〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he that had gone in unto her and according to 29. One had better have their Belly cleav'd than go to Hell whole And according to 34. Maim It is a great good that a Man swear not at all And according to 39. If one call thee Ass suffer him to put a Saddle on thee too and according to 44. Maim says David was excellently instructed with Virtue when he said Psal 7. I have deliver'd him that without Cause is mine Enemy For the Law says Thou shalt not Avenge Lev. 29.18 and Mat. 6.1 R. Jann said When he saw a Man giving Alms publickly You had better give none than so and ver 34. He that has Bread in his Basket and says What shall I eat for to Morrow is a Man of little Faith Jos de Voisin has more of this kind but it is certain the Law was corrupted by their Traditions but this Error here was about its use 4. As to Free-will I do not find that they say so much as the Armin. for Maim says that God can do with the Will of Man what he pleases but he rather chooses the long and tedious way of Means than work such a Miracle as he rather led the People thorough the Wilderness to Canaan than the shortest way by the Philistines There are three things more that are considerable to help us to the Jewish Sentiments in this concern 1. Their owning Universal and Original Guilt 2. Their denying their own works to be of sufficient Merit without respect to Divine Mercy and the Office of the Messias when he comes And 3. Their great Encomiums of it As to the first Thus the Talmud from Beracot When Adam sinn'd the whole World sinn'd for he was its Perfection therefore the World lost its Perfection This can be said of none of his Posterity as to the first and last Raym. 175. Rab. Josc Gabl says Adam transgress'd one Negative Precept and behold how many Deaths on all Generations certainly the Merits of the King Messias doth over-ballance much more shall he justifie all Generations since the Iniquity of all met upon him As to the second the Author of Nove Schalam says on Exod. 33.19 I will have Mercy on whom I will Worthy or Unworthy and Ikkarim on Dan. 9.18 Not for our Righteousness but for thy great Mercies The Mercies of the Blessed God are poured out on all Creatures not for their Merits but of Pure Grace for who hath given to him that it may be repaid But a subordinate Merit they own'd generally for Temporal Things The Talmud has a saying That the Camp of Israel was extended the space of three Leagues which the Author of Caphtor Vphera explains thus He saw the Power of this Nation viz. Baalim Numb 23.9 Consisting in these three things their Strength their Multitude and their Merit with the Merit of their Fathers from the Top of the Rocks that is the Merit of the Patriarchs Who can count the Dust of Jacobs That is their Multitude and their Power in it Let me dye the Death of the Righteous there is their own Merit which he would have shared of Another of its sayings He pluckt up the Mountain which contained three Leagues it 's thus explained As the Thought of Og who said Since this Nation has not Power with its Multitude to possess three Leagues but by the Merit of their Fathers and now I have got the Merit of Abraham from them therefore I may drive 'em from this Mount and use it against ' em By Mountain is meant the Patriarchs Isa 55.1 Look unto the Rock whence ye are hewn look unto Abraham your Father A third saying But God brought the Ants who pierced through the Mountain that is the Israelites whose Strength is in their Tongue Locusts-like for by their Prayers the Merit of Abraham stood by 'em and did not help Og. And elsewhere Moses in his Prayer needed the Merit of all the Patriarchs and the Merit of the Tribes and his own Merit But a subordinate Merit they allow in Eternals In Raym. 469. Bereshit Rabba is cited thus Jacob was very afraid because no Man can be secure till Death and thô David knew there was a Reward for the Just and that he was Holy yet his Sin might prevent his Merit and that all the Promises are Conditional tho' the Condition be not express'd there was a perpetual Priesthood promis'd to Phinehas but that was meant if they did not backslide So on Zach. 1.12 There is an absolute Promise of the Messia but at the close of the Chapter it s added This shall come to pass if ye will Diligently obey the Voice of your God And thus they explain Jer. 33.17 A Promise of a Perpetual Throne to Davids Seed and an Altar to Aarons the Condition was not fulfill'd and that Repentance is the greatest Condition God will get the Angels to absolve him from his Oath if People repent and yet they cannot repent of themselves For on Isa 64.7 they Paraphrase thus There is none of the Callers on thee that is able to raise himself up against the