Law are a Law unto themselves Which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their Consciences also bearing witness and amongst one another their thoughts accusing or excusing By which and other places in the following Chapter 't is plain that under the Law of Works is comprehended also the Law of Nature knowable by Reason as well as the Law given by Moses For says St. Paul Rom. III. 9. 23. we have proved both Iews and Gentiles that they are all under sin For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Which they could not do without a Law Nay whatever God requires any where to be done without making any allowance for Faith that is a part of the Law of Works So the forbidding Adam to eat of the Tree of Knowledge was part of the Law of Works Only we must take notice here That some of God's Positive Commands being for peculiar Ends and suited to particular Circumstances of Times Places and Persons have a limited and only temporary Obligation by vertue of God's positive Injunction such as was that part of Moses's Law which concerned the outward Worship or Political Constitution of the Jews and is called the Ceremonial and Judaical Law in contradistinction to the Moral part of it Which being conformable to the Eternal Law of Right is of Eternal Obligation and therefore remains in force still under the Gospel nor is abrogated by the Law of Faith as St. Paul found some ready to infer Rom. III. 31. Do we then make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law Nor can it be otherwise For were there no Law of Works there could be no Law of Faith For there could be no need of Faith which should be counted to men for Righteousness if there were no Law to be the Rule and Measure of Righteousness which men failed in their Obedience to Where there is no Law there is no Sin all are Righteous equally with or without Faith The Rule therefore of Right is the same that ever it was the Obligation to observe it is also the same The difference between the Law of Works and the Law of Faith is only this that the Law of Works makes no allowance for failing on any occasion Those that obey are Righteous those that in any part disobey are unrighteous and must not expect Life the Reward of Righteousness But by the Law of Faith Faith is allowed to supply the defect of full Obedience and so the Believers are admitted to Life and Immortality as if they were Righteous Only here we must take notice that when St. Paul says that the Gospel establishes the Law he means the Moral part of the Law of Moses For that he could not mean the Ceremonial or Political part of it is evident by what I quoted out of him just now where he says The Gentiles that do by nature the things contained in the Law their Consciences bearing witness For the Gentiles neither did nor thought of the Judaical or Ceremonial Institutions of Moses 't was only the Moral part their Consciences were concerned in As for the rest St. Paul tells the Galatians Cap. IV. they are not under that part of the Law which v. 3. he calls Elements of the World and v. 9. weak and beggarly elements And our Saviour himself in his Gospel-Sermon on the Mount tells them Mat. V. 17. That whatever they might think he was not come to dissolve the Law but to make it more full and strict For that that is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is evident from the following part of that Chapter where he gives the Precepts in a stricter sense than they were received in before But they are all Precepts of the Moral Law which he reinforces What should become of the Ritual Law he tells the Woman of Samaria in these words Iohn IV. 21. 23. The hour cometh when you shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father But the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him Thus then as to the Law in short The Civil and Ritual part of the Law delivered by Moses obliges not Christians though to the Jews it were a part of the Law of Works it being a part of the Law of Nature that man ought to obey every Positive Law of God whenever he shall please to make any such addition to the Law of his Nature But the Moral part of Moses's Law or the Moral Law which is every where the same the Eternal Rule of Right obliges Christians and all men every where and is to all men the standing Law of Works But Christian Believers have the Priviledge to be under the Law of Faith too which is that Law whereby God Justifies a man for Believing though by his Works he be not Just or Righteous i. e. though he came short of Perfect Obedience to the Law of Works God alone does or can Justifie or make Just those who by their Works are not so Which he doth by counting their Faith for Righteousness i. e. for a compleat performance of the Law Rom. IV. 3. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness v. 5. To him that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness v. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works i. e. without a full measure of Works which is exact Obedience v. 7. Saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered v. 8. