A SERMON Preached before the King Queen AT WINDSOR-CASTLE SEPT 21. 1690. By R. Meggott D. D. Dean of Winchester and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties Published by Their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCXC James II. XXVI For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also MAthias a Michou l. 1 c. 5. Desarmat Asianâ telleth us the reason why the Tartars embraced Mahometism was because the Saracens perswaded them that that Religion was more favourable and fit for their turn than the strict and rigid Christian But had they been acquainted with those indulging comments which we our selves as occasion hath served have made on it this need not have in the least disheartned them There is no Text so severe no saying so hard in it that these with one distinction and evasion or another have not softned and sweetned so that even the most delicate and wanton Palates may away with them Finding it irksome to rectify their Manners by the Rule to satisfy their grumbling Consciences Men have bowed the Rule to their Manners And to avoid the Reproach of disobeying the Oracle found out Devices to Misinterpret it So the Aethiopian that he may seem Beautiful himself Painteth his God black too Tho' 't is but now and then we meet with a boysterous Athiest so rude as impudently to dash the Looking-glass against the ground because it sheweth him sights so unwelcome and affrighting yet nothing more common than to use such Arts in ordering and placing it that it may be sure to flatter and reflect things pleasingly Tho' the most Charitable Religion the World was ever blessed with it hath been quoted in Justification of Cruelty and Persecution Tho' the most sincere Religion it hath been alledged as a Warrant for Perfidiousness and Aequivocation Tho' the most Rational Religion it hath been wrested to hallow Enthusiasm and Disorder Pure and spotless holy and harmless as it is yet as if Celsus and Zozimus's Malicious Calumny had been true that it was indeed an Asylum where the most Lewd and Scandalous Offenders were promised Protection scarce any thing so grosly Vile that some or other have not pleaded its Commission for And notwithstanding the clear obligation which it layeth upon the Professors of it to all good Works some have taught as if it were a special Dispensation from the doing them So instead of Conscientiously paying these Debts they deny them Audaciously appealing to the Book that they are already discharged by another for them and are not now owing Even while the Apostles were alive there arose Men speaking such perverse things and against these St. James directeth a considerable part of this Epistle irrefragably proving the necessity of Universal Obedience in order to our everlasting Happiness that the belief of our Religion will never profit us without an answerable Conversation For as the body without out the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also In which words here are the Subject and its Praedicat to be considered of The Subject is Faith What is here Praedicated of it is That without Works it is dead as the body without the Spirit The former of these the Subject here spoken of is Faith Very glorious things are spoken of this in the Book of God but it is a word of such various significations and there are so many things of the Name that it seemeth a little difficult to say which of them they must be applied to In the Latin Concordance of the Vulgar Bible published by Stephanus there are reckoned up no less than twenty two several acceptations of it with the divers places of Scripture set down that have been accounted to refer to each of them Not to take up your time about them consider it as that Theological Grace distinguished from Hope and Charity and it is but another word for Believing and so is an assent of the mind to all the known Revelations of God whether Doctrines or Commands Promises or Threatnings as unquestionably true and certain If this account seem not so accurate as some Scholastick or so Spiritual as some Practical Divines have given of it we need not be concerned because the Holy Ghost himself speaketh of it on this wise Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen That is it is such a Conviction of the truth of those things which God hath spoken tho' we have no Ocular or Sensible demonstration of them as maketh us patiently and confidently expect the fulfilling them This is the genuine proper and comprehensive Notion of it If any shall say it is not such a general Faith the Gospel setteth so great a price up on but a special one if by special they mean an undoubting Perswasion a certain and full assurance of our own Justification and Salvation as (a) In Cap. 48 Genes Luther (b) Iust it l. 3. c. 2. § 7. Calvin (c) Confes c. 4. Art 5. Beza (d) Tom. 7. l. 1. de certa salute Ecclesiae Zanchy's and several others about that time spake of this Grace in their Definitions of it with due reverence to the Names of those useful Men in their Generations this is so far from being a more excellent kind of Faith that to speak plainly it is no Faith at all The Object of faith is Divine Revelation which is this case being but general and conditional such an Absolute and Particular conclusion if it be not a Delusion and over-weaning opinion of our own State which it is to be feared too oft it is yet however if never so well grounded it can be at most but a Rational Deduction arising from Self-examination By reason therefore of the Inconveniencies they perceived it clogged with this since hath been generally quitted by the most * Vide Baronium Philos Theol. Ancil Exercit. 3. Davenant Determ Q. 37. Judicious of them who in all other things adhered to them who first broached it they choosing rather to excuse those Worthies in this than defend them But notwithstanding their wariness in this instead of contenting themselves with that plain simple and substantial account the Scriptures give of it these also have nicely Coyned so many disputable sorts of it as gave but too much occasion to Maldonat's spiteful Sarcasm upon the Churches Reformed that they had alluding to the Aequivocalness of the Latin Word Tot fides quot in lyra Besides that of Miracles which is now ceased the most famous distribution of it is into these three Kinds Temporary Historical and Justifying And yet these Terms currantly as they have passed it may be upon consideration will appear not so much to have explained as confounded the thing and indeed to have been but distinctions without a difference For that which they call Temporary Faith the faith of them that believe but for a time is of the
