distinguished should ever really be separated Faith without works saith James is dead Jam. 2.26 That is in truth 't is no faith as a dead Man properly is not a Man but a meer carcass and an apparent resemblance only of a Man 'T is little better than an implicite contradiction at the best but an ens rationis a meer figment and Chimera that is no where to be found existing but in the wild imaginations of some such whom the Apostle calls absurd and unreasonable men An impenitent faith and disobedient faith an unholy and unjust faith What a strange conjunction would this be Can any Man think this to be a justifying a saving faith It 's true if we do humbly and sincerely receive and give up our selves to Jesus Christ upon Gospel termes God doth not suspend our pardon and acceptance till our holiness be compleat and our obedience grown to its full stature but upon that very act acquit us from our obligation to the Old Covenant and admit us to an incipient right to all the priviledges of the New As he that hath before witness sealed to Indentures is thereupon immediately though the things therein required are not yet discharged admitted to the possession of the premises And he that humbly submits himself to his Prince upon his Proclamation of grace and pardon is at the same time pardoned and taken under the protection of his government though he have not yet demonstrated his loyalty by any signal acts of service to him But then as sinners are thus justified upon their first solemn and serious believing in Jesus Christ or else it will be hard to say when 't is done so they must and if sincere in the first act they will otherwise in truth they never did believe and consequently never were justified they must I say and will continue in all due obedience to him according a they then promised and resolved or else their first act stands only for a cypher and signifies nothing in Gods account nor in mans neither could he as God understand our hearts There is no pardon sealed nor right to life conferred nor the least spiritual advantage to be expected from the Covenant of Grace unless our faith be such as is justified by obedience As he that seals to any Covenant must also pay his rent or he cannot expect â—o be continued in possession and â—reap the profits of it And he that is pardoned upon submission must also live in a dutiful subjection to his Prince or otherwise hâ— cannot hope to enjoy the benefit of his pardon By the former I mean our believing and submission to Jesus Christ we are as I have already said justified and obtain an initial right to eternal life And by the latter i. e. our holiness and obedience our right is continued and compleated But fourthly 4. It may contribute somewhat to our better understanding the consistence of free Grace with the conditionality of the Covenant and the necessiâ—y of our personal performance of the conditions of it in order to our eternal Salvation a little to consider the nature of Salvation and happiness and how nearly holiness and obedience are allied to it Happiness Salvation they are pleasing words As light to the eye musick to the ear Every one is delighted with the sound of them How beautiful are the feet of them that bring these glad tidings But alas how few are there of those that desire it that rightly understand what it is Ask them what they mean by being happy and they will tell you Oh! to be freed from sin they mean no the sinfulness but the punishment of sin thâ— curse of the Law and the wrath that is tâ— come And to have all tears wiped froâ— their eyes and burdens taken from theiâ— shoulders and to rest for ever from their labours To be delivered from Hell and eteâ—nal burnings and to live in the midst of joy and delights in another world In a word not to be everlastingly miserable but to be at ease for ever without care and trouble and anxiety But what is there in all this more than in Mahomet's Paradise or the Poets Elyzium If freedome from misery were properly happiness then non-entities might be happy and the readiest way to make us so would be â—o annihilate us and turn us into our first nothing For that which is not is at ease and cannot be miserable And if meer sensitive pleasures and delights were sufficient to create beatitudes then the brute creatures might be numbred amongst the blessed and the most effectual means to make Man so were to change his nature and turn him into a beast since they are observed to have the quickest sense and so most capable of enjoying the pleasures of it And yet this is all that the generality of the world understand by happiness and indeed all that they desire And according to these false conceptions of happiness are also their notions of free Grace framed and modelled To be created over again in Christ unto good works and be pure in heart and holy in all manner of conversation To live the life of God and be righteous as he is righteous and be followers of him as dear children c. These things are seldom instanced in or taken notice of either as any much less as the most essential parts of our happiness or any fruit and evidence of free Grace But when they would set forth this arraied in her richest robes of glory and greatest Majesty they instance in God pardoning sinners and blotting out their iniquities and justifying the ungodly and casting their sins into the bottom of the Sea and scattering them as a thick cloud and redeeming them from the curse and freeing them from Hell and condemnation c. This they cry is Grace and wonderful Grace to sinners And so indeed it is and wonderful beyond what 't is possible for any finite creature to express or comprehend And therefore my design is not to shadow or eclipse any part of that unspeakable glory that ariseth hence to the free Grace of God But yet let me add is there no free Grace but pardoning and justifying Grace to be admired And may not men without offence be minded of it and be desired to consider it Tell me what greater favour and kindness and that is properly Grace as hath been shewn can God possibly manifest to any creature than to make it eternally happy And what greater happiness can he possibly bestow upon him than to make him like and conformable to himself The true and formal notion of happiness lies not in negatives but positive fruitions Not in being freed from misery but in the enjoyment of all possible perfection of which a created nature is capable And all the perfection competible to a creature consists formally in his conformity and assimilation to God the original fountain of being and perfection That creature that hath all excellencies and perfections proper and competible to its own
