The

fied and interested in the divine Favour? Time would fail me, fhould I particularly insist upon all the various Representations of CHRIST's Redemption in Scripture; and fhew they are all directly repugnant to this Scheme of yours. I fhall therefore mention but an Inftance or two more; and then submit it to your own serious Reflection. We are faid to be juftified by his Blood; and reconciled to God by his Death. Rom. v. 9, 10. But can we be juftified by his Blood, and yet juftified by our own Obedience? Are we reconciled to God by the Death of Chrift, and yet not reconciled to God, but by a continued Progrefs of our own Obedience? Dare you, Sir, adventure to attribute that to your own Obedience, which is attributed by the Spirit of God to the Blood and Death of Chrift?

But perhaps you will make the fame Remarks upon what I have now offered, as you did upon my laft, and tell me, that "Your Author does indeed "fuppofe fome Conditions of our Interest in the Be"nefits procured by Chrift for us; and do not "they who are of the other Side of the Queftion "alfo fuppofe our Interest therein to be conditional? "Don't they fuppofe Faith to be the Condition of

our Interest in Christ, and all the Benefits he has "purchased for us? Where then is the Difference? "Why is a conditional Interest in the Benefits pur"chafed by Chrift fo very offenfive in the one Scheme, and fo innocent and inoffenfive in the "other?"

In Answer to this, you must allow me the Freedo m to tell you, that this Plea takes its Rife from a very great Inattention to the Subject before us. You know, Sir, that I have, in my former Letters, largely and particularly fhewn you, that Faith is no otherwise a Condition of our Intereft in Christ and the Benefits of his Redemption, than a Beggar's

re

receiving an Alms is a Condition of his having the Benefit of it; or than a condemned Malefactor's ac cepting a free Pardon is the Condition of his Reprieve from Execution, and Restoration to his Prince's Favour. And is there no Difference between partaking of a free Gift, or no other Condition than a thankful Acceptance, and having the Offer of a Favour on the Condition of long continued Services of very difficult and uncertain Performance?- -Is there no Difference between expecting Juftification from no Righteousness of our own, but only from the Righteousness of Christ, received by Faith; and our fuppofing this alone an infufficient Foundation of Confidence, and therefore looking to fome Righteousness of our own as the Condition of our Acceptance with God?—The Difference is juft as great as between any other contradictory Propofitions. Upon the one Sup pofal, Christ himself has performed all the proper Conditions of our Juftification, and freely beltows the Benefit on our grateful Acceptance: Whereas, upon the other Suppofal, Chrift has not performed the Conditions of our Juftification, but only procured for us the Privilege to perform them ourselves.Upon the one Suppofal, we are juftified on Account of Christ's Obedience; but on the other Suppofal, we are justified on Account of our own Obedience. -Upon the one Suppofal, Chrift has merited Juftification for us without Works; but upon the other Suppofal, he has merited Juftification for us by our Works.And in fine, upon the one Suppofal, the first Act of faving Faith gives an immediate and continuing Interest in the Favour of God; but upon the other Suppofal, Faith is but the Introduction of that Life of fincere Obedience, which is properly the Condition of our obtaining and enjoying the divine Favour.

Sir, it belongs now to you feriously and impartially to reflect and confider, which Opinion is moft likely to be true; Whether That which renounces all Confidence in the Flesh, and propofes no Condition of Juftification but our hearty Approbation and Acceptance of, and Dependence upon the Lord Jefus Chrift alone, as the Way wherein the Glory of the Righteoufnefs, Wisdom, Love and Mercy of GOD is exalted, and finful Man juftly debafed, and brought to the Foot of an infinite Sovereign: Or, That Opinion which denies this Honour to the Redeemer's Merits and to fovereign Grace, and propofes our own Performances and Attainments as Conditions of our Juftification and Acceptance with God.I have now been fhewing you that the former is the Scripture Reprefentation of the Cafe: And methinks, any one that has had a juft and fenfible Discovery of his own Depravity and fpiritual Impotence, muft know by Experience, that it is the only Way in which he can entertain comfortable Expectations of Safety and Happiness.