Vita Apollorii l. 3. c. 1. Philostratus when they had drunk out of their Enchanted Cup they conceive themselves Invulnerable That Servant who had not quite lost all fear of his Lord but believed he would call him to a reckoning when once he said in his Heart that he (a) Mat. 24.48 delayed his coming it would be a great while first At the present maketh bold to do any thing Smiteth his fellow Servants and eateth and drinketh with the drunken It is a very Atheistical Age we live in but yet I am very far from thinking all the loose ones in it to be Atheists most of them I perswade my self believe there is a God and that he will by no means acquit the guilty but with them in the Prophet who said The Vision is for many days to come Ezek. 12.27 they hope hereafter will be time enough to be reconciled to him and with this Salvo it is they sin so unconcernedly and their faith sitteth idle all the day long without works God grant it do not so with any of us while the Night cometh that long and dismal Night when no Man can Work To prevent this mighty Evil know assuredly that as long as it is so with any of us our state is as dangerous I might add more than if we had no faith at all This is the thing here asserted the great Truth in the Text now to be discoursed of concerning faith that as long as it is without works it is unacceptable to God it is unprofitable unto Men it is dead For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also There is no such plenty of Faith on the Earth now as to bring down the price of it but rare as it is 't is possible to over-rate it And so we should most unreasonably to think it is all that God requireth of us under the Gospel This is to represent the Christian Religion more absurd than any None so Prodigal as to engage its rewards to as many as are of it meerly for believing some of its Articles except they are likewise observant of its Precepts but this were to make the Commandments of God of no Obligation to as many as shall but confidently rely upon his Promises If it be so disingenuous an abuse of the kindness of Men to misconstrue their words spoke in our favour and put such an extravagant sense on them as they never intended what would it be to deal so with the words of God Instead of blessing his Name for so gracious a Promise that for the Merits of his Son he will accept of the sincere tho' imperfect Repentance and Obedience of every one who by Faith layeth hold on him to pretend that laying hold of Christ by Faith is all that he requireth to the Justification of a Sinner God forbid but that we should give unto Faith the things that are Faith's that we may and yet not own all those indiscreet and dangerous Hyperboles that some in their heats have magnifyed it with this were to take away from Works the things that are works Now look upon faith as separate from these and as great and necessary a grace as it is there is nothing in it which may not be found in a reprobate and cast-away There are but three things that can properly be reckoned up belonging to it Knowledge Assent and Affiance As to Knowledge there is none can make any doubt of that have all the works of iniquity no Knowledge have they not known have they not heard yea verily that Servant who did it not yet knew his Masters Will as well as any of them As for Assent the Devils go beyond us all in it they give it without any mixture of doubting It filleth them constantly with tormenting fears they believe and tremble And for Affiance except there were more ground for it alas there is but too much of it among the most sottish of the people The foolish Virgins tho' they had no oyl in their Lamps were as confident slept as soundly as the wise These things with their due concomitants are glorifications of God and their praise is in the Gospel But alone by themselves like the unfruitful light of the Sun in Winter or the deceptions of a flattering dream they are meer entertainment for imagination they being nothing to perfection That faith which is compounded of all these ingredients if it be not accompanied with a holy life the Apostle here compareth to a dead body whose spirit is departed from it And there are two things wherein it much resembleth it 1. First as the dead body without the Spirit is imperfect wanting its best and noblest part so is faith without works wanting that which dignifyeth and compleateth it without these it appeareth by the view we just now have taken of the parts of it it is in the sight of God of no price This some have not without probability conceived to be one of the chief of those things which St. Peter pointeth at in his brother Paul's Epistles Pet. 23.16 so hard to be understood which they that were unlearned and unstable wrested to their own destruction his doctrine concerning faith because of his attributing such blessed effects to it tho he meant it only of such a faith as worketh by love as he expresseth himself to the Galatians Chap. 5.6 telling the Corinthians 1 Epist 13.2 that he that hath all faith faith of any denomination and hath not charity is nothing yet there were a sort of men who took occasion from thence to teach that all he intended was only an inward and strong perswasion of the vertue and efficacy of Christ's merits and satisfaction and if people but so believed it was enough not much matter how they lived Several of the Ancients and among them St. Augustine hath affirmed that the first Epistle of St. John the second of St. Peter the Epistle of St. Jude and this of St. James all insisting so peculiarly upon the necessity of obedience and keeping the Commandments of God were written chiefly for the confutation of that pernicious tenent All who carefully and without prejudice read the Scriptures will easily see that these make repentance and newness of life as much a condition of our pardon and salvation as faith it self So that when these are attributed so eminently and peculiarly unto faith we are not to understand it of this Grace singly but of the mother with her daughters her with her whole family of evangelical duties Thus St. Paul who is most appealed to in this case expoundeth himself Rom. 10.16 they have not all obeyed the Gospel for Esaias saith who hath believed our report Where obeying the Gospel in the former part of the Verse he calleth believing in the latter accordingly he chargeth all that should preach it to the end of the World Titus 3.8 to teach and affirm constantly that they that believe in God should be careful to
