deem them from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

Nor are they neceffary to the application of falvation by the Spirit of God in effectual calling, neither as causes or conditions, or as the antecedent to the confequent; they can be no moving caufes to it, nor do they come into confideration in the divine mind, as the reafon or condition of it; they are not the rule and measure of God's proceedure in this affair; he faves and calls with an boly calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace'. Befides, before regeneration, before effectual vocation, before a principle of grace is wrought in the foul, before the new-creation-work is formed, which is the initial part of falvation, or that branch of it which God's elect are firft actually made partakers of in their own perfons, there are properly speaking no good work's done by them, or can be done by them; and therefore cannot possibly be antecedent to falvation viewed in this light, but must be consequent to it: We are bis workmanship, created in Chrift Jefus unto good works. Nor, laftly, are they neceffary to the confummate enjoyment of salvation in heaven, no, not as the antecedent to the confequent; that is, as an antecedent caufe to a confequent effect, which is the eafy, common, and natural fenfe of the phrafe; for who can hear of an antecedent to a confequent, unless by way of illation, but must at once conceive of that confequent as an effect depending upon the antecedent Wherefore if good works are antecedent to glorification as a confequent, then glorification must be, and will be confidered as an effect depending upon good works as its caufe.

And as it will be difficult to fix any other sense upon the phrase, and perfons are and will be naturally led fo to conceive of it, this, and this alone, is a fufficient reason why it ought to be rejected and difufed. This man himself will not say that good works are neceffary as antecedent causes, or as antecedent conditions of falvation or glorification: Let him then tell us in what sense they are neceffary, as the antecedent to the confequent. His performance is An addrefs to young ftudents in divinity, and he takes upon him to be a tutor and director of them in their studies; but leaves them in the dark, and does not offer to inform them in what sense good works are neceffary, as the antecedent to the confequent. Will he fay they are neceffary as antecedent means of falvation? This is all one as to say they are neceffary as antecedent causes, for every mean is a caufe of that of which it is a mean. Will he affert that they are neceffary, as an antecedent meetnefs or fitnefs for heaven? This must be denied. How can our poor, impure and imperfect works, our righteousnesses, which are as filthy rags, make us meet and fit for the heavenly glory? No, it • Ephes. ii. 10.

s Titus ii. 14.

2 Tim. i. 9.

is

is not works of righteousness done by us, but the Spirit's work of grace within us, which will be performed until the day of Chrift, which is the faints meetnefs for eternal happiness. Will he fay that good works are fuch neceffary antecedents to falvation, though he does not choose to say or cannot fay what, as that falvationn cannot poffibly be enjoyed where they do not go before? I have, in my letter to him, given inftances to the contrary; proving that falvation is, where good works do not go before; as in the cafe of elect infants, and of perfons called by grace in their last hours, when just ready to launch into eternity.

If this doctrine is true, that good works are fo abfolutely neceffary to falvation, that there can be no poffibility of any, where they do not go before; what an horrible scene muft this open to parents of children, who lose by death many, or moft or all of them in their infancy? fince, upon this principle, they must for ever despair of their eternal happiness. One fhould think that fuch a man as this I am concerned with, would have took care to put in a faving clause in favour of infants, especially when fuggefted to him; who fuppofes that all the infants of believers are interested in the covenant of grace, and confequently must be faved, at least those who die in their infancy; and if saved, they must be faved without good works, which they neither do, nor are capable of doing. Marefius, I obferve, when treating of the neceffity of doing good works, for fuch ends and uses as have been already mentioned, and which nobody denies, - adds ; "But this neceffity is to be reftrained to adult believers, who are able to "perform outward good works; for the infants of believers are faved without them (even as they were finners without any properly perfonal act of their own) though not without an inclination to them, by the grace and spirit of rege"neration." Moreover, upon this principle, what hope can furviving relations entertain of their adult deceased friends; who though they havea ppeared to have had full convictions of their loft and miferable ftate by nature, clear views of the exceeding finfulness of fin, an abhorrence of it, and repentance for it; to have seen the infufficiency of any works of the creature to justify before God, and render acceptable to him; the neceffity of falvation alone by Christ; and to express some degree of faith in him, and hope of the heavenly inheritance; yet because they have not lived a regular life in time of health, have not gone through a course of good works, have not lived foberly, righteously and godly in this prefent world, must be therefore everlastingly banished from the realms of