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin This Faith for which God justified Abraham what was it It was the believing God when he engaged his Promise in the Covenant he made with him This will be plain to any one who considers these places together Gen. XV. 6. He believed in the Lord or believed the Lord. For that the Hebrew Phrase believing in signifies no more but believing is plain from St. Paul's citation of this place Rom. IV. 3. where he repeats it thus Abraham believed God which he thus explains v. 18-22 who against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations According to that which was spoken so shall thy seed be And being not weak in faith he considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarah's womb He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness By which it is clear that the Faith which God counted to Abraham for Righteousness was nothing but a firm belief of what God declared to him and a steadfast relying on him for the accomplishment of what he had promised Now this says
them your blood be upon your own heads I am clean from henceforth I will go unto the Greeks Upon the like occasion he tells the Jews at Antioch Acts XIII 46. It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you But seeing you put it off from you we turn to the Gentiles 'T is plain here St. Paul's charging their Blood on their own heads is for opposing this single Truth that Iesus was the Messiah that Salvation or Perdition depends upon believing or rejecting this one Proposition I mean this is all is required to be believed by those who acknowledge but one Eternal and Invisible God the maker of Heaven and Earth as the Jews did For that there is something more required to Salvation besides believing we shall see hereafter In the mean time it is fit here on this occasion to take notice that though the Apostles in their Preaching to the Jews and the Devout as we translate the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who were Proselytes of the Gate and the worshippers of one Eternal and Invisible God said nothing of the believing in this one true God the maker of Heaven and Earth because it was needless to press this to those who believed and professed it already for to such 't is plain were most of their Discourses hitherto Yet when they had to do with Idolatrous Heathens who were not yet come to the knowledge of the one only true God they began with that as necessary to be believed it being the Foundation on which the other was built and without which it could signifie nothing Thus Paul speaking to the Idolatrous Lystrians who would have sacrificed to him and Barnabas says Acts XIV 15. We Preach unto you that you should turn from these vanities unto the living God who made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all things that are therein Who in times past suffered all Nations to walk in their own ways Nevertheless he left not himself without witness in that he did good and gave us rain from Heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness Thus also he proceeded with the Idolatrous Athenians Acts XVII Telling them upon occasion of the Altar dedicated to the unknown God Whom ye ignorantly worship him declare I unto you God who made the World and all things therein Seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands Forasmuch then as we are the Off-spring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by art and man's device And the times of this ignorance God winked at But now commandeth all men every where to repent Because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained Whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead So that we see where any thing more was necessary to be proposed to be believed as there was to the Heathen Idolaters there the Apostles were careful not to omit it Acts XVIII 4. Paul at Corinth reasoned in the Synagogue every Sabbath-day and testified to the Iews that Iesus was the Messiah Ver. 11. And he continued there a year and six months teaching the Word of God amongst them i. e. The good News that Jesus was the Messiah as we have already shewn is meant by the Word of God Apollos another Preacher of the Gospel when he was instructed in the way of God more perfectly what did he teach but this same Doctrine As we may see in this account of him Acts XVIII 27. That when he was come into Achaia he helped the Brethren much who had believed through grace For he mightily convinced the Iews and that publickly shewing by the Scriptures that Iesus was the Messiah St. Paul in the Account he gives of himself before Festus and Agrippa professes this alone to be the Doctrine he taught after his Conversion For says he Acts XXVI 22. Having obtained help of God I continue unto this day witnessing both to small and great saying none other things than those which the Prophets and Moses did say should come That the Messias should suffer and that he should be the first that should rise from the dead and should shew light unto the People and to the Gentiles Which was no more than to prove that Jesus was the Messiah This is that which as we have above observed is called the Word of God Acts XI 1. compared with the foregoing Chapter from v. 34. to the end And XIII 42. compared with 44. 46. 48 49. And XVII 13. compared with v. 11. 