Mark 16.15 16. 2 Thes 1.10 and 2.13 And it is no marvail the same Faith should be thus diversly exprest since a believing of any one of these includes in it a belief of them all and so does a belief of the Resurrection of Christ by which this Faith is also somtimes described Rom. 10.9 For he that believes the Record of God concerning Christ cannot but believe him to be the Son of God because that is the thing which the Father Almighty hath more than once testified by a voice from Heaven Mat. 3.17 and 17.5 And he who believes Christ to be the Son of God must needs believe his doctrine which is the Gospel to be true As on the other hand whoever believes the Gospel must needs believe Christ to be the Son of God because it testifies so much of him and likewise because it sets forth those many stupendious Miracles which he wrought and how the ancient predictions of the Prophets concerning the Messias were fulfilled in him and also his Miraculous Resurrection from the dead by all which he is demonstrated to be the Son of God Now then whosoever rightly believes the doctrine of our Saviour contained in the Gospel and of his Apostles concerning him do believe that he died for our sins and rose again and that repentance or amend ment of life and obedience to the Precepts of our Saviour are indispensibly necessary to the obtaining of remission of sin and eternal Life by his Death Resurrection and Intercession And the reason hereof is because these things are declared to be so in that Gospel which is so believed And therefore whosoever does believe he shall be saved by Christs death from the wrath to come though he does not truly and sincerely make it his business to amend his life according to the Precepts of our Saviour believes not the Gospel but believes that which is a flat contradiction to it and is like those of whom the Apostle says they profess that they know God but in works they deny him Tit. 1.16 Or if any man should believe this amendment of life to be necessary to the obtaining Remission of sin and Salvation by the death of Christ Yet what would this belief avail him if he himself should not by this belief become a new man in holiness righteousness and sobriety of living It is not any mans believing the most important and concerning truth that will avail him before God further than it tends to make him better to make him a good man The Devils we find confessed Christ saying thou art Christ the Son of God Luke 4.41 the same form of words almost verbatim in which the Apostles of our Saviour made confession of their Faith John 6.69 And St. James saith the Devils believe and tremble Chap. 2.19 But what are they the better for it so long as they retain the same devilish nature which they had before Nor can we say that mens Faith will any more save them than the Devils Faith saves Devils whatever it is which is believed unless that belief makes them better men in heart and Life If a man believe aright and understands what it is he believes he can hardly be any more careless of acting according to his belief than he is careless of obtaining the pardon of his sin and the Salvation of his Soul A right saving belief of the Gospel then hath in it the spirit and seed of a good life it hath in it virtually and potentially all pious and vertuous actions And all pious and vertuous actions that proceed from Faith are as I may so say but Faith diversified in several acts and are a part of Faith as the fruit that grows upon a Tree is part of the Tree And to make this appear in some instances all those noble and generous acts of the Patriarchs and other Worthies mentioned in Hebrews the 11th Chapter did all grow out of their Faith for by Faith they did them all All the good report which they obtained upon account of their Heroick actions is attributed to their Faith by which they did atchieve them these all having obtained a good report through Faith c. Ver. 39. More particularly the Author of this Epistle to the Hebrews in Ver. 5. of this 11th Chapter proves that it was by Faith that Enoch was translated because he had this testimony that before he was translated he pleased God or walked with God as his History relates it Gen. 5. which as he shews was impossible for him to have done if he had not had Faith for saith he without Faith it is impossible to please God So that we see the same thing is attributed to the Righteousness of his life in walking with God as is to his Faith which produced that effect viz. that thereby he pleased God And so it is said of Noah Ver. 7. that by faith he being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by which action of his in conjunction with his Faith he became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith It is said of Abraham also Ver. 17. that by Faith he offered up Isaac And it is said by St. James that by this good work of his the fruit of his Faith among others he was Justified Jam. 2.21 And not only so but that therein the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness Ver. 23. which shews that when the Scripture saith Gen. 15.6 that Abrahams believing God was counted to him for Righteousness it was meant of his Faith as it was a vital principle of sincere obedience to God in whatever he commanded him else that Scripture would not have been fulfilled in Abrahams offering up Isaac and in his being justified thereby as well as by his Faith The like is said of Rahab that by faith she perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies in peace Heb. 11.31 And St. James saith that she was Justified by this work which was the fruit of her Faith Jam. 2.25 So that we see in the Scripture-notion of Faith to have Faith counted to us for Righteousness and to have acts of obedience proceeding from Faith to be counted for Righteousness in conjunction with the Faith it self is the same thing And to be Justified by Faith and to be Justified by those acts of obedience which are the issue of Faith in conjunction with the Faith it self is still the same thing in the sense of holy Scripture All this is to shew what and what manner of Faith it is that is the condition on the which pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised in the Gospel-Covenant and by which we are Justified and which is counted for Righteousness And for our greater confirmation in this and to shew further that no Faith can entitle us to the promises of the Covenant the promise of pardon and the promise of
