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They reason thus with themselves—If this be the case that we are saved by faith, what occasion then for the purifying and troublesome work of repentance, and putting away evil? If God hath declared that it is sufficient for salvation to believe in His Son, why need we add to this declaration by making any thing else necessary? We believe in the Son of God; we repeat the creeds of the church; we assent to all the doctrines of the Gospel; we therefore have faith; and since Christ Himself hath declared that faith is saving, we have confidence in Him that we are saved through this faith; and to make salvation depend on repentance, or on any other duty, is to take away from the excellency and supereminence of this faith.
Thus do the impenitent argue; and perhaps since the first promulgation of the Gospel unto this day, there hath been no argument urged, which in its tendencies is more delusive and more mischievous: perhaps few Christians have escaped altogether unhurt by it; it is so much adapted to favour the natural reluctance of man to oppose his corrupt nature, that the generality, alas! have a strong party in their own bosoms to favour the delusion. Salvation by faith alone, or, what is the same thing, by an assent of the understanding to some particular form of doctrine, independent of any change in the life, is so easy a way to heaven, that it is not to be wondered at, that in all ages so many have been found willing to walk in that way. Hence this specious reasoning, it is to be feared, hath affected, not only the hardened and the impenitent, but also the well disposed and sincere Christian; and possibly there are none of us, but who, in a greater or less degree, have drunk its deadly poison; possibly we should all of us have attained to greater measures of holiness, in the fear and the love of God, and a more perfect separation from the powers and principles of evil in our corrupt natures, if we had not been more or less deluded by the above argument concerning the efficacy of faith alone.
But the grand question is, Will faith alone save us at the last day? When we stand in the judgment before the great and holy God, will it be sufficient for us to say, Lord, we have believed in Thy name; we have assented to all the truths of Thy Gospel? Will not the Lord then answer us, But have ye lived as ye say ye believed? Have ye practised what ye say ye assented to? Have ye done the work of repentance in putting away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes, as I enjoined you? And if we have not so lived and so practised, and so put away evil, how shall we then be confounded; and what shall we be able to reply, when He saith further, Depart from Me all ye workers of iniquity!
The grand question therefore is, Will faith alone save us at the last day? Is the above reasoning of the impenitent, therefore, concerning the efficacy of such a faith, to be safely depended upon?
