maintain good works Shewing that our believing is so far from exempting us from them that 't is a peculiar obligation to abound in them As when Abraham telleth Sarah that she was a fair woman to look upon Gen. 12.11 he meaneth as she then was with her soul remaining in her when that was departed she was so ghastly a spectacle he ordered her to be buried out of his sight So doth the Apostle when he speaketh of this Grace so highly he meaneth it as enlivened by inherent holiness otherwise when it is without that it is a dead body without its spirit aptly here compared to it because of its imperfection 2. There is another account may be rendered of it too why it is resembled to a dead body without its spirit and that is because of its uselesness These bodies of ours so wonderfully made whenonce they cease to be animated what are they good for They have mouths but they speak not eyes have they but they see not they have ears but they hear not noses have they but they smell not they have hands but they handle not feet have they but walk not neither speak they through their throats And it is no better with faith it self when unaccompanied with a religious life It is altogether as insignificant to any saving purposes We find God in mercy making abatements for matters of faith where the person leadeth a pious and good life Cornelius had not any explicit knowledge of Christ at all yet being a devout man and one that feared God he is assured by an Angel that his prayers and his alms were come up for a memorial before him Acts 10.4 But where there is not a pious and good life God hath no regard to the most orthodox and relying faith Our Saviour telleth us plainly that it is not the calling him Lord Lord shall give us entrance into Heaven Mat. 7.21 but the doing the will of our Father which is in heaven They who run down this as legal preaching and as the more evangelical way spend themselves in exhorting their hearers to get Christ to lean on Christ to cast themselves on Christ one would almost think had discovered some other Christ then him the Gospel speaketh of His doctrine was of a different form and tendency In the first Sermon that he preached he cautiously informeth the people of this that he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it Mat. 5.17 To cancel any part of our duty toward God or man but to advance it to a higher degree of perfection It were to be wished therefore that they who so much affect would take care to explain expressions of such indefinite and ambiguous signification lest their followers should mistake their better meaning and instead of being built up in their most holy faith receive the Grace of God in vain and cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of Let not any think to shelter loose and dangerous notions in this kind under the authority of the reformed Churches Tho' these have been much scandalized by the Romanists upon this account as licentious in their tenents and despisers of good works because they exclude them from justification attributing that to faith only it is very causelesly for when they speak of justifying faith they do it in such a way as showeth them very innocent and free from the charge and that in truth it is the manner of their speaking rather than the thing they speak that giveth offence to them For when they Rescribe this sort of faith they put in more â—han is properly faith to appretiate it For then they say we are justified by faith only observe what they will have this justifying â—aith to be Because it is best known to and may have the greatest sway with those among us who have most need to be disaâ—used in this matter I shall only mention â—he Assembly of Divines whose words in our confession of faith are these Cap. 14. By this faith a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word for the authority of God himself speaking therein and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth yielding obedience to the commands trembling at the threatnings and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come They suppose these effects so inseparable from true faith that when it is proved not only that considered in its own nature it may be buâ— that often it hath been without them it is still replied it is not such a faith which they mean and call justifying The foreign Divines whom these followed have spoken so much to this purpose somâ— making this habitto be in the will (a) Chamier Panstratiae tom 3. l. 12. c. 4. other to contain in it hope and charity (b) Zegerus in praefat ad annotat ad epist. Pauli thâ—â— that moderate and very judicious writer 〈◊〉 le Blanc after an exact and impartial statâ—â— the Question about our justification by faiâ—â— and summoning up what the most considerable on both sides grant and deny conclueth that tho the doctrine of the Româ—â— Church in some other points is such as not so consistent with the truth which hâ—â— they have been by their adversaries compelled to own Tho' some writers of the reformation have let fall many things which seem contradictory and have need of a very kind interpretation to reconcile them tho' on both sides they charge one another so highly as if they struck at the very foundation of Christanity yet would they have but the patience to consider what one another say Vide Le Blanc