Luke 18.5 or at the best to allay the clamour of Conscience The Apostle clearly supposes that men may give Alms upon such termes that their very giving shall rather demonstrate them to be covetous men than charitable else what does he mean when he sayes that he took such and such course about the Collection in the Church of Corinth for other poor Saints that it might proceed from them as matter of bounty and not of covetousnesse 2 Cor. 9.5 And that he had herein an eye upon niggardlinesse in giving we are induced to beleeve by the very next words verse 6. But this I say that he which sows sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully And therefore when there is so great a disproportion between mens giving and their ability to give both in respect of number and quantity of their gifts as is too common among men their alms-Alms-deeds will never amount unto a proof of the truth reality or sincerity of their Christian love but rather on the contrary prove an argument of the want of that grace For whence proceeds this straitnesse of hand if it be traced but from narrownesse and straitnesse of heart and that from want of love for it is the very nature of love where it is to open and dilate the heart as the Sun does the pores of the earth which till it comes is contracted and shut up And this illiberal temper in men as it argues want of love in them so it argues want of Faith too the mother of love For whence proceeds that undue sparing and saving and lothnesse to part with any thing considerable but from a secret distrust of wanting that themselves which others call for from them If men could but beleeve and be thorowly perswaded that it is the surest way not only to provide themselves baggs that wax not old a treasure in Heaven but also to secure themselves and Children too from want and poverty here on earth they would as freely part with their money in a way of charity for so much as were meet for them to give as now they do in their Trades in hopes of defending themselves from want If such Scriptures were but turned into Faith which declare the man blessed that considereth the poor and that the Lord shall deliver him in time of trouble and preserve him alive and make him blessed on earth Psalm 41.1 2. that say the liberal man deviseth liberal things and by liberal things he shall stand Isa 32.8 The liberal soul shall be made fat and he that watereth shall be watered himself Prov. 11.25 He that hath pity on the poor lendeth to the Lord and that which he hath given will he pay him again Prov. 19.17 He that giveth to the poor shall not lack Prov. 28.27 Thou shalt surely give him and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him viz. the poor because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works and in all that thou puttest thy hand unto Deut. 15.10 And God is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye alwayes having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work 2 Cor. 9.8 I say if these and many like Scriptures were but turned into Faith they would be counted being lived to in a way of mercy liberality and bounty a thousand times better security against want than all mens pinching and sparing in their deeds of charity is like to be Prov. 11.24 There is that scattereth and yet increaseth and there is that with-holdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty It 's certainly mens unbelief that binds their hearts and binds their hands from bounteous acts they must have Gods to go before them something to trust to which they see and therefore they think the deminishing of their wealth by giving will be a weakening of the prop upon which they lean And therefore these lean starved Sacrifices and niggardly Alms-deeds proceeding as they do from mens diffidence and distrust can never possibly amount unto an evidence of the goodness of their Faith It concerns every one therefore as they prize the clear evidence and proof of the sincerity of their Faith and Love to proportion their Alms-deeds in some good measure suitable to their estates as that without which such evidence and proof is not to be had Nor do I say that it is the only thing by which such assurance is to be had for the Apostle supposeth that men may possibly cut large morsels out of their estates to supply the poor and yet be void of true Christian charity when he saith Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and have not charity it profiteth we nothing 1 Cor. 13.3 But that proportionate distribution I speak of in conjunction with other effects of those graces will reach it though nothing that I know without this will it being an express duty Him to whom much is given of him much is required Luke 12.48 But rather give Alms as you are able so it is in the margin and behold all things are clean unto you Luke 11.41 Vpon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him 1 Cor. 16.2 Then the Disciples every man according to his ability determined to send relief unto the Brethren which dwelt in Judea which also they did Acts 11.29 Sect. 16 I cannot indeed by any rule certainly determine what proportion of his Estate or the Income of it a man as a Christian is bound ordinarily to disburse in a way of charity and that which makes this the more difficult is the great variety of circumstances that do attend mens outward conditions here in the world both in respect of their estates themselves and the necessary occasions of issuing of them forth in a way of ordinary expence As for example one man it may be hath five hundred by the year revenue and no Child another but one hundred