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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A60956 Twelve sermons upon several subjects and occasions. The third volume by Robert South. South, Robert, 1634-1716. 1698 (1698) Wing S4749; ESTC R27493 210,733 615

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but not its Channel The Water arises in one Place but it streams in another and Fountains would not be so much valued if they did not produce Rivers One great End of Religion is to proclaim and publish God's Sovereignty and there is no such way to Cause Men to Glorify our Heavenly Father as by Causing our Light to shine before them Which I am sure it cannot do but as it beams through our good Works When a Man leads a Pious and Good Life every hour he Lives is virtually an Act of Worship But if inward Grace is not exerted and drawn forth into outward Practice Men have no Inspection into our Hearts to discern it there And let this be fixed upon as a standing Principle That it is not possible for us to Honour God before men but only by those Acts of Worship that are observeable by men It is our Faith indeed that recognizes Him for our God but it is our Obedience only that declares Him to be our Lord. Secondly The other End of Religion in this World is the good and mutual advantage of Mankind in the Way of Society And herein did the admirable Wisdom and Goodness of God appear that He was pleased to calculate and contrive such an Instrument to govern as might also benefit the World God planted Religion amongst Men as a Tree of Life which though it was to spring upwards directly to Himself yet it was to spread its Branches to the Benefit of all below There is hardly any Necessity or Convenience of Mankind but what is in a large measure serv'd and provided for by this great blessing as well as Business of the World Religion And he who is a Christian is not only a better Man but also a better Neighbour a better Subject and a truer Friend than he that is not so For was ever any thing more for the good of Mankind than to forgive Injuries to love and caress our mortal adversaries and instead of our Enemy to hate only our Revenge Of such a double yet benign Aspect is Christianity both to God and Man like Incense while it ascends to Heaven it perfumes all about it at the same time both Instrumental to God's Worship and the worshippers Refreshment As it holds up one hand in Supplication so it reaches forth the other in Benefaction But now if it be one great End of Religion thus to contribute to the support and Benefit of Society surely it must needs consist in the Active Piety of our Lives not in Empty Thoughts and Fruitless perswasions For what can one Man be the better for what Another Thinks or Believes When a Poor Man begs an Alms of me can I believe my Bread into his Mouth or my Money into his Hand Believing without Doing is a very Cheap and Easy but withal a very Worthless way of being Religious And thus having given the Reasons why the Active part of Religion is the only sure Bottom for us to build upon I now proceed to the second Thing Proposed namely to shew Those false and Sandy Foundations which many venture to build upon and are a●●ordingly deceived by Which though they are exceedingly Various and according to the multiplicity of Mens tempers businesses and occasions almost Infinite and like the Sand mentioned in my Text not only infirm but Numberless also yet according to the best of my poor Judgment and Observation I shall reduce them to these three heads The First of which is a Naked Unoperative Faith ask but some upon what Grounds they look to be saved and they will answer because they firmly believe that through the Merits of Christ their Sins are forgiven them But since it is hard for a Man in his right wits to be confident of a Thing which he does not at all know such as are more Cautious will tell you further That to desire to Believe is to Believe and to desire to Repent is to Repent But as this is absurd and impossible since no Act can be its own Object without being not it self for as much as the Act and the Object are distinct things and consequently a desire to believe can no more be Belief than a desire to be saved can be Salvation so it is further intolerable upon this Account that it quite dispirits Religion by placing it in Languid Abortive Velleities and so cuts the Nerves of all Endeavour by rating Glory at a bare Desire and Eternity at a Wish But because the Poyson of this Opinion does so easily enter and so strangely intoxicate I shall presume to give an Antidote against it in this one observation namely That all along the Scripture Where Justification is ascribed to Faith alone There the word Faith is still used by a Metonymy of the Antecedent for the Consequent and does not signify abstractedly a meer Perswasion but the Obedience of an Holy Life performed in the strength and vertue of such a Perswasion Not that this Justifies meritoriously by any inherent Worth or Value in it self but instrumentally as a Condition appointed by God upon the performance of which He freely imputes to us Christ's Righteousness which is the sole proper and formal Cause of our Justification So that That Instrumentality which some in the Business of Justification attribute to one single Act of Credence is by this ascribed to the whole aggregate Series of Gospel Obedience as being that which gives us a Title to a perfect Righteousness without us by which alone we stand justified before God And this seems with full accord both to Scripture and Reason to state the Business of Justification by an equal poize both against the Arrogant Assertions of Self-Iusticiaries on the one hand and the wild Opinions of the Antinomians on the other But whether the Obedience of a Pious Life performed out of a Belief or Perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel ought to pass for that Faith which Justifies or only for the Effect or Consequent of it yet certainly it is such an Effect as issues by a kind of con-natural constant Efficiency and Result from it So that how much soever they are distinguishable by their Respective Actions from one another they are absolutely Inseparable by a mutual and a necessary Connexion it belonging no less to the Faith which Justifies to be Operative than to Justify Indeed upon an Essential Account more For as much as it is Operative by its Nature but Justifies only by Institution Secondly The second false Ground which some build upon is a fond Reliance upon the goodness of their Heart and the Honesty of their Intention A profitable and therefore a very prevailing fallacy And such an one as the Devil seldom uses but with success It being one of his old and long experimented Fetches by the Pretences of a Good Heart to supplant the Necessity of a Good Life But to alledge the Honesty of the Mind against the Charge of an Evil Course is a Protestation against the Fact which does not Excuse but