A SERMON Preached at the Funeral OF Mrs. MARY ALSTON Wife to JOSEPH ALSTON Esq Who Dyed Jan. 25. and was Interred at Chelsey Feb. 7. 1670. By ADAM LITTLETON D. D. Rector of Chelsey LONDON Printed by John Macock 1671. Acts XIII 39. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses THE Subject I have by appointment undertaken to treat of may peradventure to some at first proposal not seem altogether so proper and suitable to our present occasion Yet when ye well consider the purport of the words I have now read to you that Faith is the great instrument and advantage of a Christians life for the just shall live by his faith and that Justification or forgiveness of sins is the main comfort any Christian can have at his death inasmuch as he that believes shall not die for ever and though he die yet shall he live and over and above that the Gospel-state affords us Christians that help towards these ends which the Jewish oeconomy could not do to them ye must acknowledge with me there cannot be a more effectual Exhortation for us that survive then that of Faith nor a fuller Consolation over our deceased Friends then that of being justified whereby at our departure hence we have a prospect of ensuing bliss in the other world by being assured through faith in Christ of pardon and acceptance and of escaping the wrath to come This justifying faith I say is the ground of all a Christians present duties here in this life and of his future expectations hereafter in the next This it was made the Apostle say To me to live is Christ and to die is gain a Motto which every Christian may bear upon his Scutcheon and inscribe upon the shield of his faith For by Christ all that believe are justified from all things c. S. Paul being in a Synagogue of the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia on the Sabbath day after the reading of the Lessons out of the Law one and the other out of the Prophets as their custom was being desired by the Rulers of the Synagogue the chief of the Assembly to speak if he had any thing to say for the instruction of the people takes occasion after he had given them a brief historical account of the Israelitish Common-wealth down to David to preach unto them Jesus and to assert his Messiaship By his lineal descent from that King David according to promise vers 23. By the Testimony of John his fore-runner vers 25. By the Completion of Prophecies in his Passion Crucifixion Death and Burial vers 27 c. And lasty and most especially by his miraculous Resurrection whereof there were many witnesses still alive vers 30 31 And that accordingly as David himself had foretold in his Book of Psalms particularly in the sixteenth where he says Thou shalt not suffer thy holy One to see corruption which words in the 36. v. he says as S. Peter had observed before in his first Sermon Acts 2. could not be meant of Davids own person who having served his generation died as other men do and never rose out of that sepulcher he was laid in his body having long since moulderd into dust and his monument remaining still among them till that day And now from all these Arguments he draws this Conclusion in this and the verse immediately foregoing Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe c. and then last of all he pursues and drives home this Doctrine with a vehement Application in the two next verses forewarning them to take heed of rejecting the Gospel as we find they did on the next Sabbath-day vers 46. when upon the untoward and unworthy carriage of the Jews the Apostle disclaims them and turns to the Gentiles Thus have I given you a short Analysis and Survey of the Apostles whole discourse the sense and main design whereof lies in the Text that Jesus Christ was the expected Messias the Saviour of the world by whom and by him alone Justification through Faith in him and forgiveness of sins which is the proper notion and importance of salvation is to be obtained This Doctrine of Justification by faith in Christ is set down here 1. Affirmatively in Thesi By him all that believe are justified from all things 2. Negatively per Antithesin in opposition to Mosaical observances from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses In the Affirmative part we have 1. A great Priviledge or the Benefit it self wherein Gods favour and mans happiness doth mainly consist and that 's Justification 2. The Ground of it Christ. What by his Merit 't is in him for his sake and through his satisfaction we are justified What by his Spirit 't is by him by his vertue and efficacy working in us that we are justified 3. The Condition or Qualification which makes us capable of it or as some love rather to term it the Instrument by which 't is applied and made ours and that 's faith They that believe are justified 4. The Extent of it and the latitude it bears And that twofold 1. As to its Subject in quo viz. the persons justified all that believe or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one that believes is justified 2. As to its Object circa quod to wit the things from which Justification is to free and release Believers And that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from all things from all charge and incumbrance from all damages and inconveniences which otherwise might upon strict rules of Justice befal them In the Negative part is expressed the weakness and insufficience of the Mosaical Dispensation for the attaining this Righteousness which is to be had only by Christ that we could not be justified from those things by the Law of Moses You see then that I have a large field of discourse before me were I which cannot well