well to the Will as the Understanding It gives us as I may say a kind of Livery and Seisin of all we hope and pray for and even long to be united to though by the Help of a Dissolution In so much that the Plenitude of this One Grace in the sense I mention'd which Plenitude is expressed by a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and boldly rendred a full Assurance I say the Plenitude or fulness of this one Grace which is attainable by Christians whilst here below is worthily reckon'd by St. Paul The Inchoation of our Glory This very Grace is once affirm'd to be a kind of beatifick although an antedated Vision of the Glory of God And for a man to leave This for a better world with such a cordial Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ as was here recommended by Paul and Silas which I have hitherto explain'd by several passages of Scripture is nothing else but to pass from a Paradise to a Heaven or to use St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from one Glory to another For we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. § 10. But some may tacitly now object against Paul and Silas in the Text or at least against St. Luke the Relator of it That if by Faith we must be justified and also sanctified in part before we can expect it should ever save us they should have told the Jailour of it in Terms at large and have shew'd in the Retail how many Duties of a Christian are succinctly comprehended in that expression not have told him only in Gross as Dutchmen make their dishonest Reckonings He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. For how knew the Jailour he was to do any thing but to Believe or to believe in any other than the second Person in the Trinity God manifest in the Flesh for they seem to have made no mention to him of his being to believe in God the Father or in God the Holy Ghost much less did they add the other Articles of the Creed which are Ingredients in the object of Saving Faith § 11. To which I answer by two Degrees And first of all by a concession That if indeed Paul and Silas had said no more to their Catechumenist than that He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ not explaining what was meant by that Habit of Faith from which the Act of his Believing was to proceed nor yet explaining what was meant by the Lord Iesus Christ who is often put by a Synecdoche for the whole object of our Belief Faith in Christ being the Pandect of Christian Duties which are all shut up in Faith as Homer's Iliads in a Nutshell Then indeed they might have made him a Solifidian or a Fiduciary which had not been the way to his being sav'd But secondly I answer That the objection is made of a false Hypothesis For Paul and Silas dealt honestly and discreetly with the Jailour when having told him he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ for his being sav'd it presently follows after the Text they spake unto him the Word of God that is they expounded the Scriptures to him And in the doing of That they prov'd the object of his Faith to be the Trinity in Unity not solely and exclusively the Lord Jesus Christ but in conjunction with God the Father and with God the Holy Ghost too Again in expounding the Scriptures to him they could not but tell him what was meant by an effectual Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ importing such a kind of Faith as is ever working and such a kind of working as is by Love and by such a kind of Love as is the fulfilling of the Law and of such a Law too as does consist of somewhat higher and more illustrious Injunctions than those of Moses and of such an obedience to those Injunctions as is attended and waited on by Perseverance unto the End There is no doubt but they acquainted him in their expounding of the Scriptures and speaking to him the Word of God how very highly it did concern him not only to escape the Corruption that is in the world through lust and also to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but besides This as St. Peter speaks to give all diligence for the adding to his Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness to Brotherly kindness Charity For that these were all needful and no redundant superadditions is very clear from St. Peter in the next verse but one He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see a far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins But if these Things be in you and abound Then indeed as St. Peter adds ye shall not be barren in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. If ye do these things ye shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. Now can we think that St. Peter did not teach the same Doctrin with Paul and Silas or can we think that Paul and Silas would withhold from the Jailour that Train of Duties for want of which he had been Blind and not in Case to see God no whatever might have been wanting in their succinct and pithy Answer whereby to give him a right Understanding of it was abundantly supply'd by their following Sermon And though the Heads of their Sermon are not put upon Record but only the Text upon which they made it yet St. Luke records This That such a Sermon there was preach'd in that he saith They spake to him the Word of God § 12. And truly This is such a Method as I could wish were well observ'd by all that are of their Function I mean the Stewards of the Mysteries of the Living God Unto whom is committed the Word of Reconciliation whose lips are made to be the