thus opposed to works and thus available to Justification consisteth in a new frame of Spirit and the vital operations thereof and which we can have no right notion of without Evangelical Obedience in will and resolution at least which are really inward acts of that obedience and are a conformity of the renewed will to the Divine Law 4. Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith and together with Faith is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification and Salvation Gal. 5. 6. For in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by love Here again Circumcision by the same Figure and for the same reason as before is put for the Works of Moses Law And as these are denyed to avail any Man to Justification and Salvation so on the other hand it is affirmed that that Faith which worketh by love doth avail to these great ends For to say that Faith which worketh by love doth so is the same in sense as to say that Faith which worketh by fulfilling the Law and by keeping the Commandments doth so avail For so love is said to be Rom. 13. 10. 1 Ioh. 5. 3. The Assemblies Annotations upon the place give notice that the word here translated worketh Faith which worketh by love being in the mean or middle voice may be taken either Actively or Passively And several other Learned men among whom Dr. Hammond is one do render and understand it passively as if the Apostle should have said Faith which is wrought or perfected or consummate by love and so make it directly parallel with that in St. Iames Chap. 2. 22. by Works was Faith made perfect So far is the Scripture we see from opposing acts of Evangelical Obedience to Faith in the Work of Justification as that it conjoyns them with Faith in the title to it and in opposition to false pretentions to it 5. Evangelical Obedience alone is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification so far is it from being true that where the Works of the Law are excluded there Evangelical Obedience is excluded from having any share in the Work of Justification 1 Cor. 7. 19. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the keeping of the Commandments of God Circumcision is here again as before put for the whole Law And indeed he that was circumcised was bound to keep the whole Law as this Apostle noteth in Gal. 5. 3. And when he saith Circumcision is nothing he means here doubtless as in those other places already opened that it avails nothing to any Mans acceptation with God or to his Justification and Salvation as the Iudaizers of those times thought it did But then the keeping of the Commandments of God will avail to these ends For that I conceive was intended and ought to be understood by the opposition that is made between Circumcision and keeping the Commandments 6. Faith it self is an act of Evangelical Obedience this as wel as love is an act of Conformity to our Lord's Commands and therefore a Man cannot be justified by Faith but in being so he must be justified by Evangelical Obedience 1 Iohn 3. 23. This is his Commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Iesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment This by our Saviour is called a work Joh. 6. 29. This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent And there is so much of the Nature of Evangelical Obedience in Faith it self as that to believe and to obey are promiscuously put one for another and so is unbelief and disobedience Accordingly you have in many places the one reading in the Text and the other in the Margin as Acts 5. 36. Rom. 11. 30 31. Ephes. 5. 6. Heb. 4. 11. 11. 31. And belief and disobedience are in Scripture opposed to each other as direct contraries Rom. 10. 16. 1 Pet. 2. 7. 2 Thes. 2. 12. So that since Faith is an act of Evangelical Obedience it follows that to say the Works of Evangelical Obedience do justifie does no more derogate from the Grace of God or the freeness of his Grace in justifying than to say Faith justifies First Because other acts of Evangelical Obedience are the effects of God's Grace and produced by it as well as Faith It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. And secondly Because it is meerly of the Law of Grace that Faith and other Acts of Evangelical Obedience are made the Condition of the Promise of Salvation Ephes. 2. 8. By grace are ye Saved through Faith in Christ Iesus and that not of your selves it is the gift of God As Men do not believe or obey of themselves without supernatural assistance so neither is it of themselves that they are justified or saved upon their believing but both the one and the other is the gift of God It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy It is by virtue of God's new Covenant that a Promise of pardon is made to Repentance or to Faith for the primary Law the Law of Nature promised no such thing upon Repentance And it is by virtue of the same Law of Grace that a Promise of Justification and reward is made to sincere Obedience in other Acts of Obedience as well as those of Faith and Repentance That which hath made many afraid of interessing Evangelical Obedience with Faith in justifying men hath been an Opinion that so to do would derogate from God's Grace attribute too much to Man But you see there is no ground for such an Opinion It 's true indeed the proper merit of Works and God's Grace are inconsistent And therefore are opposed to each other in Scripture But Evangelical Obedience and Grace are no more opposite or inconsistent than Cause and Effect or than Causes principal and subordinatâ— And as it doth not follow that because we are justified freely by God's Grace that therefore we are not justified by Faith So neither doth it follow that because we are justified by Faith that therefore we are not justified by sincere obedience For these and the Blood of Christ do all concur in producing many of the same effects though not in the same respect 7. By Evangelical Obedience Christians come to have a right to Salvation Revel 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have a right to the Tree of Life and may enter in through the gates into the City This is left on Record as a special Memorandum for Christians in closing up the Canon of the New Testament and therefore is to be taken special notice of This right to the Tree of Life and of entring into this blessed City upon keeping the Commandments is from a new Covenant or Law Act or Grant from God For otherwise Man that had transgressed
judge reverently and charitably of the Antients that used the word Merit of good Works because they meant but a moral aptitude for the promised Reward according to the Law of Grace through Christ. 16. They confess the thing thus described themselves however they like not the name of Merit lest it should countenance proud and carnal conceits 17. They judge no Man to be Heretical for the bare use of that word who agreeth with them in the sense 18. In this sense they agree that our Gospel-obedience is such a necessary aptitude to our Glorification as that glory though a free gift is yet truly a Reward of this Obedience 19. And they agree that our final Justification by sentence at the day of Judgment doth pass upon the same Causes Reasons and Conditions as our Glorification doth 20. They all agree that all faithful Ministers must bend the labour of their Ministry in publick and private for promoting of Holiness and good Works and that they must diifference by discipline between the obedient and the disobedient And O! that the Papists would as zealously promote Holiness and good Works in the World as the true serious Protestants do whom they factiously and peevishly accuse as enemies to them and that the Opinion Disputing and name of good Works did not cheat many wicked persons into self-flattery and perdition while they are void of that which they dispute for Then would not the Mahometans and Heathens be deterred from Christianity by the wickedness of these nominal Christians that are near them Nor would the serious practice of that Christianity which themselves in general profess be hated scorned and persecuted by so many both Protestants and Papists nor would so many contend that they are of the true Religion while they are really of no Religion at all any further than the Hypocrites Picture and Carkass may be called Religion Were Men but resolved to be serious Learners serious Lovers and serious Practisers according to their knowledge and did not live like mockers of God and such as look towards the life to come in jest or unbelief God would vouchsafe them better acquaintance with the true Religion than most Men have Having prefaced this much for the rest I refer thee to the perusal of this Treatise which will give thee much light into the nature of the Gospel and especially help thee to the right understanding of the meaning of the Apostle Paul in all his Epistles about the Law the Gospel and the Justification of a sinner O pray and labour for A CONFIRMED PRACTICAL FAITH as daily doth Your fellow Disciple Ri. Baxter Iune 4th 1672. The chief Heads of Discourse 1. THe nature of the Promise to Abraham 2. Why the Law was added to the Promise 3. How those under the Law were saved 4. The nature of the Legal Covenant 5. The mistakes of Iews about the Law and Promise and how St. Paul counter-argues those mistakes 6. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Iustification by Faith and not by Works was then mistaken by some 7. That the Doctrine of St. Paul and of St. James about Faith and Works do not differ 8. With an APPENDIX touching the difference and the reason of the difference between saving and ineffectual Faith A DISCOURSE Of the Nature Ends and Difference OF THE TWO COVENANTS THe mistake of the unbelieving Iews about the true import of Gods Promise to Abraham and of the Law of Moses was a principal cause of their rejecting Christ and his Gospel and their own salvation thereby To rectifie which mistake the Apostle St. Paul used various reasonings according to the various Errors contained in it In which reasonings of his there being some things hard to be understood there were others again which probably mistaking the Apostles reasonings against the Jew-Jewish Notion of Justification by Works ran into a contrary extream thinking they might be saved by Faith without Works as on the contrary the incredulous Iews thought they might be saved by Works without Faith And if many in our dayes had not run into somewhat alike extream through a misunderstanding also of the Apostles writings labour and pains would not have been so necessary as now they are to rectify their mistake and to prevent it in others To the end therefore that the plain Truth may the better appear touching Gods promise to Abraham touching the Law of Moses and the Apostles arguings about these I shall very briefly endeavour these seven things 1. To open the Nature and Design of Gods promise to Abraham And to shew 2. For what ends the Law was added to the promise 3. By what Faith and Practice the Iews under the Law were saved 4. That the Law contained a Covenant different from that with Abraham 5. The grand mistakes of the unbelieving Jews and St. Paul's counter arguings touching both the Law and the Promise 6. The mistake of some pretended Christians in the Apostles days touching the Doctrine of Iustification by Faith without Works 7. That the Doctrine of St. Paul and St James about Faith and Works in reference to Iustification do not differ I shall begin with the first of these CHAP. I. The Nature and Design of Gods Promise to Abraham I Shall endeavour to open the Nature and Design of Gods Promise to Abraham Which Promise is also called the Covenant Act. 3. 25. Gal. 3. 17. In doing of which these eight things will come under consideration 1. What the nature of this Promise is in general 2. What the design of it is 3. What are the special benefits promised 4. What the extent of it is 5. The security given by God for the performance of it 6. That this Promise was conditional 7. What the condition of it was 8. What we are to understand by Gods accounting Abrahams Faith to him for Righteousness Sect. 1. Of the nature of it in general This Promise I take to be of the same nature with that which in the Gospel is called the New Covenant It 's true indeed they greatly differ in the Administration the one being but general implicite and obscure and the other more particular express and perspicuous But though in this they differ yet in their general nature they agree in one and are the same For 1. This Covenant as delivered to Abraham was confirmed in Christ as well as the Gospel afterwards Gal. 3. 17. and that 's a Character of the New Covenant Mat. 26. 28. 2. The Gospel is said to have been preached to Abraham in the Promise that was made him Gal. 3. 8. 3. He was justified by Faith which he could not have been but by vertue of a New Covenant And it was by Faith in the Promise made to him by God by which he was justified Which two things supposed it necessarily follows that that Promise was of the nature of the New Covenant 4. St. Paul argues against the erroneous Iews in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians the necessity of Evangelical Faith unto justification
now under the Gospel from Abraham's being justified by Faith and from God's setting him forth for a pattern and example to all after-ages of his justifying both Iews and Gentiles upon the condition of believing The strengh of which arguing seems to depend upon this supposition That the Promise by the belief of which Abraham was then justified and the Promise in the Gospel by the belief of which men are now justified do both agree and are one in the general nature of them And upon these grounds and under this notion of the Promise to Abraham I intend to discourse of it But when I consider for what reason he that is least in the Kingdom of God is said to be greater than Iohn the Baptist though not Abraham himself nor any of the Prophets were greater than he and when I consider likewise how ignorant the Apostles were for a time touching the necessity of the Death and Resurrection of Christ notwithstanding the many plainer Revelations thereof in the Prophets than we find Abraham had I cannot I confess think that Abraham had or could have a distinct notion of all that was contained and implyed in the Promise as now it is opened and unfolded in the Writings of the New Testament it does appear was wrapt up in it And therefore though I think I may well found a Discourse of the New Covenant upon the Promise made to Abraham as it is now explained in the New Testament yet I would not be understood to suppose Abrahams apprehension or Faith to have then been commensurate to the Promise as it is so explained Supposing then the Promise to Abraham to be the New Covenant it self in a more imperfect Edition of it than afterward came forth I shall now a little further consider what it was and what the New Covenant is ever hath been in the general nature of it since it first commenced And it is a new Law or Covenant made by way of remedy against the rigour and extremity of the Law of Nature under which Man was created For the Law of Nature the Law of Gods Creation as well as his instituted Law in Paradise being violated and impossible to be kept inviolable by Man in his lapsed state by reason of his moral impotency and the pravity of his Nature derived from Adam he must inevitably have sunk and perished under the condemnation of it unless there had been a new Law instituted to supercede the procedure of this Law against him in its natural and proper course If Salvation had been attainable by Man in his lapsed state without this remedying Law of Grace there would have been no need of a New Covenant If there had been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law Gal. 3. 