and yet hath five or six Children Now n such a case it seems no wise reasonable to think that the same proportion suppose it to be an eighth tenth or twelfth part of a mans Income which would be it may be sufficient for the one would be sufficient for the other also And the reason of the difference is because the one hath neither the like necessary occasion of expence for the present but what is voluntary and matter of his own election and choice nor the like necessary occasion of increasing his Estate by way of future provision for Relations as the other hath but may with much more ease and reason part with a fourth or fifth part of his Income in way of charity than the other may with a tenth or twelfth For as it is neither necessary nor good Christian-like for men to advance in the costliness of their way of living to the utmost of their Income when their Estates are
that we loose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward 2 Jo. 8. Do not bear upon what you have been and what you have done but forgetting those things which are behind be reaching forth to those things which are before and pressing on toward the mark for the price of your high calling Phil. 3.13 14. Remember that better is the end of a thing then the beginning of it Eccles 7.8 For that dissolution and death which is come upon those Churches recorded both in Old Testament and New which at the first and for some time were so promising and so flourishing plainly evinceth it to be a far harder matter to hold on well and so to make a good conclusion than it is to set out well and to make a good beginning What not one of those Churches but miscarried first or last good Lord what Church what Christian shall not tremble at the consideration of it Sirs you have begun in the Spirit I beseech you take heed of ending in the flesh let that never be said to you which Paul spake to a people to whom the Gospel was so precious at the first as that for the sake of it they received him as an Angel of God yea even as Christ Jesus and could have pluckt out their eyes to do him good Ye did run well who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth Gal. 4.14 15 and 5.7 If the Scripture had said nothing to inform you touching your danger of cooling and declining yet this present age in which we live hath furnished you with so many sad precedents and examples of the withering of such whose hopeful beginnings in Christianity promised very much as may sufficiently admonish you to take heed of the like miscarriage Yea the general decay of that spirit of tenderness sobriety and close ingagement of Soul to God which was found in Christians twenty or thirty years ago when there was less light and more heat may well inspire you with a spirit of fear lest you should be infected with the epidemical disease of this Age. Sect. 8 There is a danger it 's true of returning back again to those corruptions in Worship Discipline and Administation of Holy Ordinances wherewith many good people that had not the sence of it were formerly defiled and from which the light that now shines hath delivered you And truly I could heartily wish that the miscarriage of too many whose zeal hath run out more for the Form than Power of Godliness were not so pressing a temptation as it is upon many to have a far more light and low esteem of the form and fashion of Gods house then in truth of right belongs to it But that which I esteem the greater danger by far and of which in love and tenderness I warn you is the placing of Religion chiefly in Form and mens valuing the goodness of their condition by that though a lively and fresh savour of the greater things of the Gospel such as are the daily work of mortification self-denial living by Faith humbleness of mind sweetness of behaviour secret and close communion with God fear of grieving the Spirit Righteousness Mercy Love and Bounty be wanting For at this door as may be conceived destruction entred upon the former Churches and I pray God it prove not the bane of many now in being At that very time when God by his Prophet Esaiah threatned his Vineyard saying I will take away the hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up and break down the wall thereof and it shall be troden down And I will lay it waste it shall not be pruned nor digged but there shall come up briars and thorns I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it Isai 5.5 6. I say at this very time when God thus threatned that Congregation and chosen people of his for their unfruitfulness they did abound in the form and placed much confidence therein They had a multitude of Sacrifices and did abound in Oblations Incense New-Moons and Sabbaths they frequently called Assemblies and solemn Meetings yea they spread forth their hands and made many prayers Isai 1.11 to 15. The Lord as he sayes Psal 50.8 would not reprove them for their Sacrifices and Offerings for he did acknowledg them to have been continually before him and sayes that he was full of them Isa 1.11 to 15. Yea they did seek God daily and had a delight to know his wayes as a Nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinances of their God and took delight in approaching to God Isai 58.2 And such was their confidence of their acceptation with God upon this account and for that they added unto all the rest Fasting as that they wondred that God should not hear them and readily help them And therefore they are brought in expostulating the matter with God thus Isa 58.3 Wherefore have we fasted and thou seest not wherefore have we afflicted our Soul and thou takest no