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 itself 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 Trutâ— 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 Man's own Happiness makes him in love with the Means such as is Repenting Mortifying and Obeying without which he cannot attain his end in being Happy This Principle of Self-love under the conduct of a Man's 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 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 Joh. 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 worthily and deservedly counted Fools that do the contrary And therefore those are guilty of so much the greater Folly and Madness who deprive themselves of the Happiness of Heaven by a sinful seeking or possessing of the Honours 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 Thess 3.2 2. The Faith of Assent in the Understanding worketh a Consent in the VVill 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 declining the Misery or Destruction itself VVhen a Man receives such sayings into his Understanding as threaten that if ye live after the flesh ye shall die 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 itself 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 Believer's 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 itself For he believes the Punishments in the other VVorld 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 unfaithfulness 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 III. 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 Reconcilable 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 Ransom 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 unfeignedly Repent of their disloyalty and sincerely return to their Duty but that he will also bountifully reward 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 manifestation 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
an endless Life of Misery in another World This in few Words is the main scope and purport of those great and fundamental Truths of our Religion the Articles of our Christian Faith as they relate to the Method of Reconciliation betwixt God and Man And the same are every one of 'em the most powerful Motives to a Holy Life as shall be hereafter shewed 2. The most powerful Motives to a Holy Life And therefore to be undoubtedly perswaded of the infallible Truth and Certainty of these main Truths of Scripture must in a peculiar manner be incumbent upon us All Scripture is indeed given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works 2 Tim. 3.16.17 That is all the Parts of Scripture are more or less serviceable to our Salvation and therefore far indeed be it from a Christian to entertain in his Breast a doubt of the Truth of any thing which God has reveal'd in his Word However this undoubted Perswasion which is necessary to constitute a true Believer must in an especial manner be had of the most important Truths because more does depend upon our having a stedfast and unwavering Belief of them than of others The Belief of these is the very Foundation of the Christian Life and the distinguishing Character of a Disciple of Christ if therefore our Faith should stagger as to these upon every Temptation there will ensue a Fall if not a Falling away and a total Apostacy from the Christian Religion And therefore the Belief of these Articles concerning the Transaction between God the Father and God the Son with relation to Man is made the great Condition of Man's Salvation This is Life Eternal to know that is to Believe Thee the only true GOD and JESVS CHRIST whom thou hast sent Joh. 17.3 4. To Believe is to be perswaded of all Revealed Truths in such manner and with such Acts of the Mind as is agreeable to the Nature of those several Truths 1. It is firmly to assent with the Mind to all Scripture-Truths indifferently 4. And as to Believe is to be undoubtedly perswaded of the Infallible Truth and Certainty of Divine Revelations so in such a manner and with such Acts of the Mind as is agreeable to the Nature of those several Revealed Truths For why The Nature of those Things of whose Truth we are to be perswaded are very different and therefore it must needs be that the Acts of Mind which cannot but receive their stamp and modification from the Things Believed must with reference thereunto be accordingly various As 1. There are several Truths contained in the Scriptures especially of the Old Testament which however they concern'd the Jews whilst their Religion was in force are not of that great Concernment to us Christians And therefore the Belief or Perswasion that may suffice us to have in respect of these or the like which are not of great Importance is only a general firm Assent of the Understanding whereby we yeild that these things are certainly so as God has declar'd because he who alone is True has spoke it Rom. 3.4 And indeed to all Scripture-Revelations indifferently considered and of what kind soever they be we must yeild a firm Assent because of the Authority of God declaring 'em to us 2. It is to Consent with the Will to live agreeably to the Importance of practical Truths 2. But besides some things of lesser Moment there are several Doctrines of weighty Importance and Concernment to us Reveal'd in the Holy Writ concerning which it is not sufficient that we only Assent unto 'em with our Minds that they are true but it is moreover necessary to give us the Title of True Believers that in reference to such Concerning Truths we should withal give up the Consent of our Wills to live as is fit for Persons of such Perswasions Thus we are taught in the Gospel That God has sent unto us his Onely Begotten Son to declare on what Covenants and Conditions he will receive us to Mercy And that this same Jesus will hereafter come as a King in all Pomp and Glory to Judge both the Quick and the Dead to pass Sentence upon us either of Happiness or of Misery according as we have performed or not performed that gracious Covenant he has made with us These are some of those weighty and important Truths contained in the Scriptures and which in the Creed are particularly proposed to our Belief and these that we may be said to Believe and to be throughly perswaded of the Truth of 'em it is not sufficient that we barely Assent and yield that they are true but we must Consent with our whole Wills that we will live and act as those who are fully perswaded of such Truths That is if we are throughly perswaded that Jesus Christ by being Crucify'd Dead and Bury'd has purchas'd Pardon for none other but those who abandoning their evil Ways do in the sincerity of their Hearts endeavour to please him we shall consent to Obey God's Holy Will and Commandments and to walk in the same all the Days of our Life And again if we are undoubtedly perswaded that he will finally come to Judge both the Quick and the Dead according to their Works we shall heartily Consent to conform our selves in Thought Word and Deed to his Holy Will and Pleasure To be undoubtedly perswaded of such Truths as these which do so much concern us does almost inseparably carry in the Notion of it a Consent of the Will to live as may be expected from such as are perswaded of the Truth of such Things and a bare Assent of the Mind that those Things are so will not be enough to give a Man the Title of a True Believer To Believe indeed in Propriety and Strictness of Speech may seem to signifie an Act of the Intellect only assenting to the Truth of a Proposition But in the Scripture Believing is a more practical Word and includes a Compliance of the Will with such Practices and Courses as are consequent upon such Belief if hearty and sincere And this is that which the Apostle Rom. 10.9 10. calls a Believing with the Heart for with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness And this was the Faith of those mention'd Acts 11.21 of whom it is said That many Believed and turned unto the Lord Not to instance here in Abraham's Faith of which I shall speak hereafter So that in short the Scriptural Notion of Faith or Belief with respect to those Practical Truths revealed to us in the Gospel is nothing else but a true serious resolute embracing of Christianity not only a being perswaded that all the Doctrines of Christ are true but a consenting and submitting to his Will and Commands in all things It is a Receiving and Accepting of Him as our Prophet to Instruct
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 Believer's 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 Sins 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's Sufferings for sin In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Ephes .1 7. and though God for Christ's sake doth forgive us Ephes 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 Joh. 2.2 yet that saying of Christ must and 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 1st 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 2dly 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 Joh. 5.3 Rom. 13.10 3dly 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 Righteousness And such must be the Faith of all others that shall obtain Justification upon their Believing as he did Jam. 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 Abraham's 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 thus accompanied with and perfected by Works was the Scripture fulfilled which saith Abraham Believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness And if so then the Justification by Works together with Faith of which St. James speaks here is a Justification before God and not before Men only and to a Man 's own Conscience For of such a Justification doth the Scripture in Gen 15.6 speak which is here cited by St. James Nor doth this that Faith accompanied with Obedience is imputed for Righteousness at all derogate from the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ in reference to the Ends for which they serve Because the whole Covenant and all the parts and terms of it both promises of Benefits and the Condition on which they are promised are all founded in Christ his undertaking for us and all the Benefits of it accrue to us upon our Believing and Obeying upon his account and for his sake We are in him who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 For which cause also he is called the Lord our Righteousness Not as if his Personal Obedience to the Law was so formally imputed to us as that we should be reckoned to have kept the Law in his keeping of it which hath been the Opinion of some for if that had been so there would have been no more need that Christ should have Suffered for us than there was that he should have Suffered for himself who had no sin for neither should we if we had perfectly kept the Law in him
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 and 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 Jews 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 Jews 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 ver 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 Jews 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 Jews 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 Mâ—aning 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 sâ—â—â— to understand it For I have shewed before that God never made promise of Justification upon naturally impossible Conditions as â—â—at would be and they are dishonourable thoughts of God to think he â—â—ath 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 more wherein the opposition is made in such a form of words betwâ—en the Jews 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 vvhich the Jews erroneous vvay 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 Righteousness 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 ovvn 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 vvhich vvas their ovvn their ovvn Sacrifices Sacrifices vvhich they themselves brought to be offered Whereas the Christian Justification is called the Righteousness of God because the Sacrifice by vvhich pardon of sin and acceptation vvith God is obtained vvas from God and given by God to vvit 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 vvas called their ovvn Righteousness because they did not think Regeneration or Supernatural Grace necessary to the obtaining of it but a Literal observation of the Lavv and Circumcision such as passed for a Righteousness among Men and such as they vvithout Supernatural Aid vvere able to perform As for those Precepts vvhich commanded the loving of God vvith all the Heart and the Circumcising the Heart because these vvere not enjoyned under express penalties as those things vvere of vvhich the Rulers vvere to take cognizance therefore the Pharisees counted them but Counsels only and not direct Precepts But the Christians-Righteousness vvhich is by Faith may be said to be of God because by Grace they are saved through Faith in Christ Jesus and that not of themselves it is the gift of God And we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.8 10. 3. It vvas called their ovvn Righteousness because it vvas a vvay of seeking to be justified of their ovvn devising and not of God's appointing And on the contrary the Gospel-Method of Justification is called the Righteousness of God through Faith because it is of God's Institution and Appointment It is the substance of God's New Law or Covenant The result of all then is That they were the Works of the Law as exclusive of Faith in Christ and his Death which the Apostle denied any Man to be justified by and not those Works of the Law which are the immediate effects of Faith in Christ in his Death and in his Doctrine CHAP. VI. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Justification by Faith and not by Works was then mistaken by some I Come in the next place to shew how that St. Paul's Reasonings about Faith and Works in reference to Justification were probably mistaken by such Solifidians as St. James reasoned against For he having taught that God did justifie the ungodly Gentiles upon their Believing and without the deeds of the Law but denying Justification to as many of the Jews as did not Believe though they were observers of the Law there were some who thereupon through mistake laid the whole stress of Salvation upon Believing to the neglect of a holy and virtuous Life And St. Paul being sensible how apt some were to make a bad use of his good Doctrine and to draw bad Conclusions out of good Premises he frequently mentions such Inferences on purpose to caution Men against them As for Instance He having said in Rom. 5.20 That where sin abounded grace did abound much more In Chap. 6.1 he saith What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound as some it seems were ready to infer God forbid saith he how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein You may consult to like purpose in general Rom. 3.5 6 7 31. 6.15 Gal. 2.17 and find that St. Paul and others were slanderously reported to have said Let us do evil that good may come That there were such as did misrepresent St.
