solemn truth does indeed, sir, call for your earnest attention.

On the other hand, those who depreciate good works, and neglect them as of no consequence to eternal salvation, are called upon by the apostle James to consider how empty their profession, how dead their faith, and how vain their hope of salvation is. For if men may go to heaven without holiness, why may not the devils go there too, who have faith (such as it is) as well as they? We must have a living faith, or else we shall have a dead hope. Our faith must purify our hearts, and renew our conversation, or else it will leave us among the impure and ungodly for ever. It concerns every one, therefore, "so to speak, and so to do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty," James ii. 12.

Upon the whole, then, as you are taught by the one apostle how dangerous it is to build upon any other foundation than Christ alone; for Christ Jesus is our hope; and other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus; so are you admonished by the other apostle, that you can have no interest in Christ, nor title to his salvation, but by a faith which purifies the heart, works by love, and is justified by a subsequent life of holiness and new obedience.

The extremes, on both sides of the question, are equally dangerous. He that joins good works with faith as equally the terms of justification before God, virtually rejects the Saviour's sufficiency, substitutes his own righteousness in the room of the righteousness of God, and consequently his expectations must perish. He that separates good works from faith, in his life and conversation, as though they were not requisite to salvation, will be found very unfit for the heavenly

world, when the decree comes forth, "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still."

Suffer me, then, to conclude, sir, with an earnest entreaty, that, as you love your soul, you would leave off unprofitable disputes, and not distract your mind, and carry away your thoughts from practical godliness, by such an earnest application to these controverted points: but see to it, that you come to the footstool of Divine grace, as a lost, unworthy, perishing sinner; that you depend only upon the riches of God's free, sovereign grace to draw you to Christ, and give you an interest in him; that you look to Christ Jesus alone for righteousness and strength, and cheerfully trust in him as a safe foundation of confidence and hope. See to it, that the life which you live in the flesh be by the faith of the Son of God: and as you look to his righteousness alone for the safety of your state, so likewise repair by faith to his fulness for all supplies of grace, whereby you may make a progress in holiness. See to it, that you do not quiet your conscience with a dead faith; but always remember, that he who hath this hope in Christ, purifies himself even as he is and that as your person cannot be justified, but by faith in Christ, so your faith cannot be justified but by

pure:

careful diligence in maintaining good works. Having, therefore, with the heart believed unto righteousness, be you, in an humble dependence upon Christ, stedfast and unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; and your labour will not be vain in the Lord.

That you may be kept by the power of God through faith, and receive the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul, is the prayer of,

SIR,

Yours, &c.

LETTER XIV.

WHEREIN IS CONSIDERED

IN WHAT RESPECT GOOD WORKS

ARE NECESSARY, AND OUR OBLIGATIONS TO THEM REPRESENTED AND URGED.

SIR,

YOUR observation is just, that "it would be unsuitable and unseasonable to make apologies for this further trouble as you are pleased to call it, after I have given you so many assurances of my cheerful readiness to contribute all in my power to your best interest." Indeed, sir, I have found nothing troublesome in the whole progress of our correspondence, excepting some dark apprehensions of late, lest you would frustrate the grace of God, in seeking righteousness, not by faith, but, as it were, by the works of the law. But it now greatly animates my endeavours to serve you, to find those fears on my part so happily removed, by finding "the difficulties on your part obviated, in that important point, and you satisfied with respect to the foundation of your hope." I am sensible that the principles which I have been pleading for are "commonly loaded with opprobrious invectives, as being destructive of a holy life, and subversive of morality and godliness.' But I think I have already given you sufficient evidence, that all these insinuations are mere calumnies; and that there is no other possible foundation, than what I have represented to you, for a life of true holiness and piety. I appeal to your own observation and experience, whether in general there be any that live more holy lives, and more honour their profession, than those who most strictly adhere to the doctrine of

special grace, and depend upon Christ alone for righteousness and strength: and whether they, on the contrary, who depend upon their good works for a title to the Divine favour, do not too commonly show the weakness of their foundation, by the carelessness and unfruitfulness of their lives.

The question which you propose is, however, worthy of a distinct consideration-"How far and in what respects are our good works necessary to salvation?" In order to give you a proper view of this case, it will be needful to answer this question both negatively and positively or to show you wherein our good works ought to have no place, nor be at all looked to or depended upon; and then to show you wherein good works ought to have place, and in what respect they are necessary to every christian indeed, that would entertain a well-grounded hope of eternal life.

In my negative answer to this question, I must first observe, that we are not to do good works in order to change God's purposes and designs towards us, or to excite his benevolence and compassion to us. I suspect it is too common a case, for inen to depend upon their penitent frames, their duties, their reformations, their works of charity, or other religious exercises, as what will excite affections, passions, or compassions in the glorious God, correspondent to what they find in themselves; and thence, when conscience upbraids the sinner for his past provocations to God, he hopes to appease his displeasure by his remorse, by his duties, or by his more careful future conduct; and now his account is balanced, and he begins upon a new score. Thence it is, that his hopes and fears bear proportion to his frames and conduct. Every serious pang, every religious duty or moral practice, which his conscience approves, will raise his dejected hopes, and give him

comforting expectations of the Divine favour. But it should always be remembered, that the change to be hoped for by our duties, religious frames, or moral conduct, must be in ourselves, and not in God. "He is of one mind, and who can turn him? He is the Lord, he changeth not." We are therefore not to look to our good works, but to the Redeemer's merits, and the infinite mercy of the Divine nature, as what will render God propitious to us. Though we are only to hope for mercy in a way of duty, it is not because this will render God more willing to bestow it, but because it is the way which God has appointed, to render us more disposed and ready to receive it. It is an imagination very unworthy of God, to suppose that we can move him to the exercise of compassion, whose very nature is goodness and love itself; that we can excite any mercy in him, whose infinite mercy endures for ever; or that we can procure any change of purpose in him who is without any variableness, or shadow of turning. When the glorious God treats with us, as if he were a partaker of human affections and passions, this is mere condescension to our weakness, we being incapable to behold him as he is. Surely it is not to lead us into apprehensions, that he is altogether such a one as ourselves. Our business, therefore, is, to come to Christ and learn of him, to bow our necks to his yoke, to do good works from faith in Christ, and out of love and obedience to him; and in that way to hope in God for mercy, for Christ's sake, and for his own sake, and not for ours. We are to obey him as a gracious Sovereign, and to hope in him as the Sovereign Author and Donor of his own favours. We are to hope in his mercy, not because we can allure him to the exercise of it, or recommend ourselves to him by any thing we can do; but because he is "infinite