3. It is also called the Word of the Gospel Acts XV. 7. And this is that Word of God and that Gospel which where-ever their Discourses are set down we find the Apostles preached and was that Faith which made both Jews and Gentiles Believers and Members of the Church of Christ purifying their hearts Acts XV. 9. And carrying with it Remission of sins Acts X. 43. So that all that was to be believed for Justification was no more but this single Proposition That Iesus of Nazareth was the Christ or the Messiah All I say that was to be believed for Justification For that it was not all that was required to be done for Justification we shall see hereafter Though we have seen above from what our Saviour has Pronounced himself Iohn III. 36. That he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And are taught from Iohn IV. 39. compared with v. 42. That believing on him is believing that he is the Messiah the Saviour of the World And the Confession made by St. Peter Mat. XVI 16. That he is the Messiah the Son of the living God being the Rock on which our Saviour has promised to build his Church Though this I say and what else we have already taken notice of be enough to convince us what it is we are in the Gospel required to believe to Eternal Life without adding what we have observed from the Preaching of the Apostles Yet it may not be amiss for the farther clearing this matter to observe what the Evangelists deliver concerning the same thing though in different words Which therefore perhaps are not so generally taken notice of to this purpose We have above observed from the words of Andrew and Philip compared That the Messiah and him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write signifie the same thing We shall now consider that place Iohn I. a little further Ver. 41. Andrew says to Simon We have found the Messiah Philip on the same occasion v. 45. says to Nathanael We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets did write Iesus of Nazareth the Son of Joseph Nathanael who disbelieved this when upon Christ's speaking to him
large here by St. Luke it is plain that the Answer of our Saviour set down by St. Matthew Chap. XXVI 64. in these words Thou hast said And by St. Mark Chap. XIV 62. in these I am Is an Answer only to this Question Art thou then the Son of God And not to that other Art thou the Messiah Which preceded and he had answered to before Though Matthew and Mark contracting the story set them down together as if making but one Question omitting all the intervening Discourse Whereas 't is plain out of St. Luke that they were two distinct Questions to which Iesus gave two distinct Answers In the first whereof he according to his usual Caution declined saying in plain express words that he was the Messiah though in the latter he owned himself to be the Son of God Which though they being Iews understood to signifie the Messiah Yet he knew could be no Legal or Weighty Accusation against him before a Heathen and so it proved For upon his answering to their Question Art thou then the Son of God Ye say that I am They cry out Luke XXII 71. What need we any further witnesses For we our selves have heard out of his own mouth And so thinking they had enough against him they hurry him away to Pilate Pilate asking them Iohn XVIII 29-32 What Accusation bring you against this man They answered and said if he were not a Malefactor we would not have delivered him up unto thee Then said Pilate unto them Take ye him and Iudge him according to your Law But this would not serve their turn who aimed at his Life and would be satisfied with nothing else The Iews therefore said unto him It is not lawful for us to put any man to death And this was also That the saying of Iesus might be fulfilled which he spake signifying what Death he should dye Pursuing therefore their Design of making him appear to Pontius Pilate guilty of Treason against Caesar Luke XXIII 2. They began to accuse him saying We found this Fellow perverting the Nation and forbidding to give Tribute to Caesar saying that he himself is the Messiah the King All which were Inferences of theirs from his saying he was the Son of God Which Pontius Pilate finding for 't is consonant that he examined them to the precise words he had said their Accusation had no weight with him However the Name of King being suggested against Jesus he thought himself concerned to search it to the bottom Iohn XVIII 33-37 Then Pilate entred again into the Iudgment-Hall and called Iesus and said unto him Art thou the King of the Iews Iesus answered him Sayest thou this of thy self or did others tell it thee of me Pilate answered am I a Iew Thine own Nation and the Chief Priest have delivered thee unto me What hast thou done Iesus answered My Kingdom is not of this World If my Kingdom were of this World then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Iews But my Kingdom is not from hence Pilate therefore said unto him Art thou a King then Iesus answered Thou sayest that I am a King For this end was I born and for this cause came I into the World that I should bear witness to the Truth Every one that is of the Truth heareth my voice In this Dialogue between our Saviour and Pilate we may Observe 1. That being asked whether he were the King of the Iews He answers so that though he deny it not yet he avoided giving the least Umbrage that he had any Design upon the Government For though he allows himself to be a King yet to obviate any suspicion he tells Pilate His Kingdom is not of