is an act of Grace but Grace is not Grace unless it be free He that pardons an Offender a Traytor a Rebel he may bring him to terms before he pardon him and he that dispenseth Crowns and Scepters to unworthy Persons Beggars and Miscreants he may require homage and observance from them without fear of rendring it no act of Grace The truth is all that Jesus Christ obtained or can in reason be supposed to design by his undertaking to obtain at the hands of his Father in the behalf of sinners was only this that pardon and salvation might be dispensed to them upon such terms and in such a way as might be consistent with the Honour of God and most for the good and interest of the lapsed yet reasonable Creatures whose perfection and happiness lay in his likeness and conformity to his Maker That therefore which we are to consider is not so much what is the intrinsick worth and price of Christs blood or how far it might have been available to the saving sinners but rather to what ends and purposes God hath accepted it and in what way and upon what Conditions 't is made over to us that it may become ours God might by virtue of his Omnipotency have made many Worlds and yet he hath made only one and according to the judgment of some he might by virtue of his absolute Prerogative have pardoned the sinner without the death of his Son and yet he would not do 't without it And possibly he might upon the account of his Sons undertaking have saved sinners by other means and upon other terms than those he hath now declared in the Gospel and yet these he hath only made choice of as they by which they shall be saved And therefore the actual determinations of his Will in this particular which he hath fully made known to us by his Word are the things which we are concerned to observe and attend to if ever we expect to have any lot or portion in the Grace and Glory that Jesus Christ hath purchased PROPOS VII Of God's transacting with Man by Covenant THE particular way and medium that Divine Wisdom hath been pleased to make choice of in and by which to interest sinners in the saving benefits of his Son 's undertaking 't is per modum Foederis by way of Covenant or mutual Compact betwixt himself and the Creature What this Covenant is and whether a Covenant in a proper sense that is afterwards to be enquired into that which now I have to make good is to shew in general that 't is by Covenant that the Fruits of Christ's death are made over to us And here it is to be observed That this is the way in which God hath ever treated Man both before and since his fall For though God by virtue of his absolute Soveraignty and Dominion over the Creature might have imposed what Laws he thought meet upon Man and have exacted perfect and perpetual Obedience at his hands without ever giving much more without obliging himself to give any thing by way of reward for his obedience And though Man by virtue of his necessary and essential dependance upon God from whom he received his all was thereupon indispensably obliged to obey and serve him so long as he had a Being yet such hath been the particular good will and bounty of God to Man that he never yet dealt with him stricto jure or in a way of absolute Right and Dominion but rather hath chosen to encourage him to obedience by the promises of reward That God indeed should give Man a Law that supposing him a reasonable Creature fit for Government seems no less than necessary yea but that God should turn his Laws into a Covenant and thereby make himself a Debtor to his Creature as Augustine speaks that is become ingaged to Man to reward him for that service which was antecedently due to him this is to be deemed an act of meer Grace and infinite condescension But thus was God pleased from the first to treat Adam whilst yet he was in his primitive state of integrity This generally is conceived to be the meaning of those words Gen. 2.16 17. And the Lord God commanded the Man saying Of every Tree of the Garden thou mayest freely eat but of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye In these words we have first an express command given to Adam that he should not eat of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil together with a free and gracious concession to eat of the Fruit of every Tree of the Garden excepting that as also a severe commination annexed to this Grant and Command assuring him that if he should dare to eat of the forbidden Fruit he should certainly dye and in this threatning there is a promise also necessarily implyed since all Negatives are judged to include their contrary Affirmatives that if he continued in his obedience to the Law of God he should not dye but live and so we find the Apostle commenting upon the words Rom. 10.5 and Gal. 3.12 And a Positive Law requiring obedience of the Creature to which there is annexed a promise of some good provided he continue to pay and perform the homage and duties required of him together with a threatning of evil and punishment in case of default this according to the proper meaning and import of the word is no other than a Covenant supposing only that both parties do mutually agree and yield their consent to the terms which in the case in hand is sufficiently