exercised about these things And hence comes that change which is made in the Hearts and Lives of true Believers who walk by Faith and not by Sight that is they govern their Lives by the belief of invisible and not sensible things 2 Cor. 5. 7. This in general But more particularly the Faith of Assâ—nt in the Understanding works the Faith of Consent in the Will by its operation upon those three Passions or Affections of the Will Hope Fear and Love 1. As a firm asseâ—ting to the Truth of God's Promise through Christ of pardon of Sin and Eternal Life upon Condition of Repentance and new Obedience together with his Faith gives a man hope and confidence of obtaining these great benefits upon the terms on which they were promised The hope of this happiness causeth a Man to be willing to comply with the Condition upon which it is promised in order to the obtaining the happiness it self There is a Principle of self love planted by God in the nature of every Man by which he doth naturally desire and aspire after the happiness of his own being And that will put a man upon the use of such means and the performance of such a Condition without which he believes and is verily perswaded he cannot be happy Now every Man in whom there is the Faith of assent unto the Truth of God's Testimony in the Gospel firmly fixed being verily perswaded that everlasting happiness is not attainable without Repentance Regeneration and sincere Obedience because God hath declared this as plainly as he hath done any thing And it is the nature of Faith to acquiesce in his Testimony The love of the end which is Mans own happiness makes him in love with the means such as is Repenting Mortifying and Obeying work without which he cannot attain his end in being happy This Principle of Self-love under the conduct of a Mans Understanding and Reason enlightned and regulated by a Declaration of the Divine Will and influenced by a firm belief of it will work in a Man new apprehensions of and new Affections to both Sin and Duty and will cause him to abandon the little pleasures of sin which are but for a season that he may come to the fruition of that fulness of joy and those Rivers of pleasure which are in the presence of God and at his right hand for evermore when once he knows and firmly believes that they cannot otherwise be obtained Thus by Faith is the victory over the world obtained in all its temptations from Honours Profits and Pleasures 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For by such a Faith a Man well perceives that the World offers him to his unspeakable loss though it should offer him all of these that it is able to confer upon him if it be upon condition of doing or omitting to do that by which he shall certainly deprive himself of that Glory Honour and Immortality which he is well assured of through Faith in God's Promise if he overcome We see Men are so commonly governed by a Principle of Self-love in parting with a lesser good or conveniency for a greater even in the things of this life that they are worthiâ—y an â— deservedly counted fools that do the coâ—trary And therefore those are guilty of so mucâ— the greater folly and madness who deprive themselves of the happiness of Heaven by a sinful seeking or possessing of the Honors Profits or Pleasures of this life as the happiness of Heaven exceeds the enjoyments of this World in kind and height of satisfaction and in continuance and duration so rational a thing it is to live and walk by Faith of unseen things and unreasonable and unmanly to be governed by the sense of present things in opposition thereunto 2 Thâ—ss 3. 2. 2. The Faith of Assent in the Understanding worketh a Consent in the Will to the Condition of the Promise as the passion of fear is awakened by believing God's threatnings against such as do not observe and fulfil that Condition There is a Principle of self-preservation planted by God in every Man's nature by which he fears and abhors that which he knows and verily believes tends to the infelicity and misery of his being and which puts him upon the avoiding of that which he believes hath such a tendency in order to the declyning the misery or destruction it self When a Man receives such sayings into his Understanding as threaten that if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that except ye repent ye shall all perish That without holiness no Man shall see the Lord and the like and doth assent unto them as the true sayings of God which assent is his Faith the fear of the misery threatned and the Principle of self-preservation work in him a desire and endeavour to have his sinful inclinations and appetites mortified and a care to avoid the outward acts of sin as really and truly as he desires to escape Eternal Destruction it self as believing and knowing they tend thereto and that he cannot escape the one without a sincere desire and endeavour to destroy and avoid the other And in this way Faith is a Believers Victory by which he also overcomes the World when it tempts him to sin by threatning him with disgrace loss of Estate or Liberty or with enduring of corporal punishment or death it self For he believes the punishments in the other world to be of such a nature and duration as that the worst things which Man can inflict are altogether inconsiderable in comparison of them By which belief he is so far guided that he chuses to suffer the less when his faithfulness to God and his own best interest doth expose him to it rather than to expose himself by unfaithfulnes to infinitely the greater to avoid the less And thus Faith purifies the heart of all inordinate affection to Riches Honour Ease and Pleasures Acts 15. 9. 3. The Faith of Assent or Credence in the Understanding touching the exceeding greatness of God's love to mankind in the gift of Christ for their Redemption and in his great and precious Promises made in him upon a very gracious Condition works in the Will a love to God and so a love to please him in doing those things which he hath made the Condition of his Promise When once the Understanding represents it to the Will as a certain Truth upon clear evidence that notwithstanding Mens Apostacy from God and Rebellion against him and the Condemnation they are under thereby yet God is reconcileable to them yea willing and so desirous to reconcile them to himself that as an evidence and proof of it he hath given his own Son Christ Jesus to become a Ransâ—me for them and that he hath made a new Covenant declaring that upon account of his Son 's undertaking for them he is not only abundantly willing to pardon all such as shall unfeigâ—â—dly repent of their disloyalty and sincerely return to their duty but that he will also bountifully reward
