it at all Remember that the Snail out-went the Eagle and won the goal because she set out betimes To sum up all every good man is a new Creature and Christianity is not so much a Divine institution as a Divine frame and temper of Spirit which if we heartily pray for and endeavour to obtain we shall find it as hard and as uneasie to sin against God as now we think it impossible to abstain from our most pleasing sins For as it is in the Spermatick vertue of the Heavens which diffuses it self Universally upon all sublunary bodies and subtilly insinuating it self into the most dull and unactive Element produces Gold and Pearls Life and motion and brisk activities in all things that can receive the influence and heavenly blessing so it is in the Holy Spirit of God and the word of God and the grace of God which S. John calls the seed of God it is a Law of Righteousness and it is a Law of the Spirit of Life and changes Nature into Grace and dulness into zeal and fear into love and sinful habits into innocence and passes on from grace to grace till we arrive at the full measures of the stature of Christ and into the perfect liberty of the sons of God so that we shall no more say The evil that I would not that I do but we shall hate what God hates and the evil that is forbidden we shall not do not because we are strong of our selves but because Christ is our strength and he is in us and Christs strength shall be perfected in our weakness and his grace will be sufficient for us and he will of his own good pleasure work in us not only to will but also to do velle perficere saith the Apostle to will and to do it throughly and fully being sanctified throughout to the glory of his Holy name and the eternal salvation of our souls through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom with the Father c. FIDES FORMATA OR Faith working by Love SERM. III. JAMES II. 24. You see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only THat we are justified by Faith S. Paul tells us That we are also justified by Works we are told in my Text and both may be true But that this Justification is wrought by Faith without Works to him that worketh not but believeth saith S. Paul That this is not wrought without Works S. James is as express for his Negative as S. Paul was for his Affirmative and how both these should be true is something harder to unriddle But affirmanti incumbit probatio he that affirms must prove and therefore S. Paul proves his Doctrine by the example of Abraham to whom Faith was imputed for Righteousness and therefore not by Works And what can be answered to this Nothing but this That S. James uses the very same Argument to prove that our Justification is by Works also For our Father Abraham was justified by works when he offered up his Son Isaac Now which of these says true Certainly both of them but neither of them have been well understood insomuch that they have not only made divisions of heart among the faithful but one party relies on Faith to the disparagement of Good Life and the other makes Works to be the main ground of our hope and confidence and consequently to exclude the efficacy of Faith The one makes Christian Religion a lazy and unactive Institution and the other a bold presumption on our selves while the first tempts us to live like Heathens and the other recalls us to live the life of Jews while one says I am of Paul and another I am of S. James and both of them put it in danger of evacuating the institution and the death of Christ one looking on Christ only as a Law-giver and the other only as a Saviour The effects of these are very sad and by all means to be diverted by all the wise considerations of the Spirit My purpose is not with subtle Arts to reconcile them that never disagreed the two Apostles spake by the same Spirit and to the same last design though to differing intermedial purposes But because the great end of Faith the design the definition the state the oeconomy of it is that all Believers should not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit Before I fall to the close handling of the Text I shall premise some preliminary Considerations to prepare the way of holiness to explicate the differing sences of the Apostles to understand the Question and the Duty by removing the causes of the vulgar mistakes of most men in this Article and then proceed to the main Inquiry 1. That no man may abuse himself or others by mistaking of hard words spoken in mystery with alegorical expressions to secret senses wrapt up in a cloud such as are Faith and Justification and Imputation and Righteousness and Works be pleased to consider That the very word Faith is in Scripture infinitely ambiguous insomuch that in the Latine Concordances of S. Hierom's Bible published by Robert Stephens you may see no less then twenty two several senses and accceptations of of the word Faith set down with the several places of Scripture referring to them to which if out of my own own observation I could add no more yet these are an abundant demonstration That whatsoever is said of the efficacy of Faith for Justification is not to be taken in such a sence as will weaken the necessity and our carefulness of good life when the word may in so many other sences be taken to verifie the affirmation of S. Paul of Justification by Faith so as to reconcile it to the necessity of Obedience 2. As it is in the word Faith so it is in Works for by Works is meant sometimes the thing done sometimes the labour of doing sometimes the good will it is sometimes taken for a state of good life sometimes for the Covenant of Works it sometimes means the Works of the Law sometimes the Works of the Gospel sometimes it is taken for a perfect actual unsinning Obedience sometimes for a sincere endeavour to please God sometimes they are meant to be such which can challenge the Reward as of Debt sometimes they mean only a disposition of the person to receive the favour and the grace of God Now since our good Works can be but of one kind for ours cannot be meritorious ours cannot be without sin all our life they cannot be such as need no repentance it is no wonder if we must be justified without Works in this sence for by such Works no man living can be justified And these S. Paul calls the Works of the Law and sometimes he calls them our righteousness and these are the Covenant of Works But because we came into the World to serve God and God will be obeyed and Jesus Christ came into the World to save us from sin and