this World And evidences it by this that if he had pretended to any Title to that Country his followers which were not a few and were forward enough to believe him their King would have fought for him if he had had a mind to set himself up by force or his Kingdom were so to be erected But my Kingdom says he is not from hence Is not of this fashion or of this place 2. Pilate being by his words and circumstances satisfied that he laid no Claim to his Province or meant any Disturbance of the Government was yet a little surprized to hear a Man in that poor Garb without Retinue or so much as a Servant or a Friend own himself to be a King And therefore asks him with some kind of wonder Art thou a King then 3. That our Saviour declares that his great business into the World was to testifie and make good this great Truth that he was a King i. e. in other words that he was the Messiah 4. That whoever were followers of Truth and got into the way of Truth and Happiness received this Doctrine concerning him viz. That he was the Messiah their King Pilate being thus satisfied that he neither meant nor could there arise any harm from his pretence whatever it was to be a King Tells the Jews v. 38. I find no fault in this man But the Jews were the more fierce Luke XXIII 5. saying He stirreth up the people to Sedition by his Preaching through all Jewry beginning from Galilee to this place And then Pilate learning that he was of Galilee Herod's Jurisdiction sent him to Herod to whom also the Chief Priest and Scribes v. 10. vehemently accused him Herod finding all their Accusations either false or frivolous thought our Saviour a bare Object of Contempt And so turning him only into Ridicule sent him back to Pilate Who calling unto him the Chief Priests and the Rulers and the People v. 14. Said unto them Ye have brought this man unto me as one that perverteth the People And behold I having examined him before you have found no fault in this man touching these things whereof ye accuse him No nor yet Herod for I sent you to him And so nothing worthy of Death is done by him And therefore he would have released him For he knew the Chief Priests had delivered him through envy Mark XV. 10. And when they demanded Barrabbas to be released but as for Jesus cryed Crucifie him Luke XXIII 22. Pilate said unto them the third time Why What evil hath he done I have found no cause of death in him I will therefore chastise him and let him go We may observe in all this whole Prosecution of the Jews that they would fain have got it out of Iesus's own mouth in express words that he was the Messiah Which not being able to do with all their Art and Endeavour All the rest that they could alledge against him not amounting to a Proof before Pilate that he claimed to be King of the Jews or that he had caused or done any thing towards a Mutiny or Insurrection among the People for upon these two as we see their whole Charge turned Pilate again and again pronounced him innocent For so he did a fourth and a fifth
time bringing him out to them after he had whip'd him Iohn XIX 4. 6. And after all When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing but that rather a Tumult was made he took Water and washed his hands before the multitude saying I am innocent of the Blood of this just man see you to it Mat. XXVII 24. Which gives us a clear reason of the cautious and wary Conduct of our Saviour in not declaring himself in the whole course of his Ministry so much as to his Disciples much less to the Multitude or the Rulers of the Jews in express words to be the Messiah the King And why he kept himself always in Prophetical or Parabolical terms He and his Disciples Preaching only the Kingdom of God i. e. of the Messiah to be come And left to his Miracles to declare who he was Though this was the Truth which he came into the World as he says himself Iohn XVIII 37. to testifie and which his Disciples were to believe When Pilate satisfied of his Innocence would have released him And the Jews persisted to cry out Crucifie him Crucifie him Iohn XIX 6. Pilate says to them Take ye him your selves and Crucifie him For I do not find any fault in him The Jews then since they could not make him a State-Criminal by alledging his saying that he was the Son of God say by their Law it was a Capital Crime v. 7. The Iews answered to Pilate We have a Law and by our Law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God After this Pilate was the more desirous to release him v. 12 13. But the Iews cried out saying If thou let this man go thou art not Caesar 's Friend Whosoever maketh himself a King speaketh against Caesar. Here we see the stress of their Charge against Jesus whereby they hoped to take away his Life viz. That he made himself King We see also upon what they grounded this Accusation viz. Because he had owned himself to be the Son of God For he had in their hearing never made or professed himself to be a King We see here likewise the reason why they were so desirous to draw from his own mouth a Confession in express words that he was the Messiah viz. That they might have what might be a clear Proof that he did so And last of all we see the reason why though in Expressions which they understood he owned himself to them to be the Messiah yet he avoided declaring it to