as well as by the declaration of our Saviour

with refpect to thofe, who pretend to spiritual gifts, that " by their fruits we fhall know

Nor fhall we fuffer ourselves, on the authority of a few texts of doubtful or erroneous interpretation, to be feduced into the Moravian and Methodistical tenets, that a true Chriftian has a fenfible and certain affurance of falvation, and is incapable of fin; of to adopt the doctrine of the Antinomian, that God fees no fin in believers; while we bear in mind the clear admonition of St. Paul, "Let "him that thinketh he ftandeth, take heed “left he fall";" and the no lefs intelligible and univerfal confeffion of St. John, . If we fay "that we have no fin, we deceive ourfelves, "and the truth is not in us"."

7. A farther rule, which I would propose to affift us in our interpretation of Scripture, unlefs indeed it be confidered as a fpecial modification of one of the foregoing, is, that where the fame term is employed at different times and under different circumftances, we ought not to be fatisfied with one independent defcription, but should compare and combine them together.

It is in pursuance of this principle that we

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Matt. vii. 20.

1 Cor. x. 12.

1 Johni. 8.

believe in three perfons united in one Godhead; and in the union of the divine and human natures in the person of Chrift. And it was from a difregard of this principle, that Noetus afferted, that the Father had united himself with the man Chrift, and was born and crucified with him; and that Sabellius pretended that there was no difference between the perfons of the Trinity, but that they were all one perfon under three namesP: that Neftorius divided Chrift into two perfons; and Eutyches confounded in his perfon his two natures: that Arius denied him to be truly God; and Apollinaris affirmed, that he was not really man.

I would apply this principle to the much controverted question of justification. "We "conclude," fays St. Paul," that a man is

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juttified by faith, without the deeds of the "law"." And again, "Knowing that a man "is not juftified by the works of the law, but

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by the faith of Jefus Chrift." On thefe, and fome fimilar texts, the Solifidian faftens: he overlooks, or defpifes, the teftimony of another Apoftle, who affirms that " by works a

P. Mofheim, Cent. iii. part ii. chap. 5.

4 See Bishop Horne's Sermon on the Word Incarnate, Difc. vol. i. p. 205. Mofheim, Cent. v. part ii. chap. v. and Cent. iv. part ii. chap. v.

Rom. iii. 28.

$ Gal. ii. 16.

man is juftified, and not by faith only'; and who thrice within a few fentences pronounces, that "faith without works is dead"," he treats the epiftle, wherein this testimony occurs, and which appears intended to obviate the falfe conclufions likely to be drawn from St. Paul's words, as what Luther once lamented that he had called it, an epiftle of ftraw: he goes fo far perhaps, as to accufe the divinely inspired author "of falfe teftimony, "of lying, of contradicting the Holy Spirit, "the Law, the Prophets, Chrift, and all the Apostles," and fo he perfifts in an unreferved and unqualified affirmation, that we are juftified by faith alone.

Now as the epiftle of St. James, not lefs than those of his brother in the Apostleship, forms part of the facred canon; furely it would be both fafer and more becoming, inftead of confining ourselves to the testimony

James ii. 24.

"Ibid. 17, 20, 26.

* Imo repertus eft non nemo, qui eo audaciæ atque adeo impietatis proceffit, ut in Authorem ejus epiftolæ, cui Jacobi nomen inscribitur, calamum liberius ftrinxerit, eumque falfitatis ac mendacii arguerit. Is fuit Althamerus, qui (citante Grotio) in Scriptorem, non modo innoxium, fed et divinum hæc verba indignabundus effudit. Directe (inquit) in Scripturam agit; citat Scripturas falfo; et folus Spiritui fancto, Legi, Prophétis, Chrifto, Apoftolifque omnibus contradicit. Bulli Harm. Apoft. Introd. fect. 3.

of one alone, to compare and combine the declarations of both Apoftles, as conftituting consistent portions of the fame holy revelation. And the refult of fuch a comparison would probably be a conviction, that there is no inconfiftency in the pofitions of the two facred writers; but that "faith," in St. James's acceptation, fignifies an inactive belief in the truths of the Gofpel, not producing holiness of life, and, in St. Paul's, faith in Chrift comprehending Christian holiness; that "by works," St. James intends a religious and charitable, that is a Christian, life; and St. Paul, the performances of a man in his natural ftate, or a compliance with the outward ordinances, and fometimes with the moral obligations, of the Mofaic law: and that the position is accordingly true in one sense, but not in another, as that is true of Chrift in his human nature, which is not true of him in his divine.

Election too, that other Shibboleth of a party, has two diftinct fcriptural fignifications, analogous to thofe borne by " the kingdom of "heaven." As the kingdom of heaven fome times fignifies the whole body of profeffed Chriftians in this world, and fometimes" the affem

bly of juft men made perfect" in another; fo by the elect are intended fometimes all thofe perfons, who are in covenant with God, and profefs his religion, as all the people of the

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Jews under the old dispensation, and all Chrif tians under the new; fometimes they alone are intended, who give all diligence to make their lives agreeable to the doctrine, which they profefs, and are chofen by God to eternal life on a forefight of their faith and obedience. However plainly the doctrine of God's election being abfolute and unconditional may be afferted in the former fignification of the term; the Scriptures give no fanction to the doctrine, if applied to the latter.

8. These interpretations will be confirmed by the application of another rule; namely, that we give diligent attention to the design and scope of the compofition, which we are examining; instead of fixing upon it an arbitrary conftruction, foreign perhaps from the object of the author, and perhaps alfo incompatible with his principles. "It is a general

"and uncontefted rule," as Archbishop Sharp remarks, "in the interpreting of Scripture and "all other writings, that the fcope of the au"thor and the fubject matter of his difcourfe ❝ is to fix and limit the fenfe of all his propo"fitions; fo that though a propofition be feem

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ingly univerfal, yet it is to be extended no "farther than the fubject matter that is treat✩ ✩ "ed about"."

* Archbishop Sharp's Works, vol. iv, p. 274.