THE Life of Faith IN TWO SERMONS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD At S t. Mary's Church there On the 6 th of January 1683 4. and June the 29 th following By John Wallis D. D. One of His Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary and Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford LONDON Printed by James Rawlins for Thomas Parkhurst And are to be sold by Amos Curteine Bookseller in Oxford 1684. THE Life of Faith Hebr. 10.38 But the Just shall Live by Faith LIfe is that of which we are all Fond. And on the contrary Death is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which of all we most dread Skin for Skin and all that a man hath will he give for his Life Insomuch that Life is commonly put for Happiness and Death for Misery Behold I have set before you saith Moses Life and Good Death and Evil And again I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Therefore choose Life that thou and thy seed may live That is That you may be blessed And Jeremy much to the same purpose but more literally Behold I set before you the way of Life and the way of Death And when God at first threatened In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dy the Death That which we commonly call Death though it were a part was but a small part of that threatening The whole of it was That he should be miserable And though he did not Dy the same day as to what we commonly call Death yet he did that day become miserable And so had He and all His continued to be if God had not found out a way to restore us from that Death to a Life of Happiness And what that is the Text tells us The Just shall live by Faith True it is that Death in the proper sense is a great Evil and it was so intended by God when he did at first threaten it as a part of that misery which was to follow upon Sin And even the Death of a Friend as well as our Own may justly be looked upon as a great Affliction But thus to Dy is a much less Evil than as the Apostle speaks to be Dead while we Live And it is an Allay to our Sorrow as well in reference to our own Death as to that of those we Love That he who Believeth in the Lord though he be Dead yet shall he Live And who soever liveth and believeth in him shall never Dy. You easily apprehend that when Christ saith He shall never Dy he did not mean it of a natural Death For thus It is appointed to all men once to Dy But thus rather He that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Or if that expression may seem to be of a doubtfull sense as being involved in the obscure phrase of a mystical Prophesy yet that at least is plain That If we live after the Flesh we shall Dy but if through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the Body we shall Live For to be Carnally minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace And this is the Life which the Text speaks of Which is Begun is Grace and Perfected in Glory And such a Life is that which the Just shall Live by Faith God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that who so ever Believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life That is That he should be eternally Happy He that Believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life and he that Believeth not the Son hath not Life but the Wrath of God abideth on him For the Just shall Live by Faith But if any man draw-back my Soul saith God shall have no pleasure in him The first place where we meet with this The Just shall Live by Faith is in Habak 2.4 And we have it cited as a saying very considerable three times in the New Testament Rom. 1.17 Gal. 3.11 and here Hebr. 10.38 And in all the Four places we have the words just in the same order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justus ex Fide vivet that of Faith standing in the middle of the other two words and capable of being referred to either The Just by Faith shall Live And may therefore be indifferently read The Just by Faith or By Faith shall live Justus ex Fide or ex Fide vivet Nor need we be much solicitous whether of the ways we read it For it may well enough have an aspect both ways But though in all these places the words ly in the same Order yet with a different Emphasis according as the Context and the Scope of the place direct In the first place the Emphasis seems to ly upon the word Just or Righteous as contradistinguished from those who are otherwise His Soul that is lifted up is not upright in him and consequently not pleasing to God But the Just shall live by Faith Where he shews the advantage that the Just or Righteous have as to the case there spoken of before those who are not so those who 's heart is lifted up or standeth out and refuseth to submit it self to God and Trust in him And to the same purpose in the place before us where we have a like opposition or contradistinction between the Just or Faithful and those who are not so The Just shall live by Faith But if any man draw-back saith God my Soul shall have no pleasure in him Where we have as in the other place a Promise to the Just and Faithful but with a direct exclusion of those who are otherwise who draw-back or Revolt from him or stand-out against him