rily perfevere in a lively faith :] If he does them not, his faith is dead; it is not [now a living and] faving · faith; he is no [longer an obedient] believer; [but an antinomian or an apoftate, a Demas or a Judas.]

The xiiith infifts upon that point of doctrine, which confounds the Pharifees in all ages, and lays our virtuous pride in the duft before God: Namely, that, [when we have finned away the juftification + of infants] works done before [that] juftification [is reftored,] before faith alone has put us [again] into a ftate of Linitial] falvation, not only do not fit us to receive grace, but have in themselves the nature of fin, [nay of the worst of fins, fpiritual pride, and pharifaic hypocrify] and confequently deferve death, the wages of fin, fo far [are they] from meriting grace and glory.

This is agreeable to reafon as well as to fcripture; for if, of ourselves, as fays our Church, [i e. before any degree of grace is inftilled into our infant-hearts,

or

(15) † Those who start at every expreffion they are not used to, will ask if our Church admits the juftification of infants. I answer: Undoubtedly, fince her clergy by her direction fay over myriads of infants, "We yield thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, that it has pleafed thee to regenerate this infant with thy boly Spirit, to receive bim for thy own child, &c. And in her catechifm the teaches all children to fay, as foon as they can speak, I heartily thank our heavenly Father, that he hath called me to this fate of falvation. If my objector urges, that our Church puts thofe words only in the mouth of baptized children; I reply: True, because the inftructs no others. But why does fhe admit to baptifm all the children that are born within her pale ? Does the not vindicate her practice in this refpect, by an appeal to our Lord's kind command: "Let little cheldren come unto me, and forbid them not, for of fuch is the kingdom of heaven? This I had not confidered, when I faid in my Appeal, p. 186, that our Church returns thanks for the regeneration of baptized infants only [I should have faid chiefly] upon a charitable fuppofition, &c. For it is evident that she does it allo upon Chrift's gracious declaration, Mark x. 13, &c. the piecious gofpel of her office, upon which the comments in a manner most favourable to children; concluding her charge on the occafion by these words: Wherefore, we being thus perfuaded of the GOOD WILL of our heavenly Father towards this [unbaptized] infant, declared by his Son Jefus Chrift, and nothing doubting, &c. Thefe words I had not attended to, when I wrote my Appeal. I take this first opportunity of acknowledging my mistake, which shall be rectified in the next edition.

or before God freely vifits us again when we have perfonally fallen away from him,] we cannot by our good works [fo called] prepare ourselves to faith: If we are fuch crab trees, as can bring forth no apples, [without the grace of God by Chrift preventing us, that we may have a good will, and working with us when we have that good will, it is plain that] by producing as many crabs, [i. e. as many works of unbelief] as [blafpheming] Paul before his converfion; and of as fine a colour, and as large a fize, as thofe which the felf-righteous Pharifee bore; we cannot change our own nature, nor force from ourselves the sweet fruit of one [truly] good work: Many who have not the 'true faith,' fays our Church, yet flourish in works of mercy. But they that shine in good works [fo called] without faith, are like dead men, who have goodly and precious tombs: Or, to carry on the allegory of our Reformers, the fine crabs which fuch people produce, please the eye of the fpectator, who thinks them good apples; but God, who fees their hearts, taftes in the deceitful fruit nothing but the fournefs of a crab. Such crabs are the alms of whoremongers, the prayers of unjust perfons, the public worship of fwearers and drunkards, the tithes and fafts + of Pharifees. Ifa. i. 11, &c.

Having thus fhewn you, how felf-righteous, unawakened finners dream of falvation, either by the covenant of works, or by a third imaginary covenant, in which two incompatible things [pharifaical] works and [evangelical] grace, [antichriftian] merits and mercy [in Chrift] are jumbled together; and having proved by plain, unanswerable paffages, and by the 39 articles, that the gofpel and our Church fhew us, falvation cannot be attained, but under the fecond covenant, that is, by [obedient] faith only, and not by

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(16) + Here is a short enumeration of the good works, fo called, which I decry in this fermon. Had my opponent confidered it, he would never have supposed, that my difcourfe is "the best refutation" of what I have advanced in the Checks, in favour of the good works maintained by St. James and Mr. Wesley.

[the covenant of] works; I beg leave to recapitulate the whole in three articles, which contain the fum of the gofpel, and of the doctrine that I have conftantly preached among you, and am determined to preach, God being my helper, till my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, † [unless a flaw can be found] in any of them, by the word of God or the articles of our Church.

Upon the proofs before advanced, I folemnly declare and publicly affirm: (1.) That there is no falvation to be attained by [the covenant of] works fince the fall. The best man having broken an hundred times the first covenant, deferves an hundred times damnation by his works, and can no more be saved from hell by his obedience to God's law [of innocence] than a thief can be faved from the gallows, by the civil law which condemns him to be hanged.

