O how will you reconcile this conduct, I shall not fay to christianity, but to good manners, good fenfe, or even to heathen honesty!

In the second clafs of good works, divines place works of justice and] charity; and thefe are of two forts, fuch as are done to the bodies, and fuch as are done to the fouls of men. The former are [for the most part] enumerated by our Lord, Mat. xxv. They confift [in being true and juft in all our dealings; in providing things honeft in the fight of all men, for us and ours; in paying our just debts as foon as poffible, in protecting widows and fatherless children, in giving food to the hungry and drink to the thirty; in entertaining strangers, eafing the oppreffed, clothing the naked, attending the fick, vifiting the prifoners, [and burying the dead, from fcriptural and not from pharifaical motives.]

Now will any one, who fcruples + [advancing an untruth, dare affirm, that I ever fpoke a word against doing any one of these good works?-Against doing them [at improper times, from bad motives,] in a wrong manner, and to wrong ends, I have often fpoken; and fo have all the preachers, who do not daub the wall with untempered mortar: Chrift first, Mat. vi. 2. St. Paul next, 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 2, 3. and our Church fter them; fee the Homily on Fafting. But I afk it again, whoever heard me fpeak one word against doing them? On the contrary, have I not declared again and again, that even a cup of cold water, given in Chrift's name, fhould in no wise lose its reward-fhould certainly be rewarded in eternal life, [if not with eternal-life; [And do not some of

(28) † Eleven years ago I faid [forging a lie.]

you

(29) Formerly I wrote [altho' not with eternal life.] The expreffion was perhaps too peremptory. A man may be fo circumstanced in the fultry deferts of Arabia, that a cup of cold water may be of more real value to him than a diadem, and of equal worth with bis own life. Now if he lovingly gives that cup to a difciple of Jefus, or even to his heathen enemy, for his Redeemer's or Creator's fake; I

dare

you know, that within these two Years, I have loft many of my religious friends, by making a ftand for the evangelical worthiness of the works of faith?]

As for works of mercy done to the fouls of men, fuch as [giving a chriftian education to our children and apprentices,] comforting the afflicted, encouraging the dejected, ftrengthening the weak, exhorting the careless, fuccouring the tempted, inftructing the ignorant, [fympathizing with mourners] warning the ftubborn, [detecting hypocrify] reproving fin, topping immorality, rebuking profanenefs, and helping each other in the narrow way; it is known to many, that my name is caft out as evil by fabbath-breakers, fwearers, and drunkards, for endeavouring to walk in thefe good works myfelf, and to make others walk in them.

And yet you, I ftill addrefs myfelf to the inveterate enemies of falvation by faith,] you, who poffibly ridicule all thofe good works, and dream of being faved without them; you, who do perhaps juft the reverfe of them, ftrengthening one another's hands in licentioufnefs and prophaneness, in fabbathbreaking, fwearing, or fcoffing at every thing that looks like ferioufnefs; you accufe me of defpifing or discountenancing good works!-O tell it not in Gath, publish it not in Afkelon, left the very Philiftines laugh at the glaring inconfiftency of your words and conduct. Good

dare not say, that fuch a work of faith, fuch an act of brotherly love, may not be rewarded with eternal life. Jefus Chrift and Dr. Owen make me rather think to the contrary: For the former fays, Whofaever fhall lefe, or fhall venture to lose his life for my fake, and the gofpel's, [which, if I mistake not, implies, among other particulars, Łazarding our life for fteadily adhering to the gofpel-precept, that enjoins us to love our neighbour as ourfelves, and to give drink to a thirsty enemy:] ball fave it.-Verily I fay unto you, There is NO man that has left boufe, &c. or lands for my fake and the gofpel's, but he shall receive an hundred-fold nowo and in the world to come ETERNAL LIFE. As for the champion of the Calvinifts, he is at once fo orthodox and fo honeft as to confefs, that thro' God's gracious appointment, the whole [and confequently every genuine part] of our obedience, bas a REWARDABLE condecency unto ETERNAL LIFE, But mole of this in the following Effay,

Good works of the third clafs, relate to keeping under the flesh, and all its finful appetites. The chief of thefe works, are a moderate ufe of meat, drink, and fleep; felf-denial, [in apparel, furniture, and equipage;] chastity [in all its branches; fabduing our flothful, rebellious flesh by] early rifing, abftinence, fafting; [and, in a word, by taking up our daily cross, and following our abftemious, and yet laborious Lord.]