them in such words as might look Criminal at Pilate's Tribunal He owned himself to be the Messiah plainly to the Understanding of the Iews But in ways that could not to the Understanding of Pilate make it appear that he laid claim to the Kingdom of Iudea or went about to make himself King of that Country But whether his saying that he was the Son of God was Criminal by their Law that Pilate troubled not himself about He that considers what Tacitus Suetonius Seneca de Benef. l. 3. c. 26. Say of Tiberius and his Reign will find how necessary it was for our Saviour if he would not dye as a Criminal and a Traytor to take great heed to his words and actions that he did or said not any thing that might be offensive or give the least Umbrage to the Roman Government It behoved an Innocent Man who was taken notice of for something Extraordinary in him to be very wary Under a jealous and cruel Prince who encouraged Informations and filled his Reign with Executions for Treason Under whom words spoken innocently or in jest if they could be misconstrued were made Treason and prosecuted with a Rigor that made it always the same thing to be accused and condemned And therefore we see that when the Iews told Pilate Iohn XIX 12. That he should not be a Friend to Caesar if he let Iesus go For that whoever made himself King was a Rebel against Caesar He asks them no more whether they would take Barrabbas and spare Iesus But though against his Conscience gives him up to Death to secure his own Head One thing more there is that gives us light into this wise and necessarily cautious management of himself which manifestly agrees with it and makes a part of it And that is the choice of his Apostles exactly suited to the design and fore-sight of the Necessity of keeping the declaration of the Kingdom of the Messiah which was now expected within certain general terms during his Ministry And not opening himself too plainly or forwardly to the heady Jews that he himself was the Messiah but leaving it to be found out by the Observation of those who would attend to the Purity of his Life and the Testimony of his Miracles and the Conformity of all with the Predictions concerning him without an express promulgation that he was the Messiah till after his Death His Kingdom was to be opened to them by degrees as well to prepare them to receive it as to enable him to be long enough amongst them to perform what was the work of the Messiah to be done and fulfil all those several parts of what was foretold of him in the Old Testament and we see applyed to him in the New The Iews had no other thoughts of their Messiah but of a Mighty Temporal Prince that should raise their Nation into an higher degree of Power Dominion and Prosperity than ever it had enjoyed They were filled with the expectation of a Glorious Earthly Kingdom It was not therefore for a Poor Man the Son of a Carpenter and as they thought born in Galilee to pretend to it None of the Iews no not his Disciples could have born this if he had expresly avowed this at first and began his Preaching and the opening of his Kingdom this way Especially if he had added to it that in a Year or two he should dye an ignominious Death upon the Cross. They are therefore prepared for the Truth by degrees First Iohn the Baptist tells them The Kingdom of God a name by which the Jews called the Kingdom of the Messiah is at hand Then our Saviour comes and he tells them of the Kingdom of God Sometimes that it is at hand and upon some occasions that it is come but says in his Publick Preaching little or nothing of himself Then come the Apostles and Evangelists after his Death and they in express words teach what his Birth Life and Doctrine had done before and had prepared the well-disposed to receive viz. That Iesus is the Messiah To this Design and Method of Publishing the Gospel was the choice of the Apostles exactly adjusted A company of Poor Ignorant Illiterate Men who as Christ himself tells us Mat. XI 25. and Luke X. 21. Were not of the Wise and Prudent Men of the World They were in that respect but meer Children These convinced by the Miracles they saw him daily do and the unblameable Life he lead might be disposed to
Brethren ye have done it unto me Then shall he say unto them on the left hand Depart from me ye Cursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels For I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink I was a stranger and ye took me not in Naked and ye cloathed me not Sick and in prison and ye visited me not In so much that ye did it not to one of these ye did it not to me And these shall go into Everlasting Punishment But the Righteous into Life Eternal These I think are all the places where our Saviour mentions the last Judgment or describes his way of Proceeding in that Great Day Wherein as we have observed it is remarkable that every where the Sentence follows doing or not doing without any mention of believing or not believing Not that any to whom the Gospel hath been Preached shall be Saved without believing Iesus to be the Messiah For all being Sinners and Transgressors of the Law and so unjust are all liable to Condemnation unless they believe and so through Grace are justified by God for this Faith which shall be accounted to them for Righteousness But the rest wanting