who fearched the fcriptures even upon a journey; or of Cornelius, who fought the Lord in alms-givings, and prayer;] if thou believeft at all, I fear] it is with the drunkard's faith, the whoremonger's faith, the devil's faith, James ii. 19. From fuch a faith, may God deliver us, and give us, inftead of this counterfeit, the faith once delivered unto the faints, the mystery of faith kept in a pure confcience! Get it, O finner, who bearest a chriftian name, and Chrift and heaven are thine: [but if thou] die without it, [whether it be by continuing in thy prefent fin and unbelief, or by making Shipwreck of the faith,] thou dieft the fecond death; thou finkeft in the bottomless pit for evermore. Mark xvi. 16.

Having thus given you an account of both covenants, and laid before you the condition [or term] of each; namely, for the first, a finlefs, uninterrupted obedience to all the commands of the holy, fpiritual, [and Adamic] law of God, performed by ourselves [without the leaft mediatorial affiftance:] and for the fecond, a lively faith in Chrift [the light of the world, according to the gospel-difpenfation we are under ;] by which faith the virtue of Chrift's active and paffive obedience to the law [of innocence] being imputed to us, and applied to our hearts, we are made new creatures, born again, and created in Christ Jesus unto good works, without which there can be no lively faith { under any of the divine difpenfations] and having by that important diftinction of the two grand covenants] removed a great deal of rubbish out of the I hope it will not be difficult to prove, under the

SECOND HEAD,

way;

That the way of falvation by fuch a lively faith only, or, which is the fame, by the covenant of grace [alone,] is the one way that leads to life, according to the bible and our articles of religion.

If you ask all the pharifees, all the felf-righteous Heathens, Turks, Jews, and Papifts in the world,

which is the way of falvation? [with too many ignorant Proteftants] they will anfwer, [without making the least mention of repentance and faith] "Thro' doing good works, and leading a good life:" That is, Thro' the covenant of works," flatly contrary to what I have proved in the first part of this difcourfe; namely, that by the works of the law, by the firft covenant, fhall no flesh living be justified, Gal. ii. 16. Or if they have yet fome fenfe of modefty, if they are not quite loft in pride, [fuppofing them Chriftians] they will varnish over the blafphemy [which I fear is indirectly couched under their boasting speech,] with two or three words about God's mercy. "Why, fay they, "it is to be hoped, we fhall all be faved by endea"vouring to lead good lives, and do good works: "And if that will not do, God's mercy in Christ will "do the rest." Which means neither more nor lefs than this: "We are still to be faved by the covenant "of works, by putting on, [finful and guilty as we are,] the robe of our own [pharifaic, anti-evange"lical, Christlefs] righteousness; and if it happen to "be too short, or to have fome holes, Chrift [whom we are willing to make the omega, but not the alpha; "the last, but not the firft,] will in mercy tear his fpotlefs robe [of merits,] to patch up and lengthen 66 ours. [And this they fay, it is to be feared, without the leaft degree of genuine repentance towards God, and heart-felt faith in our Lord Jefus Chrift.] O how many dream of getting to heaven in this fool's coat, [this abfurd drefs of a chriftian Pharifee !] How many, by thus blending the two covenants, which are as incompatible as fire and water, try to make for themfelves a third covenant, that never existed but in their proud imagination! In a word, how many are there, who fay or think: We must be faved partly by [the covenant of] works, and partly by [the covenant of grace! giving the lie to God and my text! overturning at once the gospel and protestantism! —No, no: if a remnant is faved, it is by the covenant of [gofpel-]grace; and if by [gospel-]grace, then it is

46

no

no more [by the covenant] of works; otherwife grace is no more [gofpel-]grace. But if it be [by the covenant] of works, then it is no more [gofpel-grace; otherwise work is no more [anti-evangelical] work: [for the moment obedience is the work of faith, it can no more be opposed to faith and gofpel-grace, than the fruit of a tree can be opposed to the tree, and the fap by which it is produced.]

But, to the law and the teftimony! Do the oracles of God, or the writings of our Reformers, direct us for falvation to the covenant of works, or to a third covenant of [anti-evangelical +] works and [evangelical] grace patched up together? Do they not entirely and invariably point us to the covenant of grace alone? Hear firft the word of the Lord. He that BELIEV ETH on the Son [according to the light of the difpenfation he is under] hath everlasting life: He that BBLIEVETH NOT, Jhall not fee life, but the wrath of God abideth on him, John iii. 36. When the trembling jailer cries out, What must I do to be saved? Paul and Silas anfwer, BELIEVE in the Lord Jefus Chrift, and thou shalt be faved, Acts xvi. 31. ·God fo loved the world, fays St. John, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever BELIEVETH in him, should not perish, but have everlasting life. John iii. 16. By GRACE, fays St. Paul, ye are [initially] faved thro' FAITH, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not [by the covenant] of works, [nor yet by the proper merit of any works,] left any man should boaft [as the Pharifee;