evident First on Gods part since he made and propounded this Law with its respective immunities and conditions to Man And on Man's part also 't is necessary to be supposed since he being but a Creature essentially depending upon his Maker is thereby essentially obliged to give his consent to whatever he shall please to propose to him But however we shall please to call this whether a Law or Covenant no sooner was this primitive institution made void by Man's transgression in eating of the forbidden fruit but God is pleased to erect a Covenant of Grace for life and salvation with fallen Man the first foundations of which we have laid in that first Evangelical promise Gen. 3.15 The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head The Promise indeed is absolute and nothing therein is mentioned more than that God would raise up a Saviour unto Man from the Seed of the Woman by whom he fell But who knows how far God might or did further discover himself to Adam and the Primitive Ages of the World either as to this or other concerns of his and their duty and reward since 't is abundantly evident that in the Revelations made to Moses God's design was not to make known all the transactions that had before past betwixt himself and the Creature but only such
will and so absolutely unknown to us that cannot possibly either make any change of our state or become any foundation for any real and forensick distinction betwixt Man and Man 'T is not that which makes this Man a Judas and that Man a Paul The one actually wicked and the other personally righteous And therefore whoever God predestinates saith the Apostle thâ—m also he calls before they are either justified or glorified Rom. 8.30 He makes them to pass under the rod and brings them into the bond of the Covenant and pours clean water upon them and puts his Spirit into them and writes his Laws in their hearts and causeth them to walk in his ways and keep his Judgments before he will own them to be his people and dignify them with the name of Saints and Children and righteous ones Ezek. 36.25 26 27 28. Jer. 31.33 1 Cor. 1.2 Take Paul for an instance He was you know a chosen vessel to the Lord Acts 9.15 Separated in Gods predeterminate counsel from his Mothers womb Gal. 1.15 Yea but was he therefore immediately justified and sanctified and adopted and owned for a Saint a Child of God from his Mothers womb No for all that he will tell you that he was for some years a Pharisee an injurious person a Persecutor a Blasphemer 1 Tim. 1.13 And as he speaks of the Ephesians that he was dead in sins and trespasses a Child of disobedience and of wrath without Christ having no hope and without God in the World Eph. 2.1 2 3 12. To this effect he speaks expresly of himself Tit. 3.3 And may we not now truly say of Paul however elected that he was a wicked Man during his continuance in this state And consequently that he was not righteous since 't is impossible for the same person to be righteous and wicked dead and alive at the same time But how then came Paul to be amongst Gods Jewels his holy ones How God humbles him at the foot of Christ Acts 9.5 6 c. and calls him by his Grace Gal. 1.15 and makes him obedient to his call Acts 26.19 and regenerates him by his Spirit Tit. 3.3 4 5. and causeth him to believe and obey the Gospel Acts 24.14 15 16. and to live intirely to Jesus Christ Philip. 1.21 Thus Paul obtaineth Mercy as he tells you 1 Tim. 1.16 and is listed into the number of the Saints his name now is changed Acts 13.9 'T is no more Saul but Paul no more a Persecutor but an Apostle of Jesus Christ and now he is justified Gal. 2.16 and now he receives a Crown of righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 And thus you see what it is that denominates a man righteous or wicked and what is the only note of distinction betwixt an Heir of wrath and a Child of God not baptism or profession or being in the visible Church or the elective love of God but doing righteousness as John speaks which is nothing else but the actual performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant of which I am treating 4. Why else hath God sent his holy Spirit into the World Is it not plainly for this end that he may help our infirmities Rom. 8.26 and that he may assist us in the actual performance of those duties which are by the New Covenant required of us That we may look upon him whom we have pierced by our sins and mourn Zech. 12.10 that we may believe in Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.13 that we may mortifie the deeds of the flesh Rom. 8.13 that our hearts may be purified in obeying the truth 1 Pet. 1.22 And that we may walk in the wayes and keep the Judgments of God Ezek. 36.27 All this is said to be by the assistance of the Divine Spirit And therefore it is that the ministration of the Spirit is still necessary in order to our Salvation notwithstanding that Jesus Christ hath fully discharged the office and perfâ—cted the work of a Redeemer and Mediator for us Joh. 16.7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth It is expedient for you thâ—t I go away for If I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you The Spirit here is expresly promised to be sent in the room of Christ to supply his place and office when he should leave the World as that which should be of more advantage to them than still to enjoy Christs personal presence here on Earth Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away But why expedient For then the Spirit shall come But when he is come what shall he do Why He shall convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment ver 8. I but if Jesus Christ hath so done all as that we have nothing at all to do and that his imputed righteousness alone be sufficient to save us without our personal and obediential righteousness to what purpose is the administration of the Spirit His work and office is wholly superseded For