where I set my Name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel Now did God destroy his people at Shiloh for their wickedness the place where God set his Name at the first and cannot he deal as severely with a second place Therefore saith God except ye repent and amend your ways I will do unto this House as I did to Shiloh and I will destroy you as I did my people at Shiloh for all your Temple But here we see how men may dote upon a Temple so as to think themselves secure from God's Judgments though they themselves are ful of wickedness Whysomewhat like this are our people ready to do tho God forbid there should be such a gross thing found amongst us in the dayes of the Gospel as this of the Jews was yet how do many dote upon Churches and consecrated places crying as it were The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord and that after our blessed Saviour hath told us as much as this in my apprehension that one place is no holier then another neither Jerusalem nor Mount Gerizim but men should worship the Father in spirit and truth and in every place saith the Apostle perhaps we might gloss in every place alike men should lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting and yet how are some apt to think that if they pray in a Church though the Assembly be not there that a prayer in a Church is far more acceptable then in their Closet at home Not as if I did not far more prefer publick Worship then private or secret devotion or that I were against a convenient decent Meeting-place Again The Iews gloried in ceremonious services how did this Jewish Legal Carnal righteousness please pride it self in the ceremonial service of Sacrifices and the like but never look at the heart Isa 1.11 To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me saith the Lord I am full of Burn â—fferings of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts I delight not in the blood of Bullocks or of Lambs or of He-Goats Ver. 13. Bring no more vain Oblations incense is an abomination unto me the new Moons and Sabbaths I cannot away with Not as if all these things were at this time unlawful for they were their duty but here you see they were abundant in these and failed in matters of common honesty and justice as we may see ver 15 16 17. Your hands are full of blood wash ye make ye clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil learn to do well seek judgement relieve the oppressedâ— judge the fatherless plead for the Widow These things they ought to have done and not to leave the other undone and when ye have done these things saith the Lord Come now and let us reason together though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be white as Snow c. ver 18. Here was Gospel that if they would mind the true reformation of their hearts and lives they might expect the pardon of their sins but these Legal Jews they never mind this inward holiness no nor common honesty and yet make no question but they shall make God amends very wel by keeping Festivals New-Moons Sabbaths days of solemn Assemblies and by Sacrifices of Rams Lambs Bullocks He-Goats as if God were fed with the blood and fat of these beasts and were migtihly attoned by incense sweet perfumes See Psal 50. from 7. to 14. as if then he must needs smel a savour of rest in all that they did And the Gal. we find were come to this Gal. 3.10 Ye observe days and months times and years that is Jewish Feasts I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain When they once came to observe them there was a great deal of danger and cause for the Apostles sear that they would rest in the observance of them for that this was the reason why they took to observing of them when it was not now any longer the Jews duty so much as to observe them because of their inclination to a Covenant of Works which chiefly expresseth it self in an external service So likewise the Colossians amongst whom the same pestilent Law-Preachers had been they were ensnared to the making conscience of dayes Sabbaths and new Moons and also in the business of meats that some were clean and others unclean which was once the Jews duty to observe insomuch that Peter tells the Lord he had been so strict in the business hitherto that nothing common or unclean meaning of the flesh of unclean Beasts and Fowls had entred into his mouth Acts 11.6.8 But now was not only not their duty any longer but at least to the Gentiles a sin to make any conscience in it for that they could hardly begin such a thing at such a time upon the inticement of false Teachers for none else perswaded the Gentiles to it but from an evil inclination of swerving from the pure Gospel which they had received from the Apostles unto a Covenant of Works thus served out to them by their false Teachers And it argues almost as ill a disposition in the Galatians and Colossians but to take up these things as their duty as it did in the Jews to place so much in them when they were their duty Let no man judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy-day or of the new Moon or of the Sabbath-dayes which are a shadow of things to come but the body is of Christ Col. 2.14 16 17. These things when they were in use and were mens duties were at best but shadows and yet these shadows did men exceedingly glory in and preferred them before true holiness and the spiritual Worship of God yea they thought verily that whilest they did observe these things they might commit all manner of Villanies and