profess your selves to be of the planting of the Lord I say it remains now that I in my Heavenly Lord and Masters name do call for and demand fruit of every one of you both of this and all other the labours cost and pains which have through the Lords succour and assistance been bestowed upon you both by my self and by him who hath served with me in the same Work with what love and Faithfulness to you the Lord best knows and your Consciences I trust in part can witness It is true we have an account to give of your Souls and O the weight of such a burden and care of such a charge little does he know it whose Conscience does not feel it but then know ye and consider it that you have an account also to give of all the Heart-affecting care Godly jealousie and fear painful study and labour in the Word and Doctrine which God knows is sustained and used in discharge of our trust towards you And O that our mutual care in discharge of our duties towards each other may be found such as that both you and we may give up our accounts together to Jesus the chiefe Shepheard of the Sheep with joy and not with grief In respect of our own persons alass how little is expected from you We can and you know we can truly say We seek not yours but you 2 Cor. 12.14 But that which puts you under the greater obligation to us-ward in respect of Office is that relation in which we stand between the Lord and you as being those vessels earthen ones indeed by which Jesus Christ is sending and ministring to you from time to time nourishment and Food for your Souls And what ever gifts we have or what ever labour we bestow among you they are not so much ours as the Lords it is not so much from us as from the Lord from whom we receive all and by whom we are inabled to do all and it is his care and love towards you to furnish you with any that have a mind carefully to watch for your souls From whence it is that the Lord expects fruit from you as due to him upon account of our labour and service among you and for the same reason it is that in his name I demand it of you and upon the same account that saying of the Apostle will take place 1 Thes 4.8 He therefore that despiseth despiseth not man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit But that which may well render this demand of mine as acceptable unto you as it is reasonable in it self is this that though I demand Fruit yet I demand fruit that may abound to your account Phil. 4.17 For however the Lord by your yielding fruit will be well pleased and his holy name and truth glorified and you shall thereby become to us also a Joy for the present and a crown of rejoycing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming 1 Thes 2.19 yet in the issue all the glory you shall bring to God and all the good you shall procure to men by rendering unto the Lord fruit in season will return into your own bosom you shall eat of the fruit of your doing if you have your fruit unto holinesse the end will be to you everlasting life Rom. 6.22 and the more fruit in holinesse now the more fruit in happinesse then when you shall be rewarded by him who will render to every one according to their works both for kind and degree if thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self Pro 9.12 Sect. 3 Brethren I beseech you hear me if you shall but lay this thing to heart if the sense of what the Lord hath done and is doing for you to make you fruitful shall but procure from you an earnest desire and care to answer the Lords expectation herein and to yield him a crop of the seed which he hath sown you shall thereby secure unto your selves the Lords constant care of you and prepare the way of a gratious multiplication and increase of prosperous and thriving applications of the Lord to you Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit saith Christ the true Vine John 15.2 It encourageth a man to bestow more and more cost upon his Vineyard or upon his land when he finds it to quit his cost in an answerable return of fruit And so will the Lord rejoyce over you to continue and increase the means of your growth to prosper them more more for your encrease in grace if you be but found fruit-bearing branches As he will then delight to go down into his garden to gather fruit among you so he will blow upon his garden too with a heavenly breath to cause the spices thereof to flow out and your savour shall be as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Sect. 4 And as the Lord in this case will spare for no cost that you may yield him more of that fruit which his Soul so loves so to be sure there shall be no care wanting to fence you that no wild beasts break in upon you to make havock and spoile There 's no man but takes most care of those trees that yield the best and most fruit and it s most certain that the eye of the Lord is chiefly upon those plants which yeild him the best increase both for quantity and kind Such a vineyard is indeed regularly capable of that care protection and tendence of which the Lord speaketh saying I the Lord doe keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day Isa 27.3 And I hope you are sensible that it s no small priviledge for you to have God to set a hedge about you and to watch over you in times of such spirituall danger as these are in which you live You know there are beasts of prey that are seeking to break in here and to creep in there Foxes little Foxes that seeke to spoyl the Vines that bear tender Grapes Cant. 2.15 Among which the Quaker