or believe not in him Which come much to the same pass And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a like sense in divers places of the New Testament is by Interpreters indifferently expressed by Disobedience or Vnbelief And this place in the Epistle to the Hebrews though it may in some words seem to differ from that in Habakkuk yet is by Expositors generally supposed to have a particular respect thereunto Nor need we as some would perswade us to change the reading of the Hebrew Text to make it agree with the Greek but it might well enough be so rendered as the Greek hath it though the Hebrew were then so read as now it is As is well shewed by a learned Writer of our own in his Notes upon Maimonides's Porta Mosis So that how comfortable so ever the Text may be or the Promise therein made to those that are truly Righteous and Believe in Christ It affords small comfort to those that are Wicked and Unbelievers who while they so continue are quite debarred from it Much like to the Pillar of the Cloud which was between the Israelites and Egyptians It gave light to the one but to the other was a Cloud and Darkness Or without such
not to Trust in them to be Justified by them either in Whole or in Part. As to Justification she tells us in the 11 th Article That we are Justified by Faith onely and that this is a Wholsome Doctrine and full of Comfort And as to Good Works she tells us in the 12 th Article That though they do not Justifie but follow after Justification yet are they pleasing and acceptable unto God are the necessary fruit of a true and lively Faith and by which it s known as a Tree by its Fruit. And in the Homily or Sermon to which the Article refers she tells us the same more fully That there can no man by his own acts works and deeds seem they never so good be justified and made righteous before God But every man of necessity is constrained to seek for another righteousness or justification to be received at Gods own hands That is to say the forgiveness of his sins and trespasses That this justification or righteousness which we so receive of Gods Mercy and Christs Merits embraced by Faith is taken accepted and allowed of God for our Perfect and Full Justification That all the world being wrapped in sin by breaking of the Law God sent his onely Son our Saviour Christ into the World to Fullfill the Law for Vs and by shedding of his most pretious bloud to make a Sacrifice and Satisfaction or as it may be called Amends to his Father for our sins to asswage his Wrath and Indignation conceived against us for the same That sinners when they turn again to God unfeignedly are washed by this Sacrifice from their Sins in such sort that there remaineth not any Spot of Sin that shall be Imputed to their Damnation That this is that Justification or Righteousness which S. Paul speaketh of when he saith No man is justified by the Works of the Law but freely by Faith in Jesus Christ And again he saith We believe in Jesus Christ that we be justified freely by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law because that no man shall be justified by the Works of the Law That Although this Justification be Free to Vs Yet it cometh not So freely to us that there is no Ransom paid therefore at all But God hath tempered his Justice and Mercy together that he would neither by his Justice condemn us to the Everlasting Captivity of the Devil and his Prison of Hell remedyless for ever without Mercy Nor by his Mercy deliver us clearly without Justice or payment of a Just Ransom And whereas it lay not in us that to do He provided a Ransome for us that was the most precious Body and Blood of his own most dear and best beloved Son Jesus Christ. Who beside this Ransome Fullfilled the Law for us Perfectly With much more to the same purpose Shewing That Christ Alone hath payd the Whole Ransome and made Full Satisfaction to God's Justice and that our Righteousness or Good Works come not in for any Share or Part thereof as if by them we should at lest in Part be justified This Doctrine I know is not pleasing to the Socinians nor to the Papists Not to the Socinians Because they Deny that any such Satisfaction is made to Gods Justice at all For if they should allow that Christ alone were able to make a sufficient Satisfaction for the Sins of All they must allow him to be more than Man And therefore in order to the Denying of his Divinity they deny his Satisfaction too Nor to the Papists For though they allow a Satisfaction to Justice Yet they would have this to be done at lest in Part by our selves To make way for Purgatory and consequently for Popish Pardons For if we must pay part of the Debt our selves Christ having not payd the Whole and have not payed it in this Life we must either pay it in Purgatory or else by way of Commutation pay Money for the Popes Pardon to be excused from it But Wee who are not concerned for either of these As neither denying Christs Divinity nor being obliged to maintain Purgatory Have no reason to depart from the Language of our own Church Now to make this the more clear our Church observes further That there are Three things which must go together in our Justification Vpon Gods