be expected from me in these straights of time at large to speak of Justification of Christs Satisfaction of Faith in Christ of the legal Administration which are so many common places of Divinity and would each of them require a Volume to be treated of in their full importance It will be enough that I briefly touch at each particular head severally and so as may be most agreeable to the purpose of our present meeting to the Instruction and Comfort of the Hearers And I shall take this Method first to shew what is meant by Justification or by being justified Next to prove the insufficience of Moses his Law and its inability of justifying the observers of it and then in the last place to make out how we are justified by Christ and that through Faith in him For so the words stand in the Greek in this order I have here set them in From all things from which ye
could not be justified by or in the Law of Moses by or in him namely in Christ every one that believeth is justified First then what Justification is To be justified is to be accounted and lookt upon as righteous and perfectly just in the sight of Good our Law-giver and our Judge and thereupon to be absolutely discharged and acquitted according to the tenour of the Law by the Sentence of the Judge from all the penalties that were to be inflicted upon the transgressors of the Law and for that our Righteousness to be accepted of God in our persons and performances and in the end to be eternally rewarded And this all grounded upon the nature and sanction of a Law which as it proposes Commands and Rules to be observed so is ratified with Promises on one hand of reward to the obedient and on the other hand with Threats of punishment to those that shall be found guilty of the breach of it Now this Justification had the Covenant of Nature stood the Law of Moses continued in force must have been made out by our own personal exact obedience to every tittle of our obligations for this was the tenour of that Law Do this and live and Cursed be every one that continueth not in all the words of the Law to do them and this is that is called legal Righteousness But in Christ under the Covenant of Grace which was substituted in the room and stead of that other the Law of Faith has altered the terms thus He that believes shall be saved and He that believeth not shall be condemned So that now faith in Christ and sincerity of obedience for there are Commands too as well as Promises and Threats even in this Law of Faith is that we call Evangelical Righteousness whereby we are through that satisfaction Christ as our surety hath by his active and passive obedience wrought for us which through Faith in him is imputed unto us for Righteousness justified by him to the forgiveness of our sins to the acceptation of our persons and to the reward of our services Again this Justification is indeed attained in this life being laid hold on by Faith evidenced by our obedience and sealed to every particular Believers conscience by the Spirit of Promise but in the next life will be declared in open Court at the general Assizes of all Mankind at the last day so that the true Believer lives dies in peace of conscience as having an assurance through Faith that Christ by his death has satisfied for his sins and purchased for him everlasting life For so we find Justification explained in this very Chapter by comparing the 38. and 26. verses with our Text. What he had said there to you is the word of this salvation sent repeating it here in other words Through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of sins So that to be justified is to have our sins forgiven and our souls saved Having thus stated and distinguished Iustification we are now to remove the legal Righteousness that we may establish the Righteousness by Faith and to shew that the Law of Moses was unable and insufficient for the justifying of any one Where first we are to premise an usual Distinction of that Law into Moral Ceremonial and Judicial The Judicial Law was peculiar to the Jewish Common-wealth designed only for external polity and for the quiet and regular administration of the Civil State of that people nor has it any obligation upon any other people any further then as it was a body of Statutes appointed by God himself for the government of his own people it deserves our veneration and as far as the circumstances and customs of other Countries will admit an imitation The Ceremonial Law was most properly the Law of Moses wherein were delivered the rules of Gods Worship which consisted of Purifications and Expiations and other Levitical Rites That again obliged none but Jews and their Proselytes and was to have an end at the coming of Christ. The Moral Law was not so much the Law of Moses as the Law of Adam that which is written in every mans heart and was obligatory to all mankind before Moses and will be so to the end of the world such as are all the Precepts of the Decalogue For though there be somewhat in them ceremonial to which none but Jews were obliged as in the fourth the strictness of the Sabbath-rest and the very day it self for had it not been so it could not have been altered whatsoever is in its nature purely moral being of a perpetual as well as universal and of an indispensable obligation I say notwithstanding somewhat of Ceremony intermixt the things themselves commanded or forbidden in those precepts are acknowledged and owned by the very light of Nature as that God should have a proportion of our time bestowed on his service which in equity could not be less then a seventh part Beyond all this our Saviour himself tells us he came