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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	faith_n	grace_n	justify_v	4,538	5	8.7378	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74993	Certain select discourses on those most important subjects, requisite to be well understood by a catechist in laying the foundation of Christian knowledge in the minds of novitiates viz., First discourses on I. The doctrine of the two covenants both legal and evangelical, II. On faith and justification / by William Allen. Secondly, Discourses on I. The covenant of grace, or baptismal covenant, being chatechetical lectures on the preliminary questions and answers of the Church-Catechism : II. Three catechetical lectures on faith and justification / by Thomas Bray, D.D.	Allen, William, d. 1686.; Bray, Thomas, 1658-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing A1055A; ESTC R172154	614,412	564

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 ●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 ●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 o● 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 h●●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

come short of it Sect. 7. I come now in the next place to shew What the condition of the Promise to Abraham was In short it was a practical Faith And under this Head I shall endeavour 1. To give some account of the nature of Abraham's Faith in general 2. To describe Faith And 3. To shew reason why Faith is made the condition of the Covenant 1. The condition of the Promise to Abraham was Faith and as I shall after shew a practical Faith For that was it upon which the great Blessing of the Covenant Justification was conferred upon him with the consequent benefits In Gen. 15.6 it is said of Abraham that he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness But St. Paul reciting this Scripture faith Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness Rom. 4.3 Gal. 3.6 If there be any difference between believing God and believing in God it seems to be this To believe God is to believe him upon his Word to believe all that to be true which he saith when he hath once spoken it But to believe in God is first to believe him to be such an One of such a Nature as neither will nor can at any time speak any thing but what is true It is to believe him to be a God that cannot lye For all true Faith as Abraham's was is founded in the Nature of God Abraham did primarily believe in God and consequently believed his Sayings of what nature soever they were And secondly To believe in God is to believe that he can and will perform whatever he promised how unlikely soever the thing in its own nature otherwise be And this was the nature of Abraham's Faith as appears by St. Paul's Comment upon it Rom. 4.20 21. He staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform He gave to God the glory of his Nature and Being of his Truth and Faithfulness in his Promises and of his Power and Ability to perform what he had promised notwithstanding its utmost improbability in Nature And therefore or for this reason his Faith was imputed to him for righteousness as we are told in ver 22. of Rom. 4. And so it should seem it is not the believing of any one particular or single Promise that is counted for Righteousness otherwise than as it is an instance of Faith in God in general in reference to whatever he doth say or shall declare Which may be the reason why Faith is said to be counted to Abraham for Righteousness as well when he had not the Messias in the Promise as the immediate Object of his Faith but somewhat else as when he had The Promise the believing of which was counted to Abraham for righteousness in Gen. 15.6 was a Promise of a numerous Issue So shall thy Seed be viz. as numberless as the Stars But that which produced a Belief of this particular Promise would and doubtless did produce in him a belief of the promise of the Messias and of every other Promise and Word of God and declaration of his mind so far as understood by him and that was an habitual belief of God's Truth and Faithfulness Wisdom Power and Goodness his fixed belief in God And so a believing God's Threatnings so as to use means to escape them is it should seem counted to one for Righteousness as well as the belief of the Promises as growing upon the same Root Thus Noah's Believing God's threatning to bring a Deluge upon the World and his Obedience to God's Command in the preparing an Ark for the saving of his House was that or at least one instance of that Faith by which he became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith Heb. 11.7 It was this general Faith in God that made Abraham so compliant with every intimation of his will and pleasure By it he forsook his own Country and Kindred at God's command to go he knew not whither but depended on God's after-direction in that case Heb. 11.8 By it he was ready to offer his Son Isaac in whom the Promises were made And he had such a firm Belief in God's Promise That in Isaac his Seed should be called that he concluded that God would raise him from the Dead when he had Sacrificed him rather than fail in the least of making good his Promise Heb. 11.17 18 19. He had such a confidence in God that is to say in his Wisdom Goodness Truth and Power as wrought him to an entire Resignation of himself to God's will and pleasure He believed God to be so Good and so Wise as not to put him upon any thing but what should be for his good in the issue And so True and Powerful as to promise nothing but what he could and would perform In a word this his Belief in God made him believe all his Promises and obey all his Precepts 2. Come we next to some description of that Faith which is the condition of the Promise or Covenant of Salvation Wherein I shall have respect to the nature of Saving Faith in general in reference to all Ages of the Church and also to the Christian Evangelical Faith in special Faith strictly taken is an assent unto the truth of any Proposition upon the credit of the Speaker But Saving Faith is of a more comprehensive nature than is a meer assent unto the Truth of any one Proposition And although Saving Faith is sometimes described by an assenting to the truth of one single Proposition yet then it implies the belief of many more and such a belief as draws in the Will to act according to the import and concernment of the thing believed As for instance The Belief of this Proposition That Christ Jesus is the Son of God by which Faith is sometimes described doth include in it a belief of the truth of his whole Doctrine both concerning God's Grace and Man's Duty and the Will 's concurrence as to its concernment in it For if he be the Son of God then he cannot lye or deceive in any thing he hath said And again the belief of this Proposition That God raised Christ from the Dead by which Faith is also described Rom. 10.9 includes in it a belief That all that Doctrine which he taught is undoubtedly true For if it had not God would never have wrought such a Miracle as to Raise Christ from the Dead to confirm it The belief then of such single Propositions include a belief of the whole Doctrine of the Gospel which is the proper Object of the Christian Faith and for that cause is frequently stiled Faith or the Faith in the New Testament But if we respect the nature of Faith in general as answering the different degrees of God's Revelation of his Will in several Ages of the World both under the Gospel and before I

