THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Justified IN Scripture-Sense According to Scripture Opened Explained and Applied on Rom. 5. 1. In Six Sermons Published as Preached with little or no Alteration at the Desire of some of the Hearers Esaiah 55. 1. Ho every on that Thirsteth come ye to the Waters and He that hath no Money come ye Buy and Eat without Money and without Price LONDON Printed for W. Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-street 1695. THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Justified c. The First Sermon Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ INtending to Treat of Faith whereby we are Justified I have taken this Weighty Text as the Foundation of the Discourse wherein we have these Four remarkable Points concerning Faith as we are Justified by it 1. This plain Point first comes before us That we are Justified by Faith expressed thus Being Justified by Faith 2. That we are Justified by Faith is a conclusion resulting from a strong nervous and vehement Reasoning of the Apostles that had gone before in the foregoing Chapters signifyed in that Particle Therefore assuring to us this great Truth 3. The Blessed consequence of being Justified by Faith we have peace with God the Judg of all This gives full Peace Rest and Quiet to Conscience Peace and Assurance for ever according to the Nature of a full and perfect Righteousness 4. The supreme Principal Cause of our being Justified by Faith and having Peace from it is our Lord Jesus Christ by whom as the Apostle goes on we have access unto this Grace wherein we stand This then is the grand Proposition of the Apostle That being Justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ I shall at this time therefore propose to open the great Grace of Gospel Faith to you by which we are Justified because indeed it is one of the greatest Points that can be spoken of And therefore these Heads of Discourse I will now undertake to handle to you concerning it First To shew you that the Supreme and Highest and Original Account or Description of Faith is to be taken by its Relation to Jesus Christ the Mediator And it is nothing at all if you remove that If you take away that Respect that great Respect that it looks upon and Eyes Jesus Christ the Mediator In the second place I shall come to consider how Faith even in its relation to Christ and as it looks upon him is said to be Justifying Faith or that whereby we are Justified For if we did not rightly state this as the Gospel doth as it is said the last Error might be worse then the first And therefore I would particularly guide your Thoughts and Apprehensions how Faith as it looks to Christ Justifies I shall therefore shew you that it is not Faith it self but only the great Righteousness of Jesus Christ received by Faith that Justifies In the Third place I shall comâ—… consider that great certainty that Faith is to obtain in every point wherein it so Acts which it ought to reach after and to aspire to in every point wherein it hath to do with Christ that we may have Peace by it through our Lord Jesus Christ as Christ saith John 17. 7 8. They have surely known and have believed that I came forth from thee and that thou didst send me So in every thing Faith is surely to know And then In the Fourth place I shall shew you the Life and the Power and the Activity of this Faith and compare thein Heb. 11. and James 2 where that Apostle speaks of Faith being Dead that is without Works And I shall endeavour to shew you that there is no such Commentary no such way of Reconciling the Apostle James with the Apostle Paul The Apostle Paul speaking of Faith Justifying without Works And the Apostle James speaking that a Man is not Justifyed by Faith only but by Works also I say the great Reconciliation will be by laying Heb. 11. and James 2. together Now I begin at this time with the first of these And I 'll lay down with great assurance this Assertion concerning the respect Faith hath to Christ That there never had been such a thing as the sound of Faith in the World there had never been the Name Not the Air and much less the Thing had not God brought the first Begotten as the Apostle saith into the World Had not Jesus Christ given a Being to Faith there had never been such a thing as Faith And therefore it is very observable that the Apostle calls Christ by this very Name Gal. 3. 23. Before Faith came saith he we were under Tutors and Governors We were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed Before Faith came It is certain Faith was in the World before the Gospel before the New Testament For it is said Abraham was Justified by Faith and Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness and yet saith the Apostle before Faith came that is before Christ came because Faith is so Essentially Dependent upon Christ and Respective unto him Christ is such a real Foundation and support of Faith that he is worthily and properly called by the very Naâ—… or by the word Faith before Faith came But for the clearer opening and making out of this to you I shall insist upon these three Heads First That Jesus Christ is the highest Revelation of God Now Faith it is described by almost all in part at least to be an Assent to a Divine Revelation upon the Credit that we give to the Revealer upon the Authority and Veracity and Certainty of the Truth of the Revealer For Faith you know properly is a believing the Report of another or the Witness of another We cannot properly be said to Believe when we do know the thing our selves and have seen it by our own Eyes but when we Trust and Credit that Assurance that another gives us of it Now therefore I shall endeavour to make out to you That Jesus Christ is He Faith must needs Live and Die with him as I may so express it in familiar Language it is as Essential to Faith to have the Manifestation and Revelation of Christ as it is for the Eye to have Light And then In the Second place Whereas the notion of Faith is a Trust and a depending upon some great Good that is offered to us from the Supreme Good that we have no Right nor Title to in our selves I shall shew you that Jesus Christ is that Great and Rich Good that is given to us from the Father And that tho we have no Right to the thing in our selves yet we come to Trust and to Depend and to Rely upon it as if we had a Title And then In the Third Place Whereas Faith is very truely tho not in the first Account of it described to be a Power
