Faith to him for Righteousness that is that which in the eye of that new Law should pass in his estimation for Righteousness subordinate to Christ's Righteousness which procured this Grant or Law For otherwise Faith neither as it is the condition of the Promise of Remission of Sin through Christ nor as it works Repentance for sins past or sincere Obedience for time to come is Righteousness in the Eye of the Original Law For that accounts no Man that hath though but once transgressed it to be Righteous either upon the account of anothers suffering for his sin or his own Repentance or sincere imperfect Obedience but curseth every Man that from first to last continueth not in all things which are contained in that Law But it is as I said an Act of God's special Favour and by virtue of his new Law of Grace and as it is established in Christ that such a Faith as I have described comes to be reckoned or imputed to a man for Righteousness and through God's imputing it for Righteousness to stand a man in the same if not in a better stead as to his eternal concerns as a perfect fulfilling of the Original Law from first to last would have done Christ's Righteousness being presupposed the only Meritorious Cause of this Grant or Covenant And thus indeed the Faith which I have described is a Man's Righteousness in the Eye of this new Law because it is Summarily all that is required of him himself to make him capable of the Benefits promised by it which as it is now revealed is the Gospel Justification is a Law-term And no Man shall be justified in Judgment or upon Tryal but he that is just in the Eye of this new Law of Grace as every one that rightly believes repents and sincerely obeys is because that is all that it requires of a Man himself to his Justification and Salvation And yet every Believers Justification will be all of Grace because the Law by which they are Justified is wholly of Grace is wholly a Law of Grace and was Enacted in meer Grace and Favour to undone Man that was utterly undone by the fall There are two things which I conceive do constitute and make up the Righteousness of the Law of Grace presupposing all to be procured by the purchase which Christ hath made first the Righteousness which consisteth in the forgiveness of sins and secondly the Righteousness of sincere Obedience And in reference to both these Faith is imputed for Righteousness by virtue of the Law of Grace First Faith as practical is imputed to a Man for Righteousness as it is that and all that which is required of him himself by the Law of Grace to entitle him to the Righteousness which consisteth in the remission of sins through Christ. Now that remission of Sinnes is part of the Righteousness which is by Faith is evident from Rom. 4. 5 6 7 8. Where the Apostle to prove that a Man's Faith in God who justifyeth the ungodly is counted to him for Righteousness he citeth a passage out of Psalm the 32d Even as David also saith he describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin The Righteousness imputed in this sense doth consist in the non-imputation of sin Not to impute sin is not to reckon a Man not to have sinned but it is to deal with him not according to the demerit of his sin it is to pardon him for Christ's sake upon his penitential Faith and not to punish him for his sin and this by vertue of a new Law or Act of Indemnity or Covenant of Grace For although pardon of sin is obtained for Man by Christ his suffering for sin In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveneess of sins Ephes. 1. 7. and though God for Christ's sake doth forgive us Epes 4. 32. yet the actual collation of this great Benefit is not promised but upon condition of Man's Faith Him hath God set forth to be a Propitiation but it is through Faith in his blood Rom. 3. 25. By him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13. 39. and 10. 43. Although Christ is the Propitiation for the sins of the whole World 1 Ioh. 2. 2. yet that saying of Christ must and will will take place If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins Joh. 8. 24. and that also Mark 16. 16. He that believeth not shall be damned So that Faith is imputed for Righteousness partly as it is the Condition upon which pardon of sin is granted Secondly That Faith is imputed for Righteousness which is practical or productive of sincere Obedience without which property it is not a fulfilling of the Law of Grace as a condition of the promised Benefits and consequently cannot justifie a Man in the Eye of that Law For First Repentance and likewise forgiving men their injuries for instance are such Acts of Obedience as without which a Man cannot be pardoned and if not pardoned then not justified And therefore Faith is not imputed for Righteousness unless it be productive of Obedience Secondly No Faith is available to justification but such as worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. Which to say is all one as to say no Faith is imputed for Righteousness but such as worketh by keeping the Commandments of God and fulfilling the Law for that is the interpretation of love both to God and Men 1 Ioh. 5. 3. Rom. 13. 10. Thirdly Abraham who was set forth by God for a Pattern of his justifying Men by Faith was Justified by such works as were the fruits of his Faith and not only by his Faith which was the Root of them And therefore his Faith as practical was imputed to him for Righteousnss And such must be the Faith of all others that shall obtain Justification upon their believing as he did Iam. 2. 21 22 23. Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Seest thou 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 note these four things 1. That Abrahams Faith wrought with his Works about the same end as a Condition of obtaining it to wit his Justification 2. That by his Works his Faith was made perfect to wit in its aptitude by God's Institution to justifie him without which it would not have reached that end 3. Note further that it was his Faith as it wrought with his Works and as it was compleated and made perfect by them that was imputed to him for Righteousness 4. Note that in the Imputation of his Faith for Righteousness as it was
their future sincere Obedience with perfect and perpetual happiness I say when all this is represented to the Will as unquestionably true it will work in it a love to that God and Saviour that hath been so loving if it be but kept close to it A minifestation of such love and goodness to Man and that while yet in enmity against God so ill deserving and so obnoxious to the power of his wrath when he hath no need of him nor can be profited by him will create good thoughts of God and reconcile Man's mind to him and work melting affections in him to God when heartily believed What Rebel is there or Nature so bad that would not be won to leave off rebelling against his Priuce and to love and please him upon undoubted assurance that by so doing he should not only be pardoned and restored to favour but also preferred to the greatest honour and happiness he is capable of receiving from any mortal And yet how weak a motive is this in comparison of what comes from God to reduce men to their love and loyalty to him God's love to Man when perceived and heartily believed is the great motive and attractive of Mans love to God We love him because he first loved us 1 Joh. 4. 19. Love is an active and commanding Principle in Man and procureth Thoughts Cares and Endeavours of pleasing God If any Man love me he will keep my words saith our blessed Saviour Iob. â—4 23. And after this manner Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. Thus I have represented to you how and after what manner Faith in the Understanding works a saving Consent in the Will unto the Condition of God's Covenant of Salvation V. Some few Objections answered 1. Some have thought Men may be justified only by their believing even while they are ungodly in their lives and have thought that Scripture Rom. 4. 5. will bear them out in such a conceit which saith He that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness But they grosly mistake the Scripture and deceive themselves For that Text speaks of God's justifying the Gentiles upon their sincere conversion to the Christian Faith and Life though they had lived in Gentilism in all ungodliness before and until then and though they should not work at all as the Judaizers would have had them in turning Proselytes to the Jewish way But otherwise it 's flatly against the express Doctrine of the Gospel and current of the Scriptures for Men to hope to be pardoned by any believing whatsoever while they remain impenitent as every Man doth while he remains ungodly To justifie the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. It 's said that Christ made the blind to see the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak as well as it 's said God justifieth the ungodly But is any man so senseless as to think that Christ made them to see to hear and to speak while they remained blind deaf and dumb And if not but that they know the meaning is that Christ made those to see to hear to speak which had been blind deaf and dumb before those Curâ—s were wrought upon them they might as well know also that the meaning is that God justifieth those upon their believing which had been ungodly until then and not that he justifies them while they remain ungodly 2. Some alledge that although the Faith which is alone and with the concomitant effects of it Repentance Regeneration c. doth not justifie yet that Faith alone which doth produce such effects doth justifie without the concurrence of these in the justifying act Which they illustrate by this Similitude A Man sees with his Eye alone though he doth not see with his Eye that is alone or separated from his body