the merciful for they shall obtain mercy To works or sincere obedience Iames 2. 24. A man is justified by works and not by faith onely Where Faith is taken in a more strict sence and Works suppose Faith That is A man is justified by an effectual working faith and not by faith without works And again vers 21. saith he Was not our father Abraham justified by works who yet according to S. Paul was justified by faith But whereas Justification is mostly attributed to faith the reason is because all other graces are vertually therein contained and that is the Principle from whence they are derived Philal. I pray inform me next Theophilus what influence it is that those Preachers tell their people Faith hath upon Justification or how it justifieth Theoph. I should not have forgotten this though you had not minded me in the least of it for it is of as great importance to be spoken to as most of the heads of our past discourse Observe therefore That Faith sometimes signifieth in Scripture the Doctrine of faith or the Gospel so it is to be understood Gal. 3. 23 25. and in several other places But it ordinarily signifieth the vertue or duty of believing and so it is variously expressed as by believing on the Son of God and the record that God gave of his Son 1 Joh. 5. 10. Believing the word or words of Christ Joh. 5. 47. Believing Christ to be the Son of God and the Saviour of the world Joh. 8. 24. Joh. 11. 26 27. Receiving of Christ Joh. 1. 12. All which are to be understood in a practical sence For as the Scriptures scarcely ever call any other the knowledge of God but that which hath the end of knowledge viz. obedience so do they make nothing true believing but that which hath the ends of faith or causeth men to do those things for the sake of which it is required Now as Faith is put for the Doctrine of faith so those Preachers are content it should justifie as an instrument viz. as it containeth the Covenant of grace and holdeth forth pardon to sinners and so it justifieth as the Law condemneth As it signifieth the vertue or duty of faith so it justifieth as it is the condition of the new Covenant wherein forgiveness of sin is offered God the Father is the principally efficient cause of our Justification and so it is said that it is God that justifieth Jesus Christ justifieth as the onely meritorious or procuring cause the Gospel as the instrumental cause and faith therein as the condition without which we cannot be justified and to which that priviledge is assured The new Covenant offereth pardon of sin and eternal life to us upon the condition of believing in Christ So God loved the world that he gave his onely begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life He that believeth shall be saved c. If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins Philal. This is a very easie account of Faiths justifying Theoph. Nothing seems to me to be more plain as obscure a business as 't is made Philal. But what cannot the wit of men make difficult Theoph. First there is nothing more evident as we said than that the new Covenant is conditional and that God doth not therein promise absolutely pardon of sin and the consequent blessings Philal. The great place that is produced against the conditionality of the Covenant of grace is that which you said you would speak to viz. that quotation out of Ieremiah that we finde in Heb. 10. 8. where God seemeth in his Covenant to promise to do all in order to our eternal happiness and to require nothing of us Theoph. It is in a good hand I pray do you answer that Objection Philal. Were I duller than I am I think I could easily enough apprehend a satisfactory answer to it viz. That a condition is there implied for the meaning of those words I will put my laws into their hearts and write them in their inward parts cannot be I will do all for them they need do nothing at all this would make all the precepts of the Gospel most wretchedly insignificant nor indeed do any assert this but some very monstrously wildebrain'd people nor yet as appears from many other Scriptures can this be the sence I will sanctifie their natures and so cause them to keep my laws without their concurrence in that act but I will afford them my Grace and Spirit whereby they co-operating therewith and not being wilfully wanting to themselvs shall be enabled so to do Or I will do all that reasonable creatures can reasonably expect from Me towards the writing of my laws in their hearts putting them into their inward parts Whatsoever God may do for some persons out of his superabundant grace doubtless this is all that he either here or elsewhere engageth himself to do for any Theoph. This exposition of yours is a very good one most agreeable with the analogie of Faith and fully answers the forementioned Objection But there are very judicious Expositors that are led by the consideration of the verse following thus to interpret this place viz. This is the Covenant that I will make in the times of the Gospel I will in stead of those external and carnal ordinances which the house of Israel hath for a long time been obliged to the observance of give them onely such precepts as are most agreeable to their reason and understandings and such as wherein they may discern essential goodness and by this great expression of my grace to them as also that which is expressed in the 12 verse namely assurance of pardon to all reforming sinners of all past wickednesses whatsoever and all present frailties and weaknesses I shall not onely convince them of their duty but also strongly encline them to the chearful performance of it And then it follows very pertinently to this sence in vers 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest i. e. There shall be no need of such pains in teaching men how they must obey the Lord and what they are to do as there was under the Law of Moses which consisted in observations that were onely good because commanded and had no internal goodness in them to commend them to the reason of men and which might cause it to prompt them to them but the precepts now given shall be found written by every man in his own heart so that none need be ignorant of what is enjoyned for the substance of it that will but consult the dictates of their own natures For a confirmation of this sense see Deut. 30. 11 12 13 14 vers Moses having in the later part of vers 10. put the people upon turning to the Lord their
