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A67397
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The life of faith in two sermons to the university of Oxford, at St. Mary's Church there, on the 6th of January 1683/4 and June the 29th following / by John Wallis ...
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Wallis, John, 1616-1703.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing W592; ESTC R18108
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31,157
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46
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THE Life of Faith IN TWO SERMONS TO THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD At S t. Mary's Church there On the 6 th of January 1683 4. and June the 29 th following By John Wallis D. D. One of His Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary and Professor of Geometry in the University of Oxford LONDON Printed by James Rawlins for Thomas Parkhurst And are to be sold by Amos Curteine Bookseller in Oxford 1684. THE Life of Faith Hebr. 10.38 But the Just shall Live by Faith LIfe is that of which we are all Fond. And on the contrary Death is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which of all we most dread Skin for Skin and all that a man hath will he give for his Life Insomuch that Life is commonly put for Happiness and Death for Misery Behold I have set before you saith Moses Life and Good Death and Evil And again I have set before you Life and Death Blessing and Cursing Therefore choose Life that thou and thy seed may live That is That you may be blessed And Jeremy much to the same purpose but more literally Behold I set before you the way of Life and the way of Death And when God at first threatened In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dy the Death That which we commonly call Death though it were a part was but a small part of that threatening The whole of it was That he should be miserable And though he did not Dy the same day as to what we commonly call Death yet he did that day become miserable And so had He and all His continued to be if God had not found out a way to restore us from that Death to a Life of Happiness And what that is the Text tells us The Just shall live by Faith True it is that Death in the proper sense is a great Evil and it was so intended by God when he did at first threaten it as a part of that misery which was to follow upon Sin And even the Death of a Friend as well as our Own may justly be looked upon as a great Affliction But thus to Dy is a much less Evil than as the Apostle speaks to be Dead while we Live And it is an Allay to our Sorrow as well in reference to our own Death as to that of those we Love That he who Believeth in the Lord though he be Dead yet shall he Live And who soever liveth and believeth in him shall never Dy. You easily apprehend that when Christ saith He shall never Dy he did not mean it of a natural Death For thus It is appointed to all men once to Dy But thus rather He that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second Death hath no power Or if that expression may seem to be of a doubtfull sense as being involved in the obscure phrase of a mystical Prophesy yet that at least is plain That If we live after the Flesh we shall Dy but if through the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the Body we shall Live For to be Carnally minded is Death but to be Spiritually minded is Life and Peace And this is the Life which the Text speaks of Which is Begun is Grace and Perfected in Glory And such a Life is that which the Just shall Live by Faith God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that who so ever Believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life That is That he should be eternally Happy He that Believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life and he that Believeth not the Son hath not Life but the Wrath of God abideth on him For the Just shall Live by Faith But if any man draw-back my Soul saith God shall have no pleasure in him The first place where we meet with this The Just shall Live by Faith is in Habak 2.4 And we have it cited as a saying very considerable three times in the New Testament Rom. 1.17 Gal. 3.11 and here Hebr. 10.38 And in all the Four places we have the words just in the same order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justus ex Fide vivet that of Faith standing in the middle of the other two words and capable of being referred to either The Just by Faith shall Live And may therefore be indifferently read The Just by Faith or By Faith shall live Justus ex Fide or ex Fide vivet Nor need we be much solicitous whether of the ways we read it For it may well enough have an aspect both ways But though in all these places the words ly in the same Order yet with a different Emphasis according as the Context and the Scope of the place direct In the first place the Emphasis seems to ly upon the word Just or Righteous as contradistinguished from those who are otherwise His Soul that is lifted up is not upright in him and consequently not pleasing to God But the Just shall live by Faith Where he shews the advantage that the Just or Righteous have as to the case there spoken of before those who are not so those who 's heart is lifted up or standeth out and refuseth to submit it self to God and Trust in him And to the same purpose in the place before us where we have a like opposition or contradistinction between the Just or Faithful and those who are not so The Just shall live by Faith But if any man draw-back saith God my Soul shall have no pleasure in him Where we have as in the other place a Promise to the Just and Faithful but with a direct exclusion of those who are otherwise who draw-back or Revolt from him or stand-out against him or believe not in him Which come much to the same pass And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a like sense in divers places of the New Testament is by Interpreters indifferently expressed by Disobedience or Vnbelief And this place in the Epistle to the Hebrews though it may in some words seem to differ from that in Habakkuk yet is by Expositors generally supposed to have a particular respect thereunto Nor need we as some would perswade us to change the reading of the Hebrew Text to make it agree with the Greek but it might well enough be so rendered as the Greek hath it though the Hebrew were then so read as now it is As is well shewed by a learned Writer of our own in his Notes upon Maimonides's Porta Mosis So that how comfortable so ever the Text may be or the Promise therein made to those that are truly Righteous and Believe in Christ It affords small comfort to those that are Wicked and Unbelievers who while they so continue are quite debarred from it Much like to the Pillar of the Cloud which was between the Israelites and Egyptians It gave light to the one but to the other was a Cloud and Darkness Or without such