Theses Theol. Quomodo fides justificet Sect. 59. this controversie between us and the Papists would appear not much more after all than a strife of words Upon this account such as have spoken most favourably of a death-bed repentance have justly affirmed it so extreamly dangerous to rely on not only because there are so many several ways of mens going out of the world some of which deprive of time others of faculties but because it beareth so little and so suspicious fruit Not but that where such repentance is sincere and cordial he who foreseeth all future contingencies and the effects of things in their causes may in this sense call the things that are not as if they were and graciously accept according to that which a man hath and not according to that which he hath not But yet it must be said that throughout all the Bible we have not a promise that God will accept the most godly death for a wicked life good wishes for good works No body therefore need have been so angry with St. James as to deny the truth and authority of his Epistle upon this score as if the contents of it were contradictory to the tenour of other Scriptures those passages which have made any think so as to him that worketh not Rom. 4.5 but believeth in
same Species with that which they call justifying the duration of a thing doth not at all belong to the Essence of it He was as truly a Man that dyed at Thirty as he that liveth while he is Fourscore And our Saviour speaking of it Luke 8.13 doth not make it to be another but the same kind of Seed that fell upon the Rock where it withered away after it sprang up because it had no Root with that which fell upon the good ground and brought forth fruit with patience And so that which is called Justifying Faith considered in it self is nothing else but that which they call Historical which without all doubt doth Justifie if all those other things which the new Covenant doth require to the justification of a Sinner doth accompany it Every one will subscribe to that of our Apostle v. 14. of this Chapter that if a man say he hath Faith and hath not Works his Faith cannot save him So that faith of no kind when it is alone is justifying and faith of that kind they call Historical made perfect by works will be justifying And thus upon the whole matter it is evident that he who doth really believe whatsoever is contained in Gods Word to be true hath Faith whatever other Grace he may be deficient in But lest any Man should from some mistaken places of Scripture flatter himself that this is sufficient to qualifie him for the favour of God and admission into Heaven We are informed that without a good life it will never profit This is that which is here Praedicated and declared concerning faith The other General of the Text that without Works it is dead as a Carcass when the Soul is departed For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also And here again there is A Supposition and an Assertion The Supposition is that faith may be without works The Assertion that wheresoever it is so it is unacceptable to God and unprofitable unto Men it is dead The Supposition here is that faith may be without works If it did necessarily draw Obedience after it as some with plausible shows of reason Camero praelect ad Met. 18. have attempted to maintain this whole discourse about it would have been omitted as impertinent Why should our Apostle have argued so earnestly and closely about an utter impossibility It is true there can be no good works without Faith Hebr. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him He that doth not believe this that God will reward him for it in another World will never Mortify his corrupt inclinations in this But true as it is that there can be no good works without Faith it is as true that there may be faith without good works else why are we exhorted 2 Pet. 1.5 To add to our Faith Vertue If this habit could not be in us idle and un-active there would have been no more need of it than to admonish the fire that it would warm or make orations to the water that it would cleanse or moisten It is a Moral motive to good Works but it is no irresistible Cause no it may be barren and unfruitful It is so in two very common Cases In case of Inconsideration In case of Presumption I. First in case of Inconsideration There is no question but that it is sufficient to produce good works St. Gregory Expounding that passage of our Saviour B. Greg. in Ebany hom 29. Mark 16.17 18. These signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover Because saith he faith doth not work these Wonders now shall we say it is not Faith No it doth now as mighty things upon the spirits of Men as then it did upon their Bodies Where it really is it casteth out Devils still the Envious the Proud the Unclean the Revengeful every Evil Spirit that possesseth Men. It maketh Men speak with new tongues still that which is good to the use of Edifying instead of Blasphemies Slanders Lyes Oaths Corrupt and Filthy Communication It taketh up Serpents still stinging Scoffs and Censures when called to it the greatest dangers and losses for the keeping of a good Conscience If they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt such still the sollicitings and temptations of bad Company which is so deadly unto thousands they