of Holy Life and Holy Action And a Man believes no more than he is truly and really transformed by into the thing that he Believes I shall shew you That Jesus Christ is that great principle of Holy Life and of Heavenly Life that doth impower the Souls of his People according to the degree of the present State and shall bring them to that spotless to that blemishless state in the Glory of his Appearing I begin with the First thing and that is to shew you that Jesus Christ is that great Revelation that Faith hath Primarily Principally Originally and Supremely to close with and to give up it self unto You shall find in the 3d of John that this is a Notion of Faith and a Notion of Faith proper to the great Revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ saith John 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth in the Son of God hath the Witâ—… in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a Liar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son The great Record that God hath given it is of his Son that he hath given his Son as the Great Mediator as the Great Redeemer as the Great Sacrifice as the Great Righteousness of the World Aâ—d therefore if any Man does not believe this he has made God a liar God hath done all in the Gospel that can be done to give us an Assurance of it So it is the great Revelation And so when our Lord saith They have surely known and believed that thou didst send me It is the very same thing that Jesus Christ is the great Saviour and Redeemer of the World For what 's the meaning of God's sending Christ but a sending him as a Saâ—…or As you may find plainly John 3. 17. For God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved And Him hath God the Father Sealed John 6. So that from all this it is most Evident that it is the great Revelation And tho this be a great Truth yet still the Gospel raiseth it higher And I beseech you that you would seriously consider when a Man Believes in Jesus Christ he does not only believe a written Word I desire again your serious Attention to it He does not only believe a written Word he does not only Believe a great Testimony from God or a sound of words concerning it but Jesus Christ the word himself comes to him Indeed it was heretofore in a manifestation in the Flesh But the very same thing is now manifested by the Spirit of Jesus Christ And by his coming in Spirit he comes as that Word of the Father as the Eternal Word of the Father And he shews himself to the Soul he shews himself in Spirit to the Soul so that the Soul Believes the Word of God because Christ the word of God shews himself to him And we never have the Truth of Faith till we have this very coming of the Eternal Word to us As you see 1 John 1. 1. how the Apostle speaks concerning this word That which was from the Beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our Eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life For the Life was manifested and we have seen it and bear Witness c. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you Now pray Why does the Apostle declare this Not that you should rest in a written word That 's the thing I would desire you to observe Not that you should rest in a sound of Words but that ye also may have fellowship with us ver 3. and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Not that we should expect any Visional Representations of these things That 's not the Intention of it But that we should look for a real Manifestation of the Father and the Son or of the Father by the Son and through the Son And also of the Son by the Father So that there is certainly a Sight of Christ I say a sight of the Son in Faith And if we did but thus consider the excellency of Faith indeed I cannot but apprehend there could be no difference between Christians and Christians in these points concerning Faith and so concerning Justification if we had but true and right apprehensions of Faith It is true indeed there 's a great deal of false Faith of counterfeit Faith that has never seen Christ But all true Faith it hath seen Christ it hath come up to the very word of Jesus Christ That is to Jesus Christ the Word So John 6. 40. there must be a sight of the Son before there can be a believing in him And this is the the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting Life And therefore as I told you he is called the Word of God that is the Essential and Eternal Word of God manifested in Flesh manifested in Human Nature And There is no sight of Christ without his coming to us without our receiving of him by the Teaching of thâ— Father and by the manifestation of himself And so saith the Apostle Paul when it pleased God to Reveal his Son in me You see here is not only words either Spoken or Written but there is the very Son himself Revealed in us I do acknowledg all this is in a Spiritual Sense not only in an Intellectual Sense Tho it is true That shall be Subservient and as it were the Conveyance and Vehicle of this sight But it is a Spiritual Sight wrought by the Power of God and by the Spirit of God And O therefore This is the great Point I would press upon you And indeed I have taken notice that the most Spiritual Writers and Preachers of Faith They have said That Faith is upon the Person of the Son the Person of the Eternal Word in our Nature the Lord Jesus Christ It does not deal first of all with his Benefits and Salvation that comes by him I mean principally I don't say but God may draw a Soul first by the consideration of his Benefits But the principal Touch of Faith it is upon the Son of God I might give you innumerable Scriptures that verify this great Truth And I desire that we may take notice of it In that forenam'd place John 17. v. 8. Christ saith this is the point They have believed that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee and that I came forth from thee and that thou didst send me All this Christ says you may see immediately concerns the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ So in the Epistle to the Galatians a place that is worthy our notice and that I shall have occasion of continual recourse to Gal. 2. 20 21. I am Crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I urge it