In return to all which let these things be considered 1. They that go thus far do grant that which will secure the Notion of the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and new Obedience unto Justification They grant we see such a necessity of these as without which no man can be justified no not by Faith In granting which though we suppose them to err in their foresaid Notion yet this makes their Error the less dangerous because the presence of Repentance Regeneration and Obedience are no less necessary to Justification according to this account than they esteem them to be who say they concur with Faith in the very act of Justification 2. When they say Faith alone is all that is necessary to the justifying act without the concurrence of any thing else done by us By justifying Act they mean either God's Act or Man's Act. If Man's Act that 's nothing but Man's performing the Condition upon which God hath Promised to justifie Men. If they mean God's Act it is his imputing Mens performing the Condition of the Promise unto them for Righteousness The only thing then in question will be what it is which is a fulfilling of the Condition of the Promise of Justification which God imputes for righteousness If they say it is only the Assent of the Understanding unto the Truth of Gods Testimony in the Gospel or this Assent together with a relyance on Christ for Salvation I have shewed before that both these may be found in Men unregenerate and unjustified And that these two of themselves without Repentance and hearty Obedience to the Laws of Christ are not a fulfilling of the Condition of the Promise and that consequently Men without these cannot be justified by any Faith whatsoever and so not by Faith alone unless they will call Repentance and Heart-Obedience in conjunction with the foresaid Assent of the mind and relyance of the Soul by the name of Faith Which if they will we are agreed as to the thing at least if not to the name that we are justified by such a Faith alone And yet I doubt not that when ever Justification is promised to believing singly and alone exprest but that there the foresaid effects are comprehended under that name also for the Reasons formerly given 3. They which say we are justified by Faith alone but not by that Faith which is alone do distinguish where the Scripture doth not distinguish The Scripture no where saith we are justified by Faith alone as contradistinguished from Repentance Evangelical Obedience c. The third Chaper of Rom. 28. and Tit. 3. 5. are sometimes made use of to countenance their Notion but to how little purpose hath been shewed already in the Treatise which needs not be here repeated 4. The Scripture is not only silent in the case not any where affirming we are justified by Faith alone but it expresly affirms the quite contrary Iam. 2. 24. Ye see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only That this is affirmed in reference to our Justification before God hath been shewed before 5. Faith and Repentance are a joynt Condition upon which
all them that believe for there is no difference meaning between Iews and Gentiles Rom. 3. 21 22. he thereupon demands in ver 27. saying where is boasting then It excluded By what Law Of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we find the holy Men of Old among the Iews who expected acceptance with God upon other terms than the Pharisaical Iews did who placed their confidence called trusting in the flesh Phil. 3. 4. in their External Priviledges and Performances alone were so far from glorying in such a Righteousness as that that they cryed out in reference to that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Isa. 64. 6. Thus Regenerating Grace made David so far from boasting either of Priviledges or of his Performances that he saith unto God Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee 1 Chro. 29. 14. This made St. Paul to say We are not sufficient of our selves as of our selves to think any thing but our sufficiency is of God 2 cor 3. 5. And by the grace of God I am what I am 1 Cor. 15. 10. And of him are we in Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord having nothing but what he hath received from him gratis and without all desert yea contrary to his demerits 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. The good Works which the Saints do they do them by vertue of their being created in Christ Iesus in order thereunto Ephes. 2. 10. and all that good is is through Christ strengthening them Phil. 4. 13. From whence therefore we may well conclude that if the works which St. Paul wholly excludes in the matter of Justification were only such as were apt to occasion boasting that then Acts of Evangelical Obedience were none of those Works According to the sense explained then I presume we may well understand that Text Rom. 3. 28. which of all others seems in the Phrase and Expression to be most Exclusive of Works in the point of Justification the words are these Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Which words if you consider the context seem to import no more but this viz. That a Man is justified in the Gospel-way which in the verse before is called the Law of Faith And not by the deeds of the Law or upon the terms of the first Covenant which in the verse before likewise is called the Law of Works Which two the Gospel terms the first Covenant terms are still opposed to each other in the point of Justification Now although the Conclusion here laid down is true in reference to the Iews as well as to the Gentiles yet it seems to be written here with special reference to the Gentiles Intimating that upon their belief they might be justified without turning Proselytes to the Jewish way as appears by that Interrogation in the very next words following ver 29. 30. Is he the God of the Iews only is he not also of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith And the words in the 31 ver do intimate that the words in the 28th vers are to be understood in such a limited sense as I have assigned in my Explication viz. as excluding the deeds of the Law in the act of Justification only in the Iews corrupt sense of the Law because St. Paul therein affirms his foresaid Doctrine of Justification by Faith without the deeds of the Law not to be at all destructive of the Law but contrariwise tending to establish the Law if we take the Law not in that distorted sense in which those Iews held it but as it was appointed by God to promote holiness in the World which is the end and scope of all his Laws In which sense the Apostle was so far from excluding the works of the Law from having any thing to do in the Justification of Men as that he had expresly affirmed before That though the hearers of the Law were not just before God yet the doers of the Law should be justified Rom. 2. 13. Meaning by doers such as do sincerely obey that Law of God under which they are and not such as do perfectly fulfil it as some would seem to understand it For I have shewed before that God never made Promise of Justification upon naturally impossible conditions as that would be and they are dishonourable thoughts of God to think he hath and therefore the Apostle may not be understood to promise Justification to the doers of the Law upon any such terms There is one vein of Texts moâ—â— wherein the Opposition is made in such a form of words between the Iews way of seeking Justification by the Law and the Gospel-way of seeking it by Faith that being a little opened will both illustrate and confirm what I have been representing to you And they are such in which the Iews erroneous way is called their own Righteousness and the true Christian-way of Justification the Righteousness of God by Faith and the Righteousness of God Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of God s Righteousnâ—ss and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This Righteousness is called their own Righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of God upon a three-fold account as I understand it 1. Because they sought the pardon of their sins by that only which was their own their own Sacrifices Sacrifices which they themselves brought to be offered Whereas the Christian Justification is called the Righteousness of God because the Sacrifice by which pardon of sin and acceptation with God is obtained was from God and given by God to wit Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation Rom. 3. 25. and Christ hath given himself an offering and a Sacrifice for us Ephes. 5. 2. And he is made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness c. 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2. It was called their own Righteousness because they did not think Regeneration or Supernatural Grace necessary to the obtaining of it but a Literal observation of the Law and Circumcision such as passed for a Righteousness among Men and such as they without Supernatural aid were able to perform As for those Precepts which commanded the loving of God with all the heart and the circumcising the heart because these were not enjoyned under express penalties as those things were of which the Rulers were to take cognizance therefore the Phâ—risees counted them but Counsels only
