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common mistakes or miscarriages in the matter of justification, on the assuming side, derogating from the honour of God's free grace, and from the merits of Christ, which are the valuable consideration upon which, or for the sake of which only, God justifies as many as he does justify; I shall now proceed to observe something of the common mistakes in the other extreme, which concerns the necessary, essential conditions or qualifications required in every adult whom God shall accept.

2. It is a dangerous and fatal extreme so to magnify, or to pretend to magnify grace or faith, as thereby to exclude, sink, or any way lessen the necessity of true and sincere, and (so far as human infirmities permit) universal obedience. There is the greater need of the utmost caution and circumspection in this particular, because corrupt nature is very prone to listen to, and to fall in with any appearing arguments, any pretexts, colours, handles for relaxation of duty, and for reconciling their hopes and their lusts together. St. Paul was aware, that some of ill minds might be apt to pervert his sound doctrine of justification by faith, to the purposes of licentiousness; but truth was not to be suppressed for fear some should abuse it; (for what is there which some or other may not make an ill use of?) neither would it have been right to let one extreme go uncorrected, only for the preventing the possible, or even probable danger from weak or evil minded men, who might take the handle to run into another. St. Paul therefore was content so to correct an error on the right

Signa fidei justificantis sunt 1. Totum velle Christum suum esse, non tantum ut sacerdotem, sed etiam ut regem. 2. Solum velle Christum, cum abnegatione justitiæ propriæ, omniumque sanctorum, quæ nulla est. 3. Gaudere in fide, et animosa in adversis fiducia stare ad dextram regis, eique adhærere, etiam dum ducit per ignes et aquas. 4. Abnegare voluntatem propriam quandoque naturalem, semper pravam ac perversam, et regis voluntati arcanæ et revelatæ se patienter ac prompte submittere. Si horum nihil in semetipsis deprehendant, hoc ipso momento, absque ulla dilatione, fide sincera fœdus conjugale contrahant, &c.- Si vero horum aliquid in se ipsis inveniant gratias immortales agant-Stent porro in fide animosi, &c. p. 281, 282.

hand, as, at the same time, to guard against a greater on the left.

Notwithstanding all his guards, some there were, (as he supposed there would be,) who even in the apostolical age did pervert the doctrine of grace, to serve the ends of licentiousness and some or other, probably, have done the like, designedly or undesignedly, in every age since. St. Paul had taught, that none of our works are pure or perfect enough to abide the Divine scrutiny, or to claim justification as a debt, or a matter of right; which is undoubtedly true but libertines changed that true and sound proposition into this very unsound one; that good works are not so much as necessary conditions or qualifications for justification. St. Paul had also taught, that faith, or an humble reliance upon the grace of God through the merits of Christ, in opposition to self-boasting, or standing upon the perfection of our own performances, was our only safe plea before God, our only sure way to be justified, after doing the best we could for performing our bounden duties: this true and important proposition some turned into quite another, contradictory to the whole tenor of the Gospel; viz. that faith alone, a dead faith, separate from evangelical obedience, is the only condition of salvation. Against such dogmatizers, and against such loose principles, St. James engaged, reproving and confuting the men and their errors in few, but very strong words f. St. Peter also and St. John, though more obscurely, combated the

same errors.

That some or other, in after ages, were very prone to run into the extreme of licentiousness, taking an handle from the doctrine of grace; as others were apt to run into the proud extreme, from the doctrine of the value and necessity of a good life; may be judged from what a Father of the fifth century says in opposition to both h.

See Rom. iii. 31. vi. 1, &c.

* Rom. iii. 27. 1 Cor. i. 29, 31.

f James ii. 14-26.

d Rom. iv. 4. xi. 6. Ephes. ii. 9. Rom. iv. 2

2 Pet. i. 5-10. 1 John iii. 7-10.

Si se homo justificaverit, et de justitia sua præsumserit, cadit: si con

It is certain that the Antinomian and Solifidian doctrines, as taught by some in later times, have deviated into a wild extreme, and have done infinite mischief to practical Christianity. I have not room to enumerate, much less to confute, the many erroneous and dangerous tenets which have come from that quarter: neither would I be forward to expose them again to public view. They have been often considered and often confuted. Let them rather be buried in oblivion, and never rise up again to bring reproach upon the Christian name. But take we due care so to maintain the doctrine of faith, as not to exclude the necessity of good works; and so to maintain good works, as not to exclude the necessity of Christ's atonement, or the free grace of God. Take we care to perform all evangelical duties to the utmost of our power, aided by God's Spirit; and when we have so done, say, that we are unprofitable servants, having no strict claim to a reward, but yet looking for one, and accepting it as a favour, not challenging it as due in any right of our own; due only upon free promise, and that promise made not in consideration of any deserts of ours, but in and through the alone merits, active and passive, of Christ Jesus our Lord.

siderans et cogitans infirmitatem suam, et præsumens de misericordia Dei, neglexerit vitam suam mundare a peccatis suis, et se omni gurgite flagitiorum demerserit, et ipse cadit. Præsumtio de justitia quasi dextera est: cogitatio de impunitate peccatorum, quasi sinistra est. Audiamus vocem Dei dicentem nobis, ne declines in dexteram aut sinistram, Prov. iv. 27. Ne præsumas ad regnum de justitia tua: ne præsumas ad peccandum de misericordia Dei. Ab utroque te revocat præceptum divinum, et ab illa altitudine, et ab ista profunditate: illuc si ascenderis, præcipitaberis; hac si lapsus fueris, demergêris. Augustin. in Psal. xxxi. p. 171. tom. iv.

AN

INQUIRY

CONCERNING THE

ANTIQUITY OF THE PRACTICE

OF

INFANT COMMUNION,

As founded on the Notion of its STRICT NECESSITY.

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