knowledg They were otherwise unworthy in their wayes as touching Judgement Mercy and the love of God and yet verily thought themselves to be the onely people of God and in Covenant with him and his promises to be theirs because of that Form of Gods Worship and service which was amongst them Which way of waiting upon God and worshipping him though of his own appointment when found in company and conjunction with a carnal and unholy life otherwise is mentioned by God as if it were every whit as provoking to him as the great abominations condemned by his Law And therefore he does not only say that it was iniquity indifinitely and that he could not away with their devotions and that his soul hated them and that they were a trouble to him and that he was weary to hear them Isa 1.13 14. but compares them with the most provoking sins Idolatry and Murder He that killeth an Ox is as if he slew a man he that burneth Incense as if he blessed an Idol and why they have chosen their own wayes and their Soul delighteth in their abominations Isai 66.3 Just as if God should now compare Preaching Hearing Baptisme Prayer Breaking of Bread and the holding all the principles of the Doctrine of Christ in opinion and notion with worshipping of false gods and murdering of men while used held and practised by men whose conversation is of a carnal and unholy cast And therefore no marvel if Churches Formality in Religion hastens their destruction their being Spewed out of the mouth of Christ Sect. 9 The Law saith the Apostle is good if a man use it lawfully 1 Tim. 1.8 and so I say of all the Ordinances of Gods House from the greatest to the least of them they are all good i. e. a means of good to you if duly used and kept within their own bounds there is a blessing in every one of them and therefore to loose any of them is to loose so
of weak and low parts and in that respect but vessels of dishonour in the worlds eye are not in that danger to be courted by the world nor under any probability or hopes of obtaining honour from the world though they should seek it thence it comes to pass that their minds are more at liberty to look after glory and greatness in the next world since they neither have nor are like to have any in this and so to fall in with the doctrine of the Gospel which both offers and opens the way to the glory to come but makes little of this world calls mens minds off it and teaches self-denial about it And then when such have actually imbraced the truth as it is in Jesus though they themselves are but poor and meane in parts and humane abilities and of shallow capacities yet the Spirit of God now becomes their guide and he takes of the things of Christ viz. his Doctrines contained in the Scriptures and shews them unto them John 16.14 And what ever parts and humane abilities men may have by the power of which they may go for us to the Grammatical sense of the Scriptures yet as to the spiritual designe of them whilst they themselves are strangers to the sense of such a thing upon their own hearts and consequently have not that presence of the spirit of truth who keeps at a distance from the high-minded and worldly-wise they must needs be in greater danger of wresting the Scriptures as unto the spiritual design of them then the poor humble and meek Soul with whom God delights to dwell and whom he hath promised to guide in judgement and teach in his way Psal 25.9 Isai 57.15 though very far inferior in humane accomplishments But since the mis-understanding of the Scriptures about the doctrine of Justification by Faith without the works of the Law hath proved and I exceedingly fear doth still prove a snare of death unto vast multitudes of poor souls as I intimated before therefore to awaken men who have been but in a spiritual dream about this important business and to undeceive many poor souls who are in extream danger of perishing eternally under a mistaken confidence of Salvation I shall as of the ability which is of God by comparing the Scriptures hereabout endeavour to open and further to clear this mighty point upon the practical understanding of which doth depend even the salvation of all our souls CHAP. II. Shewing of what sort or kind of Works those are which Paul in his Epistles excludes in the point of Mans justification before God Romans 4.5 But to him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted unto him for righteousnesse SECT I NOT to meddle with the coherence of these words for the present because I shall have a fit occasion to touch that afterwards You may easily perceive that they do in themselves contain a brief description of the Man whom God will justifie And we have him here described both negatively and affirmatively 1. Negatively he is such an one as worketh not so saith the Text To him that worketh not c. 2. Affirmatively he is such a one as does believe on him that justifieth the ungodly for the Text tells us concerning him that his faith is counted to him for righteousness I shall God willing speak something to both parts of the description and shall begin with that first which is first in the Text. How then is the Apostle to be understood when he affirms the man that works not to be the capable subject of Justification provided otherwise he be such a one as doth beleeve what kind of Works are they which he shuts out from having part and fellowship in this matter and in what respects 1. Whatever they are it is not the presence of them which he excludes as if a man that hath the works he here speaks of could not be justified but it is such a justifying vertue power and property