is here imply'd Come we now from the double Object to observe in the Text a double Act too Whereof the first is Internal and that express'd the second External and that imply'd The Act Internal which is express'd is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe The Act External which is imply'd is to confess what is believ'd in spite of Temptations to conceal it And this did the Iailour of Philippi in the next Verses after my Text. For as inwardly with the Heart a man believeth unto righteousness so outwardly with the Mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Indeed the Gnosticks were all for the Inward Act only for the better avoiding of Persecution But the Outward is by God as indispensably requir'd And the Inward Act without it is not sincere Thence it is that they are coupl'd as the condition of Salvation Rom. 10. 9. If thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Iesus and believe in thine Heart that God hath raised him from the Dead thou shalt be sav'd Believing and speaking are from the same spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4. 13. It is written I believed and therefore have I spoken We also believe and therefore speak A double Act then there must be if the end be to be sav'd A True Believer must be a Confessor in time of Trial And when duly call'd to it a Martyr too Again As the Object and the Act so too the Subject of it is double For though begun in the Intellect yet 't is consummated in the Will as Aquinas and his Followers do rightly state it or else it would be meerly an human Faith Fides cui potest subesse Dubium a Faith whose very formal Reason is a radical Fear I do not mean an ingenuous but carnal Fear a Faith without Love and without Activity and so without the effect of Obedience too And therefore Cajetan argues well That an habit of Salvifick or saving Faith must be at once both a Speculative and a Practical habit And truly such is That Faith which is required in the Text as may appear by the Effects and Products of it in the Context For first the Iailour did assent unto the Things that were preached by Paul and Silas which infer's the Christian Faith to have got already into his Head And then immediately after we find it sunk into his Heart too witness the Sacrament of his Baptism which he received from Paul and Silas witness also his tender Charity in his washing of their stripes his entertaining them at his Table and his rejoycing even in That that might be temporally his Ruin v. 34 which are a proof of his abounding in those fruits of the Spirit Acts of Iustice and Gratitude and works of Mercy and spiritual Ioy in the Holy Ghost All Effects and Diagnosticks of saving Faith The overflowings of That Love which to use St. Paul's phrase is shed abroad in the Heart of a true Believer And thus we have the twofold Subject of Believing as we ought in the Lord Iesus Christ to wit the Intellect and the Will too Our full Assent must be seconded by our Love of the Truth and Obedience to it and that by a natural Production of the one out of the other For what at first is no more than The light of Knowledge in the Brain does by enkindling in the Bowels the Fire of Love of Love to God in the first place and to our Neighbour in the second produce Obedience to the first and the second Table of the Law After the Object and the Act and the Subject of this Belief each of which is twofold we are in order to reflect on the Nature of it Which is indeed very closely but significantly couch'd in the Praeposition For 't is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe the Essence or Existence of Jesus Christ nor is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe his Truth or Veracity But 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe and trust IN or UPON the Lord Jesus Believe at once his Propensity and Power to save thee Believe his Power for he is Dominus The Lord. And believe his Propensity for he is Iesus the Saviour Well therefore said the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Whosoever cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Now what is thus said of God is exactly true of the Lord Iesus Christ. For God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself And whosoever cometh to Christ must believe as that he is so withal that he is a Rewarder too A Rewarder but of whom and on what Condition for he is not a Rewarder of all in general no nor of All that do believe him to have the Office of a Rewarder But of all such as seek him and that with diligence And of all who thus believe in Him as in the Lord Jesus Christ. Such an important monosyllable is the Praeposition in as 't is the English of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in conjunction with an Accusative that the Life of the Text would be lost without it For standing here as it does betwixt the Act and the Object it does imply the true nature of saving Faith Pass we on from the Nature to the Necessity of Believing Which here is visibly imply'd by the Retrospect of the Text as 't is an Answer to the Question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what must I do that I may be sav'd for sure the sense of the Answer if it be adaequate to the Question must needs be This Thou must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is of absolute Necessity and indispensably requir'd For as without our pleasing God it is impossible to be sav'd so we know without Faith it is impossible to please him Heb. 11. 6. Last of all we have here the Issue or the Conclusion of the whole Matter at once implyed in the Reflexion of the Answer upon the Question and expressed in the words of the Answer too Salvation is not the Effect but yet the necessary event of our Faith in Christ. Nor is it properly the wages but most certainly the Reward of a true Believer It comes to pass as unavoidably upon the Praemisses suppos'd as an Effect on a supposal of all things requisite to its Production For the Question having been This What must I do that I may be sav'd to which the Answer is Believe and thou shalt be sav'd An Answer given by Paul and Silas who spake as the Spirit gave them utterance here does arise a mutual Inference as of the Praecept and the Promise so of the Duty and the Reward Here is a necessary Tendency of the first towards the second and a necessary Dependence of the second upon the first For as Salvation cannot be had by such as live under the Gospel without a praevious Belief in the Lord Iesus Christ so wheresoever such Believing does go before 't is very plain that Salvation