dyed yea rather that is risen again And Christ was both delivered for our sins and is risen again for our justification implying to us that as it is in the principal so it is in the correspondent our sins indeed are potentially pardoned when they are marked out for death and crucifixion when by resolving and fighting against sin we dye to sin daily and are so made conformable to his Death but we must partake of Christs Resurrection before this Justification can be actual when we are dead to sin and are risen again unto righteousness then as we are partakers of his Death so we shall be partakers of his Resurrection saith S. Paul that is then we are truly effectually and indeed justified till then we are not He that loveth Gold shall not be justified saith the wise Bensirach he that is covetous let his Faith be what it will shall not be accounted righteous before God because he is not so in himself and he is not so in Christ for he is not in Christ at all he hath no righteousness in himself and he hath none in Christ for if we be in Christ or if Christ be in us the Body is dead by reason of sin and the Spirit is life because of righteousness For this the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that faithful thing that is the faithfulness is manifested the Emun from whence comes Emunah which is the Hebrew word for Faith from whence Amen is derived Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde hoc fidum est when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings Fac fidelis sis fideli cave fidem fluxam geras said he in the Comedy God is faithful be thou so too for if thou failest him thy faith hath failed thee Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrumque placitum says one and then it is true which the Prophet and the Apostle said the Just shall live by Faith in both senses ex fide mea vivet ex fide sua we live by Gods Faith and by our own by his Fidelity and by ours When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees when the righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us by walking not after the flesh but after the Spirit then we are justified by Gods truth and by ours by his Grace and our Obedience So that now we see that Justification and Sanctification cannot be distinguished but as words of Art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course they may be distinguished in notion and speculation but never when they are to pass on to material events for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified They are the express words of S. Paul Whom he did foreknow them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son to be like to Christ and then it follows Whom he hath predestinated so predestinated them he hath also called and whom he hath called them he hath also justified and then it follows Whom he hath justified them he hath also glorified So that no man is justified that is so as to signifie Salvation but Sanctification must be precedent to it and that was my second consideration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which I was to prove 3. I pray consider that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel cannot pretend to Faith in Christ but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of Obedience and he that does not believe them as Christ made them believes them not at all In well doing commit your selves to God as unto a faithful Creator there is no committing our selves to God without well doing For God will render to every man according to his deeds to them that obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality to them eternal life So that if Faith apprehends any other promises it is illusion and not Faith God gave us none such Christ purchased none such for us search the Bible over and you shall find none such But if Faith layes hold on these promises that are and as they are then it becomes an Article of our Faith that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep Gods Commandments no man living can be justified And therefore let us take heed when we magnifie the free Grace of God we do not exclude the conditions which this free Grace hath set upon us Christ freely dyed for us God pardons us freely in our first access to him we could never deserve pardon because when we need pardon we are enemies and have no good thing in us and he freely gives us of his Spirit and freely he enables us to obey him and for our little imperfect services he freely and bountifully will give us eternal life here is free Grace all the way and he overvalues his pitiful services who thinks that he deserves Heaven by them and that if he does his duty tolerably eternal life is not a free gift to him but a deserved reward Conscius est animus meus experientia testis Mystica quae retuli dogmata vera scio Non tamen idcirco scio me fore glorificandum Spes mea crux Christi gratia non opera It was the meditation of the wise Chancellor of Paris I know that without a good life and the fruits of repentance a sinner cannot be justified and therefore I must live well or I must dye for ever But if I do live holily I do not think that I deserve Heaven it is the Cross of Christ that procures me grace it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto glory But yet he that shall exclude the works of Faith from the Justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ may as well exclude Faith it self for Faith it self is one of the works of God it is a good work so said Christ to them that asked him What shall we do to work the works of God Jesus said This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent Faith is not only the foundation of good works but it self is a good work it is not only the cause of obedience but a part of it it is not as the Son of Sirach calls it initium adhaerendi Deo a beginning of cleaving unto God but it carries us on to the perfection of it Christ is the Author and finisher of our Faith and when Faith is finished a good life is made perfect in our kind Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise nor call for Gods fidelity without his own faithfulness nor snatch at a promise without performing the condition nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ and to do nothing else for that will but