21. But there was no such Law given besides this new Law Nor could the Original Law be repealed for the relief of faln Man it being founded in the Nature of God and the nature of Man as he was created after Gods own Image and is no more changeable than the Nature of good and evil are changable And therefore as I said there was a necessity that Man must have perished under the condemnation of the Law of his Creation as the lapsed Angels did under theirs unless a Law of Indemnity had been Enacted But God whose tender mercies are over all his works to the end so great and considerable a part of his Creation as Man is might not be wholly lost and undone to all eternity out of his infinite compassion mercy and love did constitute a new Law or Covenant for mans relief which well may be called the Covenant of Grace against the rigour and extremity of the first Law Which new Law was in some degree though but obscurely made known to Man not long after Adams fall or else there would have been no ground for that Faith which we are assured was in Abel Enoch c. Heb. 11. But it was doubtless somewhat more fully declared to Abraham than to any before and at last compleatly established and published by Jesus Christ the Mediatour of it who was given for a Covenant to the people And this new Law in the last edition of it under the Gospel is variously denominated being called the Promise the New Covenant the Law of Faith the Law of Liberty the Gospel the Grace of God or the Word of his Grace And so we come Sect. 2. To consider what the design of God was in this New Covenant or Promise unto Abraham Next to his own glory it was to recover the Humane Nature from its degenerate state to a state of holiness to that likeness to God in which Man was at the first made and therein and thereby to a state of happiness both which were lost by the fall Holiness love and goodness as they were once the glory and happiness of Man before he lost them so are still perfective of his nature And therefore it is impossible in the nature of the thing to recover Man to happiness without recovering his nature to a conformity to God in these or for Man to be perfectly happy whose nature is not perfected in them Sin is the disease and sickness of the Soul and it 's as possible for a sick man to enjoy the pleasure of health as it is for the sinful and corrupt nature of man while such to enjoy the pleasure which the humane nature did naturally enjoy or was capable of enjoying in its innocency and purity But when the nature of Man is once recovered to perfection in knowledge holiness love and goodness it will then be matter of unspeakable delight to him to love God Angels and Men and to do the will of God in every thing It is so to the holy Angels And it was so to our blessed Saviour who counted it as his meat and drink to be doing the will of his heavenly Father And to what degree the nature of man is here in this world restored towards its proper perfection to the same degree it is matter of pleasure and delight to him to act holily and righteously and to be doing good It iâ— joy to the Iust to do judgment Prov. 21. 15. It is a pain to a man to act contrary to the bent and inclination of his nature by compulsion or fear And therefore unless the corrupt nature of Man were changed Heaven would not be Heaven to him in case he were there Those Divine and Heavenly exercises which are there the unspeakable delight of Saints and Angels would be his pain and torment as being contrary to his nature And the pleasures of that state as having not what will satisfie the unsatiable lusts of mans corrupt nature would not be such to him but add rather to his anguish For as it would be a torment to a Man to be in extremity of hunger and thirst and to be without Meat and Drink and all hopes of any to satisfie him So will
the Law for them becomes imputed to them in it self and not only as the procuring cause of their Justification upon the terms of the Gospel so that they are looked upon as having themselves perfectly kept the Law in him it hath doubtless infeebled their endeavours after an inherent Righteousness and proved a temptation to them to think that so long as they have such anothers inherent Righteousness essentially in it self imputed to them as Christs is they have no great need to find it in themselves considering also that if they had it they must rather loath themselves for it than take any comfort in it But let no man deceive you saith St. Iohn he that doth righteousness is righteous as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. I do acknowledge that many of them have been worthy men who yet have propagated these Opinions But that makes the Opinions never the better but have done more hurt in gaining thereby the more credit It is true also that those worthy Men have zealously pressed the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life which proved indeed an Antidote against the Poyson of the other Opinions so that they did not become mortal to many as otherwise they would have done And indeed they would have made mad work if they had not been yoked with wholesomer Doctrine as we see they did among Antinomians Ranters and other carnal Chistians that have followed the Docture of those Opinions but have been shy of letting the Doctrines of Mortification and strict living to have any power over them But then if the preaching of those sounder Doctrines of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life have done much good notwithstanding they have been clogged with Opinions of another tendency it is easie to imagine that they would have done much more good if they had not been checkt by those unsound Principles But I shall say no more of this though more might be said because I hope I may say that most of those who have formerly imbibed these Opinions are now come to deliver themselves with more caution than heretofore And so I shall procâ—â—d to the last thing I propounded to touch upon and that is to shew CHAP. VII That the Doctrine of St. Paul and of St. Iames about Faith and Works in reference to Iustification do not differ but are wholly one IT is true indeed though the Doctrine of St. PAVL and St. IAMES was in nothing opposite the one to the other yet the nature of the subject-matter of their Epistles did differ just as the Errors they engaged against did differ The Errors of the unbelieving Iews consisting much in denying Justification to be by Christ and Faith in him and in placing it in their own works of Circumcising Sacrificing and other Mosaical Observations And St. Paul designing in some of his Epistles to antidote the Christians against the infection of them and to establish them in the saving Doctrine of the Gospel was led of course to bend his discourse in great part against Justification by Works of the Law and on the contrary to assert it to be by Faith in Christ in his Death and in his Doctrine without those works Whereas St. Iames having to do in his Epistle with such as professed the Christian Faith and Justification by it but erring dangerously about the nature of Faith as justifying thinking that opinionative Faith would save them though destitute of a real change in the moral frame and constitution of their Souls and of a holy Life Hereupon it became in a manner as necessary for him to plead the Renovation of Man's Nature and Evangelical Obedience to be some way necessary unto Justification as it was for St. Paul to contend for Justification by Faith without the deeds of the Law And therefore though their Doctrines in this respect did in great part differ yet they did not differ as Truth differs from Error nor as opposites but only as one Truth differs from another For otherwise when St. Paul had to do with the like Erroneous and Scandalous Christians as those were which St. Iames expostulated the matter with When he had to do with such as had a form of godliness but denyed the power thereof he could and did decry a reprobate faith and plead the necessity of a Faith that is unfeighned and of a holy Life as well as St. Iames as appears in part by what was said in the former Chapter and will I doubt not be made sufficiently evident in this In order whereto I shall recommend to consideration these ten things 1. That Works of Evangelical Obedience are never in Scripture opposed to God's Grace 2. That St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works gives sufficient Caution not to be understood thereby to speak any thing against Evangelical Obedience in reference thereto 3. That Regeneration or the new Creature as including Evangelical Obedience is oposed to Works in the business of Man's Justification as well as Faith is and as well as the grace of God it self is 4. That Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith and together with Faith is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification 5. That Evangelical Obedience alone is opposed to the Works of the Law 6. Faith it self is an act of Evangelical Obedience 7. By Evangelical Obedience Christians come to have a right to Salvation 8. The Promise of benefit by the Blood of Christ is made to Evangelical Obedience 9. Repentance And 10. Forgiving Injuries are both acts of Evangelical Obedience without which a Man cannot be justifyed And if these things be made out they will I think amount to such a Demonstration as that we cannot well desire a clearer or fuller proof that St. Paul together with other the Apostles taught Justification by Evangelical Obedience as the effect of Faith as well as St. Iames. 1. The works of Evangelical Obedience as the effects of Faith and Regeneration by Faith are never in St. Paul's Epistles or any other the holy Scriptures opposed to God's Grace in referenee to Justification and Salvation Works and Grace indeed are opposed to each other But then by Works we are to understand either Works antecedent to Conversion or as they are denyed to merit at the hands of God or the Works of the Law of Moses as Erroneously contended for by the Iews Or the Works of the Law as Typical and as opposed to things Typified Or the Works of the Law as the Law is in its rigour opposed to the milder Oeconomy of the Gospel But the Works of Evangelical Obedience are never opposed to Grace no more than Faith it self is And there is no reason why they should because Evangelical Obedience is the effect of Divine Grace as well as Faith it self is and tends to the praise of it and is accepted and will be rewarded through Grace Contrary hereunto those words in Titus 3. 5. Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy
A DISCOURSE of the Nature Ends and Difference OF THE Two Covenants Evincing in special That FAITH as Justifying is not opposed to WORKS of Evangelical Obedience WITH An APPENDIX of the Nature and Difference of saving and ineffectual Faith and the reason of that difference To which is prefixed a PREFACE by Mr. Rich. Baxter 2 Pet. 1. 5. Add to your Faith Virtue Jam. 2. 22. And by Works was Faith made perfect LONDON Printed by I. Darby for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard 1673. TO THE READER Reader THeology is the Doctrine of the Kingdom of God A Kingdom is a State of Government Government is by Laws He therefore that will understand any thing in Divinity must understand the Laws of God And though there be many inferiour Particles distinguished from the weighty things of the Law which few do clearly understand yet is it necessary that we know in general what kind of Law it is that we are under and also that we know the most important parts If we understand not the Law of Tything Mint and Cummin we must not be ignorant of Iudgment Mercy and Faith Matth. 23. 23. They that tell us we are now under no Laws do tell us thereby that we are under no Goverment and consequently that God and out Redeemer Jesus Christ is not the Governour of Believers And he that knoweth that the Name GOD doth signifie the Divine Relation to Man as well as the Divine Nature will know that this is to deny a God and to deny Iesus Christ and rather to be called Atheism and Infidelity than Antinomianism Even they that had not the written Law of Moses had a Law of Nature partly written out upon their hearts And Christians have both the Law of Nature Extrinsick and the written Law of Christ and both acccording to the various measures of Grace written out upon their hearts that is received by knowledge Faith Love and readiness to obey But they that know that we are under a Law as those in Heaven even Angels are yet do not all well understand what Law it is and on what terms the World or the Church are governed and must be judged That the first Law of Natural Innocency as alone or as to the Promissory part or as to threatning without mercies or remedy is it that any part of the Earth is now governed by or under is an intolerable Errour God promiseth not sinners everlasting life on condition they be no sinners That Promise ceased by a Cessation of the Subjects capacity without any more ado or possibility of reviving it Nor doth God deal with any people according to the sole threatning of that Law without mercy dispensation or remedy The Law of Grace was as truly made with all men in Adam Gen. 3. 15. as the Law of Innocency was Though the Serpents Seed be mentioned in it that intimateth not that any were such as then in the Loins of lapsed Adam but as consequently they would become such by rejecting and abusing Grace and so contracting a further Malignity If Man as in Adam's loyns then was the Serpents Seed then all God's Elect should be such and so be bruised and not saved by Jesus Christ For all then were really alike in Adam And to say that God's meer Election and Reprobation without any real inherent difference existent or foreseen is the reason of denominating some the Seed of the Woman and some the Seed of the Serpent is an unproved fancy and irrational corrupting the Word of God All men therefore in lapsed Adam were at once under the guilt of Sin and also under a remedying Law of Grace so far as that it is enacted and offered to save those that receive it It saved not Adam himself meerly by the making of it till by Faith he had received it And no doubt but as the Covenant of Grace to us extendeth to the faithful and their Seed so did the Covenant of Grace to Adam for it was the same as was made to all the faithful before Christâ—s Incarnation The case of Infants being obscure clearer Truths are not to be reduced to it And whether Cain and Abel as they were both born in Original Sin so were both pardoned upon their Covenant-Dedication to God by their Parents and Cain after lost his Infant-state of Grace as Davenant Ward c. think Infant Grace may now be lost or whether Adam and Eve neglected that Dedication of Cain to God which was needful to his Sanctification or whether God past him by and denyed him Infant-Grace of his meer will I leave to Mens enquiry and various judgments The controversie concerneth Children now as well as then and the difficulties every way are not small But of these things I am past doubt 1. That Cain was not the Serpents Seed meerly for Original Sin and as born of Adam as Abel was also nor did God make him the Serpents Seed by Reprobation but that he made himself so by superadded Sin against the Redeemer and Law of Grace 2. That all Mankind are still under this Law of Grace further than they forfeit the benefits of it by sins against it 3. That most Writers if not most Christians do greatly darken the Sacred Doctrine by overlooking the Interest of Children in the actions of their meer Parents and think that they participate of no guilt and suffer for no Original Sin but Adams only and bring the Doctrine of Original Sin it self into doubt by laying all upon Covenant-Relation and denying or overlooking the Natural Proofs Doubtless through Scripture it is remarkable that God usually judgeth the posterity of new sinners to new punishments and promises and threatnings are made since the Covenant of Innocency ceased to the believers and unbelievers or wicked with their Seed For we may well say that the Seed of Cain Cham Nimrod Ishmael Esau Saul Ahab c. had more Original Sin than what they had from Adam And Matth. 23. 35. Expounds the matter It was not in vain that Ezra Daniel c. confessed their forefathers sin nor doth our Liturgie pray for the dead but the living when it saith Remember not Lord our offences nor the offences of our Forefathers neither take thou vengeance of our Sins The Author of this Treatise beginning at the Promise made to Abraham doth it to comport with the Apostle Paul who thought meet to call the Iews to no higher Observations than the Case in hand about the Non-obligation of Moses's Law to the Gentiles did require But this denyeth not but supposeth the same Law of Grace in the main to have been made to all men in Adam and Noah and to have been in force to all Mankind before it was renewed to Abraham saving that to him and his Seed there were many great priviledges added above the rest of Mankind upon his extraordinary obediential Faith Of how great importance it is to have a right understanding of the difference between the Law of
