will. But it is very remarkable, that "the workers of iniquity," as they are expressly ftiled, fhould plead their faith as a reafon why they should be accepted; though the holy and the humble imitators of Jesus never once thought of its merit. "Lord!" say these mistaken men, "have we not preached in thy name, and in thy name done many wonderful works?" His anfwer is likewife recorded to their condemnation, Depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity."

Thus you see our Lord's own determination of this controverted cafe: a

good life is made the test of faith or profession, and the indifpenfable condition of our being justified or accepted through him. After this plain fact, it may well be admired that fo many preachers of the gofpel, in this enlightened country, should affirm, that holiness is no condition of falvation; and that any reader of the new Teftament should be found to believe them. I would only ask them this plain question ; can any bad liver be faved through Jesus Chrift? I believe they would hardly be bold

enough

enough to maintain this laft fuppofition. If, then, a bad liver cannot be faved by his faith, a man must be a good liver to be faved, or juftified, by the faith of our Lord Jefus Chrift; that is, he must faithfully perform every part of his duty, and fincerely avoid every habit of vice, or else he cannot be accepted.

But we will view the subject in some other lights. Man is a creature, unable of himfelf to help himself, or even to will that which is good, much less to do it. God in his own time, fends his fon into the world, to free him from the bondage of fin and fatan, to direct and ftrengthen the powers of his confcience by the affiftance of his holy fpirit, and the affurance of immortality. But obedience to the moral law was not cancelled by the gospel. "There is no condemnation, indeed, to those in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the fpirit; but to those that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness; tribulation and anguish, indignation and wrath, upon every foul of man that doth evil; on the jew first, and also on the gentile." Obedience, therefore, to holiness,

T

is

is as much binding as before Jesus Christ preached his gospel; for it has now fome additional fanctions. The more fublime the revelation of the gospel, the more pure its doctrines, and the more clear its fanctions, the more must general virtue, which is nothing but the will of God in the perfection of our natures, be effential to its nature and its frame. "The times of ignorance God winked at; but we must now give all diligence, and add to our faith virtue, and to our virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience godlinefs, and to godliness brotherly-kindness, and to brotherly-kindness charity; for if these things, fays the apostle, be in you and abound, they shall make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jefus Chrift. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot fee afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old fins."* These laft words of St. Peter

are very remarkable, and intirely coincide

with

* 2 Pet. i. 5-7.

with what I take to be the fcripture-notion of justification; namely, that it is a full pardon granted by God to finful man, both of natural and acquired depravities, on his embracing the profeffion of christianity, provided that he conforms himself to a filial obedience for the time to come, and "adds to his faith, virtue."

But I am ashamed to argue any longer upon this head with men pretending either to christianity or common fense. Were I to plead from fcripture, I could produce as many paffages to confirm my

doctrine as there are moral fentences in it: and, were I to plead from reafon; from the nature of God, the nature of man, and the nature of government and fubordination; I must produce as many arguments for conditional obedience as there are connate ideas on those subjects in the world. I will refer you, therefore, to your own understandings.

But, though I have done with argument in fo plain a cafe, it will be worth our while to confider the grounds of the error in general; from what fource it fprung, and by what steps also it hath arisen to its present height and eminence in this nation; which

may

may perhaps be a more effectual way to expose it, than by pointing against it all the most formidable artillery of fcripture and common fenfe. To many, an oblique view is preferable to a direct one: it is certain there is a fallacy in this cafe, and if we can detect it by an historical detail, it will be more acceptable, and confequently more ufeful, than by formally combating the principle. Hiftory hath ever been accounted the handmaid of truth; and there is this peculiarly favourable circumftance in ecclefiaftical hiftory, arifing from the importance of the fubject, that the birth of every error being marked, from the first preaching of the gospel, gives an accuracy and precifion to fuch inquiries, not to be expected in other history of opinions.

any

It is allowed by all, that these opinions took their rife from St. Paul's epiftles. Now, it is to be observed, that the apostle was writing controverfy in thofe epistles; that is, in his main defign, expofing errors, not explaining truths. And it is well known to learned men, that, in all fuch cafes, every propofition, though feemingly the most detached