yet escape the judgement of God Yea they thought they were delivered to do all sorts of abominations as it is in Jer 7.10 The Apostle finds out such a generation of Jews in his time Rom. 2. from the 17. to the 25. Behold thon art called a Jew and restest in the Law a full expression I think of one that seeks Justification by the Law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will And the Apostle proceeds to describe a great Lawyer indeed one that thought himself sit to be a Guide of the blind a Light of them that walk in darkness an instructer of the foolish a teacher of babes and one that had the form of knowledge and of the truth in the Law Yet what kind of man is he for his Morals Why he is a Thief an Adulterer a Sacrilegious person what not ver 21 22. Thou therefore which teachest another teachest thou not thy self thou that preachest a man should not steal dost thou steal Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery dost
stedfastly behold his face ver 7. And this Law of Moses is called the Old-Testament ver 6. And this is that which is compared with the Gospel which Paul preached ver 12.13 Seeing that we have such hope we use great plainness of speech and not as Moses which put a vail over his face c. Ergo The Law reacht further then the days of Adam for a way of Justification for it was given to the Children of Israel by Moses and it was their Covenant or Testament and if it be done away it was not till the dayes of the Gospel by Christ according to that of the Apostle John 1 John 17. The Law was given by Moses but Grace came by Jesus Christ So in Gal. 3 23. Before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterwards be revealed So in Heb 8.6 speaking of Christ But now hath he obtained a more excellent Ministry by how much also he is the Mediator of a better Covenant which was established upon better promises ver 7. For if that first Covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second but finding fault he saith Behold the dayes come saith the Lord when I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers when I brought them out of the Land of Aegypt And what Covenant was that I pray but the Law the Law of Moses ver 13. In that he saith a New Covenant he hath made the first old now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away From this whole context I conclude sayes the objector That the Law which is famously known to be the Law of Moses was a Conant till Christs time at least with the people of of God Jews and Proselytes and so a way of Justification which is quite contrary to your fifth and seventh Positions or else shew of what use the Law was when given to the Children of Israel besides this of being a way of Justification or a Covenant of Works which is all one Wherefore then serveth the Law Is it of no use now unto us Or rather wherfore then was it given to the Jews Was it of no use to them Was it not their Covenant And therefore must it not be their way of Justification Else shew how it would deserve the Name of the first or old Covenant or Testament Nay to adde a little more matter of Objection the Law hath the Language of a Covenant a condition annexed and that when it was given to the children of Israel and the Lord tells his people Lev. 18.5 after the delivery of the Law That if a man do these things he shall live And Moses is said by the Apostle Paul Rom. 5.10 in those words of Leviticus to describe a legal righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of Faith For Moses describeth the righteousness of the Law that the man which doth those things shall live by them but the righteousness which is of Faith speakethon this wise that is in an opposite manner Therefore certainly saith the objection the Law when it was given by Moses was given as a way of Justification Nay our Saviour himself saith in Luke 10.28 speaking of the law of Moses This do and thou shalt live Therefore certainly the law is a way if not the onely way of Justification unto fallen man for those Jews then were fallen as well as we are now This is the objection which is indeed weighty and considerable and of purpose raised by the Apostle in the first great branch of it that it might receive an answer It consists of several branches to all which I shall endeavour to apply an answer in its place and first I shall begin with that part which is greatest which when well answered the rest will receive an easie solution and it is this For what ends or purposes was the Law given to the Children of Israel if not for a way of Justification Now as I gave the objection first in the Apostles words so I shall give you the answer to it in his words in that same Chap. Gal. 3. This great objection therefore the Apostle answers in the same way that our Saviour sometimes answered the cavilling Pharisees with a question all as hard or harder A You come saith the Apostle in a cavilling way against the Doctrine of Faith which we preach and tell me the law hath been a way and therefore is a way and the way of Justification and you tell me it was not onely a way to Adam in innocency but to all the people of God before that Jesus and we his Apostles preached up this way of believing And you go to prove this last thing that you say that it was the way to all the Saints of God till Christ's time which is the great thing that I deny by a meer cavil Forsooth else wherefore doth it serve Of what use else is it And I answer you with an harder question by far Wherefore then sereth the