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and forrow for fin is an excellent paffion; but till it has fubdued our corruptions, changed our affections, and purified our hearts, 'tis not that faving repentance in the apostle, 2 Cor. vii. 10. Godly forrow worketh repentance, not to be repented of. We may have fudden heats and paffions for virtue; but if they be too fhort-liv'd to implant it in us, this is not that charity or love which animates and impregnates the new creature mentioned, Gal. v. 6. faith working by love. Laftly, We may have good purposes, intentions, nay, refolutions; but if these prove too weak to obtain a conqueft over our corruptions, if they prove too weak to refift the temptations we are wont to fall by, 'tis plain that they are not fuch as can demonstrate us righteous, or entitle us to a crown, which is promised to him that overcometh. And here I cannot but remark, to how little purpose controverfies have been multiplied about the juftification of man. 'Tis one thing for God to justify us, i. e. to pardon our fins, and account us righteous, and his children; and another for us to know, or be affured, that he does fo. If we enquire after the former, 'tis plain to me, that no man can be accounted righteous by God, till he really is fo: and when the man is Sanctified throughout in fpirit, foul, and body; then is he certainly juftified, and

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not till then. And this I think is confeffed by all, except Antinomians; and whatever difference there is amongst Christians in this matter, it lies in the forms and variety of expreffion. They, that contend earnestly for the neceffity of good works, do not, I fuppofe, imagine, that the works are holy, before the heart is fo; for, as is the fountain, fuch will be its streams; as is the tree, fuch will be its fruits. What abfurdity then is there in admitting that men are juftified before they bring forth good works; if they cannot bring forth good works, till they be fanctified and changed? on the other hand, they who contend fo earneftly for juftification by faith. without works, do not only fuppofe that the man is throughly changed, by the infufion of habitual grace; but alfo that this grace, as foon as it has opportunity, will exert and exprefs itself in good works: and they do readily acknowledge that the faith which does not work by love, is an historical unanimated faith. And if fo, how natural is it to comprife in that holiness, which justîfies, not only the change of the heart, but of the actions? but here I think it is well worth the confidering, whether that thorough change in the nature of a fifiner, which is called holiness, be now effected at once and in a moment, and not rather gradually and in time? for this may give

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fonie light to the doctrine of juftification, and draw us off from fpeculations and theories to more useful and practical thoughts and difcourfes about it. "Tis true, in the primitive times, when the conviction of a finner was wrought by a dazling light, by furprizing miracles, by exuberant influxes of the fpirit, and the concurrence of many extraordinary things, fanctification (as in the goaler and his family, Acts xvi.) might be begun and finifhed in the fame hour. But I doubt it is rarely fo with us at this day; our vices are not fo fuddenly fubdued, nor our virtues fo fuddenly implanted. Our convi&tions, in the beginning of converfion, are feldom fo full and clear as theirs: and, if we may judge by the effects, 'tis but feldom that the principle of a new life is infufed in the fame plenty and power it appears to have been in them. And if fo, then these things will follow; 1. Though in the first plantation of the gospel men being converted, as it were, in a moment, ingrafted by baptifm into Chrift, and receiving the Holy Ghost, the earnest of their juftification or acceptance with God, and their future glory: we may very well fay of them, that they were not only justified, but alfo knew themfelves to be fo, before they had brought forth any other fruit of righteoufnefs, than what was implied in

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the dedication of themselves to Chrift by that folemn rite of baptifm: but at this day, when converfion is not effected in the fame manner; when faith and good works do mutually cherish one another; when righteoufnefs is not brought forth into victory, but by long labour and travel; I fee not why faith and good works may not be pronounced jointly and antecedently neceffary to our juftification. 2. The doctrine of infufed habits has been much ridiculed and expofed as abfurd, by fome men; and, I muft confefs, if it be effential to a habit, to be acquired by length of time and repetition of the fame acts, then an infufed habit is a very odd expreffion: but why God cannot produce in us thofe ftrong difpofitions to virtue in a moment, which are naturally produced by time; or why we may not afcribe as much efficacy to infufed grace, as philofophers are wont to do to repeated acts, I cannot fee? nor can I fee, why fuch difpofitions, when infufed, may not be called habits, if they have all the properties and effects of an habit. And that fuch excellent difpofitions were on a fudden wrought in the minds of Chriftians in the beginning of Chriftianity, is too plain from the history of those times to need a proof. But whether fuch changes are ordinarily effected so fuddenly at this day, we have much reason to

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doubt; nay, I think it appears from what I have faid, there is fufficient reason to deny it. And, if fo, the infufion of habits cannot be fo properly infifted on now as then; and we may be more fubject to make unwarrantable inferences from the doctrine of infufed babits, than they were in those bright and miraculous days.. 3. As our progress to fanctification must be flower than formerly, as it must be longer before the grace that is infufed, fo far mafter our corruption and dilate and diffuse itself through our whole nature, as that we may juftiy be denominated holy and righteous from the prevalence of this holy principle: fo, by a neceffary confequence, our juftification must commence later. But, after all, I know not why we should be fo inquifitive after the time of our juftification by God. The comfort of a Chriftian does not result immediately from God's juftifying him, but from bis knowing that he does fo. And if this be the thing we are now fearching after, namely, what rational affurance we can have of our juftification, and when, as indeed it is; then, though I do not pretend to determine, that man is not, or may not be juftified or accounted righteous by God, upon a thorough change of mind or foul, before this change difcovers itself in a feries of victories over those temptations by which he was led captive before; yet I affert,

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