Treasuries and Conservatories of Knowledge and which the People are appointed to seek at their Mouths For the Text we have in hand is often turned to advance either Truth or Falshood even according to the handle by which 't is held forth to the giddy People And is made to be eventually either venomous or wholsom just in proportion to the sense in which 't is taken and digested by them that hear it If to Believe is only taken for an Assent unto the Truth or a Relyance on the Merits of Jesus Christ or a confident Application of all his Promises to our selves And this in a kind of opposition to the Necessity of Good works which ought to be in conjunction with it Then 't is apt to cause a wreck in the waters of Life and through the Malignity of a Digestion a man may be kill'd by the Bread of Heaven But if 't is taken for obedience to the Commandments of Christ
Rom. 3. 27. And as the whole Moral Law was published by Christ as well as Moses which any man may see who will not wink in the fifth sixth and seventh Chapters of St. Matthew so Christ as well as Moses thought fit to give it upon a Mountain Nor is it unworthy our observation That throughout the New Testament though there is many times a Precept without a Promise annexed to it yet there is not one Promise which is not clogg'd with some Precept As if our Saviour had esteemed it an easier thing to make us believing and orthodox Christians than obedient and sincere ones According to which he elsewhere tells us that they only shall enter into the Kingdom of his Father not that call upon his Name but that do his Will Nay as there he goes on in the following Verses Though a man may have Faith to the working of Miracles yet if it be built upon the Sand as most certainly it is when 't is not seconded with obedience he foretells what he will say unto men of that sort at the Day of Judgment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I never knew you Not that Christ can be ignorant of their persons or their works to whom he will say I never knew you For even that very saying imports he knew them well enough that is he knew them to be such as did deserve that such words should be spoken to them And therefore the meaning must needs be this I never knew you to be members of my Body or to be sheep of my Fold that is I know you to be Persons I cannot own For as to know in the holy Dialect does often signifie to approve so not to know does very often import no more than to disown I must confess we might think it exceeding strange but that our Oracle does assure us 't is very true That as Believers we may be able to cast out Devils and yet as Disobedient may be our selves possess 't with them We may preach to save others and yet be Castaways our selves For be we never so zealous Preachers or Professors of the Gospel and at the very same time Indulgent Transgressors of the Law our very Advocate will say when he shall come to be our Iudge 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depart from me ye workers of Iniquity And therefore our blessed Saviour being about to leave the world and to teach his Disciples before he left them how to serve him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a manner as he would like did not speak in this stile If ye love me cast all your Care upon my Promises or If you love me stoutly rely upon my merits althô there is a place for each of these too But as preparatory to Both If ye love me keep my Commandments John 14. 15. which was as if he should have said shew me your Faith by your works and your Love by your obedience Plainly implying to Them and Us that our Sonship does not give us any Exemption from our Service our Service being the only thing by which we are able to prove our Sonship As Christ hath a Priestly and a Prophetical so hath he also a Kingly Office Nor may we kick at the Scepter and Throne of Christ and think it sufficient to declare we are his Majesty's most humble and loyal Subjects Some Earthly Potentates have been thus mock'd but the King of Kings will never be so We cannot honour our Lord by disobeying him or shew our selves kind by being undutiful For we see that our obedience is both the Argument and the Badge of a True Affection Our Saviour saith Matth. 10. 38. He that follows me not is unworthy of me Where to follow him is to be like him To conform our selves to him more than a Parasite to his Patron not to walk in his Path only but to tread in his very Footsteps According to that of the Pythagoreans which deserves for its worth to be Christianiz'd however writ by that Hierocles who writ a Book against Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt honour God the better the more thou studiest to be like him For him we love most whom we most imitate and he honours God best who doth best resemble him And what kind of Resemblance he most requires St. Iohn hath told us twice together in his first Epistle and third Chapter to wit our being pure as he is pure v. 3. and our being Righteous as he is Righteous v. 7. And our Saviour to the same purpose having mustred up his Precepts with the several Promises annext makes a kind of a Corollarie or rather Abridgment of the whole not at all with a command that we be happy as God is happy but with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be ye perfect as he is perfect Thus as briefly and yet as fully as I could possibly contrive I have shew'd the chiefest end of our blessed Saviour's coming hither and his principal Business when he was here It was