is not the least active who under a pretence of singular holinesse and with two faces under one hood have overthrown the faith of some touching the excellency and necessity of the holy Scriptures touching the Resurrection of the body of our Lord and his personal session at Gods right hand and his coming again in person at the end of this world to judg the quick and the dead in many other things this you or at least some of you have proved and found though their equivocations subtile evasions and reservations of their particular and punctual opinions hereabout under general expressions have rendered their heretical deceit herein of a harder preception and a more difficult discerning which many unstable souls abroad in the world not having been able to discover have taken the hook while it hath been covered with a tempting
which the faithful Prophets of the Lord threatned them with for transgressing the Covenant of the Lord and living in disobedience thereto Just as foolish men now do who because they find by the Scriptures that Christ dyed for sinners and hath commanded that remission of sins and salvation be preached in his name to every creature and hath given many precious encouragements for sinners of all sorts to look unto him from all the ends of the earth and be saved but with this Item that they repent and be baptized every one of them in the name of the Lord Iesus for the remission of sins that they be born again of water and of the Spirit that they deny themselves take up their Cross and follow him and forsake all that they have for his sake if they cannot faithfully obey him upon cheaper termes without which they cannot be his Disciples and that they diligently hearken to and carefully observe whatever Jesus that great Prophet hath spoken and commanded upon pain of being cut off from the number of the Lords redeemed ones they little minding or regarding the termes and conditions of the grace offered or thinking a few outward performances as the Jews aforesaid did of Circumcision Sacrifices and the like will serve for all when indeed the main of the matter the renewing them to God in the disposition and frame of their hearts and a faithful labouring to please the Lord in all all things and striving against all contrary motions and temptations is wholly wanting yet as if all the grace in the Gospel were theirs and designed for all those that will lay hold of it right or wrong they confidently perswade themselves or endeavour so to do that they are built upon a sure foundation that Christ remission of sins and salvation are all theirs and that they do them a great deal of wrong that offer but a word to shake this confidence of theirs Again see the like in another passage Isai 48.1 2. Hear ye this O house of Iacob which are called by the name of Israel and are come forth out of the waters of Iudah which swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel but not in truth nor in righteousnesse For they call themselves of the holy City and stay themselves upon the God of Israel the Lord of hosts is his name This people you see mention the name of the Lord as being called by it look upon themselves as his people call themselves of the holy City and thereupon stay themselves upon the God of Israel depend upon him for all good as their God and upon his promises as if made to them and thus they did but not in truth nor in righteousness for this profession and this confidence of theirs was accompanied with unfaithfulness in the main and therefore their dependance upon God was irregular and deceitful God having no where engaged to stand under such a trust but the contrary Iob 8.13 14 15. Sect. 2 And as it was thus with those under the Old so is it likewise after the same manner with too many now under the New Testament who because they have some knowledg and beleef of Gods gracious intention to save sinners by the death of his Son and the general promises of the Gospel especially if together herewith they have but a form of godliness and something of devotion towards the ordinances of God they perswade themselves that they are the believers to whom the promises of remission of sin and salvation of the soul are made though in the mean time they are under the power of some known sin or other either covetousness or cruelty and hard heartednes or pride or uncleannes or intemperance in word or deed or some other sin and are unrenewed in will and affections or if there be any change it is not so much as will turn the scale and give them in of the victory against the flesh on the Spirits side but though there be so much light as that they can talk of good things and so much conviction as in the general to approve of them yet the interest of the flesh clearly carries it when things come to be done and when temptation is upon them And the main reason I conceive why persons upon their generall belief of the Gospel have this confidence of Salvation though otherwise they are as yet but in the flesh and so cannot please God Rom. 8.8 is this because they are partial in the Scriptures and do not give one Scripture as well as another room in their judgements and affections their minds run upon such Scriptures as declare Christ Iesus to have come into the world to save sinners that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life that he that confesseth with his mouth the Lord Iesus and beleeveth in his heart that God raised him from the dead shall be saved and the like and so far they do very well But then there