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VIII.

can, where the Holy Spirit determines works of repentance STRIC. to be requisite for justification. I know that this is impossible; nay, the contrary can be shewn-meanwhile I am aware, and allow that God exacts works of repentance from us on divers other accounts; but a man may obtain the righteousness of faith, who is cut off by death from the opportunity of bringing forth fruits of repentance."

ANSWER TO STRICTURE VIII.

I have in that place brought forward some plain enough passages, in which the Holy Spirit determines that works of repentance are of necessity required for the remission of sins, to which I might have easily added numberless others; and that remission of sins and justification are equivalent terms, I have just made most evident. When you say it is possible for a man to obtain the righteousness of faith, who is cut off by death from an opportunity of bringing forth fruits of repentance, what is this but egregious sophistry? The works of repentance are twofold; either internal, which are performed within, in a man's inmost heart; such as sorrowing for sin, hating sin, humbly submitting oneself to God, flying to God's mercy, loving God in Christ, and seeking Him before all things, the purposing a new life, and the like; or external, such as are completed in external act; of which kind are restitution, alms, &c. Only the works of repentance of the former kind are absolutely necessary to obtain the first justification, while the latter are necessary for its continuation when obtained, if God give man the opportunity of practising them. Yet these latter ought to be performed, in wish at least, by every man who is to be justified, which wish is to be comprehended under the purpose of a new life. All this I do not state in the passage to which you object, where I was talking of works of both kinds promiscuously, but had you a particle of candour you would acknowledge that I have stated this distinctly in other parts of my Dissertations. At the end of the second Dissertation (chap. xviii.,) I avowedly admonish the reader of what I would have thoroughly fixed in his mind, lest he should either misunderstand my Dissertations, or, in this

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No righteousness without repentance,

STRIC. most important point, should at the hazard of his salvation VIII. err from the truth; where read these words of mine: "It §8. p. 209. must be understood, that only the internal works of faith,

See also

II.Diss. ii.

8. p. 53.

Lu. 13. 3-5.

repentance, hope, charity, &c., are absolutely necessary to the first justification; but the other external works, which appear in outward actions or in the actual exercise of the above-named virtues, are only the signs and fruits of internal piety, being subsequent to justification, and to be performed provided opportunity be given." But he who says it is possible for a man to obtain the righteousness of faith who is prevented by death from performing these internal works of repentance, flatly contradicts our Lord, who openly denounces eternal and inevitable destruction against all who do not repent.

STRICTURE IX.

ON I. DISS. ii. 9. p. 17.

Here I say, "What they advance respecting the instrumentality of faith in the matter of justification is a trifling piece of sophistry," &c. On this you remark in the margin, "Without any vaunting, we think and say, with the Holy Spirit in Sacred Scripture, that a sinner through mere mercy in Christ is justified by faith, of faith, and through faith, by God who looks upon the obedience which Christ has wrought for us, and that faith in the blood of Christ performs a special office towards our obtaining the righteousness of God; which Scripture, so far from assigning to good works expressly denies to them. Whether this influence (of faith) in obtaining righteousness according to God's appointment is to be called instrumentality, is a mere dispute of words. The question is, whether good works have the same rank, and equal honour and efficacy with faith, so that God justifies us through and on account of them, just as through and on account of faith. This I deny with the Apostle, who proves his statement; while you affirm without proving it."

ANSWER TO STRICTURE IX.

§ 1. They who assert the peculiar instrumentality of faith in the work of justification, do not speak with the Holy Spirit in the Sacred Scriptures. I call on you to shew a single

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IX.

passage, if you can, where the Holy Spirit says that faith is STRIC. 'the one' instrument of justification, which mode of speaking alone I here object to. But you say, Although the Holy Spirit does not exactly say this, yet He says as much, since He declares every where that a man is justified in, by, and through faith; while on the other hand, He no where assigns justification to works, but expressly denies it to them, and hence it is clear enough that faith has a special office in obtaining the righteousness of God; which is all that was meant by those who have said that faith is 'the one' instrument of justification. Here I fancied I saw an Achilles-but on coming closer I discovered it was only a ghost. The whole of your assumption, viz. that justification in Sacred Scripture is every where attributed to faith, no where to works, is false. On the contrary, I affirm that justification is not attributed to faith alone,' but to other virtues also; and oftener to other virtues than to faith.

