tles to do the very same. He called the twelve, you read, and began to send them out, two by two. And, thus sent, what were they to do? They went out and preached, that every man should repent.' After our Lord's departure from the world, the apostles carried on exactly the same plan of religious instruction. They had learnt their lesson too well and too deeply to change its essential part. Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins.' 'Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.' The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men every where to repent.' This is the explicit language the apostle held upon the subject of repentance; which, as hath already been observed, has a precise reference to a good and bad life; and these texts deliver no other judgment concerning the matter than what their great teacher had pronounced before. By comparing St Paul's words with other scriptures, we cannot overlook that well known text of St James; What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and not works; can faith save him?' St James doth not here suppose the man hypocritically, and for some sinister purpose, to pretend to believe what he does not believe. The illustration which follows plainly supposes the belief to be real, for he compares it to the case of the devils, who believe and tremble. Now we are to remember that St James's words are scripture, as well as St Paul's. Here, therefore, is a text, which precisely, and in the most pointed terms, contradicts the sense which the Solifidians put upon St Paul's words.

Again, a sense which virtually sets aside the obligation and the necessity of good works cannot be the true sense of St Paul's words, because it is contrary to at least one declared end of Christianity itself. The office and design of the christian revelation is set forth in the following texts; The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.' By the phrase, the grace of God that bringeth salvation,' is undoubtedly meant Christianity. Then for what purpose hath it appeared? To do what was it published? The text goes on to tell us; namely, that it should teach us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus. Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. That was his object, or at least one of his ob

jects, and the mean towards it was to teach us, that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. Our Saviour himself had

before told his disciples, that he came to call sinners to repentance;' and repentance, as already hath been noticed, bears a necessary relation to good works and bad works. Agreeably hereunto, the benefit and blessing of Christianity, as a revelation, is described by the apostle Peter to consist in its converting efficacy; for addressing the Jews upon a very signal occasion, and a very short time after our Lord's ascension, when every thing was fresh in his thoughts, he speaks thus; 'Unto you first, God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.'

The question, you remember, is what St Paul meant, or rather, strictly speaking, what he did not mean, in the several texts that have been cited in this discourse, and which are usually cited by those who may be called the advocates of faith, in contradistinction to good works. Now, although it may be a reasonable method of showing that a man's words are not to be taken in the sense which the letter and terms of the sentence may seem, at first sight at least, to convey, in order to prove that such sense is inconsistent with what is delivered by authority as great as his own, or greater, and inconsistent also with the main drift and purpose of that very institution, in the administration of which, and as forming part of which, the texts in question were written; although these points may be fairly brought forward in argument, yet the straight and clear way of showing, in any case of difficulty, in what sense a writer intended that his words should be understood, or rather in what sense he did not mean them to be taken, is to look to what himself has elsewhere said upon the same subject, and more especially to what he has said in the same writing. For though a man may advance what is contrary to sound reason, what is contrary to other authority, nay, what is contrary to his own professions at other times, and in other writings, yet surely his words ought not to be interpreted, if there be any fair way of avoiding it, in such a manner as to make him contradict himself in the same discourse.

Now, pursuing this line of observation, we have to remark, first, that in the very same epistle to the Romans in which St Paul says, that the just shall live by faith,' not only in the same epistle, but in the same sentence, St Paul tells us that the wrath of God is revealed against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness. By

quoting, therefore, the old prophet's expression, 'shall live by faith,' he cannot mean to say that faith, accompanied with ungodliness and unrighteousness, would end in salvation. That indeed would be to say, not that the 'just,' but that the unjust, shall live by faith. It would be to say what his next words unsay, and contradict. The most therefore that this text, ‘the just shall live by faith,' can amount to, is, that though good works be necessary and be performed, yet, after all, it is not by them, otherwise than as they are the proof of faith, but by that faith itself, that the just shall live. Again; though it be true that St Paul in this epistle concludes that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,' yet in the same epistle he had before told us, that 'God will render to every man according to his deeds; to them, who by patient continuance in well doing, seek for glory, and honor, and immortality, eternal life; but unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jews first, and also of the Gentiles.' Therefore, his expression concerning faith, in the third chapter of this epistle, though strong, must not be so construed as to make the author assert the direct contrary of what he had asserted just before in the second chapter. Again; four chapters of this very epistle, viz. from the twelfth to the fifteenth inclusive, are occupied in delivering moral precepts. Let no one therefore say that moral precepts are indifferent, or that moral practice, i. e. the conduct which these precepts enjoin and enforce, is unnecessary; I mean in the judgment of the writer whose authority is here pleaded. Nor is it possible to reconcile with this opinion the two following texts, taken out of the same epistle; 'The wages of sin is death;' chap. vi. verse 23. 'If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye, through the spirit, do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live ;' chap. viii. verse 13.