why God with-holds his special grace and many times withdraws common grace and assistance from men is because though they have understanding and considering faculties which they could if they would use and imploy about their being happy in another world as well as they do about their happiness in this yet they will not though they are frequently called upon and excited thereto Whereas those that take heed or consider what they hear and how they are concerned in it to them more shall be given God wil come into such with supernatural aid Mark 4. 24. And therefore God to put men upon a holy necessity of complying with his grace in acting diligently towards the working out their own salvation hath wisely made the obtaining of the great benefits of the Covenant remission of Sin and eteternal Life conditional so that men can have no farther assurance of pardon of sin and Salvation than they are sure they sincerely indeavoâ—r to perform the condition on their part upon which they are promised Wherefore we are greatly concerned to be awakened by such sayings as these Strive to enter in at the strait gate So run that ye may obtain Vse all diligence to make your calling and election sure Work out your salvation with fear and trembling Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it Sect. 7. I come now in the next place to shew What the condition of the Promise to Abraham was In short it was a practical Faith And under this Head I shall endeavour 1. To give some account of the nature of Abrahams Faith in general 2. To describe Faith And 3. To shew reason why Faith is made the condition of the Covenant 1. The condition of the Promise to Abraham was Faith and as I shall after shew a practical Faith For that was it upon which the great blessing of the Covenant Justification was conferred upon him with the consequent benefits In Gen. 15. 6. it is said of Abraham that he believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousness But St. Paul reciting this Scripture saith Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. If there be any difference between believing God and believing in God it seems to be this To believe God is to believe him upon his Word to believe all that to be true which he saith when he hath once spoken it But to believe in God is first to believe him to be such an one of such a Nature as neither will nor can at any time speak any thing but what is true It is to believe him to be a God that cannot lye For all true Faith as Abraham's was is founded in the Nature of God Abraham did primarily believe in God and consequently believed his sayings of what nature soever they were And secondly to believe in God is to believe that he can and will perform whatever he promised how unlikely soever the thing in its own nature otherwise be And this was the nature of Abrahams Faith as appears by St. Pauls Comment upon it Rom. 4. 20 21. He staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform He gave to God the glory of his Nature and Being of his truth and faithfulness in his Promises and of his power and ability to perform what he had promised notwithstanding its utmost improbability in nature And therefore or for this reason his Faith was imputed to him for righteousness as we are told in ver 22. of Rom. 4. And so it should seem it is not the believing of any one particular or single Promise that is counted for righteousness otherwise than as it is an instance of Faith in God in general in reference to whatever he doth say or shall declare Which may be the reason why Faith is said to be counted to Abraham for righteousness as well when he had not the Messias in the Promise as the immediate Object of his Faith but somewhat else as when he had The Promise the believing of which was counted to Abraham for righteousness in Gen. 15. 6. was a Promise of a numerous issue So shall thy Seed be viz. as numberless as the Stars But that which produced a belief of this particular Promise would and doubtless did produce in him a belief of the Promise of the Messias and of every other Promise and Word of God and declaration of his mind so far as understood by him that was a habitual belief of God's Truth and Faithfulness Wiâ—dom Power and Goodness his fixed belief in God And so a believing God's threatnings so as to use means to escape them is it should seem counted to one for righteousness as well as the belief of the Promises as growing upon the same Root Thus Noahs believing God's threatning to bring a Deluge upon the World and his obedience to God's command in the preparing an Ark for the saving of his house was that or at least one instance of that Faith by which he became Heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith Heb. 11. 7. It was this general Faith in God that made Abraham so complyant with every intimation of his will and pleasure By it he forsook his own Countrey and Kindred at God's command to go he knew not whither but depended on God's after-direction in that case Heb. 11. 8. By it he was ready to offer his son Isaac in whom the Promises were made And he had such a firm belief in God's Promise that in Isaac his Seed should be called that he concluded that God would raise him from the dead when he had sacrificed him rather than fail in the least of making good his Promise Heb. 11. 17 18 19. He had such a confidence in God that is to say in his Wisdom Goodness Truth and Power as wrought him to an entire resignation of himself to God's will and pleasure He believed God to be so good so wise as not to put him upon any thing but what should be for his good in the issue And so true and powerful as to promise nothing but what he could and would perform In a word this his belief in God made him believe all his Promises and obey all his Precepts 2. Come we next to some description of that Faith which is the condition of the Promise or Covenant of Salvation Wherein I shall have respect to the nature of saving Faith in general in reference to all Ages of the Church and also to the Christian Evangelical Faith in special Faith strictly taken is an assent unto the truth of any Proposition upon the credit of the Speaker But saving Faith is of a more comprehensive nature than is a meer assent unto the truth of any one Proposition And although saving Faith is
sometimes described by an assenting to the truth of one single Proposition yet then it implies the belief of many more and such a belief as draws in the Will to act according to the import and concernment of the thing believed As for instance The belief of this Proposition That Christ Iesus is the Son of God by which Faith is sometimes described doth include in it a belief of the truth of his whole Doctrine both concerning God's Grace and Mans Duty and the Will 's concurrence as to its concernment in it For if he be the Son of God then he cannot lye or deceive in any thing he hath said And again the belief of this Proposition That God raised Christ from the Dead by which Faith is also described Rom. 10. 9. includes in it a belief that all that Doctrine which he taught is undoubtedly true For if it had not God would never have wrought such a Miracle as to raise Christ from the dead to confirm it The belief then of such single Propositions include a belief of the whole Doctrine of the Gospel which is the Proper Object of the Christian Faith and for that cause is frequently stiled Faith or the Faith in the New Testament But if we respect the nature of Faith in general as answering the different degrees of God's Revelation of his Will in several Ages of the World both under the Gospel and before I do not know how better to define it than thus Faith is such a hearty belief of God's Declaration concerning his own Grace and Man's Duty as doth effectually cause a man to expect from God and to act in a way of sincere Obedience according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration Or if you will take in the belief of God's threatnings against sinners into the definition then it will be thus Faith is such a hearty belief of God's Declaration concerning his own Grace and Displeasure and Man's Duty as doth effectually cause a man to expect from God and to act in a way of sincere Obedience according to the Tenour and Import of such a Declaration Faith thus defined we have already seen exemplified in Abraham who is the great Exemplar of believing and the Father of Believers And that it was his belief of God's Promise or Declaration of grace and favour to him as it was practical in producing Repentance Self-denial and sincere Obedience by which he was justified and made happy appears farther not only in that it 's said by St. Iames that his Faith wrought with his Works and was made perfect by them and that he was justified by Works as well as by Faith of which more anon but also in that it 's said that he received the sign of Circumcision which was the Condition upon which God covenanted with him to be his God and upon the same terms to be the God of his Seed a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had while he was yet uncircumcised For supposing which is not denied Circumcision to be an outward Sign of inward Grace of the Circumcision of the Heart consisting in Mortification or a Penitential change of the Heart which is the effect of Faith his Circumcision as such was a Seal of confirmation to Abraham that it was upon his former so believing God upon his Promise as thereby to be induced to leave the evil Customs of his Countrey and his Countrey it self with his Kindred his Fathers house that God would be his God indeed In which Promise was implicitly promised all that would make him eternally happy And God's further design of giving to Abraham this Covenant of Circumcision as a Seal to assure him the enjoyment of the benefit wrapt up in that Promise upon the terms aforesaid was that he might be the Father of all them that believe whether literally circumcised or not that is that he might be a great Example and Pattern to all others of obtaining the same benefits in the same way and so might be a means of begetting others to believe in God and to obey him as he had done to be a great Instrument to propagate the kind of new Creatures of Men renewed to God to the end they might be blessed as he was This or somewhat to this effect is doubtless the meaning of Rom. 4. 11 12. And he received the sign of Circumcision a Seal of the Righteousness of the Faith which he had being yet uncircumcised That he might be the Father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that Righteousness might be imputed to them also And the Father of Circumcision to them who are not of the Circumcision only but also walk in the steps of that Faith of our Father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised and it is not unlikely but that as Heart-Circumcision under the figure of Literal-Circumcision was together with Faith made the condition of the Covenant then so Spiritual Baptism which is a death unto sin and a living unto God is under the Figure of Water-Baptism joyned with believing as the condition of the Promise of Salvation now Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved According to which St. Peter having spoken of Noah's Ark saith The like figure whereunto Baptism now saveth us not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good conscience towards God 1 Pet. 3. 21. Now as it was in Abraham such a belief of God's Declaration of Grace and Favour as did effectually induce him to love and obey God by which he was justified so I shall shew afterwards it was the very same kind of Faith working after the same manner by which the Saints under the Law of Moses were saved But Faith as Evangelical and Christian is such a hearty assent and consent unto God's Declartion in the Gospel by his Son concerning Christ himself and his Grace and Favour towards Men by him and concerning their own duty as causeth a man to expect from God and to act in a way of duty according to the Tenour of such a Declaration and his own concerns in it And Faith thus defined is fully agreeable to the Tenour of the Gospel Mark 16. 15 16. Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every Creature He that believeth and is Baptized shall be saved He that believeth What Why he that believeth that Gospel which was to be preached to every Creature Which Gospel contains a Declaration of God's Grace Man's Duty of his Wrath against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men. For 1. It declares from God that he hath given his Son Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of the World by being a Propitiation for the sin of it in becoming a Sacrifice to expiate sin 2. It declares that God upon account of his Sons giving himself a Ransom for all hath made and doth establish a New Covenant with the World to pardon and eternally to save as
many as shall believe in his Son and repent of their sinfulness in changing their Minds and reforming their Lives and becoming new men in yielding sincere obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel 3. It declares that those that believe not shall be damned and such as repent not shall perish and that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God This summarily is that which the Gospel declares concerning God's grace and displeasure and Mans duty Now it is the Practical belief of all this that is the saving Faith It is not the bare belief that God hath given his Son to be the Saviour of the World and a Propitiation for the sin of it Nor is it a bare belief that he will for Christ's sake pardon and save as many as truly repent and amend their lives and become new Creatures unless they so believe all this as seriously and heartily to Repent themselves of their former folly and to return to their duty in new Evangelial Obedience For otherwise for a Man barely to believe all this and not to act according to his own concerns in it will be so far from being a believing to the saving of the Soul as that it will rather plunge him the deeper in destruction for living and acting contrary to his own light and belief as holding the truth in unrighteousness the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all such Rom. 1. 18. A man of this practical Faith which I have described eyes as well the condition upon which the saving Benefits are Promised through Christ as the Promise it self of those benefits and expects the enjoyment of those benefits upon God's Promise and Christ's purchase no otherwise than as he with the assistance of God's grace is careful to perform the condition Which belief of his makes him as careful to perform the condition in discharge of his own duty therein as ever he hopes to enjoy the promised pardon of Salvation by Christ and to escape the damnation threatned against those who perform not the condition So that a Man by this Practical Faith belives one part of God's Declaration in the Gospel as well as the other and his own duty to be as well necessary to his Justification as the condition appointed by God as the Grace of God through Christ it self is upon another account And by this belief he is effectually moved as well to act in a way of duty to God as to expect mercy from him considering how his happiness is concerned in both when he hath the whole of God's Declaration in all the parts taken together in prospect as the Object of his Faith When he hears that God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life When he hears that God hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood And when he hears again that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them he believes all this to be true as coming from God that cannot lye and accordingly is incouraged to hope in God's mercy and is comforted thereby But then when he hears again that except we repent we shall all perish that except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God That without holiness no man shall see the Lord and that the pure in heart shall see God That not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of the Father which is in Heaven That the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to render vengeance to all those that know not God and which obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ But that he is the Author of eternal Salvation to all those that obey him I say when he hears all this he as verily believes this part of Gods Declaration in the Gospel to be the faithful and true sayings of God as he accounted the other to be And accordingly doth as seriously and sincerely set upon the work of Repentance and as carefully useth God's appointed means for the changing of his Heart and renewing of his Nature for the purifying of himself as God is pure and doth as carefully obey all the Precepts of the Gospel as he hopes upon the account of Christ's sufferings and God's Promise to be pardoned and saved as believing that those Benefits are neither promised nor can be obtained but in this way of performing the Condition And I doubt not to say this practical Faith as it respects God's Declaration touching Mans duty in conjunction with his own Grace in Christ is where the Gospel comes the only saving justifying Faith 3. Come we now to shew Reason why Faith is made the Condition of the Promise 1. It is of Faith that it might be of Grace saith the Apostle Rom. 4. 