§ 2. In order to make this plain, (and at the same time to put a stop for the future to this constant burden of yours,) I wish the reader to weigh with me very carefully the following observations. 1st. Let him remember that two things have been already proved; 1. that no inspired writer, but St. Paul, has taught in so many words, that a man is justified by faith without works; 2. that not even St. Paul himself has taught in so many words that a man is justified by faith without works, except in argument, and in a controversy, wherein he was engaged with Jews and other enemies of the Gospel. 2ndly. Let the studious reader observe, that among the other writers of the New Testament, the justification of a sinner is very rarely spoken of under the name or word 'justification;' but if I remember right, only in three places, Luke xviii. 13, 14, Matt. xii. 37, and St. James, chap. ii., add to which Acts xiii. 39, where he is professedly speaking against those who misunderstood St. Paul's doctrine. 3rdly. It must be remarked, that what St. Paul calls 'justification,' by other sacred writers is generally spoken of as 'forgiveness of sins.' This is clear enough from what has been said in the Answer to the Seventh Stricture (Sect. 8, 9, 10, &c.), and will be abundantly clear to any one who examines the Sacred Scriptures. 4thly. It must be remarked that wherever you find the justi

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Justification attributed to many virtues.

STRIC. fication of a sinner expressed by the very word 'justification' IX. in the Scriptures, with the exception of St. Paul's Epistles,

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and that saying of St. Paul, Acts xiii. 39, it is attributed not to faith, at any rate not to faith alone, but to other virtues also. Thus in Luke xviii. 13, 14, it is attributed to the humble confession of a penitent and supplicating sinner: thus in Matt. xii. 37, it is attributed to men's words, viz. as marks of their internal piety and purity. By St. James it is constantly ascribed not to faith only, but to works proceeding from and conjoined with faith, and his (St. James's) testimony ought to be equivalent to all the rest, since he wrote his Epistle with the design of answering those who abused St. Paul's Epistles; of which I have often reminded you, so that I am surprised at your confident assertion that justification is no where in Scripture attributed to works. 5thly. Lastly, it must be especially remarked that in those passages of Scripture where man's justification is expressed by forgiveness of sins,' (which are almost without number both in the Old and in the New Testament,) it is almost always attributed to repentance, either directly or by some circumlocution, and that descriptive of repentance. Repentance and forgiveness of sins are a pair, as every one knows, constantly occurring together in the Scriptures. Nay in these two words is contained the whole of the Gospel, or what God in the Gospel either promises to us or demands from us, as is evident from Luke iii. 3; xxiv. 47, and Acts v. 31. I cannot but pity your voluntary blindness, (to retort your own words on yourself,) who will not see things which are so plain. From these observations one naturally concludes that St. Paul had a peculiar reason as well for almost always calling man's absolution in his arguments by the term 'justification,' while the other sacred writers usually speak of the same under the expression 'forgiveness of sins;' as also preferring to use the word 'faith' to denote the condition of this same absolution, while other inspired writers have more fully expressed it by the term 'repentance.' As to the latter, why St. Paul usually expresses the one condition of the Gospel by the word 'faith,' I have already adduced satisfactory reasons in the Harmony, II. Diss. ch. v. To those add the following argument. St. Paul is opposing the enemies of the Gospel, the Jews

Reasons for St. Paul's mode of argument.

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IX.

6. 29.

Acts 8.37.

especially, who, clinging pertinaciously to the Mosaic law, STRIC. refused their faith to the doctrine of the Gospel. On these, therefore, he every where inculcates faith as a first and necessary work to be performed, and accordingly if this were See Joh. done every thing else that the Gospel requires, would, by God's grace, easily follow. Thus he says that 'righteousness Rom.4.24. will be imputed to those who believe on Him that raised up Jesus from the dead,' i. e. to those who believe in the doctrine of the Gospel, confirmed by the resurrection of Christ from the dead; not that this belief is sufficient of itself (for the very devils believe that the doctrine of Christ is true, and tremble), for obtaining righteousness, but because those with whom St. Paul argued, had need most especially of this faith, and, this faith granted, all the rest (as we said) by God's grace would follow. This reason is closely allied to Compare the observation of Clement of Alexandria on the usual saying of our Saviour to the Jews whom He healed, Thy faith hath saved thee: "For those who were righteous under the law Strom. 6. had need of faith; wherefore, when our Lord healed them P. 762. He said, Thy faith hath saved thee. But those who were righteous in philosophy had need not only to believe in the Lord, but to depart also from idolatry. And immediately on the revelation of the truth they too repented of their former deeds." Afterwards in the same book, "So that when we p. 794. hear, Thy faith hath saved thee, we do not receive that He said absolutely, that they should be saved who believed in any way, unless works also followed. To the Jews only He said thus, who were under the law and lived blamelessly therein, who were only deficient in faith in the Lord." As far as regards the first question, viz. why St. Paul in his discussions so constantly speaks of a sinner's absolution by the term 'justification,' this I think must be gathered from the scope of the Apostle. For since the opponents of St. Paul contended for some sort of justification more properly so called, (i. e. as I suppose, one which rested on the accurate observance of the letter of the Mosaic law, though more See Mat. especially of the sacrifices and rites prescribed therein,) he Phil. 3. was obliged to use the term 'justification' in argument, and 4—6. accordingly to repeat the same several times on common ground with them, and what he took away from the righte

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