Imprimatur C. Alston R. P. D. Hen. Episc. Lond. a Sacris Domesticis October 17. 1685. THE LAW and EQUITY OF THE GOSPEL OR THE Goodness of our Lord AS A LEGISLATOR Delivered first from the Pulpit in Two plain Sermons And now Repeated from the Press with others tending to the same End To which is added The Grand Inquiry to be made in These Inquisitive Times together with The Resolution of Paul and Silas AS ALSO An Improvement of That Inquiry Containing in its Parts A Resolution unto It self AND A Scriptural Prognostick of Jesus Christ's Second Advent to Judge the World LASTLY A Proeservative against Ambition By THOMAS PIERCE D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to his MAJESTY and Dean of Sarum London Printed by S. Roycroft for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in St. Paul's Church-yard 1686. A PREFACE TO THE READER Christian Reader THô some Disputes are made Needful by needless Questions which are raised by strife of Words and thô when Malice or Curiosity Carnal Interest or Ambition have brew'd and broached such Doctrines as are dishonourable to God and his holy Gospel or have a Tendency to the Ruin of Church and State The greatest Lovers of Peace and Silence must so dispute against the Former as by their Arguments to assert and secure the Later Thô the most peaceable Dr. Hammond the Best of Men and The Divinest as two eminent Prelats have publickly stiled him from the Press thought it his Duty to be the Author of more Disputes and Defensatives than I and my Betters have ever yet been as his Controversial Writings do make apparent his second Volume being spent like the Eighth Volume of Erasmus yet 't were heartily to be wâ—sh'd such powerful Courses could be taken as might prevent the every Cause and Occasion of them Experience tells us 't is often easier by Obstinate Silence to prevent than by Reason to confute or to shame an Error And next to such a Resolved Silence I know not any better Preventive of needless Controversies and Questions than our Meditâ—â—ing on Questions which are not needless But of great Consequence to be asked and of greater Necessity to be Answered And such as to which we ought to give our selves wholly As what we must do that we may be sav'd What is the certain Diagnostick whereby to judge without Sin of our selves and others and as well of our present as future state What is that we call The Gospel and wherein especially does It consist What is it to be able to comprehend with all Saints the Breadth and Length and Depth and Highth and so to know the Love of Christ which passeth Knowledge to know the Immensity of his Love expressed to us as by an Emblem by all the Dimensions of the Cross he was fastned to Extended upwards and downwards and on Both the sides of it a Type of the Fathomless love of Christ whereof the Knowledge is supereminent surpassing and transcending All other knowledges in the World In so much that we may fitly espouse our Apostles Resolution Not to know any thing in comparison of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified whereby is pithily represented The Law and Equity of The Gospel which is the Summ of All the Theology a Faithful Steward needs Preach towards the Saving of himself and of Them that hear him And as in the Days of our Forefathers when Christian Simplicity was at its purest A vitious Life was justly reckon'd not only the greatest but the worst Haeresie in the World So of Convictions and Confutations Religious Practices were the most Cogent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. Chrysostom somewhere calls them Convincing Syllogisms and Arguments not to be answer'd by the Acutest nor ever heartily gainsaid by the worst of men And therefore as Controverted Doctrines have taken up much of my Time pass't so These I am sure are the Grand Requisites which 't will be better to advance for the Time to come I easily guess what will happen to me and others of the Old Stamp the envied Friends and Disciples of Dr. Hammond whilst we ingage in This Course of Preaching up Christ as a Legislator and of celebrating The Law as well as the Equity of The Gospel of walking evenly in our Doctrines 'twixt two Extremes to wit Socinians on the one side and Solifidians on the other Even the same that befell the Antient Fathers of the Church who for distinguishing the Persons or Subsistences of the Deity were called Tritheites and Arians by the Followers of Sabellius and yet were called Sabellians too both by the Tritheites and the Arians for not dividing the very Substance or the Deity it self So for teaching that our Saviour did consist of two Natures they were branded as Nestorians by the whole Sect of the Eutychians and yet were stiled Eutychians too by all the Gang of the Nestorians for asserting that our Saviour was no more than one Person After the very same manner We for holding the Necessity of impartial Obedience to