not only as a Saviour to propose Promises to our Faith nor only as a Teacher to fiill our heads with new knowledge but as a Soveraign and a Prince as St. Peter calls him to exact obedience to his Commands And to place it without dispute He made it part of his business when he was here to let us know why he came hither For as he tells us in one place enough to keep us from despair that he came not to destroy mens lives but to save them so he tells us in another enough to keep us from presumption that he came not to destroy the Law but to save and preserve That also and that in each sense of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not by fulfilling it only but by filling it up too For thô nothing could be completer than the Law Moral in it self yet did he fill up those vacuities which Moses left in his Delivery From all which it follows do what we can that Unless our Righteousness shall exceed the Righteousness of the Iews we shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven For can there be any thing more agreeable to the judgment of common Sense I had almost said of Carnality it self than that where God hath afforded a greater Stock he should expect a greater Increase that where he hath strengthened the Shoulders he should in proportion increase the Burden And that as he hath shrunk up the Mosaical Law so he should also extend the Moral Of Moses we know that he had a Vail upon his Promises as well as upon his Face and was as obscure upon Mount Nebo as before he had been upon Mount Sinai Whereas our Antitype of Moses hath been graciously pleas'd to uncover Both. The Iews beheld Christ as in a Glass but we in comparison face to face They walk't by Twilight but we by the Sun in his Meridian They were us'd like little Children but we like Men. They had a Sensible
do they are afraid it would be answer'd That they must cease to do evil and learn to do good That they must seek Iudgment relieve the Oppressed help the Fatherless and plead for the Widow That they must mortifie the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. That they must crucifie the world unto themselves and themselves unto the world That if an Eye or a Hand or a Foot offend them they must pluck out the one and cut off the other That they must not take any thought for the morrow but sell all they have and give it to the Poor deny themselves take up Christ's Cross and follow him They will be sav'd with all their hearts provided it may be gratis either upon none or on easy Terms But dare not ask what they must do with a serious purpose to be doing whatsoever shall be answer'd to be a Requisite to Salvation for fear the answer should be harder than they are able to indure As That they must hate their own Lives and Love their Enemies That they must fast as well as pray but feed their Enemies when they hunger That they must turn the right Cheek to him that strikes them on the left That when they are persecuted and rail'd at they must not only rejoyce but leap for Ioy. That they must pray without ceasing rejoyce evermore and in every thing give Thanks Make a Covenant with their Eyes not to look upon a Maid and abstain from all appearance of Evil. But now the Iailour in my Text although he had hardly yet the knowledge had the true Courage of a Christian. Upon Condition he might be sav'd he did not care on what Terms 'T is true Salvation was the End but the Means of its Attainment did make the Object of his Inquiry For he did not simply beg that he might be sav'd as if he thought he might be sav'd without the least cooperation or any endeavour of his own But as if he had concluded within himself as St. Augustin did some Ages after That God who made us without our selves will never save us without our selves He ask't how much he was to contribute towards the Means of his Salvation And This he ask'd in such a manner as to imply his being ready to contribute whatsoever could be exacted For he did not thus ask What must I say or what must I believe what Opinions must I hold or what Sect must I be of what must I give or whither must I go but in a manner which implyed all This and more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what must I Do that I may be sav'd But though this is praise-worthy 't is very far from being enough For 't is one thing to ask what things are to be done that we may be sav'd and effectually to do them is quite another The wealthy Quaerist in the Gospel could easily ask what he should do that he might inherit eternal Life and as easily learn the Things ask't after But when he was answer'd that he must sell all he had and give it to the poor he could not so easily fall to practise what he had learnt by putting the Precept in execution So the Multitude of Jews could easily ask our Blessed Saviour what they must do that they might work the work of God Joh. 6. 28. But being told they must believe that He was the Bread that came down from Heaven Then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they murmur'd v. 41. nay they despised him for his Parentage v. 42. It was an hard saying v. 60. Nay so far they were from doing the work of God who had so lately and so readily ask't him what they must do that they might work it that from thence they drew back and would no longer walk with him v. 66. Such a peevishness there is in the minds of men that though they love to be asking the Will of God they cannot indure to be told it much less to be employ'd in the Doing of it no not though they are also told that This alone is the Price at which Salvation is to be had Men may come to be baptiz'd as the Multitude did to Iohn the Baptist And yet may be at That Instant a generation of Vipers Luke 3. 