unjuft, that he might bring them to God;" not for the sheep only, that heard his voice, but for the sheep" that were loft;" not for the many only, but "for alli:" for all men; for every man; for the world, the whole world; not in the Calviniftic fenfe of all forts of men, or fome men of all forts, the world of the elect, and the like; but in their plain and obvious fenfe, of the whole race of mankind, as contradiftinguished from believers; that as all had finned and fallen fhort of the glory of God, and by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, fo by the righteousness of one the free gift might come upon all men unto juftification of life.

Or fuppofing again, that it were not evident to our apprehenfion, what St. Paul meant to convey by "the fpirit dwelling in us," and by our being " led by the Spirit;" and that we were tempted to mistake the nature of his influence, as the enthufiaft does, and refer it to fome imaginary internal feeling; we might be corrected by his ftating exprefsly in another place, that "the fruit of the Spirit is "love, joy, peace, long-fuffering, gentlenel's, "goodness, faith, meeknefs, temperance!;"

* Rom. v. 8, 10. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Matt. xviii, 12. 1 Tim. ii. 6. 2 Cor. v. 14. Heb. ii. 9. John xii. 47. 1 John ii. 2, Rom. v. 12, 18.

Rom. viii. 9, 14.

1 Gal. v. 22.

as well as by the declaration of our Saviour with respect to thofe, who pretend to spiritual gifts, that" by their fruits we shall know "them."

Nor fhall we fuffer ourselves, on the authority of a few texts of doubtful or erroneous interpretation, to be feduced into the Moravian and Methodistical tenets, that a true Chriftian has a fenfible and certain affurance of falvation, and is incapable of fin; or to adopt the doctrine of the Antinomian, that God fees no fin in believers; while we bear in mind the clear admonition of St. Paul, "Let "him that thinketh he ftandeth, take heed " left he fall";" and the no lefs intelligible and univerfal confeffion of St. John, "If we fay "that we have no fin, we deceive ourfelves, "and the truth is not in us"."

7. A farther rule, which I would propose to affift us in our interpretation of Scripture, unlefs indeed it be confidered as a special modification of one of the foregoing, is, that where the fame term is employed at different times and under different circumftances, we ought not to be fatisfied with one independent defcription, but should compare and combine them together.

It is in pursuance of this principle that we

Matt. vii. 20. a Cor. x. 12. • 1 John i. 8.

believe in three perfons united in one Godhead; and in the union of the divine and human natures in the perfon of Chrift. And it was from a difregard of this principle, that Noetus afferted, that the Father had united himself with the man Chrift, and was born and crucified with him; and that Sabellius pretended that there was no difference between the perfons of the Trinity, but that they were all one perfon under three names: that Neftorius divided Chrift into two perfons; and Eutyches confounded in his person his two natures: that Arius denied him to be truly God; and Apollinaris affirmed, that he was not really man9.

I would apply this principle to the much controverted question of justification. "We "conclude," fays St. Paul," that a man is juftified by faith, without the deeds of the "law"." And again, And again, "Knowing that a man " is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jefus Chrift." On thefe, and fome fimilar texts, the Solifidian faftens : he overlooks, or defpifes, the testimony of another Apostle, who affirms that “ by works a

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Mofheim, Cent. iii. part ii. chap. 5.

• See Bishop Horne's Sermon on the Word Incarnate, Difc. vol. i. p. 205. Mofheim, Cent. v. part ii. chap. v. and Cent. iv. part ii. chap. v.

⚫ Rom. iii. 28.

' Gal. ii. 16.

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man is juftified, and not by faith only'; and who thrice within a few fentences pronounces, that "faith without works is dead";" he treats the epiftle, wherein this teftimony occurs, and which appears intended to obviate the falfe conclufions likely to be drawn from St. Paul's words, as what Luther once lamented that he had called it, an epiftle of ftraw he goes fo far perhaps, as to accuse the divinely inspired author "of falfe teftimony, "of lying, of contradicting the Holy Spirit, "the Law, the Prophets, Chrift, and all the Apoftles," and fo he perfifts in an unreserved and unqualified affirmation, that we are juftified by faith alone.

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Now as the epiftle of St. James, not lefs than thofe of his brother in the Apostleship, forms part of the facred canon; furely it would be both fafer and more becoming, inftead of confining ourselves to the testimony

James ii. 24.

"Ibid. 17, 20, 26.

* Imo repertus eft non nemo, qui eo audaciæ atque adeo impietatis proceffit, ut in Authorem ejus epistolæ, cui Jacobi nomen infcribitur, calamum liberius ftrinxerit, eumque falfitatis ac mendacii arguerit. Is fuit Althamerus, qui (citante Grotio) in Scriptorem, non modo innoxium, fed et divinum hæc verba indignabundus effudit. Directe (inquit) in Scripturam agit; citat Scripturas falfo; et folus Spiritui fancto, Legi, Prophetis, Chrifto, Apoftolifque omnibus contradicit. Bulli Harm. Apoft. Introd, fect. 3.

of one alone, to compare and combine the declarations of both Apoftles, as conftituting confiftent portions of the fame holy revelation. And the refult of fuch a comparison would probably be a conviction, that there is no inconfiftency in the pofitions of the two facred writers; but that "faith," in St. James's acceptation, fignifies an inactive belief in the truths of the Gospel, not producing holiness of life, and, in St. Paul's, faith in Chrift compre hending Christian holiness; that" by works," St. James intends a religious and charitable, that is a Chriftian, life; and St. Paul, the performances of a man in his natural ftate, or a compliance with the outward ordinances, and fometimes with the moral obligations, of the Mofaic law: and that the pofition is accordingly true in one sense, but not in another, as that is true of Chrift in his human nature, which is not true of him in his divine.

Election too, that other Shibboleth of a party, has two diftinct fcriptural fignifications, analogous to thofe borne by "the kingdom of "heaven." As the kingdom of heaven fome times fignifies the whole body of profeffed Chriftians in this world, and fometimes "the affem"bly of just men made perfect" in another; fo by the elect are intended fometimes all thofe perfons, who are in covenant with God, and profefs his religion, as all the people of the

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