Christ's Commands and by consequence unavoidable a Necessity of Good Works as Part of the means of our being saved do commonly pass for Socinians in the Rash Censure of Solifidians and yet are accompted Solifidians by the like Rashness of the Socinians for our disclaiming All Merit in our Obedience and Good Works as to the making Satisfaction to the Justice of God for our Transgressions and for desiring with St. Paul To be found only in Christ not having our own Righteousness But That which is of God by Faith But we must not be afraid to assert and propagate The Truth because there are who infer it from diverse Falshoods Nor may we dishonestly let it go for other mens holding it in unrighteousness For for us to deny our Obligation to Good Works because there are who do contend for the Merit of them or for us not to own the perfect Necessity of Obedience which does naturally tend to the Glory of God because Socinians own the same to his great Dishonour or for us not to infer it from the Divinity of our Saviour as well as from the Perfection both of his Covenant and his Commands because such Haereticks do infer it from their Denial of His Divinity and of his Plenary Satisfaction for the Sins of the World is just as bad as if the Christians should now begin to dogmatize That there are Three distinct Gods the Father Son and Holy Ghost because The Jews and The Mahomedans do constantly hold there is but ONE I shall therefore so order the following Parts of my Design betwixt the Enemies of Truth upon either side as to hazard the displeasure of both Extreams But yet because I am convinc'd by the best Searches I can make That the preaching up of Faith in its vulgar Notions hath been generally the Cause of such a Carnal Security as hath shrunk up those Sinews of Vertuous Living wherein the strength of Religion doth chiefly stand and that
and Cross of Christ If he be but once brought to an inviolable Belief without all Scruples or Peradventures That every man shall live eternally either in Heaven or in Hell And that 't is clearly for his Interest to do or suffer as Christ commands him because in order to his Escape from all the miseries of the one and in order to his Attainment of all the Beatitudes in the other He will presently break off his Sins by Righteousness as Daniel charged Nebuchadnezzar He will be ready for Restitution to every one whom he hath injur'd as Zachee the Publican when He repented He will bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance as the Jews were admonished by Iohn the Baptist. He will be glad to be thought worthy to suffer shame for Christ's sake as the Apostles at Ierusalem Acts 5. 41. The Consideration of his Interest will give an high Relish to all his suffrings making his Torments and his Tormentors to become his great Instruments and means of pleasure § 22. Thus we see in all cases both Temporal and Spiritual every man is for himself and intends his own Interest in whatsoever it is which he undertakes either the Interest of his Profit or of his Pleasure and Reputation The Interest of his Flesh or of his Spirit his present Interest or his future still 't is one Interest or other which leads him on unto the best or the worst Performances in the World Is any man Covetous and extremely close sisted He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to be Rich in mony which is the only Grand Project that he is driving Or is he Free and open-handed He thinks it for his Interest because it is the ready way to make him Rich in good Works which is the highest and noblest end at which he ayms in this World Is there any man running headlong into a Customary Contempt of his Saviour's Yoke He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to live merrily and in Prosperity here on Earth which is the Soveraign Allective of his Desires Or does any man take pleasure in supporting both the Burden and Yoke of Christ He thinks it is for his Interest as being the way to dye safely and to live after Death a life of Bliss and Immortality which is the utmost Atchievement his heart is set on Lastly would ye know the Reason why I have meditated so much upon this kind of Subject why I have struck so many Blows upon this great Anvil made so many long Discourses though on occasion of divers Texts touching the Equity and the Law of our Saviour's Gospel and indispensable Necessity of our obedience unto the end The Reason of it is truly This Because I have thought it most mine own and other men's Interest so to do And till we are able to be so happy as to convince our selves and others that 't is most for our Interest to bear the Yoke of Christ's Law and the Burden of his Cross when 't is laid upon us 'T is very sure that neither of us shall bear the one or the other as is requir'd Whereas 't is as sure on the other side That as we never neglect our Interest in what is Secular or Carnal as touching our Credits or our Estates or our Temporal Preservation so as little shall we indure to start aside from the Burden or Yoke of Christ if indeed we do believe it our greatest Interest to bear them as He requires For can the very same man who is sollicitously careful to get a Trifle be as perfectly careless to gain a Talent or stand in very great Dread of a lesser Punishment But of an infinitely greater in none at all If we are strict in our conforming to the Commandments of men with whom the Penalties are but Temporal and the Recompenses but finite we cannot sure be Non-Conformists to the Commandments of Christ on a Supposal that we believe it as great a Truth as any is That his Punishments and Rewards are both Immortal and Immense Nor can I think of a more rational or a more satisfactory Accompt why the Commandments of men should