him Just as the Load stone fetches in the Iron and calls it to it self And so when Christ comes near to the Soul He draws it near to himself c. THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Iustified c. The Fifth Sermon Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ FRom what I have discours'd in the last Sermon That we are Justified by Faith in such a sense only as that Nothing can be attributed to Faith but only to Christ Two Objections may arise which I would answer before I pass on to the main Point I now intend Object 1. What then is it may it be said in Faith upon which Justification is attributed to Faith rather then to any other Grace Answ I Answer it is like taking possession the having Livery and Seizin in an Estate become ours or like the consent of a mean person in Marriage to a Prince Or indeed to speak yet more plain to our apprehension if any one will give us a Gift before we come to be really invested in that Gift we must take it and have it in possession And we have not a true Title to it else tho it does not depend upon our taking But it is only a Consummative and Perfecting thing that we take it into our possession we accept it from the giver as his gift and we take it into possession as our own And thus I say it is and that we are Justifyed by Faith And it seems to me except any one shall shew me wherein I am in a mistake in thus saying I shall conclude it to be the very sense of the Spirit of God in all those Expressions that we are Justifyed by Faith and live by Faith These things I say shew to us the worthlessness of Faith in it self And yet that it is Consummative and a Consummation of our Title to Christ and to his Righteousness I would only first answer one more seeming great objection against this representation of Faith I have given as if it were only the Imprint of Christ's gift of himself and his Righteousness to the Soul why is it then so often said Repent and believe the Gospel And whoever believes in him c. And we are called on as if it were our act to believe Now to this I Answer that it is true we are so Though I am fully by the grace of God of that Judgment that I have declared to you concerning the nature of Faith And that it is Christ Imprinting his gift the gift of his Righteousness and of himself upon us And yet for all that I think my self bound in all the Discourses of this grace of Faith to move you to perswade you to Exhort you to receive to press you to Believe in Jesus Christ Because this is the Rational way that God doth deal with those as I have said he giveth understanding and Rationality to and because this is that Ordinance of God and for great and wise Reasons both to his Servants whom he draws thus to believe by the obedience 〈◊〉 Faith to the preaching of the Gospel And in regard of those that do not believe That he may Justify and vindicate himself that he hath gone that way which is proper unto the Soul of man He hath drawn with the Cords of a man and with the Bands of his Love in offering Christ to them I now come to what I proposed in the next place To shew you the great assuâ—…nce of Faith the assurance of it from these words of our Lord They have known They have known And they have surely known And yet wheâ— it comes to be Explained what this knowledge is It comes to this it is Believing For Pray observe the course of the words Jo. 17. 7. They have known To know is of great Certainty and of great Assurance And again in the latter part of the verese They have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me They have known surely And yet when it comes to the issue they have believed Therefore I shall endeavour I say to make out to you the great Assurance of Faith And I shall propose these four kinds of assurance that Faith hath And there are Scriptures very full for each of them I 'll lay them first before you together The first assurance of Faith is the assurance of understanding So you find Col. 2. 2. That their hearts might be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding in the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the father and of Christ There 's the first assurance of Faith the assurance of understanding when all the great truths of the Gospel that men are ready to say how do you prove them How will you make them out either by sense or by Reason How shall we know that these things are indeed true Why now when Christ and his Spirit do fix these truths upon Souls they have Riches of the full assurance of understanding The second full assurance of Faith it is in that great Point of Pardon of sin and peace of Conscience by Jesus Christ For if a man comes and says to another As you know men are ready to do you talk at a strange Rate Do you know that your sins are pardoned Do you know that God and Christ have Done this and that you shall be saved from wrath for ever Observe now what the Apostle saith to this in Heb. 10. 22. Let us draw near with a true heart You know it is a phrase in our English such a man when we do speak of him as fearful or a person of no valour we say he is a false-hearted man And that man that is Resolved and valiant and great in Prowess we say he is a man of a true heart of a true valour Now whereas some are apt to think that every man should stand trembling and doubting and say I don't know whether my sins are pardoned or not I dare not be so bold or presumptuous as once to say I am sure that I am freed from wrath to come Why now saith the Apostle Let us draw near with a true heart having our heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water So here 's a second great assurance of Faith A Third assurance of Faith is in this O what shall become of me for ever What shall become of me when I dye Where will be my dwelling Where will be my Reception my Receptacle for ever when I go out of the world Can I hope for such a state as the Scripture Describes Heaven to be Can I bear up in those hopes Why then Consider what the Apostle saith Heb. 6. latter part of the 11 ver We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end So here you see is another assurance the
