Whatever unsatisfactoriness may appear to attach to our arguments for the necessity of obedience, both immediately and continually after the profession of a true faith; it cannot, I think, be for a moment disputed, that the belief in such effects of faith would be a safe supposition. Now, it would be agreeable to my purpose of proposing a scheme of safety, and would increase the force of my main argument, were it admitted that a state of faith which justifies is properly identified with a state of conversion. No doubt of their identity exists in my own mind. But the proof of the coincidence would be extensive and intricate, and probably, to many minds, unsatisfactory; and we can establish a right to associate the ideas of conversion and justifying faith, upon a much more simple, and apparently more immoveable principle. Though it were not demonstrable that conversion and justifying faith are convertible terms, yet it is unquestionably safe to consider that the justified are converted. For if conversion is not completed at the time that faith has attained the point to which justification is annexed by the divine mercy; then conversion must either have taken place before justification, or will follow the faith in that annexation. Now were conversion to precede justification, we must necessarily suppose, for safety, that a man must be converted in order to be justified. But, on the contrary, supposing that conversion is a state of advancement upon justification, then, by combining the two conditions, and attributing to justification all the privileges and accidents of conversion, we only make it more comprehensive than is necessary, and therefore err-but on the side of safety. For these reasons, I shall in the following part of my work-not that any essential argument indeed depends upon it—regard the state of conversion and justification as one and the same. To prevent most important misconceptions, it will be useful to remark, that justification for sins committed after conversion is not to be obtained by obedience alone, but solely by that renewal of a lively faith in Christ as our propitiation which disposes us to fresh obedience. Justification is always by faith. Repentance and obedience make no compensation for our misdeeds. Our disobedience can be expiated only by Christ. This expiation is to be received through faith in his atoning merits. Also it must be understood, that imperfect holiness requires for acceptance a propitiatory influence with God of the same and only Mediator. CHAPTER III. Inquiry into an amount of Obedience sufficient, as far as Obedience goes, for a state of Justification or Conversion. SOME obedience is inseparable from a converted state. I proceed in this and the following chapter, to ascertain that amount of it to which we may attach the idea of sufficiency. It Nothing less, then, in the first place, than a renunciation of every known sin will satisfy the divine demands. We must keep all the laws of God with which we are acquainted. The proofs of this truth are various. St. James instructs us that "whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." cannot be imagined, that he whose guilt is of such magnitude that he may be pronounced a violator of all the laws of God, can be one whose obedience is that which accompanies a state of justification. There is one place in the Old Testament, where God has described repentance, which is a part at least of conversion, in terms so * James ii. 10. plain, as far as regards obedience to the law, that it cannot be misunderstood. His object is expressly to explain the nature of his dealings, in vindication of himself, against the murmuring of malcontents. And this is one of the principles which he declares that he acts upon. "If the wicked will turn from all his sins, that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die."* Now, it must be an error to imagine that any persons who would not turn from all their sins, and keep all God's statutes, were to be considered as penitents, because such a supposition would imply that God had not explained the principles of his dispensations, which is contrary to the professed intention, and therefore, as we must suppose, to the fact. Strongly corroborative of the same doctrine is the declaration of Christ, in his sermon on the Mount. "Whosoever shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven." + Another confirmation of the truth occurs in the conversation of Christ and the rich young man, preserved in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. He was deficient in only one duty. He wanted a disposition to surrender himself and his possessions to the will of his Saviour. He went + Matt. v. 19. Ezek. xviii. 21. away from Christ sorrowful, in consequence of his love of riches.* One thing was sufficient to part them. The language of the Psalmist seems to convey the same lesson: "So shall I not be confounded when I have respect unto all thy commandments." In concurrence with these testimonies, it is extremely worthy of observation, that in certain passages, revealing the exclusion of sinners from the kingdom of heaven, they or their sins are named disjunctively. A sin of one or of another kind, if they were unconverted from it, was enough to bar the gate of heaven against them. It is written, besides, that we cannot serve two masters; and, certainly, in establishing the doctrine which we at this moment defend, Scripture is supported by our reason. It is evidently absurd to imagine that we can be converted to Christ while there is one commandment which we will not keep. In this case we are drawn in two contrary directions-in one, by the voice of God to obey him; in the other, by the force of our own natural inclinations, to disobey. We follow whither our inclinations lead. We turn from God, not to him; that is, we are not converted to him. I have said, that in order to have a justifying * Mark x. 21, 22. 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10; Eph. v. 5. + Psalm cxix. 6. § Matt. vi. 24. E |