be so commonly heeded by us with more circumspection than those of Christ but that we fear Them more and believe Him less or value the Interest of our Bodies above the Interest of our Souls or prefer the seeming certainty of what is Present before the Hope and Expectance of what is future And had rather become the owners of Earthly Contentments in Possession than to be dealing for Reversions in Heaven it self § 23. And therefore to the end we may be able even to feel and by consequence to arrive at the Conviction of Experience That the Yoke of Christ's Law is really Easy in it self and the Burden of his Cross is in comparison very light And that they have Both a secret vertue of giving Rest unto the Souls of Them that labour and of Refreshing the heavy laden for so our Saviour tells us expresly in the two next Verses before the Text let us be Conversant incessantly in all the means of attaining to a True Christian Faith That so by cordially believing we may passionately love the Lord Jesus Christ. And that loving him as we ought we may by consequence delight in doing that which he requires and by consequence may attain to that Reward which he hath Promis'd For as our Faith and our Love do what we can will beget obedience if the first is unfeigned and the second without Dissimulation So 't is sure that our obedience will end in bliss Not in bliss whilst we are Passengers but when we shall arrive at our Iourneys end For here we are Dead saith our Apostle and our life is yet hid with Christ in God But when the Lord Iesus Christ who is our life shall appear Then shall We also appear with Him in Glory Which God the Father of his mercy prepare us for through the working of his Spirit and for the worthiness of his Son To whom be Glory for ever and ever THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under the GOSPEL THE INDISPENSABLE NECESSITY OF Strict Obedience Under The GOSPEL HEB. XII 28 29. Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have Grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with Reverence and godly Fear For our God is a Consuming Fire THere is something Difficult in the Text which will I think be best explain'd by way of Answer to an Objection For why is it said here Let us have Grace It may seem at first hearing a strange expression whether we have it or have it not For if we have it it seems superfluous and if we have it not it seems as vain We need not say Let us have what 't is plain we have already before we say it And we say to no purpose Let us have this or that which whilst we have not it is not in our power to have For Is
must follow after Both afford us matter of Caution and Comfort too The former serving to humble and the latter to support us That defends us from Praesumption and This secures us from Despair Thus have I done with the Division and in the ordering of That with the Explication of the Text. Wherein if I have trespass't by too much length it will in justice be imputed to my Desire of Perspicuity and of making it one Arrest unto the Plausible Objection that lyes against it § 6. In the ensuing Tractation of it I must begin with the Act which is here express'd and consider it as relating to the first and chief Object And this I must do in such a manner as to make it a farther Antidote against the venom of the Objection Which to the end that I may do with the more success I must explore by such ways as are not able to mislead us what of necessity must be meant by such an Act of Believing as does arise from an Habit of saving Faith For as every one that paints is not presently a Painter nor every Painter an Apelles so 't is not every Belief which can denominate a Believer nor is it every Believer who can be sav'd It will not therefore be sufficient to preach up the Faith of Christ in general which yet too many are wont to do because 't is easiest to be done nor to depredicate in particular the several rare Fruits and Effects of Faith without distinguishing all along betwixt the Roots and the Causes from whence they grow But we must first have the Patience to learn our selves and then the Care as well as Skill to make it visible unto others how much The Habit of salvifick or saving Faith is meant to grasp and comprehend in its whole Importance and so by a consequence unavoidable how much short of Salvation every Faith without This will be sure to land us Now in the bringing of this about wherein 't is certainly as needful as it is difficult to be Orthodox and yet wherein Learned men have seldom hitherto agreed we are all apt to err with the greater ease the less we are able to determin how many Acceptions of the word Faith may be found in Scripture For not to speak of its Import in human Authors we may observe it in holy Writ to have been used in so Many and Different senses that School-Divines have strangely varied touching its various significations For first Medina will acknowledge but two Acceptions of the word Faith Albertus Magnus allows of five Alphonsus à Castro admits of seven Vega goes higher as far as Nine Bonaventure and Valentia arise to ten Alexander Hallensis will have eleven Nay Sotus tells us of some who are for fifteen significations whereas Himself with Medina will own but two I will not presume to be an Umpire between so many and subtil School-men though I confess I am not able to give an absolute Assent unto either of them I can evince that the word Faith hath very various significations and easily instance in the chief whereof 't is dangerous to be ignorant or which at least it will be useful very particularly to know But when I shall have given pregnant Instances of Many and those the Most that at present I can discern I shall not be so Dogmatical as to deny that there are more First 't is clear that the word Faith does signify Faithfulness and Truth As Rom. 3. 