The same species of observation applies to the epistle to the Galatians; in which epistle, it is true, that the apostle hath used concerning faith these very strong terms; Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ; that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.' Nevertheless, in another place of this same epistle, we have the following plain, clear, and circumstantial denunciation; The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,

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variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' No words can be more positive than these, and the last words are the most positive of all; shall not inherit the kingdom of God.' Sinners like these may have been justified in a certain sense; they may have been saved in a certain sense; that is, they may have been brought into a state of justification or salvation for the present; but they shall not be finally happy, they shall not inherit the kingdoin of God.'

In the epistle to the Ephesians, we acknowledge the same observation, namely, that the apostle hath spoken strong things concerning faith, yet hath at the same time, and in the same writing, most absolutely insisted upon a virtuous life, and most positively declared that a life of sin will end in perdition. Concerning faith, he hath said this; 'By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast.' Concerning a life of sin, he makes this declaration. After having enumerated certain species of sins, he adds these cautionary words, which show his opinion as manifestly as words can show it; 'Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things,' even the sinful practices before recited, cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.'

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To conclude: What the apostle might particularly mean by the several expressions concerning faith, which have been quoted, is another question; but that he did not mean to state or teach that a life of endeavour after virtue, if that be what we understand by good works, could be dispensed with; or that a life of continued unrepented sin would end in salvation by means, or for the sake of any belief in Christ's religion, I think most evident, and would be so, although we were not able to settle, to our satisfaction, the first question; namely, what it was he did mean. I say, the negative proposition is most evident, unless we can be brought to suppose, that St Paul delivered a doctrine contrary to that of our Saviour and of the other apostles, destructive of one declared end of the christian institution itself; and the end and design of any system of laws is to control the interpretation of particular parts; and lastly, what is most improbable of all, at the same time and in the same manner, directly repugnant to what he himself has solemnly asserted and delivered at other times and in other places.

IX.

THE EFFICACY OF THE DEATH OF CHRIST CONSISTENT WITH THE NECESSITY OF A GOOD LIFE; THE ONE BEING THE CAUSE, THE OTHER THE CONDITION, OF SALVATION.

PART IV.

ROMANS VI. 1.

What shall we say then? shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid.

THAT St Paul, in the texts which are usually quoted upon this question from his epistles, did not mean to say, that faith, accompanied with wickedness of life, would end in salvation, may be considered, I think, as proved. The next inquiry is, if he did not mean this, what did he mean? His words we cannot alter; and what other sense can we fairly put upon them, so as to excuse or avoid the sense which we disclaim? Now it is but justice to every writer to suppose, that he writes to be understood by those to whom his writing is immediately addressed, and that he has in view the circumstances and situation of the persons whom he directly accosts, much more than the circumstances and situation of those who may come to read what he has written, in some remote age and distant country. There are no ancient writings in which this allowance is more wanted than in those of St Paul, nor in any part of his writings more than in that which forms the subject of our present discourse. St Paul's writings were addressed to Christians; but who in those days were Christians? They were in general, if not altogether, persons, not as we are, born and bred up in the religion, but they were persons who, having been born and bred up heathens or Jews, when arrived at years of judgment and discretion, and exercising that judgment and discretion, had voluntarily, and from conviction, quitted their native religion, become believers in Jesus Christ, and openly taken upon themselves the profession of this, now a new system of faith and conduct. This conversion had been with them a most momentary change. It was the grand era and event of their lives