things pleasing in the sight of my Father there was no guile found in my mouth there was no sin found in me without sin in the midst of all the Temptations that ever could be Congregated upon me Here therefore take this obedience of mine and let it stand against thy disobedience against thy many sins thy many provocations and Transgressions I have come by purest water And so there shall be a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness Zech. 13. 1. And he leads them to the Fountains of living water in his own Righteousness in his own obedience And having the heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience and the Body washed with pure water That is not of sanctification as we might be very apt to understand it I say not principally I never exclude sanctification but not principally But that purity of the obedience of Christ by which we are made the Righteousness of God through him And when this water speaks in this sense that I have now layd down to you It gives that great assurance against the fear of Hell wrath and Eternal condemnation for we are Righteous by it The second thing in which I will be very brief is the spirit that gives witness You know that is a general allowed Doctrine that the Spirit of God seals up to the day of Redemption It is the Earnest of it in the assurance of the pardon of sin in the witness of absolution that it gives It is the Spirit of Adoption and the Spirit of promise After ye believed ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which is the earnest of our Inheritance The Spirit it self bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God And hence arises the great assurance of Faith O! When a man can find the word of the Spirit within that word in his own Soul that his iniquities are pardoned and his sins forgiven The Spirit is a mighty witness For the Spirit is Truth He is able to spread his witness throughout the whole Soul to seal up the whole Soul to himself But then the last thing that I will speak of is this There comes in that mighty Authoritative and original act of the Father saying I have forgiven thy iniquity I have pardoned thy sin And I look upon it to be conveyed especially in that voice that we have in the three Evangelists Matt. 17. v. 5. There came a voice from Heaven And as the Apostle Peter saith from the Excellent Majesty saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased That is I have accepted him for a Ransom I have accepted his obedience I have freely forgiven iniquity for his sake for he is my self he is my Son he is mine and therefore I do it freely and yet I do it for his sake Because he has given a Recompense a satisfaction to Justice And so the Apostle says Eph. 1. 5. Who hath made us accepted in the beloved And in whom we have redemption in his blood the forgiveness of sins And so it is said by Jesus Christ The Father loveth me And whatsoever ye ask in my Name the Father will do it for you There comes in the great Evidence Testimony and Assurance of the Fathers free acceptance and free absolution through him To close therefore thus much as I have begun to say from these words in brief application This first Application is this That you would seriously consider whether you have Faith or not You may say How shall I know Why consider it as I have now represented it to you It is a mighty Power from Christ it is a mighty power from his Spirit in all the Truths of God Especially those Truths that concern Jesus Christ But just as I opened to you in the begining of this Discourse That Faith it is a new Understanding to us We have as Men you know an understanding endued with Reason And therefore we all say let me hear Reason and then I 'll be perswaded And every Wise Man whenever he speaks he endeavours to speak Reason Therefore God hath given to man such a thing as he calls Reason He hath Endued the Understanding with that great Principle of Reason And if a Man be a Natural you know that is a man in whom Reason cannot act because some of the Organs of the Body are not prepared to let Reason have its course 'T is plain that 's the meaning of men being Naturals It may be you may think they have not so good a Soul but that 's a mistake Only there are not Organs fit for the working of Reason And therefore you know when we look upon such a one we look upon it as a vain thing to Discourse with such a one because we know he has no Reason Or a Mad â—…an it is but loss of time to Discourse Reason to him because there is such a Disturbance and such a kind of jumble in the Brain that Reason cannot have its course So I say if we would consider a Man in Gospel sense he is just like a meer Natural or like a Mad-man or like a very Brute if he has not a Light of Faith For Faith is a New Light and a New Understanding And therefore it is very observable 2 Thes 3. 2. That we may be delivered saith the Apostle from unreasonable and wicked men For all men have not faith If a Man be unreasonable you can have no place in him by the powers of Reason Now saith the Apostle I look upon a man in Gospel-sense just like a Natural or like a Mad-man or like a very Brute if he has not a Light of Faith he is an unreasonable Person when he has not Faith For all men saith he have not Faith And the word that is used in the Origninal is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is very well known among the Learned to be a word proper to Philosophy They say if a Man has not the Powers of Reason or does not speak according to them he is an absur'd man or an unreasonable Man he is a Man that hath no Topicks Now saith the Apostle he is an unreasonable Man he has no Topicks with him And why because he has no Faith So I say a Man without Faith is a Man without Gospel Topicks You cannot speak to him upon the Topicks of Jesus Christ with any Acceptance because he has not Faith O! Therefore Let us consider how sweet is the Discourse of Christ to us How impressive upon us How do our Souls go out to him and act upon him As you know the mind of man even in worldly things is acting according to Reason and all the Powers of Reason So we should be always Acting upon the Gospel and upon Christ especially by all the Powers of Faith And therefore this I would desire you to mind in the immanent Truths in those Truths wherein Faith is in its immanent Acts principally upon Christ and Righteousness in him and Pardon of sin in his