3 4. What if some did not believe shall their Unbelief make the Faith of God of none effect no let God be true and every man a lyar Next it signify's The Promise which is in faithfulness and Truth to be performed And of this we have an instance 1 Tim. 5. 12. where the wanton young Widows are said to be lyable to Damnation because they have cast off their first Faith That is their Promise of constant widowhood which they had made unto the Church whose single Interest and Service they had thereby wedded and espous'd Thence it signify's a Confidence as that is opposed to Distrust A full Dependance on the Power and a firm adhaerence unto the Promises of our Lord. Thus it was used by our Saviour when Peter cryed as he was sinking Lord save me O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt Matth. 14. 31. In the same sense he said to the two blind men Do ye believe that I can do this according to your Faith be it unto you Matth. 9. 29. And thus 't is used by St. Iames by whom we are exhorted to ask in Faith nothing wavering James 1. 6. Again we find the word Faith set to signifie Conscience or knowledge compar'd with the Rule of Action as 't is observ'd by Theophylact and the Interlineary Gloss upon Rom. 14. 23. whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Nay Faith by a Synecdoche is made to signifie the Gospel Whereof we meet with an Example Gal. 3. 25. where when 't is said After Faith is come we are no longer under a School-Master The plain meaning of it is only This That after the coming of the Gospel we are no longer under the Law It is sometimes us'd to signifie a bare Assent And such is that Faith which is call'd historical and is common to men with believing Devils James 2. 19. But as sometimes an Assent so at other times the Object assented to And of this we have an Instance in the Epistle of St. Iude where to contend for the Faith which was once deliver'd unto the Saints is nothing else but to contend for the Creed it self the Christian Doctrin which is the Ground and the Rule of Faith § 7. Thus we find the word Faith in seven distinct significations But none of These will amount to a saving Faith however some of These are Ingredients in it For saving Faith is not only an Habit or Faculty of the Intellect whereby we firmly and without fear but yet withal without evidence assent to all things propos'd to be believed in the Church as reveal'd by God which is the Schoolmen's Definition of a justifying Faith or as they rather love to speak of the Faith which is infused in Iustification For This is but part of that Description which the same men afford to the Faith of Miracles whereby a man may move Mountains and yet be damn'd may cast out Devils and be himself possess'd with them as is evident from the preaching both of our Saviour and St. Paul Matth. 7. 22 23. 1 Cor. 13. 2. Nor is it only such a Relyance on the mercy of God and the merits of a Saviour as carrys with it a full Persuasion of the Remission of our Sins as some who are Enemies to the Schoolmen are wont to teach for This may possibly be alone unattended with Repentance and change of Life And being not the Mother of such an off-spring it must by
well to the Will as the Understanding It gives us as I may say a kind of Livery and Seisin of all we hope and pray for and even long to be united to though by the Help of a Dissolution In so much that the Plenitude of this One Grace in the sense I mention'd which Plenitude is expressed by a threefold 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and boldly rendred a full Assurance I say the Plenitude or fulness of this one Grace which is attainable by Christians whilst here below is worthily reckon'd by St. Paul The Inchoation of our Glory This very Grace is once affirm'd to be a kind of beatifick although an antedated Vision of the Glory of God And for a man to leave This for a better world with such a cordial Believing in the Lord Iesus Christ as was here recommended by Paul and Silas which I have hitherto explain'd by several passages of Scripture is nothing else but to pass from a Paradise to a Heaven or to use St. Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from one Glory to another For we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. § 10. But some may tacitly now object against Paul and Silas in the Text or at least against St. Luke the Relator of it That if by Faith we must be justified and also sanctified in part before we can expect it should ever save us they should have told the Jailour of it in Terms at large and have shew'd in the Retail how many Duties of a Christian are succinctly comprehended in that expression not have told him only in Gross as Dutchmen make their dishonest Reckonings He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ. For how knew the Jailour he was to do any thing but to Believe or to believe in any other than the second Person in the Trinity God manifest in the Flesh for they seem to have made no mention to him of his being to believe in God the Father or in God the Holy Ghost much less did they add the other Articles of the Creed which are Ingredients in the object of Saving Faith § 11. To which I answer by two Degrees And first of all by a concession That if indeed Paul and Silas had said no more to their Catechumenist than that He must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ not explaining what was meant by that Habit of Faith from which the Act of his Believing was to proceed nor yet explaining what was meant by the Lord Iesus Christ who is often put by a Synecdoche for the whole object of our Belief Faith in Christ being the Pandect of