and returns to it with passion and abides with pleasure This will not do it such a man cannot be justified for all his believing But therefore the Apostle shews us a more excellent way This is a true saying and I will that thou affirm constantly that they who have believed in God be careful to maintain good works The Apostle puts great force on this Doctrine he arms it with a double Preface the saying is true and it is to be constantly affirmed that is it is not only true but necessary it is like Pharaoh's dream doubled because it is bound upon us by the decree of God and it is unalterably certain that every Believer must do good works or his believing will signifie little nay more than so every man must be careful to do good works and more yet he must carefully maintain them that is not do them by fits and interrupted returns but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be incumbent upon them to dwell upon them to maintain good works that is to persevere in them But I am yet but in the general be pleased to go along with me in these particular considerations 1. No mans sins are pardoned but in the same measure in which they are mortified destroyed and taken away so that if Faith does not cure our sinful Natures it never can justifie it never can procure our pardon And therefore it is that as soon as ever Faith in the Lord Jesus was Preached at the same time also they preached Repentance from dead works in so much that S. Paul reckons it among the fundamentals and first principles of Christianity nay the Baptist preached repentance and amendment of life as a preparation to the Faith of Christ. And I pray consider can there be any forgiveness of sins without repentance But if an Apostle should preach forgiveness to all that believe and this belief did not also mean that they should repent and forsake their sin the Sermons of the Apostle would make Christianity nothing else but the Sanctuary of Romulus a device to get together all the wicked people of the world and to make them happy without any change of manners Christ came to other purposes he came to sanctifie us and to cleanse us by his Word the word of Faith was not for it self but was a design of holiness and the very grace of God did appear for this end that teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live holily justly and soberly in this present world he came to gather a People together not like Davids Army when Saul pursued him but the Armies of the Lord a faithful people a chosen generation and what is that The Spirit of God adds a People zealous of good works Now as Christ proved his power to forgive sins by curing the poor mans Palsie because a man is never pardoned but when the punishment is removed so the great act of justification of a sinner the pardoning of his sins is then only effected when the spiritual evil is taken away that 's the best indication of a real and an eternal pardon when God takes away the hardness of the heart the love of sin the accursed habit the evil inclination the sin that doth so easily beset us and when that is gone what remains within us that God can hate Nothing stayes behind but Gods creation the work of his own hands the issues of his holy Spirit The Faith of a Christian is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it destroyes the whole body of sin and to suppose that Christ pardons a sinner whom he doth not also purge and rescue from the dominion of sin is to affirm that he justifies the wicked that he calls good evil and evil good that he delights in a wicked person that he makes a wicked man all one with himself that he makes the members of an harlot at the same time also the members of Christ but all this is impossible and therefore ought not to be pretended to by any Christian. Severe are those words of our Blessed Saviour Every plant in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away Faith ingrafts us into Christ by Faith we are inserted into the vine but the plant that is ingrafted must also be parturient and fruitful or else it shall be quite cut off from the root and thrown into the everlasting burning And this is the full and plain meaning of those words so often used in Scripture for the magnification of Faith The just shall live by Faith No man shall live by Faith but the just man he indeed is justified by Faith but no man else the unjust and the unrighteous man hath no portion in this matter That 's the first great consideration in this affair no man is justified in the least sense of justification that is when it means nothing but the pardon of sins but when his sin is mortified and destroyed 2. No man is actually justified but he that is in some measure sanctified For the understanding and clearing of which Proposition we must know that justification when it is attributed to any cause does not alwayes signifie justification actual Thus when it is said in Scripture We are justified by the death of Christ it is but the same thing as to say Christ dyed for us and he rose again for us too that we might indeed be justified in due time and by just measures and dispositions he dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification that is by his Death and Resurrection he hath obtained this power and effected this mercy that if we believe him and obey we shall be justified and made capable of all the blessings of the Kingdom But that this is no more but a capacity of pardon of grace and of salvation appears not only by Gods requiring Obedience as a condition on our parts but by his expresly attributing this mercy to us at such times and in such circumstances in which it is certain and evident that we could not actually be justified for so saith the Scripture We when we were enemies were reconciled to God by the death of his Son and while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us that is then was our Justification wrought on Gods part that is then he intended this mercy to us then he resolved to shew us favour to give us Promises and Laws and Conditions and Hopes and an infallible Oeconomy of Salvation and when Faith layes hold on this Grace and this Justification then we are to do the other part of it that is as God made it potential by the Death and Resurrection of Christ so we laying hold on these things by Faith and working the Righteousness of Faith that is performing what is required on our parts we I say make it actual and for this very reason it is that the Apostle puts more Emphasis upon the Resurrection of Christ than upon his Death Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that