Figment of his own Heart that is Original Sin That he may take hold of thee that thou should'st not send him to Hell here Merit diminish'd They believe all goes to Hell Abraham and all the Prophets tho' they think some of them like a Salamander in the Fire no Merit can deliver from thence but the Messias Says R. Jamai If I should suffer to be crush'd between a Door and its Threshold it would not prevail to free me from Death R. Juda R. If my Tongue should be bruis'd by the Hinge of a Door I could not escape Hell They ascribe that only to the Messiah they say the Lord told Adam when he made him he must be very careful of Sinning for the World the Creation would be ruin'd by it and none could repair it the Just one Messiah must suffer by it they fain two strange Conferences one between God and Satan that Satan seeing a Glorious Light under the Throne of God ask'd whose it was R. The Messiah and his Generation Satan Permit me and I will destroy it R. God Against him thou cannot prevail Sat. Let me I can R. That Attempt will destroy thee out of the World when none of them shall be destroy'd The second Conference did on the back of this presently begin between God and the Messias God thus O Messiah my Just One these who are now in Secret and hid with thee by their Sins shall bring thee into a grievous Age for thy Eyes shall see no Light thy Ears shall hear great Reproach thy Tongue shall cleave to the Roof of thy Mouth and thy Skin to thy Bones and thou shalt be consumed and wasted through Grief and Sorrow Wilt thou undertake these things if thou dost it it is well if not I will drive them from my Presence The Messiah answered him Lord of the World for this I am Glad and I
Tyrannical Conqueror 2. Redemption is put for the Application of the Priviledge bought by this Price to the Person As when a Slave in Algiers has not only attained Money to be paid to his Patron but he himself is actually returned home and therefore in Scripture it is seldom or ever used for the Application of any one of the Priviledges apart but for the compleat Consummation of all of them in Glory Luke 21.28 The day of Judgment is called the day of our Redemption and also Ephes 4.30 Grieve not the Holy Spirit whereby you are sealed to the day of Redemption Because all the Priviledge purchased by that Price doth not so much as commence till then There is a beginning of Redemption from Guilt before in Justification and a Redemption from Enmity before in Reconciliation and from Sin before its Pollution and Dominion but they are not compleated nor a Glorification from Death and Mortality so much as begun So much for the Relation between Justification and Redemption The third Relative Priviledg is Reconciliation and that is of two kinds too either 1. As it puts on the Nature and form of an Inward Affection For we cannot conceive of God positively but under some humane resemblance thus it is rather a reconcileableness and belongs to the Love of good Will a Willingness that mutal Communion and Fellowship should be again renewed and that distance by which we are undone no more continue Gods becoming our Councel from Eternity some improperly calls this a Justification but Council praecedes the Tryal Justification follows and his so early Intimations of his kind Purposes and his giving his Son to be a Peace-Maker tho' the pulling down of the Partition Wall cost his Blood Reconciliation taken thus is the Foundation of Redemption and all built upon it These two viz. Love of God and Gift of his Son differ as a Natural and Artificial Foundation the natural Rock and the first laid Stone this Love and Reconcileableness is the very Nature of God or an immediate result from it on the Position of such an Object for God is Love and Love made him communicate of the fulness of his Being to nothing and he is a faithful Creator to protect and provide for what he brings forth Love makes him so 2. Reconciliation is taken for the Agreement of Minds Amos 3.3 Can two walk together and not be agreed Two Persons who once were of one Mind and of one Heart they had the same designs and ends mutually engaged in Amity and now this Temper and Condition after a miserable misunderstanding is again renewed as Davids bowels yearned after Absalom he was reconcileable but Communion was not renewed until he had lived a considerable time in Jerusalem So Pharaoh's Butler when he is again restored to his wonted Place Thus Reconciliation is the very same with Justification The divorced Woman is again reconciled to her Husband in the same State of Fellowship through the Covenant of Grace that she was before breach of the Covenant of Works as Justification is a restoring a Man to his former State before the Charge or Suspition of guilt so Reconciliation