which some supposed to be in them but were deceived which he excludes as having no hand less nor more in any mans Justification for otherwise Paul though whilst he was a Pharisee and to the very time of his beleeving was such a worker as that he could say that as touching the righteousnesse of the law he was blameless Phil. 3.6 yet this was no obstruction to his Justification when he did beleeve indeed 2. But the Apostles meaning is that the absence of the Works here spoken of would not at all hinder a mans Justification in case he did beleeve but that he was in as good a capacity of Justification upon his beleeving though he had none of the works he here speaks of as he would or could have been in case he had them all 3. But then in the next place the main question will be what and what manner sort or kind of Works it is without which a man if he beleeve shall be justified and whether he intends to exclude all and all manner of works in this case or some one sort or kind only For the resolution whereof we must consider upon what occasion these words of the Apostle are here brought in and what people and what opinions they are against which he is here disputing the knowledge of which will be as a key to open the door of this Text and to give us clearly to understand what Works they are without which a man beleeving may be justified That it is not against any such opinion as reckons a Gospel conversation consisting of self-denial mortification of worldly lusts and sinful affections the love of Christ above all and the preferring other mens spiritual interest and profit before their own temporal and a tender caring for others temporal good as well as their own I say that it is not any such opinion against which the face of the Apostles present argumentation is bent will evidently appear 1. By the carriage of other Scriptures which are so far off from affirming any man to be justified by Faith without these Works as that contrarily they do positively and peremptorily conclude and declare that Faith to be dead unprofitable and vain and such as shall never save that is without these And therefore we may by no means understand the Apostle in any such sense as would make him clash with and fall foul upon the general current of the Scripture elsewhere But the further opening and handling of this I must respite unto its proper place afterwards Sect. 2 2. But that the Works here cast out of doors by the Apostle in the matter of mans Justification are precisely of that sort or kind which are elsewhere called by him the deeds of the Law Rom. 3.28 viz. Mosaical ordinances and services especially such as were Circumcision and Sacrifices and the like which were Works required in the Law of Moses I come now to demonstrate And for the clearing of our way to this we will as I
as it beleeves the blood of Christ to be it and it alone that is in it self and by the ordination of God fully sufficient to take away sin the guilt of it or the condemning power or destroying nature of it so accordingly does it relye upon this blood of Christ under the gracious appointment of the Father to do this great thing for him to particular in whom this Faith dwells Rom 8.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood In this Scripture there are three things that are especially to be marked in relation to the point in hand 1. That Christs blood is the blood of propitiation or that Christ himself is the propitiation by means of his blood i. e. the reconciler the procurer of savour in pardon or remission 2. That God hath ordained him in his blood thus to be and accordingly hath proposed and offered him to all the world as a publick propitiation but yet so and upon condition that men have Faith in his blood i. e. do believe it to be of it self and by the appointment of the Father of sufficient efficacy force and vertue to purge them from their sins Which Faith also must be of the right kind or else it will not interesse any man in this great benefit 3. That which is moreover implyed is that the Faith of a man feeling so good a foundation and ground under it as is the blood of Christ in conjunction with the Fathers will as by which to be confident of a plenary purgation from all sins how great or how many soever they have been does accordingly safely and securely build thereupon Sect. 7 4. Christ as being risen from the dead is the object of justifying Faith Rom. 10.9 If then shalt confess with thy meuth the Lord Iesus and shalt beleeve in thy heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our Iustification And no marvel that the Resurrection of Christ should be the object of saving Faith inasmuch as in it is included the beleef of the main foundation Doctrines of the Gospel and without it Faith could have no firm footing to rest upon touching other great gospel-Gospel-truths As 1. The beleeving of him to be the Son of God which is an ingredient absolutely necessary in the Gospel-faith doth at least in great part depend upon the Faith of his Resurrection For Faith can ground its belief touching his being the Son of God upon nothing else than that which declares him to be so But now he is declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 2. The keeping promise and Covenant with the holy Patriarchs and their Seed which Faith must needs eye did depend upon Gods raising Christ from the dead Acts 13.32 33. And we declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was made unto the Fathers God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children in that he hath raised up Iesus again