pear, that there is no one doctrine in the whole Bible more fully asserted, explained and urged, than the doctrine of justi fication by faith alone, without any of our own righteousness.

3. There is a very fair interpretation of this passage of St. James, that is no way inconsistent with this doctrine of justi fication, which I have shown that other scriptures do so abundantly teach, which interpretation the words themselves will as well allow of, as that which the objectors put upon them, and much better agrees with the context; and that is, that works are here spoken of as justifying as evidences. A man may be said to be justified by that which clears him, or vindicates him, or makes the goodness of his cause manifest. When a person has a cause tried in a civil court, and is justifified or cleared, he may be said in different senses to be cleared, by the goodness of his cause, and by the goodness of the evidences of it. He may be said to be cleared by what evidences his cause to be good. That which renders his cause good, is the proper ground of his justification; it is by that that he is himself a proper subject of it; but evidences justify, only as they manifest that his cause is good in fact, whether they are of such a nature as to have any influence to render it so or no. It is by works that our cause appears to be good; but by faith our cause not only appears to be good, but becomes good; because thereby we are united to Christ. That the word justify should be sometimes understood to signify the former of these, as well as the latter, is agreeable to the use of the word in common speech; as we say such an one stood up to justify another, i. e. he endeavored to shew or manifest his cause to be good. And it is certain that the word is sometimes used in this sense in scripture when speaking of our being justified before God; as where it is said, we shall be justified by our words, Matth. xii. 39. "For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." It cannot be meant that men are accepted before God on the account of their words; for God has told us nothing more plainly, than that it is the heart that he looks at; and that when he acts as judge towards men, in order to justifying or condemning, he tries the

heart, Jer. xi. 20. "But O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause." Psalm vii. 8, 9. "The Lord shall judge the people: Judge me O Lord, according to my righteousness, and according to mine integrity that is in me. O let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just; for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins." Verse 11. "God judgeth the righteous." And many other places to the like purpose. And therefore men can be justified by

their words, no otherwise than as evidences or manifestations of what is in the heart. And it is thus that Christ speaks of the words in this very place, as is evident by the context, verse 34. 35. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart," &c. The words, or sounds themselves, are neither parts of godliness, nor evidences of godliness, but as signs of what is inward.

God himself, when he acts towards men as judge, in order to a declarative judgment, makes use of evidences, and so judges men by their works. And therefore, at the day of judgment, God will judge men according to their works: For though God will stand in no need of evidence to inform him what is right, yet it is to be considered, that he will then sit in judgment, not as earthly judges do, to find out what is right in a cause, but to declare and manifest what is right; and therefore that day is called by the apostle," the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God," Rom. ii. 5.

To be justified, is to be approved and accepted: But a man may be said to be approved and accepted in two respects; the one is to be approved really and the other to be approved and accepted declaratively. Justification is twofold ; it is either the acceptance and approbation of the judge itself, or the manifestation of that approbation, by a sentence or judgment declared by the judge, either to our own consciences, or to the world. If justification be understood in the former sense, for the approbation itself, that is only that by which we become fit to be approved: But if it be understood

in the latter sense, for the manifestation of this approbation, it is by whatever is a proper evidence of that fitness. In the former, faith only is concerned; because it is by that only in us that we become fit to be accepted and approved: In the latter, whatever is an evidence of our fitness, is alike concerned. And therefore, take justification in this sense, and then faith, and all other graces and good works have a common and equal concern in it: For any other grace, or holy act, is equally an evidence of a qualification for acceptance or approbation, as faith. To justify has always, in common speech, signified indifferently, either simply approbation, or testifying that approbation; sometimes one, and sometimes the other: And that because they are both the same, only as one is outwardly what the other is inwardly. So we, and it may be all nations, are wont to give the same names to two things, when one is only declarative of the other. Thus sometimes judging intends only judging in our thoughts; at other times, testifying and declaring judgment. So such words as justify, condemn, accept, reject, prize, slight, approve, renounce, are sometimes put for mental acts, at other times, for an outward treatment. So in the sense in which the Apostle James seems to use the word justify for manifestative justification, a man is justified not only by faith but also by works; as a tree is manifested to be good, not only by immediately examining the tree, but also by the fruit. Prov. xx. 11. "Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right."