7. A Generation of Vipers and yet have Abraham for their Father v. 8. that is their Father after the Flesh In which respect God is able out of arrant Stocks and Stones to raise up Children unto Abraham But when 't is ask't what we must do to be his Children after the Spirit The Answer is we must inherit at once the Faith and the Works of Abraham And accordingly the Baptist did proportion his Directions to such as ask't them He did not tell them what they must Teach whereby to be Orthodox Professors or what they must hold whereby to be Orthodox Believers But as they ask'd what they must do so he told them those Things that were of necessity to be done Begin not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father for so have They who are Sons of Belial But bring forth fruits worthy of Repentance v. 8. If ye are Publicans exact no more than is appointed you v. 13. If ye are Soldiers do violence to no man neither accuse any one falsly and be content with your wages v. 14. If ye are Christians of any Calling Let him that hath two Coats impart to Him that hath none And He that hath Meat let Him do likewise v. 11. Still 't is our Doing the things ask'd after not our Asking what we must do which is effectually the way to our being sav'd And accordingly when 't is said by the Apostle St. Iames That Faith without Works is dead and nothing worth It is intimated to us by that expression That a Rectitude of Iudgment is nothing worth but as it stands in conjunction with a like Rectitude of Life As if our Faith and our Knowledge and good Professions could amount unto no more than the meer Body of Religion whilst the Soul that enlivens it is still the sanctity of our Actions Thence a Good man is called not an Hearer or a Believer But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Doer of the Word Jam. 1. 22 23. And when it pleas'd our blessed Saviour to give a general Description in the fifth Chapter of St. Iohn as well of the Few that belong to Heaven as of the Many that go to Hell He did not give them their Characters from their being of this or that Country of this or that Calling of this or that Church or Congregation of this or that Faith not to say Faction in Religion But only from their being qualified with such and such Practice with such and such Works with such and such Habits of Conversation Our Saviours words are very plain but in my apprehension of great Remarque And such as being well consider'd would teach us how to pass a Iudgment without any prejudice
with Silas in soothing up the poor Iailour and sowing Pillows under his Elbowes which is no better than to dawb with untemper'd Morter to lead their Convert into a Paradise wherein there lurks both an old and a cunning Serpent A Serpent apt to persuade him and by the help of this Text That though there are in the Gospel which is the Garden of God a great many sorts of forbidden fruit yet 't is so far from being deadly that 't is not dangerous to taste it as the best of God's Children have ever done so long as he can eat of the Tree of Faith too which is not only better tasted but also wholsomer by far than the Tree of Knowledge by being grafted on the stock of the Tree of Life What I say might be the Motive which induced Paul and Silas to give this Answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Believe and be sav'd Is there more than This needful or is there not If any thing more than this is needful for the attainment of Salvation why then did They conceal it and that from one who even thirsted after a full Draught of Knowledge What was the All he was to do that he might be sav'd Or if This is so sufficient that nothing more than this is needful what Necessity is there of preaching or of learning any thing else For as when it was said by our Blessed Saviour It is easier for a Camel to pass the Eye of a Needle than for a Rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven his Disciples ask't presently Who then can be sav'd so when to One that had inquired what he must do that he might be sav'd no other Answer was given by Paul and Silas than that he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ It may be ask't with as good reason who then can be damn'd For thus we see the way to Heaven is not only made Broader but less incumber'd than That to Hell The Flock of Christ is made a great and a numerous Flock So as The Kingdom of Heaven is but improperly compar'd unto a Pearl of great Price which a Merchant sold all that he had to purchase since one may have it for a Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ. All which being Absurdities and very profanely inconsistent with the Veracity of our Saviour may seem to speak Paul and Silas to be a Couple of gross Casuists for having given the Jailour's Quaere so lame and partial a Resolution But This again is an Absurdity as little allowable as the former For besides that All Scripture is of Divine Inspiration and Paul and Silas in particular had been acknowledged by The Daemoniack in the 17th Verse of this Chapter to be The Servants of the most high God who shew unto us the way of Salvation The Text which now lyes before us may be justified by a Parallel out of our Saviour's own Mouth For having been asked by the People who flock't about him at Capernaum what they should do that they might work the work of God John 6. 