Another Objection against this Opinion is, that it is deftructive of practical Religion, fubverfive to a Life of true Holiness. Whatever Sentiments we entertain, and whatever Principles we efpoufe, we muft yet remember, that without Holiness no Man Shall fee the Lord; and he that hath this Hope in him, purifieth himself, as he is pure. The Doctrine of Chrift is, in all its Parts, a Doctrine according to Godliness. If it therefore appears, upon an impartial Examination of this Cafe, that these Principles of your Author are inconfiftent with, and repugnant to that Holiness which is a neceffary Qualification for the Kingdom of Heaven, there can no other Argument be wanting again't this Scheme, to convince that it cannot be agreeable to him who

us,

gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all Iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar People, zealous of good Works. But left I be mifunderstood, and expofed to your Censure for Uncharitableness, I would premife, that I cannot but hope, that there are fome who adhere to thefe Principles, whofe Hearts are founder than their Heads; and who are truly holy in Body and Spirit, by a Dependence very different from their Profeffion. This is what may be reasonably hoped, not only from the exemplary Lives of fome who embrace these Tenets, but from their Prayers of a truly evangelical Strain, which we ought to fuppofe the Language of their Hearts, and which we ought to hope, will find Audience with God, notwithstanding the Error of their Judgments. I must nevertheless infift upon it, that such cannot be truly holy whose Hearts and Lives are conformable to the Principles I am oppofing. Not all their religious Purposes, Promises, Refolutions, Reformations; not all their Faftings, external Mortifications, Macerations of their Bodies, Vows, Meditations, Prayers, or other Endeavours they may use, can be productive of Holinefs, upon these Principles. Men may by fuch Means put fome Restraint upon their Corruptions, that they may in a slavish Manner perform fome hypocritical Duties, and thereby may quiet their Confciences, obtain a Reputation amongst Men, and entertain Hopes of Heaven; but they must yet remain Strangers to any true Love to God, Delight in him, and Conformity of Heart and Affections to him, wherein the Effence of Holiness confifts.

This will appear from fuch Confiderations as thefe. It is an inconteftible Truth, that we cannot be holy before we have a Principle of Holiness; that we cannot perform vital Actions without a Source and Principle of Life.-It is equally certain,

that

that we naturally have not this Principle of fpiritual Life; but the Imagination of Man's Heart is evil from his Youth, only evil continually.---It is also certain, that Faith in Chrift is contemporary with (though in Order of Nature it flows from, and is fucceffive to) the first Principle of fpiritual Life; and it is from our Union to Chrift by Faith that we derive from him Supplies of Grace and Strength, and that the whole Progrefs of Holiness is carried on in the Soul. It is therefore neceffary, that we be first united to Chrift the Head of Influences and Fountain of all Holinefs, and fo be habitually alive to God, before we can actually live to God, as I have observed before. All our Attainments in Religion, without a vital Principle within, will be but as a Carcase without Breath; or as Streams from a corrupt Fountain.Whence it follows, that they who are looking to fincere Obedience for Justification, must be Strangers to true Holiness; they not having first committed their Souls to Chrift, depended upon him alone for Righteousness and Strength, and thereby obtained Supplies of Grace for a Life of Holiness, from that only Fountain of Life. To feek Juftification from our Sanctification is to invert the Order and Method of our Salvation; it is to produce the Cause from the Effect, to fetch the Fountain from the Streams. We must first by a new living Principle be enabled to act Faith in Chrift, to receive him, and thereby be united to him, and be justified in the Sight of God ; otherwife all our religious and moral Duties will be vain, a Sacrifice without a Heart, mere legal or flavish Performances, that have nothing of true Holinefs in them. We must be created in Christ Jefus unto good Works, if we would walk in them. Eph. We must be renewed in the Spirit of our Mind, if we would put on the new Man, which

ii. 10.

Y 2°

after