are other Scriptures that declare that except men repent they shall perish that except they be born again they cannot see the kingdom of God that without holiness no man shall see the Lord that the Lord will come in flaming Fire rendring vengeance to those that obey not the Gospel that those that live after the flesh shall dye that if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him that tribulation and wrath shall be upon every soul that doth evill with many the like which they slightly pass over and are not thorowly possest with an apprehension that those other Scriptures that entaile the promise of life to be beleeving are so to be understood as that these others must stand with them or to be understood of such a kind of believing as hath the substance of these other Scriptures working in the bowels of it which they must believe that will not deceive themselves in their Faith and is there not the same reason to believe the one as well as the other doth not the water of both sorts of Scripture proceed out of the same hole from the same fountain But now the carnal beleevers of whom I speak fansying to themselves that the promise of Salvation is made to believing indefinitely not considering that it is tyed up to that special kind of believing which works by love as other Scriptures interpret and they knowing in themselves that they do believe in one sence for so indeed they do with that general Faith of assent thence they conclude confidently that they are heirs of promise and heirs of salvation as well as any and do as verily think they are going to Heaven whereas indeed they are in the way to hell as ever the Syrians thought they were going to Dothan while they were blindly led to Samariah 2 King 6.19 Sect. 3 The men of this formal and dead Faith of which I speak that
hand Therefore wait thou on God and keep his way and he shall exalt thee saith he Psal 37.34 Here he is teaching other men the trade which he himself had learned viz. Waiting on God for exaltation but still in keeping his way Sect. 5 Now that which had been the beaten road of the Faith of the Saints recorded in the old Testament as we have seen the same does the Apostle John affirm to be the tract of the Saints hope and confidence under the New 1 Joh. 3.3 And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure Mark it he saith every man none excepted that hath hope of being like Christ in glory endeavours for the present to be like him in purity which is but the same thing with walking in the path of Gods Commands the way that is called holy or the depending wholly upon his counsel will and pleasure Psal 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the Law of the Lord. 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the truth c. And the same Word of grace that ministers any ground of hope to men of being like Christ in glory does declare that they are the pure in heart that shall see God and that no unclean thing shall enter into that glorious state and that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Mat. 5.8 Rev. 21.27 Heb. 12.14 And therefore all they that are not Reprobate or of an injudicious mind concerning the Faith have respect to both parts of Gods declared Will and do beleeve it 's as necessary for them to be holy as possible for them to be happy and accordingly do depend upon the Lord for the one in a faithful prosecution of the other And accordingly does the Apostle Peter from the Lord advise and perswade the Christians to exercise their Faith or dependance upon God in the way of well-doing as that which would secure them indeed 1 Pet. 4.19 Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in well-doing as into the hands of a faithful Creator To commit the keeping of the Soul to God is certainly an act of Faith respecting both the ability grace and fidelity of God to secure save and make happy the soul so committed to him 2 Tim. 1.2 For I know whom I have beleeved or trusted and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which is committed to him against that day The beleeving or trusting God and the committing to him the keeping of the soul against that day is the same thing in which act the power of God and his trustiness is mainly eyed But then that which I would have especially noted also is That the sphear in which this trust and confidence is to be acted is well-doing let them commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing which is the proper element of Faith out of which it is not able to live having no Promise to feed and support it And Paul expresseth the natural and common working of his and others of the Saints Faith thus For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Saviour of all men especially of those that beleeve 1 Tim. 4.10 Their trust and dependance upon God as Saviour as offering Salvation to the Beleevers caused them both to labour and suffer reproach i. e. diligently to labour in the Lords Work and carefully to please him in all things though their doing so exposed them to reproaches and persecutions their painful labouring to approve themselves in faithfulness to God alwayes and in all things did grow out of their confidence in God and in his Salvation The same which this Apostle Paul expresseth concerning himself singly in another place Acts 24.15 16. And have hope towards God c. and herein do I exercise my self to have alwayes a Conscience void of offence towards God and towards men His hope toward God touching the Resurrection and the