fruitless doctrines about a first and secondary justification.

I will take leave to add once more, that the way to heaven is certainly a way of holiness, and without holiness you can never see God. It therefore concerns you to look to the Fountain of holiness for all supplies of grace, to watch over your heart and life, to endeavour and pray for a holy conformity to the whole will of God; and amidst, and after all, to bring your great defects to the blood of Christ for pardon; and continually implore the divine influences, that the work of grace may be carried on in your soul with power, until you arrive, "without spot and blameless," before the throne of your sovereign and righteous Judge.

That you may thus be directed safe amidst all the snares and delusions in your way, is the prayer of, Yours, &c.

LETTER XV.

THE APOSTLE JAMES'S DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY WORKS, IN HIS SECOND CHAPTER, DISTINCTLY REVIEWED, AND SET IN ITS GENUINE LIGHT, BY A COMPARISON WITH THE APOSTLE PAUL'S DOCTRINE OF JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH.

SIR,

You acknowledge that, if it were not for one difficulty in your way, you should think the evidence offered against the doctrine you have proposed

must be conclusive; but you do not know how to give in to a scheme that is not only expressly contradicted, but particularly refuted, in the word of God. The apostle Paul (you say) does indeed seem to speak in favour of my principles; but he ought to be interpreted by the apostle James, who expressly rejects my interpretation of St. Paul's discourses on the subject before us. What appearance, therefore, soever there may be, in favour of my principles, in St. Paul's epistles, these must not be understood in direct contradiction to the express declarations of another inspired writer. You therefore desire me to show how it is possible to reconcile my scheme with the doctrine of St. James, in the second chapter of his epistle, from the fourteenth verse to the end."

If this be all your remaining difficulty, I hope it will not prove a hard matter to give you full satisfaction, that the doctrine of the apostle James, in the place referred to, is not inconsistent with the doctrine of our "justification by faith," so plainly and fully taught by the apostle Paul in all his epistles; and, therefore, that our justification by works, (in the sense that I oppose it,) has no foundation at all in the whole word of God.

That this may be set in a proper light, there are two or three things necessary to be premised, and distinctly considered, previous to a direct and immediate view of the consistency and concurrence of these two apostles, in the doctrine of a sinner's "justification by faith," notwithstanding their seeming disagreement and repugnancy.

It should first be premised, that these two apostles must be understood in such a sense as will make

them consistent. We must take this for a principle, that whatever becomes of our schemes, on one side or the other, the Spirit of God cannot be inconsistent with himself, nor teach contrary doctrines. That interpretation, therefore, must be right, which will make them consistent; and that must be rejected which sets them at variance, and makes their doctrines utterly irreconcilable.

It should be likewise premised, that the apostle James must be understood in such a sense as will make him consistent with himself. We may not suppose that he teaches such a doctrine in this part of the second chapter, as is repugnant to the doctrine which he himself teaches elsewhere in the same epistle. Let us then see if we cannot find the doctrine I am pleading for, taught in this very epistle of James, particularly in chap. i. ver. 5, 6, 7. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven of the wind, and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive thing of the Lord." From whence I argue, if faith be the way to divine acceptance and audience of our prayers, the means by which our duties will find a gracious reception with God, and without which they will be rejected; then we are justified by faith, and not by works. For it is undoubtedly true, that what justifies our obedience, and renders. that acceptable to God, does likewise justify our persons, and render them acceptable to him; and qur works can have no hand in justifying our per

any

sons, if our works themselves are justified by faith; but condemned and rejected without it, as the Apostle teaches in the cited text. So we learn

from chap. v. 15, 16. that the "effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man," is "the prayer of faith."

Moreover, if spiritual wisdom, or practical holiness, be the fruit and effect of faith, (as we are told that it is in the quoted text,) then our justification and acceptance with God (by which we do, and without which we cannot obtain the divine influences to our progressive sanctification) is by faith, and not by works.

I think no man will pretend,

that we are so acceptable to God, as to obtain his sanctifying influences, in a progress of wisdom and grace, before we are justified; or that we are sanctified by faith, and justified by works. Whence it follows, that faith is the mean, or term, of our justification, because it is the mean, or term, of our sanctification; and that a holy life cannot be the condition of our acceptance with God, because it is the consequence and fruit of that faith by which we find acceptance with him.

Another text, to the same purpose, we find in chap. ii. 5. "Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him?" It might be read, " Hath not God chosen the poor to be rich," (as a similar phrase is translated, Rom. viii. 29.) to be rich "with, or by faith, and heirs?" Does it not plainly teach us, as that the end of God's choosing the poor was that they might be spiritually rich, so that it is faith which enriches them, and constitutes them heirs of

the kingdom? And you will readily own, that if we are heirs of the kingdom by faith, we are justified by faith. The kingdom is prepared for them that love God, and faith is the source of that love to God by which we are qualified for the kingdom. "Faith worketh by love," Gal. v. 6.; and therefore faith is the term, or medium, of our acceptance with God, and title to the kingdom. These texts must therefore be remembered, in our explication of the context you refer to, that we may not represent the Apostle as teaching contradictions or inconsistencies. It must also be premised, that we should understand the reasonings and conclusions of the two apostles, Paul and James, according to the professed scope and design of their discourses, and according to the subject they are professedly treating upon: and we should consider the expressions they each of them use upon the point in view, not as words occasionally and transiently spoken, but as what relate to, and are connected with, the subject matter professedly undertaken to be explained. This must be always allowed to be a natural and rational rule, which ought to be strictly adhered to in the interpretation of Scripture. Now, then, let us look a little into this case; and see if we do not find the scope and design of these two apostles very different, where they speak so very differently of justification by faith and by works.

Paul designedly handles this question-How shall a guilty, condemned, and convinced sinner, get reconciled to God, find acceptance with him, and have a title to the heavenly inheritance? He treats of such "who are under sin, whose mouths must be