such as were injudicious concerning the Faith that will save and under mistakes of the Apostles Doctrine about it All this will easily appear to any that shall but with a competent measure of understanding view and consider the Scope and Contents of that Epistle And thus you see how plainly it appears by the Epistles of the Apostles that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works in the sence in which the Apostles asserted it was misunderstood by many Gnosticks carnal Gospellers or Solifidians The sense in which the Apostles did assert it was that Faith justifies without Works Antecedent to believing and without Works as the Works of a literal observation of Moses Law which was opposed by the Iews to Faith as having Christ crucified for its Object and Repentance Regeneration and sincere Obedience in a holy Life for its inseparable Effects But these deceived Souls that deceived their own Hearts seem to have understood the Apostles as if they had taught Justification by Faith considered only as having the Death of Christ and the Atonement made thereby for its Object without respect to Regeneration and new Obedience as any part of the Condition And it had been much better for the Christian World if those corrupt Notions about the Doctrine of Faith as justifying had dyed with those Men which in the first Ages of the Christian-Church were infected with them But alas it is too apparent that the same or much of the same dangerous and destructive mistakes have been transmitted to or revived in these latter Ages of the Church For we find by experience in this present Age that very many of those who are called Christians presume themselves to be Christians indeed and such as shall be saved by Christ though their lives declare them to be far from being new Creatures from â—eing renewed in the Spirit of their Minds Wills Affections and Conversations as those are that have been taught as the Truth is in Iesus Ephes. 4. 21 24. For they are confident they believe all the Articles of their Creed and in doing so they are confident they shall be saved and so they would if that belief of theirs were but so effectual and operative as to produce such a change in Heart and Life as would denominate them new Creatures But the mischief is they deceive themselves in the nature of their Faith it being but an Opinionative inoperative and dead assent to the truth of the Gospel such as is only an act of the mind or understanding and doth not powerfully influence the Will and so it is not a believing with all the Heart but is the act only of one faculty of the Soul A Belief its probable may be found in the Devil himself And such a Belief was found in some who were so convinced by the power of Christ's Miracles in concurrence with his Doctrine and Life that they could not choose but believe him to be an extraordinary Person sent from God though their carnal interest prevailed so much in them as that it would not suffer them to confess him openly because they loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God Joh. 12. 42 43. And besides these Men deceive themselves about their Faith in this also that they do not heartily believe the whole Doctrine of the Gospel but are partial in their Faith They in a sort believe Christ to be the Son of God and that he came into the World to save sinners and that he dyed for our sins and the like But then they do not heartily believe his Doctrine touching the necessity of Repentance of being born again of denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts of living righteously godly and soberly in this present world Or else they frame such Notions of these things unto themselves of Repentance and Regeneration as that they think they believe Christ's Doctrine touching them when they believe only the lying imagination of their own brains And there is too much ground to fear that many Mens ill managing the Doctrine of Justification by Faith hath not a little strengthened Men in this vain confidence For while Evangelical Obedience it self under the Notion of those Works to which Faith is opposed hath been decryed as Popish when interessed in Justification and Justification asserted to be by Faith alone in opposition to all works whatsoever inward and outward as well Evangelical as Legal as well those after Conversion as those before yea and the disposition thereunto the Flesh and the Devil to help it hath got great advantage thereby to perswade men against the necessity of a holy Life in such a sense of a holy Life as the Scripture makes absolutely necessary to Salvation For though its true that good Works have been acknowledged and pressed too as necessary to Salvation yet when withall they have been denyed to be necessary to Justification and Men have been taught that when once they are Justified they can never fall away from a state of Justification they have easily been drawn to believe that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation no more than to Justification but Faith only And upon supposition that the other 2 Points of Doctrine are true it would be but rational for them so to believe For if good Works be not necessary to Justification at all And if it is impossible but that those who are once justified should be saved how should Men chuse but infer from hence that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation unless it shall be said that Men are not put into an immediate capacity of Salvation by being justified Which to affirm would be to say Men are not freed from Condemnation by being freed from Condemnation which would be a contradiction in terms For to be justified is to be freed from condemnation Rom. 8. 33 34. 5. 16 18. and therefore Justification must needs put Men into an immediate capacity of being saved And as there is great reason to think that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone in opposition to the works of Evangelical Obedience hath been a stumbling-stone unto many and a back-friend to the power of godliness so there is another which hath been wont to be joyned with it that hath rendred it the more dangerous and it self no good friend to holy living and that is the Doctrine of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto Justification in that way in which it hath been managed by very many for otherwise there is a sense as I have shewed in which it is a great and a comfortable truth For when Men have been taught to esteem their own Righteousness but as filthy rags not only because of its utter insufficiency to justifie in stead of Christ or as he justifies in which respect indeed it is no better but also as any part of a Condition of Justification or of our acceptance with God And when they have been taught also that upon their believing only Christ's Righteousness in fulfilling
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
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
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
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
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
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
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