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

Leaning and Rolling themselves upon the Promises of Christ for Salvation But for any to expect to be Justify'd and Accepted by God without forsaking their evil Ways and without working out also their own Salvation with fear and trembling that is without being extreamly careful themselves to be Obedient to God's most Holy Laws is gross Hypocrisie and will miserably deceive us Hypocrisie is with vain Shews and Pretences to deceive our selves or others and to be only Hearers or Believers of the Word and not Doers is to deceive our selves St. James tells us 1. 22. And a greater than he even our Blessed Saviour himself hath assured us Mat. 7.21 That not everyone who saith unto him Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the Will of his Father which is in Heaven And as for the Pretence they have to live securely in unrepented Habits of Sin that the Grace and Mercy of Christ is more Magnify'd the greater Sinners they are I answer That the greater Sinners they have been the greater is the Mercy which Forgives 'em when they do repent according to that of the Apostle Rom. 5.20 21. Where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound that as Sin hath reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Jesus Christ our Lord. But to make the Magnifying of God's Grace a Reason for Security whilst Men continue in Sin this indeed was a false Conclusion that some in the First Times as well as now were apt to draw from St. Paul's Doctrine of Justification but which that Great Apostle rejected with the utmost Indignation and Abhorrence in the next Chapter v. 1 2. What shall we say then Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid How shall we that are dead to Sin live any longer therein No sure the Doctrine of Christianity tho' it lays aside the Original Law of Righteousness and the Law of Moses from being either of 'em a Rule of Righteousness in conforming to which we shall be Justify'd yet this Doctrine most strictly obliges us to a sincere Reformation from all former Sins and to a Newness of Life as the indispensible Condition of being Justify'd by God Nor is there the least occasion given us by this Doctrine to value our selves upon our own Righteous Performances when it is only of Grace that we are able to do any thing which is good and the Acceptance of the Good we do is owing to the Mediation of Christ who obtained such Gracious Terms and Conditions of Justification for us Which Considerations as I have already made appear do sufficiently shew that we are Justify'd freely by God's Grace in Christ and do exclude all Grounds and Occasion of Boasting A summary account of justifying Faith In a word and to conclude this whole Point the only Faith or Belief that will Justifie and Save us must be such a full Perswasion of the Truth of Christianity and all its Great Doctrines those I mean which are in a peculiar manner call'd the Articles of our Christian Faith it must be such a through Perswasion I say of those great and powerful Truths as will purifie us in Heart and Life and will effectually excite us to live up to the Rules of Christianity and make us sincerely and heartily to Obey God in all his most Holy and Righteous Laws And it must be such withal as will cause us to depend solely upon God's Mercies in Christ for the Acceptance of our imperfect Righteousness to our Justification And all those kinds of Faith call 'em what you will which are barren of unfruitful in Good Works or if they stir us up to encounter some Difficulties do not bear us up under all Temptations nor enable us to perform the more difficult Instances of Christian Duty and Obedience those which are most contrary to our Lusts and Interests as well as the more easie which are agreeable to our Profit or Pleasure The Faith that is not powerful enough to carry us through all Temptations is defective to the great Purposes of Justifying and Saving us The necessity of our often incalculating such a Faith And moreover I must acquaint you that the necessity of a working Faith to that end as it is the great Doctrine of Christianity so it ought to be throughly explain'd and often insisted upon by us Ministers of the Gospel for fear of People's Mistakes in this matter which will be most dangerous to their Souls And accordingly St. Paul lays a solemn Charge upon us Tit. 3.8 that we should in the same manner I have already done explain and inculcate the Doctrine of Faith unto you This is a faithful Saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have Believed in God might be careful to maintain Good Works for these things or these Doctrines are profitable unto Men. THE XXXI Lecture I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth I Have already shew'd you what it is to Believe that our Faith must be such as rectifies and renews our Corrupt Nature as moves us to the performance of the most difficult Instances of Christian Duty and such as after all causes us to relie solely upon the Mercies of God in Christ for the Acceptance of our imperfect Obedience to our Justification And now by the Divine Assistance I shall proceed to explain unto you all those sacred Truths contain'd in your Creed which are of such mighty Importance And there are not a few such powerful and practical Truths imply'd in this one Article I Believe in God the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth Towards the full Explication of which that it may effectually work a blessed Change both in our Hearts and Lives I will do these Things I. I will in some measure declare unto you the Nature and Infinite Perfections of that Divine Being which we call God I Believe in God II. I will prove to you that this Infinitely perfect Being out of his Infinite Power Wisdom and Goodness made the Heaven and the Earth and all Things both Visible and Invisible therein contain'd Maker of Heaven and Earth III. I will explain and prove that this same God who made the Heaven and the Earth does now exercise a most Wise Just and Good Providence over it and every thing therein contain'd which is the Importance of the Word Almighty in this Article as shall be shew'd hereafter IV. I might here demonstrate to you that there is but one God for so the Nicene Creed which is but a Paraphrase upon this does teach us I Believe in one God And Lastly that in the Vnity of the Godhead there is a Trinity of Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost I Believe in God the Father And the other two Persons are also mention'd in their proper place But because I would be as little guilty as possible in this Exposition of repeating hereafter what I have said before I shall referr the Doctrine of