glory that shall follow put him upon this continual labour and exercise of having alwayes a Conscience void of offence toward God and men that is of carrying the matter so and that alwayes in his behaviour and discharge of his duty to God and to men as that he might not give his Conscience the least occasion of being offended And he sayes it was his exercise so to do that is the labour and business of his life the same to which he exhorteth his beloved Timothy saying And exercise thy self rather unto godliness 1 Tim. 4.7 A word as it is rendered by some properly importing to strip himself A Metaphor taken from Harvest-labourers and other work-men who to the end they may effect their business upon the best terms when they are very intent upon it are wont to cast off their upper garments that they might have no incumbrance upon them This you see was the way of the working of the hope and confidence which blessed Paul had in God And the same Paul sheweth that the twelve Tribes as many of them as truly feared the Lord expected the Promise of future happiness upon no other terms than upon their instant serving of God day and night Acts 26.7 Vnto which Promise our twelve Tribes instantly serving God day and night hope to come As they beleeved the promise of future bliss so they beleeved it was not to be had but upon a faithful serving of God and therefore the same Faith which by one act took hold of the Promise by another act took hold of the Precepts and in order to their coming into their hope they steered the course and travelled the way that directly led thither and that is an instant serving God day and night To name no more Instances of this kind but only that Heb. 10.34 35. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoyling of your Goods knowing in your selves that you have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompence of reward Mark Their confident perswasion of that better and enduring substance in heaven as promised by God and as expected and desired by them caused them closly and intirely to adhere to the Doctrine and holy wayes of the Lord though their doing so cost them the loss and spoyling of their Goods they were confident the Doctrine of Christ stuck to would bring them to the enjoyment of that better and enduring substance and therefore they followed that though it led them out of the midst of what they possest and enjoyed for the present And thus now we have seen the common nature and working of the Faith of Gods Elect from age to age both under the former and latter dispensation of things appertaining to eternal life by which a just ground is ministred of suspecting their Faith to be none of the Faith of Gods Elect that
of weak and low parts and in that respect but vessels of dishonour in the worlds eye are not in that danger to be courted by the world nor under any probability or hopes of obtaining honour from the world though they should seek it thence it comes to pass that their minds are more at liberty to look after glory and greatness in the next world since they neither have nor are like to have any in this and so to fall in with the doctrine of the Gospel which both offers and opens the way to the glory to come but makes little of this world calls mens minds off it and teaches self-denial about it And then when such have actually imbraced the truth as it is in Jesus though they themselves are but poor and meane in parts and humane abilities and of shallow capacities yet the Spirit of God now becomes their guide and he takes of the things of Christ viz. his Doctrines contained in the Scriptures and shews them unto them John 16.14 And what ever parts and humane abilities men may have by the power of which they may go for us to the Grammatical sense of the Scriptures yet as to the spiritual designe of them whilst they themselves are strangers to the sense of such a thing upon their own hearts and consequently have not that presence of the spirit of truth who keeps at a distance from the high-minded and worldly-wise they must needs be in greater danger of wresting the Scriptures as unto the spiritual design of them then the poor humble and meek Soul with whom God delights to dwell and whom he hath promised to guide in judgement and teach in his way Psal 25.9 Isai 57.15 though very far inferior in humane accomplishments But since the mis-understanding of the Scriptures about the doctrine of Justification by Faith without the works of the Law hath proved and I exceedingly fear doth still prove a snare of death unto vast multitudes of poor souls as I intimated before therefore to awaken men who have been but in a spiritual dream about this important business and to undeceive many poor souls who are in extream danger of perishing eternally under a mistaken confidence of Salvation I shall as of the ability which is of God by comparing the Scriptures hereabout endeavour to open and further to clear this mighty point upon the practical understanding of which doth depend even the salvation of all our souls CHAP. II. Shewing of what sort or kind of Works those are which Paul in his Epistles excludes in the point of Mans justification before God Romans 4.5 But to him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted unto him for righteousnesse SECT I NOT to meddle with the coherence of these words for the present because I shall have a fit occasion to touch that afterwards You may easily perceive that they do in themselves contain a brief description of the Man whom God