them at all in view. But let it be remembered, that however little many believe fuch things, they may yet perceive, if they will attend to it, their natural operation upon those who do believe them. And let any moderni adept in the science of morals fhew in his account of the foundation of morality, and the nature of obligation, any thing that hath a force or influence equal to this: or, will the nominal felf-righteous Chriftian, who thinks Chrift only made up fome little wants which he finds in himself, or that his death had only fome general expediency in it, ever be equally tender in his practice, with him who fees fo much of the purity of the law of God, and his detestation of fin, as to esteem all his own righteoufneffes but as filthy rags, and bottoms his hope of acceptance wholly upon the perfect righteousness of his Redeemer?

In the third place, he who expects juftification only through the imputed righteousness of Chrift, has the moft awful views of the danger of fin. He not only fees the obligation and purity of the law, but the feverity of its fanction. It is a fear of wrath from the avenger of blood, that perfuades him to fly to the city of refuge. And if we compare the fentiments of others with his, either the generality of a carelefs and blinded world, or those who act upon contrary principles and a different fyftem from that which we are now defending, we fhall find, that not one of them hath fuch apprehenfions of the wrath and vengeance of God due on the account of fin, as the convinced finner, who flies to the propitiation of Christ for deliverance and refcue.

I am very fenfible, that many readers will be ready to challenge this argument as preffed into the fervice, and wholly improper upon my scheme: they will fuppofe, that every believer, in confequence of his faith in Chrift, is fcreened from the penalty of the law and sheltered from the stroke of divine juftice; he is therefore no more under this fear; and its being no more a motive of action, in the future part of his conduct, is the very ground of the objection I am attempting to remove. This is no doubt plausible; but let it be remembered, in what way it is that believers are freed from their apprehenfions of

the wrath of God; it is by their acceptance of his mercy through faith in Chrift. Before the application of this remedy, they faw themfelves the children of wrath and heirs of hell; and they ftill believe that every fin deferves the wrath of God, both in this life and that which is to come. Will they therefore re-incur the danger from which they have fo lately efcaped, and of which they had fo terrible a view? will they do fo voluntarily, even although they know the remedy to be ftill at hand, ftill ready to be applied, and certainly effectual? Suppose any person had been upon the very point of perifhing in a violent and rapid ftream, and faved when his ftrength was well nigh exhaufted, by the happy intervention of a tender-hearted paffenger; would he voluntarily plunge himself again into the flood, even although he knew his deliverer were ftanding by, ready for his relief? The fuppofition is quite unnatural; and it is equally fo to imagine, that one faved from divine wrath will immediately repeat the provocation, even whilst he trembles at the thoughts of the mifery of that state from which he had been fo lately delivered.

Let us only confider the ftrong fenfe which a believer ufually fhews of the danger of others in an unconverted ftate, from a perfuafion of their being under the wrath of God. He warns them, intreats them, pities them, and prays for them. He would not exchange with any one of them, a prifon for a palace, or a fcaffold for a throne. How then fhould he be fuppofed to follow them in their practice, and thereby to return to their state?

But perhaps, here again it will be urged, that this is improper; because, according to the principles of the af fertors of imputed righteousness, a believer being once in a justified state, cannot fall from grace; and therefore his fins do not deferve wrath; and he himself must have, from this perfuafion, a strong confidence that, be they what they will, they cannot have fuch an effect: and accordingly, fome have exprefsly affirmed, that the future. fins of the elect are forgiven, as well as their past, at their converfion; nay, fome, that they are juftified from all eternity, that God doth not fee fin in a believer, that his afflictions are not punishments, and other things of the VOL. I. H

like nature. Now, though I must confefs I look upon thefe expreffions, and many more to be found in certain writers, whatever gloffes they may put upon them, as unguarded and anti-fcriptural; yet not to enter into the controverfy at all, I fuppofe it will be acknowledged by all without exception, that a believer's fecurity, and the impoffibility of his falling from grace, is a fecurity of not finning, that is, of not being under the dominion of fin, as much as, or rather in order to his fecurity, of deliverance from the wrath of God. His pardon is fure; but this fecurity is only hypothetical, because his faith and holinefs are fecured by the promife of God: fo that, to fuppofe a perfon to fin without reftraint, by means of this perfuafion, that his falvation is fecured by his firft acceptance of Chrift, is a fuppofition felf-contradictory. However ftrongly any man may affert that a believer's falvation is fecure, he will not fcruple at the fame time to acknowledge, that if fuch believer fhould fin wilfully and habitually, and continue to do fo, he would be damned; but he will deny, that any such case ever did, or ever can poffibly happen.*

