metaphor or mystical expression as we are plainly told Isai. 3. Say ye to the Righteous It shall be well with him for they shall eat the fruit of their doings But Wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him In the other two places Rom. 1.17 and Gal. 3.11 the Emphasis seems to ly on the word Faith The just shall live by Faith or The just by Faith shall live 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For here the main point in Question was in both Epistles concerning Justification to Life Whether by Works or by Faith And the Conclusion was That by the Deeds of the Law shall no flesh be Justified in the sight of God for by the Law cometh the knowledge of sin But being justified by Faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In confirmation of which truth the Apostle cites this testimony out of Habakkuk For it is written saith he The Just shall live by Faith And proves it further from the examples of Abraham and David Who were Justified he tells us not by Works but by Faith To whom God imputed Righteousness with works Thus in the Epistle to the Romans And in like manner in that to the Galatians He argues That Abraham's Believing was accounted to him for Righteousness And That in him the Gentiles also are Justified by Faith And do thereby become the Children of faithful Abraham And this he there also confirms by the same testimony That no man is Justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident he tells us For the Just shall live by Faith or The Just by Faith shall live That is Being justified by Faith we shall obtain Life or become Happy Being Justified by Faith we have Peace with God So that the stress of the Proof from this Testimony is laid upon those words By Faith Not of Works but by Faith We have now therefore dispatched these two things from these Words First That this Happiness whatever it be belongs only to the Just the Righteous the Godly Person and to no other That is to those whom God in favour shall repute so And therefore it concerns Us if we would partake of this Happiness to make sure to be of this number That we be such as whom God will account Righteous Otherwise how ever we may flatter our selves or what ever opinion others may conceive of us God tells us His Soul shall have no pleasure in us Secondly That it is by true Faith in Jesus Christ and no other way that we can be reputed Just or Righteous in Gods sight Not for any Righteousness of our own not by works of Righteousness which we have done Our Works perhaps may look glorious in the sight of Men but not in the eyes of God that we should in His sight be justified by Them Our Works may serve to justifie our Faith We may shew our Faith by our Works and By Works is Faith made Perfect But it is our Faith must justifie us Abraham believed God as there is follows and it was imputed to him for Righteousness If Abraham were Justified by Works saith S. Paul he had whereof to Glory but not before God But Abraham's Believing God for so it follows was accounted to him for Righteousness And this God would have so to be That Himself might have all the Glory of his Grace And That Man may have nothing to Glory in nothing to boast of Now to him that worketh as there it follows the Reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt But to him that worketh not but Believeth on him that justifieth the Vngodly his Faith is counted to him for Righteousness And David allso as he further argues describeth the Blessedness of that Man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works that is not upon the account of Works saying Blessed are they who 's Iniquities are forgiven and who 's sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not Impute sin Not He that hath no sin for then no man would be blessed but to whom it is not Imputed Who ever therefore would be thus accounted Righteous in Gods sight must be contented to Disclaim his Own Righteousness as to any thing of Merit therein and accept of this Imputed Righteousness on the account onely of Christs Righteousness and Merits to the benefit of which we are intituled by Faith in him So far is the Doctrine of S. Paul from the Popish Doctrine of Merits and Supererogation as if we were able to do no onely as much as is sufficient but more than is necessary to make us Just on the account of Works But when we thus exclude the Merits of good Works as to our Justification We do not deny the Necessity of them as to our Practice For it is not every Faith or every thing which a presumptuous wicked person shall call Faith that will Justifie us in the sight of God But such a Faith as works by Love and By Works is Faith made perfect Not an Idle Lazy Faith But an Operative a Working Faith a Faith that purifieth the Heart A Living a Lively Faith But Faith without Works is Dead and can in no other sense be called Faith than as a Dead man or the Picture of a man may be called a man A Faith in the Heart which doth produce Holyness in the Life For without Holyness no man shall see God For it was never the design of S. Paul nor of our Church neither when shee saith Wee are Justified by Faith onely to derogate from the Necessity of