Christian Duties which are all shut up in Faith as Homer's Iliads in a Nutshell Then indeed they might have made him a Solifidian or a Fiduciary which had not been the way to his being sav'd But secondly I answer That the objection is made of a false Hypothesis For Paul and Silas dealt honestly and discreetly with the Jailour when having told him he must believe in the Lord Iesus Christ for his being sav'd it presently follows after the Text they spake unto him the Word of God that is they expounded the Scriptures to him And in the doing of That they prov'd the object of his Faith to be the Trinity in Unity not solely and exclusively the Lord Jesus Christ but in conjunction with God the Father and with God the Holy Ghost too Again in expounding the Scriptures to him they could not but tell him what was meant by an effectual Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ importing such a kind of Faith as is ever working and such a kind of working as is by Love and by such a kind of Love as is the fulfilling of the Law and of such a Law too as does consist of somewhat higher and more illustrious Injunctions than those of Moses and of such an obedience to those Injunctions as is attended and waited on by Perseverance unto the End There is no doubt but they acquainted him in their expounding of the Scriptures and speaking to him the Word of God how very highly it did concern him not only to escape the Corruption that is in the world through lust and also to believe in the Lord Iesus Christ but besides This as St. Peter speaks to give all diligence for the adding to his Faith Vertue to Vertue Knowledge to Knowledge Temperance to Temperance Patience to Patience Godliness to Godliness Brotherly kindness to Brotherly kindness Charity For that these were all needful and no redundant superadditions is very clear from St. Peter in the next verse but one He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see a far off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins But if these Things be in you and abound Then indeed as St. Peter adds ye shall not be barren in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. If ye do these things ye shall never fall 2 Pet. 1. 10. Now can we think that St. Peter did not teach the same Doctrin with Paul and Silas or can we think that Paul and Silas would withhold from the Jailour that Train of Duties for want of which he had been Blind and not in Case to see God no whatever might have been wanting in their succinct and pithy Answer whereby to give him a right Understanding of it was abundantly supply'd by their following Sermon And though the Heads of their Sermon are not put upon Record but only the Text upon which they made it yet St. Luke records This That such a Sermon there was preach'd in that he saith They spake to him the Word of God § 12. And truly This is such a Method as I could wish were well observ'd by all that are of their Function I mean the Stewards of the Mysteries of the Living God Unto whom is committed the Word of Reconciliation whose lips are made to be the Treasuries and Conservatories of Knowledge and which the People are appointed to seek at their Mouths For the Text we have in hand is often turned to advance either Truth or Falshood even according to the handle by which 't is held forth to the giddy People And is made to be eventually either venomous or wholsom just in proportion to the sense in which 't is taken and digested by them that hear it If to Believe is only taken for an Assent unto the Truth or a Relyance on the Merits of Jesus Christ or a confident Application of all his Promises to our selves And this in a kind of opposition to the Necessity of Good works which ought to be in conjunction with it Then 't is apt to cause a wreck in the waters of Life and through the Malignity of a Digestion a man may be kill'd by the Bread of Heaven But if 't is taken for obedience to the Commandments of Christ
that it may rationally be doubted whether when the Son of Man shall come a second time from Heaven he will come with such success as to find Faith upon the Earth Examin therefore whether Thy self may'st well be reckon'd to be one of that little Number Examin whether thy Belief is really such as Thou believ'st it and try whether thy Confidence is not the Thing to be distrusted the most of any For § 15. Of this I can convince thee by a mental Demonstration which is more cogent than an ocular That if thou hast not such respect unto the Recompence of Reward as to choose rather with Moses to spend thy short and dying life in Mortisications and Self-denials and to suffer Tribulation with the People of God than with the brutish Sons of Belial to injoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season If thou dost not esteem the Reproach of Christ to be much greater Riches than all the Treasures of Egypt Or if thou canst basely fear Them that can kill the Body only but are not able to hurt the Soul more than Him that can cast both Soul and Body into Hell And hast often done more to escape the former than ever thou wilt do to eschew the latter Thou hast not yet the first Degree of a Saving Faith Thou dost not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much as believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou dost not assent to his veracity or look upon him as a True Speaker Thou dost not so far confide in the Truth of his Promises and his Threats as to adventure any great matter upon the meer Reputation and Credit of them For most undoubtedly if thou didst Thou wouldst prefer that which leads to all the Pleasures that he hath promis'd before the Things that will betray thee to all the pains that he hath Threaten'd Thou wouldst pursue with more