ling to deserve any ferious confideration.-Is not faith, according to them, a perfuafion of our juftified ftate? And are faith and juftification the fame thing? Are we juftified by faith, and yet are we to confider faith as our juftification itself? If faith be a perfuafion of our intereft in Christ, and our actual falvation by him; and if justification likewise be a perfuafion of our intereft in Chrift, and our actual falvation by him, then faith is juftification, and juftification is faith; the terms are convertible, and mutually imply each other; and confequently we can, with no propriety of expreffion, be faid to be juftified by faith.-This glofs of theirs is not therefore to explain Scripture, but to render it obfcure, inconfiftent, and unintelligible. There is nothing more plainly, exprefsly, and repeatedly affirmed in Scripture, than that we are juftified by faith and through faith, and that the righteousness of Chrift becomes ours by or through faith; and if this means no more, than that we have the knowledge, the manifestation, or perfuafion of our juftification by faith, then language can be no longer ufeful to convey ideas; for the words may be interpreted in any other sense with as much propriety as in this, forced upon them by our Antinomian interpreters. --If it be but the knowledge or perfuafion of our juftification that is afcribed to faith, then we may as properly be faid to be elected by faith, to be created by faith, or to be redeemed by faith, as to be justi fied by faith: For we have the knowledge or perfuafion of those things by faith as well as of this; and the expreffion (fo understood) is just as abfurd and ridiculous in this cafe as in the other. Befides, declarative or manifeftative juftification is not by faith alone, but by works alfo; as the Apoftle James largely fhews us, throughout the fecond chapter of his epiftle. It is therefore evi dent dent and certain, that where the Scripture fpeaks of our juftification by faith alone, without the deeds of the law, it cannot intend a mere declarative or manifeftative, but an actual fentential juftification : Unless we would put the Scripture into the highest oppofition and contrariety to itself. But it is high time I fhould proceed to the fecond thing propofed, which is, to confider fome of the horrible confequences, that must neceffarily flow from this Antinomian scheme. It must follow from this doctrine of theirs, that there are many unbelievers, who are not in a ftate of condemnation, and are not the objects of GOD S wrath and displeasure; though our Lord himself asfures us, that he who believeth not is condemned already, and hath the wrath of God abiding on him, John iii. 18. 36. For there can be no greater repugnancy, than to be juftified and condemned at the fame time. And this may probably be Count Zinzendorf's meaning, in that odd faying of his : "He that will condemn natural men, who neither "have nor can have the Lord Jesus in their hearts, "-meddles with an affair, that does not at all be"long to him*." It will alfo follow from hence, that there is no need of any care or pains, to get into a state of peace or favour with God. For why fhould I take pains to obtain what I have already; or else what it is impoffible that I ever fhould have?—It is enough,` upon this supposal, to attend the Count's advice; "Here one should do nothing, but quietly attend "the voice of the Lord †.”—There can be no need to excite any to the ufe of means; but, according to another direction of his, "As long as people "pursue their finful courfe with pleasure, and do R 3 • Difcourfes on the Redemption of Man, p. 70. "" not "" not fee their danger, one must have patience "with them *." It will likewife follow, that the more confidence the greatest finner in the world entertains, of the fafety of his state by the merits of Chrift, the more acceptable will he be to God, and the more will he promote his own happinefs. Thus prefumption is fo far from being finful or dangerous, that it is our greatest duty and fafety.-This confequence the Count seems to allow, "There is (fays he) no "finner to whom Satan has not lost all his claim. "Ye whoremongers and thieves, ye revengeful " and murderers, ye liars and whoever ye are, ye "fearful and unbelieving, that hear and read this, "will ye be faved? Believe then that Jefus has a"toned and paid a ransom for you all; and that "you may experience it this very moment, and "know that you have been healed by his wounds, "and by his ftripes,-take the abfolution; look upon him; believe and rejoice; arife, gird your"felves and run +."-How pleafing muft fuch doctrine as this be to bold, careless, and impenitent finners! It will moreover follow, that no man need to have any apprehenfions of danger, from any course of finning, be he as bold in impiety, as daring and impenitent in his fins as he pleafes. For if he be juftified already, and all he has to do is to be perfuaded of it, and to take comfort in the reflection, his confcience may be easy and pleasant: Or, if he be not justified already, he never will; and it is in vain to fright himself about it. He may therefore fafely agree with the Count, that "Sin is the most mi"ferable and mean thing under the fun, not worth our thoughts. Sin has no right nor power, nor ❝is worthy of our leaft regards. He need not fo " much 4 "much as look upon fin, nor think it worthy of one caft of his eyes*. For it is also true, that "finning is not the caufe of rejection, according to "the New Teftament t."-What is the natural language of this doctrine, but an exhortation to finners to go on courageoufly in their fins, without care or fear? It will, in like manner, follow from this doctrine, that as there is no duty neceffary for our fafety, being juftified before we were born, fo there can be no duty, but a perfuafion of our good state, neceffary for our comfort. This the Count fully acknowledges, "There is (fays he) but one duty, which is "that of believing t. Holiness is a nature, but "not a duty, as morality dreams §."-What fort of a world would there quickly be, if mankind could generally fuppofe themselves releafed from all duty, either to God, to our neighbour, or to ourfelves. You may perhaps imagine, that we are not to take an estimate of the Antinomians principles from the Count's conceffions. But as their doctrines, in the point under confideration, are the fame, fo the confequences from them all are the fame, whether they do fo readily fee, or fo ingenuously own these confequences or not. I hope by this time you are convinced of the horrible inconfiftency of this scheme, and even of its repugnancy to the very first principles of reafon and common fenfe. How extravagant is the pretence of the actual juftification of a non-entity of pardon to those who never offended, or of reconciliation to God, before there was any distance or alienation from him!But this was done in the eternal counsel of God. Very well! Let thefe Antinomians alfo publifh for hiftorical truth, that the man Chrift Jefus was born • Page 137. † P. 16. P. 193. $ P. 165. of of the Virgin Mary, and suffered under Pontius Pilate, even before Adam was created; that the day of judgment is already come; that all the children of God in the world are now actually fhining in their robes of glory, and triumphing at the right hand of Chrift: Or, if you will, that I wrote this letter to you before the world began; or at least above feventeen hundred years ago. There is juft the fame foundation of truth in the one, as in the other. For all these things were as truly the objects of the divine counsel as our juftification; and in that refpect as actually true from eternity, or from the time of Christ's death, as that would be. How inconfiftent and abfurd is the ftrange apprehenfion, that finners are actually juftified, reconciled to God, and inftated in his favour, while yet habitually indulging their lufts, and going on boldly and impenitently in fin and enmity to God; as is the cafe of all men before converfion and faith in Christ-Are mens hearts and lives contrary to God; and yet God pleased with them at the fame time? Are they condemned already, the children of wrath; and yet reconciled to God, and at peace with him!-Are they of their father the devil, whose works they do; and yet the children of God, and heirs of eternal glory?-Can heaven and hell be blended together? Is the fervice of Christ and of Belial equally agreeable to a pure and holy God; and the greatest practical, as well as fpeculative contradictions, reconcileable to truth? What a ftrange medley is here! What a door to all licentioufnefs is here fet open! In short, how wild and chimerical are their notions on the article of our juftification by faith!If we are indeed in the favour of God, our fouls are in the fame degree of fafety, whether we are perfuaded of this, or not. If we are not in the fa your |