is a restoring to that State we were in before Enmity they have both the same blessed Author God the Father Son and Holy Ghost they have both the same moving Cause Goodness and Love breaking forth in Grace and Mercy from Eternity God became Mans Council in this Trial wherein he is justified and that Council was a Council of Peace they have the same meriting Foundation Christs Redemption they commence both at one and the same time Guilt and Enmity falls at once The one Simile only helps to illustrate wherein the other may become defective for all the Transactions between Men and Men have their Exceptions and Dissimilitudes when they are brought to represent the Case between God and us The one represents the Case as friendly made up without going to Law the other represents a fair Trial the one represents it as a private Case the other represents it as a publick Crime pardoned Authority being appeased by a Satisfaction By the one Guilt is removed by the other Enmity the one teaches that the other is not to be wire-drawn for finding of something in it answerable to all the parts of the Simile The fourth is Adoption which is of the same Relative Nature with the former and has the same Causes and Means of Conveyance and commences at one and the same time but yet seem to differ in these things 1. Adoption comprehends a greater Blessing Justification gives Life but Adoption gives an Inheritance Justification makes us free Subjects but Adoption makes us Sons Justification puts us in Adam's Condition but Adoption gives a right to Adam's Expectation for Adam's Marriage from its very Original seems to be a Type of our Communion and Fellowship with Christ Gen. 2.24 They shall be one Flesh Eph. 5.32 it is said to be a great Mystery Vid. Dr. T. Goodwin 2. Justification of a Sinner is a Sublapsarian Blessing but Predestination to Adoption is an Antilapsarian Blessing design'd for Man before he fell Eph. 1.5 3. Justification is a Mean Adoption is an End Tit. 3.7 That being Justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the Hope of Eternal Life and so in this Chapter it is treated of from the 13th Verse as posteriour to Justification 4. Justification is a more immediate Effect of Christ's Death Adoption more mediate it is by Justification that the blessed Line of Divine designs that was broken by Sin is again tyed God designed a perpetual ascending Line of Blessings to his Creatures but from Sin to Justification is a Parenthesis in this Line John 12.24 Christ compares himself to a Corn of Wheat that dyes that it may bring forth fruit so Psal 45. Christ dyed and was Anointed to the Office of a Mediator that he might recover those who were design'd his Fellows and Companions from their Forfeiture of it and Unfitness for it Hence it is call'd a Purchas'd Possession Eph. 1.14 by reason that is Purchas'd without which we could not enjoy it We can have no Priviledge without Life 5. The one seems to require a more Noble and Heavenly Temper of Spirit correspondent to it Regeneration answers the one but the Spirit of Adoption which is a higher degree answers the other The Regenerate Man may be under a Spirit of Bondage but they who have received the Spirit of Adoption are more free from that slavish Temper Rom. 8.14 Heb. 11.16 their Desires are fix'd upon and more proportion'd to their Estate 6. The one is ascribed more to the Death of Christ the other to his Life We are Justified by his Blood Saved by his Life Rom. 5.9 By Authority he forgives sins but by his Intercession he prays for the Priviledges of Adoption But whatever dictinction there may be there is no Separation which is frequent among Men who have their Life often spar'd without restoring their
God being Judge and Witness and consequently Matter of Justification for they differ but in this that Justification presupposes the Charge of a Crime or Suspition of one Praising or Glorying doth not So that Praising and Justifying differ only as Comfort and Joy and Grotius himself being Judge on John 1.1 this is the Sense of the Phrase 2. Glorying in God is expressed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 2.17 And makest thy boast of God 1 Cor. 1.41 He that gloryeth let him glory in the Lord Psal 34.2 My Soul shall make her boast in the Lord. These two are vastly different to have Matter of Glorying in our selves in our Actions towards God God himself being our Judge and Witness and to Glory in God his Favour and Kindness when we have deserved nothing but Wrath. A second Grammatical Error is to think that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 differ in Scripture for we find that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Glorying is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matter