by denying Ungodliness and Worldly Luft, and Living Soberly, and Righteously, and Godly in this prefent World, will work out his Salvation with Fear and Trembling; and in the End of his Days, will certainly and infallibly receive the end of his Hopes, even the Salvation of his Soul.

And this I think fufficient, both to make good the Affertion of St. Paul in my Text, That ye are Sav'd through Faith, and alfo to fhew in what manner, and by what means Faith conduces to fo bleffed an Effect. Namely, by prefenting to our Hopes and Fears (the great Springs of all Human Actions) Arguments of fuch amazing Concern and infinite Moment, as duly weigh'd, and feriously attended to, muft by a kind of Moral Neceffity fet all our Endeavours on work to the producing fuch an Obedience, as God for the fake of Chrift, Believ'd in and Obey'd, will graciously accept and Crown with Everlasting Life.

By all which,it plainly appears what Juftifying Faith, the Faith thro' which ye are Sav'd is, Namely, a Faith working by Love; A Sound, Real, and Steady Belief of those Sacred Truths, which are not matter of bare Speculation only, but of fuch a Nature in themselves, and of fo great Concern to us, as being once clearly known and firmly affented to, muft needs carry us out to

Action;

Action; without which the Knowledge or Belief of them is of no worth, it is unacceptable to God, it is unprofitable to Men, it is Dead, For as the Body without the Soul is Dead, fo Faith without Works is Dead alfo. James 2. 26.

Which brings me to the laft Propofition to be handled, namely Good Works, to which we are Created in Christ Jefus, and which God hath ordain'd that we should walk in.

III. And of these every Minister of the Gospel, as well as Titus to whom the Charge was particularly given by St. Paul, is oblig'd to affirm conftantly,that they who have Believ'd in God be careful to maintain them. In obedience to which Apoftolical Injunction, we are bold to lay it down for an uncontestable Truth, That Good Works, tho' not of fo meritorious a dignity that we fhall be Sav'd for them, yet are of fuch abfolute neceffity that we fhall not be Sav'd without them.

The Doctrine of Juftification by Faith, is with great probability conceiv'd by Learned Men, to be One of the Chief of thofe things which St. Peter points at in his Brother Pauls Epiftles, as hard to be understood, which they that were Unlearned and Unstable Wrefted to their own Destruction. For even while the Apoftles were yet alive, there arofe Men Speaking

Speaking perverse things, and turning the Grace of God into Wantonnefs, who from fome mifunderstood Paffages of St. Paul, us'd the Liberty, which he afferted for a Cloak of Malicioufnefs, made void that Faith, which he fo earnestly contended for, by oppofing it to the genuine Fruits that it fhould produce, and notwithstanding the clear obligation which the Gospel lays upon the Profeffors of it to all good Works, taught on the contrary, that it was a fpecial Difpenfation from the doing of any. And as thofe Opinions that gratify Men's Lufts are easily Believ'd and greedily Swallow'd, efpecially if there can be found any plaufible covering for them under Scripture Expreffions, this pernicious Doctrine has been propagated down thro' all Ages of the Church, even unto the Dregs of Time, into which we our felves are fallen. And tho' nothing can be plainer in the Gospel, than that the whole defign of it was to Teach us, that denying Ungodliness and Worldly Lufts, we should live So. berly, and Righteously, and Godly in this prefent World, and that the very End of Chrift's giving himself for us, was, that he might Redeem us from all Iniquity, and Purify unto himfelf a People Zealous of good Works: We meet with thofe that inftead of Confcientiously paying these Debts, have the impudence to deny them, even by audaciously appeal

ing to the great Book of accompts,and affirm that they are already discharg'd by atonement of Another for them, and are not therefore now any longer owing.

Now if it be fo difingenious an abuse (as we all know it is) of the kindness of Men to misconstrue their Words spoken in our favour, and put fuch an Extravagant Senfe on them as was never intended, what is it to deal fo with the Words of God? Inftead of Bleffing his Name for fo gracious a Promise,that for the Merit of his Son's perfect Obedience,he will accept of the Sincere, tho' Imperfect Obedience of every one that by Faith lays hold on him, to pretend that laying hold of Chrift by Faith, is all that he requires to the Juftification of a Sinner.

This was far from St. Paul's intention, as by his Mind plainly declar'd in feveral Places of his Epiftles, particularly those but just now produc'd out of that to Titus, fufficiently appears. When therefore in his difcourfe concerning Juftification, he opposes Faith to Works, Excluding the One that he may Establish the Other, by Works he either means the Ceremonial Works of the Law, or Works perform'd by the meer ftrength of Nature, unaffifted by Grace; for he cannot poffibly mean, Works following Faith and done by Faith, Works proceeding from the Gift of God, and produc'd by

US

us when new Creatures in Chrift; for our Juftification or Condemnation in the Day of Judgment, will be according to our ha ving fulfill'd or neglected those Works, as he himself teaches us, 2 Cor. 5. 10, and our Saviour in the 25th Chapter of Mat. v. 35, more at large and moft lively fets forth; In short, The Works of the Law, or barely Works he always excludes, but Good Works he ever enjoins: For this is a remarkable difference that has been very well obferv'd in his Stile. Works (that is, such as a Moral Heathen may produce, which tho' never fo fpecious, yet being without Faith, can never please God, or the Works of the Law Ceremonial, which confider'd in themselves, have nothing of Goodness or Holiness in them,) are in St. Paul's language quite different from the Works which the Gospel prefcribes, which are in their own Na ture really and intrinfecally Juft, Holy and Profitable, and therefore peculiarly and defervedly come under the Name of Good Works. And these are so far from being oppofite to, that they are Natu rally produc'd by, and neceffarily included in, a Juftifying Faith: and accordingly of Thefe St. James pronounces as a thing Notorious and Evident, Te fee that Man is Juftify'd by Works, and not by Faith only. In which Affertion whatever feeming dif

ference