part his great Mercy and Grace Vpon Christs part Justice that is the Satisfaction of Gods Justice or the Price of our Redemption by offering of his Body and shedding of his Blood with fullfilling the Law perfectly and throughly And upon Our part true and lively Faith in the Merits of Jesus Christ which yet is not ours but by Gods working in us So that in our Justification is not onely Gods Mercy and Grace but his Justice also Which the Apostle calls the Justice of God And it consisteth in Paying the Ransome and fullfilling the Law And so the Grace of God doth not shut out the Justice of God in our Justification but onely shutteth out the Justice of Man that is to say the Justice of our Works as to be Merits of deserving our Justification And therefore S. Paul declareth here nothing upon the behalf of Man concerning his Justification but onely a true and lively Faith which nevertheless is the Gift of God and not Mans onely working without God And yet that Faith doth not shut out Repentance Hope Love Dread and the Fear of God to be joyned with Faith in every man that is justified But it shutteth them out from the Office of Justifying So that though they be all present together in him that is justified yet they justify not all together Nor the Faith allso doth not shut out the Justice of our good Works as necessary to be done afterwards of Duty towards God for we are most bounden to serve God in doing good deeds commanded by him in his holy Scripture all the days of our Life But it excludeth them so that we may not do them to this intent to be made Good by doing them For all the good Works that we can do be unperfect and therefore not able to deserve our Justifiction But our Justification doth come freely by the meer Mercy of God And of so great and free Mercy that whereas all the World was not able of their selves to pay Any Part towards their Ransome it pleased our heavenly Father of his infinite Mercy without any our desert or deservings to prepare for us the most precious Jewels of Christs Body and Blood whereby our Ransome might be fully payd the Law fullfilled and his Justice fully satisfied So that Christ is now the Righteousness of all them that truly do believe in him He for them payd the Ransome by his Death He for them fullfilled the Law in his Life So that now in him and by him every true Christian man may be called a Fullfiller of the Law For as much as that which their Infirmity lacked Christs Justice hath supplied I
and outward Profession onely but it liveth and stirreth inwardly in the Heart This Faith doth not ly Dead in the Heart but is Lively and Fruitfull in bringing forth Good Works This true Faith will shew forth it self and cannot long be Idle For as it is written The Just man doth Live by his Faith Deceive not your selves therefore thinking that you have Faith in God When you live in Sin For then your Vngodly and Sinfull Life declareth the contrary whatsoever you Say or Think With much more to the same purpose Shewing the Necessity of Good Works to our Salvation though we be not Justified by them With many serious Exhortations to the Preacher of them And this is that safe way which I sayd our Church directs in this point To be Fruitfull in Good Works not as to be Justified by them But as the Necessary Fruits of that Faith by which we are Justified Thus have I considered the Words The Just shall live by Faith according to both these Emphases allready mentioned That on the word Just or Righteous as contradistinguished from the Wicked And that on the word Faith as contradistinguished from Works in the point of Justification But beside those Two already mentioned there is yet a Third Emphasis of which these words are capable And which I think is principally intended in this place By Life as is already shewed is meant Happyness as on the contrary by Death is meant Misery Now the Christians Life of Happiness is commonly distinguished into that of Grace and that of Glory That of Glory is to be expected hereafter and is the Completion of our Hapyness or as the Apostle calls it the End of our Hope even the Salvation of our Souls That of Grace is the Exercise of our Faith here Which the Text calls Living by Faith And S. Paul elsewhere The Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God And this I think though not Exclusive of the Life of Glory is that which is here principally and most emphatically intended when he saith The Just shall live by Faith And this I judge not barely from the Form of the Words themselves which stand equally fair for all those Emphases already mentioned but from the Scope of Content which lookes this way For such is the Richness of the Scripture language That comprehensive Words are improvable to different Purposes according as a different Accent or Emphasis may be putt upon them and all included within the general Scope of them Now if we look back to Vers. 19. and those that follow we find the Apostle Paul whom I take to be the Author of this Epistle and so doth our Church of England as appears by the Title which our Translators prefix to it Or whoever else were the Author of it of which we need not here be very solicitous After he had before cleared