maintain good works Shewing that our believing is so far from exempting us from them that 't is a peculiar obligation to abound in them As when Abraham telleth Sarah that she was a fair woman to look upon Gen. 12.11 he meaneth as she then was with her soul remaining in her when that was departed she was so ghastly a spectacle he ordered her to be buried out of his sight So doth the Apostle when he speaketh of this Grace so highly he meaneth it as enlivened by inherent holiness otherwise when it is without that it is a dead body without its spirit aptly here compared to it because of its imperfection 2. There is another account may be rendered of it too why it is resembled to a dead body without its spirit and that is because of its uselesness These bodies of ours so wonderfully made whenonce they cease to be animated what are they good for They have mouths but they speak not eyes have they but they see not they have ears but they hear not noses have they but they smell not they have hands but they handle not feet have they but walk not neither speak they through their throats And it is no better with faith it self when unaccompanied with a religious life It is altogether as insignificant to any saving purposes We find God in mercy making abatements for matters of faith where the person leadeth a pious and good life Cornelius had not any explicit knowledge of Christ at all yet being a devout man and one that feared God he is assured by an Angel that his prayers and his alms were come up for a memorial before him Acts 10.4 But where there is not a pious and good life God hath no regard to the most orthodox and relying faith Our Saviour telleth us plainly that it is not the calling him Lord Lord shall give us entrance into Heaven Mat. 7.21 but the doing the will of our Father which is in heaven They who run down this as legal preaching and as the more evangelical way spend themselves in exhorting their hearers to get Christ to lean on Christ to cast themselves on Christ one would almost think had discovered some other Christ then him the Gospel speaketh of His doctrine was of a different form and tendency In the first Sermon that he preached he cautiously informeth the people of this that he came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it Mat. 5.17 To cancel any part of our duty toward God or man but to advance it to a higher degree of perfection It were to be wished therefore that they who so much affect would take care to explain expressions of such indefinite and ambiguous signification lest their followers should mistake their better meaning and instead of being built up in their most holy faith receive the Grace of God in vain and cause the way of truth to be evil spoken of Let not any think to shelter loose and dangerous notions in this kind under the authority of the reformed Churches Tho' these have been much scandalized by the Romanists upon this account as licentious in their tenents and despisers of good works because they exclude them from justification attributing that to faith only it is very causelesly for when they speak of justifying faith they do it in such a way as showeth them very innocent and free from the charge and that in truth it is the manner of their speaking rather than the thing they speak that giveth offence to them For when they Rescribe this sort of faith they put in more â—han is properly faith to appretiate it For then they say we are justified by faith only observe what they will have this justifying â—aith to be Because it is best known to and may have the greatest sway with those among us who have most need to be disaâ—used in this matter I shall only mention â—he Assembly of Divines whose words in our confession of faith are these Cap. 14. By this faith a Christian believeth to be true whatsoever is revealed in the word for the authority of God himself speaking therein and acteth differently upon that which each particular passage thereof containeth yielding obedience to the commands trembling at the threatnings and embracing the promises of God for this life and that which is to come They suppose these effects so inseparable from true faith that when it is proved not only that considered in its own nature it may be buâ— that often it hath been without them it is still replied it is not such a faith which they mean and call justifying The foreign Divines whom these followed have spoken so much to this purpose somâ— making this habitto be in the will (a) Chamier Panstratiae tom 3. l. 12. c. 4. other to contain in it hope and charity (b) Zegerus in praefat ad annotat ad epist. Pauli thâ—â— that moderate and very judicious writer 〈◊〉 le Blanc after an exact and impartial statâ—â— the Question about our justification by faiâ—â— and summoning up what the most considerable on both sides grant and deny conclueth that tho the doctrine of the Româ—â— Church in some other points is such as not so consistent with the truth which hâ—â— they have been by their adversaries compelled to own Tho' some writers of the reformation have let fall many things which seem contradictory and have need of a very kind interpretation to reconcile them tho' on both sides they charge one another so highly as if they struck at the very foundation of Christanity yet would they have but the patience to consider what one another say Vide Le Blanc Theses Theol. Quomodo fides justificet Sect. 59. this controversie between us and the Papists would appear not much more after all than a strife of words Upon this account such as have spoken most favourably of a death-bed repentance have justly affirmed it so extreamly dangerous to rely on not only because there are so many several ways of mens going out of the world some of which deprive of time others of faculties but because it beareth so little and so suspicious fruit Not but that where such repentance is sincere and cordial he who foreseeth all future contingencies and the effects of things in their causes may in this sense call the things that are not as if they were and graciously accept according to that which a man hath and not according to that which he hath not But yet it must be said that throughout all the Bible we have not a promise that God will accept the most godly death for a wicked life good wishes for good works No body therefore need have been so angry with St. James as to deny the truth and authority of his Epistle upon this score as if the contents of it were contradictory to the tenour of other Scriptures those passages which have made any think so as to him that worketh not Rom. 4.5 but believeth in