all

(14) I add the word anti-evangelical, to point out the rise of the mistake of fome pious proteftants, who, being carried away by an injudicious zeal for the first gospel-axiom, and mifled by the concifenefs of the Apostle's ftyle, get upon the pinnacle of the antinomian babel, and thence decry all works in general; unhappily quoting St. Paul in confirmation of their error. Although it is evident, that the Apostle never excluded from the goffel-plan of falvation by grace, any works but the works of unbelief, and fometimes pleaded for the works of faith, and for the immenfe rewards, with which they fhall be crowned, in far ftronger terms than St. James himself; denouncing indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon EVERY SOUL of man that neglects them, or doth evil. Rom. ii,

all who defpife the way of faith, and put the inftru. mental caufes in the room of the first and properly meritorious caufe of our falvation, being no better than boafling Pharifees.] For to him that worketh [without applying to the throne of grace, as an hell-deferving finner] is the reward not reckoned of [evangelical] grace, but of [legal debt: but to him, that worketh not [upon the footing of the firft covenant;] to him, who fees that he cannot [efcape hell, much lefs] get heaven, by [fetting] his good works, [if he has any, on the Redeemer's throne ;] but believeth [as a loft finner,] on him that juftifieth the ungodly; his FAITH is counted for righteousness: he is faved by [obedient] FAITH, which is the CONDITION of the covenant of grace, Rom. iv. 4.

Thus fpeak the Scriptures, and, bleffed be God! thus fpeak alfo our liturgy and articles.

In the abfolution the priest declares, that [in the day of converfion] God pardoneth and abfolveth, that is, faveth, not thofe [moralifts] who [being ashamed to repent, and fcorning to believe the gofpel, endeavour to] lead a good life to get a pardon [by their own merits:] but all thofe, who truly repent and unfeignedly believe his holy gofpel; that is, all thofe, who, by true repentance renounce [together with their fins] all dependance upon the covenant of works; and by a faith unfeigned fly for refuge only to [God's mercy in Chrift, which is fo kindly offered to finners in] the covenant of grace. Hence it is that in the communion-service, we are commanded to pray, That, by the merits and death of Chrift, and thro' faith in his blood, we and all the whole church, may obtain remission of fins, and all other benefits of his paffion.

This holy doctrine is moft clearly maintained, and ftrongly established in the ixth, xth, xith, xiith, and xiiith of our articles of religion. And upon thefe five pillars, it will remain unfhaken, as long as the church of England fhall ftand.

The ixth fhews, that fince the fall of Adam," the corruption of our nature deferves God's wrath and dam

nation;

nation; "fo that [being confidered without the free gift, that came upon all men in Chrift unto juftification of life, Rom. v. 18.] we are, of ourselves, evil trees ready for the axe of death, and the fire of hell.

The xth adds, that we cannot confequently get grace and glory, that is, fave ourselves, by bearing good fruit [thro' our original powers, according to the first covenant] because an evil tree can only produce evil fruit: - [And, that " we have no power to do works acceptable to God, without the grace of God by Chrift preventing us," according to the fecond covenant.].

The xith affirms, that we are faved, that is, accepted of God, changed, and made good trees, trees of the Lord's planting, only for the merit of our Lord Jesus Chrift by faith, and not for our own works and defervings as we can do no good works, before we are [at leaft] in a state of [initial] falvation, Make the tree [in fome measure] good, fays our Lord, and its fruit fhall [in fome degree] be good. [In our infancy we are freely bleffed with a feed of light from Christ, the light of men; and at the fame time, we are freely juftified from the damning guilt of original corrup tion. As we grow up, and perfonally repent and believe in the light after a perfonal fall, we are again freely pardoned. Thus, fo long at leaft as the accepted t.me, and the day of falvation laft, ] God has firit [in fome degree] iefpect to our perfons in Chrift, and then to our facrifices or works [of faith.] Heb. xi. 4. Gen. iv. 4, 5:

The xiith declares, that good works, works which neceffarily follow [at leaft the] free juftification [of infants,] do not ferve to put away [or atone for] fin; but to declare the truth of our faith; "infomuch that by them a lively faith may be as evidently known, as a tree difcerned by the fruit." A tree is firit planted, and then it brings forth fruit: A believer is firft faved, [i. e. freely made partaker of initial falvation] and inen he does good works. [A lively faith neceffarily produces them, tho' a believer does not neceffa