vehemence what will end in an eternal and exceeding weight of Glory than what will terminate in a worm which never dyes and in a Fire which is not quenched That thou dost now affect to walk rather in the broad than the narrow way is not so much that thou espousest a way which leads thee to Destruction or hast Averseness unto That by which thou mayst enter into Life as that thou dost not quite believe the Lord Jesus Christ when he would fright thee from the one and allure thee to the other That thou dost now take the Course to dwell with everlasting Burnings rather than That which hath a tending to Ioys unspeakable cannot possibly be from hence that thou preferr'st a very short to an endless Pleasure but rather from hence that thou preferr'st thy present experience of the first to the uncertainty and the doubtfulness which thou retainest of the second Not at all that thou preferrest the Miseries of Hell to the Ioys of Heaven But that thou dost not believe what is said of either § 16. Again admit thou dost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believe the Truth and the Veracity of the Lord Jesus Christ Yet if thou are destitute of the Faith which is consummated by Love and by such a Love too as doth cast out Fear nor only the fear of all that may be inflicted but so far also the Feeling of all that is as to be able to rejoyce and to leap for joy when thou art persecuted and rail'd at for righteousness sake If thou canst not say heartily in the language of St. Paul I take pleasure in Insirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions and in Distresses for Christ his sake If in a word Thou art not able to conquer all thine own weakness by Ghostly strength so as to hold fast thy Union and good Intelligence with Christ in spight of Nakedness or Famin or Peril or Sword or Life or Death or Angels or Devils or Principalities or Powers or things present or things to come And all by vertue of that Faith which overcometh the World which is not only the means of Conquest but the Victory it self Thou dost not heartily believe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is In or Upon the Lord Jesus Christ. 'T is very evident that thou doubtest either his Power or his Propensity Thou dost not so depend and rely upon him as that I can assure thee thou shalt be sav'd § 17. Again if thou hast not such a Faith as does denominate thee a good and a faithful servant such a justifying Faith as in the literal sense of it does make thee Iust Iust I mean in that notion in which 't was said of holy Iob that he was a just and an upright Man If thou hast not such a Faith as by which thou art qualified in part both with Holiness and Righteousness with Godliness and Honesty with the Duties of the first and the second Table whereby the Righteousness of Christ may be so wholly imputed to thee as to instate thee in the Pardon of all thy Sins it being impossible that thy Saviour should ever justifie thy Person and not sanctifie thy Nature in some proportionable degree If besides thy Assent to the veracity of his Doctrin and besides thy Dependance on the Almightiness of his Power Thou dost not pay so great a Reverence unto the Iustice of his Will too as to serve and obey him with godly fear Thou dost not practically believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou dost not own him in his Authority dost not receive him in his Commands dost not embrace and entertain him as he comes to thee a Legislator as one who hath a Name written both on his Vesture and on his Thigh King of Kings and Lord of Lords And by consequence though thy Head may be as full as it can hold of the Christian Science or however thou mayst have Faith whereby thou canst remove Mountains Yet thou dost not so Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as that I can assure thee thou shalt be sav'd § 18. Again if thou hast not such a Telescope as by which thou art inabled to look on the other side the Veil such a Faith as is the Evidence of things not seen and the substance of things that are hoped for hast not any praepossession of things invisible and future nor any glimmerings and foretasts of the Glory to be reveal'd hast no ground for an Assurance whether of Faith Hope or Understanding that thy Pardon is seal'd and thy Peace ratified Art not inwardly sustained in all thy Agonies and Conflicts with spiritual Ioy in the Holy Ghost hast not any the least Intelligence through the secret whispers of the Spirit of a Ravishing Mansion praepared for thee in the Land of the Living And art not placed by that Intelligence above the Level of Temptations exempted from the Fear of what Men or Devils can do unto thee If thou canst not reflect with comfort upon the Day of Discrimination when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking
believe The Spirit of Truth is in our Dwellings because He is also The Spirit of Unity and They conceive we could not be liable to such Dissentions and Divisions as are amongst us had we The unity of Truth in our Fundamentals How many Fractions of Religion have been observed to be in Poland How many in England and in Holland and in other Christian Countries 't is hard to say I will say a strange thing no whit stranger than it is true There is not a Christian in all the World who is not an Haeretick or a Schismatick in the accompt of other Christians perhaps no better than Himself How full are all Parties of hot Disputes whereof the End commonly is rather Victory than Truth And what a Disgrace must it needs be to the Christian Name that in all the bitter Contests between the Iesuites and the Iansenists the Dominicans and the Franciscans the Gallican Church and the Church of Rome the Popish Churches and the Reformed the Regular