evil works passes uncontrolled unquestioned from hand to hand and no body but by faith disputes it if it comes by Tradition As you know the things that are but in fashion They run through not only those that make no profession of the Gospel but those that make a profession so Tradition runs through All. Now how shall we be Redeemed from this There is no way to be Redeemed from the common Evils that are done in the world but by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ And then In the Second place as I began to say Christ is the great Principle of them How can you walk in the ways of Holiness No way but by Jesus Christ being within us the Principle of those Holy Actions And therefore tho I say it is our Duty and we are condemned indeed most righteously in not Answering our Duty Yet still we cannot do the Holy Actions required of us but under a Purchase under a Price Ye are bought with a Price therefore glorify God as the Apostle saith And so we must have that mighty Principle I can do all things saith the Apostle through Christ that strengthens me And in John 15. Our Lord shews plainly that he is the Principle Without me saith he v. 5. ye can do nothing He had compared himself to the Vine and Believers to the Branches Now as the branch can do nothing without the Vine you know it cannot so our Souls can do nothing without Christ He is the great Principle of it And then In the Third place They are washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ And they are all made up in their Imperfections by the great Perfection of the Righteousness and Holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ this must necessarily be considered Take that Action of Abraham as the Apostle speaks he was Justified by the Offering of Isaac Naw I say That very Offering of Isaac was as it was Abraham's Act washed in the Blood of Jesus or else it had never been Accepted There were tho we cannot trace them yet God understands them such Corruptions adhering to this Holy Action of Abraham that if it had not been wash'd in the Blood of Christ it could not have stood before him Rahab sending away the Spies It was washed in the Blood of Christ Moses keeping the Passover and refusing to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter all these they were wash'd in the Blood of Jesus or they could not have stood before God All the Repentance all the Holy Actions of the Best and most eminent of Christians they are wash'd in the Blood of Christ that they may be accepted And wherein they are found Light they are made up by the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled So I understand that in Rom. 8. 4. It is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit That is by Jesus Christ as the Apostle had said He condemns sin in the flesh viz. His Flesh his Sacrifice And so the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us By all those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus it makes free from the Law of sin and Death VVhat is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus But that perfect Righteousness and that perfect obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ even to the Sacrificing himself The fourth and last thing in which I would shew you that Jesus Christ is supremely to be considered by every Believer as the foundation of all his Holiness and the Acceptance of it is this That Jesus Christ is He through whom alone and through whose perfect Holinest God accounts us Holy This I confess is a Point that is not generally spoken of And it may seem to be something singular But I am fully perswaded of it That we do not only stand before God by Imputative Righteousness But we stand before him by imputative Holiness also That is not as iâ— there were no Holiness Inherent and Real in the Saints of Christ But their Holiness could not be counted Holiness if it were not for the Holiness of Jesus Christ I will not stand much upon it because I know it is a singular Apprehension Yet I would give you two Scriptures that do strongly perswade me that this is the very case Till we are brought into the Perfection of Holiness at the State of the Resurrection of the Dead which as I have formerly told you is either when Spirits go out of the Body or when all the Saints shall appear in the Resurrection then shall they be in a perfection of Inherent Holiness But while we are here in the World we are not in a state of Perfect Inherent inward Holiness And therefore Christ in that that 's the first Scripture that enclines me to this Apprehension 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sactification and Redemption Christ is as truly made to us Sactification as he is made Redemption or as he is made Righteousness or Wisdom in our first being brought home to God Therefore I say if he not our Sanctification our Sanctification could not be looked upon as Sanctification if it were not made Acceptable by the Holiness of Jesus Christ Another Scripture is that in the 7th to the Romans Saith the Apostle We bring forth Fruit unto Death in our selves He is speaking of Sanctification in Believers We bring forth Fruit unto Death In our selves But when we are Married unto another even to him who is raised from the Dead we bring forth Fruit unto God We cannot bring forth Fruit unto God which is certainly meant of Sanctification any other way but by being Married to another even to him who is raised from the Dead because the Resurrection of the Dead in all sense of Scripture is the Perfection of Holiness Till we therefore are in the State of being risen from the Dead being in Spirits separated as I have spoken or in Bodies of Glory we cannot bring forth Fruit unto God but we bring forth Fruit unto Death if we are not in Christ the great Husband who is risen from the Dead All our Holiness is made Perfect by his Holiness But then he brings us into that Perfection that every Saint is indeed perfectly Holy in the state of Spirit and state of a Body of Glory given to that Spirit that went out of the Body long it may be before accordlng to the several times in which the Saints of Christ have Dyed I come now to the Third and Last thing which I proposed in this Discourse And that is To shew you what the Sense of the Apostle James is for it seems to run very Counter to all the Doctrin of Free Justification by Faith and not by Works It seems a wonderful thing that the Spirit of God after it had said so much by Paul of being Justified by Faith without Works That the Spirit