Christ But I say it cannot be throughout so For then men should be saved by Christ and never know that they are saved by Christ Then Christ would be no more the Saviour of his people than he is the Saviour of stones or insensible Rocks We must therefore come to have a feeling and knowing that Jesus Christ is ours Or else we could not receive his salvation How should we be the better within if we did not know Christ An understanding and Intellectual Being must have such a knowledge of Faith to know Christ And therefore as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I must know him Not that this Contributes any thing to our happiness but onely the feeling and enjoying that happiness That happiness is onely from God But as you know a blind man is never the better in point of Light and sight though the Sun be never so Glorious Every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him We must see him or else we could not know he is ours we could have no Enjoyment of him our Souls would be still like unsensible Rocks and Marbles if there were not this sense by Faith and the knowledge of Christ by believing And therefore it is a very great truth that Faith is a manifestation to us and within us that Christ is ours When our Souls receive the touches of his Love and grace upon us and we come to know and find the sweetness to taste that the Lord is Gracious and to know what a Pearl we have in some measure and that we find Christ is ours and hath given himself for us In the third place there could not else be a manifestatory Glory It is true Christ is glorious as a Saviour But we could not Glorify him if we did not know by Faith that he is such a Saviour This is that that the soul makes its Boast in God by this draws it to Glory in Christ and to give all the Glory it can do to him Because it finds it is saved by him and him alone Now it is very Evident God had no need of Glory from Angels nor from men to manifest his Glory by them But it pleased the wisdom and Grace of God to declare his infinite Being before such Beings as Angels and men fitted with understandings to behold it Why so Christ had no need of our Glorifying of him But yet it is very Evident that he is pleased to be Glorifyed by us and that we Glorify him by acknowledging all our salvation from him And herein is Faith of great use It gives Glory as the Apostle speaks Abraham was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4. So Faith gives Glory to the Righteousness and Freeness of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ And then In the Fourth place it is also necessary upon this Account for I am far in all this discourse from that which is truly called Antinomianism or Libertinism I say as Faith looks outward and from Christ into holy Action the knowledge that Faith gives is serviceable in the hand of Christ to all holiness and purification of Life To live to him to live and to walk by Faith to be every way self-Resigning according to that whole 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews And thus I have endeavoured with all briefness to set out the Excellent nature of Faith I shall but make one short Application of it And that is to stir up all our hearts in looking up to God according to that great prayer Ephes 3. 14 15 16. verses For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man To what End That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith O look up to this You see how Faith is indeed always called up by Christ when he gives himself to any Soul when he comes to dwell in any Soul Faith must receive him it must embrace him it must depend wholly upon him Now therefore O! That our hearts may be strengthened by his Spirit in the Inner man Alas Our Inner man you may see plainly by all that I have said is very weak and unfaithful And it is confirmed by this expression of the Apostle how the Inner man would never draw in Christ it would never hold him if it came to him Our Inner man is such a false thing to the Great things of our Eternal salvation it is such a feeble weak thing it would never be able to hold Christ But the Spirit strengthens the Inner man That Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Else I say it could never if you would give me leave to use such a plain word as that fetch in Christ And if he came it would never hold him Our Inner man must be strengthened by the Spirit of Christ that Christ may dwell in us And then we go forward to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and to Comprehend that love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God I hope there is nothing that I have spoken that can Justly offend any man's mind for it is fully to the sense of Scripture and of Scripture Reason and it excludes all manner of looseness and Libertinism of life For Christ is certainly sanctification to every one to whom he is Justification he gives the power of Holiness And Faith is made serviceable As I told you the immanent acts are those whereby it stays within and has Communion with Christ wherein it has nothing but to depend and trust in him But then It works outward as they say of the works of God Ad Extra The Excellent acts of the Father Son and Spirit they go out of themselves So Faith goes out to all the works of obedience And therefore if you would know what Faith is when it works outward I would propose to you to Read that Chapter Heb. 11. How greatly Faith works outward But Christ still is the Author and finisher And when it comes to Christ it has nothing to do but to trust and depend and receive And O! therefore let us all bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the Inner man We can never have such a thing as Faith if the Riches of Glory does not come in with it and if the spirit of Christ does not come in with it And indeed where the spirit of Christ comes he comes And so Christ and the spirit Elicits as they call it and draws and Brings the Soul to clasp about him to lay hold upon him He brings the Soul thus near to
