then wrote And St. John tells us positively That he that Doth righteousness is only truely righteous And not he that reckons himself so without righteous Doing upon the score of believing And St. James expresly sets himself to confute this dangerous Errour and to prove these two things First That Christianity Believed and Professed will profit no man unless the Ends of it be pursued and prosecuted And secondly That that Faith that the Scripture calls a Justifying faith is an operative working faith a Faith that includes in its nature a suitable acting and obedience Speaking of Abrahams faith and his Justification which the Scripture makes to be the pattern of Gospel-faith and Justification and the one to run parallel with the other And which St. Paul had made so much use of to prove Justification by faith against the Jews Seest thou sayes he how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Where 't is as plainly expressed as by words it can be That that faith that was accounted to Abraham for righteousness was such a faith as contained in the bowels of it a suitable obedience and subjection to all Gods revealed will and pleasure By works saith the Apostle faith was made perfect That is faith was in order to action and a suitable acting and obedience in pursuance of it was included in it and was that which when performed did compleat and perfect it and without which faith is altogether imperfect and is not such a faith as in the Scripture is said to be accounted for righteousness And therefore it was upon Abrahams suitable obedience in prosecution of his faith by which the Scripture was fulfilled when it sayes Araham believed God and that belief was accounted for righteousness By which it is plain that Abrahams faith was counted for righteousness with reference to that obedience that was virtually compriz'd in it and not otherwise And that his faith and his works wrought joyntly together to obtain the same end And this is no way contradicted by St. Paul who tells us that Abraham was not justified by works For the works that St. Paul means are plainly such as the Law required such perfect sinless works as would in strict rules of Justice make the reward to be Debt And therefore when he opposeth faith to works 't is but in other words to oppose the Gospel to the Law St. Pauls business is to prove Justification in the way of the Gospel against the Jews by faith in opposition to Justification by the works of the Law St. James his province is to prove that the faith that does justifie us under the Gospel is not a bare naked Assent but such a faith as Abrahams was that contains in it a suitable obedience The one Apostle asserts in opposition to the Jews Evangelical Justification against Legal under the general term faith The other Apostle for the confutation of Heretical Christians explains that term and tells us it imports not only believing of God but an obedient Acting in prosecution thereof That the Apostles do very well agree with each in their Doctrine that Abraham was justified by such a faith as was accompanied with works and not by faith only according to St. James And yet that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works according to St. Paul may be this made to appear First That Abrahams faith that was counted for righteousness included his suitable obedience according to St. James and that his works did compleat and perfect his faith And that the Scripture was thereby fulfilled that tells us the Act of his Believing was counted for righteousness is plain from the story it self in Genesis which St. James quotes Had not his Believing compriz d a suitable obedience instead of being counted for Righteousness it would no doubt have been esteemed of God as it had indeed been a great piece of hypocrisy For Abrahams upright walking was the terms upon which God at first proposed to enter into a Covenant with him Secondly That Abraham was not justified by works according to St. Paul though his faith that was counted for Righteousness included his obedience is thus evident St. Pauls business is to prove against the Jews that Abraham who came first under the Law of Circumcision and from whom they derived themselves for it appears by their discourses with our Saviour when they cryed out We have Abraham to our Father that they went no higher was justified before he came under the Law of Circumcision before he was obliged to the oeconomie of the Law upon Gospel-principles and so those had the precedence of legal even in Abraham their Father upon the terms of another Covenant the Condition of which was Faith upon such terms as both Jews and Gentiles were to be justified then under the Gospel Upon which account the Scripture stiles him the common Father of all the faithful Abrahant before that faith of his that was accounted to him for Righteousness had lived for some time in Heathen Idolatry and was a great sinner and so could not pretend to be justified by a sinless perfection which the Law required and the Jews insisted on and so not by works in that sense He was one of the ungodly St. Paul speaks of in 4th to the Rom. who had not Legal perfection had not such works to plead as would make the reward in strict rules Justice to be of debt His Justification was upon the very same terms that the Gentiles then might be justified upon though they had lived in the grossest Idolatry and that was by believing the revelation of God in Christ charging their course of life and becoming obedient to what God should require of them In short Abrahams faith and