damnation and that when the Apostles and Evangelists wrote the New Testament in which they laid the same stress upon Faith that Christ himself had done before them that they I say should mean something else by the word than what it signified according to common use and yet that they should not tell us so The Writers and first Preachers of the Gospel did indeed treat of new Subjects viz. of those new Revelations of God's Will that had been lately made but when they made use of words that had a known meaning they did not depart from the received signification of those words But by Faith or believing men always understood being persuaded of the truth of some Proposition And thus Faith is described in the Scripture where it is described most fully In St. John 11.25 says our Saviour He that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live but this is explained v. 27. I believe that thou art Christ the Son of God that should come into the world And again John 8.24 If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins Moreover that Faith by which the Church should stand wanted nothing surely that belongs to the nature of Faith and that is thus expressed We believe and are sure that thou art Christ the Son of the living God and this because not flesh and blood but God had revealed it Thus Abraham's Faith which was imputed to him for righteousness was his accounting that God was able to raise up Isaac even from the dead And all the holy men mentioned in Heb. 11. are said to have died in faith being persuaded of the promises As to those that think there is more in the nature of Faith than this comes to they either return to this in other words or add something that doth not belong to the nature of it those that say there must be a particular application of the Promises where there is true Faith say well but then application is nothing else but a persuasion of or an assent unto a single Proposition For instance I am persuaded that God sent his Son into the world to save mankind is a general persuasion Christ came for my Salvation which is the Application is a particular one Without holiness no man shall see the Lord therefore without holiness I shall not This last is but persuasion and there is that in the former therefore Faith in both Again if resting and relying upon Christ is said to be Faith the meaning must be either that I am assured Christ will save me and this is being persuaded of the truth of that saying or else that I rely upon his Person but a Person cannot be believed otherwise than by believing something of him or something that he has said Some there are that think the nature of Faith doth consist in a certain degree of Persuasion and the Romanists tell us there must be Infallibility in it But now there is a weak as well as a strong Faith and though a greater degree of Assent is more working and powerful yet the nature of Faith is in the least Lastly some good men are apt to think that the goodness of the Will and Affections nay and Holiness of Life belongs to the nature of true Faith but this cannot be because although Faith where it is in that degree that it ought to be there as I shall shew it will produce holiness of Heart and Life and therefore Faith is sometimes spoken of in the Scriptures as comprehending those good Affections and those good Works which it causes yet sometimes they are distinguished from one another and therefore they are not the same so that when all is done the whole nature of Christian Faith doth consist in this That it is a persuasion of the Truth of those Doctrines which Christ hath made known to us Now for the second Point 2. Concerning the power and efficacy of Faith we are to consider that there are these two things attributed to it our Justification and our Holiness or Obedience to the Gospel And here we will first consider 1. What Efficacy Faith has as to the Justification of him that believes and this I shall shew very briefly and plainly in these following particulars 1. Faith may be said to be justifying or saving in that it puts a man into a good way of being justified and thus believing that Jesus is the Christ may be said to be justifying Faith because it is the first step towards Justification and believing his Precepts with his Promises and Threatnings is in this sense a more Justifying Faith because it brings a man nearer to that state in which he shall be justified But 2. If we speak of Actual Justification and continuance in God's favour then not any nor all the proper acts of Faith taken together but separate from Repentance and Obedience are sufficient for where God hath made more conditions than one necessary there the performance of all but one will not suffice and therefore where forgiveness and salvation is promised to one single condition there the presence of all the rest is supposed He that giveth a cup of cold water to a disciple in the name of a disciple shall not lose his reward but shall cold water wash away the treachery of Judas or the injustice of Pilate He that confesseth that Jesus is the Christ hath eternal life but still to be carnally minded is death He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved Nevertheless it is true that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven and therefore where nothing less than Salvation is promised to Believing and Baptism all that which in reason should follow is meant though it be not expressed 3. If we speak of final and irreversible Justification this is neither to be obtained by Faith nor Obedience without perseverance in both God doth in this Life justify true Believers but not once for all till they have fought their good fight and finished their course As the Lord in the Parable forgave his Servant and yet called him to account for his Debt when he proved cruel to his Fellow for this shewed that his pardon was but conditional So likewise says our Saviour shall your heavenly Father do unto you Now I confess what hath been said in answer to the first and second Inquiries gives no sufficient account why we are said to be justified by Faith so frequently in the Scripture but rather seems to make it more unaccountable For if there be no more in the nature of Faith than assent to Truth this seems to be a very common attainment not deserving those great things that are spoken of Faith in the Scripture Can that be the Faith by which all good men have wrought righteousness which hath been held in unrighteousness by as many wicked And then as to the power of this Faith in order to Justification Can that be the faith of God's elect which the Reprobates have as