promise To what end serve the promises To what end serves the Gospel that was preached to Abraham Gal. 3.8 The Scriptute foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through Faith preached before the Gospel unto Abraham c. You ask To what end serveth the Law then And I ask To what end serveth the Gospel then that was preached to Abraham before the law was given Yea to what end serves the Covenant made of God in Christ to Aâ—braham and his Seed 430. years before ever the law was given by Moses ver 17. Shall I ever be induced to believe that when God had set up a way of Grace nay had established confirmed it in a Covenant not to Adam only who was a remote Father but to our Father Abraham and his Seed nay had confirmed it in Christ shall I think that the law coming by Moses 430 years after should disannul this Covenant and make the promise of none effect What did God repent of his being so gracious and set up a way that had no Grace and can have no Grace in it or was not the great God obliged to make good his Promise and Covenant Why if it be but a mans covenant yet after it is confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereto Now this was Gods Covenant and therefore saith the Apostle Gal. 3 15 16 17 18. that is This is the full scope and genius of his Discourse Finding thus a Covenant made and confirmed so long before I wil never believe it can never be that the law coming so long after should come in to put an end to it to make the way of Justification by Faith to cease What ever therefore the law came for this could never be the end of it And here the Apostle might have ended the enquiry having silenced the question by a greater For it is as certain
his face so that they could not look stedfastly to the end of his Dispensation The fault of the first Covenant There was some kind of fault as it were in the Law it self so the Apostle tells us Heb. 8.7 For if that first Covenant had been faultless there should no place have been sought for the second What this fault was is commonly known and discoursed and it was the obscurity of it the promises of it were not so plain therefore it is said Christ is the Mediator of a better Covenant establisht upon better promises ver 6. There was a Covenant of works inserted in their Dispensation Else how could the Apostle give you a description of the righteousness of it out of Moses Which he doth both in Rom. 10.5 and Gal. 3.12 And no caveat entred in the place where the Covenant of Works is delivered 'T is true the same Moses describeth the righteousness of Faith too but an inobservant Reader might chance to mistake the Covenant of Works for his way to Heaven as well as take the Covenant of Grace for his way and they might keep in that way all their lives if they were not strict observers of the effects of that way upon their Consciences which was to gall and sting them and weary them out of their very lives till they came to the way of Grace And thus we find the generality of the Jews did mistake and ruined themselves by it so that unless God had by a wonderful hand as he plucked Lot out of Sodom and perhaps by irresistable illuminations and attractions brought a remnant to himself all Israel had been burnt up by the Wrath of God they had been as Sodom and Gomorrah Rom. 9.29 to the end Rom. 10.1.2.3 I might well transcribe every word of these eight Verses Now this was the fault which God found with his first Covenant that though it were a Covenant of Grace yet he is so gracious that he thought it was not plain enough to save the generality of them they would be still mistaking and misconstruing his Covenant it would not make them holy enough nor save enough of them and therefore this Fault the Lord amends in the second â—ovenant in the New-Covenant Heb. 8 9 For finding fault he saith Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel not according to the Covenant that I made with their Fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the Land of Aegypt because here is the reason of the change because they continued not in my Covenant and I regarded them not It was a Covevenant which they brake with me and I brake with them upon there was a fault in that Covenant which seems to be this It had not Grace enough in it to hold them they continued not in it The fault is laid upon the Covenant not so much upon the parties covenanting though they were not free from blame God indeed was free he was ready to give his Grace and Spirit under the first Covenant but the Covenant was not a free channel for conveyance of this precious Water of Life for the Spirit runs freest in the clear promise therefore the Gospel which is full of rich and plain promises is called the ministration of the Spirit and called by the Name of Spirit whereas the Law of Moses was a dead meer out-side literal thing in comparison of it 2 Cor. 3.6 I say the fault was laid upon the covenant which yet was a covenant of Grace Now what other fault it could be then this that the Lord did not think it gracious enough I cannot imagine and I think that is the fault the Scripture pitcheth upon Now because Moses's Dispensation or the first covenant made with the Jews was thus faulty had a covenant of Works in 〈◊〉 and was mistaken by the Jews to be a covenant of Works it might well be called by the Apostle There was the same reason of the Gospel its being added to the Law that there was of the dispensation of Moses to be added to what they knew of God before a killing letter a ministration