as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And again Acts 2.30 31. Therefore being a Prophet and knowing that God hath sworn with an Oath to him that of the fruit of his loyns according to the flesh he would raise up Christ to sit upon his throne he seeing this before spake of the Resurrection of Christ that his soul was not left in hell neither his flesh did see corruption 3. The Resurrection of Christ is so necessary to Justification and to the Faith of it that take away this and Justification and the beleef of it are all laid in the dust 1 Cor. 15.14 17. And if Christ be not risen then is our preaching vain and your Faith is also vain And again vers 17. And if Christ be not raised your Faith is vain ye are yet in your sins Without beleeving is no justification and if there had been no Resurrection of Christ there could have been no Faith touching that attonement that is now made by his death For could men have beleeved that the death of Christ had been of sufficient force and vertue to expiate sin had it not been manifested by his Resurrection surely no. For so long as he was under the power of death he was under the power of sin of which death is but the wages For in that he dyed he dyed unto sin saith the Apostle Rom. 6.10 The sting of Death to wit that which gives it power of prevailing over the creature is sin 1 Cor. 15.56 And the time when that saying O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory shall be brought to passe is not till the day of Resurrection When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal immortality 1 Cor. 15.54 And therefore as the Saints shall not actually and perfectly be delivered from all the effects of sin till the day of their Resurrection so neither was Christ delivered from that burden of other mens sins which he bore in his own body untill he rose from the dead And if sin had been too hard for him in keeping him under the power of death it would much more have been too hard for us But in that God raised Christ from the dead he did as it were thereby acknowledge satisfaction for the debt of mens sins which he by his death as a surety had discharged While he lay in the grave he was detained as a prisoner for other mens debts but when the prison doors were opened and he let out the Father acknowledged satifaction and did as it were seal him in the behalf of those for whom he undertook a release and discharge By his entring into suffering he took the sins of the world upon him but by his Resurrection by which he came out of his suffering-state he put them off As in his suffering he was made sin for us and dealt with as if he had been a sinner so by his Resurrection he was justified from those sins which were imputed to him And unlesse he had been first justified from our sins which were imputed to him all the while he suffered we could not have been justified from them our selves And therefore no marvel that the Apostle should attribute our Justification with a Rather unto the Resurrection of Christ than to his Death as he does Rom. 8.33 34. Who is he that condemneth it is God that justifieth it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again He seems to feel a firmer footing for his Faith in the Resurrection of Christ than in his death more to bear him out against the accusations of any that had a mind to condemn him the answer which a good conscience makes it is by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 3.21 4. I might here add that the beleef of the Resurrection of our bodies
former and all acted upon the same object Now that which I shall endeavour is to shew that the first and last of these acts the assent of the mind unto the truth of things that are to be beleeved and the confidence of the soul to meet with salvation from the Lord may be found in such men in whom the middle act of a loving and loyal adherence to the Lord is not found and that the other two without this will not avail to Justification and Salvation Sect. 2 First that men may by way of assent unto the truth of that by which Jesus hath been manifested to be the Christ of God beleeve him to be so or beleeve on him as such and yet that beleeving of theirs not avail them to salvation will appear first of all by Ioh. 12.42 43. compared with other Scriptures The words are these Neverthelesse among the chief Rulers also many beleeved on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confesse him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue for they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God That these men did beleeve Jesus to be the Messiah the Christ of God is most evident in that upon conviction by his Miracles and Doctrine which declared him so to be they beleeved on him and consequently must beleeve in the generall his Doctrine to be true And yet that whilst they did thus beleeve they were in an unsafe condition as touching the salvation of their souls will appear by two material circumstances in the words The first is this That for all their Faith they durst not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue which unworthy deportment of theirs put them under that threatning of Christ Mark 8.38 Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels And John saith that every spirit that confesseth not that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God 1 John 4.3 And confessing with the mouth is as well required unto salvation as beleeving with the heart Rom. 10.10 The second is this that while they thus beleeved they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God which whosoever does cannot beleeve savingly