thus opposed to works and thus available to Justification consisteth in a new frame of Spirit and the vital operations thereof and which we can have no right notion of without Evangelical Obedience in will and resolution at least which are really inward acts of that obedience and are a conformity of the renewed will to the Divine Law 4. Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith and together with Faith is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification and Salvation Gal. 5. 6. For in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by love Here again Circumcision by the same Figure and for the same reason as before is put for the Works of Moses Law And as these are denyed to avail any Man to Justification and Salvation so on the other hand it is affirmed that that Faith which worketh by love doth avail to these great ends For to say that Faith which worketh by love doth so is the same in sense as to say that Faith which worketh by fulfilling the Law and by keeping the Commandments doth so avail For so love is said to be Rom. 13. 10. 1 Ioh. 5. 3. The Assemblies Annotations upon the place give notice that the word here translated worketh Faith which worketh by love being in the mean or middle voice may be taken either Actively or Passively And several other Learned men among whom Dr. Hammond is one do render and understand it passively as if the Apostle should have said Faith which is wrought or perfected or consummate by love and so make it directly parallel with that in St. Iames Chap. 2. 22. by Works was Faith made perfect So far is the Scripture we see from opposing acts of Evangelical Obedience to Faith in the Work of Justification as that it conjoyns them with Faith in the title to it and in opposition to false pretentions to it 5. Evangelical Obedience alone is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification so far is it from being true that where the Works of the Law are excluded there Evangelical Obedience is excluded from having any share in the Work of Justification 1 Cor. 7. 19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Circumcision is here again as before put for the whole Law And indeed he that was circumcised was bound to keep the whole Law as this Apostle noteth in Gal. 5. 3. And when he saith Circumcision is nothing he means here doubtless as in those other places already opened that it avails nothing to any Mans acceptation with God or to his Justification and Salvation as the Iudaizers of those times thought it did But then the keeping of the Commandments of God will avail to these ends For that I conceive was intended and ought to be understood by the opposition that is made between Circumcision and keeping the Commandments 6. Faith it self is an act of Evangelical Obedience this as wel as love is an act of Conformity to our Lord's Commands and therefore a Man cannot be justified by Faith but in being so he must be justified by Evangelical Obedience 1 Iohn 3. 23. This is his Commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Iesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment This by our Saviour is called a work Joh. 6. 29. This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent And there is so much of the Nature of Evangelical Obedience in Faith it self as that to believe and to obey are promiscuously put one for another and so is unbelief and disobedience Accordingly you have in many places the one reading in the Text and the other in the Margin as Acts 5. 36. Rom. 11. 30 31. Ephes. 5. 6. Heb. 4. 11. 11. 31. And belief and disobedience are in Scripture opposed to each other as direct contraries Rom. 10. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 7. 2 Thes. 2. 12. So that since Faith is an act of Evangelical Obedience it follows that to say the Works of Evangelical Obedience do justifie does no more derogate from the Grace of God or the freeness of his Grace in justifying than to say Faith justifies First Because other acts of Evangelical Obedience are the effects of God's Grace and produced by it as well as Faith It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. And secondly Because it is meerly of the Law of Grace that Faith and other Acts of Evangelical Obedience are made the Condition of the Promise of Salvation Ephes. 2. 8. By grace are ye Saved through Faith in Christ Iesus and that not of your selves it is the gift of God As Men do not believe or obey of themselves without supernatural assistance so neither is it of themselves that they are justified or saved upon their believing but both the one and the other is the gift of God It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy It is by virtue of God's new Covenant that a Promise of pardon is made to Repentance or to Faith for the primary Law the Law of Nature promised no such thing upon Repentance And it is by virtue of the same Law of Grace that a Promise of Justification and reward is made to sincere Obedience in other Acts of Obedience as well as those of Faith and Repentance That which hath made many afraid of interessing Evangelical Obedience with Faith in justifying men hath been an Opinion that so to do would derogate from God's Grace attribute too much to Man But you see there is no ground for such an Opinion It 's true indeed the proper merit of Works and God's Grace are inconsistent And therefore are opposed to each other in Scripture But Evangelical Obedience and Grace are no more opposite or inconsistent than Cause and Effect or than Causes principal and subordinatâ— And as it doth not follow that because we are justified freely by God's Grace that therefore we are not justified by Faith So neither doth it follow that because we are justified by Faith that therefore we are not justified by sincere obedience For these and the Blood of Christ do all concur in producing many of the same effects though not in the same respect 7. By Evangelical Obedience Christians come to have a right to Salvation Revel 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have a right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the gates into the City This is left on Record as a special Memorandum for Christians in closing up the Canon of the New Testament and therefore is to be taken special notice of This right to the Tree of Life and of entring into this blessed City upon keeping the Commandments is from a new Covenant or Law Act or Grant from God For otherwise Man that had transgressed
the first Law he was put under would have been far from having any right to such happiness upon the terms here mentioned viz. of sincere though imperfect Obedience But seeing that a Right to Salvation doth accrue to Men upon a sincere keeping of God's Commandments notwithstanding their forfeiture of their first Right by Man's first fall it evidently follows that Evangelical or Sincere Obedience is part of the Condition of the Promise of blessedness in the new Law or Covenant and is here put for the whole of it as at other times Faith is put for the whole of the Condition And that Moses David Solomon Nehemiah and Daniel received it in this sense and understood all along that sincere Obedience flowing from Love was the Condition of God's Covenant of mercy when they styled him a God keeping Covenant and mercy with those that love him and keep his Commandments Deut. 7. 9. 1 King 8. 23. Neh. 1. 5. Dan. 9. 4. I have before shewed If it shall be here said that sincere obedience is indeed a Condition of Salvation but not of Justification and that it is so made here in this 22d of the Revelation I have I think sufficiently answered this Objection in the former Chapter but shall here add That such as thus say are morecurious and nice in distinguishing between Justification and Salvation than St. Paul was For he calls Justification the Iustification of Life Rom. 5. 18. Whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8. 30. and proves that men shall be justified by Faith because it is written that the Iust shall live by Faith Gal. 3. 11. Thus with him to be justified to be blessed are all one Gal. 3. 8 9. Ro. 4. 7 8 9. And to confirm this Righteousness or Justification and Life are used by him as Synonimous terms Gal. 3. 21. For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law And Justification and Condemnation are put in direct opposition to each other Rom. 5. 18. 8. 33 34. And to be from Condemnation which is Justification and to be saved are as much one as not to dye is to live In short Salvation as well as Justification is promised to believing Ioh. 3. 16. Act. 3. 31. Heb. 10. 39. And therefore Salvation as well as Justification must needs be the immediate effect of Faith if we take Salvation as begun here in this Life as the Scripture represents it to be Ioh. 5. 24. 1 Ioh. 3. 14. 5. 12. From all which me may conclude that what is absolutely necessary to Salvation must needs also be necessary to Justification Add we hereto that to be justified and to be saved is the same thing with St. Iames as well as it is with St. Paul according to the tenour of his reasoning Chap. 2. from ver 14. to the end What doth it profit my brethren saith he though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works can Faith save him vers 14. This Interrogation implyes an Emphatical Negation and the meaning is that such a Faith can by no means save a man and he gives the reason of it twice over in vers 17 20. because Faith without Works is dead And then afterwards argues the necessity of Works together with Faith unto Justification or unto Salvation which was the thing he began with by God's justifying Abraham by Works together with his Faith who was the great Patern or Example of God's justifying all others If then to be juâ—tified and to be saved amounts to the same in St. Iames's Discourse here then by the way they do not rightly understand St. Iames who think he doth not speak of a Justification before God in this his Discourse about Justification by Works together with Faith but of a Justification before Men and to their own Conscience only Which supposition of theirs doth directly thwart the very Scope and Design of his whole Discourse which is to set forth what will and what will not avail a Christian-Professor in the sight of God to the saving of his Soul as abundantly appears So that the Scripture which saith Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness and which