that Doctrine That the Legal Offerings and Sacrifices were but Types of that One Oblation of Christ And This the Accomplishment of what was Presignified in Them Makes this Vse or Inference from that Doctrine Having therefore Boldness to enter in the Holiest by the Bloud of Jesus By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail that is to say this Flesh Let us draw near with a true Heart and full assurance of Faith having our Hearts sprinkled from an evil Conscience and our Bodies washed with pure Water Where beside the Assurance of Faith he presseth allso for Holyness of Life both in Soul and Body And that both Singly and Jointly in Publike and Private As which we are not onely to Practise Our selves but to Promote as we have opportunity in others allso For so it follows And let us consider one another to Provoke to Love and Good Works Not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is And having then intimated the Dangers which hereby they might incur as Reproches Afflictions Spoiling of Goods and the like of Themselves and their Friends being made a Gazing-stock themselves and Companions of those that were so used Enduring patiently the spoiling of their goods c. Not onely from the common practise of Wicked and Profane men who are ever prone to scoff at the Power of Godliness walking after their own Lusts having a Form of Godliness but Denying the Power of it But especially at a Time and Place wherein it was not countenanced by the Publike Authority the Government being the Heathen And that therefore they had need of Patience that after they had done the Will of God they might receive the Promise Their chief Reward not being in present Possession but in Expectance onely Yet should they not be Discouraged For yet a little while and he that shall come Will come and will not Tarry The Reward will certainly come in due Season 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the appointed time and not be put off beyond that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will not be Delayed too long or as in Habakkuk 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it will not come too late but at the End it shall speak and not Ly. And in the mean time The Just shall live by Faith But if any man draw-back my soul shall have no pleasure in him So that the Words are manifestly a Direction and Encouragement for the Exercise of our Faith while we are yet but in Expectation of the Promised Reward which is hereafter to be completed So to Live by Faith here that we be not Disappointed of our Hopes hereafter And the same he pursues in the following Chapter Giving us Great Examples of Living by Faith and the Advantages of so doing in Abel Enoch Noah Abraham Sarah Isaac Jacob Joseph Moses and a many more throughout the whole Eleventh Chapter And then Exhorts them in the beginning of the Twelfth Chapter That being compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses they should themselves do as those before had done The great Doctrine of the Text therefore is this That it is our Duty and it is our Privilege to Live by Faith That is to Live in a constant Exercise of that Grace upon all occasions It is our Duty which we Ought to do And it is our Privilege that we May do it It is our Duty to Trust in God And it is our Privilege that we have a God to trust in Nor doth this Duty and Privilege concern these onely to whom this Epistle was particularly directed the Christian Hebrews But it looks Backward to the First Ages of the World and Wider than the Jewish Nation I say first It looks Backward to the first Ages of the World Nor onely before the Coming of Christ but even before the Establishment of the Jewish Church To Abel Enoch Noah before Abraham and then to Abrabraham Isaac Jacob Joseph before Moses All which are sayd to Live
by Faith And even by the same Faith to which he doth there exhort the Christian Hebrews It was the same Christ the same Gospel though not so clearly reveiled and the same Eternal Life which they expected though they were more in the dark as to the particulars and the distinct ways and methodes of bringing it to pass And as the first Threatening In the day that thou Eatest thereof thou shalt surely Dy extended to Spiritual and Eternal Death as well as the Natural For we are not to suppose that God Inflicts a greater Punishment than what he threatened So the Life there Promised by way of Insinuation and elsewhere Expressed He that doth them shall Live in them must be understood in a like sense not of Temporal Promises onely but of Spiritual and Eternal And the Apostle expounds it if the same Life or what is equivalent to be obtained by the first Covenant upon condition of Obedience and by the second Covenant by Faith in Christ. That no man is Justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident For the Just shall live by Faith And the Law is not of Faith but the Man that Doth them shall live in them The same Life or Blessedness though by different ways attainable And the Apostle here shews That it is the same Faith by which We beleeve to the saving of our Souls and by which the Elders obtained a good Report And by Faith Abraham with Isaac and Jacob