according to Christs own words Iohn 5.44 How can ye beleeve which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only Such beleevers likewise surely were they Iohn 2.23 24. Who when they saw the miracles which Christ did they beleeved in his name but Iesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men he knew that for all their Faith of assent that he was indeed the Messias of which they were convinced by his miracles yet there was not in them the Faith of adherence in a constant and an affectionate sticking to him and therefore would not trust himself with them Which is argument enough that their Faith was not saving nor such as would denominate them faithful Disciples unto Jesus whose property it is to forsake all rather than to forsake Ghrist Luke 14.33 which had it been their case Christ would not have been shie of betrusting himself with them It 's probable that Simon Magus was a beleever of this kind one whose Faith was right as touching the object of it and as touching this first act of it also for the Scripture saith Then Simon himself beleeveh also Acts 8.13 And what did he beleeve that 's exprest in the former verse where it 's said that when they beleeved Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the Name of Iesus Christ they were baptized both men and women Then Simon himself beleeved also that is as well as they or the same things which the others beleeved viz. Philips doctrine concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus And yet for all his perswasion of the truth of the doctrine of the Gospel preached by Philip his heart was not purified by his Faith as the hearts of all are by Faith of the right kind Acts 15.9 for Peter told him First that his heart was not right in the sight of God vers 21. Secondly that he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity vers 23. and consequently was in danger of perishing as the Apostle intimated to him saying Thy money perish with thee verse 20. There was in him the Faith of Credence but not of Adherence the assent of the mind unto the truth of Philips Doctrine but not the powerful consent of the will unto the superlative goodness of the way to the Kingdom taught by him Sect. 3 That this Faith of which we now speak which consists onely in the general assent of the understanding unto the truth of divine Revelation is not that Faith to which the great promises of the Gospel are made I shall endeavour further to manifest by adding two or three Reasons to the Scripture-testimonies already alledged 1. This assent as it is but one single act of Faith and therefore comprehends not the whole general nature of that grace so it is but the act of one single faculty of the soul the mind or understanding and so is not that beleeving with all the heart which is the right christian Faith Acts 8.37 which consists as well in the consent of the will touching the goodness of the thing beleeved as the assent of the mind to the truth of its being For as the object of the Christian Faith the Gospel bears the relation and carries as full a proportion of goodness as of truth in it so does the beleeving soul accordingly by the faculty of the mind assent to it as true and by the faculty of the will accept of it as a soveraign good And under this two-fold consideration is the Gospel propounded as the object of Faith 1 Tim. 1 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners It 's a saying faithful in respect of its truth and worthy of all acceptation in respect of its goodness Sect. 4 2. The Devils themselves have such a faith as by which they assent to this truth that Christ is the Son of God and it is the first-born of improbabilities that ever the Devils should have that faith abiding in them by which men shall be saved That the Devils do not only beleeve that there is one God and tremble according to Iames 2.19 but that they also beleeve Christ to be the Son of God the Christ of God is evident Luke 4 41. And Devils also came out of many crying out and saying thou art Christ the Son of God If any shall here object and say that we have but the Devills own word for it who was a lyar from the beginning The answer is that we have more than their word
for it we have this Evangelists word for it as appears by the latter part of the fore-cited verse where he sayes that they viz. the Devils knew that he was Christ If any should think that possibly the Devils may have the same faith that would justifie men if it were in them though it will do them no good as not being in the like capacity of grace as men are yet that passage in Iames 2. 19. will oppose such a thought For wherefore does the Apostle mention the faith of Devils there but to disparage the unprofitable and dead faith of some Christians and to give them to know that if their faith rested only in the beleef of things and did not carry out the soul in love both to God and men it was even no better a faith than is in the devils and consequently would save them no more than it would save the devils Sect. 5 3. The Faith of Assent as it is the act of the understanding is frequently forced the mind compelled to beleeve the truth of divine things by the strength of conviction which sometimes is so great that it is not in the power of men to dis-beleeve them which I concieve is the plain case touching that faith which the Devils have and the faith which some wicked men under despair have of the judgement to come who would be glad if they knew how to believe otherwise than what they do believe they would be glad if they knew how to believe that there is no God no Heaven no Hell