And that this is the Condition upon which Christ is ours and upon which his Righteousness becomes ours and thus Faith Justifies And thus Faith comes to be through such very Discourses of Faith an Eclipse upon the Righteousness of Christ And so the Works of Faith come to be so also for say they Every true Faith must have VVorks And the Apostle saith A Man is justified by VVorks and not by Faith only Now these things they raise not only great Disputes concerning which it were indeed much and earnestly to be desired that they may be laid among the Servants of God that they may be calmed and composed because it is greatly to the dishonour of the Gospel that there should be those noises of Axes and Hammers in the Work of the Gospel and because Men are ready to be scandalized And it is told in Gath and published in the streets of Askalon as the Expression is And therefore I say we should earnestly desire to speak all the same thing and to be in one Mind and in one Judgment according to the Truth of the Gospel And then besides they are ready to stagger Souls and to make them they know not which way to turn and they must dispute the things with themselves and so they are kept off from the healing that wound of Conscience and from the getting that full Assurance of Faith and of Hope and of Knowledge So that while the wound of Conscience and the bleeding of Conscience should be stanched and while the close Application of the Blood of Christ should work the Cure the Souls and Spirits of Men are greatly in Dispute and Perplexity which way and in what Method what they should lay first as it were to the bleeding Conscience and to the distressed Spirit Now I have lately given you this Rule and I would renew it and 〈◊〉 it to you That you labour after and seek after these things from God and that you would not perplex your selves about the term of Dispute in which these things are conveyed O! Let but our Souls find that we have Christ indeed for ours and that we apply to his Blood by Faith and that we turn from every Iniquity by Repentance and it is no matter for all the Disputes about the Order and whether a Man should stay for this or for that But let him give up his Soul according to the Impression of Grace and the Spirit of God upon him But yet however when we discourse of these things plainly and peaceably and according to the clearest Light and Reason of the Gospel they are to be attended to And our Minds thereby shall have Ideas and Representations of them that may be suitable to the inward Case of our Souls And therefore at this time I shall lay down four Positions in which I shall open to you the nature of Faith in Relation to Justification Or The true nature of Justification as it is taken in by Faith The First Position that I shall lay down is this I say No Righteousness but a Divine Righteousness an Everlasting Righteousness can be the Righteousness of a Lost and undone Sinner Of an Immortal Eternal Soul lost and undone by sin No Righteousness but a Divine Righteousness an Eternal and Euerlasting Righteousness O! Keep this always in your mind It must be such a Righteousness Or it will not serve the great Purpose of your Souls The Second thing that I would lay down is this that there is no possibility that Faith by any virtue or Excellency of its own should be our Righteousness And therefore tho there be a great Renown of Faith in the Gospel compared with the Graces of the Spiâ—… â—f God and the working of that Spirit in the Hearts and Lives of Châ—stians yet still it is not with Relation to God so as to be our Righteousness But onely as I shall shew you it takes in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ and wherein the Excellency of it lyes to that purpose In the Third place the Third Position that I would lay down is this That tho it is true that the Faith the Gospel speaks of is a vigorous working active Faith yet the works of Faith are further off from the Justifying of a Sinner than Faith it self is So that take the most excellent works of any of the Believers in Jesus Christ It is not their works I say it is not their works that are their Righteousness to Justification they are further off from Justification than their Faith is And yet this Faith cannot be their Justification The Fourth Position that I would lay down is this that Faith has not a Power of it self to take Christ But Jesus Christ gives himself to the Soul And then the mighty Power of Faith flows out from him and Twines about Christ and unites it self unto Jesus Christ These Four Positions I do not find upon the most severe Examination that they do in the least Abridge or take off any thing from the Holiness of the Gospel and from the duties in which all Christians are to be found And yet they give us indeed the truth of the freeness of the Grace of the Gospel and will Redeem us from all mistakes and misapprehensions or from lessening the Glory of Christ and his Righteousness I Begin at this time with the First of them And that is that no Righteousness but an Everlasting a Divine Righteousness can possibly serve the case of our Souls You find therefore in Dan. 9. 24. When Jesus Christ came into his great Action as a Mediator He is said to finish transgression and to make an end of sin and to make Reconciliation for Iniquity and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness He brings in Everlasting Righteousness David has an Expression which I confess one would be ready If one does not weigh and compare it with the whole Scripture to think it was the Righteousness of Holy works onely he or rather the Holy Spirit intended by him in it But if we consider it close and with the whole Scripture there is Reason to look upon it as having Relation to the great salvation by the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Psal 119. 144 The Righteousness of thy Testimonies is Everlasting c. I say it does seem to refer to those Righteous and Holy Precepts of God But he calls it the Righteousness of thy Testimonies That is the Great Testimony of Revelation that God hath given anew by the word Not that Righteousness that was written upon the heart of man But the Righteousness of the Testimony of the Revelation of God And therefore give me understanding herein and I shall live According as he said there is a Covenant made with me ordered in all things and sure And it is an Everlasting Covenant And therefore the Righteousness of his Testimonies is to be expounded by those very words Sam. 2. 23. 5. Although my house c. And though his house was not so with God That is though he could not