our Saviour hath said Heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away Mat. 24.35 Those are the Vnbelievers which shall certainly perish who will not believe God who will not believe the Son of God when they have spoken their mind fully and plainly but will needs flatter themselves with hopes that they will be better than their words 3. Our Saviour to take away from men such vain hopes and to convince them of the necessity of their being reconciled to God hath told them that if they will not be reconciled to him they cannot be reconciled to happiness that their nature cannot be capable of the happiness of the next world unless they are reconciled to God in this Except a man be born again saith he he cannot see the kingdom of God John 3.3 Except such as have contracted ill habits by bad living be born again they are not capable of the happiness of that state That is in other words except they put off the old man and put on the new Col. 3.10 or which is yet more plainly exprest Ephes 4.22 23 24. except they put off concerning their former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of their minds and do put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness except this be done they cannot see the kingdom of God i. e. they cannot enjoy it He doth not say they shall not but that they cannot see it And the reason is because the happiness of the heavenly state is of such a nature as between which and the nature of man as viciated and corrupt there is no congruity And that which hath a contrariety in it to the nature of a creature is not matter of pleasure but of torment to it The holy God the holy Jesus the holy Angels and holy Men are the inhabitants of Heaven And what felicity can unholy men take in such company Solomon saith the upright are an abomination to the wicked Prov. 29.27 And if they be so here where they are but in part holy how much more will they be so in the other world when they are altogether so What Communion saith St. Paul hath righteousness with unrighteousness no more than light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 They do not love God here as he is holy nor is it pleasure to them to think of him as such and therefore unless they be sanctified and made so here they are not capable of enjoying God in the next world in the enjoyment of whom the happiness of Heaven doth consist Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 And they are such as are pure in heart which shall see God Mat. 5.8 Besides those sinful lusts which wicked men carry along with them into the next world will keep them from being happy in what place soever they are when they shall be deprived of those carnal objects to satisfie them which they found in this world And lest any should think that God will be so merciful to them as so to alter and change their nature when they come into the other world as that they shall be capable of the happiness of Heaven though they are not changed in this our Lord hath told them aforehand to prevent such a conceit that though many shall say unto him in that day Lord Lord open unto us for we have heard thee preach in our streets have eat and drunk in thy presence have prophesied and cast out devils in thy name and done many wonderful works yet they having lived and died unreformed he will then say unto them depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Mat. 7.22 Luke 13.25 26. And St. Paul his Apostle hath told us also that we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ that every one may receive according to that he hath done in the body whether it be good or bad We must receive we see according to what is done in the body here in this life before the separation of soul and body by death 2 Cor. 5.10 Now is the accepted time now the day of Salvation and those that out-stand this it will be said unto them as our Saviour doth in Rev. 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still By all these Revelations made by our Saviour he hath as any that will consider them may easily see put men upon a necessity of being reconciled to God unless they had rather chuse to be everlastingly miserable And in this with the forementioned Motives there is a very great aptitude to reconciel men to God as the reason of the thing shews and the event hath declared And thus we have now seen how the Mediatory Righteousness of our Saviour his obedience in executing the Law of Mediation doth operate to our Justification in reference both to God and men By his sufferings he reconciled God to penitent sinners by making satisfaction to his governing Justice and by securing the ends of his inflicting punishment upon impenitent offenders while he spares the penitent And by the Gospel which he hath set on foot the Holy Spirit concurring he reconciles men to God that is he reconciles their minds and wills their lives and actions to Gods Holy Nature Government and Laws which is their Evangelical Righteousness in which capacity he delivers them up to God to be Justified and Pardoned according to the tenor of the Covenant of Grace which he likewise obtained for us it being founded on his Mediatory obedience of which Covenant I am now in the next place to speak CHAP. III. How and in what respect the Covenant of Grace operates to our Justification THE Covenant of Grace operates to our Justification in several respects But however it doth this or in what respect soever yet all that operation is owing to the Mediatorial Righteousness or Obedience of our Saviour For I have shewed in what goes before that the Covenant it self was obtained by and founded in the Mediatorial Righteousness of our Saviour the obtaining of which was one of the ends of the Office and Work of Christ as Mediator And as it is one of the effects of our Saviours death it is called a Testament though in other respects it is called a Covenant yea a Law As its promises are made by God on condition of duty to be performed by us so it is a pact or Covenant As it absolutely enjoyns that as duty which is also the condition of our happiness so it is a Law But as it comes out of the hands of Jesus Christ and is the Fruit of his death so it is a Testament because by that it receives its vigor and strength A Testament saith the Apostle is of force when men are dead otherwise it is of no strength at all while the Testator liveth Heb. 9.17 This being premised I come now to