and it is their torment to believe there is the Devils believe and tremble and so do some men And it is very like that those believers of which we heard before Iohn 2.23 and 12.42 had that Faith which they had concerning Christ forced upon them by the hand of those miracles of Christ in conjunction with his holy life and doctrine which were too hard for their consciences and evinced with power him that wrought them to be the Son of God And it may be they might have a desire to have stifled that light and to have overcome that conviction which they had as that which did oppose that carnal interest of praise which they had with men which it seems they loved more than Christ and therefore would not let it go for his sake And is not this the case of such who hold the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1.18 when the light of divine truth breaks into the mind and cannot be kept out but convinces the conscience that things have been so and so done by the Father and by his Son Jesus Christ in favour to man-kind and that therefore men ought to love the Lord and in love to obey him and that it is the way to be happy so to do and yer for all that this truth which hath thus far compel'd the conscience to assent to it is detained and held as prisoner in the mind by the power of lust so that it does not walk abroad in the life of such a man the thorns spring up with the seed and over-top it the seed springs up in the mind by its power of conviction shewing what should and ought to be but the thorns of lust spring up in the affection and determine what shall be and what shall not be in such a mans life Such a man indeed hath received the truth as he assents to it to be truth but hath not received the love of the truth by consenting to and affectionately imbracing what it enjoynes And shall we think that God will reward with the great and unspeakable blessing of Justification and Salvation such an act of the Creature as is not voluntary but forced from him whether he will or no surely he will not 2 Thes 2.10 Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved c. No other receiving of the truth then will be rewarded with Salvation but the receiving it in love and what 's more voluntary than love If a man had all faith never so strong a perswasion touching the vertue and power of Christ So that he could remove mountains and have not love it would profit him nothing 1 Cor. 13.2 If there be first a willing mind it is accepted c. 2 Cor. 8.12 that 's surely a necessary ingredient to render any act of the creature acceptable to God and consequently rewardable by him 1 Cor. 9.17 For if I do this thing willingly I have a reward Take heed then of venturing your precious souls upon this Faith that lies but in a naked and bare assent to the general truth of the Gospel CHAP. VI. Further discovering that neither the act of Relyance or Dependence upon God or Christ for Salvation without the concurrence of a loving and loyal adhesion to him will avail to Salvation Sect. 1 HAving already shewed that Faith by the first of those three acts mentioned in the former Chapter will not justifie without the addition and concurrence of more I shall now likewise shew you that neither will this act of trust confidence dependance or relyance upon the Lord for Salvation though added unto the former of assenting to the truth of that report which the Gospel makes of Christs being the Son of God his dying for sinners c. prove effectual to justifie save unless it be found in conjunction with an obediential cleaving to Christ to be delivered by him from the power and dominion of sin as well as the guilt and condemnation of it That there may be found in men a presumptious leaning upon the mercies of the Lord and his promises and acts of grace and an expectation of being thereupon secured by God from destruction while in the mean time they cut off their claim and title to those promises and acts of grace by loving of and cleaving to their inward lusts or outward enormities instead of cleaving to those precepts and promises touching holiness which would carry them out of those sins is a thing very visible in the Scriptures as well as obvious to experience It was so with men under the Old Testament Mica 3.11 The heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us none evill can come unto us The Lord had indeed made many gracious promises to that people of his being their God of his dwelling and walking among them of saving them from those evils which he would bring upon their enemies but all upon condition that they would be to him a people in love loyalty and obedience as he to them a God in protection and blessing Levit. 26. Deut. 28. but these men Judges Priests Prophets Sinners of sundry sorts eye the promises over-looking the condition upon which they were made and would needs lean upon these as if God were obliged to them by these to secure them from those evils