will justifie And we have him here described both negatively and affirmatively 1. Negatively he is such an one as worketh not so saith the Text To him that worketh not c. 2. Affirmatively he is such a one as does believe on him that justifieth the ungodly for the Text tells us concerning him that his faith is counted to him for righteousness I shall God willing speak something to both parts of the description and shall begin with that first which is first in the Text. How then is the Apostle to be understood when he affirms the man that works not to be the capable subject of Justification provided otherwise he be such a one as doth beleeve what kind of Works are they which he shuts out from having part and fellowship in this matter and in what respects 1. Whatever they are it is not the presence of them which he excludes as if a man that hath the works he here speaks of could not be justified but it is such a justifying vertue power and property which some supposed to be in them but were deceived which he excludes as having no hand less nor more in any mans Justification for otherwise Paul though whilst he was a Pharisee and to the very time of his beleeving was such a worker as that he could say that as touching the righteousnesse of the law he was blameless Phil. 3.6 yet this was no obstruction to his Justification when he did beleeve indeed 2. But the Apostles meaning is that the absence of the Works here spoken of would not at all hinder a mans Justification in case he did beleeve but that he was in as good a capacity of Justification upon his beleeving though he had none of the works he here speaks of as he would or could have been in case he had them all 3. But then in the next place the main question will be what and what manner sort or kind of Works it is without which a man if he beleeve shall be justified and whether he intends to exclude all and all manner of works in this case or some one sort or kind only For the resolution whereof we must consider upon what occasion these words of the Apostle are here brought in and what people and what opinions they are against which he is here disputing the knowledge of which will be as a key to open the door of this Text and to give us clearly to understand what Works they are without which a man beleeving may be justified That it is not against any such opinion as reckons a Gospel conversation consisting of self-denial mortification of worldly lusts and sinful affections the love of Christ above all and the preferring other mens spiritual interest and profit before their own temporal and a tender caring for others temporal good as well as their own I say that it is not any such opinion against which the face of the Apostles present argumentation is bent will evidently appear 1. By the carriage of other Scriptures which are so far off from affirming any man to be justified by Faith without these Works as that contrarily they do positively and peremptorily conclude and declare that Faith to be dead unprofitable and vain and such as shall never save that is without these And therefore we may by no means understand the Apostle in any such sense as would make him clash with and fall foul upon the general current of the Scripture elsewhere But the further opening and handling of this I must respite unto its proper place afterwards Sect. 2 2. But that the Works here cast out of doors by the Apostle in the matter of mans Justification are precisely of that sort or kind which are elsewhere called by him the deeds of the Law Rom. 3.28 viz. Mosaical ordinances and services especially such as were Circumcision and Sacrifices and the like which were Works required in the Law of Moses I come now to demonstrate And for the clearing of our way to this we will as I
they should but that it is the Spirit that helps the Saints infirmities Rom. 8.26 I say when a Christian upon the knowledge and sense of the absolute necessity of the Spirits presence and assistance is made to value desire him more than any thing than all things in this World then is the Spirit given and then does the Spirit delight to joyn himself to such a Soul and to make his constant abode there But as for the men of the world on the other hand because they are under no such sense they know him not nor the necessity and worth of his presence nor are under any longings of Soul after him for those and the like spiritual ends before mentioned therefore is it that they are in no present capacity of receiving him See both these things set forth in Joh. 14.16 17. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Why cannot the World receive the Spirit of Truth which Christ promiseth Even because it seeth him not neither knoweth him The antecedent being as I conceive here put for the consequent of not seeing and knowing him and that is Their not prizing nor desiring him For the men of the World who contrary to the Saints walk by Sight and not by Faith do not value and esteem such things whose worth and use are not discerned but by Faith 1 Cor. 2.14 and such is the gift and presence of the Spirit of God but such things are matters of their esteem as do accommodate the natural senses And because they do not thus desire him out of a sensible knowledge of his worth and excellency and their want of him therefore is it that they cannot receive him he being not otherwise given than upon such terms But why then do the Saints receive him So that he dwelleth with them and shall be in them The Reason is Because they know him