he lays down in the remaining part of the Text. 1. That this Righteousness proceeds from Faith The righteousness of God from faith to faith 2. That this principle of Righteousness was mentioned in the Old Testament As it is written the just shall live by faith And therefore we are first to enquire 1. What is the meaning of that Passage from faith to faith In what sense is the Righteousness which God requires said to be from faith to faith I answer that the meaning is this The Righteousness which pleaseth God is that which must begin from Faith which must still proceed from Faith and which at last must end in Faith For this is a saying like to that in Rom. 6.19 As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness For by serving iniquity unto iniquity is meant adding one sin to another and daily growing worse And by serving righteousness unto holiness is meant adding one degree of goodness to another and growing better And thus here the Righteousness which is from faith to faith is a Righteousness which first proceeds from Faith and is always built upon it afterwards and is at last perfected by it For that which the Apostle intimates by these words is That the Righteousness of a good Christian having Faith for the ground and reason of it does encrease as his Faith encreases and that the more he is rooted and strengthned in Faith the better he grows and he pleases God the more This seems to be the most natural interpretation of these words viz. That Faith is all along the Principle and Ground of that Righteousness which God expects and is pleased with But then 2. What relation hath that Passage out of the Old Testament to this matter As it is written the just shall live by faith I answer That the Apostle does hereby design to shew that though the Promises of the Gospel are incomparably more excellent than those that were made under the Law yet it was the belief of God's Promises then that held good men to the performance of their duty and intituled them to the favour of God The words are taken out of Habakk 2.4 God had promised the Jews that they should return from their Captivity in his appointed time v. 3. therefore says he though the vision tarry wait for it because it will surely come but the just shall live by his faith that is to say The sure belief of this Promise would support good men in the service of God under the Captivity in an Idolatrous Land and their Faith should be rewarded with a return into their own Country in God's appointed time In like manner Christians who have better promises viz. of an Heavenly Countrey do in this Faith work that Righteousness which the Gospel requires and for thus living by Faith in this World they shall live for ever in their Heavenly Countrey Faith was the foundation of the Jews observing their Law of outward Works and it was rewarded with such Blessings as that Law promised But the Gospel of Christ as we read in the foregoing Verse is the power of God unto salvation and therefore it is still true but in a much higher sense that the just shall live by faith because the Gospel requires an inward and spiritual Righteousness to which we are brought by the belief of promises of spiritual and eternal good things and because such Faith shall bring us to everlasting life Thus much for the Explication of the Text. And now my work shall be to enquire upon what ground it is that the Scriptures do attribute so much to Faith as they do and to shew that this is done without any disparagement at all to Godliness and Virtue And I have chosen this Argument to discourse upon that it may appear how unreasonably we of the Reformation are charged by our Adversaries as we often have been with Solifidianism as they call it that is with attributing all to Faith and leaving no necessity for Righteousness and good Works We do indeed with the Scriptures say That we are justified by faith and that the just do live by Faith but we do with the Scriptures also affirm Faith to be the principle of obedience and there is a righteousness from faith to faith without which we cannot please God nor be justified before him We do also renounce the merit of good Works and resolve the acceptance of them into the Grace and Mercy of God in not imputing our sins to us and when we have done all they are the gracious Promises of God and it is not the dignity of our own Righteousness that we rely upon but then we say it is the faith of these Promises that maketh us live to God by Repentance and good Works which are so necessary that we are dead without them Now from hence indeed it follows That where there is that faith which God requires holiness will follow For if we are justified by faith if he that believes shall be saved and yet without holiness no man shall see the Lord then they that believe are holy which if it be found true then we not to say the Scriptures are justified in attributing so much to Faith as we do that it is by Faith we please God that we live by Faith and that we are saved by Faith On the other hand it seems hard to understand how those great things should be spoken of Faith when there are many that do not hold faith and a good conscience but hold the truth in unrighteousness And since it follows more certainly That a man believes because he is holy than that he is holy because he believes it should rather have been said that a Believer shall live by his Righteousness than that the just shall live by faith and yet following the Scriptures we say that we live by faith and are justified by faith To clear this difficulty it will be requisite