of Glory 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoicing is this the Testimony of our Conscience Rom. 15.17 I have therefore whereof I may Glory in things that pertain to God And so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Act of Glorying 1 Cor. 5.6 Your glorying is not good 9.15 Make my glorying void 2 Cor. 5.12 Occasion to glory on our behalf But beside if Man had Matter of Glorying there might be justly glorying where there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God doth never deny any man his due The deepest Degrees of Humility God requires are but suitable Apprehensions and Conversations to what we are And Lastly a Man's Works affords Matter of Glorying as well as his Faith Heb. 11.17 James 2.20 God praises Abraham's Works as well as his Faith 6. The Criticks generally are against this Translation and so the Ancient Versions as the Ethiopick which puts a Reward here in place of Glorying and the Arabick which says If he was Justified by Works he should have Glory in them Lastly It is the making of a Neutral Verb active without any Authentick Examples to Countenance it But I come to the second thing which is the Truth of the Argument That Abraham had no Matter of Glorying before God I shall form it into this general Doctrine That no meer Man has any Matter of Glorying before God This I shall Confirm and Illustrate from these four general Topicks 1. From Mans Existence and Being 2. From his Constitution or Essence 3. From his Undoing of himself his ruining and destroying his Soul by Sin his guilt which not only affords matter for Humility but of mixing it with Sorrow Shame and Confusion of Face 4. From our Impotence to restore our selves from this Fall tho' there is matter in it to remove our Sorrow none to remove our Humility or lay a Foundation of our Glorying I shall begin with the first of these Topicks First Our Being or Existence this has seven Properties that are inseparable from it or from any Creature whether Angels above us or Beasts below us They are the seven Properties of a Creature as a Creature and the just Consideration of them is that which makes Angels never Mind themselves but be unwearied and without Intermission taken up with the Praises and Contemplations of a God These are the things which make Seraphims cover their Face and their Feet with their Wings The first is Creatures Contingency that is tho it now is it might not have been and may not be again there is no repugnancy to not Being in its Constitution which I shall thus Illustrate Before our Birth we were not Men Atheists that pretend our matter to have been from Eternity and that when we dye we only dissolve into that Common Mass yet they grant that we begin to be Men and cease to be Men and that every individual Man hath a beginning 1. If there is no Necessity of our being Men there is no Necessity of our being any thing especially Inferiour to Man as Matter is owned to be for Necessity of Existence is a high Perfection Contingency that borders next to nothing is a great Imperfection and therefore the greater Perfection is to be placed in the more perfect Being Therefore if no Necessity of his Being man there is no Necessity of being any thing Inferiour to him Necessary Existence must be the Attribute of something for since something now is something always has been and that which hath been always doth Exist by the Intrinsick Perfection of its own Essence for what suffers nothing to be before it admits of no External Cause But 2. That which hath the least Imperfection of any kind it wants this Perfection of necessary Existence whatever has any Imperfection is but a Contingent thing For if there be not a reality of Perfection to exclude a little Imperfection there cannot be a sufficient reality to exclude a greater Imperfection If the fulness of the Beings Perfections do not include a lesser Perfection they cannot include a greater for instance if Matter cannot include among its Perfections these lesser ones of Thinking Reasoning Speaking Feeling it cannot include a more Noble Perfection of Necessary Existence for not to be is a greater Imperfection than not to be Reasonable or not to be Sensitive Necessary Existence is at the greatest distance from not Being that is possible and therefore since not Being is the greatest Imperfection necessary Being is the greatest Perfection and whatever has it must want no Perfection and whatever wants it is but a Contingent thing 3. All that own a God own that necessary Existence is his incommunicable Attribute and does contain an incomparable an incomprehensible Perfection it is the highest Degree of removal from nothing a grain of Dust is better than nothing all Creatures are in a middle State between