sity of holiness, or a personal obedience of the divine commandments. Now-to say nothing of the innumerable passages in the Scriptures, in which it is either asserted or implied that holiness of character is an essential qualification for the happiness of a future state- if it be shown that faith implies a conviction of the authority of the precepts of the Gospel, as well as of the truth of its doctrines-for so it is common to distinguish certain portions of the Scriptures -we shall be immediately prepared to conclude that in all those passages in which "faith" stands alone as the great requirement of the Christian religion, that term is used to import, together with a knowledge and belief of the Gospel, a correspondency in the dispositions and practices of the believer—that is, to import both faith itself and the "works" which it should properly produce. There are, more over, certain important considerations which may sufficiently account for this compendious usage of the term: these we shall take occasion to suggest at the conclusion of the present discourse.

But to prove conclusively that such is the comprehensive significance of "faith," we shall enter into a particular examination of the doctrine of St. James on justification. That

apostle has especially distinguished between a belief of the Gospel which terminates in the understanding, and a belief which controls the affections, and determines the conduct; and has affirmed the former, that is, faith when alone or without works, to be ineffectual to our justification. Now we shall make it manifest that, in drawing this distinction, he refers to that particular conviction which we hold to be included in faith, considered as an act of the understandingnamely, a conviction of the obligation and necessity of personal holiness; and, consequently, that in asserting that " a man is justified by works, and not by faith only," he asserts a proposition which is virtually, or by implication, received in an intelligent belief of the Gospel: thus conducting us to the inference that when faith is declared to be the instrument of our justification, it must be understood to comprehend the "works" which should properly flow from a belief of the Gospel.

We shall thus offer, we are aware, an explanation of the connexion of faith and works in our justification, different from that which is very frequently, it may be most generally, adopted. It is too common, however, to deal with the language of St. James in a superficial,

or rather, as we cannot but conceive, in a timid and evasive manner, as though it were dangerous to the integrity of our faith to receive it in its palpable and full import. We have no such apprehension, but shall follow as closely as we are able, and with the confidence of perfect safety, the footsteps of that inspired Apostle. We shall maintain his proposition, that "a man is justified by works, and not by faith only," in that sense which is most obvious and natural-that sense, which it would have conveyed to every reader but for a preconceived opinion of its inconsistency with some other parts of Scripture-namely, that works as well as faith are necessary and subservient to our justification. We shall answer objections to this natural acceptation of his language; and show, in particular, that its supposed incongruity with the assertion of St. Paul, that "we are justified by faith without the works of the law," arises from a misconception, on the one hand, of the import which that Apostle attached to the phrase "works of the law," and, on the other, from an inadequate apprehension of his meaning in the use of the term "faith." It will be seen, then, that our object in the following discourses is, first and principally, to exhibit a

necessary and inseparable connexion between the demand of faith in the Son of God, as the condition of our eternal life, and the use and purpose of the Gospel as the instrument of our moral restoration secondly, to bring into a close comparison the affirmations of St. James and St. Paul on the instrumentality of faith and works in our justification; to examine their relative import; and to show that the doctrine of the former, as deduced from the natural sense of the words in which he has conveyed it, is essentially consistent, or substantially identical, with that of the latter..

To proceed then as proposed the position which we are mainly concerned to establish, and to apply to the illustration of our subject, is, that belief in Jesus Christ-which we shall now regard as an act of the understanding only-involves a persuasion of the obligation, necessity, and recompense of personal holiness, or the discharge of religious and moral duties, as enjoined in his own discourses, and the teaching of his Apostles.*

*To preclude misapprehension, we would apprize the reader that we distinguish between the obligation and the necessity of holiness, because we consider the former to apply to the whole of the divine law; and that it does so is manifest from a single consideration-namely, that every

It will scarcely be questioned, we presume, that belief in Jesus Christ imports, in general, an assent of the understanding to his own declarations, and those of his inspired Apostles. But then it follows that faith has respect to no single declaration, or partial view of the Christian revelation; and must be estimated, not by the firmness or tenacity with which we hold any part of that revelation, but by a just and comprehensive grasp of the whole. It must be speculatively erroneous, as well as dangerous in a practical point of view, to restrict the exercise of faith to any one article of the Christian religion, of whatever necessity or value. Faith, indeed, has an especial rela

departure from it is a reason for repentance. In speaking, however, of the necessity of holiness, we presume that a prevailing regard to the divine commandments, or a certain degree of personal rectitude, is essential to salvation. What that degree actually is, must be seen to be a distinct and separate question. It is treated, however, by Paley, and three positions are laid down by him on the subject which none can dispute, and are of vital importance. (Mor. Phil. ch. vii.) It may be well to add, that a "work" takes its character from the mind of the agent: that the outward act is holy, inasmuch as it is expressive of an upright will and purpose toward God, and may therefore be held to exist virtually, or in his sight, when there may be no ability to perform it, as in the last moments of the dying penitent. We use the terms faith and belief as synonymous.