obedience was not such Righteousness as in its own nature and by its own intrinsick worth would justifle any man from the guilt of all his sin and denominate him perfectly a Righteous person for had it so been in it self it needed not any favour to have been accounted for Righteousness But God was pleased out of grace so to reckon and account it Abraham having blelieved God about the promises of the Messiah that was to spring out of his family by whom himself and all the world were to be saved for the sum of all Gods converse with Abraham was to shew him Christs day and reveal to him the Salvation that was to come by him God was pleased to give the world an instance in his imputing that faith of Abraham to him for Righteousness how and upon what terms men should be saved by the Messiah when he did come in a word what should be the condition he would require of us to perform by the Gospel that is By believing the revelation of Christ and acting suitably thereunto by a sincere though imperfect obedience This God would impute and account for Righteousness This
is all that he would require on our part conditionally to perform This should constitute us righteous upon the terms of the New Covenant This should legally intitle us by the Gospel to all the Advantages of Christ and to a righteous end justified state and this is so far from such a Justification by works as the Jews rested in and St. Paul disputes against that 't is a Justification that results wholly from grace and favour is the Effect of Christs purchase and of the terms of another Covenant And all merit and all reward that can be claimed out of debt is utterly excluded thereby And thus the two Apostles appear perfectly agreed in their doctrine Abraham was not justified upon terms of the Law and sinless perfection but he was justified as an ungodly person one that had sins and failings about him that needed forgiveness was justified by faith in way of the Gospel And that faith that justified Abraham then and justifies every person under the Gospel now and is by the tenour thereof accounted for righteousness is not a naked assent to the truth what God reveals but such a faith as implyes in its nature and comprizeth a suitable obedience to all he requires of us There is a wide difference as much as there is between the nature and terms of the two Covenants between such works as by an inherent vertue in themselves constitute just and so justifie from an innate perfection as to make the reward to be of debt and such works are in their own nature altogether imperfect and faulty and are accepted only thorough grace and favour and made but conditionally necessary to our Justification another way Works 't is true there are in the case both wayes but of very different natures upon very different Accounts and to very different Ends. Secondly On the other hand we must carefully avoid so to apprehend faith supposing it to comprehend all that the Gospel requires of us to believe and practice as if it had in it self any justifying vertue or were of any innate worth to acquit us before God from the guilt of sins The value of it is wholly from Gods gracious ordination as it is all the condition that is required on our part to be performed by the Law of grace And it is not of our selves neither but 't is the gift and bestowment of God We obtain the precious faith of the Gospel St. Peter tell us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Whenever we read of our Justification by faith 't is meant of our being justified in the Gospel way and that is by Christ alone meritoriously and by what he has done and suffered for the Apostle tells us that God for Christs sake hath freely forgiven us Nothing has the least meritorious interest in our forgiveness but Christ Grace and free forgiveness in Scripture is still opposed to our merit and by faith only with respect to its conditional relation to him and that Covenant which he hath purchased and proclaimed and in the method whereof we come to be actually pardoned and justified upon Believing To think otherwise is to subvert the grand design of the whole Gospel which we are often told is to declare Christs Righteousness for the remission of sins and to sot forth him as a propitiation through faith in his blood Faith is no part of the Propitiation but 't is he himself and his blood that is the Propitiation and faith but the conditional means by which we come to reap the fruit and benefit of it The whole Fabrick of the Gospel is bottom'd upon satisfaction made to the Justice of God on our behalf upon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Savior sayes he came down to lay down his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransome for many And St. Paul to Timothy calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a price of redemption We are every where in Scripture said to be ransom'd redeem'd purchas'd bought with a price And that must needs be by a valuable consideration pay'd and by satisfaction made And St. Peter tells us what that price of redemption is that was payed for us and by which we were purchased and ransomed 't was not corruptible things such as gold and silver or any thing we had to offer to God but 't was with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot No works nor performances of our own could ever have reached this purchase or so prevailed as to have been accepted for a satisfaction in this case For then a Justifying Righteousness might have subsequently resulted from the Law of Works which St. Paul denyes and tells us expressly Galat. 