The drift of the apostle does not require that he should be understood in any other sense: For all that he aims at, as appears by a view of the context, is to prove that good works are necessary. The error of those that he opposed was this, That good works were not necessary to salvation; that if they did but believe that there was but one God, and that Christ was the Son of God, and the like, and were baptised, they were safe, let them live how they would; which doctrine greatly tended to licentiousness. The evincing of the contrary of this is evidently the apostle's scope.

And that we should understand the apostle, of works jus tifying as an evidence, and in a declarative judgment, is what a due consideration of the context will naturally lead us to. For it is plain, that the apostle is here insisting on works, in the quality of a necessary manifestation and evidence of faith, or as what the truth of faith is shewed or made to appear by; As verse 18. "Shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works." And when he says, verse 26. "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." It is much more rational and natural to understand him as speaking of works done as proper signs and evidences of the reality, life, and goodness of faith. Not that the very works or actions are properly the life of faith, as the spirit in the body; but it is the active, working nature of faith, of which the actions or works done are the signs, that is itself the life and spirit of faith. The sign of a thing is often in scripture language said to be that thing; as it is in that comparison by which the apostle illustrates it. It is not the actions themselves of a body, that are properly the life or spirit of the body; but it is the active nature, of which those actions or motions are the signs, that is the life of the body. That which makes men call any thing alive, is, that they observe that it has an active, operative nature in it; which they observe no otherwise than by the actions or motions that are the signs of it. It is plainly the apostle's aim to prove that works are necessary from that, that if faith hath not works, it is a sign that it is not a good sort of faith; which would not have been to his purpose, if it was his design to shew that it is not by faith alone though of a right sort, that we have acceptance with God, but that we are accepted on the account of obedience as well as faith. It is evident by the apostle's reasoning, that the necessity of works that he speaks of, is not as having a parallel concern in our salvation with faith; but he speaks of works only as related to faith, and expressive of it; which, after all, leaves faith the alone fundamental condition, without any thing else having a parallel concern with it in this affair; and other things conditions, only as several expressions and evidences of it.

That the apostle speaks of works justifying only as a sign or evidence, and in God's declarative judgment, is further confirmed by verse 21. "Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered up Isaac his son upon the altar?" Here the apostle seems plainly to refer to that declarative judgment of God, concerning Abraham's sincerity, manifested to him, for the peace and assurance of his own conscience after his offering up Isaac his son on the altar, that we have account of, Gen. xxii. 12. "Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me." But here it is plain, and expressed in the very words of justification or approbation, that this work of Abraham's, his offering up his son on the altar, justified him as an evidence. When the Apostle James says, we are justified by works, he may, and ought to be understood in a sense agreeable to the instance he brings for the proof of it: But justification in that instance appears by the works of justification themselves referred to, to be by works as an evidence. And where this instance of Abraham's obedience is elsewhere mentioned in the New Testament, it is mentioned as a fruit and evidence of his faith. Heb. xi. 17. "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac ; and he that had received the promises, offered up his only begotten son." And in the other instance which the apostle mentions, "Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?" The apostle refers to a declar atiye judgment, in that particular testimony which was given of God's approbation of her as a believer, in directing Joshua to save her when the rest of Jericho was destroyed, Josh. vi.. "And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot alive, and her father's household, and all that she had; and she dwelleth in Isgael even unto this day; because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho." This was accepted ́as an evidence and expression of her faith. Heb. xi. 32. "By

verse 25.

25.

faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace." The apostle in saying, "Was not Rahab the harlot justified by VOE, VII.

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