28. This reply'd our blessed Lord is the work of God That ye BELIEVE on Him whom He hath sent v. 29. In so much that to obviate and to satisfie all Objections we must not quarrel or suspect but meekly study to understand and explain the Text. Which I shall first attempt to do by a full Division and after That not by a curious but by a pertinent and useful Tractation of it § 5. First to Divide the Text aright and so as that it may contain an Explication of its Importance we must view and review it in its double relation to the Context I mean in its Dependance on the words going before and its Cohaerence with the two Verses which do immediately follow after The words before are an Inquiry touching the Thing of all the World which is to every man living of greatest moment even the Necessary Means of his being sav'd This is the Ground and the Occasion and Introduction to the Text. The Text it self is an obscure because a short Resolution of That Inquiry And the two Verses coming after do very happily though briefly and so indeed the less plainly expound it to us The Inquiry was made by the frighted Iailour of Philippi The Resolution is given by Paul and Silas The Exposition is St. Luke's to whom we also owe the Narrative and the Contexture of the whole The Text abstractively consider'd does afford at first view but a single Act and a single Object Yet in relation to the Context each of these is twofold one whereof is express'd and the other imply'd First the Object here express'd is in sensu composito The Lord Iesus Christ. And this is Objectum formale Quod. It is not Christ without Iesus nor is it Iesus without The Lord. For That were the gross and common Fallacy A benè conjunctis ad malè divisa which yet the Flesh of most Professors is apt to impose upon their spirits He is in all his Three Offices to be the Object of our Belief And in his Three special Titles his Threefold Office is here included His Prophetical in the first his Priestly in the second and his Kingly in the third If Salvation is the end and if we aspire to have it also the event of our Belief we must impartially believe in the whole Messias Not as Iesus only a Saviour no nor only as Christ a King but undividedly and at once as the Lord Iesus Christ. This is the Object of our Faith which is here express'd Next the Word of God preach'd is the object of our Faith which is here imply'd And as the men of the Schools do love to word it This is Fidei objectum formale Quo. For as Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the Word of God which Word cannot be heard without a Preacher so no sooner was it said by Paul and Silas that the Jailour must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but in the next breath it follows They spake unto him the WORD of God v. 32. They had in vain told him he must had they not taught him how he might And therefore they did not only possess him with the necessity of his believing But in tenderness to his Soul they straight afforded him the means too They did not train up their Convert like the Catechists of Rome only to believe as the Church believes that is to say by a blind and implicit Faith making Ignorance and Credulity the only Parents of Devotion But they built up his Faith on the Foundation of the Scriptures That by the knowledge of some Praemisses which he might easily comprehend he might attain to a Belief of what was yet Incomprehensible To beget in him a solid and a well-grounded Faith such as whereof he might be able to give a rational Accompt they both exhorted him to believe in and also preached to him the WORD of the Lord Jesus Christ the object of our Faith which
must follow after Both afford us matter of Caution and Comfort too The former serving to humble and the latter to support us That defends us from Praesumption and This secures us from Despair Thus have I done with the Division and in the ordering of That with the Explication of the Text. Wherein if I have trespass't by too much length it will in justice be imputed to my Desire of Perspicuity and of making it one Arrest unto the Plausible Objection that lyes against it § 6. In the ensuing Tractation of it I must begin with the Act which is here express'd and consider it as relating to the first and chief Object And this I must do in such a manner as to make it a farther Antidote against the venom of the Objection Which to the end that I may do with the more success I must explore by such ways as are not able to mislead us what of necessity must be meant by such an Act of Believing as does arise from an Habit of saving Faith For as every one that paints is not presently a Painter nor every Painter an Apelles so 't is not every Belief which can denominate a Believer nor is it every Believer who can be sav'd It will not therefore be sufficient to preach up the Faith of Christ in general which yet too many are wont to do because 't is easiest to be done nor to depredicate in particular the several rare Fruits and Effects of Faith without distinguishing all along betwixt the Roots and the Causes from whence they grow But we must first have the Patience to learn our selves and then the Care as well as Skill to make it visible unto others how much The Habit of salvifick or saving Faith is meant to grasp and comprehend in its whole Importance and so by a consequence unavoidable how much short of Salvation every Faith without This will be sure to land us Now in the bringing of this about wherein 't is certainly as needful as it is