Man in his confidence of salvation like as the Cherubims with the flaming sword kept the way of the Tree of Life against Adam though he have never such a desire to be confident he cannot such Scriptures meet him and will not let him they knock him off from taking hold of eternal life this confidence it is not able to subsist in any other element than that of holiness 1 Iohn 3.18 19 20 21. Little children let us not love in word and in tongue but indeed and in truth And hereby we know that we are of the truth and shall assure our hearts before him For if our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things Beloved if our heart condemn us not then have we confidence towards God That by which the Apostle saith men know themselves to be of the truth one in heart and design with it of the same party as it were in Friendship and fellowship with it is this viz. their loving not in word and tongue only but indeed and in truth when Men do not only talk but act and live the things of the Gospel And hereby saith he we shall assure our hearts before him or perswade our hearts before him as in the margint Implying that without this for a Man that knows and considers the termes of the Gospel it 's impossible to perswade his heart before God to appear before God with any confidence For saith he if our heart condemn us viz. of unfaithfulness and faultering with God in the main that our Love and our Religion hath been but in Word and in Tongue have contented our selves to talke of and speak well of good things but have left the doing of them to other folks like the Pharisees that by their Doctrine would bind heavy burdens upon other mens shoulders and yet themselves not touch them with one of their fingers if our heart condemn us of such a thing as this God is greater than our heart both in knowledge and discerning of this deceit and in righteousness of sentence and proceeding against it and therefore he will condemn much more But if our heart condemn us not in this behalf but bears us witness that it hath been our earnest desire care and faithful endeavour to be that which the truth teacheth us to be then have we confidence towards God of our acceptation with him all the Scriptures being on our side to abet and back us in this confidence but on the contrary all against us The Apostle saith He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 Mark Its matter of a mans Faith as well to believe that the men whom God will reward are such as diligently seek him as it is to believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of men So that where this diligent seeking of the Lord is wanting there 's no place for any man to be confident of receiving that blessedness from God which is called the recompence of reward and the reward of the inheritance And what is it for a man diligently to seek the Lord but earnestly to seek his Favour and Love by a diligent and careful endeavour to please him alwayes and in all things By Sin and Unrighteousness man lost God and lost his Love and however it is by the Bloud of Christ that a new and living way is now prepared and made for man to come to God again and to regain his love yet he is not actually possest of it but by going back again to God by returning to him in the same way in which he departed from him All the while man was in the way of Righteousness he was with God and enjoyed the comfort of his company and presence but he no sooner left that way but he lost God and there 's no finding him again without geting into that way again and there you may meet with him find him walk with him and enjoy the comfort of his love and presence again through the mediation of our good friend his holy Son Jesus Only here 's the difference indeed the way of Righteousness is now new made a new Covenant struck new Terms propounded of coming into possession of God again as a happy portion a diligent seeking of him by believing in him sincerely loving of him and faithfully endeavouring to please him being the condition of this new Covenant and the new way of Righteousness in which God is to be found if therein diligently sought And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of Hope unto the end Heb. 6.11 This diligence you see is the medium of this confident Assurance Men can have no other foundation for their confidence than what God himself hath laid I mean proposed it is not of him that willeth in this kind nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy he gives the reward and he gives the laws and terms of obtaining of it and therefore as long as the Declarations of Gods mind in the Scriptures compared touching the qualifications of such whom he receives into Covenant and designs unto life do oppose mens confidence so long they have no foundation to build upon and consequently no confidence of Salvation at all or as good as none For that which is not built upon Gods ground which is all rocky and substantial but upon mens own deceiveable thoughts and imaginations and mistakes of Gods mind and declaration as upon the sand will sail them and fall in that very hour in which it should do them service and they have most need of it Job 8.13 14 15. So are the paths of all that forget God and the Hipocrites hope shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a Spiders-web he shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure Their hope Job 11.20 shall be as the giving up of the Ghost like a man who though he have never so great a desire to live yet must yield up his breath when Death comes and so must men be forced to part with those hopes which they have made to themselves but not received from God and instead thereof embrace everlasting despair to the horrible confusion of their miserable Souls when the time of tryal comes their house of confidence that was built upon the sand will then fall and the fall of it will be great Matth. 7.27 It may stand and do them the service of a house of hope protect them from many sad fears till the storm arises and beats against it but then down it comes and the poor Soul is then to seek and there is no shelter to be found And does it not then concern men to be often prying into the grounds of their Hope and to view them over and over with a jealous eye to the end that if a