Paul's Doctrine touching God's Grace and Long-suffering and wrest several passages in his Epistles and other Scriptures to their own destruction we are told by St. Peter also 2 Pet. 3.15 16. And account that the long-suffering of the Lord is Salvation even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given him hath written unto you as also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things In which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction And after St. Paul in his 2 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5 verses had by many black Characters described a sort of Christians that had a form of godliness but denied the power thereof In ver 8. he further describes them by that which was the cause of the forementioned unsavoury fruits of the Flesh to wit that they were men of corrupt minds or understandings and reprobate concerning the Faith or void of Judgment concerning the Faith as the Margin hath it They were Men of corrupt Principles and injudicious concerning the Doctrine of Faith They did not discern Faith to be necessary in the operative and practical nature of it But as they did satisfie themselves with a form of Godliness without the power so they did likewise with a formal inefficacious and liveless Faith which made them so unsavoury in their Lives And St. John after he had in his first Epistle antidoted the Christians against the pretentions of the Gnosticks who held a bad Life consistent with Communion with God through illumination of mind and the Christian Faith deceiving themselves and labouring to deceive others in thinking they might be Righteous without doing Righteousness 1 Joh. 3.7 He towards the conclusion of that Epistle sums up his general scope in it in these words These things have I written unto you that believe in the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal Life and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God Chap. 5.13 His meaning is as I conceive that he wrote this Epistle first to the end they might be the better assured of Salvation by Christ upon their rightly Believing on him And secondly To the end they might not be drawn into mistakes in the point of Believing as if any Faith less than such as is accompanied with a constant adherence to Christ's Doctrine and Example touching a holy Life would give them that Assurance He wrote to them that did Believe that they might Believe that is that they might Believe yet more understandingly more groundedly and so perseveringly against all temptations to Apostacy from the profession of the Faith or to loosness in the profession of it St. Jude also ver 3 4. stirred up the Christians to contend earnesâ—ly for the Faith the Doctrine of saving Sinners in the way of Believing because as he told them there were certain Men professing Faith but of ungodly Lives that were among them that turned the grace of God into lasciviousness so understanding the Law of Grace the Gospel as if it had been a Proclamation from Heaven of a general Pardon for Christ's sake and through Faith in him of as many sins as Men had a mind to commit The which Error led them into those Monstrous Impieties charged upon them in that Epistle By reason of which the way of Truth the right Faith they pretended to was evil-spoken of in the World as St. Peter notes they being indeed Spots and Blemishes to the Christians and Christian-profession so long as they were admitted to their Feasts of Charity as owned by them to be of their Number This was indeed an ungodly Faith But the Faith which he exhorted them to contend for and to build up themselves upon as on a sure Foundation he calls their most holy Faith vers 20. such a Faith as is an Operative Principle of a holy Life And they were such Christians as St. James in his Epistle did expostulate with that did lean so much upon a meer Believing upon a meer Assent of the mind unto the truth of certain Propositions as that they were careless in the subduing of their Passions and bridling their Tongues and regulating their Actions as if these had not been necessary to Salvation But thought themselves safe upon account of their barren Faith though they were Proud and Conceited of their Knowledge and Attainments Censorious and Contentious Unmercifull and Uncharitable In a word they were 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 sense 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's Law which was opposed by the Jews 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 died 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 being renewed in the Spirit of their Minds Wills Affections and Conversations as those are that have been taught as the Truth is in Jesus 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 such faculty of the Soul A Belief it 's 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 Died 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 and 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 it 's true that good Works have been acknowledged and pressed too as necessary to Salvation yet when withal they have been denied 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 two 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 and 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 instead 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 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 Christ's 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. John 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 yoaked with wholesomer Doctrine as we see they did among Antinomians Ranters and other carnal Christians that have followed the Ducture 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 proceed 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. James about Faith and Works in reference to Justification do not differ but are wholly one IT is true indeed though the Doctrine of St. PAVL and St. JAMES 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 Jews 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. James 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. James 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. James 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 opposed 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 others the Apostles taught Justification by Evangelical Obedience as the effect of Faith as well as St. James 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 reference 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 denied to merit at the hands of God Or the Works of the Law of Moses as Erroneously contended for by the Jews Or the Works of the Law as Typical and as opposed to things Typify'd 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 he saved us are wont to be alledged to prove that Works after Conversion as well as those before are opposed to the Mercy of God in the saving of Men. But whether this be duly collected from these words will best appear by opening the scope and meaning of the words with the Context The words in the 3 4 and 5 Verses are these For we our selves also were sometimes foolish serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards Man appeared Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost By their being Saved here is meant their being rescued and delivered from their sinful state mentioned vers 3. In that this is said to be done not by Works of Righteousness which they had done but according to God's Mercy The plain meaning I doubt not is that this change of their condition and deliverance from their sinful state was not effected or so much as begun among them by any Reformation of their own till the Gospel came to work it which is meant by the appearing of the Kindness and Love of God vers 4. and is of like import with that Chap. 2.11 12. which God of his Mercy and not of their Desert sent among them to that end And if this be the meaning of the words the Apostle was far from intending by Works of Righteousness in this place Works after Conversion I might rather well argue on the contrary from this place That Baptism which is an act of Evangelical Obedience in the Person Baptized and Regeneration which is Evangelical Obedience in the Root and Principle are together with the Mercy of God and as subordinate to it opposed to the Works of Righteousness here mentioned in the Work of Salvation For it is probable that by the washing of Regeneration here is meant Baptism as the Figure of Regeneration and by the Renewing of the Holy Ghost Regeneration it self By both which as subordinate to God's Mercy therein they were said to be saved and not by the Works of Righteousness which they had done before these There is another place in 2 Tim. 2.9 which is wont to be urged with this to Titus to the same purpose But it being of the same nature with this the same Answer may serve both with a little variation 2. St.