St. Iames saith was fulfilled in Abraham's being justified by Works as well as by Faith was not fulfilled in Abraham's being justified to others and to his own Conscience but in his being justified before God and so St. Paul understood it Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. But this was touched before in Chap. 1. The result then of what hath been argued in Answer to the Objection is this viz. That all that are justified are thereby put regularly into an immediate capacity of Salvation so that if they should dye the very next moment after they are once justified they would undoubtedly be saved And therefore Evangelical Obedience can be no more necessary to Salvation than it is to Justification and it is as necessary to the one as to the other And if to say Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification be injurious to Christ and to the Grace of God as some would pretend how comes it to pass then that to say Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Salvation is not so too For our final Salvation is as much the effect of God's Grace and of Christ's undertaking for us as our Justification it self is and of as much value And therefore if the one be not injurious in this kind neither is the other 8. As the Promise of forgiveness of sins by the Blood of Christ or the Promise of an interest in his Blood to the pardon of Sinne is sometimes made unto believing so sometimes again it is made unto Evangelical Obedience or a holy Life as in 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light that is endeavouring to be holy as God is holy then have we fellowship one with another and the Blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin but otherwise it doth not And so the Christians to whom St. Peter wrote were said to be elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 2. But they were not elect to the benefit of being sprinkled with the blood of Christ without obedience And therefore by this we see also that Evangelical Obedience is part of the Condition of the Promise of Justification by the Blood of Christ. 9. To forgive Injuries is an act of Evangelical Obedience to that Precept of our Lord Mar. 11. 25. And yet without this act of Obedience Men that have been injurious cannot be justified because they cannot be pardoned according to the Word of our Lord Mark 11. 26. Mat. 6. 15. 18. 35. Therefore Evangelical Obedience must needs be part of the Condition of Justification 10. Repentance is an eminent Act of Evangelical Obedience Acts 17. 30. and yet
difference of those two kinds of Faith with what brevity and perspicuity I can I cannot I coâ—fess think that the nature of Faith which is of absolute necessity to the Salvation of the meanest Christian is in it self hard to be understood were it not that the many Controversies about it about its Object and the Acts of the Soul necessary to it had puzzled mens minds and distracted their apprehensions concerning it Things absolutely necessary to Salvation as they are not many so there are hardly any Doctrines delivered with more plainness than they that the weak who are as much concerned in them as the strong might competently understand them as well as they Men may multiply Notions about Faith as the Scripture useth various expressions about it But I doubt not but that the general sense of the Scripture hereabout may be summarily â—xpressed in this plain Proposition That saving Faith is such a belief of Christ to be the Son of God and of the truth of his Doctrine especially touching the virtue of his Death and Resurrection and the necessity of amendment of life for the obtaining remission of Sin and Eternal Life as causeth a man to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live a godly righteous and a sober life This is so plain in Scripture as that there is no Christian so weak but may easily come to understand it and so evident that none who acknowledge the Truth of the Gospel can deny it That I may state the difference then between Effectual and Ineffectual Faith and matters relating to them with all the plainness I can I shall very briefly endeavour these five things 1. To open the comprehensive nature of Faith 2. Shew wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not saving 3. Shew whence that defect proceeds 4. How and after what manner Faith in the Understanding works savingly upon the Will 5. Answer some few Objections 1. The comprehensive nature of â—aving Faith opened That I may open the comprehensive nature of Faith the better I shall first observe how variously the Condition upon which saving benefits are promised is expressed in Scripture and then what actings of the Soul are thereby signified It is thus variously expressed in Scripture Sometimes it s called a believing God Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. a believing in God 1 Pet. 1. 21. a believing on God Rom. 4. 24. a believing the Record which God hath given of his Son 1 Ioh. 5. 10. Sometimes it s called a believing on Christ Ioh. 3. 16 36. Act. 16. 31. a believing him to be the Christ the Son of God Ioh. 20. 31. 1 Ioh. 5. 5. It 's called Faith in his Blood Rom. 3. 25. a believing that God raised him from the dead Rom. 10. 9. Sometimes it s called a believing of the Gospel Mar. 16. 15 16. a believing of the Truth 2 Thâ—s 2. 15. a believing the testimony of the Apostles 2 Thes. 1. 10. Sometimes it is expressed under the Notion of Repentance Acts 2. 38. 3. 19. 11. 18. 2 Cor. 7. 10. and sometimes of obedience 1 Iohn 1. 7. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Heb. 5. 9. The Condion of the Promise of saving benefits being thus variously expressed can signifie no less than a three-fold Act of the Soul The first being the Act of the Understanding The second of the Will The third of the Understanding and Will conjunct I. Such expressions of the Condition of the Promise as is the believing God the believing in God the believing his Record the believing the Gospel the believing Christ to be the Son of God do most properly signifie the act of the mind or understanding in assenting to the truth of what God testifieth or promiseth Which assent is grounded upon a knowledge or belief of God's Veracity his Truth and Faithfulness armed with All-sufficiency of Power Wisdom and Goodness to make good his Word to a tittle And although such expressions as aforesaid do most properly signifie the act of the Understanding yet when ever saving Benefits are promised and the Condition expressed in such a form of words as doth most properly and primarily signifie the assent of the mind even then the act of the Will in consenting to the Condition is implyed and ought to be understood as I shall fully prove in the next Particular And the reason why the whole of the Condition of the Promise relating to the consent of the Will as well as the assent of the Understanding is frequently expressed in such a form of words as primarily and strictly signifie the assent of the mind is I conceive because such assent of the mind is the Principle from which all concurrent acts of the Will necessary to Justification and Salvation do proceed And it is of frequent use in Scripture to denominate the whole of Religion by some one Principal part which is a fruitful Principle of all the rest Thus the knowledge of the true God and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent is said to be Eternal Life Ioh. 17. 3. And thus sometimes the fear of God and sometimes the love of God is put for the whole of Mens saving Religiousness and the same Promise of blessedness made to one of these singly exprest is to be extended to the whole In like manner the whole of Christianity is frequently denominated by Faith and the Christians stiled Believers and the houshold of Faith and the like and all because that Christian life of theirs by which they differ from other Men flows from their Faith which is the first active Principle of it 2. Another act of the Soul essentially necessary to that Faith which is the Condition of the Promise is the consent of the Will to repent to receive Christ as Lord King to be govered by his Laws as well as to own him for a Priest once ofâ—ering himself and ever making interecession for us For the Condition of the Promise of Pardon and Salvation is expressed under the notion of Repentance and sometimes of Obedience as I shewed before And Repentance and Odience are acts of the Will as renewed And that there is no Promise of saving benefits upon meer believing without observing that part of the Condition which consisteth in Repentance Regeneration and Obedience is most evident Because they are expresly excluded in Scripture from having any share in the saving benefits of the Covenant Justification or Salvation who do not Repent Luke 13. 3. who are not regenerate Ioh. 3. 5. who love not the Lord Jesus Christ and that above any worldly enjoyment 1 Cor. 16. 22. Matth. 10. 37. and who do not obey him Acts 3. 22 23. Luke 19. 27. 2 Thes. 1. 7. By all which we may certainly know that when ever there is Promise of Justification and Salvation made to believing it is to be understood of such a believing as doth at that instant in which a man believes savingly produce a sincere consent of the Will to repent to love Christ and to