not to destroy this Law but to fulfil it in his own person and heighten its obligations upon us his followers And it appears by circumstances here that the Apostle addressing his speech to the Jews might very likely mean only the Law of Ceremonies as possibly he does in his Epistle to the Galatians and other places by works of the Law intend mainly the Circumcision and other Rites and observances which some Converts of that Religion at the first propagation of the Gospel mainly insisted on and mixed with their Christianity a perswasion and practice which the Doctor of the Gentiles does every where upon all occasions as he meets with it endeavour to confute Yet this Law also having been given by Moses in some sense as to the promulgation of it and the accommodating it to the use and interest of his Country-men I shall take it in too and make good that neither the observance of the Ceremonial Law which obliged the Jews could nor the performance of the Moral Law to which all men are obliged can or ever could justifie any man And this according to that place The Law was given by Moses but Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ where as Truth is opposed to Ceremony so Grace is to the Law of Nature First the Ceremonial Law besides that it laboured under other disadvantages as that it was burdensom in its charge and in its attendance and it was obscure compared to Gospel light as being but the shadow of good things to come it was in its very constitution imperfect and impotent and that in two respects 1. It was not commensurate to the necessities of all mankind that Levitical service having been prescribed only and appropriated to the Jews as a characteristical mark of distinction betwixt them and other Nations 2. It was not adequate to its end which was the expiation of guilt the atonement of wrath and propitiation for sins For it was not possible that the blood of bulls and goats
accompanied with serious repentance for sin and a frank expression and exercise of charity according to the sense a man has of the love of God towards himself Dost thou find then that by thy Faith thou ownest and acceptest thy Saviour all over in all his three Offices that thou art as content to submit to him as a Prophet to teach and instruct thee as a King to rule and govern thee as thou art glad to have him thy Priest to satisfie for thee and to bless thee Art thou willing to be saved his way and to conform to his Methods so as to ingage in working out thy own salvation and art thou convinced thou oughtest to do something for thy own sake something for his who has done so much for thine Has thy Faith an equal impartial respect to Christs Commands as to his Promises and dost thou take as much delight in the obedience of Faith as thou dost in its assurance Dost thou consider that though it be a Covenant of Grace thou standest under yet 't is a Covenant and tyes thee up to conditions and that though the Gospel be a Law of Liberty 't is a Law still and that Christian liberty does not give thee a freedom from duty but from sin and is not to be used as a cloak of malice and licentiousness Hast thou an even regard to all the means of grace and a desire to profit by them all and not by a wanton preference of one Ordinance to another forfeit the benefit of all the rest Canst thou tell where to find thy Faith in what part of thee 't is seated does it swim as an empty Notion in thy head only or has it by serious resolutions sunk down into thy heart and thence flows into all thy outward parts to the government of thy thoughts and desires thy words and thy actions Dost thou use to call thy sins to account and thinking on them and thy Saviours sufferings togetber set open the sluces of grief and mourn over thy wounded conscience and thy crucified Jesus And lastly hast thou such a sense of Gods love to thee in the pardon of thy sins that thou canst freely forgive all offences done against thee and for his sake who for thine has not spared his Son cheerfully part with all thou hast and resign up all thy concerns into his hands for his uses when he calls for them and is thy Faith a Faith working by charity that puts forth vital acts and evidences and justifies it self by good works to be a living and a true Faith For though it be Faith alone that justifies yet 't is no true Faith that is alone and as a man is not justified for his good works so no man must hope to be justified without them If thy Faith be such a Faith as will abide this tryal and answer this description then 't is a Faith thou mayst trust to and thou hast reason to believe thy self to be a Believer and God will improve and build up thy Faith to blessed assurances of pardon and peace of Grace and Glory And then in the last place what Comfort will it be to be thus assured when thou canst apply the general Proposition to thy self which is that All that believe are justified But believe Therefore I am justified If all Believers then thou Believer whoever thou art of whatsoever condition be thy worldly estate never so low thy outward circumstances never so contemptible thou hast an equal share and interest in Gods favour and in the merit of Christ with the best Whatever thy former life hath been read with comfort that black list of the foulest sins 1 Cor. 6. Idolaters Adulterers and the like and such the Apostle tells them were some of you but now are ye washed now are ye sanctified now are ye justified Reflect with sorrow upon what thou hast been and with joy give God thanks for what thou art And then how weak soever thy Faith at present be canst thou say Lord I believe that he may help thy unbelief and