Paul in speaking against Justification by Works gives sufficient caution not to be understood thereby to speak against Evangelical Obedience in the case When he had asserted Justification to be by Faith without the deeds of the Law and that the Gentiles might be Justified by Believing without ever observing Moses's Law Rom. 3.28 lest he should be understood thereby to favour Gentilism or loose living in Men provided they would but turn Christians he frames and answers on Objection thus vers 31. Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid Yea we establish the Law And how did they so Certainly they did not thereby establish the Ceremonial Law in the Letter of it but in the Spirit of it they did in as much as in Preaching Justification in the Gospel-way they Preached in plain Precepts the necessity of that Spiritual purity unto Salvation which was but darkly and in a figure taught by the Ceremonial Law And this they did in Preaching the necessity of Mortification instead of Circumcision And by the Doctrine of Justification by Faith they established the Moral Law both in the Letter and â—pirit of it in teaching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience to it 〈…〉 more spiritual and forcible manner than had been taught beâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 in when he had charged the unbelieving Jews with a great Erroâ— in going about to establish a Righteousness of their own in opposâ—â—iâ—â— to God's in adhering to their Law against the Gospel Rom. 10.3 to the end it might not be thought that he would take them off their Law that they might be Lawless or less Religious he adds vers 4. that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth For so he is in his Doctrine having therein taught that Righteousness of living which the Law it self taught but in a far more excellent spiritual and effectual manner than was taught by the Law So that all that he designed in taking them off from their Law was but to put them under a better conduct To make them dead to the Law that they might be married to another viz. to Christ by his Gospel that they might bring forth fruit unto God as it is Rom. 7.4 And likewise in ver 6. he saith We are delivered from the Law but not to be Lawless but that we might serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter that is according to the Spirit Scope and Design of the Law now expressed in plain Precepts and not in the oldness of the Letter and Ceremony And so he saith of himself Gal. 2.19 I through the Law am dead to the Law i e he through a better understanding of God's design in the Law became dead as to all his former expectations of Justification by it But then if he were dead to the Law it was as he saith that he might live unto God live a life in the flesh through the Faith in his Son through believing his Gospel in its Precepts and Promises the one directing and the other quickning unto a most excellent Life ver 20. And if St. Paul were thus careful in denying Justification by Works to assert the necessity of Evangelical Obedience we may well conclude that he never intended under the notion of Works of the Law to exclude Evangelical Obedience from having any hand sooner or later in Justification 3. Regeneration or the New Creature as including Evangelical Obedience is opposed to Works of the Law in the business of Man's Justification as well as Faith is and as well as the Grace of God it self is Gal. 6.15 For in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature Circumcision is here as elsewhere by a Synecdoche put for the Works of the Law in general For there were none that were for Circumcising but who were also for keeping the Law of Moses Only Circumcision is mentioned frequently instead of all the rest because they held it to be not only a part of the Law but more and because they laid the greatest stress upon it as I shewed before Chap. 5. Now in that which the Apostle denies Circumcision and the Works of the Law to avail a Man in that he affirms the becoming a New Creature will avail him and that was in the business of Justification and Salvation For in that sense the unbelieving Jews and Judaizers held Circumcision and other Works of the Law available And this New Creature 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 Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision 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's Law And as these are denied 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 Joh. 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. James 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 Works 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 Vncircumcision 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 nothieg to any Mans acceptation with God or to his Justification and Salvation as the Judaizers 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 well 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 John 3.23 This is his Commandments that we should believe in the Name of his Son Jesus 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 and 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 justiying 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 Jesus 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 and 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 subordinate 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 â—hat 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 â—or Christians in closing up the Canon of the New Testament and therefore is to be taken special notice of This right to the Tree oâ— 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 hâ—â—as 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 stiled him a God keeping Covenant and Mercy with those that Love him and keep his Commandments Deut. 7.9 1 Kings 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 more curious and nice in distinguishing between Justification and Salvation than St. Paul was For he calls Justification the Justification 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 Just shall live by Faith Gal. 3.11 Thus with him to be justified and to be blessed are all one Gal. 3.8 9. Rom. 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 but in direct opposition to each other Rom. 5.18 and 8.33 34. And to be freed 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 Joh. 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 Joh. 5.24 1 Joh. 3.14 and 5.12 From all which we may conclude That what is absolutely necessary to Salvation must needs also be necessary to Justification Add we
in a Way of Sincere Obedience according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration p. 17. What Faith as Evangelical and Christian is p. 17. The first reason why Faith is made the Condition of the Promise is that the Grace of God to Man might the more shew it self The Second Reason because it best answers God's Design in this Covenant p. 18. 19. 20. Sect. 8. What we are to understand by God's counting Abraham's Faith to him for Righteousness p. 21. Two things make up the Righteousness of the Law of Grace First the Righteousness which consisteth in the Forgiveness of Sins Secondly the Righteousness of Sincere Obedience p. 22. This cleared p. 23. CHAP. II. For what ends the Law was added to the Promise not to cross or confront it p. 24. A Question wherefore then serveth the Law ibid. Answer it was added because of Transgression until the Seed should come And that in many respects first to discover Sin that it might be known to be Sin Secondly to set it out in its own Colours Thirdly to set off the Beauty and Glory of God's Grace in the Promise of Salvation Fourthly because it serves as a School Master to Lead us to Christ and as a School-Master hath a double End respecting the present and future time The present use twofold First to Reclaim and Restrain them from Heathenish superstitions 2dly for Tryal of Obedience in lesser things p. 25. The use of the Law for the time to come was first to facilitate the knowledge of the mystery of their Redemption by Christ Secondly to facilitate and Strengthen their Belief in Christ Thirdly the Law was given to the Jews for the general Good of all the World p. 27. CHAP. III. Wherein is shewed by what Faith and Practise persons under the Law were saved That the Jews had not a clear and full Knowledge of all that was included in the Promise made to Abraham p. 28. and yet that they had the Promise of Blessedness to all Nations in Abraham's Seed They had the addition of several other predictions concerning the Messias p. 30. They had large Significations of God's special Favour above all People ibid. They had exprâ—ss Declarations from God of the Goodness of his Nature By all which they were induc'd to Love God and to endeavour to please him ibid. CHAP. IV. That the Law contained a Covenant different from that with Abraham p. 31. In what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham ibid. The Law of Moses under a twofold consideration first as in Conjunction with the Promise made to Abraham 2dly as given at Sinai in a stricter Sense as it was a Rule of Government in the Common-Wealth of Israel In the former sense is obscurely promised Eternal Life in the Latter temporal Blessings p. 32. This Covenant consisted first of Laws 2dly the Sanction of these Laws The Laws were of two sorts 1st the Law of Duty 2dly the Laws of Jndemnity p. 33. Laws of Duty what p. 33. Laws of Jndemnity what p. 34. The Sanction of these Laws consisted in Promises made to the observing them and a Curse denounced against the Transgressors ibid. The Promises considered negatively and Affirmatively p. 35. 36. 37. A five-fold difference in reference to remission of Sin between the first Covenant and the Covenant of Grace p. 38. 39. That more than a temporal Death was threatned for a Breach of the political Covenant as such p. 39. The temporal Evils threatned for a Breach of this Covenant were Personal Domestick or Nationall whereof in particular p. 39. and 41. CHAP. V. The Grand mistakes of the Jews about the Law and Promise and how St. Paul Counter-argues these Mistakes p. 41. First they held Circumcision of the Flesh to be the special Condition upon which God's Covenant-Blessings with Abraham did depend never Vnderstanding that Spiritual Circumcision which was primarily intended p 42. St. Paul's arguing against their Belief in this point p. 42. Secondly That the Promised Messias shou'd not by suffering Death become a Sacrifice for Sin ibid. and yet his Death was necessary how St. Paul â—onsutes their Belief in this point p. 44. Thirdly They held another Error that the Legal Sacrifices did expiate Sin ibid. This Error opposed p. 45 Fourthly That without Circumcision and observing Moses's Law the Gentiles cou'd not be saved ibid. This Error Refuted ibid. Fifthly they held that the Law of Moses was unalterably perpetual and this opposed p. 47. Another Errror of theirs was That they held the First Covenant alone together with the Covenant of Literal Circumcision which they made a part of their Law to be the Covenant of Salvation ibid. And to this they peremptorily adher'd ibid. and disprov'd ibid. CHAP. VI. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Justification by Faith and not by Works was then Mistaken by some The Mistake of those Jews who laid the stress of their Salvation upon Believing only without a virtuous and Holy Life p. 53. Neither did they discern Faith to be necessary in the operative and practical Nature of it p. 54. How the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works in the sense wherein the Apostles asserted it was understood p. 55. CHAP. VII That the Doctrine of St. Paul and St. James about Faith and Works in reference to Justification do not differ but are wholly one p. 60. Ten Considerations to prove this p. 61. First that Works of Evangelical Obedience are never in Scripture opposed to God's Grace ibid. Secondly That St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works gives Caution not to be Vnderstood to speak against Evangelical Obedience p. 62. Thirdly Regeneration or the New Creature is opposed to Works of the Law as well as Faith ibid. Fourthly Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith is opposed to Works of the Law in order to Justification p. 63. Fifthly Evangelical Obedience alone is opposed to Works of the Law in reference to Salvation ibid. Sixthly That Faith is an act of Evangelical Obedience ibid. Seventhly That by Evangelical Obedience Christians come to have a Right to Salvation p. 64. Eightly That as the promise of forgiveness is made sometimes to Believing so it is to Obedience p. 66. Ninthly That Evangelical Obedience is a part of the Condition of Justification p. 67. Tenthly That Repentance is one Eminent Act of Evangelical Obedience ibid. FINIS A DISCOURSE ON FAITH 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 state the nature and difference of those two kinds of Faith with what brevity and perspicuity I can I cannot I confess 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 expressed 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 I. To open the comprehensive Nature of Faith II. Shew wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not saving III. Shew whence that defect proceeds IV. How and after what manner Faith in the Vnderstanding works savingly upon the Will V. Answer some few Objections CHAP. I. I. The Comprehensive Nature of saving 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 Joh. 5.10 Sometimes it 's called a believing on Christ Joh. 3.16 36. Acts 16.31 a believing him to be the Christ the Son of God Joh. 20.31 1 Joh. 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 Thes 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 and 3.19 and 11.18 2 Cor. 7.10 and sometimes of Obedience 1 John 1.7 Pet. 1.2 Heb. 5.9 The Condition 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 1. Such expressions of the Condition of the Promise as is 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 whenever 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 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 Joh. 17.3 And thus some times 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 and King to be governed by his Laws as well as to own him for a Priest once Offering himself and ever making Intercession 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 Obedience 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 Joh. 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 whenever 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 inconsistent 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 according to the Tenour
of God's Promise until it hath produced that Repentance Regeneration Love and Obedience Which is a full and an undeniable proof of the necessity of such a consent of the Will as aforesaid to render Faith justifying and saving Now this Consent and resolution of 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 Man's first effectual Belief is his whole Christian Life in its beginning And a Man's first Faith is perfected afterwards by Works Jam. 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 hereby 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 Covenant 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 and of the VVill 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 for the saving Benefits which accrue to Men by his Mediation Office and Undertaking and on the Truth and Faithfulness Power VVisdom 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 and 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 Reliance 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 Benefits 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 CHAP. II. Wherein the Defect lies 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 discern wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not so And the defect lies 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 faint 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 lies 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 Maricles who yet were such as Christ had no mind to commit himself to Joh. 2.23 24. And Simon Magus believed wondering and being astonished at the signs 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. James 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 oftentimes do perswade themselves that they shall be saved by Christ Jesus because they believe that he died for Sinners and because they ask God forgiveness and perform some acts of Religion Our Saviour saith Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord open unto us Have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and done many wonderful works We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets To whom he will say for all that Depart from
believed What Rebel is there or nature so bad that would not be won to leave off Rebelling against his Prince 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 perferred 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 Man's 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 Joh. 14.23 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 CHAP. V. Some few Objections answered I. 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 hear 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 and 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 Cures 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 II. Some alledge that although the Faith which is alone and without 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 God's Testimony in the Gospel or this Assent together with a Reliance 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 reliance 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 whenever Justification is promised to Believing singly and alone exprest but that there the foresaid effects are comprehended under the 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 Chapter 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 Jam. 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 had been shewed before 5. Faith and Repentance are a joint 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 joint 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 lies 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 opportunity of doing good Works How rare Instances of this kind are I shall not dispute But doubtless whenever Men so believe God's Promise of pardon through Christ upon their Repentance and the necessity of their own Repentance for the obtaining of it as that they in VVill 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 well as Faith For 1. These Motions and Acts of the VVill are themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience 2. They are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come First They are in themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience For by these Motions and Acts of the VVill Men do whenever 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 VVill 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 VVill and Commandment And they may as well and as truly be called VVorks as evil Acts of the VVill may such as are a love to evil and desires and resolutions of perpetrating it VVhich evil Acts of the VVill are yet in Scripture called VVorks 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 hatered which are Internal Acts of the Soul are called VVorks 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 instead 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 Christ's 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 Secondly Those Acts of the Will are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come Because those Resolutions against evil and for good when they are of a fixed and lasting nature as they always 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 Man's Life will certainly be answerable to it if ever it 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 satisfy 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 Country 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. 15.9 It was many years after that again that by Faith he offered his Son Isaac upon the Altar and yet by that he was justified as well as by his first Faith and Obedience Jam. 2.21 Pardon of sin is our Justification from sin Acts 13.39 And this we are directed by the Lord's Prayer to pray for daily all our days And the continuance of Justification is promised upon condition of continuance of Faith and Obedience to the Gospel Col. 1.21 22 23. and a discontinuance of it threatned in case of disobedience according to the Tenour of the Parable Mat. 18. from ver 23. to ver 35. By all which we may see what need there is for all Christians to work out to work through their own Salvation with fear and trembling to which they are