this Cover this allowance for their Transgressions must answer for all their Actions And being found Transgressors of the Law shall by the Letter and Sanction of that Law be Condemned for not having paid a full Obedience to that Law And not for want of Faith That is not the Guilt on which the Punishment is laid though it be the want of Faith which lays open their Guilt uncovered And exposes them to the Sentence of the Law against all that are Unrighteous The common Objection here is If all Sinners shall be Condemned but such as have a gracious allowance made them And so are justified by God for believing Iesus to be the Messiah and so taking him for their King whom they are resolved to obey to the utmost of their Power What shall become of all Mankind who lived before our Saviour's time Who never heard of his Name And consequently could not believe in him To this the Answer is so obvious and natural that one would wonder how any reasonable Man should think it worth the urging No body was or can be required to believe what was never proposed to him to believe Before the Fulness of time which God from the Council of his own Wisdom had appointed to send his Son in He had at several times and in rent Manners promised to the People of Israel an extraordinary Person to come Who raised from amongst themselves should be their Ruler and Deliverer The time And other Circumstances of his Birth Life and Person he had in sundry Prophesies so particularly described and so plainly foretold that He was well known and expected by the Jews under the Name of the Messiah or Anointed given him in some of these Prophesies All then that was required before his appearing in the World was to believe what God had revealed And to rely with a full assurance on God for the performance of his Promise And to believe that in due time he would send them the Messiah this anointed King this promised Saviour and Deliverer according to his Word This Faith in the promises of God This relying and acquiescing in his Word and Faithfulness The Almighty takes well at our hands as a great mark of homage paid by us poor frail Creatures to his Goodness and Truth as well as to his Power and Wisdom And accepts it as an acknowledgment of his peculiar Providence and Benignity to us And therefore our Saviour tells us Iohn XII 44. He that believes on me believes not on me But on him that sent me The works of Nature shew his Wisdom and Power But 't is his peculiar Care of Mankind most eminently discovered in his Promises to them that shews his Bounty and Goodness And consequently engages their Hearts in Love and Affection to him This oblation of an Heart fixed with dependance and affection on him is the most acceptable Tribute we can pay him the foundation of true Devotion and Life of all Religion What a value he puts on this depending on his Word and resting satisfied in his Promises We have an Example in Abraham whose Faith Was counted to him for Righteousness As we have before remarked out of Rom. IV. And his relying firmly on the Promise of God without any doubt of its performance gave him the Name of the Father of the Faithful And gained him so much favour with the Almighty that he was called the Friend of God The Highest and most Glorious Title can be bestowed on a Creature The thing promised was no more but a Son by his Wife Sarah and a numerous Posterity by him which should possess the Land of Canaan These were but Temporal Blessings And except the Birth of a Son very remote Such as he should never live to see nor in his own Person have the benefit of But because he questioned not the Performance of it But rested fully satisfied in the Goodness Truth and Faithfulness of God who had promised it was counted to him for Righteousness Let us see how St. Paul expresses it Rom. IV. 18-22 Who against hope believed in hope that he might become the Father of many Nations According to that which was spoken so shall thy Seed be And being not weak in his Faith he considered not his own Body now dead when he was above an hundred years old Neither yet the deadness of Sarah 's Womb. He staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving Glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to perform And THEREFORE it was imputed to him for Righteousness St. Paul having here Emphatically described the strength and firmness of Abraham's Faith informs us That he thereby gave glory to God And therefore it was accounted to him for Righteousness This is the way that God deals with poor frail Mortals He is graciously pleased to take it well of them And give it the place of Righteousness and a kind of merit in his sight If they believe his Promises and have a steadfast relying on his veracity and goodness St. Paul Heb. XI 6. tells us Without Faith it is impossible to please God But at the same time tells us what Faith that is For says he He that cometh to God must believe that he is And that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him He must be perswaded of God's Mercy and good Will to those who seek to obey him And rest assured of his rewarding those who rely on him for whatever either by the light of Nature or particular Promises he has revealed to them of his tender Mercies and taught them to expect from his Bounty This description of Faith that we might not mistake what he means by that Faith without which we