difficult to be Orthodox and yet wherein Learned men have seldom hitherto agreed we are all apt to err with the greater ease the less we are able to determin how many Acceptions of the word Faith may be found in Scripture For not to speak of its Import in human Authors we may observe it in holy Writ to have been used in so Many and Different senses that School-Divines have strangely varied touching its various significations For first Medina will acknowledge but two Acceptions of the word Faith Albertus Magnus allows of five Alphonsus à Castro admits of seven Vega goes higher as far as Nine Bonaventure and Valentia arise to ten Alexander Hallensis will have eleven Nay Sotus tells us of some who are for fifteen significations whereas Himself with Medina will own but two I will not presume to be an Umpire between so many and subtil School-men though I confess I am not able to give an absolute Assent unto either of them I can evince that the word Faith hath very various significations and easily instance in the chief whereof 't is dangerous to be ignorant or which at least it will be useful very particularly to know But when I shall have given pregnant Instances of Many and those the Most that at present I can discern I shall not be so Dogmatical as to deny that there are more First 't is clear that the word Faith does signify Faithfulness and Truth As Rom. 3. 3 4. What if some did not believe shall their Unbelief make the Faith of God of none effect no let God be true and every man a lyar Next it signify's The Promise which is in faithfulness and Truth to be performed And of this we have an instance 1 Tim. 5. 12. where the wanton young Widows are said to be lyable to Damnation because they have cast off their first Faith That is their Promise of constant widowhood which they had made unto the Church whose single Interest and Service they had thereby wedded and espous'd Thence it signify's a Confidence as that is opposed to Distrust A full Dependance on the Power and a firm adhaerence unto the Promises of our Lord. Thus it was used by our Saviour when Peter cryed as he was sinking Lord save me O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt Matth. 14. 31. In the same sense he said to the two blind men Do ye believe that I can do this according to your Faith be it unto you Matth. 9. 29. And thus 't is used by St. Iames by whom we are exhorted to ask in Faith nothing wavering James 1. 6. Again we find the word Faith set to signifie Conscience or knowledge compar'd with the Rule of Action as 't is observ'd by Theophylact and the Interlineary Gloss upon Rom. 14. 23. whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Nay Faith by a Synecdoche is made to signifie the Gospel Whereof we meet with an Example Gal. 3. 25. where when 't is said After Faith is come we are no longer under a School-Master The plain meaning of it is only This That after the coming of the Gospel we are no longer under the Law It is sometimes us'd to signifie a bare Assent And such is that Faith which is call'd historical and is common to men with believing Devils James 2. 19. But as sometimes an Assent so at other times the Object assented to And of this we have an Instance in the Epistle of St. Iude where to contend for the Faith which was once deliver'd unto the Saints is nothing else but to contend for the Creed it self the Christian Doctrin which is the Ground and the Rule of Faith § 7. Thus we find the word Faith in seven distinct significations But none of These will amount to a saving Faith however some of These are Ingredients in it For saving Faith is not only an Habit or Faculty of the Intellect whereby we firmly and without fear but yet withal without evidence assent to all things propos'd to be believed in the Church as reveal'd by God which is the Schoolmen's Definition of a justifying Faith or as they rather love to speak of the Faith which is infused in Iustification For This is but part of that Description which the same men afford to the Faith of Miracles whereby a man may move Mountains and yet be damn'd may cast out Devils and be himself possess'd with them as is evident from the preaching both of our Saviour and St. Paul Matth. 7. 22 23. 1 Cor. 13. 2. Nor is it only such a Relyance on the mercy of God and the merits of a Saviour as carrys with it a full Persuasion of the Remission of our Sins as some who are Enemies to the Schoolmen are wont to teach for This may possibly be alone unattended with Repentance and change of Life And being not the Mother of such an off-spring it must by
with Perseverance unto the End in conjunction with it Then the Answer of Paul and Silas is the short Summary of the Gospel and they might well promise Salvation to whosoever should accomplish the purpose of it That this indeed is the Importance may appear by the words of our blessed Saviour who having been asked by a Iew as Paul and Silas by a Gentile what Course was to be taken whereby to inherit Eternal Life gave him an Answer which some may censure as too much savouring of the Law but yet it seems not unsuitable to the oeconomy of the Gospel If thou wilt enter into life keep the Commandments Now in as much as Paul and Silas did not teach another Doctrin but the same in other words with their Master Christ they must needs be understood to have given This Answer That if the Jailour should so believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as to imitate his Example and yield obedience to his Commands and continue so to do all the