2.21 that it could not be that way it could not come by the Law For had there been a possibility of it he tells us it should so have been That is could men either pefectly have kept the Law or have sufficiently answered for the Breach of it ex post facto Righteousness would have been that way and Christ had not dyed for his death had been then in vain Two things still may be remembred about Faith by which we may receive some account of the use that is made by the Holy Ghost of this word in Scripture First By faith the Gospel is often denominated in opposition to the Law and the whole of it signified thereby And the Reason of this seems to be because the Gospel is in its nature a Revelation from God proposed to our belief and all that we are required by it to do flowes naturally from what we are first obliged to believe Belief is the spring of all Gospel obedience and does in its nature comprize all other Gospel-graces they being at first produced and ever after upheld and increased thereby Secondly by the tenour of the Gospel and Gods peculiar Ordination therein the whole condition required by it is at the first virtually performed by the bare act of believing as the representative of all other Graces and root of universal obedience 'T is all that at the first is made conditionally necessary to constitute a Justified state though to the after-continuance in it the exercise of every other grace is equally requisite He that sincerly believes in Christ as he is proposed is truely in a Justified state by such an Act of Faith and herein Faith hath the preference of all other Graces in point of Justification if we never live to perform any subsequent Act of Obedience And the Reasons of this may be these two First The grace of Faith has in its nature a Nearer relation to the satisfaction of Christ wherein the Essentials of our Justification consist then any other Grace whatsoever For all we can do with reference to that and the nearest approach we can make to it to receive the benefit and advantage of it is to believe it and to rely upon it Secondly A true and sincere faith and belief of the Gospel supposeth and includeth a firm resolution to
Where God hath so forgiven sin all the effects and consequences of it as such an Action are utterly extinguished and so it self ceaseth after a sort to be And he that hath committed Acts of sin when he is Legally pardoned is no more a Sinner nor ought he in Justice so to be accounted For 't was the judgment of the Law by which he is Acquitted that â—â—â—de him so to be 'T is true those sinful Acts do not naturally cease to be but all that was in those Acts obnoxious to the Law from whence their sinfulness arose upon Judicial pardon legally ceaseth to be and that is sufficient in this case For we are not in the discourse of this point making inquiries into a natural or metaphysical existence of things but only into a judicial and legal Secondly Let it be thus farther considered that nothing can more extinguish the denomination of sin and sinner then Legal and Judicial pardon As take it in the present instance of David in those sinful Acts of his The Acts 't is true were the same naturally considered after his pardon that they were before but legally and forensically considered they were not And how is it possible to be otherwise but that the very acts must be still naturally the same For suppose the righteousness of Christ to be personally imputed to David as those that thus Object would have it to be to denominate him a Righteous person and so render him a fit subject for Justification such Imputation will not make the Actions of his own sin to be naturally otherwise then indeed they are nor the Obliquity of them more cease to be then it does by Forgiveness There being no other possible way to bring an offender in the judgment of the Law into a righteous estate and condition but by Judicial pardon And if after such pardon what is here objected be true that the denomination of sin and sinner as such notwithstanding remain it will unavoidably follow by the strict Doctrine or personal imputation that a man may be under the proper denomination of a righteous man and a sinner at one and the same time which implyes a loud Contradiction For a man may be accounted righteous in respect of Christs righteousness personally made his own by imputation and yet he may be justly denominated a sinner however For although his sins be pardoned and cease to be in respect of the guilt of them yet not in respect of the denomination of the subject as 't is here Objected Whoever that was once an offender comes to be justly accounted righteous must first be fully cleared from the denomination of an offender for those two are visibly inconsistent in one subject And nothing else can more Effect that then forgiveness Thirdly To the latter part of the Objection That Justification doth denominate a man to be just and a righteousness is requisite to it A man is not justified and therefore just but just and therefore justified in the order of Justification I Answer The first thing affirmed herein That Justification doth denominate a man to be just and a righteousness is requisite to it is thus true That Justification necessarily supposeth a man to be just and it includeth the notion of his being so one of these two wayes either inherently or legally and judicially the one relates to an innocent persons Justification the other to an offenders And when justified they are both alike just in Law-sense though differently to be considered in