metaphor or mystical expression as we are plainly told Isai. 3. Say ye to the Righteous It shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings But Wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him In the other two places Rom. 1.17 and Gal. 3.11 the Emphasis seems to ly on the word Faith The just shall live by Faith or The just by Faith shall live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For here the main point in Question was in both Epistles concerning Justification to Life Whether by Works or by Faith And the Conclusion was That by the Deeds of the Law shall no flesh be Justified in the sight of God for by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin But being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In confirmation of which truth the Apostle cites this testimony out of Habakkuk For it is written saith he The Just shall live by Faith And proves it further from the examples of Abraham and David Who were Justified he tells us not by Works but by Faith To whom God imputed Righteousness with works Thus in the Epistle to the Romans And in like manner in that to the Galatians He argues That Abraham's Believing was accounted to him for Righteousness And That in him the Gentiles also are Justified by Faith And do thereby become the Children of faithful Abraham And this he there also confirms by the same testimony That no man is Justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident he tells us For the Just shall live by Faith or The Just by Faith shall live That is Being justified by Faith we shall obtain Life or become Happy Being Justified by Faith we have Peace with God So that the stress of the Proof from this Testimony is laid upon those words By Faith Not of Works but by Faith We have now therefore dispatched these two things from these Words First That this Happiness whatever it be belongs only to the Just the Righteous the Godly Person and to no other That is to those whom God in favour shall repute so And therefore it concerns Us if we would partake of this Happiness to make sure to be of this number That we be such as whom God will account Righteous Otherwise how ever we may flatter our selves or what ever opinion others may conceive of us God tells us His Soul shall have no pleasure in us Secondly That it is by true Faith in Jesus Christ and no other way that we can be reputed Just or Righteous in Gods sight Not for any Righteousness of our own not by works of Righteousness which we have done Our Works perhaps may look glorious in the sight of Men but not in the eyes of God that we should in His sight be justified by Them Our Works may serve to justifie our Faith We may shew our Faith by our Works and By Works is Faith made Perfect But it is our Faith must justifie us Abraham believed God as there is follows and it was imputed to him for Righteousness If Abraham were Justified by Works saith S. Paul he had whereof to Glory but not before God But Abraham's Believing God for so it follows was accounted to him for Righteousness And this God would have so to be That Himself might have all the Glory of his Grace And That Man may have nothing to Glory in nothing to boast of Now to him that worketh as there it follows the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt But to him that worketh not but Believeth on him that justifieth the Vngodly his Faith is counted to him for Righteousness And David allso as he further argues describeth the Blessedness of that Man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works that is not upon the account of Works saying Blessed are they who 's Iniquities are forgiven and who 's sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not Impute sin Not He that hath no sin for then no man would be blessed but to whom it is not Imputed Who ever therefore would be thus accounted Righteous in Gods sight must be contented to Disclaim his Own Righteousness as to any thing of Merit therein and accept of this Imputed Righteousness on the account onely of Christs Righteousness and Merits to the benefit of which we are intituled by Faith in him So far is the Doctrine of S. Paul from the Popish Doctrine of Merits and Supererogation as if we were able to do no onely as much as is sufficient but more than is necessary to make us Just on the account of Works But when we thus exclude the Merits of good Works as to our Justification We do not deny the Necessity of them as to our Practice For it is not every Faith or every thing which a presumptuous wicked person shall call Faith that will Justifie us in the sight of God But such a Faith as works by Love and By Works is Faith made perfect Not an Idle Lazy Faith But an Operative a Working Faith a Faith that purifieth the Heart A Living a Lively Faith But Faith without Works is Dead and can in no other sense be called Faith than as a Dead man or the Picture of a man may be called a man A Faith in the Heart which doth produce Holyness in the Life For without Holyness no man shall see God For it was never the design of S. Paul nor of our Church neither when shee saith Wee are Justified by Faith onely to derogate from the Necessity of Good Works But he doth directly Assert it And he doth not without some Indignation Disclaim that consequence that some would slanderously fasten upon his Doctrine of Free Grace and Justification by Faith onely What shall we say then Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid And as to those for some such there were who as a consequence of his Doctrine did affirm that he said Let us do evil that good may come thereof He says They do slanderously report it and That their condemnation is just But you will say If we be Justified as our Church tells us by Faith onely what need is there of Holyness or a Godly Life I say Much every way For we must be Sanctified as well as Justified if ever we be saved And though Justification and Sanctification go allways together For God Justifies none whom he doth not also Sanctify yet the Notions of the one and the other are very different And whatever some would slanderously insinuate of those who exclude Good Works from Justification as if they were Enemies to Good Works and held That by Faith a man may be saved let his Life be never so Wicked It will be found in experience That they are not less zealous of good Works who think