and so highly prize him and thorowly desire him For the Particle FOR in this place but ye know him FOR he dwelleth with you hath not I conceive the force of a Cause but of an Effect not as if the Reason why they knew him is because he dwelleth with them but the Reason why he dwelleth with them is because they know or have known him The same Particle being used in this sense Luk. 7.47 And indeed the words are thus translated by Dr. Hammond But ye know him therefore he abideth with you and shall be among you And besides all this the antithesis that lies between the reasons why the World cannot and the Saints can and do receive him evidently gives this to be the right sencing of these words For if that be the reason why the World cannot receive him viz. because it knoweth him not as it is then the reason why others do receive him is that knowledge they have of him for the want of which the World cannot receive him That we see then which is said of Wisdom Prov. 8.17 is most true of this holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Wisdom I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me Those that so love him out of a deep sense of their extream want of him and his incomparable worth to them as to seek him early in the first place and before all other things with the first of their strength and desire he loves them and loves to be found of them and loves to dwell with them and to be every good thing to them Sect. 7 2. And the next act of Faith which I would speak of as prevalent for the procuring the Spirits residence in the Soul for the great and spiritual ends for which he is promised is the act of Relyance or Dependance upon the Father and the Son for it Gal. 3.14 That we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith Through Faith not only concerning other Promises but also and especially touching such as concern the Father and the Sons giving the holy Spirit who because he is given and received by vertue of Promises made and embraced is therefore stiled The holy Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 And Faith eying Gods knowledge and sense of the Creatures condition in making such a Promise and in what need he was of the thing promised and his love and friendship to him by engaging himself in such a Promise which he needed not to have done had not his good-will been great to him and that therefore his intendment of doing the thing must needs be very thorow and real and eying also his faithfulness in keeping and power of performing Promises hereupon leans and depends upon the Lord for this Promise of the Spirit and so accordingly receives it from him Sect. 8 3. And that in the Third place which follows upon the two former is the Faith of desiring him and the hope and confidence of obtaining and receiving him digested into incessant and fervent Prayer for him For when the sense of the Spirits worth and our want of him renders him exceedingly desirable unto the Soul and when the sense of the Fathers good-will and readiness to give him by his promise of giving him and by what he hath done already in giving Christ when we needed him shall prompt the soul with confidence of obtaining him and the sense of all together shall dispose the Soul Prayer-wise and influence the Prayer with much of desire and longing with much of earnestness importunity and perseverence in begging and with much of confidence in expecting then undoubtedly will the holy Spirit be obtained as an inhabitant to the Soul for so hath our Lord assured us saying If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luk. 11.13 Sect. 9 This Property in Faith of which I have now spoken humbly to depend on God for spiritual supplies for maintenance of spiritual life and to be strengthened unto spiritual work is I am perswaded that which puts a manifest difference between the living and the dead Faith For the dead Faith being found in that nature which never under-went such a change yet as will denominate it to be a new creature is void of spiritual sense perceives not the necessity of those spiritual supplies which are the new creatures life and nourishment nor feels the want of them and therefore cannot long after them nor depend on God for them but such an one thinks himself in excellent good condition because he beleeves Christ died for him and that he hath been Baptized in his Name and hath Communion in his Ordinances and gives Christ good Words and professes himself to be his Servant and can Discourse it may be many Points in
propitiation unto all there 's the extent of the offer and tender of grace But then 2. He is set forth as such through Faith in his blood there 's the limitation of the propitiating vertue of his blood viz. to such as have Faith in it The Author to the Hebrews saith chap. 13.10 We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat that serve the Tabernacle meaning Christ of which they had no right to partake that did Judaiz it adhere to the Mosaical way and is parallel with Gal. 5.2.4 But that which I note hence is that men in order to their partaking of Christ must have a right to him Now what is that which gives men a right to Christ his Death Blood Resurrection and Intercession is it not this Faith of which I have been speaking so much surely it is Hence the Apostle suspends the beleeving Hebrews being made partakers of Christ upon their holding the beginning of their confidence stedfast unto the end Heb. 3.14 It was that Faith and confidence which they had by which they were