True God our Saviour found the World But the clear Revelation he brought with him dissipated this Darkness made the One Invisible True God known to the World And that with such Evidence and Energy that Polytheism and Idolatry hath no where been able to withstand it But where ever the Preaching of the Truth he delivered and the Light of the Gospel hath come those Mists have been dispelled And in effect we see that since our Saviour's time the Belief of One God has prevailed and spread it self over the face of the Earth For even to the Light that the Messiah brought into the World with him we must ascribe the owning and Profession of One God which the Mahumetan Religion had derived and borrowed from it So that in this sense it is certainly and manifestly true of our Saviour what St. Iohn says of him I Iohn III. 8. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil This Light the World needed and this Light it received from him That there is but One God and he Eternal Invisible Not like to any visible Objects nor to be represented by them If it be asked whether the Revelation to the Patriarchs by Moses did not teach this and why that was not enough The Answer is obvious that however clearly the Knowledge of One Invisible God maker of Heaven and Earth was revealed to them Yet that Revelation was shut up in a little corner of the World amongst a People by that very Law which they received with it excluded from a Commerce and Communication with the rest of mankind The Gentile World in our Saviour's time and several Ages before could have no Attestation of the Miracles on which the Hebrews built their Faith but from the Iews themselves A People not known to the greatest part of mankind Contemned and thought vilely of by those Nations that did know them And therefore very unfit and unable to propagate the Doctrine of One God in the World and diffuse it through the Nations of the Earth by the strength and force of that Ancient Revelation upon which they had received it But our Saviour when he came threw down this Wall of Partition And did not confine his Miracles or Message to the Land of Canaan or the Worshippers at Ierusalem But he himself preached at Samaria and did miracles in the Borders of Tyre and Sydon and before multitudes of People gathered from all Quarters And after his Resurrection sent his Apostles amongst the Nations accompanied with Miracles which were done in all Parts so frequently and before so many Witnesses of all sorts in broad day-light that as I have often observed the Enemies of Christianity have never dared to deny them No not Iulian himself Who neither wanted Skill nor Power to enquire into the Truth Nor would have failed to have proclaimed and exposed it if he could have detected any falshood in the History of the Gospel or found the least ground to question the Matter of Fact published of Christ and his Apostles The Number and Evidence of the Miracles done by our Saviour and his Followers by the power and force of Truth bore down this mighty and accomplished Emperour and all his Parts in his own Dominions He durst not deny so plain Matter of Fact Which being granted the truth of our Saviour's Doctrine and Mission unavoidably follows notwithstanding whatsoever Artful Suggestions his Wit could invent or Malice should offer to the contrary 2. Next to the Knowledge of one God Maker of all things A clear knowledge of their Duty was wanting to Mankind This part of Knowledge though cultivated with some care by some of the Heathen Philosophers Yet got little footing among the People All Men indeed under pain of displeasing the Gods were to frequent the Temples Every one went to their Sacrifices and Services But the Priests made it not their business to teach them Virtue If they were diligent in their Observations and Ceremonies Punctual in their Feasts and Solemnities and the tricks of Religion The holy Tribe assured them the Gods were pleased and they looked no farther Few went to the Schools of the Philosophers to be instructed in their Duties And to know what was Good and Evil in their Actions The Priests sold the better Pennyworths and therefore had all the Customs Lustrations and Processions were much easier than a clean Conscience and a steady course of Virtue And an expiatory Sacrifice that attoned for the want of it was much more convenient than a strict and holy Life No wonder then that Religion was every where distinguished from and preferred to Virtue And that it was dangerous Heresy and Prophaneness to think the contrary So much Virtue as was necessary to hold Societies together and to contribute to the quiet of Governments The Civil Laws of Commonwealths taught and forced upon Men that lived under Magistrates But these Laws being for the most part made by such who had no other aims but their own Power reached no farther than those things that would serve to tie Men together in subjection Or at most were directly to conduce to the Prosperity and Temporal Happiness of any People But Natural Religion in its full extent was no where that I know taken care of by the force of Natural Reason It should seem by the little that has hitherto been done in it That 't is too hard a thing for unassisted Reason to establish Morality in all its parts