alfo be confidered, in our Juftification in this Life, Christ is confidered in the fpecial Character of our Redeemer, our Propitiation, and High Priest; and accordingly applies the Benefits of his Redemption to our Souls, that we may be accepted in him; but in the great Day of Accounts, he will appear in the fpecial Character of our Judge, publickly owning and rewarding thofe Graces which he has enabled us to exercise, and that Obedience which he has excited and ftrengthened us to perform. In our Juftification here, he is glorifying the Riches of his redeeming Mercy and Love: In the Day of Judgment he will glorify his rectoral Holiness and Equity, as well as his infinite Bounty; and let the intelligent World fee, that the Judge of all the Earth will do right.-Here he justifies the Ungodly, by acquitting them from Guilt, and imputing Righteousness without Works; there he will reward the Godly, by crowning their Piety and Holiness with eternal Life. Here our Juftification is the Foundation and Fountain of our new Obedience, as I have before fhewn you; there we are to receive the Reward of our Obedience already performed and finished.-In our Juftification here Christ acts from the Motives only of his fovereign Grace and Love: In the final Sentence he will proceed according to the Rules of distributive remunerative Justice, in adjusting and proportioning Rewards. So that from the Nature of Things it is agreeable that we should here be justified by Faith only; but there judged according to our Works.

And now, Sir, will you indulge me the fame Freedom which you have hitherto born with; and allow me to be your faithful Monitor in an Inftance or two?

I would first put you in Mind, that it is of much greater Confequence to your higheft Interefts, to

make

make it evident to yourself, that you are indeed juftified in the Sight of God, than to exercise 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 Heavenlymindedness and Spirituality, you will not be examined at the Bar of your Judge about your Acquaintance with these modern Distinctions; or, whether thofe Qualifications which will then be gloriously rewarded, are the Fruits of the firft, or the Conditions of a fecondary Juftification.

I would again entreat 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 Juft 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 Soul to Chrift as to the Author of your eternal Salvation, depending upon him as the Lord your Righteoufnefs; and expecting all Supplies of Grace from his Fulnefs. And believe me, Sir, a lively Exercise of Faith in Chrift will afford you more prefent Comfort, will much more quicken you in Devotion and true Holinefs; and more ftrengthen and establish you in every good Work, in your Progrefs to the heavenly Kingdom, than all your Studies in these 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 Holiness you can never see God. It therefore concerns you to look to the Fountain of Holi

nefs

nefs for all Supplies of Grace, to watch over your Heart and Life, to endeavour and pray for a holy Conformity to the whole Will of God; and amidít and after all, to bring your great Defects to the Blood of Chrift for Pardon; and continually implore the divine Influences, that the Work of Grace may be carried on in your Soul with Power, till you arrive without Spot and blameless, before the Throne of your Sovereign and righteous Judge.

That you may thus be directed fafe, amidst all the Snares and Delusions in your Way, is the Prayer of,

SIR,

Your, &c.

LETTER XV.

Wherein the Apostle JAMES's Doctrine of Juftification by Works, in his fecond Chapter, is diftinctly reviewed, and fet in its genuine Light, by a Comparifon with the Apostle PAUL'S Doctrine of Juftification by Faith.

SIR,

Yu Difficulty in your Way, you should think

OU" acknowledge, that if it were not for one

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"the Evidence offered against the Doctrine you "have propofed, must be conclufive: But you do "not know how to give into a Scheme that is "not only exprefsly 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 Apostle James, who expressly ❝ rejects

"rejects my Interpretation of St. Paul's Difcourfes (6 on the Subject before us.—— --What Appearance "therefore foever there may be, in Favour of my "Principles, in St. Paul's Epiftles, thefe muft not "be understood in direct Contradiction to the ex"prefs 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 Epistle, "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 Satisfaction, that the Doctrine of the Apostle James, in the Place referred to, is noways inconfiftent with the Doctrine of our Juftification by Faith, fo plainly and fully taught by the Apostle Paul in all his Epiftles; and therefore, that our Juftification by Works (in the Senfe that I oppofe it) has no Foundation at all in the whole Word of God.

That this may be fet in a proper Light, there are two or three Things neceffary to be premifed, and diftinctly confidered, previous to a direct and immediate View of the Confiftency and Concurrence of these two Apoftles, in the Doctrine of a Sinner's Juflification by Faith, notwithstanding their feeming Difagreement and Repugnancy.

It fhould first be premifed, that these two Apof tles must be understood in fuch a Sense as will make them confiftent. We must take this for a Principle, that whatever becomes of our Schemes, on one Side 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 confiftent; and that must be rejected, which fets them at Variance, and makes their Doctrines utterly irreconcilable.

It fhould be likewife premifed, that the Apostle James must be understood in fuch a Senfe 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 Epistle.-Let us then fee if we can't find the Doctrine I am pleading for taught in this very Epiltle of James, particularly in Chap. i. ver. 5, 6, 7. If any of you lack Wifdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all Men liberally and upbraideth not; and it fhall be given him. But let him ask in Faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth, is like a Wave of the Sea, driven of the Wind, and toffed. For let not that Man think that he shall 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 justifying our Perfons, if our Works themselves are juftified by Faith; but condemned and rejected without it, as the Apostle teaches us 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 Wisdom, or practical Holinefs, be the Fruit and Effect of Faith (as we are told that it is in the quoted Text) then our Justification and Acceptance with God (by which we do, and without which we cannot obtain the divine Influences to our progreffive Sanctification) is by Faith,

and