increase thy faith more and more till Faith it self shall be swallowed up into vision This as to the extent of the subject nor has that of the object less of Consolation in it when a Believer considers that by his Faith he is justified and fully discharged from all things from all suits and evictions from all troubles and molestations from all dues and demands his surety having paid all for him From the guilt of sin in that he that knew no sin was reckoned amongst transgressors and was made sin for him From the punishment of sin Christ having offered up himself in Sacrifice once for all As for the chastisements and light afflictions of this life as they are but momentany to they are attended with an eternal weight of glory From the demands and sentence and curse of the Law his Redeemer having fulfilled all Righteousness for him and nailed the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against him to the Cross and undergone the Curse upon the tree From the wrath of God which the Son of God his Mediator has atoned From the horrors of a guilty conscience which the Lamb of God has sprinkled with his blood and his Prince of Peace has spoke peace to From the terrors of death which the Captain of his Salvation has conquered by dying From the accusations of the Devils whom the King of glory has triumphed over at his descent into Hell in their own Territories and from everlasting damnation which his blessed Saviour the holy Jesus by his infinite satisfaction has bought off for him And now what has this happy person to do in this world any longer having his debts paid his sins pardoned his God reconciled his Conscience quieted and assured his accusers silenced his enemies vanquished the Law satisfied and himself justified and his Saviour glorified and a Crown of immortality and a Robe of Righteousness prepared for him what has he to do here more then to get him up to the top of Pisgah and take a view of his heavenly Canaan to stand upon the confines of eternity and in the contemplation of those joys and glories despise and slight the vanities and troubles of this sinful and miserable world and to breathe after his better life and be preparing himself for his change when he shall be called off to weigh anchor and hoise sail for another world where he is to make discoveries of unutterable felicities and unconceivable pleasures O what a happy and blest condition is it to live or to die in the midst of such gracious deliverances and glorious assurances with this fastning consideration to boot that neither life nor death nor things present nor things to come nor any creature is able to separate him from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ his Lord Thus to live is to live in peace thus to die is to die with joy peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost What would not a dying man give to have his eternal state thus secured to him and to insure his soul for his long long voyage whence there 's no returning O let us earnestly beg of God to give us Faith to be our Guide in this life and our Pilot for the next Amidst these raptures 't is but time to speak a word or two of our dear deceased Sister here before us who has brought us together to do her the last office of Christian Charity And sure that Charity as well as Custom makes it necessary that where much may be said something must Nor need I be lavish in her praises since to be but just to her memory and to speak out but her due commendations would seem to distrust the Neighbours her Acquaintance my Auditors whose good word and high esteem as she had when she was living so she needs no Pulpit-flattery to set her forth being dead Shall I tell you of her Conjugal affection and her chast Conversation coupled with fear who besides the advantages of a great Fortune brought that to her Husband which was a more valuable Portion a lowly mind paying that constant respect to his person and that due submission to his pleasure and that sure friendship to all his Concerns and demeaning her self to humbly as if she had brought him nothing but her Vertues Shall I mention her indulgent care and motherly love of her Children whose Duties she earned by her laborious attendance on their infant-years thinking it would look too like an unkindness to be owned as a Mother where she had not been a Nurse too and judging it little better than unnatural not to entertain them at her breasts whom she had carried in her womb Shall I take notice to you what good Order and Decorum she kept in her Family how she centered all her thoughts and business like the standing foot of the Compass at home and how unconcerned she was in the Publick unless it were to do any office of neighbourly kindness or when the duties of the Sabbath called her forth Above 〈…〉 humility was remarkable for she had that which S. Peter advises grave Matrons to put on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God and of good men too of great price and this she preferred before all the gawdy Attire which others of her Sex especially of her Fortune use to adorn themselves withal In a word as she exprest the vertues of the other Sister in her domestick cares so I doubt not but she minded the one thing necessary too and with Mary in the Gospel chose that better part which shall not be taken from her God grant us all to be like-minded and as he has given us his Son so may he give us of his Spirit to work Faith and all Grace in us that so we may be justified and sanctified and finally as we hope she now is glorified Now to God the Father Son and blessed Spirit be all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen FINIS