the 17 th of John That they all may be one As thou Father art in me that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them c. And so Christ is even in them and his Righteousness and his Glory and his Perfection are always in himself and in a Communication unto them and they in Union with him and in that Communication If this be not truly the sense and the Spirit of the Gospel I must freely acknowledge I am not in any capacity to speak of these things For there is nothing more evident to me than this That our whole Salvation according to the Gospel does no more stir out of God and Christ than to speak of a thing that we know we see now the Beams of the Sun and the Light of the Sun stir out of the Sun but all is in the Sun For if any one should go to say this Room or Place is full of Light or full of the Beams of the Sun we 'll presently shut up all the Avenues between us and the Sun and we 'll have the Light as our own you know how presently the place would be dark and there would be no remainder of Light at all in it because the Sun is shut out So now and to Eternity if you could shut out God and Christ the Eternal fountain of Righteousness from any Soul that Soul would be immediately dark as to the state of Grace and so grow darker and darker to the darkness of Hell And now in the fifth Place If the Righteousness of Faith were a Righteousness onely because it is freely given why then Love and Repentance and Obedience they are all freely given even as Faith And yet for all this Scripture never speaks of them as Justifying And therefore I come to the last thing to shew you wherein Faith Justifies It is onely in this that by the most simple and abstracted and the most naked Apprehension of the thing that can be It has nothing but what it is made to receive in this great point of Justification I say it is made to receive and to do nothing but to receive It is made to depend and to do nothing but to depend To trust and to do nothing but trust I do acknowledge there 's a great vertue of Faith outward but this is that Immanent act of Faith As I may so speak as Divines call those Immanent acts of God in the Father the Son and the Spirit that do not go out of Himself So I say that Immanent act of Faith that is betwixt Christ and the Soul It is to trust and onely to trust to depend and onely to depend and to receive and onely to receive And as for Faith It hath nothing It is nothing but onely this Receipt So it is the most perfect dependence that Faith hath upon Christ I will trust and not be afraid In that Isa 12. 2. And in that day thou shalt say O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me Behold God is my Salvation I will trust and not be afraid Here therefore is the great Excellency of Faith the meet Excellency of Faith not in it self but onely that it wholly depends It is made and fitted by God on purpose wholly to depend I would come now to the second thing that I proposed which I shall very briefly represent to you For if Faith it self can do nothing It is certain then that the works of Faith can do nothing And therefore that great objection that is made against this out of the 2d of James that Faith which hath not works is Dead and can't Justify It is nothing at all to this Great Point But onely this it is indeed to shew us that if any man has Faith in Christ this Faith shall appear not to be an Idle and a Dead Faith But it shall every way be active from the Power it receiveth from Christ to walk in all ways of obedience to Render up the Soul entirely in the Love of God according to the present state I mean with sincerity and uprightness But it is not to this great point For it is very plain when two things are spoken of in Scripture If there be a higher and a Lower the Lower must be always subordinated to the higher that I look upon to be a stable and unchangeable Rule Now we are said to be Justified by a Faith that is not without works and yet without works we are Justified and in other places we are said to be Justified in God In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be Justified and shall Glory And Jehovah is our Righteousness And the Righteousness of God Now I say that which is infinitely above Faith As we will all grant God and the Righteousness of God Christ and the Righteousness of Christ are far above Faith Why then though sometimes we are said to be Justified by Faith and the Faith by which we are Justified is said to have works Yet certainly the Righteousness of God and of Christ must infinitely take place of these because they are so far above in the Transcendency and Infiniteness of their own nature So that it can never be that the Righteousness of God and of Christ can be brought down Therefore we are said sometimes to be Justified by Faith But it is very plain that Faith in its Justifying Power it must be brought up to God and Christ And there is all that is to be said of it that it takes hold of God and Christ That 's the whole of it it takes hold of God and Christ Therefore indeed I cannot but think of that expression though I don't say it will hold in this Solomon says the Spider is very wise because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces The Spider seems a base Creature yet notwithstanding the baseness and poisonousness of its nature yet in this it prefers and advances it self because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces So I say in regard of us who are poisoned with sin and Corruption yet Faith takes hold with its hand and it is in the Righteousness of God and in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Now still if you look upon us in our selves or look upon Faith in it self Alas What can it do onely it can take hold of the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness of Jesus Christ And therefore I do acknowledge that Faith is of great power and vertue The 11 Chapter to the Hebrews makes evident as well as the 2d of James Therefore I wonder that men look so disproportionably The great things there ascribed to Faith all along in the 11 th of Heb. make out the very same thing So that the Apostle James did not contradict the Apostle Paul nor the Apostle Paul the Apostle James both of them speaking by the spirit of God and therefore I