Reward of pregnant Wits and hard Study he was remov'd into York-shire where first in the City of York he was an assiduous Preacher but by the disposition of the Divine Providence he hapned to be engaged at North-Alerton in Disputation with three pragmatical Romish Priests of the Jesuits Order whom he so much worsted in the Conference and so shamefully disadvantaged by the evidence of Truth represented wisely and learnedly that the famous Primate of York Archbishop Matthews a learned and an excellent Prelate and a most worthy Preacher hearing of that Triumph sent for him and made him his Chaplain in whose Service he continued till the death of the Primate but in that time had given so much testimony of his dexterity in the conduct of Ecclesiastical and Civil Affairs that he grew dear to his Master In that Imployment he was made Prebendary of York and then of Rippon the Dean of which Church having made him his Sub-Dean he managed the Affairs of that Church so well that he soon acquired a greater fame and entred into the possession of many hearts and admiration to those many more that knew him There and at his Parsonage he continued long to do the duty of a learned and good Preacher and by his Wisdom Eloquence and Deportment so gain'd the affections of the Nobility Gentry and Commons of that Country that as at his return thither upon the blessed Restauration of His most Sacred Majesty he knew himself oblig'd enough and was so kind as to give them a Visit so they by their coming in great numbers to meet him their joyful Reception of him their great Caressing of him when he was there their forward hopes to enjoy him as their Bishop their trouble at his Departure their unwillingness to let him go away gave signal testimonies that they were wise and kind enough to understand and value his great worth But while he lived there he was like a Diamond in the dust or Lucius Quinctius at the Plough his low Fortune cover'd a most valuable person till he became observ'd by Sir Thomas Wentworth Lord President of York whom we all knew for his great Excellencies and his great but glorious Misfortunes This rare Person espied the great Abilities of Doctor Bramhall and made him his Chaplain and brought him into Ireland as one whom he believ'd would prove the most fit Instrument to serve in that design which for two years before his arrival here he had greatly meditated and resolved the Reformation of Religion and the Reparation of the broken Fortunes of the Church The Complaints were many the Abuses great the Causes of the Church vastly numerous but as fast as they were brought in so fast they were by the Lord Deputy referred back to Dr. Bramhall who by his indefatigable Pains great Sagacity perpetual Watchfulness daily and hourly Consultations reduc'd things to a more tolerable condition than they had been left in by the schismatical Principles of some and the unjust Prepossessions of others for many years before For at the Reformation the Popish Bishops and Priests seemed to conform and did so that keeping their Bishopricks they might enrich their Kindred and dilapidate the Revenues of the Church which by pretended Offices false Informations Fee-farms at contemptible Rents and ungodly Alienations were made low as Poverty it self and unfit to minister to the needs of them that serv'd the Altar or the noblest purposes of Religion For Hospitality decayed and the Bishops were easie to be oppressed by those that would and they complained but for a long time had no helper till God raised up that glorious Instrument the Earl of Strafford who brought over with him as great affections to the Church and to all publick Interests and as admirable Abilities as ever before his time did invest and adorn any of the Kings Vice-gerents and God fitted his hand with an Instrument good as his Skill was great for the first Specimen of his Abilities and Diligence in recovery of some lost Tithes being represented to His late Majesty of blessed and glorious Memory it pleased His Majesty upon the death of Bishop Downham to advance the Doctor to the Bishoprick of Derry which he not only adorned with an excellent Spirit and a wise Government but did more than double the Revenue not by taking any thing from them to whom it was due but by resuming something of the Churches Patrimony which by undue means was detained in unfitting hands But his care was beyond his Diocese and his zeal broke out to warm all his Brethren and though by reason of the Favour and Piety of King James the escheated Counties were well provided for their Tithes yet the Bishopricks were not so well till the Primate then Bishop of Derry by the favour of the Lord Lieutenant and his own incessant and assiduous labour and wise conduct brought in divers Impropriations cancelled many unjust Alienations and did restore them to a condition much more tolerable I say much more tolerable for though he raised them above contempt yet they were not near to envy but he knew there could not in all times be wanting too many that envied to the Church every degree of prosperity so Judas did to Christ the expence of Oyntment and so Dionysius told the Priest when himself stole the golden Cloak from Apollo and gave him one of Arcadian home-spun that it was warmer for him in Winter and cooler in Summer And for ever since the Church by Gods blessing and the favour of Religious Kings and Princes and Pious Nobility hath been endowed with fair Revenues inim icus homo the Enemy hath not been wanting by pretences of Religion to take away Gods portion from the Church as if his Word were intended as an instrument to rob his Houses But when the Israelites were governed by a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and God was their King and Moses his Lieutenant and things were of his management he was pleased by making great Provisions for them that ministred in the service of the Tabernacle to consign this truth for ever That Men as they love God at the same rate are to make provisions for his Priests For when himself did it he not only gave the 48 Cities with a mile of Glebe round about their City every way and yet the whole Country was but 140 miles long or thereabouts from Dan to Beersheba but beside this they had the Tithe of all encrease the first Fruits Offerings Vows Redemptions and in short they had 24 sorts of Dues as Buxtorf relates and all this either brought to the Barn home to them without trouble or else as the nature of the thing required brought to the Temple the first to make it more profitable and the second to declare that they received it not from the people but from God not the Peoples kindness but the Lords inheritance insomuch that this small Tribe of Levi which was not the 40th part of the People as the Scripture computes them