Good Works But he doth directly Assert it And he doth not without some Indignation Disclaim that consequence that some would slanderously fasten upon his Doctrine of Free Grace and Justification by Faith onely What shall we say then Shall we continue in Sin that Grace may abound God forbid And as to those for some such there were who as a consequence of his Doctrine did affirm that he said Let us do evil that good may come thereof He says They do slanderously report it and That their condemnation is just But you will say If we be Justified as our Church tells us by Faith onely what need is there of Holyness or a Godly Life I say Much every way For we must be Sanctified as well as Justified if ever we be saved And though Justification and Sanctification go allways together For God Justifies none whom he doth not also Sanctify yet the Notions of the one and the other are very different And whatever some would slanderously insinuate of those who exclude Good Works from Justification as if they were Enemies to Good Works and held That by Faith a man may be saved let his Life be never so Wicked It will be found in experience That they are not less zealous of good Works who think
by Faith And even by the same Faith to which he doth there exhort the Christian Hebrews It was the same Christ the same Gospel though not so clearly reveiled and the same Eternal Life which they expected though they were more in the dark as to the particulars and the distinct ways and methodes of bringing it to pass And as the first Threatening In the day that thou Eatest thereof thou shalt surely Dy extended to Spiritual and Eternal Death as well as the Natural For we are not to suppose that God Inflicts a greater Punishment than what he threatened So the Life there Promised by way of Insinuation and elsewhere Expressed He that doth them shall Live in them must be understood in a like sense not of Temporal Promises onely but of Spiritual and Eternal And the Apostle expounds it if the same Life or what is equivalent to be obtained by the first Covenant upon condition of Obedience and by the second Covenant by Faith in Christ. That no man is Justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident For the Just shall live by Faith And the Law is not of Faith but the Man that Doth them shall live in them The same Life or Blessedness though by different ways attainable And the Apostle here shews That it is the same Faith by which We beleeve to the saving of our Souls and by which the Elders obtained a good Report And by Faith Abraham with Isaac and Jacob Heirs with him of the same promise Sojourned in the Promised Land as in a strange Countrey of which though promised to them they had no other Enjoyment than mere Strangers For he looked for a City who 's Builder and Maker was God another kind of City than those on Earth All these Died in Faith not having Received the Promises which were therefore such as were to be enjoyed after Death but seeing them afar off and were perswaded of them and Embraced them and confessed that they were Strangers and Pilgrims upon Earth this being not the Countrey they sought for For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a Countrey such a Countrey as yet they had not And truly if they had been mindful of such a Countrey as that from whence they came they might have had opportunity to have returned But now 't is manifest they desire a Better Countrey that is an Heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called Their God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob For he hath prepared a City for them By all which the Apostle doth not only Declare that they expected an Heavenly Happiness but Argues strongly That it must needs be so And by Faith Moses he tells us Esteemed the Reproches of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt For he had respect to the Recompense of Reward as Seeing him that is Invisible Others were Tortured not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection Others had Tryal of or did undergo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 expertisunt Cruel Mockings of Bonds and Imprisonment Were Stoned were Sawn asunder were Slayn with the Sword c. And all these having obtained a good Report through Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 received not the Promise their Faith was exercised on better Promises than of what they here received God having provided for them Better things that they without us should not be perfect the Promises to them and those to us being the same Again As this Duty and Privilege of Living by Faith extended Backwards to the times before Christ So it extends Wider than the Nation of the Jews A Blessing which the Gentiles are particularly concerned in and which we this day celebrate The Epiphany or the Manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles For the Blessing of Abraham is come upon the Gentiles also through Jesus Christ that We might receive the promise of the Spirit through Faith And the Scripture foreseeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that God would Justify the Heathen through Faith preached