Christ But I say it cannot be throughout so For then men should be saved by Christ and never know that they are saved by Christ Then Christ would be no more the Saviour of his people than he is the Saviour of stones or insensible Rocks We must therefore come to have a feeling and knowing that Jesus Christ is ours Or else we could not receive his salvation How should we be the better within if we did not know Christ An understanding and Intellectual Being must have such a knowledge of Faith to know Christ And therefore as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I must know him Not that this Contributes any thing to our happiness but onely the feeling and enjoying that happiness That happiness is onely from God But as you know a blind man is never the better in point of Light and sight though the Sun be never so Glorious Every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him We must see him or else we could not know he is ours we could have no Enjoyment of him our Souls would be still like unsensible Rocks and Marbles if there were not this sense by Faith and the knowledge of Christ by believing And therefore it is a very great truth that Faith is a manifestation to us and within us that Christ is ours When our Souls receive the touches of his Love and grace upon us and we come to know and find the sweetness to taste that the Lord is Gracious and to know what a Pearl we have in some measure and that we find Christ is ours and hath given himself for us In the third place there could not else be a manifestatory Glory It is true Christ is glorious as a Saviour But we could not Glorify him if we did not know by Faith that he is such a Saviour This is that that the soul makes its Boast in God by this draws it to Glory in Christ and to give all the Glory it can do to him Because it finds it is saved by him and him alone Now it is very Evident God had no need of Glory from Angels nor from men to manifest his Glory by them But it pleased the wisdom and Grace of God to declare his infinite Being before such Beings as Angels and men fitted with understandings to behold it Why so Christ had no need of our Glorifying of him But yet it is very Evident that he is pleased to be Glorifyed by us and that we Glorify him by acknowledging all our salvation from him And herein is Faith of great use It gives Glory as the Apostle speaks Abraham was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4. So Faith gives Glory to the Righteousness and Freeness of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ And then In the Fourth place it is also necessary upon this Account for I am far in all this discourse from that which is truly called Antinomianism or Libertinism I say as Faith looks outward and from Christ into holy Action the knowledge that Faith gives is serviceable in the hand of Christ to all holiness and purification of Life To live to him to live and to walk by Faith to be every way self-Resigning according to that whole 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews And thus I have endeavoured with all briefness to set out the Excellent nature of Faith I shall but make one short Application of it And that is to stir up all our hearts in looking up to God according to that great prayer Ephes 3. 14 15 16. verses For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man To what End That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith O look up to this You see how Faith is indeed always called up by Christ when he gives himself to any Soul when he comes to dwell in any Soul Faith must receive him it must embrace him it must depend wholly upon him Now therefore O! That our hearts may be strengthened by his Spirit in the Inner man Alas Our Inner man you may see plainly by all that I have said is very weak and unfaithful And it is confirmed by this expression of the Apostle how the Inner man would never draw in Christ it would never hold him if it came to him Our Inner man is such a false thing to the Great things of our Eternal salvation it is such a feeble weak thing it would never be able to hold Christ But the Spirit strengthens the Inner man That Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Else I say it could never if you would give me leave to use such a plain word as that fetch in Christ And if he came it would never hold him Our Inner man must be strengthened by the Spirit of Christ that Christ may dwell in us And then we go forward to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and to Comprehend that love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God I hope there is nothing that I have spoken that can Justly offend any man's mind for it is fully to the sense of Scripture and of Scripture Reason and it excludes all manner of looseness and Libertinism of life For Christ is certainly sanctification to every one to whom he is Justification he gives the power of Holiness And Faith is made serviceable As I told you the immanent acts are those whereby it stays within and has Communion with Christ wherein it has nothing but to depend and trust in him But then It works outward as they say of the works of God Ad Extra The Excellent acts of the Father Son and Spirit they go out of themselves So Faith goes out to all the works of obedience And therefore if you would know what Faith is when it works outward I would propose to you to Read that Chapter Heb. 11. How greatly Faith works outward But Christ still is the Author and finisher And when it comes to Christ it has nothing to do but to trust and depend and receive And O! therefore let us all bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the Inner man We can never have such a thing as Faith if the Riches of Glory does not come in with it and if the spirit of Christ does not come in with it And indeed where the spirit of Christ comes he comes And so Christ and the spirit Elicits as they call it and draws and Brings the Soul to clasp about him to lay hold upon him He brings the Soul thus near to