a willingness to obey into justifying Faith which they are convinc'd they must do or they shall make mad work on 't that is that they may make S. Iames not to contradict S. Paul they say that justifying Faith must be a working obediential Faith yet as it justifieth must be considered as distinct from obedience But because it is replied that to rely upon Christs merits is an act of obedience or a work they answer that though it be yet it doth not justifie as it is a work and therefore with the other men they will not have it called a condition of Justification but the instrument Philal. But don't you think that this elaborate acuteness might be well spared by understanding works when they are undervalued comparatively to grace and faith as quite distinct things from sincere obedience to the Gospel of Christ Theoph. I am verily perswaded it may and that the way in which those that are called the Moral Preachers go as to this point will be made as clear as our hearts can wish by so understanding them Philal. I desire you to give me as full an account as briefly you can how they deliver this doctrine of Faith in reference to Justification Theoph. Justifying Faith because they would express themselvs as plainly as may be in a matter of most weighty importance they describe much after this manner That It is so full a perswasion that Christ Iesus is the Saviour of Mankinde and that his Gospel is true as causeth a hearty and sincere willingness to yeild obedience to all his precepts or to take that course which he hath prescribed in order to Salvation Philal. This is plain enough And I should think not capable of being misunderstood Theoph. Though I cannot say that I speak the words of any of them yet sure I am that those I have heard them use in defining justifying faith are as easily intelligible as these are and have the same sence Philal. I have heard you heretofore say that when you were a youth you was taught this definition viz. Iustifying faith is a grace of the holy Spirit whereby a man being convinced of his sin and miserable estate in regard of it and an all-sufficiencie in Christ to save from both receives him as he is tendered in the Gospel or according to his three Offices of Prophet Priest and King What fault can be found with the wording of this Theoph. None at all not is a better definition of Faith desirable I was taught this when other kinde of definitions of that grace were all the Mode by a most judicious as well as pious Divine I cannot forbear to call him so though he is of all men most nearly related to me to him I shall ever acknowledge my self obliged for first rightly instructing me in this point and antidoting me against the forementioned false notions concerning it with divers others that were highly by very many cryed up in those as well as in these wilde days Philal. You are not less beholden to that Reverend and worthy person upon those accounts than you are for your very being But I pray do the Preachers you have undertaken to represent not onely say that Justifying faith includes obedience but also that it justifieth as it doth so Theoph. Yes Philalethes that they do For they do not think that the Scriptures make any difference between the two forementioned acts of faith as to the influence it hath upon Justification and that not without cause S. Paul tells us Gal. 5. 6. that neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing he means especially as to Justification as appears by vers 4 but faith that worketh by love which takes in the whole of obedience and there he stops The Apostle troubleth not himself to give any caution to the Galatians that they should not understand him as if his meaning was any more than this That justifying faith worketh by love or as if he had said That faith justifieth as it worketh by love Philal. There comes into my minde an Argument that seems to me demonstrative that there is to be made no distinction between those acts of faith in justifying namely the Scriptures assure us that our Saviours death was intended not onely to deliver us from wrath but from sin too and it is plain that this later was its immediate end deliverance from wrath being a consequent of deliverance from sin And therefore faith in Christs bloud must needs justifie as it designs obtaining this as well as that Theoph. Your Argument will rather prove more than that for which you bring it viz. That if those acts of faith be at all to be distinguished in the business of Justification the greater stress is to be laid on that which complieth with the principal end of our Saviours death And so if we must be making comparisons Faith justifieth as it receives Christ quâ Lord rather than quâ Priest or Saviour But however I am not for any comparisons they being perfectly needless and nothing gotten by them Philal. That act of receiving Christ as Lord is to go before that of receiving him as Priest for we may not rely upon him for salvation till we are willing to yeeld obedience to him Theoph. 'T is most true we have not any ground at all so to do we must be willing to be to our power universally obedient before we take that confidence Philal. Before you go farther I pray tell me what distinction you would make betwixt Faith and Repentance and the other graces also if its nature be extended so far as to imply obedience Theoph. The Scriptures are seldom so curious when they speak of Faith or Repentance or the love or fear or knowledge of God c. as to understand them in so restrained a sence as to abstract them from other vertues but sometimes they express all by one We finde in multitudes of places some one of the principal vertues put to express the whole of practical Religion as each of those last mentioned of which I need not give you instances And whereas Faith and Repentance are sometimes distinguished it is onely because believing the Gospel implieth more than bare Repentance in its strict notion Irenaeus therefore gives this honest description of faith in Christ Credere ei est facere ejus voluntatem To believe in Christ is to do his will Moreover we shall finde that Justification and Remission of sins for the Scripture makes no difference betwixt those two is sometimes ascribed to other vertues as well as to Faith but then they are understood either in so general a sence as to include Faith or as supposing it For instance Acts 3. 19. 't is attributed to conversion and repentance Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out To forgiveness of trespasses Matth. 6. 14. If you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you To shewing mercy Mat. 5. 7. Blessed are