consequently does extreamly tend to create in our Hearts an utter Hatred to all Sin So hereby we are taught that Christ has made a full perfect and sufficient Sacrifice and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World And such lastly is the Belief for I need not now stand to mention every Artiticle that all our Bodies shall rise again at the General Resurrection that then we must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to Receive a Just Sentence for whatever we have done in the Body whether it be good or bad for this will make us careful how to lead our Lives so in this World that we may not be Condemn'd in the next These now are some of those Articles of our Christian Faith and are such Divine Truths as are more particularly necessary to be Believ'd by us as containing in them the greatest reason in the World to restrain us from all manner of Sin and to encourage us in the Practice of all Religious Duties And yet are Doctrines withal of extraordinary force to remove all Conceit out of our Minds concerning our own Merits and to make us rely solely upon God's Mercies in Christ for the Acceptance of our most Holy Performances And let this suffice as to the first Thing proposed which was to declare unto you something in general of the Nature of the Objects or of those Truths to be Believ'd the Articles of our Christian Faith And now Secondly I will also shew you what it is to BELIEVE these Truths so as to make us capable of Life and Happiness And if it be ask'd how we must Believe these things What it is to Believe those Truths so as to make us capable of Life and Happiness why we must be so throughly and firmly perswaded of their undoubted Truth as to be accordingly Influenc'd as I have now said by the Belief thereof to the Practice of Good Works and then to betake our selves to Jesus Christ to Intercede with the Father for their Gracious Acceptance Our Belief thereof must be Operative Practical I say our Faith must be such as does Influence us to a Good Life for such is the Faith that St. Paul tells us is now required in the Christian Religion in order to Salvation Gal. 5.6 In Jesus Christ says he neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love Some render the words and that more rightly Faith that is perfected by Love which does more expresly signify the Apostle's meaning that that Faith which will save us must be such as is perfected by the addition of those Duties which we owe to God and our Neighbour And St. James does with great Industry shew that the Christian Faith which has the Promise of Justification and Salvation is a Powerful Practical Belief and that none other has any Promise What says St. James 2.14 doth it profit my Brethren tho' a Man saith he hath Faith and hath not Works can Faith save him Faith if it have not Works is dead being alone ver 17. and is no more than what the Devils have for the Devils believe and tremble ver 19. Such was the Faith of Abraham and of all the Saints And the Faith indeed for which the Holy Patriarchs and Saints were Renown'd of Old and are now so highly Rewarded in Heaven was a Powerful Practical and Working Faith indeed which excited them to the highest and the hardest Acts of Obedience that it was possible for Men to perform Thus Heb. 11.17 18. we read that by Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac and he that had received the Promises offered up his only begotten Son and he a Son too in whom God had promised him great Blessings And yet at God's Command he readily Obeyed believing that God would be as good as his Promise to him tho' it was by Raising him again from the Dead By Faith Moses when he was come to Years refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh 's Daughter chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of Sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the recompence of reward ver 24 25 26. It was a great Temptation to Moses to be made a Prince if he pleased in which Estate he might enjoy the highest Pleasures this World could afford but he Believing that God would infinitely reward him for his Self-denial in refusing such Worldly Honours and Pleasures chose rather to be one of those mean Persecuted People the Children of Israel By Faith Thousands of Blessed Saints before us endured tryals of cruel Mockings and Scourgings yea moreover of Bonds and Imprisonments they were Stoned they were Sawn asunder were Tempted were Slain with the Sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and in Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy they wandred in Desarts and in Mountains and in Dens and in Caves of the Earth Heb. 11.35 36 37 38. They were terrible Sufferings which the Servants of God in former times have been put to undergo but as dreadful as they were being supported with a firm Belief that they should be infinitely recompenced for their Sufferings and Losses they thereupon chearfully underwent the severest that the Wit or Malice of Men or Devils could invent or inflict upon ' em Such a powerful practical working Faith indeed was that for which the Holy Patriarchs and Saints were of Old Renown'd and are now Rewarded in Heaven A Faith I say which excited them to the highest and hardest Acts of Obedience that it was possible for Men to perform And such a Powerful Practical Active and Working Principle is Faith And such an Operative and Practical Principle is Faith whenever the Things believed are of great Importance or Concernment to us whensoever the things Believed are of great Importance or Concernment to us Some things indeed as an Excellent Person does well observe are of such a Nature that the Belief or Knowledge of 'em goes no farther but rests in it self as the Knowledge or Belief of bare Speculative Truths that do not at all Concern us but some things again are of such a Nature as being once firmly and truly believ'd and known carry a Man out to Action Thus for Example If you should hear another threaten'd that he should certainly be Kill'd if he stir out of his House to morrow it would not hinder you from going Abroad tho' you firmly believe the Threatning because it is a Truth in which you are not Concern'd But the Person so threatned if he does throughly believe the danger will certainly not stir out of his House that Day because it is a Truth that he is very much Concerned in On the other side If you shall hear of a Promise made to another Person of a Thousand Pound if he will be at the Pains to go but to such
a Place it will not make you go there because it is a Promise that you are not Concern'd in but the other Person if he be certainly perswaded the Promise will be made good to him will certainly go to the appointed Place because it is a Promise that he is Concerned in And so likewise as to the Case in hand That a sure Promise of the Pardon of our Sins and Eternal Happiness is made over to us in the Second Covenant on Condition we will forsake the Service of Satan and of Sin that we will Repent heartily Believe practically and Obey sincerely is a Truth that the Devils to their great Grief are fully perswaded of for they believe and tremble St. James tells us But this Faith of theirs does not put them upon Repentance and Amendment because those gracious Promises do not Concern them and they have no Promise of Salvation tho' they should Repent and Amend But as to us whom they do Concern and to whom they are made if we are really perswaded that if we amend we shall be certainly Saved we shall immediately upon such Perswasion seriously Repent of what has been done amiss heretofore and take care to Obey God for the future For every Man that hath this Hope in God purifieth himself even as he is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 In short the Articles of our Christian Faith are every one of 'em so many Motives and those the most powerful ones in the World to stir us up to a diligent Reformation of our Hearts and Lives They are in themselves the most obliging Arguments to it and with respect to us they are the most Concerning and Important Truths that can be containing in the meaning of 'em either Threatnings to scare us out of Sin or Promises to allure us to Obedience Either such Considerations as are apt to excite our Fears when we are in a Course of Impiety or are Grounds whereon we may build the vastest Hopes in the Performance of our Duty And if any One does not live accordingly a Godly Righteous and a Sober Life I dare be bold to say it is owing to some spice of Infidelity lurking in his Heart whereby he is not throughly perswaded of or does not actually consider these Truths But he that does throughly Believe and Consider them can hardly fail of being a Good Liver Thus necessary you see it is that our Belief of all the Articles of our Christian Faith be such as does Influence us to good Works And then after all II. To Believe savingly we must apply our selves to Jesus Christ to intercede w th God the Father for our Gracious Acceptance II. It must be a Belief that causes us to betake our selves to Jesus Christ to Intercede with God the Father for their Gracious Acceptance This I have formerly in the beginning of my Exposition insisted upon yet such is the growing Infidelity of the World with respect to this which is the most Essential part of Christian Faith that it would not be unseasonable should I again shew you that we must depend upon the Mediation of Christ with the Father for us that our imperfect Righteousness may be graciously accepted to our Justification This is that Act of Faith which is called in Scripture Believing in Christ and to such a Believing as this it is that our Justification is Attributed by St. Paul Gal. 2.16 Know this that a Man is not Justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have Believed in Jesus Christ that we might be Justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law for by the Works of the Law shall no Flesh be Justified And as this Act of Faith the Relying upon God's Mercies in Christ does wonderfully exalt the Divine Justice and Mercy so it leaves no place to the Creature to Attribute any part of its Happiness to it self but does utterly exclude all occasions of Boasting God hath set forth Jesus Christ his Son to be a Propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God Where is Boasting then it is excluded By what Law of Works nay but by the Law of Faith Rom. 2.25.27 So that it is not enough that we Believe punctually but it is moreover necessary that we rely also on God's Mercies in Christ that our imperfect Holiness may be accepted or otherwise even our Assent to all the Articles of the Christian Faith will not avail us to our Justification and Salvation which brings me Lastly To shew you what it is to Believe ALL the Articles of our Christian Faith What to Believe All the Articles of the Christian Faith And 1. To Believe them All does Import that we must Assent to all and every one of those great Articles of Christian Doctrine contain'd in the Apostle's Creed 1. To Believe ALL these Articles does Import that we must Assent with a through Perswasion of their undoubted Truth and of their Divine Authority to all and every one of those great Articles of Christian Doctrine contained in the Apostle's Creed This Collection or Summary of Christian Doctrine is called by St. Paul Rom. 6.17 That Form of Doctrine which was deliver'd to the Christians that is that Summary of Christian Doctrine to the Belief and Practice of which they were deliver'd up and solemnly Consecrated in their Baptism And the same is call'd 2 Tim. 1.13 The Form of sound words which was heard of the Apostle himself and we are commanded to hold it fast that is to take care not to depart from it in any part thereof And as we must not shrink from the Confession and Belief of any one of those Articles which have been Handed down to us from the Apostles in that Summary or Form of sound words which makes up the Body of our Christian Faith so we must content our selves with the Belief of All those saving Truths and must not think there is any thing more to be Believ'd by our selves or others as necessary to Salvation But especially Such as tend to destroy a good Life and send us to other Mediators than Christ to Intercede with the Father for its Acceptance no Articles of Christian Faith we must take care of possessing our Minds with a Perswasion of the Truth of such Articles as do tend to destroy what the true Genuine Doctrines of Christianity viz. All the Articles of our Christian Faith do Build as do all or most at leastwise of the New Articles impos'd upon the Belief of Christians in the Romish Church Some of those Articles in the Romish Creed do plainly take away the necessity of a Good Life as might be easily made appear were it proper here to inlarge on that Point And other Doctrines of that Church do as apparently take Men off from depending solely upon the Mediation of Christ with his Father that he would graciously accept