(2.) [Refpecting the primary and properly meritorious caufe of our falvation, from first to laft] we are Javed, as it is written in our eleventh article, only for the merit of our Lord Jefus Chrift by faith, and not for our works or defervings: And, that [in the day of converfion] we are justified by faith only, is a mot wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort: Yea the only doctrine that can melt down the heart of finners, and make them conftantly zealous of all forts of good works, [if it is not made to fuperfede the justification of believers by the evidence of works, both in the day of trial and in the day of judgment: A doctrine this, which few antinomians are daring enough directly to oppofe.]

(3-) As

(17) The words enclosed in brackets are in my manuscript, and were written several years ago, when, looking over my fernon, I thought they favoured more of chriftian mcdefty than thofe, which Mr, Hill has in his copy: [And here I give a public challenge to any man living to find a flaw] I challenge no body now, but I promife, that if any man living will be kind enough, to fhew me my errors by plain fcripture, and folid argument, he shall have my fincere thanks. For if I know my heart, pure and unmixt truth is the object of my defires, and controverfial pursuits.

(3.) As all mankind are condemned by the covenant of works, he that believeth not [in the light of his difpenfation] being condemned already: and as by the covenant of grace, there is no falvation to be had but in Chrift thro' faith: fo there is no mixing those two covenants without renouncing Chrift and his gofpel. He that ftands with one foot upon the covenant of works, and with the other foot upon the covenant of grace; [he that talks of divine mercy, while his heart continues as regardless of it as if he were finlefs; he that ends his prayers by the name of Chrift, while he remains unconcerned about his fallen ftate,] is in the moft eminent danger of eternal rain. He that fays, "I will do first what I can to merit heaven, "I will do my beft; and Chrift, I hope, will do the "reft; and God, I trust, will have mercy upon me," is yet without [a known] God, and without [an applied] Chrift in the world: he knows neither the nature of God's law, nor that of Chrift's gospel.

[This is, my dear hearers, the fubftance of the three articles, which, eleven years ago I publicly laid down in this Church, as the ground of the doctrine which I had preached, ând was determined ftill to preach among you. And I folemnly declare, that, to this day, I have not feen the leaft caufe to reject any one of them as erroneous: Tho' I muft confefs, that I have found abundant reafon particularly to guard the fecond, against the daring attacks, that antinomians in principle, or in practice, make upon St. James's undefiled religion. To return:]

We are undoubtedly obliged to do what we can, and to ufe the means of grace at all [proper] times and in all [convenient] places; but, to reft in thofe means [like the Pharifees;] to fuppofe that they will fave us; and, upon this fuppofition, to be eafy without the experience of [converting] grace in our hearts, is very abfurd. It is a miftake as foolish as that of the man, who fuppofes that his garden will be the more fruitful for pipes, which convey no water; or that his body can be refreshed by empty cups.

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The language of a penitent finner is, Lord, "I pray, and hear [thy word ;] I faft, and receive "[the commemorative tokens of thy paffion ;] I give "alms, and keep the fabbath; but after all, I am an unprofitable fervant. — [I must work out my own falvation with fear and trembling, and yet] without "thee I can do nothing; I cannot change my heart; "I cannot root up from my breaft the defire of praise, "the thirst of pleafure, and the hankering after gold, vanity, beauty, or fenfual gratifications which I continually feel:- [Without thee] I cannot force 66 my ftubborn heart to repent, believe, and love; to "be meek and lowly, calm and devout. Lord deliver me from this body of death; Lord, fave or I "perish."

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Chrift will have all the glory [worthy of him] or none. We must be + wholly faved by him, or loft for ever [for altho' we must be co-workers with him, by walking religiously in good works; and if we are not, we fhall have our portion with the workers of iniquity; yet it is he that worketh in us, as in moral agents, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. It is he that appoints, and bleffes all the inferior means of our falvation, therefore all the glory properly and originally belongs to him alone.]

[All our pardons flow down to us, in the ftreams of his precious blood. All our life, light, and power, are nothing but emanations from him, who is the fountain of life, the fun of righteousness, the wisdom and power of God, and in a word, Jehovah our righteousnefs. All that gracious rewardableness of the works of faith, all that aptitude of our sprinkled obedience unto eternal life, all that being worthy, which he himself condefcends to speak of, Rev. iii. 4, and Luke xx. 35, fpring not only from his gracious appointment, but from his overflowing merits. A comparison will illuftrate my meaning.]

You

(18) See the first note upon the word merely.-N. B. Here begins the greatest addition to my old fermon. It is in favour of free gace, and runs thro' fourteen paragraphs.