SERMON I.

ON THE NECESSITY OF GOOD WORKS.

ST. JAMES II. 26.

As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

TITUS III. 8.

This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God, might be careful to maintain good works.

FROM the first rise of Christianity down to this present time, there has always existed a set of designing or deluded men, calling themselves Christians, who have maintained the doctrine of faith in opposition to that of good works; who have imagined, or pretended to imagine, that a belief in the life, death, and resurrection of our Saviour, and in the miraculous circumstances which accompanied each, would exempt them from the practice of the moral virtues, and leave them to the free indulgence of their lawless and unruly passions.

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This doctrine of theirs they have grounded on certain selected passages of Scripture, which they have explained in such a manner, as to make them contradict all the rest of it. They tell us of the frequent and vehement assertions of St. Paul, "of justification by the free grace of God," and of "being saved by faith alone," and "by faith without the works of the law;" and these expressions they so interpret as to make them counteract the whole design of religion. Salvation, they say, is the free gift of God; it is not of debt but of grace; it is not bestowed in consequence of any actions of ours, but gratuitously given through God's boundless mercy; a lively faith in the merits of our Redeemer is alone requisite on our parts; what we do is out of the question; we have but firmly to believe, and we shall be entitled to an inheritance of life eternal.

I propose in this discourse to endeavour to overthrow this pernicious opinion, first, by explaining what learned men have in general agreed to be the real meaning of the passages which appear to make for it; secondly, by laying before you some strong and clear quotations from the Scriptures, in which the virtues of a good life are insisted on as indispensably necessary to salvation; and lastly, by proving from common sense and reason, the absurdity of expecting the favour of God and the rewards of Heaven on any other terms than by adding to sound faith good works.

And first, I will explain what learned men have,

in general, agreed to be the real meaning of the passages, which are brought in support of the opinion, that faith alone, unaccompanied by good works, is sufficient unto salvation.

It is very evident, that when St. Paul makes use of the words election, vocation, adoption, justification, and some others of the like tenor, he does not always apply them to the final judgment: that is, he does not always mean that those who are elected, called, adopted, or justified, have already obtained, or shall certainly obtain, the kingdom of God. Recollect to whom his epistles were addressed, to those who had once been heathens, who had worshipped gods of wood and stone, or men frail and wicked as themselves, and who had no certain rule to live by, and scarce knew the difference between virtue and vice, but who had now embraced the Christian religion, had become acquainted with the knowledge, which that inculcated, and entitled to the rewards, which that held forth.

This acquisition of the laws, and this title to the blessings of the Gospel, thus bestowed on the heathens, the Apostle calls their "being elected, adopted, justified :" and these privileges he affirms them to have obtained without previous good works, but merely by the free grace of God, on their only believing in the truth of the religion which he had sent down. Whenever then St. Paul talks of justification without works, he always means this first justification, men being

made Christians; but this is a very different thing from final justification at the last day, to which holiness, virtue, good works, are indispensably necessary.

As to the expression of justification without the works of the law, it sometimes means without an observance of the rites and ceremonies of the law of Moses, which some early Christians insisted to be requisite; but, with respect to the moral part of that law, our Saviour and his apostles constantly declare that they do not come to destroy, but to fulfil it.

With these two keys I believe that every passage of Scripture, which seems to favour the idea of the sufficiency of faith alone to salvation, may be otherwise explained; and I leave to every candid person to determine whether that interpretation which makes a good book consistent with itself, is not to be preferred before that, which makes it at variance.

And this brings me to what I proposed in the second place, to lay before you some strong and clear quotations from the Scripture, in which the virtues of a good life are insisted on as indispensably necessary to salvation. And here so many passages, to this purpose, press themselves upon me, that the only difficulty is to select and arrange them. The forerunner of our Saviour, John the Baptist, is described as opening the way for the Gospel, by preaching repentance and remission of sins, that is by preaching that men should be

forgiven on sorrow for past wickedness, and amendment in future. Our Saviour also began his ministry by preaching repentance: " from that time began Jesus to preach, and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Or as St. Mark in the parallel passage expresses it, "the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the Gospel." Not only believing but forsaking of sin, and turning to a life of virtue, was required by him of his disciples. In his sermon on the mount he particularly insists on the practice of a variety of good qualities, and in one verse commands us to be exemplary, and even conspicuous, in the exercise of them in general; "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven." In the same excellent discourse he tells his hearers, that except their righteousness, that is, their practice of what is right, shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, they shall in no case enter into the kingdom of Heaven. And still more to my present purpose, he expressly declares, that not every one who shall say unto him, Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he only that doeth the will of his Father; as if he had said, Not they, who only profess themselves to be Christians, and who believe and own me to be their master, but they who do what I teach shall obtain salvation. Nay, he goes still further, and tells them that though they shall

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