obey him For otherwise those Scriptures and these would be inâ—onsistent For if men cannot be pardoned nor delivered from the curse nor be safe from destruction until they have repented are regenerate do love Christ and obey the Gospel as the forecited Scriptures do assure us they cannot then no Faith whatsoever is justifying or can entitle them to Pardon and Salvation acording to the Tenour of God's Promise until it hath produced that Repentance Regeneration Love and Obedience Which is a full and an undenyable proof of the necessity of such a consent of the Will as aforesaid to render Faith justifying and saving Now this consent and resolutionof the Will to repent and obey Christ and to forsake all for him is the Moral change of the Soul and the new life in its first beginning And so a mans first effectual Belief is his whole Christian life in its beginning And a mans first Faith is perfected afterwards by Works Iam. 2. 22. as a Child is perfected in his manly state as he grows up to manly actions or as the Seed is perfected when it grows to a full Ear. By this first consent of the Will we restipulate and strike Covenant with God and not only so but we thereby begin also to keep and perform Covenant with him on our part When this consent is first wrought in the Will then the Laws of the new Covenant are first put into the mind and written in the heart And by this we first begin to become savingly a people unto God to believe in him to love and serve him as he by Covenant and Promise becomes a God unto us to make us happy Heb. 8. 10. This is the Convenant that I will make I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people 3. The other act of the Soul which I call the act of the Understanding of the Will conjunct is an affiance in God through Christ a trusting in him or a relying on him for the fulfilling of his Promise of saving Benefits while we continue sincerely to consent resolve and endeavour to perform the Condition on our part This is that or part of that which is called a believing on God a believing on Christ and a trusting in him Noting the Souls dependence upon Christ â—or the saving benefits which accrue to Men by his Mediation Office and Undertaking and on the Truth and Faithfulness Power Wisdom and Goodness of God to perform all that he hath promised them through his Son and upon the terms he hath promised and not otherwise For the Promise of saving Benefits being made but upon the Condition before mentioned a true Believer or he that is rational wise considers as well upon what terms the benefits are promised as who hath promised them and what they are and expects the one no otherwise than as he sincerely resolves and endeavours to perform the other And therefore if any shall rely on God and Christ for those benefits in whom yet the qualifying condition of the Promise of them is not found Such a relyance is but a groundless presumption and not Faith or Affiance duly so called For such do not only rely on Christ for that for which they have no Promise but for that which God hath expresly declared they shall have no share in whilst they remain destitute of that qualification which is the Condition upon which and not without it the promise of those benefites is made These three acts of the Soul exercised on their Objects do make up that Faith which is justifying and saving And when justifying Faith in the compleat nature of it is spoken of in Scripture all these three acts of the Soul are to be understood and especially the two first though perhaps they are many times mentioned severally and apart Faith being described sometimes by one of them and sometimes by another As God himself is represented to us sometimes by one Attribute sometimes by another II. Wherein the Defect lyes of that Faith which is not saving By what hath been discoursed touching the nature of that Faith which is saving it is easie to disâ—ern wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not so And the defect lyes chiefly in the Will in its not consenting to perform the condition of the Promise in repenting and in receiving Christ as Lord to be governed by his Laws I will not deny but the defect in part may be in the Understanding when its assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelation is so weak as that it can make but a too weak and â—aint impression upon the Will to procure its consent unto the Condition of the Promise But then that defect in the assent of the Understanding doth usually at least in great part proceed from the Will as I shall shew afterwards Now that the defect lyes mainly in the Will 's not consenting to the Condition of the Promise appears by this because unregenerate men may assent unto the truth of God's Testimony and may trust that they shall be saved by Christ which contain the other two acts of the Soul but no man truly consents to perform the Condition of the Promise but in doing so he is regenerate in the first Act and justified 1. Unregenerate men may have the same Faith of assent in the Understanding to a degree as the regenerate may They may believe God to be the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and Jesus Christ to be his only Son and the rest of the Articles of the Creed and they may believe in great part that to be their duty both towards God and Man which is so indeed and yet hold that truth in unrighteousness which they do believe Rom. 1. 18. Many of the chief Rulers believed on Christ who yet loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God and durst not confess him Joh. 12. 42 43. As also did many others when they saw his Miracles who yet were such as Christ had no mind to commit himself to Ioh. 2. 23 24. And Simon Maguâ— believed wondering and being astonished at the signes which were done by Philip who yet remained in the bond of iniquity Acts 8. Such as are resembled by the stony ground believed who yet loved their ease and worldly interest more than Christ And those that St. Iames expostulates with Chap. 2. were thus far believers also 2. Excepting the consent of the Will to the Condition of the Promise unregenerate Men may hope to be saved by Christ and rely on him for Salvation as well as the Regenerate Only for want of their performing the Condition of the Promise their hopes and confidence are groundless and will deceive them But otherwise men that are but carnal and live in some known sin may and oftimes do perswade themselves that they shall be saved by Christ Jesus because they believe that he dyed for sinners and
Justification is suspended and are both constituted so by the same means and that is by promise of pardon to such as do believe to such as do repent and by threatning the contrary to those that do not both And if they are a joynt Condition of the Promise of Justification then Justification proceeds not upon either of them alone but upon both together 6. Whereas it is said in the Similitude that a man sees with his Eye alone though not with his Eye which is alone or when it is alone I doubt this is no more true than that which is intended to be illustrated by it For Naturalists will tell them the contrary that it is not the Eye alone by which a Man sees but that it is the Soul that sees by the Eye as its Organ The Eye sees not when the Soul is departed though it be not then alone I confess I cannot possibly conceive either how the Soul should not concur with the Eye in the act of seeing when the Eye cannot see without it nor yet that Repentance should not concur with Faith in the act of Justification so long as men cannot be justified by Faith it self without it or in the absence of it as they themselves grant 3. This lyes in the way of some they cannot conceive how Justification by Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith should consist with the possibility of somes being justified by believing who yet may not live so long after as to have an oppertunity of doing good Works How rare Instances of this kind are I shall not dispute But doubtless when ever men so believe Gods Promise of pardon through Christ upon their Repentance and the necessity of their own Repentance for the obtaining of it as that they in Will and a fixed and lasting Resolution become new men then they first believe unto Justification And it is not impossible but that some may so believe that may never after they do so have opportunity to be much active in External Acts of Obedience But though this should so fall out yet such are not justified without Evangelical Obedience as wel as Faith For 1. These Motions and Acts of the Will are themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience 2. They are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come I. They are in themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience For by these Motions and Acts of the Will Men do when ever they take place turn from sin to God and their Duty out of hatred to that they turn from and out of love to that they turn to And these Acts of the Will which consist in affection and resolution are proper effects and fruits of Faith in the Understanding and Acts of Heart-Obedience in the sight of God and a conformity of Soul to his declared Will and Commandment And they may as well and as truly be called Works as evil Acts of the Will may such as are a love to evil and desires and resolutions of perpetrating it Which evil Acts of the Will are yet in Scripture called Works and a working of wickedness Psal. 58. 2. Ye work wickedness in your hearts Micah 2. 1. He that looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Matth. 5. 28. And envy wrath and hatred which are Internal Acts of the Soul are called Works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20 21. And if such inward fixed resolutions in Men of obeying God in External Acts if ever they have opportunity and a Call to it did not pass in God's account for Obedience and were not accepted in stead of the Deed when opportunity for the Deed is wanting the best Man in the World could be no Disciple of Christ who doth not actually forsake all that he hath and lay down his life for him Whosoever of you forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple saith he Luke 14. 26 33. Whereas Christ pronounceth the poor in spirit blessed many of whom never became actually poor for his sake as not being called to it But if they are poor in Spirit if they firmly resolve to become poor in forsaking all for Christs sake when called to it these are capable of blessedness in Christ's account as well as those that suffer the loss of all for Righteousness sake Matth. 