whether we have been right in the first Act But there has been as they say an Error in the Foundation an Error in the first Concoction as Physitians speak and cannot be mended So there has been an Error in taking Christ and Error in the Foundation becomes Error in the whole course of a Mans Building A man says he has taken Christ and lives under the Power of his Lusts and the Power of the World Because he never look Christ aright Men will say Here you are mistaken in your Profession That you cannot live Holily which your Profession binds you to But I say if the thing were but well traced and enquired into it would be found here was the great miss that your first Action flew off and did not rightly take Christ The 2d Chapter of John is a Scripture that will clear this that a Man may take Christ by a false Action and lose him in the very first Rudiments and the first beginnings by a mistake As now it is in Nature in the forming of an Embrio in the Womb If there be a false formation a monstrous formation in the VVomb there 's an irregularity all along the Life So if Faith be mistaken in its first Act in supposing it takes Christ and does not that Error cannot be mended The Latter Errors may be more apparent than the first but the first is the cause of all John 2. 23 24 25. Now when he was in Jernsalem at the Passover in the Feast-day many believed in his name when they saw the Miracles that he did One would have thought this was true Faith as the great Men of Reason say because they were brought over to believe by seeing the Miracles of Christ But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men And needed not that any should Testify of man for he knew what was in man If he did not commit himself to them we may very well understand he did not Unite himself to them He knew it was not that Faith to which he United himself and his Righteousness Christ does not commit himself to a Faith that is not indeed as I said before a Faith of God's Elect and the like pretious Faith and that is not given by that Divine Lot of Grace as the Expression is 2 Pet. 1. 1. that I have formerly spoken to you of To them who have obtained by Lot by this Divine Lot like precious Faith with us according to the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ I know we cannot look into this but by the Divine Spirit and by feeling the twistings of the Soul about Christ through that great Opperation of God upon us But this we may see plainly Christ did not commit himself to them So he does not commit his Righteousness his Propitiation his Redemption he does not commit it but where he sees a Faith which he himself hath given that is indeed of the true and excellent Alloy For he knows at the very first He sees many that pretend to Believe and that think they Believe but he knows very well where their Faith is wrong and where it loses that great Prize that Pearl of Price that it is to obtain He himself not committing or giving himself knows a true Action of Faith in Receiving him will not follow for that 's the first Action of Faith to Receive Christ giving himself The Second kind of the Actions of Faith they are those that though they are not immediately as the first Acts of taking of Christ by Faith yet they immediately Result and Rise up When any Man hath taken Christ there are some Actions that do immediately Result and Arise They bear the Hiew they carry the Complexion they have upon them the Lineaments of the Death of the Dying of our Lord Jesus Christ They have such peculiar Respects to his Blood to his Death to his Redemption I would instance in two of these we find in Scripture-Saints And then I shall draw out in brief Expressions the general Actions of Christians according to their pattern The first is that in the 11 Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said of Moses v. 28. Through Faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of Blood lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them This he did by faith God commanded him indeed to keep the Passover But Moses had an Eye upon the Redemption of Christ in it And by Faith he kept the Passover So every Act of the Soul by which it makes Recourse to Christ upon all occasions after it hath taken him it is like keeping the Passover Every Act I say wherein we do especially depend upon the Blood of Christ and make close Recourse and Application to it it is an Action Resulting from true saving Justifying faith that true faith by which we are Saved and Justified For so indeed I observe tho we call it Justifying faith the Scripture never calls it so But the faith by which we are Justified To make good that point that I have always press'd upon you that we are not Justified by Faith as an Act But we are Justified only as the Righteousness of Christ is given to it for that Righteousness alone is our Justification But this I say there are Acts of the Soul by which it does make recourse to Christ and to his Blood Another Example and I choose to give it you because it is Seated in that of the Apostle James that is made the great Objection against the faith by which we are Justified through the Righteousness and Propitiation of Christ James 2. 21. saith the Apostle Was not Abraham our Father Justified by works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Seest thou how faith wrought with his Works and by works was faith made perfect Now this is the thing that I observe to you The Offering of Isaac it was as great a Conversant Act about the Death Blood and Sâ—crifice of Christ as any could possibly be represented in Scripture to us For there could not be a greater Type and Representation of the Father giving his Son to Die for Sinners and to become a Sacrifice for them than that of Abraham the Affectionate Father of Isaac Offering up his Son Isaac Therefore the Apostle uses this for an Argument of a Working faith This was a Work of Faith indeed it was not a work of Faith taking Christ but it was a work of Faith conversant about the Death and Sacrifice of Christ And therefore the Apostle is express in it Seest thou how Faith wrought with his works This was a great act in which Faith wrought mightily when Abraham offered up Isaac But 't was not so properly a work of Moral obedience as the work of Faith in Christ if we Consider the Greatness and excellency of it and the Eye it had to Christ though it was a high act of obedience of self Resigning also So I say there are many acts which are