Heirs with him of the same promise Sojourned in the Promised Land as in a strange Countrey of which though promised to them they had no other Enjoyment than mere Strangers For he looked for a City who 's Builder and Maker was God another kind of City than those on Earth All these Died in Faith not having Received the Promises which were therefore such as were to be enjoyed after Death but seeing them afar off and were perswaded of them and Embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims upon Earth this being not the Countrey they sought for For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Countrey such a Countrey as yet they had not And truly if they had been mindful of such a Countrey as that from whence they came they might have had opportunity to have returned But now 't is manifest they desire a Better Countrey that is an Heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called Their God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob For he hath prepared a City for them By all which the Apostle doth not only Declare that they expected an Heavenly Happiness but Argues strongly That it must needs be so And by Faith Moses he tells us Esteemed the Reproches of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt For he had respect to the Recompense of Reward as Seeing him that is Invisible Others were Tortured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection Others had Tryal of or did undergo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expertisunt Cruel Mockings of Bonds and Imprisonment Were Stoned were Sawn asunder were Slayn with the Sword c. And all these having obtained a good Report through Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 received not the Promise their Faith was exercised on better Promises than of what they here received God having provided for them Better things that they without us should not be perfect the Promises to them and those to us being the same Again As this Duty and Privilege of Living by Faith extended Backwards to the times before Christ So it extends Wider than the Nation of the Jews A Blessing which the Gentiles are particularly concerned in and which we this day celebrate The Epiphany or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles For the Blessing of Abraham is come upon the Gentiles also through Jesus Christ that We might receive the promise of the Spirit through Faith And the Scripture foreseeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God would Justify the Heathen through Faith preached before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did before hand preach the Gospell to Abraham saying In thee that all Nations be blessed So then they which are of Faith the same are the Children of Abraham They which be of Faith are Blessed with faithfull Abraham And are therefore of the number of those as there it follows who shall Live by Faith Now if it be asked What it is thus to Live by Faith It is too large a Task for one Sermon to give a full account of it For allmost the whole Bible and the Practise of the Saints in all Ages are but a Comment on it I shall therefore content my self to give a short account of some of the chief Heads thereof To Live by Faith therefore is First to Beleeve the Word of God to give Credit to the Truthes of God or things by him declared how unlikely soever they may seem to be and however different from the common Sentiments of Natural men or what the Light of Nature alone could teach us For though there be nothing in Divine Truths Contrary to what the Light of Nature truly understood may teach us Yet there may be some things much above it which without Revelation cannot be known Thus By Faith we Beleeve That the Worlds were made by the Word of God that things that are now seen were made not of things that do appear That is that the now visible World was not made up of such things as we now see or that there was no praeexisting Matter such as we now see of which it was made but was indeed made of Nothing Which however contrary to the sentiments of Philosophers Ex nihilo nihil in nihilum nil posse reverti That nothing can be made out of Nothing Yet when God hath told us that it is so we are to give full credit to it There is indeed nothing from the Light of Nature Contrary hereunto why we should Disbeleeve it when it is Reveiled But yet we are sayd to know it by Faith because it is Above what Nature alone could have taught For when we see this glorious Fabrick of the World we might well admire it but could never know whence it was if God had not told us For though Naturalists have with a great deal of Reason talked of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Causa prima a Common Maker or First Cause which should give Original to all things else Yet this was but either from some faint Remains of an ancient Tradition from Adam and Noah downward to after Ages Or atmost be Conjectural and Groping in the dark and Guessing at this as a more likely Supposition than That it had Allways been or should take its beginning from a Fortuitous Concurse of Atomes Which yet the Wits of this Age as they would be thought or the Fools rather would now cry-up as