Nothing and a necessary Being Nothing is not Gods Name is Being Exod. 3.14 I am what I am his Name alone is Jehovah But Creatures are indifferent to be and not to be there is no repugnancy in us against Being nor no impossibility in our Constitution to hinder us from not Being Christ himself bears a Similitudinary Image of Independency because having once a Life given he is said to have Life in himself in his own Power but there is no Image of this Necessary Existence Atheism is very unreasonable to place this Perfection in Matter which as the Reverend Mr. Howe says is next to Nothing for it can do nothing and shall we place the Attribute that is most distant from Nothing in the Subject which is next to nothing What great ground of Humility doth this afford that I am more than a Fly it is of God not of me that I differ from the Dust or the Dirt I tread on I owe it to God I am not so much as one Breath yea the smallest particle of the most subtil Air of my self that I am more than
has an influence upon it all and yet the Scripture tells us this is the manner of Grace's influence viz. To renew the Will by enlightning the Mind 2 Cor. 3.18 3. Obj. Stat pro ratione voluntas that we often have no other Reason of our acting but our meer Will or as some say I will because I will Resp That saying either is the saying of a Polititian who means he will Conceal his Reason or of a Fool that knows not what he says 4. Obj. Ignorance much excuseth a Fault but if our Wills did always follow our Intellects then all our Sins would be Sins of Ignorance and so not so full of Aggravation as otherwise Resp The Scripture calls all our Sins Errors Heb. 9.7 Which he offered for himsâ—lf and the Errors of the People And both the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and thâ— Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifie to Mistake or Err and the very first sin of Man is called a being deceived 2. There is an Ignorance that aggravates as well as an Ignorance that excuses for he that has given Diligence and Pains to know the Will of God and State of his own Soul he that has attended upon Ordinances for encreasing the Knowledge thereof is less guilty than he who remains Ignorant of what the other knows by his Negligence I shâ—ll conclude this with these two Inferences 1. That there then was an Error or Mistake in the first sin of Angels as well as Man tho' they had no Outward Tempter yet their own glistering Beauty and glorious Excellencies appearing in their own Mind were too abstractly Considered and too precipitantly doted upon 2. That the great Object of our Prayers and Diligence should be to attain true Knowledge Wisdom is the principal thing we ought daily to Watch at her Gates that the Eyes of our Vnderstanding may be enlightened that we may know what is the Hope of his Calling and what is the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance to know more of God's Love and Power toward them that believe to know more of the Beauty of Holiness Vileness of sin and Vanity of the Creature The fourth Proposition is That the Will of Man is not free to all things Every thing is Confin'd to its own Sphere the Carnal Man to Carnal things the Spiritual Man discerneth all things yet that is Confin'd to spirituals here below for neither Peter nor Paul could Converse rationally about Heavenly things This necessarily follows from the former Proposition viz. That the Will of Man is confin'd to the Understanding Indeed the Appetite is in this sense larger that it Craves a greater Good than the Eye of the Mind can point out to it but in particular Choice and Prosecution it can only seek after such as the Mind demonstrates to it Ignoti nulla cupido and it will be further prov'd under the last Topick viz. Man's Impotency The third Topick or General Argument for our Humility is our Guilt This is the Argument the Apostle insists so largely upon to prove by it that we are not justifi'd by Works or to render the Gospel which brings the Tydings of a Justification by Faith more acceptable First We are Naturally guilty Eph. 2.3 and we are by Nature the Children of wrath even as others a Child of Wrath is one liable to Wrath or guilty of Wrath as Judas is called a Son of Perdition Joh. 17.12 And so we read of a Son of Hell Mat. 23.15 and Children of the Curse 2 Pet. 2.14 Deut. 25.2 a Child of beating is translated worthy to be beaten But the great Controversie is What is meant by being thus liable to Wrath by Nature There be two ways that they who deny Original Sin explain it First some say it signifies only truly Children of wrath as in Gal. 4.8 By Nature were no Gods Resp 1. We grant they are truly so but where doth ever the word Nature signifie no more For these Gods wanted a Divine