The objection muft furely appear ftrongest upon the principles of those who make the nature of faith to confift in a belief, that Chrift died for themselves in particular, or of their own personal interest in him, and the pardon and life which he hath purchased, making affurance effential to its daily exercife. Yet even these will not deny, that their faith is not always equally firong, and that their afsurance is fometimes interrupted with doubts and fears. Now, what is the caufe of thefe doubts, and this uncertainty? Is it not always fin more directly, or by confequence? So that fin renders their faith doubtful, which

Indeed there can be nothing more unfair, than to take one part of a man's belief, and thence argue against another part, upon which the fift is exprefsly founded. If I thould fay, I am confident I fhall never be drowned in a certain river, because I am refolved never to crofs it at all; would it not be abfurd to reafon thus: here is a inan who hath a perfuafion be will never be drowned in this river; therefore he will be furely very head-ftrong and fool-hardy in fording it when it overflows its banks, which is contrary to the very foundation of my fecurity?

is the very fame thing with putting them in fear concerning their future ftate. Indeed it is not more fure that our Reedemer invites all weary heavy-laden finners to come unto him that they may find reft, than it is that the unrighteous fhall not inherit the kingdom of God. So that every inftance of voluntary fin, muft throw back the believer (at least as to his own fentiments) into his former ftate, till he be again restored by faith and repentance.

From this I think it evidently appears, that the motive of the danger of fin is not weakened, but hath its full force upon those who expect juftification by the imputed righteoufnefs of Chriít. And, if it is not weakened, it must be ftrengthened by this perfuafion, fince, as I have shewn above, none have fo deep a fenfe of the obligation of the law, and the evil of fin, and by confequence none can have fo great a fear of its awful fanction. That this is agreeable to Scripture, might be fhewn at great length, where the putting their right to the favor of God and eternal life more and more beyond all doubt and queftion, is recommended to believers as an object of their care and diligence. Thus fays the apoftle to the Hebrews, " And "we defire that every one of you do fhew the fame diligence, to the full affurance of hope unto the end."* And the apostle Peter, after a long enumeration of the graces of the Chriftian life, fays, "Wherefore the rather, "brethren, give diligence to make your calling and elec"tion fure." Nay, the fear of wrath and of finally perifhing, is represented by the apostle Paul himself, as one view at least, which habitually influenced his own conduct: "But I keep under my body, and bring it into sub"jection, left that by any means when I had preached "to others, I myself fhould be a caft-away."

In the fourth place, Those who expect juftification by the imputed righteoufnefs of Chrift, have the highest fenfe of the purity and holiness of the divine nature; and therefore must be under an habitual conviction of the neceffity of purity, in order to fit them for his prefence and enjoyment. If this doctrine in its main defign, or by any of

*Heb. vi. 11. † 2 Pet. i. 10. † 1 Cor. iz. 27.

its effential parts, had a tendency to reprefent God (I will not fay as delighting in fin,) but as eafy to be pacified towards it, paffing it by with little notice, and punishing it but very flightly, there might be fome pretence for drawing the conclufion complained of from it. For I think it may be allowed as a maxim, that as is the God, so are his worshippers, if they ferve him in earnest. Whatever views they have of the object of their esteem and worship, they will endeavor to form themselves to the fame character. But if, on the contrary, this doctrine preserves the purity of God entire; nay, if it gives us ftill more strong, awful and ftriking views of it; it can never encourage fuch as believe it in the practice of fin.

But that this is the cafe with all fuch as believe and understand the doctrine of juftification by the imputed righteousness of Chrift, may be demonftrated in the clearest manner. It might indeed be fhewn, from a great variety of arguments founded upon the mediation of Chrift: at present I fhall mention but two, the propriety of which, and their relation to the fubject in hand, every one must immediately perceive. In the first place, That Chrift behoved to fuffer by divine appointment for the expiation of fin, is not only equal with, but ftronger than, all other evidences of the purity of God and his abhorrence of fin, It is an event of the most striking and astonishing nature, every reflection upon which overwhelms the mind, that the eternal and only begotten fon of God fhould affume the likeness of finful flefh and ftand in the room of finners: even though the merited punishment had been inflicted upon the offenders themfelves, it would not have been fuch a proof of the purity of God. Here, even when he is inclined to mercy, its exercife is obflructed till juftice is fatisfied. Can any one confider this without being deeply convinced, that he is a God" of purer eyes than to behold iniquity," and with whom unrighteoufnefs can have no communion? Will any, after fuch views, hope for his favor, while they retain the love of fin, or expect to dwell in his prefence, while they continue stained with its pollution. The fame thing muft alfo carry convincing evidence with it, that to fuppof to have bought an impunity