what needs a Spirit of mourning to be poured down upon us if so be the Covenant of Grace require us not personally to repent Or a Spirit of Faith as the Apostle calls it 2 Cor. 4.13 if we are not bound to believe Or a Spirit of holiness if it oblige us not to be actually holy Or a spirit of obedience if we may be saved without obeying If then our having of the Spirit and being led or acted by him be indispensably necessary in order to our Salvation so also is our repenting and believing in Christ and loving God and doing of his will and cleansing our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God and purifying our selves as he is pure since the effecting this in us is the great errand for which he came into the World and the main office he hath undertaken during the time of Christ Mediatory Kingdom The truth is we can no more be saved without the ministration of the spirit than we can without the Mediation of Jesus Christ This argument runs clear in Scripture He that hath not Christ hath not life 1 Joh. 5.12 But he that hath not the spirit hath not Christ Rom. 8.9 And he that is not holy and obedient hath not the spirit Jude ver 19. For where ever the Spirit is he regenerates and sanctifies the whole lump Body Soul and Spirit as the Apostle speaks 1 Thess 5.22 and so becomes in that Soul a Spirit of Faith Holiness and obedience 5. How otherwise shall Believers attain to any evidence or assurance of their Salvation Or come to know that they more than othes are in a state of friendship with God and made Heirs of the promise and vessels of mercy when so great a part of the World are Heirs of wrath and Sons of perdition That they may be thus assured since some undoubtedly have been so and that they all ought to labour for
this assurance since God in Scripture hath expresly commanded it I here take for granted But how is it possible that this assurance should be raised in them any other way than by their certain knowledge that they have through Grace been inabled to discharge those duties of the Covenant to which these blessings and priviledges are therein promised As how shall any man know that he is secured in the quiet possession of the Lands he holds by lease but by knowing that he hath truly performed Covenants and discharged the Conditions of his Indentures by which his title to and possession of them were made over and secured to him This I am sure is the only foundation that Scripture lays whereon to build our evidence 1 Joh. 2.3 5.1 Joh. 3.18 19 20 24. 1 Joh. 5.18 19. Hereby saith the Apostle we know and hereby we assurâ— our selves Of what That we are in God and that he loves us But how Why 〈◊〉 we love him and keep his Commandments And if we do these things saith Peter we shall never fall 2 Pet. 1.10 And doth not the very nature of the thing it self no less demonstrate this For what is assurance Is it not a reflect act of the Soul upon it self and actions whereby it comes to kâ—ow that its state and actions are and have been such as God by the Law of the New Creature doth require and will accept Iâ— knows by the assistance of the Divine Spirit that it hath sincerely repented and that it doth believe and is regenerate and born of God and made obedient to the heavenly call c. And that consequently all the blessings promised to such a state as pardon of sin and acceptance with God and eternal life do now undoubtedly belong to him as his reward and portion This is properly assurance and not an unwarrantable perswasion that we are elected or that Jesus Christ died for us and rose again for our justification in particular or that God loves us we know not why c. For then the strongest presumption would be the best assurance 'T is therefore impossible that any Soul should be truly and with safety assured of its being saved unless it first be assured of its own sincerity in having acted according to the tenor of the Covenant Man may presume indeed and please themselves with pleasant dreams and delusions and fondly perswade themselves like drunken or distracted men that they are Kings and Priests to God and Heirs to a Crown of Glory and shall sit upon Thrones in Heaven with the Lamb and reign with him for ever They may thus fancy indeed but whatever they pretend they can never be thus assured till the truth of their repentance and faith and holiness be first assured to them The great business therefore of the Spirit in sealing and witnessing is to evidence and confirm the truth and reality of these Graces to the Soul and to raise it to a comfortable perswasion of its own sincerity For this is that which modest and humble souls do usually most question and concerning which they are not easily satisfied partly by reason of temptation and partly from a sense of their own daily failings and infirmities and partly also from the great importance of the thing it self their eternal woe or happiness depends upon it That they who sincerely repent and believe and are sanctified shall infallibly be saved that is not the thing they doubt of No this they will acknowledge they do believe I but their great doubt lies here whether their repentance and faith c. be true and sincere 'T is their own sincerity and not Gods faithfulness that they commonly call in question And here now properly comes in the witness of the Spirit They are Saints and Sons but they cannot discern their Fathers image upon their Souls they have Faith and Repentance c. they have Grace but they do not see it As a man that may have good Evidences for his Lands yet by reason of some weakness or distemper in his eyes he may not at present be able to read them The spirit therefore he comes and blows off the dust if I may so express it and draws the lines more clear he enables them more powerfully to mortifie those sins that weakned their evidences and stirs up those languishing sparks that are in them and makes them more quick and burning and so more visible or as the expression is in