deny in the World to come his knowing of or having any thing to do with you as he declares he will Matth. 10.33 You see in Matth. 26.70 how Peter being asham'd of his persecuted Lord and Master and afraid for himself did deny his Saviour But withal you see how severely he smarted for it for being prick'd at the heart with an extreme remorse of Conscience for such a base piece of Cowardice he went out and wept bitterly v. 75. And it was well he did or else he had perish'd everlastingly So that to conclude you must not only rehearse that is give an Account of the Christian Faith to us the Ministers of Religion and pronounce it amongst those who are Friends to it in the House of God but upon all just occasions you must elsewhere even in the Face of its greatest Enemies openly declare and profess your Belief of those great Christian Truths and that when you are sure to suffer the severest Persecutions and Reproaches for so doing This last I must confess is not so directly the meaning of the Word Rehearse in this place But if ever there were occasion to extend the Importance of it to such a Sense it is now when the Confidence of Infidels in professing their impious Principles and the Cowardice of Believers in Confessing the True Articles of their Christian Faith is so extremely and on both sides so shamefully great And thus I have given you the utmost that I conceive can be the Importance of these Words Rehearse the Articles of thy Belief which may serve as a Prefatory Discourse to the Exposition I design by God's Assistance to make you of the Creed upon the Explication of which I shall next enter THE XXIX Lecture I Believe COmmenting upon these Words Rehearse the Articles of thy Belief I have given you by way of Preface to the Exposition of the Creed it self an Account of its Authority how that it is a summary Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine collected as is highly probable by the Apostles themselves however undoubtedly containing the most weighty and essential Points of Apostolical Doctrine that are necessary to be Believ'd in order to Salvation And then as to the Importance of the Word Rehearse I have told you how necessary it is 1. that you should give a good Account to God's Ministers of what you Believe 2. That you ought openly and solemnly to pronounce your Belief every time you meet together to worship God in the Publick Assembly Nay and 3. That you must undauntedly confess and own all these Christian Truths before the Face of any Man though you should incur the greatest Danger of Life Livelihood or whatever is most dear to you or expose your selves to the Reproaches of wicked Men for so doing And having thus by way of Preface to the Creed it self spoken what I thought necessary to its Authority and the Confession you are to make of it I come now by God's Assistance to lay open before you the Meaning and Importance of every particular Truth therein contain'd And that which does first offer it self to our Consideration and will indeed require a very large and full Explication is the single Word Believe Every particular Article of the Creed and every single Truth as there are many contain'd in each Article is to be Believed by us It is therefore I presume very requisite that we should with all possible Clearness and Exactness explain the Nature of Faith and shew you what it is to Believe to your Soul's Health before we come to consider the several Truths that are to be Believed accordingly Faith and Belief are two Words that signifie the same thing Faith and Belief synonomous Terms and so indispensable a Condition of our Justification and Salvation it is to Believe that not to mention more Texts Rom. 3.28 It is said a Man is justify'd by Faith And Mark 16.16 we are told in plain and express Words that he who Believeth shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned You must not therefore think me tedious if in the Explication of this Point I shall be something large since to Believe is a thing which you are not only to do in reference to every particular Article of our Creed but that also as ever you will be justify'd and sav'd And for the more full Explication of this Point I will do these Three Things I. I will shew you in general what it is to Believe together with the Effects and Fruits of True Believing II. I will more particularly explain unto you the Nature of Justifying and Saving Faith And then III. By way of Inference I will lay before you wherein the Defect of several sorts of Faith does lie which we find by Scripture and Experience that many do rely upon but yet will by no means justifie and save ' em And 1. I am to shew you in general What it is to Believe And to Believe both in the proper and in the common Meaning of the Word is to give Credit to the Report of another Faith is founded upon a credible Testimony And herein it is distinguish'd from those other Acts of the Mind Opinion Experience and Knowledge that Opinion is when one varies in his Judgment being not without some doubt whether the thing may not be otherwise than he thinks Experience is when one's own Senses tell one it is so and so and Knowledge is when I gather from undoubted Causes and Reasons that the Effect is thus But Belief as it is more certain than Opinion so it is founded not upon my own Experience and Knowledge but upon the Authority of some one else who does relate the thing to me It is indeed thought by some that to Believe in the Language of the Scriptures which are the Words of plain Men spoke to the general Bulk of Mankind does many times signifie a full Perswasion of the Mind whether wrought within us by the Evidence of the Matter or by our own Sense or Experience or by some strong Argument and Reason as well as by some Credible Testimony and accordingly we Believe God's Being and Existence by the strongest Evidences of Reason but yet however tho' the Belief of God's Being be indeed a Knowledge that he Is a Knowledge I say that we have from several demonstrative Proofs and Reasons besides what we have from the Testimony that he Himself has given us of his own Existence yet as the Testimony that he has given us by Miracles Prophecies and his Providences are properly his Attestation to the Truth of the Article so it is the nearest and the plainest Proof thereof and that upon which the Faith of the far greatest part of Mankind who do not much employ their Reason to search after Truth is founded so that generally as well as properly speaking to Believe is to give Credit upon the Authority and Testimony of another that his Relation is true Human Faith upon Human Testimony And
according as is the Authority and Sufficiency of him upon whose Testimony we Believe a thing to be true accordingly more or less is the Credit we give to what he speaks If it be only the Word of a mere Man which we have for the Truth of a thing we are not to Believe it as that which is infallibly certain for the wisest and best of Men are insufficient to give us ground to Believe 'em as infallible in what they deliver The wisest of Men may be ignorant of the exact Truth of Things and so may be deceived themselves and those that are not the best nor very honest tho' they do know what they say yet may deceive others So that the Credit we give to any Man living can amount to no more than a Human Faith such as is fit to be given to Man and we cannot Believe infallibly what an uninspired Person shall say as if it were impossible it should be otherwise than he reports Divine Faith upon Gods Word and Testimony But if it be upon God's Authority and upon his Testimony that we Believe a thing since God is of Infinite Knowledge and Wisdom so that he cannot be deceiv'd Himself and take that for true which is not and since He is a God of Infinite Truth Justice and Goodness so that if he could he will not deceive any Man since God both upon the account of his Wisdom and Uprightness is of that Sufficiency and Authority that He cannot lye Tit. 1.2 whatever therefore he does deliver we are undoubtedly to Believe as infallibly certain and this is a Divine Faith proper only to be given to God's Testimony and Word And this is to Believe in the Christian Sence of the Word It is to be undoubtedly perswaded upon the Divine Authority of the Infallible Truth and Certainty of whatever God has delivered and revealed to us in the Scriptures particularly and especially it is to be undoubtedly perswaded of the Infallible Certainty of those main Truths of Scripture the Articles of our Christian Faith wherein are declared the only Method of Reconciliation betwixt God and Man through our Saviour Jesus Christ as well as the strongest Motives to a Holy Life And lastly it is to be perswaded of these things in such a manner and with such Acts of the Mind as is agreeable to the Nature of these several Truths Divine Faith defined This is the fullest and plainest Description I can give you of the Nature of Faith or Believing as including an account both of all those Objects or Divine Truths necessary to be Believed and of all those Acts of the Mind imply'd in Believing But to make this Description clear I will in as few Words as possible open the several Parts of it to you 1. To Believe is to be undoubtedly perswaded upon God's Authority of the Infallible Truth and Certainty of all that he has Revealed 1. To Believe is to be undoubtedly perswaded upon the Divine Authority of the Infallible Truth and Certainty of all that God has revealed A Christian must not entertain the least Doubt of the Truth of any Divine Revelation for this is to conceive meanly and unworthily of God as if He were such a one as our selves either one that were Ignorant and did not exactly know the Truth himself of what he spoke or one that were Insincere and did design to delude us into a false Perswasion of Things but far be it from us to conceive any such thing of GOD. There is nothing past present or to come there is nothing in the Nature of Things that he does not most clearly know and apprehend there is not any Creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open before the eyes of him with whom we have to do Heb. 4.13 So that let his Revelations and Divine Mysteries seem never so Improbable to us or be never so Incomprehensible and beyond the reach of our Human Understandings to fathom we may notwithstanding assure our selves they are such as they are delivered since the Infinite the Omnipotent the Almighty GOD says it Nor is he Insincere and one that would delude us into a false Perswasion of Things No it is the Devil that is Insincere and the Father of Lyes John 8.44 but it is impossible that God should lye Heb. 6.18 And to what end should he deceive us by making