Protestants and the Irregular the Prote stants by and for and Those against the Law establish't the Constant Protestants and the Protestants given to change the Remonstrants and Antiremonstrants the Sub and Supralapsarians and many other opposite Parties too many to be now reckon'd a greater Care is commonly taken to keep up the Credit of a Syllogism or Reputation of a Side than the Unity and Peace of The Church of God If an Erasmus or a Modrerius if a Melancthon or a Wicelius if a Cassander or a Thuanus a Spalatensis or a Grotius does but indeavour to make up Breaches or perswade men to meet in the Middle way such as is the way of the Church of England or That of the Augustan Confession how is he hang'd drawn and quarter'd by the Implacable Professors of both Extremes as if the Unity of Christians and the Peace of The Church were to be of all Things the most avoided or if not to be avoided at least despair'd of as the most vain and the most fruitless if not the most odious of any project in the World So that if there was Truth as well as sharpness which God forbid in what was said by the Spanish Friar that few Soveraign Princes shall go to Hell because in All they are but few it may perhaps be said as truly in This case also that few True Christians shall go to Heaven because True Christians comparatively speaking are very few § 6. There are Multitudes indeed who are called Christians and so are Those of The Marrani Arabians and Moores in the South of Spain a kind of Baptized Iews and circumcised Christians Men as bad as the ancient Gnosticks of one Religion in their Mouths and of another in their Hearts or like that far more ancient People the People of Sepharvaim who feared the Lord and served their own Gods If not Both at once yet at least Both by Turns It being the common Custom and Policy of the very worst men to be Professors of the Religion the most in fashion the easiest and cheapest most for their Secular Ends and Interests and where their wickednesses may pass with the greatest freedom But our Saviour in the Text which is now before us did only speak of a Divine and a Saving Faith which is peculiar to unfeigned and real Christians not at all of That Human or Historical Faith which is common to every titular or nominal Christian or hypocritical Professor of Christ's Religion So that the meaning of the Text does seem to be evidently This When the Son of Man cometh to be The Judge of the Quick and Dead shall He find Faith shall He find Charity shall He find Iustice upon the Earth For Saving Faith infers Charity and Charity Justice Where Justice is wanting there can be no Christian Charity and where there is not such Charity there can be no Christian Faith Now what Corner is there in Christendom which does not live out of Charity with one sort or other of Christian People and commonly the most with their nearest Neighbours whom Christians should love as they do Themselves How universally do the Italians despise the Germans if not abhor them and again how do the Germans pay them back with Detestation How do the Little States of Italy malign the four Great ones and how do they all detest the Protestants who are of Piemont and Saluzzo What Disaffections are there in Swisserland between the Wealthy sort of Protestants and Warlike Papists Those for France against Spain and These for Spain against France and what Antipodes unto each other are these Next Neighbours parted more by their Animosities than by their Pyrenaean Hills If we look but as far back as the last Civil Wars of France what mutual Hatreds may we observe betwixt the Hugonots and the Leaguers even as great as Those in Spain between the Castilians and the Portugais or as great as Those in Italy 'twixt Guelphs and Gibelines or the Bianchi and the Neri How do the Lutherans hate the Papalins and the Papalins Them How do they Both hate the Calvinists and the Calvinists Both and what a Pique have All Three at the most sober and the most moderate of All the Protestants upon Earth in The Church of England Even the Great House of Austria is hardly in charity with it self For how often have the Spaniards diverted the Turks upon the Emperour and to shift clear Themselves how have they bribed the Bashaes to put their Master upon Germany How many Churches are there in Christendom whereof each has its different Government its different Ceremonies and Rites its different Method or Manner of Publick Worship its different Opinions from all the rest And thô their Differences are innocent when about things Indifferent yet what reciprocal Disaffections are wont to arise from That Variety What wants of Charity there have been between the principal Christians of Note the most considerable I mean both for Power and Number if not for Name too we may judge but too easily by Inquisitions upon one hand and by Rebellions upon another by the Massacres and Libels and Conspiracies upon Both. And that the stronger Parts of Christendom have not yet swallowed up the weaker They are beholden to the Great Turk next and immediately under God for having found them other Employment § 7. Now such as is the Cause a want of Faith in the first sense such is also The Effect a want of Faith in the second For besides the wants of Charity whereby I have proved the wants of Faith there are as notorious wants of Iustice whereby to demonstrate the wants of Both. Men are so generally deceitful in all their Promises and Contracts in their Alliances and Leagues in their Covenants and Ingagements in Matters of Traffick and Commerce and as well between Publick as Private Parties Obligations first meant as a Restraint unto the Guilty are so turned into a Gin to ensnare the Innocent and They who have dispensed with other mens