before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did before hand preach the Gospell to Abraham saying In thee that all Nations be blessed So then they which are of Faith the same are the Children of Abraham They which be of Faith are Blessed with faithfull Abraham And are therefore of the number of those as there it follows who shall Live by Faith Now if it be asked What it is thus to Live by Faith It is too large a Task for one Sermon to give a full account of it For allmost the whole Bible and the Practise of the Saints in all Ages are but a Comment on it I shall therefore content my self to give a short account of some of the chief Heads thereof To Live by Faith therefore is First to Beleeve the Word of God to give Credit to the Truthes of God or things by him declared how unlikely soever they may seem to be and however different from the common Sentiments of Natural men or what the Light of Nature alone could teach us For though there be nothing in Divine Truths Contrary to what the Light of Nature truly understood may teach us Yet there may be some things much above it which without Revelation cannot be known Thus By Faith we Beleeve That the Worlds were made by the Word of God that things that are now seen were made not of things that do appear That is that the now visible World was not made up of such things as we now see or that there was no praeexisting Matter such as we now see of which it was made but was indeed made of Nothing Which however contrary to the sentiments of Philosophers Ex nihilo nihil in nihilum nil posse reverti That nothing can be made out of Nothing Yet when God hath told us that it is so we are to give full credit to it There is indeed nothing from the Light of Nature Contrary hereunto why we should Disbeleeve it when it is Reveiled But yet we are sayd to know it by Faith because it is Above what Nature alone could have taught For when we see this glorious Fabrick of the World we might well admire it but could never know whence it was if God had not told us For though Naturalists have with a great deal of Reason talked of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Causa prima a Common Maker or First Cause which should give Original to all things else Yet this was but either from some faint Remains of an ancient Tradition from Adam and Noah downward to after Ages Or atmost be Conjectural and Groping in the dark and Guessing at this as a more likely Supposition than That it had Allways been or should take its beginning from a Fortuitous Concurse of Atomes Which yet the Wits of this Age as they would be thought or the Fools rather would now cry-up as
the more Rational Without considering If they must at lest allow Eternity to Matter why not rather to a Wise and Knowing Agent Onely because their Wickedness hath made them think it their Interest That there be no God to call them to account for it And therefore would fain perswade themselves That there is none And think there is nothing so Absurd which they would not rather Beleeve than That there is a God And what is sayd of the Creation of the World may be equally applyed to the Immortality of the Soul the Resurrection of the Body and the Eternal state of Bliss or Misery hereafter according as Men have or have not approved themselves to God and others of like nature Of all which what ever faint Conjectures or doubtful Traditions the Heathen might have from the Light of Nature they were yet much in the dark till Immortality was brought to Light by the Gospel Not that I take pleasure to Decry Disparage Depreciate or Invalidate that Light which Nature and Reason afford us toward Reveiled Truthes For this I think we ought rather to Cherish to Enforce and Improve what we can rather than to Enervate or Elude as of great subserviency to that of Faith For while we study to Elude these Arguments we are so far doing their Work who would Elude the Scripture too For even where we cannot from Nature alone conclude an absolute Certainty so as to Stop the Mouths of those that love to Cavil or as the Apostle speaks list to be Contentious Yet if this afford us from considerations Natural and Moral Probable Arguments and a Multitude of them all concurring to shew That it is not Impossible not Improbable but very Likely that these things May be so It is a great Preparative to the Beleeving of a Revelation that says It is so And such Arguments we find the Apostles did oft make use of to very good Purpose and with very good Success A Cloud of Witnesses though each singly may seem but Cloudy may afford a considerable Light like the Stellae Nebulosae in the via Lactea And Probable Arguments though not singly Demonstrative yet where there be Many of them and those Concurrent and Nothing to the Contrary Experience tells us in affaires of all natures create at lest Violent Presumption and oft obtain a firm Assent And 't is seldome we have a greater Evidence either for Determining Civil Affairs or for Stating the Hypotheses of Nature There is none of us can Doubt but that there is such a place as Rome though we have not seen it and though of all those who have Told us so there is no one who might not possibly have told a Ly. But