Nature Spirituality Independency c. and the Rule of interpreting Scripture is to let every word signifie as much as it can 2. The obviated contrary would be such as none ever pretended viz. and were in Opinion the Children of Wrath even as c. the Jews were not in their own Opinion thus Gal. 2.5 A second way is By Custom Children of Wrath they found their Interpretations on these two things The Context speaks of their Conversation 2. The word Nature signifies sometimes Custom 1 Cor. 11.14 Nature teaches that if a Man have long hair it is a shame unto him Resp 1. He mentions two kinds of Sins beside Conversation viz. Flesh and its Lusts Wills or Desires by way of Genealogy succeeding one another 1. Flesh 2. Lusts 3. Conversation or Fulfillment of them There are two things here to be proved That we are Flesh Antecedent to any Custom 2. To be Flesh is to be sinful For the former see John 3.3 every thing born of flesh is so 1 Cor. 3.3 it 's common to Man as Man in this State are ye not carnal and walk as men For the latter see Rom. 8.6 7 8 9. The Apostles design is to prove that the Jews were not only as guilty as the Gentiles in Conversation but in Lusts and fleshly Dispositions and so naturally Acts are before Custom but a natural Principle before Acts. It 's Nature before Custom teaches that Lesson which brings forth longer and more Ornamental Hair in Women than Men Rev. It s a Natural Character of distinction of Sexes 2 Custom is called second Nature Like Nature or acquired Nature not Nature simply and teaches nothing of this Matter for in some Countreys Men nourish and dress it in others not but Nature constantly distinguishes and these distinguishing Characters are called Nature Rom. 1.26 27. Two Ways Nature is most usually taken 1. For the Internal Causes the Principium motus the Disposition or Constituti of a thing Rom. 2.14 The Gentiles do by Nature the things of the Law Or 2. for Birth as Rom. 2.27 The Gentiles are the uncircumcision by Nature in opposition to the Jews who by Birth had the priviledge of Circumcision belonging to them Gal. 2.15 Both these are here comprehended the Arguments for it are these 1. Flesh and Nature here seem to be one thing for the reason of our being Children of Wrath is because we had our Conversation in the lusts of the Flesh By Flesh in Scripture is understood that Natural byass and tendency to Carnal things that is in every Man from his Birth Hence it 's call'd a fleshly Mind a Carnal Mind and in my flesh dwells no good thing and this fleshly Disposition is Nature to us for whatsoever is born of the flesh is flesh There is substantial Flesh of which we are born and then there is this fleshly disposition that is the property As it is said That what is born of the Spirit is Spirit The one is the Holy Ghost the other a Holy Habit
saying She had tried them which said they were Apostles and found them liars she was molested with them not corrupted From the Third of Philippians we find that Church was corrupted by 'em for he calls such Teachers Dogs evil Workers the Concision and from his own Experience tells 'em he was once such an one that trusted in the Flesh but now solely in Christ and his Righteousness It is against both these Parties that the Apostle here disputes but principally against these latter sort as we may see by the state of the Question Ver. 28. Justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law His Disputes with the former were of another Kind viz. To convince the Gentiles that Christ was the and the only Mediator against the Jews that Jesus was the Promised Messias But here the Question is If we be justified by Faith mixt with the Deeds of the Law or without it And therefore we may conclude That whatever Truth the unconverted Pharisees held these Converts much more held and that they did not plead these Works of the Law intentionally to exclude Christ or his Righteousness whom they had embraced Partly from the Scripture and partly from their own Writings I find this Account of their Doctrine of the Law 1. They were very zealous and laborious in all External Worship they kept the Sabbath to a height of Superstition and their Prayers were very long Matt. 23.14 2. In Justice between Man and Man they were so exact as to tythe Mint Annise and Cummin 3. And tho Christ in every thing blames them for Hypocrisie yet he owns their Charity and Alms but their Hypocrisie was more in Practice than Profession For 4. In Mat. 22.37 they owned Love to God and their Neighbour with all their Heart Soul and Mind to be the first and great Commandment Which includes a 5th That Sincerity was in great value with them as Sephar Ikkarim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God has greatest respect to the Intention