. 31. Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom be bath ordained. Rom. ii. 16. In the day when God fball judge the fecrets of men by Jefus Chrift. Chap. xiv. 10, 12. We must all stand before the judgment-feat of Christ.---So then every one of us fhall give an account of himself to God. 2 Tim. iv. 1. I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jefus Chrift, sobo fhall judge the quick and the dead. 1 Pet. iv. 5. Who shall give. account to him that is ready to judge the quick and; dead. Here we fee, that as God bath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteoufnefs, by Jefus Chrift; fo all perfons, and all that they have done, fhall pafs under that trial; every work, every fecret thing, whether good or evil, and all perfons, both quick and dead, the righteous and the wicked, chriftians as well as others. For, faith, St. Paul to the chriftian Romans, we must all ftand. before the judgment-feat of Chrift, every one of us fball give an account of himself to God. Matt. xxv. 32----34. Before him (viz. Chrift) fshall be gathered all nations, and be shall separate them one from ano

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ther, as a shepherd divideth his fheep from the goats, and he shall fet the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then fhall the King fay to them on his right hand, come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you, &c. Verfe 41. Then Shall be fay to them on the left hand, depart from me, ye curfed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Verfe 46. These fhall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into life eternal. 2 Cor. v. 1o. We must all appear before the judgment-feat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Rev. xx. 12, 13. I saw the dead, fmall and great, stand before God, and the books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of thofe things which were written in the books, according to their works; and the fea gave up the. dead which were in it; and death and bell gave up. the dead which were in them, and they were judged. every man according to their works. Here we fee that the refult or iffue of the aforefaid general judgment is the acquitting or condemning of the perfons brought to trial, according as their works have made them the fuitable objects of God's favour or difpleafure; and confequently that the juftification of a chriftian will then, and not till then, take place.

Thefe four I take to be the principal ingre dients in a chriftian's juftification. First, That it is wholly of grace, and not of debt. Secondly, That the pre-requifites to, and which make christians the fuitable objects of this favour are, repentance, faith in, and faithfulnefs to our Lord. Jefus Chrift. Thirdly, The motive or argument with God, for beftowing this act of grace upon all true believers, is the obedience of his Son, our Lord Jefus Chrift, who as he became obe

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dient unto the death of the cross, so he hath obtained to be a prevailing interceffor for all obedient believers, and God vouchfafes to pardon and acquit them upon his account, and for his fake. Fourthly, That this grace will be actually difpenfed to all the fuitable objects of it, at the great and general judgment.

The cafe being thus ftated, and proved, from hence we learn, first, the needlefsness of that great debate, viz. whether chriftians are juftified by faith alone, or both by faith and works; for if by faith is meant a believing what God hath revealed, or, in other words, a believing in the perfon and meffage of the Meffiah, which is commonly called chriftian faith, or an affenting to the truth of the chriftian revelation; and if by works is meant christian obedience, or, in other words, the fincere practice of that unfeigned repentance, purity, piety, humility, juftice, and charity, which is fuitable to, and founded upon that belief, then it appears, from the foregoing obfervations, that we are juftified neither by faith nor works; if by being juftified by thefe, we mean, that thefe, or: either of these is the meritorious caufe of that juftification, because (as I have fhewn) the chriftian is juftified wholly of God's free grace, which. excludes all merit in the perfon juftified, when we use the word merit in its firft and most proper fenfe, as is fuppofed here. But if, by being juftified by thefe, we mean, that thefe, or either of these is pre-requifite to, and that which makes chriftians the fuitable objects of this favour; then it appears, from what hath been already obferv'd, that chriftians are juftified both by faith and by works, because both faith and works are necessary. to make men the fuitable objects of this grace, the latter always pre-fuppofing the former, tho' it is not always a neceflary confequence of it; for tho' christian

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christian obedience always fuppofes chriftian faith as its root, yet chriftian faith doth not always bring forth the fruit of chriftian obedience; and therefore, as St. James obferves, chap. ii. 14, and to the end of that chapter, that a man may have faith alone without works; fo he likewife affures us, that faith alone doth not make us the fuitable objects of the forementioned grace of juftification, because both faith and works are neceffary to that end.

I obferve farther, that the faith, pre-requifite to the juftification of a chriftian, is the belief of thofe divine truths which God hath revealed to us in and by Chrift Jefus, and not a strong perfuafion in us that we are particularly elected, that God loves us with his fpecial love, and that Chrift died for us in particular, which fome men mifcall juftifying-faith: Ifay, the faith which makes chriftians the fuitable objects of God's grace of juftification (when it is accompanied with chrifti-. an obedience or good works) is the former only, and not the latter; because it is the former only, and not the latter of thefe, which can, in any propriety of fpeech, be called faith. For as in general, faith is an affent of the mind to the truth of a propofition revealed to us by another, fo it is our affenting to thofe truths that God hath revealed, which is properly divine faith; and therefore as God hath revealed the truths of the chriftian religion, but hath no where revealed, that any particular perfon is elected, or that he loves him with his fpecial love, or that Chrift died for him in particular, there being no fuch propofition to be found in any part of his revelation; fo confequently it is the former only, and not the latter, which is divine faith, or that faith, which (when it is accompanied with chriftian obedience) difpofes chriftians for the favour of juftification.

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Indeed, as God has promifed his fpecial love, &c. to all obedient believers, whoever can be fure, upon good grounds, that they are fuch obedient believers as God's promife is made to, may be fure that God loves them with his fpecial love, &c. But then this affurance is, in no fenfe, divine faith, but only a rational and just conclufion drawn from its proper premises; one of which premises is divine faith, or an affenting to fome truth revealed by God.

From this obfervation we may fee the groundlefsnefs of fome mens confidence (which they call, a being strong in faith) for if they can work up themselves to a ftrong perfuafion that they are elected, that God loves them with his fpecial love, and that Chrift died for them in particular, then they conclude, that they have the faith of God's elect, or juftifying faith; and confequently, that they are in a fafe condition, and that all is well. But as these men are perfuaded of what God hath not revealed, and as that is not divine faith, fo this perfuafion, whether it be well or ill grounded, is of no manner of ufe to them, with refpect to their juftification; because at the day of judgment, our Lord will deal with us according to what we really are, and not according to what we have confidently conceited ourselves to be. Every one, in whom the pre-requifites of faith and chriftian obedience are found, Chrift will acquit at the day of trial, whether they think themfelves the objects of this grace or not; for, fuppofing fuch a man to be ftrongly perfuaded that he is a reprobate, his perfuafion doth not make him fo; for his error, in this cafe, is not a defect of faith, but only an humble and groundless jealoufy of himself, and therefore his error will make no alteration in his fentence. It may make his life uncomfortable to him here, but it will not affect O 2

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