of death and condemnation and deserve to be abrogated and disannulled if the Lord will make a better clearer more gracious and saving and yet it can by no means be concluded hence that it was truly either in its own nature or in the intention of the Lord who gave it a covenant of Works nay the contrary hereunto is sufficiently evinced Ob. 4. But yet there is a very considerable Objection behind which is thus You have acknowledged that in Moses's Writings there is a covenant of Works described that St. Paul asserts now I will add saith the Objection that it is not onely there described but there commended to the children of Israel as a part at least if not the chiefest part of the Dispensation by Moses and it is given with as great Authority and hath as solemn a Sanction upon it as any part of the Law of Moses for in that place which the Apostle Paul quotes out of Moses viz. Lev. 18.5 for the description of a legal righteousness we have these words Ye shall therefore keep mp Seatutes and my Judgements which if a man do he shall live in them I am the Lord. So in the fore-going verses 1 2. And the Lord spake unto Moses saying Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them I am the Lord your God then follow the three verses wherein the covenant of Works is described ver 3. After the doings of the Land of Aegypt wherein ye dwelt shall ye not do and after the doings of the Land of Canaan whither I bring you shall ye not do neither shall ye walk in their Ordinancee Ver. 4. Ye shall do my Judgements and keep mine Ordinances to walk therein I am the Lord your God Ver 5. Ye shall therefore keep my Statutes and my Judgements which if a man do he shall live in them I am the Lord. Here I observe 1. The simplicity and plainness of the delivery of these commands which contain the covenant of Works they are delivered without any caveat or caution to the Reader lest he should mistake this for his covenant which he should be saved by 2. I observe the Authority and Majesty they are delivered with even with this addition three several times in the compass of four verses I am the Lord and I am the Lord your God This doth not look like an old antiquated covenant made with Adam about 2000. years before and of use to him but onely for the strst day of his creation I conclude therefore saith the objector That it is a valid covenant and delivered with intention that men should be justified by it And besides I add that which hath great strength in it That even Jesus Christ himself repeats this covenant of Works in Moses his own Words and directs a man to this
〈◊〉 bour behold ye fast for strife and debate and to smitâ— with the fist of wickedness They did something in oâ— after their Fasts which was contradictory to the nature and design of a Fast they did indeed observâ— the ontside of the duty as ver 5. tells us they dâ—â— afflict their soul they went with heads bowed down aâ— butrush and did spread saâ—kcloth and ashes under theâ— Here was all the outside of a Fast But what saitâ— the Lord wilt thou call this a Fast and an acceptaâ— day unto the Lord Ver. 6. Is not this the fast which I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye break every yoke Here is a fast indeed all others are but mock-fasts the outside and Formalities of a Fast which when over-much attended use to eat up the substance of a duty Here you see external conformities to the duties of the moral Law may fill men with a pride so far as to challenge divine acceptance making no question but they have well deserved the favour of Almighty God whilst in the mean time they are oppressors and exactors which argues that a legal way in the service of God is a fleshly and external way And besides I observe in this Scripture that we may as well let our Legality run out in Divine Services in duties of Worship as in second-Table-duties and indeed I think that is a worse kind of Legality for it is usually attended with more wickedness than when men take up with being just and true in their dealings with men Thus our rude people if they go to Morning and Evening prayer and join with the Church in the service bymaking their responds and observing the several gestures of sitting standing and kneeling they are ready to please themselves with an opinion that they are very well accepted of God though they are known wicked people I shall now apply the Character though I have done little else all this while but now I shall do it more professedly Wouldst thou know if thou bee'st under the predominancy of this dangerous evil of Legality Then try thy self by this Character The application or uâ—e of the Character How dost thou find thy self affected with any external priviledges Dost set thon but only a due value upon them For though we may not over-value them we must not slight them What conscience hast thou of places days meats Beware of having thy conscience ensnared by them for this wil presently betray thee into legality for first you come to have a conscience of these things and then you let the strength of your spirits and of your devotion run out into them and so they prove as a Wen unto all the true spiritual Worship of God If thou valuest these things beyond the true spiritual Worship of God thou art a Legallist of the worst sort for there are two kinds of Legal persons better then thy self who yet perish But to leave this I come to the external conformities unto the Moral Law the partial obedience to this and mans resting in it and here is the