16. It is that the Grace of God to miserable Men might the more shew it self For so it doth not only in promising unspeakably great things through Christ to Man who is not only un-deserving but ill-deserving also but also in that these are promised upon such a possible practicable easie condition as Faith is considering the means and assistance promised by God to work it And considering also that the Promise is made to the truth unfeignedness and sincerity and not to perfection of Faith Repentance and new Obedience in their utmost degree So that Christ might well say my Yoke is easie and my Burden light Matth. 11. 30. Whereas the old way of promising the Inheritance on the Law terms would have been to have promised it upon impossible conditions as the case now is with fallen Man And if God should Promise never so great things to Man in his impotent and miserable state upon an impossible condition he would have been so far from manifesting abundance of Grace Compassion and Love to him in that condition as that he would rather have seemed to insult over him in it And therefore if the Promise should have run upon the Law-terms and not of Faith it would utterly have frustrated God's design of manifesting his grace to Man and of recovering Man's Love and Loyalty to him thereby Rom. 4. 14. If they which are of the Law be Heirs Faith is made void and the Promise made of none effect But it is of Faith that it might be by grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the Seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the Faith of Abraham ver 16. 2. This may be another reason why such a Faith as I have described is made the condition of the Covenant of Salvation viz. Because it best answers God's design in this Covenant of renewing the nature of Man in Holiness and Righteousness and by that means restoring it to happiness For by Faith Men are born of God or
made the Children of God Gal. 3. 26. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Iesus Joh. 1. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to those that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Now to be born of God or which is the same to be made the Child of God is to have ones Nature restored to the likeness of God in which Man was first made and is the same thing with that wich is called Regeneration and a being born again and a new Creature Which new Creature or the nature of Man renewed by Faith is also called the new Man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes. 4. 24. To be born again is to have the faculties of Mans Nature restored to a rectitude in their motions and operations in reference both to God and Man to be restored to their proper moral use for which they were made It is in a word that which is called a being made partakers of a Divine Nature For those which are begotten of God are begotten in or to his likeness Men can adopt those which are not their natural Children to inherit their Estates but they cannot adopt them to a participation of their Moral Endowments But God adopts his Children to a participation with him in the Inheritance by adopting them to a participation of the Moral perfections of his Nature that is to a consimilitude to him in them And this we say is done by Faith that is by Faith in God and by Faith in his Word For in order of Nature God is first believed to be a God of Truth before his Word is believed to be the Word of Truth And the creditableness of his Word depends upon the knowledge or belief of the fidelity of his Nature And this Truth of God and of his Word is the immediate Object of Faith By Faith a Man believes that to be true which God reveals or declares as his Mind and Will let the Import of it be what it will But then this Faith operates upon the Will and Affections according to the Tenour and Import of that which is revealed If it be matter of sad import it works a hatred to him that threatens it and a fear of the thing threatned if it be apprehended to proceed from an enemy And this is the effect of the Faith of Devils who believe and hate God who believe and tremble Iam. 2. 19. But if that which is revealed by God and believed by Man betoken unspeakable love good will in God to Man and matter of the greatest benefit to him as a proof of such love then it worketh love to him that expresseth such love for Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. and a longing desire after the promised benefit And as the Soul grows more and more in love with God because of his love in love with his blessed Nature and Divine Perfections such as are his Love and Goodness Truth and Faithfulness Purity and Patience Mercifulness and readiness to forgive which render him altogether lovely so it contracts a likeness to God in these upon the Soul and so changes and renews the Moral habit and constitution of the Soul and consequently of the whole Life There is an aptness and promptness in men to imitate that in others and so in God for which they love them And frequent imitating Acts beget habits Custom changing Nature And hence it is that through Faith we are made partakers of a Divine Nature 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 as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. This beholding the glory of the Lord is by Faith For we walk by Faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5. 7. and by it Moses saw him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. And the medium by which this Prospect is taken is the Gospel by which the Lord in his lovely Perfections is now openly revealed And Faith being from time to time busied in beholding of and conversing with these Perfections it transforms the Soul into the same Image or likeness from glory to glory that is gradually as by the Spirit of the Lord that is through the co-operation of God's Spirit with Mans Faith To comprehend the breadth length depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge is the way to be filled with all the fulness of God by transcribing all his imitable perfections upon the Soul Ephes. 3. 18 19. And it is by virtue of their Relation to Christ and being thus begotten and born of God and made partakers of a new Nature conformable to God's that Men can with confidence call God Father This blessed effect of God's Spirit is the Spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba Father And it is this new Nature that is the Spring and Fountain of a good Life of all Pious and Virtuous Actions As it is said of God Thou art good and dost good so it is true of all those that are born of him A good Man out of the good treasure of his heart thus renewed bringeth forth good fruit The Tree being good the Fruit will be good And as this new Creature groweth up to strength and maturity so doing of good and acting worthily will become natural and pleasant to him in whom it is To such an one the Commandments of God are not grievous but he will be able in some good measure to say I delight to do thy will O God yea thy Law is in my heart And for sin it being contrary to this new Nature there is a kind of Moral Impotency in him in whom it is to commit sin He cannot sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. Or if such an one be overtaken in a fault it will work a disturbance in the Soul just as that will in the stomach which a Man hath eaten against which he hath an antipathy in Nature But as for such as perform Religious Duties and do things materially good only by the strength of Extrinsecal Motives and not froman inward Principle of this new Nature or love to the things themselves to such those actions being unnatural become grievous and burdensome and will be continued in no longer than those Motives continue in their strength Sect. 8. The last thing I proposed to consider about God's Promise to Abraham is What we are to understand by God's counting Abrahams Faith to him for righteousness And I take it to signifie thus much That God in a way of special grace or by virtue of a new Law of grace and favour which was established by God in Christ Gal. 3. 17. that is in reference to what Christ was to do suffer in time then to come did reckon his Practical
other Benefits which were Promised to Abraham and his Seed 2. They had an addition of several other Predictions concerning the Messias both by Moses and other Prophets that perhaps were somewhat more express such as in Deut. 18. 16. Isa. 53. Dan. 9. and others These Promises and Predictions put them in great expectations of Special Benefits by the Messias and wrought in them a longing after his day Upon which account our Saviour said to his Disciples Blessed are your Eyes for they see and your Ears for they hear For I say unto you that many Prophets and Kings and Righteous Men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them Mat. 13. 16 17. Luke 10. 23 24. 3. They had large significations from God of his special favour to them above all people as in chusing them to be his peculiar people and in declaring himself to be their God in giving visible Signs of his Presence among them and excellent Laws Promises to them and sending his Prophets amongst them and working many wonders for them and casting out the Nations before them to make room for them and the like Deut. 7. 6 7 8. and 26. 18 19. Psal. 147. 19 20. Rom. 9. 4 5. 4. They had express Declarations from God of the goodness of his Nature and of his compassion towards Sinners and of his readiness to pardon such as should repent and return to their duty in loving him and keeping his Commandments As for instance Exod. 34. 6 7. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity trangression and sin And when he delivered them his Law with the greatest terrour and astonishment to them yet even then he assured them that he would shew mercy to thousands of them that love him and keep his Commandments as in the second Commandment And in case of their miscarriage to the drawing down of Gods Judgements upon them he bespeaks them thus When thou art in tribulation and all these things are come upon thee even in the latter days if thou turn to the Lord thy God and shalt be obedient to his voice For the Lord thy God is a merciful God he will not forsake thee nor forget the Covenant of thy Fathers Deut. 4. 31. and 30. 1 2 3. Levit. 26. 39 c. From all which Grounds the faithful among them had such a hope and confidence of pardon of Sin and of a future happiness in another life upon their Repentance and sincere Obedience as did effectually induce them to have good thoughts of God to love him and to endeavour to please him by having respect unto all his Commandments This made him say Psal. 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared And under this hope and confidence the twelve Tribes did instantly serve God day and night and grounded this Hope of theirs upon the Promise made of God unto their Fathers as St. Panl tells us Acts 26. 6 7. And indeed it was the unanimous Faith of the most eminent among them from age to age that God had both made and would keep a Covenant to shew mercy to those that love him and keep his Commandments or that walk before him with all their heart For that they looked upon as the Condition of God's Promise of shewing Mercy This we may see in Moses David Solomon and in Daniel and Nehemiah Deut. 7. 9. Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments So David Psalm 103. 17 18. The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to such as keep his Covenant and to those that remember his Commandments to do them And thus Solomon 1 Kings 8. 23. And he said Lord God of Israel there is no God like thee who keepest Covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart So Daniel in his 9th Chap. 4th ver O Lord the great and dreadful God keeping the Covenant and Mercy to them that love him and to them that keep his Commandments And Nehemiah likewise Ch. 1. 5. I beseech thee O Lord God of Heaven the great and terrible God that keepeth Covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his Commandments This we see was the serious and constant Profession of the Faith of the servants of God in those times And in this Faith and Practice doubtless it was that they lived and dyed and were saved CHAP. IV. That the Law contained a Covenant different from that with Abraham IN the next place I am to shew that the Law of Moses did contain a Covenant distinct and of a different nature from the Covenant which God made with Abraham and his Spiritual Seed Besides the general Promise which God made to Abraham respecting the Gentiles as well as the Iews In thee all Nations of the Earth shall be blessed he made a Special Covenant with him as a reward of his Signal faithfulness to give unto his Natural Seed the Land of Canaan Nehem. 9. 8. Thou foundest his heart faithful before thee and madest a Covenant with him to give the Land of the Caâ—aanites to his Seed In order to the fulfilling of which Promise after he had brought them out of Egypt he united them under himself as Head in one Political Body by a Political Covenant Exod. 19 c. which is the Covenant I am now to discourse of In which discourse I would 1. Shew in what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham 2. Prove that it did contain such a different Covenant 3. For farther Illustration consider it in its parts and their relation one to another 4. And in what respect this Covenant is called the first Covenant when as the Covenant of Grace was made before it 1. In what respect the Law of Moses is said to contain a Covenant of a different Nature from the Covenant of Grace made with Abraham The Law of Moses comes under a twofold consideration 1. As in conjunction with the Promise to Abraham to which it was annexed it made up one entire Law by which the Israelites were to be governed and directed in the way to eternal life And in this Conjunction the Promise was the Life and Soul as it were of the Body of the Mosaic Law properly taken And in this sense as the word Law signifies the Pentateuch or five Books of Moses which contain the Promise as well as the Law it is sometimes used in the New Testament Gal. 4. 21 22. 1 Cor. 14. 34. Luke 16. And in this sense doubtless we are to understand the Law upon which David bestowed so many glorious Encomiums as