the Canticles he blows upon the Garden and makes the Spices thereof to flow out and their sweet Odors to be more fragrant and diffusive He invigorates their Graces and causeth them to act with more sensible life and strength and after all he shines upon his own Graces and strengtheneth their visive and discerning faculties and so enables them to see the truth and reality of those Graces which before they doubted of And thus by witnessing together with our spirits Rom. 8.16 He raiseth the Soul to a comfortable assurance of its being in a safe and happy state As when a Man is under any apprehensions that his Estate is forfeited for breach of Covenants and that thereupon he may be liable to arrests and actions if upon reading his indentures and viewing his acquitâ—ances he conceives that the rent hath been paid and the rest of the conditions have been kept his fears are in a great measure allaid but if the owner himself now come and â—oint him to that particular acquittance which was before over laid and acknowledge that 't is his own hand-writing and that he hath faithfully discharged the several conditions of his Lease the Man is now fully satisfied and sufficiently assured that he may still have and hold his Lands without any let or molestation This is as I apprehend the true Scriptural notion of the spirits sealing which you plainly see presupposeth our repenting and believing c. according to the tenor of the Gospel Covenant For can you imagine that the Spirit seals to a blank Or witnesseth to a lie What teach us to cry Abba Father before we are born of God Or perswade us we are justified when we are in a state of unbelief and the wrath of God abides upon us Or assure us we are Heirs of the promise when we are strangers to the Covenant Or that our estate is safe when a curse and death and hell are denounced against us Is this the Spirits witness do you think or way of sealing No he first works Grace upon the heart and then gives testimony to his own work He sanctifies first and then he seals to the day of Redemption Eph. 1.13 6. The personal performance of the Conditions of the New Covenant is therefore necessary because the promise of pardon and acceptance and eternal life is only made to our personal performance of them This I have often hinted before and presupposed as a foundation to several of the preceeding arguments but now it may be necessary to enlarge a litte farther
they are still truly distinguishable in themselves as to their formal notions vocation being one thing and justification another and also in the order in which they are given out to sinners For first they are effectually called then justified then adopted and last of all glorified Betwixt the three former there is at least a priority of nature as the Sun we say is before its light and the fire before its heat But betwixt them and glorification there is a priority of time Thus Enoch we know walked some years with God in a justified state before he was translated And Paul fought long after he was called before he received his Crown This is the unvariable order that God hath fixed wherein to dispense the great blessings of the Covenant to such who are the objects of his elective love He justifies none but the called and adopts none but the justified and glorifies none but the adopted Rom. 8. In the next place the order in which the priviledges of the Covenant are dispensed being stated we must consider in what order the several conditions of the Covenant since â—ot to all alike nor at the same time to all are to be applied for our being actually inâ—eressed in them And first in order to our â—ffectual calling no more is required of us â—han an humble and diligent attendance upon all such means as God hath appointed for that end Our waiting by the pool for the Angels moving upon the waters Isa 55.6 Prov. 2.4 5. Heb. 2.1 Luke 11.9 10 11 12 13. Joh. 5.25 Act. 10.33 Acts 13.44 48. Our actual faith and repentance and holiness cannot here be supposed as a prerequisite to our effectual calling only our attendance upon the means since these are the very things to which we are called Act. 26.18 Rom 10.14 Rom. 1.7 Gal. 1.6 And he that is called to believe and be holy is upon that very account supposed before to be both unbelieving and unholy But then in order to our being justified and adopted there both faith and repentance as hath already been proved are antecedently necessary Or which is all one our humble and penitential acceptance or receiving of Jesus Christ in all his offices as Prophet Priest and King and consequent upon this our reliance upon him for pardon and Salvation Gal. 2.16 Joh. 1.12 and lastly in order to our being actually glorified and made eternally happy in the immediate fruition of God 't is further requisite that we be not only penitent and believing but also actually holy and obedient as hath been said Math. 5.20 Rev. 22.14 First God in the use of means calls sinners to repent and believe and then upon their repenting and believing in answer to his call he justifies and adopts them And then upon their being further purified in obeying the truth as 't is exprest 1 Pet. 1.22 and so made meet to be partakers with the Saints in the inheritance of light they are as the consummation of all their happiness eternally glorified So that you see our repenting and believing necessarily presupposeth our effectual calling and our justification and adoption our repenting and believing and our glorification not only our being justified and adopted but also our being personally holy and conformable to Jesus Christ When therefore 't is said that obedience as well as faith and repentance is a necessary condition in the Covenant of Grace if we understand it as we ought according to the order before explained the great doctrine of justification by faith in Christ which the Apostle so much contends for with the Jews especially in his Epistle to the Romans and Galatians this