66

↑ Hæc vero neceffitas reftringenda eft ad fideles adultos, qui bona opera externa præftare possunt; infantes enim fidelium abfque illis fervantur (ut fine fuo ullo actu proprie perfonali erant peccatores) & fi non abfque inclinatione ad illa per gratiam & fpiritum regenerationis. Maref, Colleg. Theolog. loc. 12. S. 12. p. 315.

light? What comfort can a man of this principle be a means of adminiftering? or what comfortable words can he fpeak to a poor creature become truly fenfible of fin, and his loft eftate, of his need of Chrift, and falvation by him, on a death-bed? Can he, though he is fatisfied he has a true and thorough fenfe of things, encourage him to believe in Chrift, and hope in him for everlasting life and falvation? No, he cannot; he must be obliged to tell him that it is too late to think or talk of thefe things, there is no hope for him; for fince he has lived a vicious life, hell must be his portion; for where good works, a religious life and converfation, do not go before, there can be no confequent happiness. Whereas, on the other hand, according to our principle, parents may hope for the falvation of their infants that die in infancy; there is at least a poffibility of it, whereas there is none in the other fcheme; furviving relatives may rejoice, in hope of their deceased friends being gone to glory, who they have reason to believe have been called by grace, though at the laft hour; minifters and others are capable of speaking words of peace and confolation to diftreffed minds, whose hearts are pricked and and become contrite on their dying beds: All which is a full confutation of what this writer afferts ", that "it is abfolutely impoffible "that it" (this tenet, that good works are not neceffary to falvation) "fhould "do good to any perfon whatfoever." I readily own, that good works are neceffary to be performed by all that are walking in the way to heaven, and expect to be faved by Chrift, and glorified with him, who are either capable, or have an opportunity of performing them, but then they are not neceffary as caufes, conditions, or means of procuring glory and happiness for them; nor are they neceffary as the antecedent to the confequent, to pave their way to heaven, to prepare and make them meet for it; or to put them into the poffeffion of it: they do not go before in any such sense, or for any fuch use; they follow after: Bleffed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, faith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them”.

It is faid, that it cannot poffibly be for the advantage of a faint or a finner, to be told that good works are in no fenfe neceffary to falvation, not as the antecedent to the confequent; and that it may do a great deal of harm and mifchief to the one and the other. I have already fhewn it may be for the advantage, ufe, peace, and comfort of poor fenfible finners on their death-beds, and of furviving faints: Nor do I fee what harm or mischief it can do to faints, lively or declining ones, or to profane finners; not to lively judicious chriftians, who are taught and encouraged by this doctrine to continue zealous of good works, and diligently to perform them, for many valuable, neceffary ufes, though

though not in order to falvation. What, will no motive induce a lively chriftian to do good works, but what is taken and urged from the neceffity of them unto falvation? Or can he be a judicious one, that acts from such a principle? Cannot a declining chriftian be induced to do his first works, unless he is told they are abfolutely neceffary to his falvation? Cannot it be thought that arguments, taken from the command and will of God, from the glory of God, the honour of Christ, religion and truth, a man's own and his neighbour's good, demonftrating the neceffity of doing good works, may be made ufe of as means to quicken his diligence, to caft off his fpiritual floth and carnal fecurity, without infifting upon the neceffity of them to falvation? Nor can it tend to harden finners in fin, or put them upon running into greater tranfgreffions, or induce them to harbour fuch a conceit, that they may get to heaven, let them live as they pleafe; when they are told, that though good works cannot fave them, their evil works may damn them, or be the cause of damnation to them.