us to Believe a Falshood What Interest can he serve by it Our being deceived can in no wise profit Him False and deceitful Men do indeed love to delude others to Believe Errors and Falshoods thereby to make a Prey of 'em but we can in no wise advantage God by our Misperswasions So that we are in such manner to give Credit to all Divine Revelations even the most Incomprehensible Mysteries of the Gospel and Articles of Faith as to be fully perswaded it is impossible but the Divine Declarations concerning these things are true since God has Reveal'd 'em to us But 2. They are those Revelations and those only 2. Those Revelations and those only which are contained in Scripture are the proper Objects of Divine Faith Nâ—â— such Doctrines as are derived only from unwritten Tradition Nor any particular Propositions concerning my self as my own particular Election and Justification in special which are contain'd in the Holy Scriptures that we are thus to Believe We are not to Believe with a Divine Faith and as founded upon the Testimony of God such Doctrines and Tenets as being derived only from Vnwritten Tradition have no Foundation in Scripture From which corrupt Fountain alone it is that the Church of Rome has all those Articles of her Creed wherein she differs from Us And with respect to which we may truly say of the Romish Doctors as our Saviour did of the Pharisees That in vain do they Worship God teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men Mark 7.7 Nor are the Objects of a Divine Faith any particular Propositions concerning our selves in special as some think who define Faith to be a firm Assent not only to all things which God hath revealed to us in his Word Fides est non tantum certa notitia qua firmiter assentior omnibus quae Deus nobis in verbo suo patefecit sed etiam certa siducia à Spiritu sancto per Evangelium in corde meo accensa qua in Deo acquiesco certo statuens non solum aliis sed mihi quoque remissionem peccatorum aeternam justitiam vitam donatam idque gratia ex misericordia Dei propter unius Christi Meritum Cattches Heidelbergens but also a certain Assurance kindled in the Heart by the Spirit of God through the Gospel whereby I put my full trust in God being assuredly perswaded that not only to others but to me in particular Remission of Sins Justification and Eternal Life are bestowed and that freely through the Mercy of God for the Merits of Jesus Christ. And agreeably
the full meaning of Justification II. I am now to shew you by what Faith it is that we are accordingly Justify'd 2. By what Faith we are accordingly Justified By what has been said as it does appear that Justification is a Judicial Act of God Adjudging us as Just and Righteous according to the Terms and Conditions of the Second Covenant so likewise that Repentance and Obedience are no less necessary in the Gospel-Covenant than Faith it self is to render us Evangelically Just and Righteous and therefore when our Justification is by Scripture in so peculiar a manner attributed to Faith it cannot but be of mighty Importance rightly to understand what that Faith is by which we shall be approved by God as Just and Righteous And in order to this I must here premise That nothing is more usual in Scripture-Language than to attribute the whole Rewards of a Christian Life to any one of those Conditions of Christianity which by the great Influence they have upon other Parts of Religion may be said to imply all the rest Thus for instance the Mercy of God is promised to be from everlasting to everlasting upon them that Fear him Psal 103.17 The Reason is because Fear is such an active Principle in us that no one who really fears God but immediately seeks out all ways and betakes himself to all Courses to obtain his Favour So again Blessed is the Man that maketh the Lord his Trust Psal 40.4 The reason is because no Man can reasonably trust in God for the performance of his Promise but he must perform those Conditions upon which such Promises are made to him and the greater are his Hopes in God's Goodness and Truth for the making good his Promises the greater will be his Care and Diligence in such ways in which alone he can with reason Trust and Hope in Him And not to mention more even Life eternal is promis'd to the Knowledge of God and Jesus Christ This is Life eternal to Know Thee the only True God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent John 3.17 And why shall the Knowledge of God entitle any one to eternal Life Shall this be exclusive of Repentance and Obedience No by no means but as productive of 'em and indeed including 'em for it cannot easily be imagin'd but that he who throughly knows the Nature and Attributes of God and the Wise and Great Methods he has taken to Recover Mankind from their lost State and to reconcile 'em to Himself by his Son it cannot easily be imagin'd I say but that lie who thoroughly knows these things must betake himself to such Courses as will Reconcile both himself to God and God to him And he who seriously considers what he thus knows will undoubtedly take this Care And now this being premis'd By a Faith that is perfect and compleat as to all those Acts before-mention'd the like Observation may be made of the Promises of Justification and Salvation made to Faith or Believing Rom. 5.1 Gal. 3.8 Eph. 2.8 and in many other places These great and precious Promises are made to Faith as productive of Repentance and Obedience and indeed as including them for in Jesus Christ or in the Christian Religion or under the Christian Dispensation nothing availeth any thing but Faith which worketh by Love or which is perfected by Love Gal. 5.6 So that the Faith or Belief by which alone we shall be Justified and Sav'd must be perfect and compleat as to all those Acts before mention'd that is it must be so through a Perswasion of the Infallible Truth and Certainty of whatever God has reveal'd to us in the Holy Scriptures as thereby we must not only Assent with our Minds that all these Great Things are true which are revealed to us in the Gospel and summ'd up in our Creed but we must also heartily yield up the Consent of our Wills of our Affections and of the whole Man to be Govern'd in our whole Life and Conversation by those Great Truths and Doctrines And farther yet it must be a firm and steddy Reliance upon God that all his precious Promises of Pardon and Happiness shall be fully made good to us through Christ's Mediation upon our performing of the Conditions on which such this Promises were made Such a Faith as this through the Mediation of Christ obtaining that Benefit of God for us shall be accepted so that they who do so Believe shall be justified and saved but that Faith which is short of this is but maimed and imperfect it is but either the Faith of Devils mentioned by St. James 2.19 or the Faith of Hypocrites or in some respects or other defective and so shall not avail us to Justification or Salvation And this will fully appear to us This exemplify'd in the Faith of Abraham who if we consider the Faith of Abraham what it was concerning which we find several times in Scripture as Rom. 4.22 Jam. 2.23 this Honourable mention That it was imputed to him for Righteousness For such as was Abraham's Faith the Father of us all Rom. 4.16 Such must be our Faith if we will be the Children of Abraham and be blessed with Faithful Abraham Gal. 3.7.9 And as to Abraham's Faith The first great Act of it we find mentioned in the Scripture 1. Consented to the most difficult Performances at God's Command was his readily leaving at God's Command his own Country and his Father's House and his going into a Country that God should shew him Gen. 12.1 2. Which ready Obedience to God's Command of leaving his own Country was so acceptable to God that Gen. 15.6 it is said That this Believing on the Lord was accounted to him for Righteousness And this teaches us that whenever God is pleased to lay upon us the hardest Conditions such as was Abraham's leaving his own Country and his Father's House we must not boggle thereat but immediately consent to set about the performance of them as we will approve our Faith to God and have it accepted by him to our Justification 2. Rely'd firmly upon God's Promises in full assurance of his Power and Goodness to perform ' em A second Act of that Faith which was imputed to Abraham for Righteousness was his steddy Reliance Trust and Confidence in the Promises of God of granting him a numerous Offspring even after that in all human appearance it was impossible for him and Sarah to have Children Yet he against Hope believed in Hope that be might become the Father of many Nations And being not weak in Faith he considered not his own Body now dead when he was about an hundred years old neither yet the deadness of Sarah 's Womb He stagger'd not at the Promise through Vnbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he promised he was able also to perform therefore it was imputed to him for Righteousness That is this steadfast Faith and Reliance of
Nature and the Law of Moses And St. Paul disputing with the Jews about the Invalidity and Insufficiency of any other Dispensation or Law to render us Just and Accepted by God besides the Gospel and the Necessity for all Persons that will be Justify'd and Sav'd to Believe and embrace the Gospel as the only means of both By Law he understood both the Law of Nature and the Law of Moses according to either of which if they would stand a Judgment he shews it was not possible for any to be Justified or accounted as Just because there was no Man living but had transgress'd and violated those Laws and fallen short of those Conditions prescrib'd in 'em according to which a Man was to be accounted Just and Righteous He had prov'd before both Jews and Gentiles that they were all under Sin and that therefore by the Deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be Justified in his sight Rom. 3.9 20. So that the whole of St. Paul's meaning when he denies Justification to be by the Law is this That according to the perfect Rule of Righteousness prescribed to Adam or by Moses no Man now in this our fallen State can be accounted reputed or Adjudged Righteous By Works and Deeds of the Law are meant both Moral and Ceremonial Duties as performed by the Power of Nature without Faith and as meritorious of the Reward Nor can any be Justified by the Works and Deeds of the Law for another reason for by Works and Deeds of the Law in the Jews meaning of those Words in that Dispute St. Paul had with 'em were meant the observance of the Moral and Ceremonial Works and Duties of the Law as performed by their own Natural Strength without the Supernatural Assistance of God's Grace and not consider'd as flowing from Faith and moreover these Works and Deeds of the Law they accounted as meritorious of the Reward they were Works upon which the Reward would have been reckon'd not of Grace but of Debt Rom. 4.4 and which would have given occasion for Boasting v. 27. And now this being the meaning of the Law and the Deeds and Works of the Law in St. Paul's Dispute with the Jews and the Jews Doctrine