of the Heart as David says Create in me a clean Heart So the Lawyer Luk. 10.28 Sir thou hast answered right and St. Paul Act. 23.1 lived in all good Conscience 6. Their own Writings speak much of the Excellency and Vertue of Faith the Author of Nitzakon says He that believes not as he ought his Circumcision makes him not a Jew but he that believes as he ought he is a Jew And in Michlaz Jophi Abram said to be the Father of all Men that followed him in his Faith The Talmud says When Abram was Father of the Syrians only he was called Abram but when he shall be the Father of all the World he is called Abraham The former Nitzakon says Faith consists not in Circumcision but in the Heart And the Author of Sepher Ikkarim says Faith is the Cause of Blessedness and therefore of Life Eternal And again in the same 1 Lib. and 21 Chap. Abraham is praised for his Faith as the Scripture says Abraham believed God and 't was imputed to him for Righteousness And Mat. 23. they were accused by Christ for neglecting Judgment Mercy and Faith It was their practical Omission was reprehended not their Ignorance for these are called the weightier Matters of the Law Since they who did not own Christ speak so much of the Commendation of Faith in Gods Mercy for that was the Object of their Faith as we may see from Sepher Ikkarim on those words in Daniel 9.18 Not for our Righteousness but thy great Mercy The Mercies of the Blessed God are upon all his Creatures from pure Grace not Merit for which the Author further cites Job thus Whâ— hath given to me that it may be repayed Much more must we conceive â—hem to say of Faith and Faith in Christ who own Christ for their only propitiatory Sacrifice and Saviour and such were they against whom Paul disputes And tho the others believed not Jesus to be the Messias yet they believed the Messias to be the Redeemer from Death and Hell by the Merit of his Sufferings as may be seen at large in Raymundus Pugio Fidei Jos Voisin Theologia Judaica Porchet Galatinus Pseiferus and their own Midrashes on the Prophetical Texts of the Messias 7. They highly praise the Confâ—ssion of Sin their Writers on Isaiah 45.22 Vnto Me every Knee shall bow and every Tongue confess say That a four-â—old Confession is to be made to God A Confession with the Mouth a Conâ—ession in Works a Confession with the Heart and with all together and they call the 100 Psalm Mizmor Letodah a Psalm of Confession Bereshet Ketannah says They who overcome their Lusts and confess their Deeds are worthy of the Future Age but he that confesses not is Cursed as Cain who denyed and hid his Sin but Achan Josh 7.29 tho he was troubled in this World he was not in the other because he confessed his Sin From which they gathered a Necessity of particular Confession And in the Conclusion of Reschet Chocme All that dye let them Confess if they cannot let them say Let my Death be an Expiation of my Crimes They own we may see not only a Confession but joyn'd with Forsaking a Mortification of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Original Lust that begins as they say in our first Formation 8. Repentance is a Duty of great Esteem Midrash Shirhâ—shirim 5. 2. Open to me my Sister my Love says thus Open to me one Crevice of Repentance and I will open the wide Gates of Glory to thee Psal 46.10 Be still and know that I am God that is Cease to do evil and let thy Repentance be but as the Twinkling of an Eye and thou shalt know me if Israel could but repent one day they would be immediately redeemed and the Son of David would come On Zach. 9.1 The Burden of the Word of the Lord in the Land of Hadrach It 's askt what 's Hadrach And answer'd It is the Messias who is to bring all the World to the Face of God by Repentance for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies who and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Way or to lead he leads by the Way of Repentance Others thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sharp and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tender for the Lord is bitter to the Impenitent but tender and Mercifull to the Penitent The Talmud on Psal 25.8 Therefore will he teach sinners in the way that is the way of Repentance for poena peccatoris est poenitentia about which there is a hard Expression of theirs on the 14th of Hosea That they say In two things the Mercy of God exceeds man One is He will be pleased with Words so not Man Another is when All have offended he is reconciled with the Repentance of One. So that all Christs Sufferings by them are called Repentance Lam. 3.43 v. The Midrash Tillim says The Gates of Prayer are sometimes shut but the Gates of Repentance never Repentance is like the Sea that any at any time may go in to wash