the parts of it For it is written Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them And all the people shall say Amen Deut. 27. 26. And this extended to Heart-obedience and Heart-sinning as well as to the outward act commanding love to God forbidding to covet as under the Heart-searching Political Soveraign who reserved to himself the final Judgement and Execution even in temporal respects in many cases 2. Laws of Indemnity of which also this Covenant did consist were partly those which ordained Sacrifice and Offerings for the Expiation of many sins made pardonable by those Laws so far as to exempt the Delinquent person from the temporal penalty threatned for breach of those other Laws which for distinction sake I call Laws of Duty for otherwise these also were Laws of Duty as well as of Priviledge There were other Laws of Indemnity likewise for the purification of persons legally unclean which being observed the persons unclean became delivered from the penalties they suffered while their uncleanness was upon them such as was their separation from the Congregation Consider we next the Sanction of these Laws and that did consist in Promises annexed to the observing of them and in a curse denounced against the transgressors of them And for our better understanding the Nature of the Promises of this Covenant we will consider them Negatively and Affirmatively 1. Negatively The Promises of this Political-covenant as such were not Promise of eternal life And when I say so I do not deny but that first the Iews in Moses time and before had Promises of eternal life implyed in the Covenant made with Abraham and his Seed And accordingly the faithful ones among them sought after the Heavenly Countrey and looked for a City which hath Foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10 14 16. Nor secondly will I deny but that there are some passages in the Law of Moses if you take the Law of Moses in a large sense which look somewhat like a renewall of the antient Covenant with Abraham to his Seed As when for instance God made a conditional Promise to the Israelites in Moses his time to be their God and that they should be his people as in Levit 26. 12. Deut. 29. 13. Which form of words is interpreted sometimes to imply a future happiness in another World Heb. 11. 16. Matth. 21. 31 32. And I do not deny but the Iews had by Moses as express a Promise of the Messias as Abraham had Deut. 18. 15. 19. But St. Paul doth not speak of the Law in this large sense when he opposeth the Law and the Promise the Law and Faith one to another But if we understand by the Law of Moâ—es the Law as Political the Law of the Common-wealth so the Promises of it were not Promises of Eternal Life For Promises of this nature did pertain to another Covenant to wit thâ—t made with Abraham and his Spiritual Seed as such First Therefore St. Paul doth down-rightly deny that the Promise of the Inheritance which in Heb. 9. 15. is called the Eternal Inheritance was by the Law which yet it would have been if by Law he had meant the Law in that large sense in which the Law and Promise to Abraham are conjoyned and not in that strict sense by which he means the Political Law distinctly And if the Inheritance had been promised upon the same terms as temporal Blessings were in the temporal Covenant the Inheritance might have been obtained by the Law as well as temporal Blessings were Rom. 4. 13. For the Promise that he should be Heir of the World was not through the Law but through the Righteousness of Faith Secondly St. Paul evinceth the badness of that Opinion to think that Eternal Life was Promised upon the Law-terms from the absurd consequence of it shewing that if it were that then it would make void the Promise of God to Abraham and the way of saving men by Faith in that Promise of none effect Gal. 3. 18. For if the inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise But God gave it to Abraham by Promise Rom. 4. 14. For if they which are of the Law be Heirs Faith is made void and the Promise made of none effect It was altogether unreasonable to think that the Inheritance should be promised upon such distant and inconsistent terms as are Faith in the Promise and by Works of the Law Thirdly The Law saith the Apostle is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Gal. 3. 12. meaning that what the Law promised it did not promise it upon condition of believing but upon condition of doing And Eternal Life is not since the fall promised upon condition of doing without Faith but upon condition of believing For the Iust shall live by Faith Vers. 11. and therefore Eternal Life is not promised by the Law Fourthly Wherefore else are the Promises of that better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. said to be better Promises But because they are Promises of better things than were promised in the first Covenant which yet they could not be if Eternal Life had been promised in that Covenant because that is the best of all Promises To say they are better only in respect of Administration and clearness of Revelation would not satisfie such as should well consider That if the betterness of the Covenant and Promises lay only in that the difference would not be so great as to denominate them two Covenants and two so vastly distant as the Scripture represents them to be The difference then would be but only gradual as that is which is found in the same Covenant of Grace in the several Editions of it to Adam to Abraham to David and now to all Nations since Christ's coming and not Essential as that between the two Covenants seem to be as it is represented in Gal. 4. 24. Besides St. Paul represents the Administration of the two Covenants to differ as much as Righteousness and Condemnation Life and Death differ which sure is more than a gradual difference The one is the Ministration of Death and Condemnation the other the Ministration of Righteousness and Life 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8 9. The Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did Heb. 7. 19. By which it appears again that the hope of the Gospel in which the things hoped for upon the Promises of the Gospel are not the least is better than what the Law promised the observers of it This is the Promise which he hath promised us even Eternal Life 1 John 2. 25. 2. And Affirmatively It was then a long and Prosperous life in the Land of Canaan that was promised in the first Covenant Deut. 28. 11. The Lord shall make thee plenteous in Goods in the fruit of thy Body and in the fruit of thy Cattel and in the fruit of thy Ground in the Land which the Lord sware
and not direct Precepts But the Christians-Righteousness which is by Faith may be said to be of God because by Grace they are saved through Faith in Christ Iesus and that not of themselves it is the gift of God And we are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus Ephes. 2. 8 10. 3. It was called their own Righteousness because it was a way of seeking to be justified of their own devising and not of God's appointing And on the contrary the Gospel-Method of Justification is called the Righteousness of God through Faith because it is of God's Institution and appointment It is the substance of God's new Law or Covenant The result of all then is That they were the Works of the Law as exclusive of Faith in Christ and his death which the Apostle denied any Man to be justified by and not those works of the Law which are the immediate effects of Faith in Christ in his Death and in his Doctrine CHAP. VI. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Iustification by Faith and not by Works was then mistaken by some I Come in the next place to shew how that St. Paul's reasonings about Faith and Works in reference to Justification were probably mistaken by such Solifidians as St. Iames reasoned against For he having taught that God did justifie the ungodly Gentiles upon their believing and without the deeds of the Law but denying Justification to as many of the Iews as did not believe though they were Observers of the Law there were some who thereupon through mistake laid the whole stress of Salvation upon believing to the neglect of a holy and virtuous life And St. Paul being sensible how apt some were to make a bad use of his good Doctrine and to draw bad Conclusions out of good Premises he frequently mentions such Inferences on purpose to caution Men against them As for Instance He having said in Rom. 5. 20. That where sin abounded grace did abound much more In Chap. 6. 1. he saith What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound as some it seems were ready to infer God forbid saith he how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein You may consult to like purpose in general Rom. 3. 5 6 7 31. 6. 15. Gal. 2. 17. and find that St. Paul and others were slanderously reported to have said let us do evil that good may come That there were such as did misrepresent St. Paul's Doctrince touching God's grace and long-suffering and wrest several passages in his Epistles and other Scriptures to their own destruction we are told by St. Peter also 2 Pet. 3. 15. 16. And account that the long-suffering of the Lord is Salvation even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the Wisdom given him hath written unto you as also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things In which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction And after St. Paul in his 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4 5 verses had by many black Characters described a sort of Christians that had a form of godliness but denyed the power thereof In ver 8. he further describes them by that which was the cause of the forementioned unsavoury fruits of the flesh to wit that they were men of corrupt minds or understandings and reprobate concerning the Faith or void of Judgement concerning the Faith as the Margin hath it They were Men of corrupt Principles and injudicious concerning the Doctrine of faith They did not discern faith to be necessary in the operative and practical nature of it But as they did satisfie themselves with a form of godliness without the power so they did likewise with a formal inefficacious and liveless Faith which made them so unsavoury in their lives And St. Iohn after he had in his first Epistle antidoted the Christians against the pretentions of the Gnosticks who held a bad life consistent with Communion with God through illumination of mind and the Christian Faith deceiving themselves and labouring to deceive others in thinking they might be righteous without doing Righteousness 1 Ioh. 3. 7. He towards the conclusion of that Epistle sums up his general scope in it in these words These things have I written unto you that believe in the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal Life and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God Chap. 5. 13. His meaning is as I conceive that he wrote this Epistle first to the end they might be the better assured of salvation by Christ upon their rightly believing on him And secondly To the end they might not be drawn into mistakes in the point of believing as if any Faith less than such as is accompanied with a constant adherence to Christ's Doctrine and example touching a holy life would give them that assurance He wrote to them that did believe that they might believe that is that they might believe yet more understandingly more groundedly and so perseveringly against all temptations to Apostacy from the Profession of the Faith or to loosness in the Profession of it St. Iude also ver 3 4. stirred up the Christians to contend earnestly for the Faith the Doctrine of saving Sinners in the way of Believing because as he told them there were certain Men professing Faith but of ungodly lives that were amongst them that turned the grace of God into lasciviousness so understanding the Law of Grace the Gospel as if it had been a Proclamation from Heaven of a general pardon for Christ's sake and through Faith in him of as many sins as Men had a mind to commit The which Error led them into those Monstrous Impieties charged upon them in that Epistle By reason of which the way of Truth the right Faith they pretended to was evil-spoken of in the World as St. Peter notes they being indeed Spots and Blemishes to the Christians and Christian-Profession so long as they were admitted to their Feasts of Charity as owned by them to be of their number This was indeed an ungodly Faith But the Faith which he exhorted them to contend for and to build up themselves upon as on a sure Foundation he calls their most holy Faith vers 20. such a Faith as is an Operative Principle of a holy life And they were such Christians as St. Iames in his Epistle did expostulate with that did lean so much upon a meer believing upon a meer assent of the mind unto the truth of certain Propositions as that they were careless in the subduing of their Passions and bridling their Tongues and regulating their Actions as if these had not been necessary to Salvation But thought themselves safe upon account of their barren Faith though they were proud and conceited of their knowledge and Atainments censorious and contentious unmerciful and uncharitable In a word they were
he saved us are wont to be alledged to prove that Works after conversion as well as those before are opposed to the Mercy of God in the saving of Men. But whether this be duly collected from these words will best appear by opening the Scope and meaning of the words with the Context The words in the 3 4 and 5 verses are these For we our selves also were sometimes foolish serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Man appeared Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost By their being saved here is meant their being rescued and delivered from their sinful state mentioned vers 3. In that this is said to be done not by Works of Righteousness which they had done but according to God's Mercy The plain meaning I doubt not is that this change of their condition and deliverance from their sinful state was not effected or so much as begun among them by any Reformation of their own till the Gospel came to work it which is meant by the appearing of the kindness and love of God vers 4. and is of like import with that Chap. 2. 11 12. which God of his mercy and not of their desert sent among them to that end And if this be the meaning of the words the Apostle was far from intending by Works of Righteousness in this place Works after Conversion I might rather well argue on the contrary from this place That Baptism which is an Act of Evangelical Obedience in the person Baptized Regeneration which is Evangelical Obedience in the root principle are together with the mercy of God and as subordinate to it opposed to the Works of Righteousness here mentioned in the Work of Salvation For it is probable that by the washing of Regeneration here is meant Baptism as the Figure of Regeneration and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Regeneration it self By both which as subordinate to God's mercy therein they were said to be saved and not by the Works of Righteousness which they had done before these There is another place in 2 Tim. 2. 9. which is wont to be urged with this to Titus to the same purpose But it being of the same nature with this the same answer may serve both with a little variation 2. St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works gives sufficient caution not to be understood thereby to speak against Evangelical Obedience in the Case When he had asserted Justification to be by Faith without the deeds of the Law and that the Gentiles might be justified by believing without ever observing Moses Law Rom. 3. 28. lest he should be understood thereby to favour Gentilism or loose living in men provided they would but turn Christians he frames and answers an Objection thus vers 31. Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid Yea we establish the Law And how did they so certainly they did not thereby establish the Ceremonial Law in the Letter of it but in the Spirit of it they did in as much as in Preaching Justification in the Gospel-way they preached in plain Precepts the necessity of that Spiritual purity unto salvation which was but darkly and in a Figure taught by the Ceremonial Law And this they did in Preaching the necessity of Mortifiation instead of Circumcision And by the Doctrine of Justification by Faith they established the Moral Law both in the Letter and Spirit of it in teaching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience to it after a more Spiritual and forcible manner than had been taught before So again when he had charged the unbelieving Iews with a great Error in going about to establish a Righteousness of their own in opposition to God's in adhering to their Law against the Gospel Rom. 10. 