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God long before this, as I have shewn you already: And the Apostle Paul affures us, that his Juftification was by faith without works, Rom. iv. 4, 5. Therefore faith could not co-operate with his works to the juftification of his perfon, when righteousness was imputed to him that worked noi, but believed on bim that juftified the ungodly. This fenfe being rejected and contradicted by the Spirit of God himfelf, muft confequently by no means be admitted; nor is there any other interpretation, which can (with the leaft fhew of reason) be given to these words, but that which I am pleading for. Agreeably we read, Heb. xi. 17. By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Ifaac: And he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten fon, His faith was finally operative; not a dead faith, and therefore fincere. This was vifibly demonftra ted by the good works which it produced. Such works must be the productions of a true and lively faith: And we may fee, in this instance, how faith wrought with his works, exciting, directing, affifting him in them; and thereby may fee, that it was not fuch a faith as the Apoftle is here complaining of.

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By works was his faith made perfect. How was it made perfect? The grace of faith, confidered in itfelf, was neither the better nor the worse, neither more nor lefs perfect for the works which followed it; fave as the exercise of faith in doing them might tend to ftrengthen and improve the habit. But the meaning feems to be, that it was discover. ed, and proved to be a perfect (true and lively) faith, by its practical confequences and effects. His faith was a perfect or fincere faith, when it was imputed to him for righteousness thirty years before this. But this noble act of obedience evidenced the truth of his faith, juftified his profeffion and character, witnessed to his being a true believer, and made

it known that he indeed feared God, seeing he withheld not his fon, his only son, from him. In this view of the cafe, the argument is clear and perti. nent, and the evidence full and convincing; but confidered according to the other conftruction of the words, it affords no conclufion to the purpose. It is no confequence, that because Abraham's faith was operative, therefore his good works made him righteous, or had any hand in the justification of his perfon before God; or that because his good works were an evidence that his faith was perfect and upright, therefore his good works were a condition of his juftification in the fight of God, with refpect to his perfon and state.

The fame thing likewife appears from the 23d verfe. And the Scripture was fulfilled, which faith, Abraham believed God; and it was imputed to him for righteousness; and he was called the Friend of God. -There can be nothing more pertinent, natural and ealy, than the application of thefe words to the purpofe which I have propofed. That eminent inftance of Abraham's obedience did moft convincing ly evidence the truth and fincerity of his faith, and abundantly verify the report in the Scripture, that Abraham did believe God, and that he had indeed, fuch a faith as was the means of rendering him righteous and accepted with God.-Thus the Scrip ture was fulfilled, and clearly manifefted to be true. -But then, on the other hand, if juftification be con fidered in the fenfe which you plead for, this argu ment would be fo far from concluding in favour of the point to be proved, that it would be directly oppofite and contrary to it: For how could Abraham's being juftified by works fulfil the Scripture, which faith, he was juftified by faith; if justification be in both places taken in the fame fenfe for absolute juftification of the perfon before God? How could

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his works being imputed for righteousness fulfil that Scripture, which affures us, that his faith was imputed for righteousness, unlefs faith and works are the fame thing, and there be no difference at all. between believing and obeying ?-Certain it is, that the Apostle Paul understood the argument to con.. clude the quite contrary way, when he undertook to prove, from this very text, that righteousness is imputed to him that worketh not; and that it is im• puted without works: And therefore the Apostle James must be understood in fuch a fenfe, as will make both his argument conclufive, and his doctrine confiftent with the other infpired writings.I fhall only add, as to that clause, and he was called the Friend of God; this does not mean, that Abra ham's works made him the friend of God: But they, declared him fo.. His obedience did not put him in the ftate of a friend: But being, upon trial, found faithful, he obtained this teftimony, that he was the friend of God, a juftified believer-Now Abraham being the father of all them that believe, an eminent example of faith, and pattern of justification, the Apoftle fubjoins, ver. 24. You fee then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.-In a like fenfe, even as Chrift is faid to be juftified in [or by] the Spirit, fo a Chriftian man is juftified by the fruit of the Spirit, in a holy life, i. e. declared approved of God. By works, a man that fays he has faith, is thus juftified, and not by faith only; not by a faith that hath not works attending it; not by a faith which is alone, or by itself, deftitute of its proper fruits and evidences. Some of the beft critics in the Greek language tell us, the exclufive particle vor, ver. 24. as here placed after the word faith, has the force of an adjective; and they read it fide foli.. taria, faith which is alone,

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A fourth argument is taken from the inftance of Rahab, ver. 25. Likewife alfo was not Rahab the har-. lot juftified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had fent them out another way?-Upon which the fame remarks may be made as on the instance of Abraham.-Rahab feared the God of Ifrael, andwas a true believer, and therefore perfonally juftified in the fight of God, before her fending out the fpies another way. For the had received the Spies by faith, Heb. xi. 31. And confequently the certainly had faith before the received them. A noble con

feffion whereof we find her making to these spies before the difmiffed them. See Joh. ii. 10, 11. What juftification therefore could the poffibly obtain by thefe works, but the juftification of her faith, fince fhe was really in a juftified state before?

And now I am come to the conclufion of this whole differtation, which is, For as the body without [or fevered from] the Spirit is dead, fo faith without [or fevered from] works is dead alfo, ver. 26. This, as I obferved before, clearly fhews what was the Apoftle's defign in his whole difcourfe. For every conclufion of an argument, juftly profecuted, muft be naturally deduced from the premises, and confift of the principal fubject-matter to be proved, as we fee is the cafe before us. But if juftification were here taken in the sense which you efpoufe, the arguments would all of them be inconclufive; and that conclufion would be quite foreign to the purpose.This confequence therefore of my foregoing dif courfe neceffarily forces itself upon you, that the Apostle was not here treating of the juftification of our perfons before God, in regard to their ftate; but of our faith in point of fincerity: And there. fore there can no argument be brought from this context, for our juftification by works, in the fenfe you plead for.

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Thus, Sir, you have feen, that the Apostles Paul and James were treating of very different fubjects, and their determinations were adapted to the doctrines which they undertook to explain. And thence it is a just inference made by an eminent divine upon this fubject, that "the principal designs "of the two Apostles being fo diftant, there is no "repugnancy in their affertions, though their words "make an appearance thereof. For they do not "speak ad idem, nor of things eodem refpectu. "James doth not once inquire, How a guilty con"vinced finner, caft and condemned by the law, "fhould be justified before God? And Paul speaks "to nothing else. Wherefore apply the expref"fions of each of them to their proper defign and "fcope, (as we must do, or we depart from all fo"ber rules of interpretation, and make it impoffible "to understand either of them aright), and there is "no difagreement, or appearance of it between "them."

And it may be yet further remarked, that these Apostles had very different perfons to deal with, in their respective Epiftles; and their addreffes were accordingly accommodated to the state of the parties to whom they wrote.-The Apostle Paul's business either lay with fuch, who being newly converted from Heathenifm, were biaffed by the principles taught by the light of nature, and always received by them, to indulge the vain thought, that they muft render themselves acceptable to God, and be juftified in his fight, by their own personal righteoufnefs and obedience to the law. An opinion greatly ftrengthened by the numerous falfe teachers, who were defirous to be teachers of the law, though they underflood neither what they faid, nor whereof they affirmed: Or elfe his bufinefs lay with judaizing Chriftians, who being zealous

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