so the Law of perfect obedience now cannot by reason of ours 3. We may sometimes understand any works of what nature soever considered as meritorious causes Could we obey perfectly we cannot merit thereby the pardon of past sins nay had we never sinned we could deserve no reward at our Creators hands our righteousness being not at all profitable to him much less then can the imperfect works of sinners be meritorious 4. Meer external works performed by our own power in our unsanctified state that is such as proceed not from an inward principle of life may in other places be understood But we have no ground ever to understand by works when opposed to Grace or Faith inherent holiness or new obedience to the Gospel-precepts I dare promise an unprejudiced person that reading the several Scriptures where works are so opposed he will be satisfied that they are not any where to be otherwise understood than of one of these four sorts So that as works signifie sincere obedience to Christs Gospel neither I nor those Preachers can account it any scandal to have it said of us that we hold Justification by works nor can we deserve to have it thought that we have one bit the more of a Pope in our bellies upon that account And why any man should be more shie of acknowledging this than S. Iames was who saith in plain terms A man is justified by works and not by faith onely and that Abraham was justified by works I cannot understand Nor need we so mince it as to say that faith justifieth our persons and works our faith for understanding works I say for a working faith our persons if ever they be must be justified by them I would not that Protestants should give such advantage to the sottish Papists as to be shie of using any Scripture-language and by being so to give them occasion to think that we are in the other extreme from them and have a slight opinion of good works And I think it desirable that we would cease to prefer S. Paul's language before S. Iames his and not more interpret S. Iames by S. Paul than S. Paul by S. Iames they being both alike Apostles and their Epistles alike Scripture but that we would be content to interpret them by each other And then I dare say this Controversie would quickly be at an end among us and we should have no adversary to contend with about this point but the Papist onely Philal. I am of your minde Theoph. But Philalethes don't you remember that you set me a method and desired me first to discourse of those our Friends Practices and next of their Opinions Philal. Yes very well Theoph. And you see how well I have observ'd it But the best of it is I told you then that I would not promise you never to confound those two together nor indeed could I have been as good as my word if I had for I could not as I ought discourse of their Preaching and not take in some of their Doctrine Par. II But I will now in a more distinct manner give you an account of their Opinions They may be referred to matters of Doctrine and Discipline As to the former they profess to dissent from none that have been held to be Fundamentals of the Christian Faith either by the Primitive or best Reformed Modern Churches And heartily to subscribe to the 39 Articles of our Church taking that liberty in the interpretation of them that is allowed by the Church her self Though it is most reasonable to presume that she requires Subscription to them as to an Instrument of Peace onely Philal. So the late most Reverend and Learned Archbishop of Armagh several times expresseth the sence of the Church of England as to her requiring Subscription to those Articles The Church of England saith he in his Schism Guarded p. 396. doth not define any of these Questions as necessary to be believed either necessitate medii or necessitate praecepti which is much less but onely bindeth her sons for peace sake not to oppose them And pag. 150. he doth farther thus express himself We do not suffer any man to reject the 39 Articles of the Church of England at his pleasure yet neither do we look upon them as essentials of Saving Faith or Legacies of Christ and his Apostles but in a mean as pious opinions fitted for the preservation of unity neither do we oblige any man to believe them but onely not contradict them Theoph. I thank you Philalethes for these citations out of so excellent an Author which are no small confirmation of the truth of that assertion of mine which did occasion them But to go on Those opinions in Doctrinals that those Divines look upon themselvs as most obliged to manifest their disapprobation of and to confute are such as either directly or in their evident consequences tend to beget in mens mindes unworthy thoughts of God and unlovely notions of his nature or to encourage profaneness or discourage from diligence and industry in the ways of holiness as by what hath been said you have in part understood Philal. 'T is strange to me Theophilus that any that understandingly believe the being of God should entertain an unlovely notion of his nature for not to have the most lovely is to deprive him of his very Godhead He must needs be as good as good can be and have all perfections attracting love concentred in him in the highest degree possible He must be infinitely merciful of perfectly unspotted righteousness purity and holiness which I esteem as no less lovely qualifications than that of mercy or he cannot be God Nay no man I should think that is not a very Atheist can doubt but that all the amiable qualities that we see in good men are but so many effluviums if I may so call them or emanations from those that are in God and therefore must needs be in an unconceivably greater measure in him where they are originally than in them where they are but derivatively We learn from very Heathens that such qualities are irradiations sliding into mens souls from God and that they proceed from a divine afflatus who also tell us that God is not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but likewise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the best as well as chiefest and most supreme being And they give a most lovely description of Gods essence and make him you know to be no less just and gracious than wise and powerful as I need not tell you may be shewn in a world of instances But that any Christian should be able to form to himself an unlovely idaea and conception of God is to me matter of the greatest astonishment he being so excellently represented in the New and also in the Old Testament In the New we finde his definition to be Love it self and that the way to be his lively images and like to him is not