Blood O! consider how your Souls are Acted to him And so go from thence to All Truth for there 's no separation as I have shewn you The same Omnipotency of God that is in the Father and the Son and the Spirit is that strength that went out and Created this World Acts ad extra or without the Father Son and Spirit Why so the Faith which in its immanent Acts stays upon Christ and his Blood it also passes and goes out upon all the Truths of Holiness and Obedience But then The second thing with which I would conclude is this That you mind these mighty Powers that Act Faith O! mind all the greatness of the Blood and of the Water and the Witness of the Father and the Word and the Spirit It is a great Scripture that I led you to the last day and with which I 'll close 〈◊〉 Discourse which shews you that the mighty Power of Faith is from God and from Christ Ephes 3. 14. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole Family in Heaven amd Earth is Named That he would grant unto you according to the riches of his Glory to be strength'ned with Might by his Spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your Hearts by Faith Here you have the Father the Word and the Spirit joyned in this great Power of Faith that ye being rooted and grounded in Love that is in the Love of Jesus Christ may be able to comprehend In your Love to him I understand that first groundedness in Love to Christ A Love that constrains us to live to him that dyed for us and then may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and heigth And to know the love of Christ which passeth Knowledg O! That great Mistery of the Gospel And partâ—cularly that we may know the love of Christ which passeth Knowldg And hereby we may come to be filled with all the fulness of God O! who is able to bring this great work into our Hearts VVhy the Apostle therefore concludes Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the Power that worketh in us It is he that works in us Pray take notice of that Rememember that he works above all that we ask or think And yet it is a Power works in us that we may find and see it and have experience of it Vnto him be Glory saith he in the Church by Jesus Christ throughout all Ages World without end Amen The End of the fifth Sermon THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Iustified c. The Sixth Sermon Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ FRom these words I have pitch'd upon that great point and Doctrine of Justifying Faith Or of that Faith by which we are Justifyed And this Faith it eyes Christ in a Peculiar manner As I prov'd from John 17. 7 8. Far they have known concerning me that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them as so given unto me and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me So here is a Constant Eye of Faith upon Christ As I told you there had never been such a Notion of Faith in Scripture-sense in Gospel sense if it had not been for Christ if he the Mediator had not been given I have spoken of it as it is Faith by which we are justified And the Grounds why it is Faith that justifies here meant which I had not mentioned before to you but rather depended upon other Scriptures for I shall give you now viz. Why this Faith or believing is to be understood of the Faith that justifies Even out of that John 17. 7 8. And the Reason I give for it is because it is the Faith upon which Christ intercedes Pray observe it Christ Intercedes for believers upon the Faith that believers know surely and believe concerning Jesus Christ For in the very next words you may observe it I pray for them saith he I pray not for the world So he intercedes for them They have known and believed that Christ did surely come forth from God and that all things of Christ are Divine infinitely Divine Originally Divine Now therefore upon whatsoever Christ intercedes Pray Consider In the very same line our foundation for Righteousness and acceptance through Christ rests His justifying Righteousness and Redemption and his intercession run all upon one line together That 's a plain point they go together I 'll give you but two places of Scripture because I would not prevent my self in what I have especially to discourse of One is Heb. 9. It is plain by all Scripture that the blood of Christ is that great price of our Redemption And that we are justified freely by the Grace of God God Setting forth Christ as a Propitiaton through Faith in his blood Now you shall find that Christ entred by his blood into Heaven Heb. 9. 12. But by his own blood he entred in once into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Christ intercedes now in Heaven and in the Holy place into that Holy place made without hands He entred to interceed And again ver 24. Christ entred not into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us So that he intercedes plainly upon his blood For where he intercedes he entered by his blood And in 1 John 2. 1. You also have the advocateship and the Propitiation of Christ Joyn'd together My little children these things write I unto you that ye sin not And if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father viz. Jesus Christ the Righteous And he is the Propitiation for our Sins c. Therefore this is the clear ground I bottom this Truth upon Upon what Christ intercedes That is certainly Justifying Now he intercedes upon the Faith of Believers I pray for them I pray not for the World viz. For them who know surely and believe in me I have endeavoured to open Faith also to you so that you may have a right understanding that Faith does not Justify as it is an Act of ours or a Grace in us or any thing in us but only by its receiving the Righteousness of Christ I came to speak of the Assurance of Faith They have known And they have surely known And they have believed that thou didst send me Knowledg or as the Learned speak and the great Men of Reason call it Science is the highest degree of Understanding Now this our Lord attributes to Faith in that John 17. They have known For Christ did not come meanly down when he had said They have