the manner of their Justification and in their antecedent condition to it He that is not justified upon inherent righteousness but is an offender he can only arrive at the state of a just man by Legal acquitment in judgment and by having a sentence in law pass for him For whatever satisfaction he makes though it be true that there is virtually contained a righteousness in satisfaction yet being actually an offender in the judgment of the Law till the Plea of his satisfaction be accepted and he thereupon judicially acquitted he can never be accounted of as righteous and so can never be righteous previously to his Justification To speak of a previous righteousness properly so called requisite to an offenders Justification such as will justifie and defend him in Judgment has no tolerable sense in it For it supposeth a man to come under the notion of an offender and a righteous person at the same time This only is true in that case that a sufficient reason must be pleaded for the pardon and Justification of an offender before a righteous Tribunal And that alone can be plenary satisfaction and cannot be any thing else And that upon acceptance must needs produce Pardon And the natural End both of satisfaction and pardon is to re-instate an offender into a righteous condition The second thing affirmed That a man is not justified and therefore just but just and therefore justified is a great Mistake For it relates Justification solely and singly to innocents and renders the Justification of offenders about which the Scripture is only conversant utterly impracticable and impossible Persons inherently righteous are justified because found so and their Justification is but affirmative and declarative of such inherent righteousness But offenders are brought into the state of Just men upon legal pardon and discharge Nor can any Satisfaction in its nature operate farther Thirdly 'T is Objected That God requires a positive righteousness of us conformable unto his Law in the perfect obligation of it And therefore it follows that meer remission of sin under what distinction soever cannot be our righteousness Remission of sin frees from punishment but 't is perfect obedience that entitles us to eternal happiness To this I answer Legal sinless-righteousness which the Law requires God accepts satisfaction for in Christ 'T is Gospel-righteousness we are now to enquire after If God had not accepted Christ in our stead and his satisfaction to answer for all our obligements to the law as a Law of works and super-induced a better covenant thereupon this Argument had been good But seeing he has 't is of no force at all The Apostle tells us Rom. 10.4 that Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth To understand which expression of the Apostle aright we must consider Finem alicujus rei as the School-men speak dici dupliciter in quem tendit res vel naturaliter vel ex ordinatione Agentis The End to which the Law naturally tended was such a particular personal sinless-righteousness in each man as he might justifie himself upon and claim the reward promised as a debt due This end the Jews pursued and sought after and the Apostle rejects as appears in the 3d ver But the end to which the Law tended by the ordination of God was Christs righteousness to make satisfaction for our disobedience and thereby to introduce another method of Justification in a way of saith and believing that we might no
act accordingly that is to pursue the Ends of that Faith in all such acts of obedience as are subsequently required of us And this God sees virtually contained in the first Act of true Faith and the seeds of all future sincere persevering obedience therein And upon that account accepts thereof at first as the performance of the whole condition required by the Gospel legally to intitle us to the priviledge of a Justified state SECT V. ANd now the last thing proposed to be inquired after How and upon what terms we come to arrive at the benefits of a Justified state having been thus resolved that we arrive thereunto by coming up to the terms proposed by the Gospel and performing the condition therein required which is briefly comprized by our Saviour in Believing It will turn much to our account in this present Discussion to inquire with some farther particularity what is intended and comprehended therein And of that we may be much informed by the consideration of these three things First The way and method that God takes to justifie a sinner being originated in the depths of his infinite Counsels no way ever to be found out or discovered but by Revelation a great mystery hid from ages and a thing very incredible to a carnal mind and no way suited to the corrupt Reasonings of Flesh and Blood God expects in the first place that we should fully credit it and firmly give our assent to its veracity And this is in it self a very Righteous Act and so accounted of God firmly to believe him in what he reveals to us And herein the faith of the Gospel and that of Abraham in whose steps we are bid to tread do perfectly resemble each other For he believed God about diverse things in their own nature very hard to be credited He staggred not through unbelief but hoped against hope and still relyed upon Gods veracity and all-sufficiency Secondly God requires of us That he having revealed from Heaven such a glorious and extraordinary way of Justification and Salvation so far out of our own compass and span as is the sending of his Son to assume our nature and in that nature to perfect and compleat all that