To say that they are conditions of salvation is to speak ambiguously; that we cannot be saved without them, is as certain as that we cannot be justified, without being also sanctified; but to say, that by performing them a title to happiness is vested in us, is to rob Christ of his glory, and to put the crown on man’s head. Besides, the condition of holiness is not accomplished till death, and as the condition of our justification is not performed till then, we are never justified in life, which is plainly contrary to the scriptures. Footnote 50: _This is what is generally styled, by a diminutive word_, Acceptilatio gratiosa, _which is an accepting a small part of a debt, instead of the whole; a sort of composition, in which, though the payment be inconsiderable, yet the debtor’s discharge is founded thereon, by an act of favour in the creditor, as though the whole sum had been paid._ Footnote 51: _These works they speak of as_ Tincta sanguine Christi. Footnote 52: “Abraham believed God and it was imputed or counted to him for righteousness.” This passage of Scripture is found with little variation also in the Epistle to the Galatians (iii. 6.) and in the Epistle of James (ii. 23.) and in each of the places it seems to have been introduced in support of its context from the first book of Moses. (xv. 6.) Moses is giving at that place a visionary (as we suppose) correspondence between Jehovah and Abraham; in which the Lord promises to the patriarch to be his “shield and exceeding great reward,” and upon Abraham’s complaining that he was childless, his attention is directed to the stars, and he is told that it will be equally impracticable to number his posterity, and then follow the words “Abraham believed _in_[53] the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness.” Here it is given as an old-testament proof of that which has been a little before asserted “that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law,” but because this doctrine would seem to make void the law, the apostle states this objection, then denies it with abhorrence, and introduces for his support Abraham’s justification before God, “if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to glory, but not before God; for what saith the scriptures? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.”