a Concurrence of many Probabilities passeth for a sufficient Proof And such Arguments how ever we now look upon them as not Demonstrative were yet of such force with the Heathens who had no better Light to Determine them at lest with the Wisest of them that they judged it a matter at lest of great Probability if not of absolute Certainty That the Souls of men are Immortal and That there is a State of Rewards and Punishments after this Life Who shall therefore rise up in Iudgement with the men of this Generation and Condemn them who disbeleeve it under a greater Light But when all is done the Fullest and Clearest Evidence is from Revelation Whereby what to Reason was very Probable is to our Faith made Certain The Jews indeed had some better Knowledge of these things than the Gentiles had Not onely their great Rabbi's but even Ordinary persons and those of the other Sex According to that of Martha concerning Lazarus I know that he shall Rise again in the Resurrection at the last day And the Sadduces before the Resurrection of Christ and the full Discovery of the Gospell expostulating with Christ concerning the Resurrection is an Argument that though themselves did disbeleeve it it was an Opinion commonly received by the rest of the Jews That the Dead should rise again But They had it by Revelation not by Natural Light onely Now these Great and Momentous Truthes which God hath vouchsafed thus to make known we are to Beleeve by Faith And that not onely so as to give Credit to them as matters of News for thus the Devils Beleeve and Tremble But so to Beleeve as to Live sutably so to Live as becomes those who Beleeve such things Secondly As we are thus in general to beleeve the Word of God So particularly to beleeve the Commands of God And so to live as becomes those that beleeve these to be God's Commands That is To Obey them and Conform our selves unto them however contrary to our perverse Inclinations If Christ command us To Deny our selves To take up our Cross and follow him To sell all if need be and give to the Poor To Leave House or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Lands for His sake and the Gospell yea or Life it self To pull out a Right Eye or Cut off a Right Hand in case they Offend or part with what is as dear to us as these We must Obey it Thus among the many Examples in the following Chapter By Faith Abraham being Called of God Obeyed and went out he knew not whither forsaking his Countrey and his Fathers House in Obedience to Gods Command and Sojourned in the Land of Promise as in a Strange Land By Faith Abraham when he was Tryed Offered up Isaac And he that had received the Promises Offered-up his onely begotten Son Of whom it was sayd That in Isaac shall thy Seed be Called Without disputing How this was consistent with the Bowels of a Father or How unacceptable News it would be to Sarah when she should hear it or How consistent with that great Promise wherein all the Nations of the Earth were concerned That in his Seed that is in Isaac and what should proceed from him all the Nations of the Earth should be Blessed He presently addressed himself to this hard Task to the Obedience of this unexpected Command Leaving it to God who he knew was able to Reconcile his own Promise with his Command By Faith Moses chose rather to suffer Affliction with the Children of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a Season Esteeming the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt On the same account the Three Children would rather venture on a Firy Furnace and Daniel on the Lyons Den than not Obey the Commands of God Which here I suppose the Apostle intimates when he tells us of those who by Faith stopped the mouths of Lyons and Quenched violence of Fire Others were Tortured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not accepting deliverance Endured cruell Mockings and Scourgings Bonds and Imprisonments Were Stoned were Sawn-asunder were Tempted or Burned alive were Slain with the Sword they
for a City which hath Foundations a Firm and well Founded City instead of tbose Flitting Tabernacles who 's Maker and Builder is God And his Trusting to these Promises made him so cheerfully to Obey those Commands By Faith Sarah received Strength and obtained a Child when she was past Age Because shee judged him Faithful who had Promised By Faith in the Promise she was the better qualifyed to receive the Accomplishment of it By Faith Isaac Blessed Jacob and Esau concerning Things to come Himself Beleeving the Truthe of them By Faith Joseph when he Died made mention of the Departure of the Children of Israel out of Egypt as Beleeving the Promise of the Land of Canaan and gave Commandement concerning his Bones With many more whom I forbear to mention Who all by Faith Trusted to the Fullfilling of those Promises which God had made And here allso as we said before we must so Beleeve as to act accordingly And what the Hebrews say of their Language Verba Sensus connotant Affectum is true of other Languages too Words of Speculation imply suitable Action We must so Beleeve the Promises of God as to Trust in him to Rest upon him to Depend on him who hath