concern'd our present und future welfare He expects upon this that we should adore this Revelation bow before it with the greatest acknowledgments we are capable of making rely upon it acquiesce in it and be perfectly silenced to all attempts our own Wisdom can suggest to us about this matter And herein the faith of the Gospel answers punctually to that of Abraham For he wholly quitted all those methods carnal and corrupted reason would have directed him to He left his Country and his fathers house and went he knew not whither In a word he forsook the conduct of his own wisdom Believed whatever God told him Did all he bad him and Went whithersoever he called him whatever Difficulties appeared to himself and whatever Censures he lay exposed to from others in his so doing Thirdly God and the Mediator require of us that we should become Obedient to a New Recovering Law of Grace as the condition of our Pardon and Justification In a word That we should subject our selves to all the precepts of the Gospel For Christ as Mediator erects a Kingdom His exaltation is to be a Prince as well as a Saviour a Prince in being a Saviour and whosoever will be saved by him must become one of his Subjects must submit to the regiment of his Kingdom and subject himself to his Laws And herein the faith of Abraham and the faith of every Believer answer one to another as face answereth face in a glass For Abrahams Justification was upon performance of the terms and condition of the New Covenant The Apostle proves he was justified by faith which was to be justified upon the terms of another Covenant and not that of the Law For the law is not of faith nor faith of the Law there was no relation at all between faith and law the law made no promise to faith the promises of the law were to perfect obedience And as the Apostle with convincing evidence urgeth against the Jews Abraham was justified by a faith he had before he was circumcised or had any thing to do with the Law And that faith of Abraham was more then a bare fruitless assent to what God revealed to him 'T was such a faith as put him upon Action and approved its own truth by a suitable obedience And of this we are sufficiently informed by the Story it self in Genesis and by St. James his Comment upon it Some things there are to be remarked in this Disposal of God that highly exalt his Wisdom Holiness and Justice And some things that to a very stupendious degree do magnisie his Mercy First How is the Wisdom Holiness and Justice of God made very transparent by such a dispensing Pardon and Justification as this How suitable is this method to himself He forgives not as the Greatest of men often do and think it an effect of the most supream soveraignty so to do as if in forgiveness nothing were to be done but singly to exercise an act of soveraignty But he forgives like the Lord our Maker That eternal Jehovah who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working with whom are inherent infinite Attributes none of which in the least can be Denyed or in the least Oppose or Contradict each other He proceeds in all he does in methods chalk'd out by his infinite Wisdom wherein they are all attempered together and do after an admirable manner harmonize each with other He annexeth such conditions to his forgiveness as no way lessen the grace and bounty of it and yet at the same time record his immutable holiness and justice Secondly The greatest righteousness that ever was extant the holyest state of man that he is capable of in his lapsed condition is introduced by the gospel and the precepts thereof and the greatest homage from Earth to Heaven that can be And yet all flesh put to silence in the performance of it We stand justified at Gods Bar in a way of Gods providing and contriving and we perform the Condition required of us solely by the power of his grace freely conferred upon us The glory of all redounds to God alone No Reward can be of Debt 〈◊〉 for all the Rewards of the Gospel are but Gods gracious remunerations of his own gifts and graces Free grace and Divine bounty is the Root that bears all nor can there be any boasting against that Root The holiest man that lives upon earth has the greatest occasion as having received most to abase himself and lie lowest in the dust before God in the Sense thereof in his best performances Thirdly By this method of forgiving these two great Ends are attained First Gods solemn hatred and dislike of sin is made very evident He save no man in his sin but from his sin Whom he
that we might gradually possess that Gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Quest Secondly By this Doctrine how can we ever come to know we are carefully and compleatly Justified till we have fully perform'd and accomplished all the conditions made requisite to a justified state That is how can we upon good ground be assured of our Justification till our faith and obedience be consummuated Which is not till we dye Answ Every man is then Actually justified according to the Gospel-Law and Compleatly so when he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ with all his heart Because no more is at the first required Legally to constitute a justified state But Justification is a continued act of God and the constant performance of all those duties which a sincere reception of Christ as he is offered in the Gospel implyes are indispensibly necessary to the continuance of it 'T is in this case as 't is in Marriage A Marriage is perfected by a mutual consent But the performance of all matrimonial duties