doctrine I say is hereby secured and preserved inviolable since our obedience is made a condition only with reference to eternal life and not to our justification being in order not â—ntecedent to but consequent upon that We are still justified by faith in Christ without works as the Apostle speaks but yet not saâ—ed by faith alone without works There is more required to make a Soul fit for Heaven than meerly the pardoning of his sins and justifying of his person But is it not often affirmed in Scripture that we are saved as well as justified by faith Joh. 3.16 Eph. 2.8 Mar. 16.16 It 's true and so also we are said to be saved by hope Rom. 8.24 And by calling upon the name of the Lord Rom. 10.13 And to be blessed and have a right to the tree of life by keeping of the commands of Christ Rev. 22.14 If then the argument will hold good that we are saved by faith alone without holiness and obedience because 't is said he that believeth shall be saved we might also by the same rule argue that we are saved by hope without faith or by calling upon God without hope or by our obedience without all the rest since Salvation and blessedness is ascribed to each of these to hoping and calling upon the Lord and obeying as well as believing All therefore that can justly be inferred from hence is only this that faith as well as hope and obedience is necessary to our Salvation And because there is an inseperable connexion betwixt them and a joint subserviency of both to the same end therefore it is that eternal life is sometimes ascribed to one sometimes to the other Sometimes 't is said blessed are they that believe Joh. 20.29 Sometimes blessed are the pure in heart Matth. 5.8 Sometimes blessed is he that feareth the Lord Psal 112.1 Sometimes again blessed are they that keep his testimonies and are undefiled in the way Psal 119.1 2. All which 't is evident must be taken inclusive of each other faith of fear and fear of purity and all as joined with actual obedience That is he that believes and acts sutably to his faith in purifying his heart and keeping the commands of Christ he shall be saved And so again on the other hand he that obeys supposing also that he repents and believes in Jesus Christ he shall be blessed But we cannot possibly without making Scripture to contradict it self appropriate happiness to any one of these conditions not to faith any more than to obedience either by way of opposition to or separation from the rest The plain English of that would be this that a disobedient faith or an unbelieving obedience might be sufficient to qualify us for eternal life Even in justification it self though our actual obedience be not there required yet 't is vertually included in the very nature of that faith by which we are justified But as to our being eternally glorified there our actual obedience together with faith and repentance are alike necessary to give us a perfect and compleat right to it faith and repentance alone as to this are not sufficient A compleat right I say for there is I grant a certain right to life that doth immediately result from faith it self But then we must here distinguish of a double right There is first a primary and
Doctrine of Rome in this particular And as to same others who also plead for the necessity of holiness and righteousness though they in great measure reject the Popish works and wholly disclaim any merit by them and possibly acknowledge Christs satisfaction though since they speak some of them so darkly and undervaluingly of it that may be questioned Yet the efficacious influences of the Sacred Spirit for their assistance in the performance of those acts of righteousness they plead for are not so much acknowledged by them the creature being thought sufficiently instructed with power from nature and reason to repent and believe and obey c. according to the pleasure of his own will And though they seem much to advance the Soveraignty of God over the creature whilst they ascribe to God nine hundred ninety and nine degrees of power and but one of an hundred only to Man yet in conclusion the matter comes to this that this one single degree of power in the creature may and doth at pleasure baffle and defeat and put to flight and triumph over those 999. which are in God i. e. The creatures weakness is stronger than Gods power In short if the question be asked them who made thee to differ The answer will be Ego meipsum But is there any thing said in this whole discourse that lays any foundation for these opinions or that doth so much as add one stone to the building Are our own works any where affirmed to be either the matter of our justification or the meritorious cause of eternal life Or that our duties are performed by our own natural strength without the effectual assistance of the Spirit of God Where is nature and reason advanced above Grace or our own righteousness set up to justle Christ from his Throne and rob him of his Crown Is it not more than once affirmed and proved that holiness and obedience are not the causes but conditions only of our Salvation And that 't is impossible for any creature much less one that is degenerate to merit any thing at the hands of God And that we are justified not by works not by our holiness and obedience which follow justification as the payment of the rent doth sealing to the Indentures but by faith in Jesus Christ receiving him in all his offices And that the several duties of the Covenant are performed not by the sole power of nature but by strength received from the Spirit of God and by the daily supplies of his Grace So that we are doubly indebted to God first to his command to obey that and then to his Grace for enabling us to obey And will â—ny one that is not profoundly ignorant call â—his by the name of Popery and Pelagianism or have so much confidence as to â—ensure and condemn it as a Doctrine inâ—onsistent with the Grace of the Gospel and â—hat righteousness