5. 3. II. Those Acts of the Will are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come Because those resolutions against evil for good when they are of a fixed and lasting nature as they alwayes are when together with Faith they make men capable of Justification will certainly produce External Acts of sincere Obedience as opportunity doth occur When the Tree is made good it will bring forth good Fruit in the season of Fruit if it be not cut down before When the heart is renewed in affection and resolution the course of a Mans Life will certainly be answerable to it if ever he have opportunity of shewing it A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things Mat. 12. 35. And God who knows the heart doth judge of and estimate men according to what they are in the inward frame of their heart and prevalent bent of their Wills If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8. 12. We judge of the Cause by the Effects of the goodness of mens hearts by the goodness of their lives to us the Tree is known by its Fruit But God who is greater than our hearts and knows them better than we do judges of the effect by the Cause and knows what a Mans Life will be by what his heart is upon its first conversion to him and so confers on him the benefit of Justification when the Foundation of a good Life is laid in the conversion and renewing of the heart The Understanding of this Part of Discourse will serve not only to satisfie the foresaid doubt but also to inform us what Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification in its beginning Not but that actual Obedience in Life is necessary to the continuance of Justification where Life is continued And therefore we find that Abraham was justified by his after-believing and after-obedience as well as by his first and so was Noah before him Noah was a righteous Man and justified before he became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith by his believing and obeying God in preparing the Ark Gen. 6. 9. Heb. 11. 7. It was by Faith in God's Promise that Abraham left his Countrey to obey God at the first and by that he was first justified Heb. 11. 8. And yet his believing God's Promise so shall thy Seed be which was not made till some years after was imputed to him also for righteousness Gen. 15. 6. It was many years after that again that by Faith he offered his son Isaac upon the
the Law for them becomes imputed to them in it self and not only as the procuring cause of their Justification upon the terms of the Gospel so that they are looked upon as having themselves perfectly kept the Law in him it hath doubtless infeebled their endeavours after an inherent Righteousness and proved a temptation to them to think that so long as they have such anothers inherent Righteousness essentially in it self imputed to them as Christs is they have no great need to find it in themselves considering also that if they had it they must rather loath themselves for it than take any comfort in it But let no man deceive you saith St. Iohn he that doth righteousness is righteous as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. I do acknowledge that many of them have been worthy men who yet have propagated these Opinions But that makes the Opinions never the better but have done more hurt in gaining thereby the more credit It is true also that those worthy Men have zealously pressed the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life which proved indeed an Antidote against the Poyson of the other Opinions so that they did not become mortal to many as otherwise they would have done And indeed they would have made mad work if they had not been yoked with wholesomer Doctrine as we see they did among Antinomians Ranters and other carnal Chistians that have followed the Docture of those Opinions but have been shy of letting the Doctrines of Mortification and strict living to have any power over them But then if the preaching of those sounder Doctrines of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life have done much good notwithstanding they have been clogged with Opinions of another tendency it is easie to imagine that they would have done much more good if they had not been checkt by those unsound Principles But I shall say no more of this though more might be said because I hope I may say that most of those who have formerly imbibed these Opinions are now come to deliver themselves with more caution than heretofore And so I shall procâ—â—d to the last thing I propounded to touch upon and that is to shew CHAP. VII That the Doctrine of St. Paul and of St. Iames about Faith and Works in reference to Iustification do not differ but are wholly one IT is true indeed though the Doctrine of St. PAVL and St. IAMES was in nothing opposite the one to the other yet the nature of the subject-matter of their Epistles did differ just as the Errors they engaged against did differ The Errors of the unbelieving Iews consisting much in denying Justification to be by Christ and Faith in him and in placing it in their own works of Circumcising Sacrificing and other Mosaical Observations And St. Paul designing in some of his Epistles to antidote the Christians against the infection of them and to establish them in the saving Doctrine of the Gospel was led of course to bend his discourse in great part against Justification by Works of the Law and on the contrary to assert it to be by Faith in Christ in his Death and in his Doctrine without those works Whereas St. Iames having to do in his Epistle with such as professed the Christian Faith and Justification by it but erring dangerously about the nature of Faith as justifying thinking that opinionative Faith would save them though destitute of a real change in the moral frame and constitution of their Souls and of a holy Life Hereupon it became in a manner as necessary for him to plead the Renovation of Man's Nature and Evangelical Obedience to be some way necessary unto Justification as it was for St. Paul to contend for Justification by Faith without the deeds of the Law And therefore though their Doctrines in this respect did in great part differ yet they did not differ as Truth differs from Error nor as opposites but only as one Truth differs from another For otherwise when St. Paul had to do with the like Erroneous and Scandalous Christians as those were which St. Iames expostulated the matter with When he had to do with such as had a form of godliness but denyed the power thereof he could and did decry a reprobate faith and plead the necessity of a Faith that is unfeighned and of a holy Life as well as St. Iames as appears in part by what was said in the former Chapter and will I doubt not be made sufficiently evident in this In order whereto I shall recommend to consideration these ten things 1. That Works of Evangelical Obedience are never in Scripture opposed to God's Grace 2. That St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works gives sufficient Caution not to be understood thereby to speak any thing against Evangelical Obedience in reference thereto 3. That Regeneration or the new Creature as including Evangelical Obedience is oposed to Works in the business of Man's Justification as well as Faith is and as well as the grace of God it self is 4. That Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith and together with Faith is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification 5. That Evangelical Obedience alone is opposed to the Works of the Law 6. Faith it self is an act of Evangelical Obedience 7. By Evangelical Obedience Christians come to have a right to Salvation 8. The Promise of benefit by the Blood of Christ is made to Evangelical Obedience 9. Repentance And 10. Forgiving Injuries are both acts of Evangelical Obedience without which a Man cannot be justifyed And if these things be made out they will I think amount to such a Demonstration as that we cannot well desire a clearer or fuller proof that St. Paul together with other the Apostles taught Justification by Evangelical Obedience as the effect of Faith as well as St. Iames. 1. The works of Evangelical Obedience as the effects of Faith and Regeneration by Faith are never in St. Paul's Epistles or any other the holy Scriptures opposed to God's Grace in referenee to Justification and Salvation Works and Grace indeed are opposed to each other But then by Works we are to understand either Works antecedent to Conversion or as they are denyed to merit at the hands of God or the Works of the Law of Moses as Erroneously contended for by the Iews Or the Works of the Law as Typical and as opposed to things Typified Or the Works of the Law as the Law is in its rigour opposed to the milder Oeconomy of the Gospel But the Works of Evangelical Obedience are never opposed to Grace no more than Faith it self is And there is no reason why they should because Evangelical Obedience is the effect of Divine Grace as well as Faith it self is and tends to the praise of it and is accepted and will be rewarded through Grace Contrary hereunto those words in Titus 3. 5. Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy
believe so far as to assent in their minds that Christ was no Impostor but one that came from God and that therefore his Doctrine must needs be true but they did not believe so as to be converted in their Wills to consent to part with their carnal interest of honour and reputation with their party the Pharisees which they must have done as the case then stood if they would have confessed him openly which to do was necessary to make them capable of the Promise of Salvation by him Ioh. 12. 42 43. Among the chief Rulers many believed on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue for they loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God These had more understanding than the common people who as they said knew not the Law Ioh. 7. and yet not so many of them as of the people believed on Christ so as to confess and follow him because their wordly interest being greater it held them faster and had the greater power over their Wills The unbelief then of Men where the Gospel comes is generally to be resolved into the obstinacy of their Wills in opposition to the convictions of their Understanding Iohn 5. 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life How oft would I have gathered you and ye would not Mat. 23. 37. O that my people had hearkened to my counsel but Israel would none of me Psal. 81. 11. They did not chuse the fear of the Lord Prov. 1. 29. They chose their own ways their Souls delighted in their abominations Isa. 6. 3. Thus much in general But I would shew yet more particularly how the Will doth obstruct the perfecting the work of Faith after it 's begun in the Understanding And it doth it as I conceive I. By calling off the Understanding from a frequent consideration of that evidence by which it was first convinced of the Truth of Gods Testimony touching the Promised Benefits and the Condition and Means of obtaining them and from a frequent application of it to the Will and this the Will can do For as the Understanding hath a power over the Will so far a to represent it's apprehensions to the Will in order to its acting thereupon according to a Man 's own concerns therein so also the Will hath akâ—nd of power over the Understanding both to put it upon frequent consideration to strengthen it self in the belief of that which the Will would have to prove true and to be believed and also to call it off from so doing when there is a great reluctancy in the Will against having that prove true which the Understanding represents as true And if the Understanding be taken off so that it hath not frequent recourse to that evidence which first procured its assent unto the Truth of God's Testimony in the Gospel that it might be thereby nourished strengthened and maintained that Faith in the Understanding will languish and grow weak and so have no powerful operation upon the Will to change and renew it and to procure its effectual consent to perform the Condition of the Promise when the Will stands disinclined of it self to the Verdict of the Understanding Besides if the Understanding doth not ply the Will and frequently inculcate upon it it s own apprehensions concerning God's Testimony and the consequence and concernment of it to a Man 's own self thereby to make the Word believed to be an ingrafted Word it will not not work any Cure upon it or any through change in it The unwillingness in Men to have their Minds ingage in the consideration of God's ways and their own is the reason of their turning back from him Ioâ— 34. 27. They turned back from him and would not consider any of his ways As on the contrary the Scripture represents the conversion of a sinner as proceeding from the consideration of the bad tendency of his evil ways Ezek. 18. 28. Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions which he hath committed he shall surely live he shall not dye And our Saviour seems to cast mens profiting or not profiting their belief or not belief by hearing Gods Testimony in the Gospel upon their considering or not considering of it Mark 4. 24. And he said unto them consider what you hear so Dr. Hammond reads it for with what measure ye mete viz. in considering or not considering it shall be measured to you again in profiting or not profiting which is to be understood according to God's ordinary proceeding with men The reason why the Faith of those resembled by the stony ground doth not abide or come to perfection is because they have no Root in themselves and that comes to pass for want of much consideration and a frequent working the first conviction of the mind from the evidence of Truth into the Will Affections by a constant Consideration and close Application of it Acts 17. 11. They searched the Scriptures daily whether thâ—se things were so and therefore they believed 2. When men hold fast their lusts out of their great love to them notwithstanding their conviction in their Understandings and are â—ot willing to part with them upon any terms the Fumes of those lusts continually ascending will cloud and darken the Understanding as a thick Fogg doth the Sun and by degrees make it less capable of discerning its Object viz. saving Truth in its clear evidence and proportionably hinder in its that opperation upon the Will The cares of this World and the deceitfulness of Riches and the lusts of other things choaked the Word and it becometh unfruitful Mar. 4. 19. He that hateth his Brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goes because darkness hath blinded his eyes 1 Joh. 2. 11. 3. Sinful Mens understandings are â—ot so uncorrupt but that they are apt to be bribed by their Wills to cast about and devise how to evade the force and edge of their own notices and Dictates and to attempt and baffle their former apprehensions and convictions to the end they may still retain their lusts without any great disturbance from their Understandings This when it is yielded to and put in practice is that which in Scripture is called Mens closing their eyes leâ—t at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and should be converted and healed Mat. 13. 15. And when this takes place in Professors of Christianity that do believe that Faith Repentance and Obedience are necessary to Salvation as the Condition on which it is promised the way by which they uâ—ually deceive their own hearts is by perswading themselves that they do perform the Condition of the Promise in these when indeed they do not but frame to themselves Notions of saving Faith Repentance and Obedience different from the Scripture Notions of them as I shall shew in
â—ach of them 1. Many delude themselves by taking up a wrong Notion of saving Faith and so think they have it when they have it not They believe indeed Christ to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World and that those shall be saved that believe in him and those damned that do not because the Scripture which they believe to be the Word of God saith so And thus far they believe rightly objectively But then they deceive their own Souls by perswading themselves that a meer assent of their mind to the Truth of these and other Evangelical Verities is the Faith to which the Promise of Justification and Salvation is made though it hath no such powerful operation upon their Wills as to make them new Creatures to make any thorow change in the temper of their hearts and tenor of their lives And many doubtless have been greatly strengthened in this delusive confidence by having been taught that Faith justifies without any Works at all And these again perswade themselves that they believe in Christ to the saving of their Souls because they rely on him alone for Salvation and upon what he hath done and suffered for them though they love their sins and live in them still Just like some Iews of old who though they were very bad in their lives yet leaned upon the Lord and said is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us Mich. 3. 11. Isa. 48. 1 2. They leaned upon God's Promise of being their God as those do upon Christ's undertaking to be a Saviour although they overlooked the Condition to be performed by them in being a people unto him in loving and serving him as those Christians I speak of also do Though Christ alone is to be relyed on for Salvation as touching all that is proper to the Mediatory Office and Work yet no man is to rely on him so as to think he should excuse him if he do not repent or be not regenerate or as if he did repent or were regenerate for him If they do they promise themselves from him that which he never promised or undertook but hath told them plainly that except they themselves repent they shall perish and that except they themselves be born again they cannot see the Kingdome of God 2. They deceive their own hearts also in the nature of Repentance their Notion of it being one thing and the Scripture-Notion of it quite another So that they perswade themselves they have repented when indeed they have not They know and believe perhaps repentance to be necessary to Salvation because Christ hath said that except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish But then they mistake in perswading themselves that they do repent because they are frequently sorry for what they have done though they cease not to do the same again Indeed when the pleasure of Sin is over and rebukes of Conscience come in the room of them these trouble their minds for what they have done which was the Repentance of Iudas and there is no peace to the wicked who are like the troubled Sea Now this they count repentance though it work no effectual and thorow change in Heart and Life but when that sad fit is over they appear to be the same Men they were before by returning to the same sins And herein the Romish Church hath most unhappily laid a Snare which as is to be feared catcheth multitudes of Souls to their destruction in asserting Contrition yea Attrition with confession to be repentance sufficient to Salvation Whereas sorrow alone though it be godly sorrow is not Repentance but as St. Paul saith Godly sorrow worketh repentance 2 Cor. 7. 