'press forward in our christian course: and that God who appoints the end, appoints also the means. Exhortations, instructions, warnings, are to be used by ministers; watching, prayer, self-denial, and in many cases, fasting, by the Christian himself. The ministers, who neglect the means which they ought to use, have no reason to expect, that their supposed -converts will persevere: nor have any professed believers, who neglect the means appointed for them, the least right to expect, that they shall be "kept by the power of God, through faith unto salvation."-God knows how long each of us shall live: yet this implies the knowledge also, that each person will use, or neglect, certain means, for the continuance of life. If a man's death come on him by his wilfully refusing sustenance, or by taking poison; God foreknew this also; and took it into the account. Our Lord certainly knew the time appointed for his crucifixion: yet he used various precautions, to defeat the machinations of his enemies, till his time was come,

P. cxxxiv-cxxxvi. These pages contain a long note, chiefly quotations from Bishop Bull, and Dr. Whitby; but as there is in it nothing materially different from what has been considered; and as neither of these writers is authority, it is not necessary to make any remarks.

P. cxxxvi. 1. 13. St. Paul, &c." St. Paul indeed

St. Paul tells the Romans and Galatians, that they have been justified; and yet he gives them rules for their conduct, the observance of which he represents as essential to their salvation.

says, in general, to the Romans," Therefore being “justified by faith, ye have peace with God, through "our Lord Jesus Christ:" but surely no one will infer from this, that he considered it as infallibly certain, that every professed christian at Rome was in a justified state, at the time when he wrote this epistle! Having not been at Rome, he had no personal acquaintance with the christians there: but he knew that all true believers were justified: and in the judgment of charity he supposed them to be what they professed to be. He does not, however, so much as say, even in this general sense, to the Galatians, that they were justified: nay, he plainly tells them, that " he stood in doubt of them."-It would have been impossible, in writing to collective bodies, to draw lines of distinction between individuals, all professing the same faith, except by distinguishing true faith from all counterfeits; and by calling on them, to beware, lest they deceived themselves." When admitted into the church by baptism, they continued a part of it, unless excommunicated. The collective body must be addressed as believers; and the warnings, and cautions, and calls to self-exami

But had he considered their justification as necessarily continuing; had he conceived salvation in the next world as inevitably following justification in this, all advice would have been superfluous: nor could he have felt or expressed any anxiety for the future welfare of the converts. Nay, he speaks " of "some, who having put away a good conscience, concerning "faith had made shipwreck." These men must have lost that state of justification which they once bad, and have failed of 'salvation.'

* Rom. v. 1. 2 Gal. v. 2-5. vi, 3. 7, S.

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nation, sufficiently proved to them, that the apostle 'did not mean, they should individually take it for 'granted, that they were, without exception, what they professed to be. But had he spoken of their past justification, nay, of their final salvation, in as absolute and unqualified terms, as he did of those who sailed with him, when he said, "There shall "be no loss of any man's life among you;" it ́would by no means have been superfluous, to shew them, by what means, and in what way, this absolute promise, or declaration, must be accomplished. Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be "saved."Probably, the apostle felt no anxiety about the event, as to the preservation of the lives of those who sailed with him; though he deemed it proper to caution them: for their lives were individually secured by promise. But he felt much anxiety about those, whom, in the judgment of charity, he addressed as christians: because he did not certainly know, that every one of them was a 'true christian, and interested in the promises, which, we suppose, secure true christians. He loved them as children, and he was cast down at every thing, which made him fear, lest any of them should be found to come short of salvation.-He who supposes, that a belief respecting the divine decrees, exempts a man from anxiety, on his own account, or that of those whom he loves, except as it induces reliance on God, and submission to his holy will; has little experimental acquaintance with the subject; and will

**Acts xxvii. 22–24. 31.

not readily, enter into the apostle's feelings, when he says, "My little children, of whom I travail in "birth again, till Christ is formed in you." As for those, who had made shipwreck of their faith; before it is allowed, that they had lost the state of 'justification, which they once had;' it must be proved, that they ever had any better faith than that of the stony ground hearers; who "believed for a "time, but having no root in themselves, in time of temptation fell away."

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P. cxxxvii. Note. This, &c. This was the case with others, as well as the Jewish Christians, and always has been, more or less, in every age. A proud self-righteous rejection of the scriptural doctrine concerning justification, and a licentious pers version of it, have at all times been as the Scylla and Charybdis, in this part of Theology: and the Holy Spirit alone can safely guide us, at an equal distance from the rock on the right hand, and the whirlpool on the left. "I lead in the paths of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment.'

P. cxxxviii, 1. 12. 'He does, &c." Are sincere

Gal. iv. 15-19.

Luke viii. 15. 1 John. ii. 19.

This is acknowledged by Dr. Doddridge :-Several of the ⚫ Jewish Christians discovered a disposition to rest in an external ⚫ and empty profession of religion, probably from an abuse of ? the doctrine of justification by faith.' (Pref. to St. James's Epistle.)

4 Prov. viii. 20.

He' (St. James) does not mean to assert, that sincere faith alone will not justify a man when first converted to the gospel, by procuring him remission of the sins committed by him pre

‘faith, and a bare belief of the gospel, the same thing? If they are not, why is the one used, when justification is spoken of, and the other substituted, when continuance in a justified state is mentioned? Let the terms be reversed, "He does not mean to assert, that a bare belief of the gospel alone will not justify a man, when first converted to the gospel, by procuring him remission of sins committed by him previously to his conversion; but that when a man has been converted and justified, sincere faith will not keep him in a justified state. Every one sees the glaring absurdity of such a proposition: but this arises solely from the use of the two different terms, as if denoting the same thing. A bare belief of the gospel never justified any man; and therefore cannot keep him in a justified state. If any one one loses a justified state; it is, because he loses living faith, and retains only a dead faith.

P. cxxxviii. 1. 25. He describes, &c.”1 This quotation is much to the purpose, and needs no fur

vious to his conversion; but that when a man has been converted and justiñed, a bare belief of the gospel will not keep him in a state of justification."

any

He describes a dead charity, and by it exemplifies a dead faith: as that charity is a mere pretence, which shews itself only in words of courtesy and compassion, without affording real assistance to a suffering fellow-creature; so that faith is dead and useless, which consists in a naked assent to the truth of Christianity, without the performance of those works which are enjoined by its Author. Not only the understanding is to be convinced, but the will and affections, the spring of human actions, are to be influenced and regulated.'