made partakers of Christ when they first beleeved and they were to continue their right by continuing their Faith for thereto did his Exhortation tend Another-like place is that Cel. 1.21 22 23. And you who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his Flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight if ye continue in the Faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel If their final reconcileation by the death of Christ so as to be presented unreproveable in his sight depended upon their continuing in the Faith then certainly that which first invested them with that priviledge in which for the present they stood was their beleeving Sect. 4 And the reason why I conceive this right which Faith gives unto Christ and the justifying vertue of his blood is one cause or consideration for which it s said to be counted for Righteousness is this because Faith it self without this office and use is neither righteousnesse nor means of righteousnesse unto any man and consequently cannot be counted to him for Righteousnesse But for as much as though Faith is not virtually or meritoriously any mans righteousnesse as Christs blood is and yet by the grace and appointment of God becomes a means of possessing him with that which is hence Faith it self may well be said to be counted to him for Righteousnesse with like propriety of speech as when in Scripture the means bears the denomination of the end as John 4.22 2 Pet. 3.15 For that now I conceive may be a reason of the phrase counted reckoned or imputed for righteousnesse as it is applyed to Faith viz. because by it as it hath to do with Christ a man though he be not formally righteous with a personal and sin-lesse righteousnesse yet becomes possessed with the same priviledge of enjoying Gods favour and love and the blessed effects of it in respect of Justification which a personal and sin-less righteousnesse in the formality of it in case he had it would invest him with And therefore may well be said to be reckoned for or put to account instead of Righteousnesse because it does a man the self-same service as that would do Sect. 5 2. There is another notion or consideration in respect whereof Faith may be said to be counted for Righteousnesse to him that hath it And that is as it is a fulfilling of the termes of the Gospel or New Covenant For Faith in that latitude of which I have been speaking of it as it is a lively active working Grace and disposes the Soul in affection and subjection to the Lord as well as to depend upon him for what it would have is really the fulfilling of the condition or termes of the Gospel and consequently that which puts him that hath it under the great promises of Justification and eternal life contained therein For the Gospel declares who and what manner of persons shall have their sins pardoned for Christs sake shall be accepted and approved of God and are by him designed to eternal life viz. Beleevers no man by name but all under this qualification of effectual Faith For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1.16 17. And whoever does accordingly beleeve does fulfill the Gospel and so is righteous in the account thereof As any man that lived under the first Covenant I mean the Mosaical Covenant had he but observed and kept the termes of it the man that doth those things shall live by them Rom. 10.5 he should have been righteous in the eye of that Law or Covenant Deut. 6.25 even so he that does but observe and keep the terms or condition of the Gospel or New Covenant which is Beleeve in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved Acts 16.31 he also is righteous in the eye of that As it is in the common Law of Nations those that are justified are justified by that and those that are condemned are condemned by that if there be righteousnesse of proceeding John 7.51 If men be cast they are cast by the Law and if they are acquitted they are acquitted by the Law the Law cannot justifie the guilty nor condemn the innocent whatever men may do that have the handling of it Just so is it with the Gospel and those that are under the administration thereof all such shall be cast as guilty or acquitted as righteous by it The word that I have spoken said Christ the same shal judg him Jo. 12.48 The Doctrins of Christ are his Statute-laws which whosoever beleeves and sincerely obeyes shall be justified by their sentence All the holy word is on such a mans side against such as the Apostle saith there is no Law Gal. 5.23 but he hath as Demetrius had a good report even of the truth it self 3 John 12. Mica 2.7 As he hath been a true Friend to this to beleeve love and obey it in truth and uprightnesse though not without weaknesse so will it be a true Friend to him to stand by him to vindicate and justifie him against the accusations of the enemy So that mark we then Faith in the latitude of it being that very thing which doth answer the very mind and scope of the Gospel which is the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 it must needs be counted to them for Righteousnesse that have it because by it they stand right in the eye and account of this law of life And indeed it is this heavenly and divine Law in the promisory part of it which furnishes Faith with that power which it hath to justifie As on the contrary the Law is said to be the strength of sin 1 Cor. 15.56 It arms sin with that power which it hath to condemn the Creature so is the Gospel the strength of Faith that which invests it with