unexpectedly without any labour or industry of theirs But will any man in hopes it may so fall out with him neglect to labour in his calling for a lively-hood To be sure no man worthy the name of a man will What folly then is to be compared with that which such men commit that despise their own souls in taking less care for them though of eternal duration than for this short and transitory life But yet although God hath not promised that any shall have but those that ask nor find except they seek nor have it opened to them unless they knock to the end that none might promise themselves an obtaining without so doing And although God vouchsafeth unto men the Gospel as a means sufficient of it self to persuade them to consider their eternal concerns and to look after them more than any thing that concerns only this present life and to learn them without all excuse if they do not Yet when I consider the exceeding riches of the goodness of God and how full of compassion he is and how unwilling he is that any should perish I cannot I confess but think that he does more to prevent the destruction even of those that do perish than what is absolutely necessary and barely sufficient to prevent it if men did not through their own obstinacy and wilfulness receive such Grace of God in vain I cannot but think that God does more to bring men to repentance both those that do and those that do not actually and eventually repent than what he ever promised or engaged himself to do by his spirits striving with them by many inward and secret motions and operations upon their minds and consciences until by long and obstinate resistance the good spirit is caused to withdraw his applications by which withdrawing that which they before had is taken from them according to what is threatned to such as will not improve their Talent and they delivered up to a reprobate mind to be hardened Why should we not think but that God is as ready by his Holy Spirit to excite and stir up men to that which tends to their happiness as evil spirits are to tempt them to that which tends to their destruction When all the methods whereby God seeketh to bring men to repentance are thwarted and withstood the Holy Ghost is in Scripture then said to be resisted Which shews that the Holy Ghost is much concerned in those methods I doubt not but that when the Scripture saith that God would have all men to be saved we may safely conclude that he useth all means both internal and external to effect it so far as is agreeable to his perfect and unerring wisdom when all circumstances in the case are weighed and considered and that it is really better and will appear so one day that such men should perish which do perish rather than any more should be done by God to prevent it than he hath done before destruction befal them And it is better not because God takes more pleasure in the damnation than in the salvation of such as perish simply and in it self considered For he himself hath told us and sworn it lest we should not firmly believe it That he hath no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Ezek. 33.11 But it is better in reference to the publick good of his Creation in general the peace and good order whereof is thereby secured which otherwise was and still would be disquieted and put into confusion by them as it is now by the Devils while they are not shut up in Prison as hereafter they will be This reason of the punishment of such as have neglected their own Salvation as it refers to this publick good is implyed in those words of our Saviour Mat. 13.41 Where he says The Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and in those likewise Ver. 49. where he says so shall it be at the end of the world the Angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just And another reason among others of such mens punishment referring to the publick good is That virtue and goodness on the one hand and wickedness and vice on the other might the better appear to be what they are in their own nature by their sensible effects and so be loved or hated accordingly which we cannot conceive they would ever be so effectually as now they are and will be if they were not attended with rewards and punishments by the wise ordering of the Author and Governor of all beings It was by the sensible effects of eating of the forbidden Tree that Adam had that knowledg of evil as differing from good which he had not before Now such knowledg of the the difference between good and evil by rewards and punishments is of great use in the universal Kingdom and Government of God And if it were not better in reference to the general good that men should perish for their wilful neglect and refusal to make use of such means to prevent their destruction as God hath vouchsafed them and by the use whereof they might have prevented it if they would we could not well conceive how there should be any such thing as the destruction of wicked men other than what lies in the very nature of their sin it self it putting the course of nature into disorder confusion and torture so long as God takes no pleasure in their destruction for their destruction sake So much may suffice to shew in what capacity men are of performing the condition on which the pardon of sin and eternal life are promised which performance is of absolute and indispensible necessity to their justification And if in doing this I have said more than was barely necessary to this end yet perhaps not more than was necessary to prevent mens misunderstanding misinterpretation and misimprovement of what was necessarily said on that head of discourse considering how apt some of weak minds are to suspect if not to cry out Pelagianism where any ability in men to work out their own salvation is mentioned though there be not the least ground for it 5. The last thing I proposed to inquire into concerning Faith is how we may conceive that Faith does more immediately operate to our justification And what hath been said already touching Faith in the forementioned particulars may with a little reflection upon them satisfie us in this enquiry For such a Faith as I have described a Faith that is a vital and vigorous principle of Regeneration and of a holy life does Operate to our Justification as it is our Covenant-Righteousness as it is the performance of the condition on which pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised For as it is such and as it comprehends in it its proper effects it doth constitute those in whomsoever it is found Righteous