to consider well these two things 1. What the Nature of Faith is And 2. What power it has or what efficacy must necessarily be granted to it and when it hath that power and efficacy I shall not only aim at making the notions of these things clear but also profitable unto Godliness 1st then As to the Nature of Faith I do not see that the Scripture means any thing by Faith but a persuasion of the truth of something that is affirmed upon the Testimony of one that affirms it or upon some other reason besides sensible evidence or immediate knowledge And thus Divine Faith is a persuasion of the truth of those things which we have God's testimony for And that we are thus to understand these words Faith or believing in the Scriptures is very plain because otherwise the Scriptures must have altered the common sense and signification of words But can we think that when our Blessed Saviour required believing under the penalty of
godly life because there are many men of clear and active thoughts and conversant in the study of Religion that do not live by Faith for as the Faith of such men cannot in reason be thought to be a confused and indeterminate persuasion so it is too plain by experience that some such do retain the Faith but make shipwrack of a good conscience And therefore let us consider the third thing wherein the power of Faith consists viz. 3. The permanence of it upon the mind or a constancy of frequent consideration upon what we believe That is to say let us suppose a man that doth not only believe all matters of Faith that are needful and apprehend them distinctly and particularly and with application to himself but likewise by very much consideration of these things hath made them present and habitual to himself and of such a man I say That he is under the whole power of Faith and he it is that overcomes the world For such a Believer has two advantages which cannot fail to make him a good man 1. His Persuasion or his Faith is present to his mind when he most needs it i.e. upon all occasions of temptation so that he will be ready in the strength of it to say with Joseph How shall I do this great wickedness and sin against God But now though one believes all the awakening Doctrines of Religion yet if he does not think of them nor lay them to heart when the Devil the World and the Flesh are busy with him t is all one with him at the time as if he had never heard of the Articles of Christian Faith and for the present he is as much without the Operation of Faith as if he had none at all It is with him as it is with a man in a swooning fit there is indeed life in him but it is without sense and motion and for the time he differs not from one that is dead or rather as there is a principle of sense and motion in the one without any act of either so is there indeed in the other a Principle of Faith but no Act of it and it is therefore as if it were not at all Distinct and particular application of what we believe will do much towards the restraining of a man's lusts and this is properly Faith but then that Faith which once was and now is not can do nothing at present which is the case of too many persons professing Christianity That their belief of Divine Truth is oftner absent than present because they do not think of those things which should govern them and assist them under Temptations but by chance or when they cannot help it their business is to put those things out of their minds and not to fix them there And this is the first advantage of one that is constant in his consideration of the Truths whereof he is convinced that they are present to him when he stands in need of their help and indeed never at any great distance from him The 2d Is this and that is the greatest of all That he hath a true and lively sense of these things as often as they return to his mind and he always believes them as he should do under a vigorous apprehension of his own great concernment in them To believe that there is a God and a Life to come and that the Son of God came to be our Saviour and will come to be our Judge that through the Infinite Mercy of God and through the Death and Passion of our Saviour we may obtain Forgiveness of Sins and Eternal Life to believe these things I say according to their nature and our concernment in them is to have a due sense of them and to be justly affected with them more than with all other interests whatsoever because these indeed are the greatest of all Now it is by a Constancy of Believing i. e. of Considering these things and making them present to us that we come to that Faith which consists in a right apprehension and a just sense of them Nor will any other means do without this and indeed all means of Grace are ineffectual without it and they are then effectual when they bring us to this degree of Faith The Prayers that we make are unprofitable if they do not help to fix our minds upon God and Divine Truth and by their frequent returns make a sense of Religion natural and familiar to us Our reading the Scriptures and hearing good Doctrine and Exhortation and our assembling for the worship of God is unprofitable to Godliness otherwise than by accustoming of us to think as we should do that is to be affected with the Doctrines of our most holy Faith Good education and good examples do no otherwise promote the work of God in our minds than by awakening our consideration of that Truth which is to renew us in the spirit of our minds Afflictions and Judgments the Fears and Apprehensions of Death the amazing Calls of God's Providence cannot of themselves work the reformation of an evil heart and life if they do it it is by beginning to bring men to that Consideration which they continue afterwards till they come to a Faith that answers the nature of the things they believe which consists in a just sense and apprehension of them but this is not to be gained but by a constant Consideration because they are spiritual things or future things after this life which are the main Objects of our Faith If a sick man believes that he shall gain his health by such a