3. to the end it might not be thought that he would take them off their Law that they might be lawless or less Religious he adds vers 4. that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth For so he is in his Doctrine having therein taught that Righteousness of living which the Law it self taught but in a far more Excellent Spiritual and effectual manner than was taught by the Law So that all that he designed in taking them off from their Law was but to put them under a better conduct To make them dead to the Law that they might be married to another viz. to Christ by his Gospel that they might bring forth fruit unto God as it is Rom. 7. 4. And likewise in ver 6. he saith We are delivered from the Law but not to be lawless but that we might serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter that is according to the Spirit Scope and Design of the Law now expressed in plain Precepts and not in the oldness of the Letter and Ceremony And so he saith of himself Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law i. e. he through a better understanding of God's Design in the Law became dead as to all his former expectations of Justification by it But then if he were dead to the Law it was as he saith that he might live unto God live a life in the flesh through the Faith in his Son through believing his Gospel in its Precepts and Promises the one directing and the other quickning unto a most excellent life ver 20. And if St. Paul were thus careful in denying Justification by Works to assert the necessity of Evangelical Obedience we may well conclude that he never intended under the notion of Works of the Law to exclude Evangelical Obedience from having any hand sooner or later in Justification 3. Regeneration or the new Creature as including Evangelical Obedience is opposed to Works of the Law in the business of Man's Justification as well as Faith is and as well as the Grace of God it self is Gal. 6. 15. For in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Circumcision is here as elsewhere by a Synecdoche put for the Works of the Law in general For there were none that were for circumcising but who were also for keeping the Law of Moses Only Circumcision is mentioned frequently instead of all the rest because they held it to be not only a part of the Law but more and because they laid the greatest stress upon it as I shewed before Chap. 5. Now in that which the Apostle deniâ—s Circumcision and the Works of the Law to avail a Man in that he affirms the becoming a new Creature will avail him and that was in the business of Justification and Salvation For in that sense the unbelieving Iews and Iudaizers held Circumcision and other Works of the Law available And this new Creature
pardon of sin which is essential to Justification is not to be obtained without it Luke 13. 3 5. Therefore again it follows that Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification and part of the Condition of it And now by this time I suppose it fully appears to any unprejudiced Reader that the Doctrine of St. Paul yea and of St. Peter and Iohn too do fully accord with the Doctrine of St. Iames touching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience unto Justification The opposition then which some have made between Faith and all Internall and External Works in reference to Justification as well Evangelical as Mosaical hath not been only without Scripture-ground but against Scripture-evidence and looks more like that which was made by the Gnosticks or other Solifidians opposed by St. Iames if it be not the very same than any the Scripture any where maketh And how much injury the Christian Religon and the Souls of Men may have suffered thereby is a thing to be thought on and sadly laid to heart It is a pleasant Doctrine and the worst of Men called Christians are glad to hear that they may be justifyed by Christ only upon their believing in him without any Works of Righteousness or self-denial of their own And upon that account presuming verily that they do believe they are confident that they are justified though they are unsanctified But those especially are in great danger of deceiving their own Souls by building their confidence upon this Doctrine who together with this belief have more of the form of godliness than the other have and are found much more in the use and exercise of the external devotional part of Religion and are zealous for this or that Opinion Party or Way which they think most Orthodox though they be greatly destitute of love to the Nature of God and of Humility Charity strict Justice Fidelity Peaceableness Sobriety Temperance Modesty and Meekness and of that renewed frame of Soul which would make them like Christ Jesus wherein the power of Christiany doth consist The External duties of Hearing Reading Praying and the rest being in great part but means referring to the other as the end So that no Man is to account himself truly Religious further than he attains to these truly Christian Qualifications by the use of the External Means and Internal Aids Yea the fleshly part even in Men good in the main is very apt to make an advantage of such a Doctrine as aforesaid to the lessening of their Care Diligence and Zeal in working out their Salvation in striving to enter in at the straight gate in governing their own Spirits and Appetites in cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and in perfecting holiness in the fear of God And therefore there is great need for those that are Spiritual Guides to the people to insist much upon the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life as well as Faith in order to their being justified and saved by Christ Jesus For the people yea the better sort of them stand most in need as of being well-grounded touching the truth of the Christian Religion so especially of having the Doctrines of Morality inculcated upon them the Precepts of the Gospel being almost all of that Nature though some speak diminutively of Moral Preaching and tend to the perfecting of the Nature of Man in regulating the Internal operations of the Soul and the External actions of life in reference both to God and Man our selves and others The recovering of Men to which is God's great design by the Gospel in order to their being made perfectly happy at last as I have shewed in Chap. 1. There is indeed an absolute necessity of believing the Gospel in order to Christian Practice And therefore our blessed Saviour did not only Preach the necessity of Faith in him and his Doctrine but also wrought abundance of Miracles to beget this Faith in Men. And yet he knowing the great danger of Mens miscarrying in point of Morality in the disposition of Soul and actions of Life insisted chiefly in his Preaching upon Doctrines of that nature as you may see in his Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere He taught the necessity of being born again Of making the Tree good that the fruit might be good And to inforce this Doctrine of his he was not wont to tell his Auditors that every Man shall be rewarded according to his belief but that when the Son of Man shall come every Man shall be rewarded according to his Works That those that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life and those that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation That by their words they shall be justified which are no more Faith than Works are And by their words they shall be condemned That in the great day of the tryal of all Nations every Man shall be acquitted or condemned according to the good they have done or neglected to do Mat. 25. And that then not every Man that had Faith enough to cry Lord Lord or to Prophesie cast out Devils or do wonders in his Name shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but such and such only as have done the will of his Father Great need there is therefore of peoples examining themselves impartially and of being often admonished to take heed left they mistake and deceive themselves in the nature of Religion and in what is absolutely necessary to be done on their part because men are very apt to flatter and deceive themselves in that and to think that when their Faith is right in the Object of it as when they believe in the true God and in his Son Jesus Christ and expect Salvation by him alone that then they are true believers and such as shall be saved especially if therewith they joyn the frequenting of God's Ordinances and the paring off of some of the grosser enormities of their lives though in the mean while they make no Conscience of cleansing their hearts and governing their Spirits of subduing their Passions and inordinate affections and of bridling the Tongue For this cause it is that Christians are so often in Scripture cautioned to take heed lest they should be deceived Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a Man sows that also shall he reap Gal. 6. 7 8. Little Children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousness is Righteous even as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Ephes. 5. 6. An APPENDIX touching the nature and Difference of that Faith which is justifying and of that which is not and the reason of that difference MEn's Eternal Estate of Weal or Wo in another World and their Peace and Comfort in this being very much concerned in their right understanding or mistaking the nature and difference of that Faith which is saving and of that which is not I shall here add to what is said before something to state the nature and
difference of those two kinds of Faith with what brevity and perspicuity I can I cannot I coâ—fess think that the nature of Faith which is of absolute necessity to the Salvation of the meanest Christian is in it self hard to be understood were it not that the many Controversies about it about its Object and the Acts of the Soul necessary to it had puzzled mens minds and distracted their apprehensions concerning it Things absolutely necessary to Salvation as they are not many so there are hardly any Doctrines delivered with more plainness than they that the weak who are as much concerned in them as the strong might competently understand them as well as they Men may multiply Notions about Faith as the Scripture useth various expressions about it But I doubt not but that the general sense of the Scripture hereabout may be summarily â—xpressed in this plain Proposition That saving Faith is such a belief of Christ to be the Son of God and of the truth of his Doctrine especially touching the virtue of his Death and Resurrection and the necessity of amendment of life for the obtaining remission of Sin and Eternal Life as causeth a man to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live a godly righteous and a sober life This is so plain in Scripture as that there is no Christian so weak but may easily come to understand it and so evident that none who acknowledge the Truth of the Gospel can deny it That I may state the difference then between Effectual and Ineffectual Faith and matters relating to them with all the plainness I can I shall very briefly endeavour these five things 1. To open the comprehensive nature of Faith 2. Shew wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not saving 3. Shew whence that defect proceeds 4. How and after what manner Faith in the Understanding works savingly upon the Will 5. Answer some few Objections 1. The comprehensive nature of â—aving Faith opened That I may open the comprehensive nature of Faith the better I shall first observe how variously the Condition upon which saving benefits are promised is expressed in Scripture and then what actings of the Soul are thereby signified It is thus variously expressed in Scripture Sometimes it s called a believing God Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. a believing in God 1 Pet. 1. 21. a believing on God Rom. 4. 24. a believing the Record which God hath given of his Son 1 Ioh. 5. 10. Sometimes it s called a believing on Christ Ioh. 3. 16 36. Act. 16. 31. a believing him to be the Christ the Son of God Ioh. 20. 31. 1 Ioh. 5. 5. It 's called Faith in his Blood Rom. 3. 25. a believing that God raised him from the dead Rom. 10. 9. Sometimes it s called a believing of the Gospel Mar. 16. 15 16. a believing of the Truth 2 Thâ—s 2. 15. a believing the testimony of the Apostles 2 Thes. 1. 10. Sometimes it is expressed under the Notion of Repentance Acts 2. 38. 3. 19. 11. 18. 2 Cor. 7. 10. and sometimes of obedience 1 Iohn 1. 7. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Heb. 5. 9. The Condion of the Promise of saving benefits being thus variously expressed can signifie no less than a three-fold Act of the Soul The first being the Act of the Understanding The second of the Will The third of the Understanding and Will conjunct I. Such expressions of the Condition of the Promise as is the believing God the believing in God the believing his Record the believing the Gospel the believing Christ to be the Son of God do most properly signifie the act of the mind or understanding in assenting to the truth of what God testifieth or promiseth Which assent is grounded upon a knowledge or belief of God's Veracity his Truth and Faithfulness armed with All-sufficiency of Power Wisdom and Goodness to make good his Word to a tittle And although such expressions as aforesaid do most properly signifie the act of the Understanding yet when ever saving Benefits are promised and the Condition expressed in such a form of words as doth most properly and primarily signifie the assent of the mind even then the act of the Will in consenting to the Condition is implyed and ought to be understood as I shall fully prove in the next Particular And the reason why the whole of the Condition of the Promise relating to the consent of the Will as well as the assent of the Understanding is frequently expressed in such a form of words as primarily and strictly signifie the assent of the mind is I conceive because such assent of the mind is the Principle from which all concurrent acts of the Will necessary to Justification and Salvation do proceed And it is of frequent use in Scripture to denominate the whole of Religion by some one Principal part which is a fruitful Principle of all the rest Thus the knowledge of the true God and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent is said to be Eternal Life Ioh. 17. 3. And thus sometimes the fear of God and sometimes the love of God is put for the whole of Mens saving Religiousness and the same Promise of blessedness made to one of these singly exprest is to be extended to the whole In like manner the whole of Christianity is frequently denominated by Faith and the Christians stiled Believers and the houshold of Faith and the like and all because that Christian life of theirs by which they differ from other Men flows from their Faith which is the first active Principle of it 2. Another act of the Soul essentially necessary to that Faith which is the Condition of the Promise is the consent of the Will to repent to receive Christ as Lord King to be govered by his Laws as well as to own him for a Priest once ofâ—ering himself and ever making interecession for us For the Condition of the Promise of Pardon and Salvation is expressed under the notion of Repentance and sometimes of Obedience as I shewed before And Repentance and Odience are acts of the Will as renewed And that there is no Promise of saving benefits upon meer believing without observing that part of the Condition which consisteth in Repentance Regeneration and Obedience is most evident Because they are expresly excluded in Scripture from having any share in the saving benefits of the Covenant Justification or Salvation who do not Repent Luke 13. 3. who are not regenerate Ioh. 3. 5. who love not the Lord Jesus Christ and that above any worldly enjoyment 1 Cor. 16. 22. Matth. 10. 37. and who do not obey him Acts 3. 22 23. Luke 19. 27. 2 Thes. 1. 7. By all which we may certainly know that when ever there is Promise of Justification and Salvation made to believing it is to be understood of such a believing as doth at that instant in which a man believes savingly produce a sincere consent of the Will to repent to love Christ and to