that is by Christ Is not â—his in Judes language to speak evil of â—hose things which they know not And â—o proclaim themselves unskilled in the words â—f righteousness and that Doctrine which is â—ccording to Godliness But suppose the agreement betwixt faith â—nd works Christs righteousness and our â—wn free Grace and the necessity of obediâ—nce in the business of Salvation could not â—fficiently be evidenced to our present reaâ—on must they therefore be exploded as abâ—â—rdities and untruths and things absoluteâ—â— irreconcileable We must then throw aâ—ay not only some of the greatest mysteries 〈◊〉 our Religion but many of the most eviâ—â—nt phenomena and appearances in Philosophy The influences of the Load-stone the ebbing and flowing of the Sea c. musâ— be rejected as fables and our senses no morâ— be credited in what they see since the manner how these things are done is not yet sufficiently understood and explained Thingâ— themselves we know are evident but the modes and manners of things are almost every where latent and unaccountable Thaâ— therefore which we have to do in all matterâ— of Divine faith and practice is only this duly to inform and satisfy our selves whaâ— God hath certainly revealed and made knowâ— to us as his mind and will concerning 〈◊〉 which being done and our minds being satisfied that God hath said it and that 〈◊〉 is the plain meaning of his words we arâ— then without any further debate to believe and do according to his word though possibly at present we cannot so well discoveâ— that mutual accord and agreement whicâ— there is betwixt those several truths revealeâ— by him The positive and plain conclusion of Scripture are humbly to be believed thougâ— they cannot be reconciled by us For this suppose will easily be granted by all as unquestionable That the will of God if wâ— certainly know it to be his will is the uâ—doubted rule and standard both of faith anâ— practice We must believe what 't is certaiâ— he hath revealed And we must do whaâ— 't is certain he hath commanded For the will of God is not to be disputed but obeyed And doth not the Apostle expresly tell us that this is the will of God even our sanctification 2 Thes 4.3 He that hath said he will blot out our transgressions for his own sake and remember â—ur sins no more Isa 43.25 he hath also â—â—id thâ—t we must repent and be converted â—hat our sins may be blotted out when the days of â—efreshing shall come from the presence of the â—ord Acts 3.19 He that hath said that â—e are justified freely by his grace through the â—edemption that is in Christ Rom. 3.24 he â—ath also said we are justified by faith ver â—8 and that we must believe that we may â—e justified Gal. 2.16 He that saith we â—â—e made the righteousness of God in Christ â—ho was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 he also â—â—ith that except our righteousness speaking â—ere expresly of moral and personal righteâ—usness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes â—nd Pharisees we shall in no case enter into the â—ingdom of God Matth. 5.20 And he that â—ith we are saved by grace and not of our â—â—â—ves Eph. 2.8 and according to his mercy â—â—d not by works of righteousness which we â—â—ve done Tit. 3.5 he also saith that we â—ust work out our own salvation with fear and â—â—mbling Phil. 2.12 and that without hoâ—â—ess we shall not be saved Heb. 12.14 Is not all this plain and easy to him that will but understand God hath said it 'T is his will exprest in terms that we must repent and believe and be righteous and work about our own Salvation and follow after holiness that we may not perish but have everlasting life Who then shall shall dare to argue and dispute against it At least here is no ground you see for any humble and sober mind that is but sincerely willing to be governed by the Divine will so to do but rather seriously to apply himself to the performance of these duties that God hath so expresly injoined and made necessary to our Salvation The great reason therefore why men profess themselves so much offended with this Doctrine 't is not because it is or because they in truth believe it to be an enemy to the Cross and Grace of Christ but rather because it is an enemy to their lusts and passions and presumptuous neglects of God An enemy to their present ease and pleasure and worldly satisfactions the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life An enemy to their false and carnal hopes and empty professions of Christianity Therefore it is that they thus condemn this Doctrine because otherwise they cannot justifie their own faith and practice that are so manifestly condemned by it They must have a cheap Religion Faith without works pardon without the trouble of repentance an Heaven without holiness and a free Grace to save them without obedience or else they are miserable and undone to eternity But be not deceived saith the Apostle God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Gal. 6.7 8. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 For God will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile But glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile for there is no respect of persons with God Rom. 2.6 7 8 9 10 11. Be ye therefore steadfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 FINIS