greatest danger of all First sort or Moral Legal 〈…〉 such as dependchiefly upon a partial Motality There are some men that are not far from the Kingdom of God as the expression is Mark 12.34 and think themselves in it and of it that yet are not Now these can be none other but such as have high conformities to the commands of the Moral Law for notwithstanding all the observation of Ceremonies whilst they were in force notwithstanding all the external priviledges that men might have yet without a great conformity to the Moral Law men might be at a vast distance from the Kingdom of God but to be near it not far from it supposes great strictness of life that none shall be able to say Black is that persons eye as the proverb is Now I say there may be many of these that yet are not justified and so have not put themselves upon the right way of Justification Now what can be their ruine Truly nothing but one of these two Either that they know some lust in themselves which they wil not part with or else that they have deluded themselves to think that they are holy enough and so holy as God is well pleased with them Now I am so charitable as to think that when men have come up so high as to be near the Kingdom of God they do not allow themselves in a gross known sin therefore their ruine must arise from hence that they think themselves holy enough and that they have merited the favour of God by being so much better than their neighbours as the Pharisees in the Parable did and this yet is Legality and that which is most properly so called Now though there are many that are near the Kingdom of God and yet perish by Legality A second sort of moral Legallists yet there is a greater number still that are not so high in their conformity to the Moral Law that yet perish by resting in their conformity to the Moral Law such as it is And of this sort I take to be very many of our ordinary people that perish God knows who they are I judge no man but many of our ordinary people that perish who are not high Devotionists nor in any excess superstitious yet use no great endeavours to get to Heaven are at no pains with their hearts to get in Grace to cast out lusts to get the knowledge of God and Christ find no difficulty in Religion understand it not at all to be a Warfare a wrestling with Principalities and Powers a race a great piece of Merchandise wherein we venture all for the Pearl and are often like Merchants in danger of losing all which things I suppose no true Christian can be utterly senseless of all they that they do is this they live a plain quiet life mind their business manage their trade do Justice between man and man which things are good and commendable in themselves and perhaps they may may have Prayers morning and evening in their Families yet such men though this be the whole of their lives wil expect to go to Heaven when they dye they 'l cry God mercy for their fins in a general way and with a Lord have mercy upon them they make no doubt to get to Heaven Now these must lay the stress of their hopes and expectations upon this That they wronged no man they have given every man his own and perhaps have had some duties morning and evening in their Families and therefore that he that made them may well afford to save them Here these men trust upon a conformity to some second table duties and a slighty performance of some duties of the first Table By what I have said I suppose men may examine themselves whether they are guilty of predominant Legality by resting upon an
the holy Spirit is ready to fill ouâ— hearts with laughter and our tongue with singing in Col. 3.16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. in Eph. 5.18 19. Be ye filled with the Spirit speaking 〈◊〉 your selves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. So we see 't is the great duty of the Gospel for Saints to rejoice in the thoughts of God But there are several ways by which the Saints may and many do deprive themselves of comfort by falling into sins which to be sure will break their peace or else by admitting Satans subtilties against their peace hearkening to all the whispers of the Serpent against themselves who sometimes tells them they are not elected at other times that they have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost another time that they have out-stood the day of grace or that the spirit of God is departed from them and these things I believe many that have the Spirit of God dwelling in them have not out-stood their day of grace much less committed the sin against the holy Ghost may yet call into question and hear Satans suggestions about them so long till they be brought into a perfect maze and labyrinth of thoughts doubts and fears so that except the Lord should bring them our by a Miracle almost I cannot imagine how they should get out This fear and terror therefore was from their own faust at first though now they cannot help themselves 4thly Yet still I think it may be asserted that even for these very persons concerning whom the objection is made and which are mentioned in the last particular that even these when they are themselves and have the right use of their understandings for I reckon that such sad souls pass through many deliriums and irrational imaginations have all of them more kindly strains of ingenuity to God and of filial boldness than any Legallist in the world ever hath they have their lucida intervalla the smiles of God sometimes and feel the supports of the everlasting