whether we have been right in the first Act But there has been as they say an Error in the Foundation an Error in the first Concoction as Physitians speak and cannot be mended So there has been an Error in taking Christ and Error in the Foundation becomes Error in the whole course of a Mans Building A man says he has taken Christ and lives under the Power of his Lusts and the Power of the World Because he never look Christ aright Men will say Here you are mistaken in your Profession That you cannot live Holily which your Profession binds you to But I say if the thing were but well traced and enquired into it would be found here was the great miss that your first Action flew off and did not rightly take Christ The 2d Chapter of John is a Scripture that will clear this that a Man may take Christ by a false Action and lose him in the very first Rudiments and the first beginnings by a mistake As now it is in Nature in the forming of an Embrio in the Womb If there be a false formation a monstrous formation in the VVomb there 's an irregularity all along the Life So if Faith be mistaken in its first Act in supposing it takes Christ and does not that Error cannot be mended The Latter Errors may be more apparent than the first but the first is the cause of all John 2. 23 24 25. Now when he was in Jernsalem at the Passover in the Feast-day many believed in his name when they saw the Miracles that he did One would have thought this was true Faith as the great Men of Reason say because they were brought over to believe by seeing the Miracles of Christ But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men And needed not that any should Testify of man for he knew what was in man If he did not commit himself to them we may very well understand he did not Unite himself to them He knew it was not that Faith to which he United himself and his Righteousness Christ does not commit himself to a Faith that is not indeed as I said before a Faith of God's Elect and the like pretious Faith and that is not given by that Divine Lot of Grace as the Expression is 2 Pet. 1. 1. that I have formerly spoken to you of To them who have obtained by Lot by this Divine Lot like precious Faith with us according to the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ I know we cannot look into this but by the Divine Spirit and by feeling the twistings of the Soul about Christ through that great Opperation of God upon us But this we may see plainly Christ did not commit himself to them So he does not commit his Righteousness his Propitiation his Redemption he does not commit it but where he sees a Faith which he himself hath given that is indeed of the true and excellent Alloy For he knows at the very first He sees many that pretend to Believe and that think they Believe but he knows very well where their Faith is wrong and where it loses that great Prize that Pearl of Price that it is to obtain He himself not committing or giving himself knows a true Action of Faith in Receiving him will not follow for that 's the first Action of Faith to Receive Christ giving himself The Second kind of the Actions of Faith they are those that though they are not immediately as the first Acts of taking of Christ by Faith yet they immediately Result and Rise up When any Man hath taken Christ there are some Actions that do immediately Result and Arise They bear the Hiew they carry the Complexion they have upon them the Lineaments of the Death of the Dying of our Lord Jesus Christ They have such peculiar Respects to his Blood to his Death to his Redemption I would instance in two of these we find in Scripture-Saints And then I shall draw out in brief Expressions the general Actions of Christians according to their pattern The first is that in the 11 Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said of Moses v. 28. Through Faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of Blood lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them This he did by faith God commanded him indeed to keep the Passover But Moses had an Eye upon the Redemption of Christ in it And by Faith he kept the Passover So every Act of the Soul by which it makes Recourse to Christ upon all occasions after it hath taken him it is like keeping the Passover Every Act I say wherein we do especially depend upon the Blood of Christ and make close Recourse and Application to it it is an Action Resulting from true saving Justifying faith that true faith by which we are Saved and Justified For so indeed I observe tho we call it Justifying faith the Scripture never calls it so But the faith by which we are Justified To make good that point that I have always press'd upon you that we are not Justified by Faith as an Act But we are Justified only as the Righteousness of Christ is given to it for that Righteousness alone is our Justification But this I say there are Acts of the Soul by which it does make recourse to Christ and to his Blood Another Example and I choose to give it you because it is Seated in that of the Apostle James that is made the great Objection against the faith by which we are Justified through the Righteousness and Propitiation of Christ James 2. 21. saith the Apostle Was not Abraham our Father Justified by works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Seest thou how faith wrought with his Works and by works was faith made perfect Now this is the thing that I observe to you The Offering of Isaac it was as great a Conversant Act about the Death Blood and Sâ—crifice of Christ as any could possibly be represented in Scripture to us For there could not be a greater Type and Representation of the Father giving his Son to Die for Sinners and to become a Sacrifice for them than that of Abraham the Affectionate Father of Isaac Offering up his Son Isaac Therefore the Apostle uses this for an Argument of a Working faith This was a Work of Faith indeed it was not a work of Faith taking Christ but it was a work of Faith conversant about the Death and Sacrifice of Christ And therefore the Apostle is express in it Seest thou how Faith wrought with his works This was a great act in which Faith wrought mightily when Abraham offered up Isaac But 't was not so properly a work of Moral obedience as the work of Faith in Christ if we Consider the Greatness and excellency of it and the Eye it had to Christ though it was a high act of obedience of self Resigning also So I say there are many acts which are