in God and Jesus Christ expresly commanded in Scripture And is not that properly to be called obedience which falls under an express command no less than any other duty in Christianity And if faith be obedience is not obedience then and faith all one This is that invincible argument that is brought to prove faith and obedience to be one which Scripture you see before makes two By this way of reasoning repentance and love to our neighbour and sobriety and godliness c. are all the same and not to be distinguished All duties but one duty and all graces but one grace All is faith all believing because all commanded Nay our very engaging and Covenanting to obey God in all things is also enjoined and yet shall there be no difference betwixt obedience and promising to obey betwixt a bond and present payment betwixt entering into Covenant and performing Covenants 'T is one thing for a Wife to promise as usually they do when married to love and honour and obey her Husband and another thing actually to love and honour and obey him One thing for a rebellious Subject to submit himself to the mercy of his Prince and engage himself by oath to be Loyal and another thing for him to live in all due subjection to his Laws and Government And in this mainly lies the difference betwixt faith and obedience That is our entering into Covenant with God and this our performance of Covenant That our taking Christ for our Husband and this our loving and honouring and obeying of him as we then engaged That our submitting our selves to the clemency and goodness of God and this our living in a due observance of all the righteous Laws and Statutes of his Kingdom And thus indeed faith it is the first entrance upon or beginning of obedience as a point is the beginning of a line or unity of number which yet no one takes to be the same but different things and accordingly calls them by different names And indeed who knows not if they may be allowed to know any thing that differ from these mens sentiments that things which agree in their general notions may yet be vastly different as to their particular and specifick natures Diamonds and flints agree in this that they are both stones And Stars and clods of earth in this that they are both natural bodies And men and beasts in this that they are both animals both living creatures And yet who will say that a Diamond is a Flint or a Star a clod of Earth or Man a Beast Are these therefore the same because they agree as faith and obedience in their common notions and is there no difference betwixt them Nay since that wherein they differ is more considerable than that wherein they agree therefore in naming things we take little or no notice of their general agreement but denominate them according to their specifick differences We do not call Men animals but reasonable creatures Nor Diamonds stones but Dianonds Nor Stars bodies but Stars And for the same reason we do not call believing obedience but faith And as things are most properly denominated from their particular not general natures so also are all effects and operations belonging to them ever ascribed to them under the same notion Thus discourse and reason is appropriate to Man not as he is an animal but as he is a reasonable creature And splendor and value to Diamonds not as they are stones but Diamonds and influence to the Stars not as they are natural bodies but as they are Stars And therefore we properly say that the Star shines and not the body and the Diamond sparkles and not the stone and Man discourses not the living creature And why may we not without canting by the same rules of undoubted reason ascribe justification to faith not as it is obedience which is its general nature wherein it agrees with repentance and justice and love to our neighbour c. but as it is properly a believing in or acceptance of Jesus Christ which is its specifick difference wherein it is distinguished from all other duties And why may we not say that fides quà fides faith as faith that is as it is an act receiving Christ and not as it is an act of obedience justifies As well as say that homo quà homo man as man speaks and reasons and not as he is an animal Where 's any thing of jargon or non-sense or mystical divinity in all this unless all that must now be called so that speaks not in plain English the language of Crellius and Socinus A Father suppose commands his Son to receive a sum of money for the payment of his debt that he may be discharged from the suits and arrests that are against him What is that now that properly pays the debt and discharges the Son Is it his act of receiving the money though commanded or the money that is received His receiving it indeed is necessary as a means and his duty as commanded but 't is the money only and not his receiving for which he is discharged So here our faith 't is necessary and 't is commanded but yet 't is not that but the satisfaction of Jâ—sus Christ for and upon the account of which we are justified That 's the money by which our debt is paid and we are discharged but faith is our actual receiving of it without which it could not have been ours In a word that is the cause and this the condition of a sinners justification before God But though faith obedience are not as hath been shewn so much the same but that they may be distinguished and differently considered in the business of justification neither are they so strangely different as some Men have imagined Since all our obedience is nothing else but the actual making good of our engagement and resolution in our first believing By faith we take Christ as offered in all his offices as Prophet Priest and King and by obedience we demean our selves towards him as those that have so taken him We hear him in all things whatsoever he saith unto us and make his word the rule and standard of our belief and practice as he is our Prophet And we go to God by him and seek for pardon and acceptance with God upon his account as he is our Priest And we fear and reverence him and live in a due submission to his Laws and discipline as heiâ— our King By that we marry our selves to Christ and by this we love and honour and obey him as our Husband By that as was said before we receive him and by this we walk in him as we have received him So that all our obedience 't is vertually though not actually included in our first solemn act of believing as all conclusions are in their principles and all our performances of Covenant in our voluntary subscribing and sealing to it and therefore 't is impossible that these two however