Arms or if they have not that which you may call comfort yet at least they are enabled to act towards God with a better spirit then that of a slave 5. But for others that are not thus and I hope I may say the greater part of true Saints they have a comfort and joy in the service of God and their hearts are mightily lightened and quickned by it Thy word saith David is sweeter to me then the hâ—ney or the honey-comb Psal 19.10 thy word hath quickned me Psal 119.50 I rejoiced in thy word as one that sindeth great spoil Psal 119.162 their joy bore the Apostles up above all their sufferings 2 Cor. 15. for as the sufferings of Christ abound in us siour consolation also aboundeth by Christ accordingly we are advised by our Saviour that when we suffer for righteousness sake we should rejoice and be exceeding glad or leap for joy as the word signifies Mâ— 5.12 And certainly if the joy of the Gospel be such as will carry us thorough the greatest sufferings it may well carry us thorough all the ordinary affairs and occasions of this life Yet for this see one place in the Book of Ecclesiastes ch 9.7 8. Go thy way eat thy Bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart why so it follows for now God accepteth thy works When a man's ways please the Lord and he hath a sense of it which none but a Gospel-Saint ever hath it will make him go chearfully through all the actions and occasions of his life Now if there be such a general joy upon the true Saints of God arising from their Gospel-way of serving God as will carry them through sufferings and through all the actions of their lives and by consequence into the presence of God with a chearfulness and holy boldness is it not most injurious that the troubles and sadness of a few Saints brought upon themselves against the design of the Gospel through the subtilties of Satan and the Saints own default should be thought able to make this assertion too light viz. that a Gospel-spirit hath an holy boldness and a chearfulness in it and is freed from the Spirit of bondage which accompanies a Legal Spirit into the glorious liberty of son-ship and adoption I shall onely make one observation more before I pass off from the explication and proof of this Character which I think will add some light unto it and it will be of a very contrary nature from the observation which the objection fastens upon and it is this It hath been laid to the charge of the Puritans that they are too familiar with God in their Prayers Now truly I will not undertake to defend those good men that have been honoured with that Name in every thing but I think in this particular as in many other things they have a great excellency in that they know better than their adversaries how to use an holy boldness at the throne of grace And yet to shew that I am not altogether sensless of the danger that there is of erring this way I do here acquaint my Reader that I verily believe that many have grosly erred herein I have heard of one very famous once in London a Tradesman that being gotten in a Pulpit made thus bold with the great God in prayer Thou hast said O Lord that concerning thy sons and concerning thy daughters we should command thee we command thee therefore c I need not go to aggravate this boldness I have heard others my self unreasonably as I thought bold in their expressions in prayer but I dare not charge this upon those good people in the general which have been called Puritans But I am sure however it is with them in one extream it is as bad and worse with the Papists and those that are superstitiously addicted in the other that they dare not use that holy boldness which is allowed them nay which is necessary to be used They think it too great a boldness to go to God in prayer without the mediation and intercession of some Saint or Angel or if they go to the right Mediator they dare not go to him but by the intercession of the Virgin Mary all which are but over-servile fears and denials to themselves of that true liberty and boldness which the Lord admits us unto If they go to celebrate the Eucharist the Supper or Feast of Christ's body blood which we are to eat and to drink at the Lords Table for our souls health first the people must not have the Wine then the Bread must be carryed about and worshipped like a god the Table upon which it is consecrated must be an Altar it must not be received but upon your knees nor taken as the command is Take eat but received from the Priests hand into your mouths which are all
2,4 was much like that of the Hebrews and therefore there is more of that place quoted in the Hobrews than in the Romans or Galatians Therefore if the Apostle would prove Justification by Faith out of this Scripture he must at least allow it as justifying in that case in which it is particularly used in the original place which was resting upon the providence of God in a time of danger therefore resting upon the providence of God in a time of danger is an act of Faith as justifying even in the dayes of the Gospel therefore there are other acts of Justifying-Faith even in the days of the Gospel besides that of resting upon the blood of Christ 2dly Therefore my great Assertion is That all acts of true Faith justifie though there is I believe some special excellency in that act which respects the blood of Christ but if our Faith be but a right New-Testament-Faith every act of it justifies As under the Old-Testament they that had all things that were essential to an Old-Testament