shall not be Poysoned with They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover still their many Infirmities and Frailties they labour under by degrees they shall overcome and conquer waxing stronger in the Lord These saith he are the wonderful effects of faith still But then it must be remembred it produceth them not as a Charm but as a Medicine not in a Magical way but in a Moral It representeth Arguments to our hopes and Fears of such amazing moment as are proper and apt enough to influence the stupidest or wildest Persons that will but weigh them but yet no Vertue will come out of them except our Minds touch them And are there not some who seldom or never seriously and in earnest think of these things tho' they know them And then what can be expected The sharpest Sword will not cut as long as it is in the Scabard In this case tho' there be Faith woful experience showeth it worketh no more than the Potion in a Glass which the Patient doth not take in the case of Inconsideration The other is like unto it and that is II. The case of Presumption Altho' Inconsideration with the Philistines cutteth the Hair wherein the strength of Faith lyeth this will not serve always in time it will grow again and make its fresh assaults on us Tho' Men may for a while by casual or contrived diversions have these things out of their thoughts they cannot so utterly rid their Consciences of its company but that sometime or other it meeteth them as the Angel did Balaam with a naked Sword in its Hand so dreadful that it maketh the the most Brutish sort of Sinners for the present to start and boggle in their ways and yet for all this oft-times they will not go back again No when they dare not run full-butt against it then they find out a trick cunningly to slip by it They suppose the things to be true but then they promise themselves selves that they will be wise They resolve they will repent before they dye and then they assure themselves the threatning will not take place Behind this Sconce they stand secure against the most dreadful Artillery of Heaven that is discharged at them having once imbibed this Opiat Principle like those Indian Kings mentioned by *
him that justifieth the ungodly I desire to be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is after the law Phil. 3.9 but that which is through the Faith of God and the like are to be understood chiefly of the works of the ceremonial law which the Jews so tenaciously adhered to as is evident by the whole Epistle to the Galatians partly of the works of the moral law which the Gentiles performed by the power of Nature as appeareth by the two first chapters to the Romans but if we speak of the works of the evangelical law which proceed from faith and assistance of the spirit If we turn over the whole new Testament we shall be so far from finding any thing in derogation or diminution of them that it will appear they are the great design of our religion so the Apostle telleth the Ephsians we are his workmanship Ephes 2.10 created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Tho' there is not such merit in them that we shall be saved for them yet there is such necessity of them that we shall not be saved without them No believing without obedience will avail us for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also This being so very clear giveth cause enough to spend more than the remainder of the time in lamentation in sad lamentation for the dead I mean for the faith of Christians whose want of works doth so plainly manifest it hath too generally given up the ghost Instead of making it the guide and rule of our lives 1 Kings 9. we use it as a name of faction and distinction wrangling and clamouring as the Harlots did before Solomon about the child one saying the faith is mine the other nay but it is mine only with this woful difference theirs was about a living child ours God knoweth about a dead one What can we think else when we see it on all hands to be so very void works This is sad in any that call themselves Christians but we have the least to excuse our selves of any By how much our faith is the sounder by so much is our sin the greater For however we may flatter our selves it will be more tolerable in the day of account for such as have been serious even in a trifling religion than for such as have been trifling in such a serious one The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink Rom. 13.17 but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost It is a duty indeed and a commendable one to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. but what will it be but a reproach to us if all our zeal be only for the profession of it and we have none for those fruits of it as are most becoming Saints Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Trust ye not then in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. The Protestant Religion the Protestant Religion It will be but odious to God and fulsom to men if it be not adorned with an unanswerable conversation Who then is a wise man among you James 3.13 and endued with knowledge let him show out of a good conversation his works with meetness of wisdom that so our profession and our practices may meet together our faith and our works kiss each other and glory may dwell in our land FINIS