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HISTORICAL ESSAY

Upon the importance and harmony of the two gospelprecepts, Believe and Obey; and upon the fatal conSequences that flow from parting Faith and Works.

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HEN the gofpel is confidered as opposed to the error of the pharifees, and that of the antinomians, it may be fummed up in the two following propofitions: (1) In the day of converfion, we are faved freely as finners [i. e. made freely par takers of the priviledges that belong to our gofpel difpenfation in the church militant] thro' the merits of Chrift, and by the inftrumentality of a living faith. (2) In the day of judgment we fhall be faved freely as faints, [i. c. made freely partakers of the priviledges of our gofpel difpenfation in the church. triumphant] thro' the merits of Chrift, and by the evidence of evangelical works. Whence it follows: (1) that nothing can abfolutely hinder our juftification in a gospel day, but the want of true faith; and (2) that nothing will abfolutely hinder our juftification in the day of judgment, but the want of good works. If I am not mistaken, all the evangelical doctrine of faith and works turns upon thofe propolitions. They exactly answer to the grand directions of the gospel. Wilt thou enter into Christ's fheepfold? Believe. Wilt thou ftay there? Believe and obey. Wilt thou be numbered among his sheep in the great day? Endure unto the end: Continue in well doing: that is, Perfevere in faith and obedience.

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To believe then and obey, or as Solomon expreffes it, To fear God and keep his commandments, is the whole duty of man. Therefore a profeffor of the faith without genuine obedience, and a pretender to obedience

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without genuine faith, equally mifs their aim; while a friend to faith and works put in their proper place, a poffeffor of the faith which works by love, hits the gofpel mark, and fo runs as to obtain the prize: for the fame true and faithful Witness fpoke the two following, and equally exprefs declarations. He that BELIEVETH on the Son hath everlasting life; and he that BELIEVETH NOT the Son fhall not fee life; but the wrath of God abideth on him, John iii. 36. And, The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves fhall come forth, they that have DONE GOOD, unto the refurrection of life; and they that have DONE EVIL, unto the refurrection of condemnation. John v. 29.

See that fculler upon yonder river. The unwearied diligence and watchful fkill, with which he plies his two oars, points out to us the work and wifdom of an experienced divine. What an even, gentle fpring does the mutual effort of his oars give to his boat! Obferve him : his right hand never refts, but when the ftream carries him too much to the left: he flacks not his left hand, unless he is gone too much to the right; nor has he fooner recovered a juft medium, than he uses both oars again with mutual harmony. Suppofe that for a conftancy he employed but one, no matter which, what would be the confequence? He would only move in a circle; and if neither wind nor tide carried him along, after an hard day's work he would find himself in the very fpot, where he began his idle toil.

This illuftration needs very little explaining: I fhall juft obferve that the antinomian is like a fculler, who ufes only his right hand car; and the pharifee, like him who plies only the oar in his left hand. One makes an endless buftle about grace and faith, the other about charity and works; but both, after all, find themselves exactly in the fame cafe; with this fingie difference, that one has turned from truth to the right, and the other to the left.

Not fo the judicious, unbiaffed preacher, who will fafely enter the haven of eternal reft, for which he and his hearers are bound. He makes an equal ufe

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of the doctrine of faith and that of works. If at any time he infits most upon faith, it is only when the ftream carries his congregation upon the pharifaic shallows on the left hand: And if he lays a preponderating ftrefs upon works, it is only when he fees unwary fouls fucked into the antinomian whirlpool on the right hand. His kill confifts in fo avoiding one danger as not to run upon the other.

Nor ought this watchful wifdom to be confined to minifters for tho' all are not called to direct congregations; yet all moral agents are, and always were, more or lefs called to direct themselves, that is, to occupy till the Lord comes, by making a proper use of their talents according to the parable, Mat. xxv. 15, to 31. God gave to angels and man "remigium alarum,” the two oars, or if you please, the equal wings of faith and obedience; charging them to use those grand powers, according to their original wifdom and enlightened confcience. Or, to fpeak without metaphor, he created them in fuch a manner, that they believed it their duty, intereft, and glory, to obey him without reserve; and this faith was naturally productive of an univerfal, delightful, perfect obedience. Nor would they ever have been wanting in practice, if they had not first wavered in principle. But when Lucifer had unaccountably perfuaded himself, in part at least, either that obedience was mean, or that rebellion would be advantageous; and when the crafty Tempter had made our firft parents believe in part, that if they ate of the forbidden fruit, far from dying they fhould be as God himself; how poffible, how easy was it for them to venture upon an act of rebellion!-By rafhly playing with the Serpent, and fucking in the venom of his crafty infinuations, they foon gave their faith a wilful wound, and their obedience naturally died of it: But alas! it did not die unrevenged; for no fooner had fainting faith given birth to a dead work, than he was destroyed by her fpurious offspring. Thus Faith and Obedience, that couple more lovely than David and his friend, more infeparable than Saul

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and Jonathan, in their death were not divided. They even met with a common grave, the corrupt atrocious breaft of a rebellious angel, or of apoftate man.

Nor does St. James give us a lefs melancholy account of this fatal event. While faith flumbered, luft conceived, and brought forth fin, and fin finished, brought forth death, the death of faith, and confequently the moral death of angelic fpirits and human fouls, who equally live by faith + during their state of probation. So fell Lucifer from heaven, to rule and rage in the darkness of this world: So fell Adam from paradife, to toil and die in this vale of tears: So fell Judas from an apoftolic throne, to hang himself and go to his own place.

Nor can we rife but in a way parallel to that by which they fell. For, as a difbelief of our CREATOR, productive of bad works, funk our first parents; so a faith in our REDEEMER, productive of good works, muit inftrumentally raise their fallen poflerity.

Should you afk, which is moft neceffary to falvation, faith or sworks; I beg leave to propose a fimilar question. Which is moft effential to breathing, infpiration or expiration? If you reply, that "The moment either is abfolutely at an end, fo is the other; and therefore both are equally important;" I return exaly the fame answer. If humble faith receives the breath of fpiritual life; obedient love gratefully returns it, and makes way for a fresh fupply: when it does not, the fpirit is grieved; and if this want of co-ope

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Faith in God as Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge, was not lef neceffary to Lucifer and Adam in order to their standing in a state of innocence, than Faith in God as Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Rewarder of them that diligently feek him, is neceffary to finners, in order to their recovery from a state of guilt; or to believers in order to avoid relapfes and final apoftafy. Faith therefore, fo far as it implies an unfhaken confidence in God, and a firm adherence to his will, is as eternal as love and obedience. But when it is confidered as the fubftance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not feen, which are effential properties of a believer's faith in this prelent state of things, it is evident that it will neceffarily end in fight, as foon as the curtain of time is drawn up; and terminate in enjoyment, as foon as God's glory appears without a veil.

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