obey him For otherwise those Scriptures and these would be inâ—onsistent For if men cannot be pardoned nor delivered from the curse nor be safe from destruction until they have repented are regenerate do love Christ and obey the Gospel as the forecited Scriptures do assure us they cannot then no Faith whatsoever is justifying or can entitle them to Pardon and Salvation acording to the Tenour of God's Promise until it hath produced that Repentance Regeneration Love and Obedience Which is a full and an undenyable proof of the necessity of such a consent of the Will as aforesaid to render Faith justifying and saving Now this consent and resolutionof the Will to repent and obey Christ and to forsake all for him is the Moral change of the Soul and the new life in its first beginning And so a mans first effectual Belief is his whole Christian life in its beginning And a mans first Faith is perfected afterwards by Works Iam. 2. 22. as a Child is perfected in his manly state as he grows up to manly actions or as the Seed is perfected when it grows to a full Ear. By this first consent of the Will we restipulate and strike Covenant with God and not only so but we thereby begin also to keep and perform Covenant with him on our part When this consent is first wrought in the Will then the Laws of the new Covenant are first put into the mind and written in the heart And by this we first begin to become savingly a people unto God to believe in him to love and serve him as he by Covenant and Promise becomes a God unto us to make us happy Heb. 8. 10. This is the Convenant that I will make I will put my Laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people 3. The other act of the Soul which I call the act of the Understanding of the Will conjunct is an affiance in God through Christ a trusting in him or a relying on him for the fulfilling of his Promise of saving Benefits while we continue sincerely to consent resolve and endeavour to perform the Condition on our part This is that or part of that which is called a believing on God a believing on Christ and a trusting in him Noting the Souls dependence upon Christ â—or the saving benefits which accrue to Men by his Mediation Office and Undertaking and on the Truth and Faithfulness Power Wisdom and Goodness of God to perform all that he hath promised them through his Son and upon the terms he hath promised and not otherwise For the Promise of saving Benefits being made but upon the Condition before mentioned a true Believer or he that is rational wise considers as well upon what terms the benefits are promised as who hath promised them and what they are and expects the one no otherwise than as he sincerely resolves and endeavours to perform the other And therefore if any shall rely on God and Christ for those benefits in whom yet the qualifying condition of the Promise of them is not found Such a relyance is but a groundless presumption and not Faith or Affiance duly so called For such do not only rely on Christ for that for which they have no Promise but for that which God hath expresly declared they shall have no share in whilst they remain destitute of that qualification which is the Condition upon which and not without it the promise of those benefites is made These three acts of the Soul exercised on their Objects do make up that Faith which is justifying and saving And when justifying Faith in the compleat nature of it is spoken of in Scripture all these three acts of the Soul are to be understood and especially the two first though perhaps they are many times mentioned severally and apart Faith being described sometimes by one of them and sometimes by another As God himself is represented to us sometimes by one Attribute sometimes by another II. Wherein the Defect lyes of that Faith which is not saving By what hath been discoursed touching the nature of that Faith which is saving it is easie to disâ—ern wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not so And the defect lyes chiefly in the Will in its not consenting to perform the condition of the Promise in repenting and in receiving Christ as Lord to be governed by his Laws I will not deny but the defect in part may be in the Understanding when its assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelation is so weak as that it can make but a too weak and â—aint impression upon the Will to procure its consent unto the Condition of the Promise But then that defect in the assent of the Understanding doth usually at least in great part proceed from the Will as I shall shew afterwards Now that the defect lyes mainly in the Will 's not consenting to the Condition of the Promise appears by this because unregenerate men may assent unto the truth of God's Testimony and may trust that they shall be saved by Christ which contain the other two acts of the Soul but no man truly consents to perform the Condition of the Promise but in doing so he is regenerate in the first Act and justified 1. Unregenerate men may have the same Faith of assent in the Understanding to a degree as the regenerate may They may believe God to be the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth and Jesus Christ to be his only Son and the rest of the Articles of the Creed and they may believe in great part that to be their duty both towards God and Man which is so indeed and yet hold that truth in unrighteousness which they do believe Rom. 1. 18. Many of the chief Rulers believed on Christ who yet loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God and durst not confess him Joh. 12. 42 43. As also did many others when they saw his Miracles who yet were such as Christ had no mind to commit himself to Ioh. 2. 23 24. And Simon Maguâ— believed wondering and being astonished at the signes which were done by Philip who yet remained in the bond of iniquity Acts 8. Such as are resembled by the stony ground believed who yet loved their ease and worldly interest more than Christ And those that St. Iames expostulates with Chap. 2. were thus far believers also 2. Excepting the consent of the Will to the Condition of the Promise unregenerate Men may hope to be saved by Christ and rely on him for Salvation as well as the Regenerate Only for want of their performing the Condition of the Promise their hopes and confidence are groundless and will deceive them But otherwise men that are but carnal and live in some known sin may and oftimes do perswade themselves that they shall be saved by Christ Jesus because they believe that he dyed for sinners and
because they ask God forgiveness and perform some acts of Religion Our Saviour saith Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord open unto us Have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devils and done many wonderful works We have eaten and drunk in thy presence and thou hast taught in our streets To whom he will say for all that Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Matth. 7. 22 23. Luke 13. 25 26. These had some kind of Faith in Christ by which they propheâ—ied in his Name and cast out Devils and did many wonderful works They were such as were hearers of his Word and Preachers of it too and had eaten and drunken in his presence And because of this Faith and these Works they had a Hope and Confidence that Christ would open unto them and receive them into his Kingdom and would not be easily beaten off from this confidence But the true reason why their Faith will stand them in no stead nor their Religious performances neither is because for all that they were workers of iniquity they never heartily consented to the terms of the Promise of Salvation by Christ in repenting They did not first heartily resolve and after sincerely endeavour to turn from every known sin unto every known duty And in this very thing doth the defect of that Faith lye which is short of saving Which will yet further appear in that St. Iames when he would state the difference between that Faith which is saving and that which is not fixeth it here The dead Faith is denominated such by him from its being alone without Works Iam. 2. 17. Even so Faith if it hath not Works is dead being alone or by it self And again vers 20. But wilt thou know O vain Man that Faith without Works is dead And again ver 26. For as the body without the Spirit is dead so Faith without Works is dead also Meaning by its being dead that it avails a Man no more to his Justification and Salvation than a dead Corps avails to the produceing the useful and serviceable effects of a living Man or than a Tree that is dead avails to the bringing forth fruit or than a few good words Depart in peace be ye filled and warmed will avail poor people when nothing is given which is needful to the body ver 15 16 17. In all this I do not deny but that there may be in such as do not savingly believe some consent of the Will to do something towards performing the Condition of the Promise in repenting and obeying Such Men may consent and resolve to forsake some sins and to do some yea many duties who yet never savingly consent because they do not heartily consent and resolve to forsake all known sin and to do all known duties in which the sincerity of Repentance and Obedience doth consist to which the Promise is made Such men may not be far from the Kingdom of God but yet must go farther if ever they would have any good ground of hope to enter into it But of this more afterwards III. Whence this defect doth proceed I have shewed before that there is the Faith of assent in the Understanding unto the truth of God's Testimony in some unregenerate men as well as in the regenerate And in whomsoever the Faith of Consent in the Will to perform the Condition of the Promise is found it always proceeds from the Faith of Assent in the Understanding A Man always in order of nature at least believes that the promised benefits shall be made good to him in case he perform the Condition before he consents to perform it and doth consent to perform the Condition in hope and confidence of obtaining the promised benefits Now then the Question is whence is it ' and what is the reason that the Faith of assent in the Understanding doth not always produce the same consent in the Will in one as well as in another and as it always doth when it becomes effectual to Justification and Salvation Why doth this Faith remain alone in some when as it is accompanied with Works in others I shall offer what I conceive to be the reason of this First in general and then more particularly The difference sometimes may procâ—ed from the different measures and degrees of the evidence upon which the same Truth is believed One man may have a clearer discerning of the evidence than another which causeth a stronger assent in the discerning faculty and that stronger assent in the Understanding may well cause a stronger consent in the Will and a firm and lasting resolution As on the contrary a weak and partial consent and resolution in the Will to the Condition sometimes proceds from a weak assent in the Mind to the Truth of God's Testimony or Promise and that from the weakness of the faculty in the discerning the evidence of that Truth which is the Object of Faith But the reason most commonly why the assent in the Understanding unto the Truth of God's Testimony doth not work a consent in the Will to the Condition of the Promise is to be taken I conceive from the opposition which the lower faculties of the Soul the Will Affections assisted and influenced by the sensual Appetites make against the superiour Faculty the Mind or Understanding so that they do not hearken to its Notices nor obey its Dictates The Will which is the Spring of Action is a middle Faculty between the Understanding and the sensitive Affections or Appetites and is sollicited by both As the Understanding calls upon it to obey its rational Dictates in chusing the means which tend to the best end both which the Understanding represents to it from the Word of God so on the other hand the sensitive Affections sollicite it to be on their side and to be active in making provision for the flesh in chusing such things as tend to satisfie its cravings and lusts And because the Will hath usually been pre-ingaged to the flesh and had a share in its gratifications it 's not without much difficulty prevailed with to be coÌ„senting to active in the crucifixion of those affections and lusts Which until the Will do and herein obey the enlightned Understanding the Faith of assent in the Understanding abideth alone The Will 's obstinate adherence then to Mens fleshly lusts and carnal interests in opposition to that belief in the Understanding which puts it upon destroying them as absolutely necessary to the Man's Salvation as believing God touching the necessity of this as a means as well as it doth believe him touching the blessedness of the end this obstinate opposition in the Will I say is the true reason why the Faith which is in some men is but a dead Faith How can ye believe saith our Saviour which seek honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only Joh. 5. 44. Yes some of them could and did
exercised about these things And hence comes that change which is made in the Hearts and Lives of true Believers who walk by Faith and not by Sight that is they govern their Lives by the belief of invisible and not sensible things 2 Cor. 5. 7. This in general But more particularly the Faith of Assâ—nt in the Understanding works the Faith of Consent in the Will by its operation upon those three Passions or Affections of the Will Hope Fear and Love 1. As a firm asseâ—ting to the Truth of God's Promise through Christ of pardon of Sin and Eternal Life upon Condition of Repentance and new Obedience together with his Faith gives a man hope and confidence of obtaining these great benefits upon the terms on which they were promised The hope of this happiness causeth a Man to be willing to comply with the Condition upon which it is promised in order to the obtaining the happiness it self There is a Principle of self love planted by God in the nature of every Man by which he doth naturally desire and aspire after the happiness of his own being And that will put a man upon the use of such means and the performance of such a Condition without which he believes and is verily perswaded he cannot be happy Now every Man in whom there is the Faith of assent unto the Truth of God's Testimony in the Gospel firmly fixed being verily perswaded that everlasting happiness is not attainable without Repentance Regeneration and sincere Obedience because God hath declared this as plainly as he hath done any thing And it is the nature of Faith to acquiesce in his Testimony The love of the end which is Mans own happiness makes him in love with the means such as is Repenting Mortifying and Obeying work without which he cannot attain his end in being happy This Principle of Self-love under the conduct of a Mans Understanding and Reason enlightned and regulated by a Declaration of the Divine Will and influenced by a firm belief of it will work in a Man new apprehensions of and new Affections to both Sin and Duty and will cause him to abandon the little pleasures of sin which are but for a season that he may come to the fruition of that fulness of joy and those Rivers of pleasure which are in the presence of God and at his right hand for evermore when once he knows and firmly believes that they cannot otherwise be obtained Thus by Faith is the victory over the world obtained in all its temptations from Honours Profits and Pleasures 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For by such a Faith a Man well perceives that the World offers him to his unspeakable loss though it should offer him all of these that it is able to confer upon him if it be upon condition of doing or omitting to do that by which he shall certainly deprive himself of that Glory Honour and Immortality which he is well assured of through Faith in God's Promise if he overcome We see Men are so commonly governed by a Principle of Self-love in parting with a lesser good or conveniency for a greater even in the things of this life that they are worthiâ—y an â— deservedly counted fools that do the coâ—trary And therefore those are guilty of so mucâ— the greater folly and madness who deprive themselves of the happiness of Heaven by a sinful seeking or possessing of the Honors Profits or Pleasures of this life as the happiness of Heaven exceeds the enjoyments of this World in kind and height of satisfaction and in continuance and duration so rational a thing it is to live and walk by Faith of unseen things and unreasonable and unmanly to be governed by the sense of present things in opposition thereunto 2 Thâ—ss 3. 