method or a poor man that he shall get an estate or a prisoner that he shall recover his liberty or any man that he shall come to his end in this world by such a course of means there is no need of much Consideration to persuade himself to try it because without any pains taken with himself he is naturally possest with a lively persuasion of his concernment in things of this nature But in Religion it is otherwise tho the interest be great nay the greatest of all yet it is not a sensible nor a present interest in comparison and so our Faith must be renewed day by day that we may be affected with it as reasonable creatures ought to be and by much thinking of it i. e. by many Acts of Faith arrive to such a sense of God and our interest in Religion as the nature of the thing deserves And this is that Faith which overcomes the world which purifies the heart and makes a man a new creature I deny not That wicked men believe and do contrary to a sense of their duty and of their obligations to God I acknowledge that they have so much Faith as makes them uneasie under their guilt somewhat loth to commit sin and ashamed and afraid when it is committed I grant that they have Faith truly so called but then they want Faith too that Faith which is properly
so called also and which the Scripture requires Either they want the Faith of assenting to some needful Truth which perhaps doth not often happen or they want the Faith of a distinct and particular persuasion and application to themselves which happens more often or they want the Faith of frequent assenting of a permanent persuasion fixt in their hearts by consideration which I doubt is the frequent defect But now the Scripture doth not barely require that we should once for all persuade our selves of the Truths of God's Word but moreover That the word of God should dwell richly in us and that we should be rooted and established in Faith that Christ should dwell in our hearts by Faith and the like which is plainly to require a fixed and lively sense of Divine Truths upon our souls caused by much conversation with them and thinking upon them Now this I say That every act of Meditation or Thought upon these things is a distinct Assent to them and is therefore truly and properly Faith Now because we are to interpret Scripture by Scripture therefore this Scripture That by Faith we are justified is to be interpreted by the aforesaid Exhortations and consequently by Justifying Faith we are to understand an habitual and permanent persuasion of the great Truths of Religion effected by a frequent and just consideration of them and such Faith will justify because it will sanctify it will procure the relative change of putting us into a state of Favour with God because it will procure the real or personal change of subduing our corrupt affections and making us obedient to God from the heart For suppose a man by constant consideration to have gained such a sense of Spiritual things as by assiduity men come to have in all matters they frequently think of and converse about how is it possible but he must be a good man in the rest of his life But men are but half persuaded that never think of these things but by chance or when they cannot help it So that this is the great point wherein we exercise liberty in matters of Religion viz. Whether we will consider or not i. e. Whether we will often persuade our selves of the great Truths of God and a World to come or but very rarely This is the main hinge upon which our state turns and here lies the principal power we have still under the Grace of God to help and reform our selves which seems to be suggested by the Scriptures insisting so much upon it That we are justified by Faith for this shews us where our strength lies Nay the just himself lives by his Faith and it is by Faith that he perseveres in Righteousness And where such Faith is as I have now described it will not fail to influence the mind and conversation For we are led by persuasion to evil as well as to good and when a man doth ill it cannot be that at the same time he should be persuaded to do well No wonder therefore that the Scripture concludes of all wicked men That they are not persuaded of the truth of those things which they profess to believe They profess says the Apostle to know God but in works they deny him Tit. 1.16 But works neither deny nor affirm any thing they only shew whether we our selves do one or the other If then all that are disobedient are in a true sense unbelievers then all who fully believe are holy By Faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaac but if the command to offer up his Son was the Trial of his Faith then had he not obeyed his belief had not been true Therefore also where the belief is true where it is a fixed and lively sense of God and Religion where it doth not come in as a sojourner but dwelleth richly in the Soul it will sanctify and cleanse it In short This permanent persuasion of the Truths of the Gospel being that without which we cannot bring forth fruit unto God in all good works he hath required of us and with which we shall it must necessarily be the faith by which the just do live Finally therefore my Brethren Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil stand having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breast plate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace But above all take the shield of faith whereby ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God By all which it appears That Christian Truth is our Armour against Sin and therefore let that humble man's Prayer be ours and our care answerable Lord we believe help thou our unbelief And may the God of Truth increase our faith in us that it may be fruitful in good works to the glory of his Name and our eternal Salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen The Second Sermon HEB. XI 6. But without faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him THE words are the most comprehensive that I can find in all the Bible for bringing all that is necessary to be said concerning