To conclude: The grand question is, what will save us at last. And this, so far as our present argument is concerned, divides itself into three-will faith and works together save us? will faith without works save us? will works without faith save us? Now that faith in Jesus Christ, accompanied by a good life proceeding from that faith, will infallibly lead to salvation, neither admits, nor ever hath admitted, of any controversy whatever. Upon this point all parties are agreed. And this point is sufficient for the sincere Christian. He may entertain the other questions as matters of very interesting meditation; but for himself, whilst he believes in Christ's religion, and earnestly and honestly strives to obey its laws, according to the utmost of his power and knowledge, he has no personal cause of doubt or distrust from either of them. The chief thing he has to look to is humility;-the want of which may vitiate all his other good qualities. The chief thing he has to guard against, is a false and presumptuous opinion of his good works; so as to found upon them, in his own mind, a secret claim upon heaven as of justice due to his merits, instead of gratefully referring himself, and all his hopes, to the free bounty and infinite love of God in Christ, displayed by offering him such a reward upon such terms.

The second question is, will faith save us without works; or, to put the same question in another form, will faith end in salvation, though accompanied by a life of wickedness? Doctrines certainly have been, and are held, which lead to this conclusion, yet the conclusion itself is seriously maintained by few; for, however in terms the doctrine of salvation by faith without works may appear to agree with certain expressions of Saint Paul's Epistles, yet, when it comes to be offered

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as a rule of practice, it shows its own inconsistency with every property and character of true religion so strongly, that the practical inference is always denied. It is generally avoided by putting such a construction upon the word faith, as to prevent any licentious deductions being drawn from the doctrine of justification by faith; so that, to the question just now stated, “will faith end in salvation, though it be accompanied with wickedness of life," the answer usually given is, that true faith never can be accompanied by wickedness of life. It is not necessary to go over the subject again, for the purpose of inquiring whether it be applicable to all the texts of Scripture to which it is applied, or only to some of them; for, I trust, we have shown upon the whole, that the sense, which the doctrine of justification by faith without works, rigorously taken, would put upon Saint Paul's expressions, can never have been the sense which Saint Paul himself intended: amongst other strong reasons, chiefly for this, that it is in contradiction with his own repeated declarations, and even with declarations delivered in the very writings in which the contested expressions are found. And I trust also we have shown (what undoubtedly it might be required of us to show), that these are interpretations fairly assignable to Saint Paul's words, which stand clear of the doctrine in its rigorous, or, as it is sometimes called, its Calvinistic sense.

The third question is, will good works save us with out faith? Now, this is a question of circumstances whether our want of faith be our own fault. It is cerand the principal circumstance to be attended to is tainly true, that want of faith may proceed from, and be a proof of a wrong and a bad disposition of mind, of such a disposition of mind as no good thing can come

from. This, perhaps, was both very generally and in a very high degree the case with the Jews in our Saviour's time, and with many of those to whom the Apostles preached; because they had evidences afforded them, which ought to have convinced them, and which would have convinced them, had it not been that they gave themselves up to their prejudices, to their vicious propensities, and to wrong habits of thinking. And this their situation and opportunities will account for some of those strong denunciations against want of faith, which are found in Scripture addressed to the unbelievers of those times. "If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." And, to a certain extent, the same reason may be alleged concerning many of those by whom, in after ages, the Gospel is rejected, after being fairly proposed to them. Now, in this case, good works without faith will not save a man; because, in truth, the works are not good, which flow from that disposition which occasion the want of faith. The works may be good, that is, may be useful as to their consequences and effects upon others; but this is not enough for the salvation of the person who performs them. They must also flow from a good disposition, which in the case supposed they could not do; for that good disposition would, along with the works, have produced faith.

On the other hand, cases undoubtedly may be supposed, and cases occur in innumerable instances, in which the want of faith cannot be attributed to the fault of the unbeliever. Whole nations and countries have never yet heard of the name of Christ. In countries in which he has been preached, multitudes have been debarred, by invincible impediments, from coming to the knowledge of his religion. To multitudes of

say,

others it has never been preached or proposed truly or fairly. In these and the like cases it is not for us to that men will be destroyed for their want of faith. The Seripture has not said so, but the contrary. The Scripture appears to intimate that which, so far as we can apprehend, is most agreeable to the divine equity, that such persons shall shall respectively be judged according to the law and rule with which they were, or (if it had not been their own fault) they might have been acquaintedwhether that were simply the law of nature, or any addition made to it by credible revelations. This is generally understood to be the meaning of that passage in the second chapter of Saint Paul's epistle to the Romans, in which he declares, that "as many as have sinned without the law, shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law, shall be judged by the law." To which he adds, that "when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, they having not the law, are a law unto themselves; which show the works of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another." Which two texts, taken together, intimate, as I have said, that in the assignment both of punishment and reward, respect will be had to the law or rule of action with which they were acquainted, so that those who acted conscientiously by that rule would be accepted; those who wilfully went against the dictates of their own conscience would be regarded as transgressors before God, be their condition, as to religious knowledge and information, what it would.

In order to understand that this doctrine does not detract from the value of Christianity so much as, at

first sight, it may seem to do, two considerations are to be attended to, as possessing a material influence upon the subject. One is, that this gracious dispensation which comprises all mankind, which so condescends to their several difficulties and disadvantages, and is so indulgent to human blindness and wickedness, is procured to the world through the intervention, the mission, death, and mediation of Jesus Christ. Christ is the instrument of salvation to all who are saved. The obedient Jew, the virtuous heathen, are saved through him. They do not know this, nor may it be necessary they should. Yet it may be true in fact. That is one important consideration. The other is, that we are expressly taught in Scripture, that there are divers degrees of happiness even in heaven. Which being so, it is not unreasonable to expect that faithful followers of Christ will be advanced to higher rewards than others. This opinion is not repugnant to any ideas we form of distributive justice, and is scriptural.

Still, however, this speculation, though we cannot, I think, easily shut it out from our thoughts, does not touch our own proper concern. Our concern is solely with the question how a Christian can be saved. And in this question we rest upon one single conclusion; viz. that there is no safe reliance upon any thing but sincere endeavours after Christian obedience; and that a Christian's obedience consists in relinquishing his own sins, and practising his own duties.

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