[Permit me to do as St. Paul to speak as it were foolishly in this confidence of boafting.] Have I not enforced the neceffity of thefe good works both publickly and from house to houfe? Have you not fometimes even gone away from this place of worship, fecretly difpleafed at my infifting fo much upon them; complaining perhaps, "that I went too far, or that no body could live up to what I preach ;" and making a hundred fuch remarks, inftead of meditating upon thefe words of our Lord: With man indeed it is impoffible, but with God all things are possible? And yet you now complain that I do not preach up good works Pray, my brethren, be confiftent; keep to one point, and do not fay and unfay': I can. no more be too strict, and yet make too little of good works; than I can go eaft and weft at the fame time. Only think.... and you will perceive that your very complaints juftify me, that your fayings overturn one another, and that your own mouths prove you perverfe.

You will probably fay, Have we not heard you affirm more than once, that no body can be faved by his works: yea, that a man inay go as conftantly to church, as the † pharifee did to the temple, be as virtuous as he was, pay tithes as exactly as he did, and be damned after all? Can you deny my having preached this doctrine twenty times ???

Deny it! By no means. It is a doctrine for which, God being my helper, I am ready to go to the

1

ftake.

(30) † From this objection it is evident, that the works which I decryed cleven years ago, were thofe against which I now bear my teftimony, namely pharifaical works.

ftake. It is the very doctrine, that I have established in the former part of this difcourfe: How then can I deny it?

Here methinks a † pharifee replies in triumph: "Well then, you plead guilty to the charge: you confefs that you have preached twenty times against good works."

[I deny the conclufion.] Have you not underftanding [or attention] enough to fee, there is a vast difference between preaching against the [proper] merit of good works, and preaching against good works themselves? Between saying, that obedience to the king will never get us the crown of Great Britain, and affirming that we owe the king no obedience? In a word, between saying that good works will never procure us heaven, [as the primary and ftrictly speaking meritorious caufe of our falvation] and declaring that we ought not to do good works? Surely your rational faculties are not fo impaired, but you may perceive, thofe propofitions are by no means of the fame import.

If I fay, that eating will never make me immortal, that drinking will never turn me into an angel, and that doing my work will never take me to the third heaven; do I fo much as hint that eating is useless, drinking of no service, and doing my bufinefs unprofitable? O how does prejudice blind even men of reafon and religion! How hardly does truth go down with us, when we do not love it! How gladly do we drefs it up in a fool's coat, that we may have fome pretence to defpife and reject it!

If you would fpeak according to frit truth, my brethren, you would not fay that I preach against good works, that I run down good works, &c." which

H

See the foregoing Note.

is

When I was younger by eleven years I faid, [You are a poor logician.] (31) It appears to me, that my fermon, far from being "the beft confutation of the minutes," is confonant to that propofition, which has given fuch offence: Not by the merit of works, but by works as a condition,

is [a mistake t] as I fhewed juft now: but you would fay, that I preach against the [proper] merit of good works in point of falvation: This is very true, so I do, and fo I am determined to do, by God's grace, as long as I live. So did Chrift and his apoftles; fo do our articles and homilies; and fo the children of God have done in all ages. Thofe of the old teftament § [far from mentioning any proper merit of their own, cried out: Now mine eye feeth thee, I abhor myself, and Wo is me for I repent in duft and afhes, Job xlii. 5.am undone, because I am by nature, and have been by practice, a man of unclean lips. If. vi. 5.] Thofe of the new, prayed to be found in Chrift, not having their own [pharifaic] righteousness which is by the law of works, but the [evangelical] righteousness which is by faith in Jefus Chrift, Phil. iii. 9: And thofe of our Church profefs, that They are not worthy to gather the crumbs under the Lord's table, and that they do not come to it, trufting in their own righteousness, or good works, but in God's manifold and great mercies thro' Jefus Chrift: fo far are they from thinking, that they [properly] merit falvation [either in whole or in part.] See Com. Service.

Yea, I declare it as upon the house-top, of all the falfe doctrines that ever came out of the pit of hell, none has done fuch execution for Satan in the church of God [as the pharifaic conceit that we have, or may have any proper, original merit.] Stealing, drunkenness, and adultery have flain their thousands ; but this damnable error, which is the very root of unbelief,

+ [Entirely falfe] is the blunt expreffion, I used eleven years ago. Turn back to Note 31.

(32) § Inftead of this addition, eleven years ago I said [owned that all their righteoufnesses were as filthy rags, If. lxiv. 6. For leaning then too much towards calvinism, I fuppofed that the prophet in this paffage spoke of the righteousnesses of faith: but fince I have dared to read my bible without prejudice, and to confult the context, I have found, that text is fpoken only of the hypocritical righteousnesses of the wicked; and in the IVth Check, p. 114, I have tried to rescue it from the hands of the antinomians, who had taught me to wreft it from its proper meaning.