is implyed in that consent The Marriage continues valid till somwhat be done as 't is very possible there may be that does vertually Null and Revoke such consent and what was implyed therein and does ex natura rei Dissolve the Vinculum matrimonij 'T is plain the Apostles did look upon such as declared a firm assent to the Gospel and a sincere and hearty reception of Christ as he is there proposed to be in Christ That is to be in a Justified saved state admitted them to all Gospel-priviledges and never esteemed them otherwise till by their Lives or Professions they contradicted and denyed what by such a faith and consent they had before affirmed and thereby Apostatized from it And of such tergiversation the Gospel every where warns men That they should take heed of an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God And St. Paul tells the Corinthians I am jealous over you sayes he with a godly jealousie for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste Virgin to Christ But I fear least by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Whoever avows the faith of the Gospel and a sincere closure with Christ upon the Terms thereof and does after fall into an open Rebellion against him and lives in an allowed disobedience to his Laws such a man is as the Apostle speaks of an Heretick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man condemned by himself For he that in his Baptism and at his first admission into the Christian-Church had made a solemn Profession of the true Christian Doctrine and did after degenerate into Corrupt and Heretical Opinions contrary and destructive to it passed sentence upon himself So He that declares to close with Christ as a Prince and a Saviour which supposeth a general submission to all the Laws of his Kingdom and shall after Indulge himself in a course of open disobedience and choose a continued practice of sin against that grand fundamental Law of Christ That he that names his name must depart from iniquity gives Judgment against himself in this case Disowns Christ and the Gospel Dissolves the Relation that seem'd to be between them and publickly retracts what he before obliged himself to So that a man is at the first actually and legally according to the tenor of the Gospel justified by a true and sincere Faith But a constant prosecution of such a faith in all its proper Ends and Tendencies by an universal submission to all the Laws of Christs Kingdom is of absolute necessity to our continuance in a Justified state Quest 3. Do not divers Scriptures in the New Testament seem to establish Justification solely upon believing and upon Faith only as an instrument receiving and no more in opposition to all sort of working Especially that Text Rom. 4.5 But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Answ We are said to be justified in the New Testament by faith alone upon these three accounts First as faith intends the Gospel and the Principles of Christianity in opposition to the Law and the principles of Judaisme Secondly As 't is a comprehensive word for all that the Gospel requires at our hands For by Believing in Christ the Scripture intends such a closure with him as receives him in all his offices and sujects us to all those obligations which 〈◊〉 Prince and Saviour he thinks fit by the Gospel to lay upon us And upon that account to Believe and to obey are often in Scripture put one for the other promiscuously and so are unbelief and disobedience All obedience and subjection to Christ is originated in and flows from our Belief of that Revelation God makes to us of him and is naturally implyed and compriz'd in it And so it has by Gods appointment the precedence and preferrence of all other Graces in point of Justification and we do not find any other grace so related to Justification as this And upon that account it is that we are not said in Scripture to be justified by repentance or by love or any other single grace but only by Faith as comprehensive of all the rest And thirdly because we are actually brought into a justified state at first solely by Faith without the actual exercise of any other grace The very act of sincere believing by Gods peculiar and gracious ordination intitles us to Christ and all his Benefits And the reason of that Ordination is evidently this That who ever believes in Christ receives him as he is by God proposed and whoever does so obliges himself therey to all the duties of Christianity But upon no one of these accounts can Faith be said to justifi◠〈◊〉 barely as an Instrument but as 't is comprehensive and productive of all other Gospel-duties and by the subsequent performance of them Faith as St. James tells us is perfected 'T was the fear many good men had of interesting any Works or any thing of our own Justification and Ecclipsing free grace thereby that made them that they would neither allow Faith to be a condition nor a work When they ought to have considered that Gospel works are never opposed to Grace nor can any thing done by Divine assistance be so and when the Apostle opposeth Works to Grace he means such Works as are inconsistent with Grace and so justifie by their merit as to put us out of need of Grace and render it useless but invented that unscriptural notion of its instrumentality of no other use but to make way for metaphysical subtilties and to obscure a plain point when indeed Faith is both a work and a condition First 'T is a work so our Saviour himself calls it Joh. 6.29 This is the work of God that you believe Indeed 't is the chiefest part