so Promised A Christian Faith is not so much Fides as Fiducia Not barely an Act of the Vnderstanding but of the Will and Affections And 't is generally agreed by better Criticks than those that Laugh at it that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are the Scripture-phrases is somewhat more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And answers to what in the Old Testament is called Trusting in God or Putting our Trust in Him It is not onely Deo Credere but Deo Fidere or Considere Deo se Credere To Trust God To Commit our selves to him as the phrase is Psal. 10. The Poor Committeth himself to thee or as the Margin reads it out of the Hebrew Leaves himself to thee Or to the same purpose Leanes upon thee innititur Deo as we have it phrased elsewhere Commit thy works unto the Lord Trust in the Lord with all thy Heart and Leane not to thy own Vnderstanding Commit thy way unto the Lord Trust in him and he shall bring it to pass Or as the Margin tells us it is in the Hebrew Roll thy way upon the Lord Devolve restuus in Deum and as there it follows Rest on the Lord and Wait patiently for him Roll thy self on the Lord and Rest in him and Wait patiently For Evil-doers shall be cutt off But those that Wait on the Lord shall inherit the Earth If any Object as I find some have done against this Language as less Significative and Improper to express the Nature of Faith and the Workings thereof Because to Rest in God and Rely on him to Depend upon him to Lean on him to Commit or Leave our selves to him to Roll our selves upon the Lord and the like Scripture Expressions are but Metaphors 'T is true they are so But so is allso the greatest part of Humane Discourse And if we Bar Metaphors we must Exclude the greatest part of what is Sayd or Written Whatever Author we look into we shall hardly find One Sentence that hath not in it More Tropes than One. When the Psalmist says The Lord is my Rock my Fortress my Strength in whom I will Trust my Bucler my Horn of Salvation and my High Tower These are all Metaphors But their Meaning is easily understood And when we Trust a Friend upon his Word to Help us in Distress and tell him We Rest upon him We Rely upon him we Depend on him we Commit our business to him and Leave it with him Expecting that he will not Fail us or Disappoint us and suffer us to be Vndone to be Overcome to be Run-down to be Ruined These are all Metaphors But of frequent Use and as Easily Understood and more Emphatically significative than if we should Study for Proper Words or Coin new ones when we find none ready made to our hands to signify the same as Fully without Trope And if we should according to the Farsy of the Age which affects Exotick words of Latin or French Extraction rather than good old English though to the same Sense instead of Resting and Relying make use of Acquiescence and Recumbence the case is still the same At lest the Modish and Romantick Speakers should not find fault with it Nor should we look upon it as Canting to make use of such Language as the Wisdom of God thinks fit to Teach us in Holy Writ and which as is said we do commonly make use of without Scruple in all Humane Affaires Bur further As Living by Faith on Gods Promises implies a Trusting to him or Resting on him So it implies allso a Fetching Strength from him and a supply of Grace for the performance of what Duties he requires of us Our Saviour tells us That as the Branch cannot bear Fruit of it self except it abide in the Vine and receive supply of Sap Juice and Nourishment from it So neither We except we abide in Him and accordingly receive Supply from him For without him we can do Nothing And S. Paul tells us That the Life which he lives he lives by the Faith of the Son of God and that it is not so much Himself that liveth as Christ liveth in him It is of His Fullness that We receive Grace for Grace 'T is the Spirit which he giveth us that is the Well of Water Springing up to Everlasting Life And it is by Faith that We Draw Water from these Wells of Salvation When we know not what we should Pray for as we ought It is this Spirit that helps our Infirmities and makes Intercession for us When we cannot of our selves even Think as we ought It is God worketh in us both to Will and to Do of his good pleasure Or as our Church phraseth it It is by his speciall Grace Preventing us that he puts into our Minds good Desires and by his Continual Help we bring the same to good Effect Or as S. Paul of himself I am Able to do all things through Christ that strengtheneth mee Now this Strength from God we fetch by Faith If any man lack Wisdome and the like we may say of other Supplies Let him ask of God and it shall be given him But let him ask in Faith nothing wavering Yee Have not because Ye Ask not and Yee Ask and Have not because yee Ask Amiss And it is the Prayer of Faith that saveth the Sick and the like of other Mercies The Word Preached did not Profit them who are there spoken of not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it And for want of such Exercise of Faith we may oft Loose those Mercies which otherwise we might obtain And even in Miraculous Cures there was