days of his life he should not fail in that Case of his being sav'd And though the Rule is very true That nothing is wanting in any Sentence which is of necessity understood which well might justifie Paul and Silas in the conciseness of their expression Yet not contented with this excuse they rather chose not to want it by speaking largely to the Jailour the Word of God After the very same manner § 13. That the People may not wrest the outward Letter of the Scripture to their Damnation we must carefully explain and disentangle it to their Safety If any of Us shall be consulted by either Believers or Unbelievers about the means of their being sav'd we have two ways of Answer and both exact but both are to be taken cum grano salis and with a due Interpretation We may answer with our Saviour They are to keep the Commandments or else with Paul and Silas that they are to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. But if the former we must add This is the chief of the Commandments that we believe on the Name of the Lord Iesus Christ 1 Joh. 3. 23. And although we must have an inherent righteousness in part yet there is need that That of Christ be imputed to us if but to make up all the wants and the vacuities of our own For our own is no better than filthy Rags if impartially compar'd with our double Rule to wit The Doctrin and Life of Christ. We must negotiate indeed with the Talents of Grace that we may not be cast into outer Darkness yet so as to judge our selves at best to be unprofitable Servants weigh'd with the Greatness of our Redeemer and with the Richness of our Reward Or if we give them the second Answer we must also speak to them the Word of God We must explain what it is to believe in Christ and by the help of some Distinctions duly consider'd and apply'd teach them to see through all the Fallacies and flatten the edge of all objections which are oppos'd to the Necessity of strict obedience and good works When any Iustifying Vertue is given to Faith we must tell them it is meant of Faith unfeigned When we speak of the Sufficiency of Faith unfeigned we must shew them how Love is the Spirit of Faith Whether because in the Active it works by Love or else because in the Passive in which the Syriac and Tertullian translate the word by works of Charity and Obedience Faith is wrought and made perfect When we celebrate the force of a lively Faith we must season it with a Note that Faith is dead being alone When 't is said out of St. Paul that we are justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law 't is fit we add out of St Iames that we are justified by Works and not by Faith only For to shew that St. Iames does not either contradict or confute St. Paul The Works excluded by St. Paul are no other than the Deeds of the Ceremonial Law And those included by St. Iames are no other than the Works of the Moral Law So we are justified by Faith as the Root of Works and we are justified by Works as the Fruit of Faith Not by Faith without Works for then St. Iames would not be Orthodox nor yet by Works without Faith for then we could not defend St. Paul but by such a Faith as worketh and by such Works as are of Faith By Both indeed improperly as being but necessary Conditions But very properly by Christ as being the sole meritorious Cause Again because 't is very natural for Carnal Professors of Christianity so to enhaunce the Price of Faith as to depretiate good Works and make obedience to pass at the cheaper Rate They must be told that when our Saviour ascribes the moving of Mountains and other Miracles to Faith He does not speak of That Faith which is a Sanctifying Grace Gal. 5. 22. but of that Faith alone which is an Edifying Gift 1 Cor. 12. 9. by which a man may do wonders and yet be damn'd Matth â— 22 23. So when he said unto the Ruler who had besought him to heal his bed-rid Daughter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Only Believe He only meant it was sufficient for the healing of her â—ody without alluding in any measure unto the saving of her Soul So far he was in that place from giving any ground of hope to a Solifidian And therefore briefly let it suffice me to say once for all That when we find men Believers without good Life we must shew them how many ways a man may be a Believer without true Faith may be justified in the Praemisses yet not sav'd in the Conclusion may get no more by his Knowledge than to be beaten with many stripes and have no more of a Saviour than to be damn'd by We must instruct them to distinguish betwixt the Act and the Habit of their Believing But above all betwixt a Speculative and a Practical Belief A Belief in the Heads and the Hearts of men A Belief which does consist with a drawing back unto Perdition and That by which a man believes unto the saving of the Soul § 14. Stand forth therefore Thou Antinomian or Thou Fiduciary or whosoever else Thou art who art a sturdy Believer without true Faith and ever namest the Name of Christ without departing from Iniquity Try thy self by this Touchstone which lyes before thee and examin whether thy Heart be not as apt to be deceiptful as 't was once said to be by the Prophet Ieremy Let the Tempter that is without make thee as credulous as he can And let the Traytor that is within make thee as confident as he will of thy Faith in Christ yet Thou wilt find when all is done there is exceeding great Truth in the Spanish Proverb That 't is a very hard Thing to believe in God And so very few there are who attain unto it