Faith were justified over and over by every renewed act of Faith whether in one kind or another in one case or another One man's Faith shews it self in a time of Famine as Habbakkuk's another in imprisonment as Jonah's and Jeremy's a third in leaving his Countrey when God calls him out as Abraham's or in believing he should have a son born when it was very unlikely in believing he should have him again from the dead after he had killed him with his own hand which was more improbable another's Faith in building an Ark as Noah's another in hiding of Spyes c. So now I say as it was then in the acts of an Old Testament-Faith it is in an answerableness in the days of the New-Testament he whosoever hath all the essentials of a New-Testament-Faith is justified over and over a thousand times according to the renewed acts of Faith if he believe as the Centurion did for his servant or as the woman of Canaan did for her daughter Matth. 16.28 or as the blind men did for themselves as the Hebrews were to do in the power and goodness of God for their deliverance or as the Galatians should have done more in the death and blood of Christ for they did evacuate the death of Christ in the way that they went Gal 2.21 I say they that exercise faith in any of these acts their faith is justifying in every of these acts onely provided that the Faith be a true New-Testament-Faith though I may affirm once for all That there is no true faith in God but in the dayes of the New-Testament after sufficient information will prove a Faith in Christ and of a right New-Covenant strain We see this proved by the event in the Apostles days Acts 13.48 And when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed That is saith Dr. Hammond in his Paraphrase all they of the Gentiles that had any care or pursuit of the life to come the Gentile-Proselytes or that were fitly disposed and qualified for the Gospel to take root in received the Doctrine of Christ thus preached to them In his Annotations upon this verse he tells us That this was Mr. Mede's conjecture and that they were already believers So that their conversion was onely this That their Faith which before was a Faith in God now through that disposition and readiness that it had in it to embrace all further discoveries of the Grace of God turned into a Faith in Christ Therefore I may say where-ever there is any act of Faith in God that act is justifying and the reason now why every act of Faith exercised upon one occasion or another doth justifie is this for that it is faith in us that is our Gospel-Righteousness therefore whenever there is an act of this righteousness exerted there must eccho an act of Justification from heaven according to the Law of the New-Covenant which is sealed with the blood of Christ that whosoever believeth on God that justifieth the ungodly or on Christ his Son his Faith is counted to him for righteousness Rom. 4.5 or he shall not be ashamed Rom 10.11 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life John 3.36 As often therefore as thou dost any action that doth demonstrate this Faith in God or Faith in Christ so often are all thy fins pardoned so often art thou highly approved of God for there are these two things in justification We see Abraham was justified twice according to the express words of Scripture and there is a third act of his Faith recorded his going out of his own Countrey to which I doubt not might be accommodated that Scripture which St. James onely accommodates unto a latter act of Faith though it was in the original place spoken upon occasion of a former that then that Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness And as Abraham was justified twice yea thrice and that for several sorts of acts of faith and the other instances given both out of the Old and New-Testaments for their various acts of Faith upon very different occasions yet all because they agreed in the general nature of faith so thou Saint whosoever thou art do but live in the actings of faith and thou art an haypy pardoned approved and juscified person All our life therefore should be a life of faith St. Paul lived no other life The life saith he which I now live in the flesh I live by the saith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 That distinguishing character one or more saith Mr. John Goodwin in his Banner of Justification displayed p. 37. of justifying-saith which we are at present inquiring after respecteth not the object but the intrinsick nature or complexion of it for at to the object it is variously exprest in the Scripture sometimes it is called a believing God Rom. 43. sometimes a believing on God Joh. 12.44 sometimes a believing on Christ or on the Son of God or on the Lord Act. 11.17 Ioh 3.18 1 Ioh. 5.10 So the object is various onely it must be for the intrinsick nature of it a believing in the heart Rom. 10.9 a believing with the heart ver 10. a believing with all the heart Act. 8.37 a faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1 5â— a faith working by love and such a faith justifieth in all the acts of it though exercised upon disferent yet proper objects Now I find one Caution necessary to be given upon what I have delivered which is this That what I have said of faith that it justifies in every act of it to the procuring pardon of sins and Divine Approbation doth not at all confound the acts of Faith as if there were not a distinctness to be kept and observed in the actings of Faith as some may have such a