the true nature the full extent and proper use of Faith under one Text which possibly you will acknowledge if you consider with me the very deep and yet clear sense of these excellent Words The first clause of them contains a general Proposition But without faith it is impossible to please God The second contains a proof of that Proposition for he that cometh to God must c. By comparing the Proposition proved with the proof thereof we shall come to understand every phrase and word of the Text. For if we enquire 1. What is here meant by pleasing God in the general Proposition let us see what answers thereunto in the following words and we shall find by pleasing God is meant the doing of those things whereby God is pleased for saith the Apostle He that cometh to God must believe that he is Now to come to God is an obvious phrase signifying to worship God Wherefore it being supposed as the Apostle's form of arguing makes it necessary that to worship God or to come to him is to please him it must needs follow that to please God signifies the doing of those things whereby God is pleased But hence we must not conclude that the worship of God properly so called is the only thing that is pleasing to God because the Apostle's intent in the proof of his general proposition is to give some particular instance of each part thereof as I shall shew all along in the Explication of these words There are other things which please God besides
life and power of it in his heart for this reason it is that the Faith of good Christians who are not so well verst in subtle reasonings as in religious practice cannot be shaken by the objections of a Sophister because they have that inward sense of the power and excellency of Divine Truths which is above all other argument They know by experience that in the keeping of God's Commandments there is great reward and cannot therefore be entangled by any artificial objections against it but that I may not be mistaken I do not pretend that the pleasure which a man finds in believing any Doctrine is always an argument that the Doctrine is true There are some Doctrines in the World that tend to licentiousness that weaken the obligations to an holy life and therefore are sweet to the carnal man because they can put him in possession of great joy in himself before he has that good title to it which can only be founded upon repentance and holiness therefore it is neither false nor allowable always to argue from the experience a man hath of the sweetness and pleasure of his perswasions to the truth of them as many misguided Souls have done but for all that it is most certain that Religion consisting in the belief of truth and the practice of goodness a man shall understand the power of the one and the excellency of the other by experience better than he can by meer speculation for the nature of things that are to be done is never so fully understood as by doing them and the force of Truth is never so thoroughly felt as when it makes the Will and Affections as well as the Understanding submit to it now the best way to avoid arguing to our selves fallaciously from our own experience and being imposed upon by the joy and pleasure which those perswasions yield that tend to carnal security the best way I say to avoid this is to follow our Saviour's rule by laying the foundation even of experimental knowledge in doing the will of God and applying our selves with all sincerity to the keeping of his Commandments because then we shall never argue from experience but in favour of the truth i. e. of true Virtue and Holiness and of those Principles which lead to the practice of it And most certainly there is that comfort and satisfaction in believing Divine Truth there are those Joys in living according to it which can never be thoroughly understood but by the practice of Religion and Virtue which no man can have a just conception of till he hath tasted and seen how gracious God is Solomon says That the ways of wisdom are pleasantness and all her paths are peace but then we shall never thoroughly understand this till we walk in them in the keeping of God's Commandments there is great reward but how shall we find this reward but in keeping of them It may be described to us by others but as imperfectly as the Pencil doth Life and Motion the best descriptions will fall short of the subject and if we be alienated from the life of God we cannot fully conceive it Nay most commonly the delights of the righteous are things flat and insipid and the representation of them is nauseous and irksom to the carnal worldling and he is hardly in a better condition to understand it than one that is born Blind can apprehend that saying of Solomon Truly light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun The sum of all is this That if sincerity towards God in doing his will is a great advantage towards the obtaining of that knowledge which is possible to the wicked man the knowledge of speculation if also that knowledge is gained by it which the insincere have nothing at all of if the righteous do not only better apprehend the weight of arguments but understand more by having their senses exercised to discern between good and evil then have we great reason to follow our Saviour's method If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God Only let us remember that this knowledge is not to be gained this blessing is not to be procured to our selves either by my discourse or by your hearing what hath been said concerning our Saviour's words no nor by granting the truth and reasonableness of what hath been offered in illustration of them but only by putting our selves seriously upon the trial of this way by doing the will of God for what hath been said of Divine Truths in the general holds good of this in particular That the excellency of our Lord's method for the gaining of good knowledge in the things of God cannot be thoroughly judged till we have applied our selves to the use of it and I doubt not but those that have made trial do acknowledge the truth of what hath been said FINIS