being this That by observation of the Law of Moses they could approve themselves as Just and Righteous before God and by the Deeds and Works of the Law perform'd by their own Natural strength they could merit the rewards of Obeying and could have good reason to Boast of their Righteousness which the Pharisees amongst 'em were so apt to do In opposition to which sence of the Law and Works St. Paul does plead Justification to be attainable only upon Gospel Terms as we see Luke 18.11 In opposition to this St. Paul does bend the Force of his Arguments as there was great reason to prove to 'em That since according to the Tenor of either the Law of Nature or the Law of Moses all both Jews and Gentiles are under Sin so that there is none Righteous no not one Rom. 3.9 10. That therefore we are Justified freely by God's Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness that he might be Just and the Justifier of him that Believeth in Jesus v. 24 25 26. That is Christ has reveal'd this way of Justifying Sinners namely that he will accept and reward all those as Righteous Persons who shall Believe and embrace those Terms of Salvation propos'd in the Gospel and shall accordingly give themselves up to be rul'd by it And this is to be Justified freely by his Grace And this is to be Justified freely by God's Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ and does also sufficiently exclude Boasting This I say is to be Justified freely by his Grace for that we have this condescending Rule of Righteousness given us whereby we shall be accepted of as Righteous and Acquitted from Punishment upon our Practical Faith a sincere Obedience and unseigned Repentance is an Act of meer Grace and Mercy in God through Jesus Christ the Purchase of which cost Christ His BLOOD but cost us nothing And it is by the Grace and Assistance of his Holy Spirit that we are enabled to perform these Conditions of our Justification viz. Repentance Faith and Obedience And it does also sufficiently exclude all reason for And it does also sufficiently exclude all occasions of Boasting and occasion of Boasting For when all is done our Repentance Faith and Obedience hath nothing of Virtue or Merit of Natural or Moral Efficiency in it towards the purchasing of the Pardon of our past Sins and to render us Righteous were it not for his Mercy in Christ in giving us such gracious Laws and Terms of Righteousness as those contained in the Gospel All which Reasons sufficiently make it appear how we are Justified freely by his Grace notwithstanding the necessity of our inherent Righteousness to Justification and are far from having any reason to pride our selves in any of our most Holy and Virtuous Performances And by what hath been said in the Explication of this Part And from the same account it will easily appear how S. Paul and S. James may be Reconciled I hope it does also sufficiently appear that there is no real opposition between St. Paul and St. James when the former does assert That a Man is Justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law and the latter That by Works a Man is Justified and not by Faith only For it is not you see the same Law nor the same Works upon which their Discourses proceeded but quite different both Laws and Works and therefore there could be no Contradiction between ' em The Works and Deeds of the Law by which S. Paul denies we can be Justified are either an unsinning Obedience according to the Law of Nature or the Observance of Moses's Laws The Works by which according to S. James we shall be Justified are the Works prescribed by the Laws of the Gospel flowing from Faith The occasion also of these Discourses was different The Law St. Paul excludes from being a Rule of Justification was both the perfect Law of Nature and the Law of Moses and the Deeds and Works of the Law which he likewise excludes from being the Terms on which God will Justifie us were a perfect exact unsinning Obedience such as is requir'd by the Original Law of Righteousness or an Observance of all the Laws of Moses By neither of which Laws nor the Deeds and Works of such Laws could we at all be Justified since according to those Rules of Righteousness Cursed is every one that continues not in all things to do 'em Gal. 3.10 But the Works St. James c. 2.24 seems so carefully to interess in the Affair of our Justification jointly and equally with Faith are those Works prescribed by the Laws
of the Gospel proceeding from and produced by Faith or Works by which our Faith is demonstrated to be a true and real Faith c. 2.18 And the occasion of these Discourses of St. Paul and St. James was different which also was the reason they did so differently express themselves in this matter St. Paul had to deal with Jews Pharisees and false Teachers who pleaded the necessity of Observing the Law of Moses and also those Works and Deeds it prescrib'd which gave occasion to him to preach the Abrogation or Cancelling of that Law S. Paul having to deal with Pharisaical Jews boasting of their own Righteousness according to the Law and the substitution of the Gospel in its stead as a Rule of Righteousness the Believing of which in such a manner as has been spoke he declared would be sufficient through God's Mercy in Christ to their Justification And tho' he took all care that was requisite to prevent the misunderstanding of him as if a meer Opinionative Faith would serve the turn by assuring them at the same time he told 'em that in Christ neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision would avail any thing yet that Faith which worketh by Love would Gal 5.6 That is that it must be such a Faith as must be made perfect by the addition of those Duties which we owe to God and our Neighbour yet Men of corrupt Minds reprebate concerning the Faith or void of Judgment concerning the Faith as St. Paul complains of some 2 Tim. 3.8 perverted his meaning in this his excellent Doctrine and turn'd all to this sence That a meer Assent of the Mind to the Truth of the Gospel tho' they were careless in the subduing of their Passions and bridling of their Tongues and regulating of their Actions S. James having to do with Solifidiant Libertines pleading their Faith separated from Gospel Righteousness was all that was necessary to their Justification And thereupon they thought themselves safe upon the Account of their Barren Faith though they were Proud and Conceited of their Knowledge and Attainments Censorious and Contentious Unmerciful and Uncharitable which Error concerning Faith prevailing much in those Early Times occasion'd St. James with a great deal of Earnestness to plead and to prove the Necessity of Good Works to our being justify'd before God And that neither Faith nor good Works alone but both jointly were the Condition now under the Gospel upon which we shall be justify'd and approved of by God as Just and Righteous Persons And he proves it by the Instance of Abraham's Faith Jam. 2.21 22 and 23. Was not Abraham our Father justify'd by Works when he had offer'd his Son Isaac upon the Altar See'st thou how Faith wrought with his Works and by Works his Faith was made perfect And the Scripture was fulfill'd which saith Abraham Believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness and he was called the Friend of God So that St. James's Doctrine of Justification is not a contradiction but a vindication of St. Paul's from the False Glosses of Solifidian Libertines And it were happy for these latter Ages if St. James's Doctrine concerning the necessary Conjunction of Faith and good Works to our Justification could have put a stop to Men's Mis-interpretations of the other Great Apostle in this Point But alas to the grievous Scandal of the Reformation too many amongst us have heretofore and do to this day earnestly contend for those Mistakes which our Adversaries make great Advantages of who greedily catching at any thing of Error profess'd by any Party of Men under the Denomination of Protestants are never backward to lay the Scandal of it to the whole Reformation to the very great hindrance of its Progress But above all the Mischief of this Opinion reacheth directly to the Destruction of Men's Souls whilst being deceiv'd in the Nature of Justifying Faith and thinking it to be a meer Assent of the Mind to the Great Truths of Christianity which is but the Act only of one Faculty of the Soul and not looking upon it as implying a Consent also of the Will to act agreeably to the Nature of such practical Truths they do most fatally presume themselves to be Christians indeed and such as shall be saved by Christ tho' their Lives declare them to be far from being New Creatures from being renewed in the Spirit of their Minds as those are who have been taught as the Truth is in Jesus Eph. 4 21 23. And therefore since so much depends upon a right Understanding of this great Doctrine of Justifying Faith it will not appear to you to be without Reason that I have been so large in the Explication thereof In speaking to which having 1. shew'd you in general what it is to Believe together with the Effects and Fruits of True Believing and 2. having more particularly explain'd unto you the Nature of Justifying and Saving Faith 3. Now it remains only that by way of Inference I should lay before you 3. The several sorts of Defective Faith mention'd in Scripture wherein the defect of several sorts of Faith does lie which we find both by Scripture and Experience that many do relie upon but yet will by no means justifie and save ' em And from what has been said it does appear that the Faith which will not Justifie and Save us must be some way or other defective and lame as to those several Acts which I have shew'd must go to compleat the Nature of Justifying Faith And there are several sorts of Believers we find mention made of in the Scripture which fall short of having that Faith which will alone Justifie and Save us And 1. We have the Faith of Devils mention'd Jam. 2.19 1. The Faith of Devils which is no more than a bare Assent of the Mind that there is a God One who is Merciful to them that serve Him but terrible in Judgment to those who disobey Him and the like of the other Articles Thou Believest there is one God thou dost well the Devils also Believe and tremble But wilt thou know O vain Man that Faith without Works is dead Jam. 2.19 20. The Devils though they do Believe and are throughly perswaded and do know that there is a God infinitely Merciful Just and Holy who cannot endure Iniquity nor Sin yet out of Enmity to Him or because they will not conform themselves to that Holy Being which they so much hate or because no Promise is made to them of Pardon and Happiness that should encourage them to Repent of their Apostacy from God and to conform themselves to his Holy Laws whatever is the reason this is certain that they are utterly disobedient and though they do Believe yet because their Faith is only a meer Assent of the Mind to the Truths of Religion and does not render 'em Obedient their Believing therefore will avail 'em nothing to Pardon and Happiness 2. Another sort of Lame and Defective Faith