As for the texts of fcripture produced by this writer, they are all of them impertinently alledged, and none of them at all to the purpose. Some of them do not relate to good works, but to internal holiness, the fanctification of the Spirit, as 2 Thefs. ii. 13, 14. Heb. xii. 14. which is that grace God chufes his people to, in order to their enjoyment of glory; and without which, and that as perfect, for so it will be made by the Spirit of God, they cannot fee or enjoy the Lord; and therefore it becomes them, by conftant application at the throne of grace, to follow after a daily increase of it, and by their lives and converfations to evidence the truth and reality of it. Others only express the neceffity of doing good works to teftify the truth of faith, or contain motives in them to the performance of them; taken partly from the grace of God beftowed upon the faints here, and from the confideration of that happiness and glory they shall enjoy hereafter, as the fruits of grace, and not as the fruits and confequents of their works; as James ii. 17, &c. 2 Peter iii. 10-14. Jude 20, 21. 1 John iii. 1-3. And it is easy to obferve, that the whole current of fcripture, and especially the Epiftles, run this way, to exclude works entirely from having any hand or concern in the juftification and falvation of men. The paffage out of Clement, I fuppofe, is chiefly produced to grace his margin with a large citation in Greek; fince: it only fets forth the duty of thofe to perform good works, who would be found among the number of fuch who wait for God, and defire to partake of his promifed gifts for certain it is, that Clement did not think that good works were neceffary to justification or glorification; feeing he expressly excludes them from either, when he fays, "All are glorified and magnified, not by themselves,

or

* Παντες ων εδοξαπασαν και εμεγαλύνθησαν, ο δι αυτών, ο των έργων αυτών, η της δικοπραγίας της

κατεις γασαντο,

or by their works or righteous actions which they have done, but by his own "will: So we alto, being called by his will in Chrift Jesus, are justified; not by ourselves, nor by our wisdom, or understanding, or piety, or works, which "we have done in holiness of heart; but by that faith, by which the Almighty "God hath juftified all from the beginning, to whom be glory for ever and " ever. Amen."

We are next entertained with the rise and original of this tenet, that "good "works are not neceffary to falvation." And it seems, according to our learned author", that Simon Magus was the first broacher of it: And we are exposed as his difciples and followers; and fome pains are taken to tell an idle, filthy ftory, of Simon's picking up a whore in a baudy-house at Tyre, and committing fornication with her; no doubt with a view to infinuate to his readers, that our principles being alike, our practice must be fo too; or, at least, that our principles have the fame tendency. But if it should appear that Simon's tenets and ours are not the fame, what will become of this little fhow of reading, and the mean artifice made ufe of to expofe us to fcorn and contempt? As for Simon's faying that falvation is by grace, and not by works, this was a doctrine he had from the apostles themselves; which he turned into wantonness, and abused to vile purposes; and is in itself never the worse, nor is it to be thought the worse of, for his ill use of it: And as for the inference made from this doctrine, that therefore good works are not neceffary; this is none of ours, we disclaim it; there is no agreement between Simon's tenet and ours, about good works; he urged they were not neceffary to be done, we plead for the neceffity of doing them, for the ends before mentioned, and which need not be repeated. Simon, Carpocrates, and their followers, who are represented as being in the fame fentiments, held that every thing, befides faith and love, were things indifferent, neither good nor bad in their own nature, and fo might be done or omitted. But can this man, with any face or confcience, fay that thefe are our sentiments? We affirm that good works are in themselves good, cannot be dif pensed with, but ought to be performed by all men; the tenet of these men was, that good works were not neceffary at all in any fenfe, not neceffary to be done. Where is the likeness, the agreement?

Give me leave, on this occafion, to inquire into the rife and original, and to point out the authors, abetters, and maintainers of the contrary tenet, that good works are neceffary to falvation. The falfe apoftles in Judea, and other judaizing

καλειςγάσαντο, αλλά δια το θεληματα αυτό και ημείς εν δια θεληματα. αυτε εν Xess Ιησε κληθεν τες, ο δι εαυτων δικλέμεθα, εδε δια της η μητέρας σοφίας, η συνέσεως, η ευσέβειας, η εργων ων καλειςγασάμεθα εν οσικλητι καρδίας, αλλά δια της πίσεως, δι ης πάντας της απ' αιώνα, ο παντοκράτως θεα εδικίωσεν, ω εσωδοξα εις τας αιώνας των αιώνων. Any. Clement. Rom. ad Corinth. epift. 1. p. 72. Ed. Oxon. z Address, &c. p. 11.