2. 2. The Faith of Assent in the Understanding worketh a Consent in the Will to the Condition of the Promise as the passion of fear is awakened by believing God's threatnings against such as do not observe and fulfil that Condition There is a Principle of self-preservation planted by God in every Man's nature by which he fears and abhors that which he knows and verily believes tends to the infelicity and misery of his being and which puts him upon the avoiding of that which he believes hath such a tendency in order to the declyning the misery or destruction it self When a Man receives such sayings into his Understanding as threaten that if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that except ye repent ye shall all perish That without holiness no Man shall see the Lord and the like and doth assent unto them as the true sayings of God which assent is his Faith the fear of the misery threatned and the Principle of self-preservation work in him a desire and endeavour to have his sinful inclinations and appetites mortified and a care to avoid the outward acts of sin as really and truly as he desires to escape Eternal Destruction it self as believing and knowing they tend thereto and that he cannot escape the one without a sincere desire and endeavour to destroy and avoid the other And in this way Faith is a Believers Victory by which he also overcomes the World when it tempts him to sin by threatning him with disgrace loss of Estate or Liberty or with enduring of corporal punishment or death it self For he believes the punishments in the other world to be of such a nature and duration as that the worst things which Man can inflict are altogether inconsiderable in comparison of them By which belief he is so far guided that he chuses to suffer the less when his faithfulness to God and his own best interest doth expose him to it rather than to expose himself by unfaithfulnes to infinitely the greater to avoid the less And thus Faith purifies the heart of all inordinate affection to Riches Honour Ease and Pleasures Acts 15. 9. 3. The Faith of Assent or Credence in the Understanding touching the exceeding greatness of God's love to mankind in the gift of Christ for their Redemption and in his great and precious Promises made in him upon a very gracious Condition works in the Will a love to God and so a love to please him in doing those things which he hath made the Condition of his Promise When once the Understanding represents it to the Will as a certain Truth upon clear evidence that notwithstanding Mens Apostacy from God and Rebellion against him and the Condemnation they are under thereby yet God is reconcileable to them yea willing and so desirous to reconcile them to himself that as an evidence and proof of it he hath given his own Son Christ Jesus to become a Ransâ—me for them and that he hath made a new Covenant declaring that upon account of his Son 's undertaking for them he is not only abundantly willing to pardon all such as shall unfeigâ—â—dly repent of their disloyalty and sincerely return to their duty but that he will also bountifully reward
Justification is suspended and are both constituted so by the same means and that is by promise of pardon to such as do believe to such as do repent and by threatning the contrary to those that do not both And if they are a joynt Condition of the Promise of Justification then Justification proceeds not upon either of them alone but upon both together 6. Whereas it is said in the Similitude that a man sees with his Eye alone though not with his Eye which is alone or when it is alone I doubt this is no more true than that which is intended to be illustrated by it For Naturalists will tell them the contrary that it is not the Eye alone by which a Man sees but that it is the Soul that sees by the Eye as its Organ The Eye sees not when the Soul is departed though it be not then alone I confess I cannot possibly conceive either how the Soul should not concur with the Eye in the act of seeing when the Eye cannot see without it nor yet that Repentance should not concur with Faith in the act of Justification so long as men cannot be justified by Faith it self without it or in the absence of it as they themselves grant 3. This lyes in the way of some they cannot conceive how Justification by Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith should consist with the possibility of somes being justified by believing who yet may not live so long after as to have an oppertunity of doing good Works How rare Instances of this kind are I shall not dispute But doubtless when ever men so believe Gods Promise of pardon through Christ upon their Repentance and the necessity of their own Repentance for the obtaining of it as that they in Will and a fixed and lasting Resolution become new men then they first believe unto Justification And it is not impossible but that some may so believe that may never after they do so have opportunity to be much active in External Acts of Obedience But though this should so fall out yet such are not justified without Evangelical Obedience as wel as Faith For 1. These Motions and Acts of the Will are themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience 2. They are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come I. They are in themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience For by these Motions and Acts of the Will Men do when ever they take place turn from sin to God and their Duty out of hatred to that they turn from and out of love to that they turn to And these Acts of the Will which consist in affection and resolution are proper effects and fruits of Faith in the Understanding and Acts of Heart-Obedience in the sight of God and a conformity of Soul to his declared Will and Commandment And they may as well and as truly be called Works as evil Acts of the Will may such as are a love to evil and desires and resolutions of perpetrating it Which evil Acts of the Will are yet in Scripture called Works and a working of wickedness Psal. 58. 2. Ye work wickedness in your hearts Micah 2. 1. He that looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Matth. 5. 28. And envy wrath and hatred which are Internal Acts of the Soul are called Works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20 21. And if such inward fixed resolutions in Men of obeying God in External Acts if ever they have opportunity and a Call to it did not pass in God's account for Obedience and were not accepted in stead of the Deed when opportunity for the Deed is wanting the best Man in the World could be no Disciple of Christ who doth not actually forsake all that he hath and lay down his life for him Whosoever of you forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple saith he Luke 14. 26 33. Whereas Christ pronounceth the poor in spirit blessed many of whom never became actually poor for his sake as not being called to it But if they are poor in Spirit if they firmly resolve to become poor in forsaking all for Christs sake when called to it these are capable of blessedness in Christ's account as well as those that suffer the loss of all for Righteousness sake Matth. 5. 3. II. Those Acts of the Will are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come Because those resolutions against evil for good when they are of a fixed and lasting nature as they alwayes are when together with Faith they make men capable of Justification will certainly produce External Acts of sincere Obedience as opportunity doth occur When the Tree is made good it will bring forth good Fruit in the season of Fruit if it be not cut down before When the heart is renewed in affection and resolution the course of a Mans Life will certainly be answerable to it if ever he have opportunity of shewing it A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things Mat. 12. 35. And God who knows the heart doth judge of and estimate men according to what they are in the inward frame of their heart and prevalent bent of their Wills If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8. 12. We judge of the Cause by the Effects of the goodness of mens hearts by the goodness of their lives to us the Tree is known by its Fruit But God who is greater than our hearts and knows them better than we do judges of the effect by the Cause and knows what a Mans Life will be by what his heart is upon its first conversion to him and so confers on him the benefit of Justification when the Foundation of a good Life is laid in the conversion and renewing of the heart The Understanding of this Part of Discourse will serve not only to satisfie the foresaid doubt but also to inform us what Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification in its beginning Not but that actual Obedience in Life is necessary to the continuance of Justification where Life is continued And therefore we find that Abraham was justified by his after-believing and after-obedience as well as by his first and so was Noah before him Noah was a righteous Man and justified before he became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith by his believing and obeying God in preparing the Ark Gen. 6. 9. Heb. 11. 7. It was by Faith in God's Promise that Abraham left his Countrey to obey God at the first and by that he was first justified Heb. 11. 8. And yet his believing God's Promise so shall thy Seed be which was not made till some years after was imputed to him also for righteousness Gen. 15. 6. It was many years after that again that by Faith he offered his son Isaac upon the
Altar and yet by that he was justified as well as by his first Faith and obedience Iam. 2. 21. pardon of sin is our Justification from sin Act. 13. 39. And this we are directed by the Lords Prayer to pray for daily all our dayes And the continuance of Justification is promised upon Condition of continuance of Faith and Obedience to the Gospel Col. 1. 21 22 23. and a discontinuance of it threatned in case of disobedience according to the Tenour of the Parable Mat. 18. from ver 23. to ver 35. By all which we may see what need there is for all Christians to work out to work through their own Salvation with fear and trembling to which they are earnestly exhorted Phil. 2. 12. and to run so that they may obtain 1 Cor 9. 24. 4. Some to evil affect their own and others minds with prejudice against Discourses of this nature do suggest That the laying so great a stress upon Duty as to esteem any thing of it necessary to Justification save believing only doth derogate from the Glory of Christ's great Undertaking in the business of Mans Salvation and that it is a trusting in our own Righteousness But it will appear far otherwise if they will but impartially consider in what sence and upon what account such stress is laid upon Duty which I shall open in two particulars 1. They that rightly understand themselves in this matter do not look that any of their Duties of what nature soever should of themselves as such be available to their Justification or Salvation but that it is for the sake of Christ and upon account of his undertaking for us that God accepts and imputes for Righteousness to us such Duty as Faith Repentance and Obedience is and that he doth make promise of Justification upon Condition of these Since the fall we say all our Duties that are acceptable to God or available to us become so through Christ and for his sake And therefore so long as we Attribute and Ascribe the benefit we expect upon our Repentance and sincere Obedience or Belief unto Christ and to his great and worthy undertaking for us we are far from derogating from the Glory of it and from trusting in our own Righteousness in that Notion in which mens trusting in their own Righteousness is condemned in Scripture or any otherwise than as our Duty is made a Condition without which we shall have no part in Christ nor be qualified for glory 2. When we lay such stress upon Repentance Obedience c. as a condition or part of a Condition of the Promise of Justification and Salvation as without which we say we cannot be justified or saved by Christ's undertaking for us yet then this stress is laid and depends upon the Will and appointment of God by which these Duties are thus made the Condition and not on the intrinsick worth or value of the Duties themselves simply considered without reference to God's Ordination appointing them to that use For if God had not made a new Covenant promising pardon for Christ's sake to such as do repent and acceptance and reward to such as sincerely obey him they would have had no sufficient ground to have been confident of Pardon Acceptance or Reward though they should have repented and so obeyed And the reason is because Men are not justified in the Eye of the Natural or Moral Law upon any such account as that is So that all the stress which is laid on Duty by them that rightly understand their Duty in this matter doth terminate partly in Christ's undertaking for them and partly in God's Institution and Appointment who hath made his Promise of justifying us for Christ's sake so as that he hath made our Duty of Repentance and sincere Obedience a necessary Condition of it And he that trusteth to be pardoned accepted and rewarded for Christ's sake upon his repentance and sincere Obedience because God hath promised that he shall trusteth in God and in the fidelity of his Word and Promise And in doing so what more stress doth he lay upon Duty in this kind than they that trust to be justified and saved upon their believing For their believing is matter of Duty as wel as their Repenting and Obeying And their believing would no more have entitled them to the benefit without the Promise which gives them that title than other Acts of Duty would do And other Acts of Duty do entitle to the same benefits as fully as Faith it self doth where there is promise of the same benefits annexed to them as Faith hath And that they have I have shewed before So long then as the stress which is laid on Duty terminates in Christ and in God's Will and Appointment in the new Covenant and is regulated by his Word and Promise there is no danger of overcharging Duty It 's true indeed if we should expect that Duty should do that for us which is proper only to Christ as to expiate our sin or the like we should sinfully overcharge it as the Pharisaical Iews did their Sacrifices and other Legal Observances in expecting remission of Sin by them without Christ's Atonement Which Righteousness of theirs is for that cause called their own Righteousness which was by the Law as being no method of Justification of God's appointment but of their own devising which in that respect was indeed but as filthy Rags and loathsome to God But this is not the case with Protestant Christians who lay no such stress upon Duty no not upon Faith it â—elf but do acknowledge that all the power and virtue it hath to justifie depends wholly upon and is derived from the Will and Ordinâ—tion of God in Christ Ioh. 6. 40. 1. 12. Ephes. 2. 8. And we say the same of Repentance and sincere Obedience also And a confidence of being saved in a way of Duty upon such terms is represented in Scipture as trusting in the Righteousness of God through Faith in opposition to ones trusâ—ing in his own Rightâ—ousnâ—ss Phil. 3. 9. â—o 〈◊〉 is it 〈◊〉 trusting in our own Righteoâ—sness â—r from 〈◊〉 from Christ in the Glory 〈…〉 Natural or Moral Law upon any such account as that is So that all the stress which is laid on Duty by them that rightly understand their Duty in this matter doth terminate partly in Christ's undertaking for them and partly in God's Insitution and Appointment who hath made his Promise of justifying us for Christ's sake so as that he hath made our Duty of Repentance and sincere Obedience a necessary Condition of it And he that trusteth to be pardoned accepted and rewarded for Christ's sake upon his repentance and sincere Obedience because God hath promised that he shall trusteth in God and in the fidelity of his Word and Promise And in doing so what more stress doth he lay upon Duty in this kind than they that trust to be justified and saved upon their believing minds thirst more after Discourses Consolatory