10. But Repentance itself which is saving consisteth chiefly in a real change in Mens apprehensions of and affections to both sin and duty and in ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Others again deceive themselves in taking a partial Reformation for true Repentance Because they have left some sins which they could best spare as blemishing their Reputation or impairing their Estates or their Health And because they have done many things which yet Herod also did Mar. 6. they think they have repented and are converted though they retain others which are more gainful or yield them more pleasure Whereas the sincerity of Repentance can be proved by nothing less then a hatred of and turning from sin as sin and so from all sin by diligent and careful endeavours 3. They deceive themselves by a false Notion of that Obedience which is necessary to Salvation They believe in the gross indeed that Obedience to the Commands of God to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel is necessary to Salvation because the Scripture so plainly declareth it to be so But then they deceive their own hearts in thinking and perswading themselves that they have performed this part of the Condition of the Promise when as they have not performed one half of it They have been it may be somewhat careful to be found in acts of External Worship and and Devotion both publick and private and to keep themselves from Idolatry Swearing Cursing Sabbath-breaking Murder Adultery Stealing False-witness-bearing and the like in the outward and gross acts of them But all the while have made no conscience of governing their Thoughts Affections and Passions nor their Tongues neither as to many things And in all this wherein do they exceed the Pbarisees whom if we exceed not in Righteousness Christ hath told us who best knows that we shall never â—nter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 20. They were strict and zealous in the observation of the Laws for Circumcision Sacrifice Sabbaths Tythes and other positive Precepts and that to a tittle and fasted often and made long Prayers and gave Alms and made Ostentation also that they were not as others were Extortioners Unjust Adulterers nor as the Publicans And why would not all this bring them to Heaven Because all this notwithstanding as they had not Faith in Christ so they were Covetous Proud and Ambitious seeking Honour one of another contemning and despising others they were envious and malicious cruel and ill-natured unmerciful and persecuting such as faithfully reproved them They made clean the outside of the Cup and Platter and so far as they did so they did well But that for which Christ denounced wo to them was that their inward part was ful of ravening and wickedness and for want of love to God and of Judgment Mercy and Fidelity God is a Spirit and the Service that is acceptable to him as being most agreeable to his Nature is that which is done in Spirit and Truth And therefore his Preceps are given to govern the inward Man as well as the outward He that said thou shalt not kill hath said also Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart nor be angry with him without a cause or bear a grudge against him He that said Thou shalt not commit adultery
pardon of sin which is essential to Justification is not to be obtained without it Luke 13. 3 5. Therefore again it follows that Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification and part of the Condition of it And now by this time I suppose it fully appears to any unprejudiced Reader that the Doctrine of St. Paul yea and of St. Peter and Iohn too do fully accord with the Doctrine of St. Iames touching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience unto Justification The opposition then which some have made between Faith and all Internall and External Works in reference to Justification as well Evangelical as Mosaical hath not been only without Scripture-ground but against Scripture-evidence and looks more like that which was made by the Gnosticks or other Solifidians opposed by St. Iames if it be not the very same than any the Scripture any where maketh And how much injury the Christian Religon and the Souls of Men may have suffered thereby is a thing to be thought on and sadly laid to heart It is a pleasant Doctrine and the worst of Men called Christians are glad to hear that they may be justifyed by Christ only upon their believing in him without any Works of Righteousness or self-denial of their own And upon that account presuming verily that they do believe they are confident that they are justified though they are unsanctified But those especially are in great danger of deceiving their own Souls by building their confidence upon this Doctrine who together with this belief have more of the form of godliness than the other have and are found much more in the use and exercise of the external devotional part of Religion and are zealous for this or that Opinion Party or Way which they think most Orthodox though they be greatly destitute of love to the Nature of God and of Humility Charity strict Justice Fidelity Peaceableness Sobriety Temperance Modesty and Meekness and of that renewed frame of Soul which would make them like Christ Jesus wherein the power of Christiany doth consist The External duties of Hearing Reading Praying and the rest being in great part but means referring to the other as the end So that no Man is to account himself truly Religious further than he attains to these truly Christian Qualifications by the use of the External Means and Internal Aids Yea the fleshly part even in Men good in the main is very apt to make an advantage of such a Doctrine as aforesaid to the lessening of their Care Diligence and Zeal in working out their Salvation in striving to enter in at the straight gate in governing their own Spirits and Appetites in cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and in perfecting holiness in the fear of God And therefore there is great need for those that are Spiritual Guides to the people to insist much upon the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life as well as Faith in order to their being justified and saved by Christ Jesus For the people yea the better sort of them stand most in need as of being well-grounded touching the truth of the Christian Religion so especially of having the Doctrines of Morality inculcated upon them the Precepts of the Gospel being almost all of that Nature though some speak diminutively of Moral Preaching and tend to the perfecting of the Nature of Man in regulating the Internal operations of the Soul and the External actions of life in reference both to God and Man our selves and others The recovering of Men to which is God's great design by the Gospel in order to their being made perfectly happy at last as I have shewed in Chap. 1. There is indeed an absolute necessity of believing the Gospel in order to Christian Practice And therefore our blessed Saviour did not only Preach the necessity of Faith in him and his Doctrine but also wrought abundance of Miracles to beget this Faith in Men. And yet he knowing the great danger of Mens miscarrying in point of Morality in the disposition of Soul and actions of Life insisted chiefly in his Preaching upon Doctrines of that nature as you may see in his Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere He taught the necessity of being born again Of making the Tree good that the fruit might be good And to inforce this Doctrine of his he was not wont to tell his Auditors that every Man shall be rewarded according to his belief but that when the Son of Man shall come every Man shall be rewarded according to his Works That those that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life and those that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation That by their words they shall be justified which are no more Faith than Works are And by their words they shall be condemned That in the great day of the tryal of all Nations every Man shall be acquitted or condemned according to the good they have done or neglected to do Mat. 25. And that then not every Man that had Faith enough to cry Lord Lord or to Prophesie cast out Devils or do wonders in his Name shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but such and such only as have done the will of his Father Great need there is therefore of peoples examining themselves impartially and of being often admonished to take heed left they mistake and deceive themselves in the nature of Religion and in what is absolutely necessary to be done on their part because men are very apt to flatter and deceive themselves in that and to think that when their Faith is right in the Object of it as when they believe in the true God and in his Son Jesus Christ and expect Salvation by him alone that then they are true believers and such as shall be saved especially if therewith they joyn the frequenting of God's Ordinances and the paring off of some of the grosser enormities of their lives though in the mean while they make no Conscience of cleansing their hearts and governing their Spirits of subduing their Passions and inordinate affections and of bridling the Tongue For this cause it is that Christians are so often in Scripture cautioned to take heed lest they should be deceived Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a Man sows that also shall he reap Gal. 6. 7 8. Little Children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousness is Righteous even as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Ephes. 5. 6. An APPENDIX touching the nature and Difference of that Faith which is justifying and of that which is not and the reason of that difference MEn's Eternal Estate of Weal or Wo in another World and their Peace and Comfort in this being very much concerned in their right understanding or mistaking the nature and difference of that Faith which is saving and of that which is not I shall here add to what is said before something to state the nature and