upon its true foundations with a clear and convincing light And 't is at least a surer and shorter way to the Apprehensions of the vulgar and mass of Mankind That one manifestly sent from God and coming with visible Authority from him should as a King and Law-maker tell them their Duties and require their Obedience Than leave it to the long and sometimes intricate deductions of Reason to be made out to them Which the greatest part of Mankind have neither leisure to weigh nor for want of Education and Use skill to judge of We see how unsuccessful in this the attempts of Philosophers were before our Saviour's time How short their several Systems came of the perfection of a true and compleat Morality is very visible And if since that the Christian Philosophers have much outdone them yet we may observe that the first knowledge of the truths they have added are owing to Revelation Though as soon as they are heard and considered they are found to be agreeable to Reason and such as can by no means be contradicted Every one may observe a great many truths which he receives at first from others and readily assents to as consonant to reason which he would have found it hard and perhaps beyond his strength to have discovered himself Native and Original truth is not so easily wrought out of the Mine as we who have it delivered ready dug and fashon'd into our hands are apt to imagine And how often at Fifty or Threescore years
the New Covenant has already been shewn An explicit belief of these is absolutely required of all those to whom the Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached and Salvation through his Name proposed The other parts of Divine Revelation are Objects of Faith and are so to be received They are Truths whereof none that is once known to be such may or ought to be disbelieved For to acknowledge any Proposition to be of Divine Revelation and Authority and yet to deny or disbelieve it is to offend against this Fundamental Article and Ground of Faith that God is true But yet a great many of the Truths revealed in the Gospel every one does and must confess a man may be ignorant of nay disbelieve without danger to his Salvation As is evident in those who allowing the Authority differ in the Interpretation and meaning o several Texts of Scripture not thought Fundamental In all which 't is plain the contending Parties on one side or tother are ignorant of nay disbelieve the Truths delivered in Holy Writ unless Contrarieties and Contradictions can be contained in the same words and Divine Revelation can mean contrary to it self Though all divine Revelation requires the obedience of Faith yet every truth of inspired Scriptures is not one of those that by the Law of Faith is required to be explicitly believed to Justification What those are we have seen by what our Saviour and his Apostles proposed to and required in those whom they Converted to the Faith Those are fundamentals which 't is not enough not to disbelieve Every one is required actually to assent to them But any other Proposition contained in the Scripture which God has not thus made a necessary part of the Law of Faith without an actual assent to which he will not allow any one to be a Believer a Man may be ignorant of without hazarding his Salvation by a defect in his Faith He believes all that God has made necessary for him to believe and assent to And as for the rest of Divine Truths there is nothing more required of him but that he receive all the parts of Divine Revelation with a docility and disposition prepared to imbrace and assent to all Truths coming from God And submit his mind to whatsoever shall appear to him to bear that Character Where he upon fair endeavours understands it not How can he avoid being ignorant And where he cannot put several Texts and make them consist together What Remedy He must either interpret one by the other or suspend his Opinion He that thinks that more is or can be required of poor frail Man in matters of Faith will do well to consider what absurdities he will run into God out of the infiniteness of his Mercy has dealt with Man as a compassionate and tender Father He gave him Reason and with it a Law That could not be otherwise than what Reason should dictate Unless we should think that a reasonable Creature should have an unreasonable Law But considering the frailty of Man apt to run into corruption and misery he promised a Deliverer whom in his good time he sent And then declared to all Mankind that whoever would believe him to be the Saviour promised and take him now raised from the dead and constituted the Lord and Judge of all Men to be their King and Ruler should be saved This is a plain intelligible Proposition And And the all-merciful God seems herein to have consulted the poor of this World and the bulk of Mankind These are Articles that the labouring and illiterate Man may comprehend This is a Religion suited to vulgar Capacities And the state of Mankind in this World destined to labour and travel The Writers and Wranglers in Religion fill it with niceties and dress it up with notions which they make necessary and fundamental parts of it As if there were no way into the Church but through the Academy or Lyceum The bulk of Mankind have not leisure for Learning and Logick and superfine distinctions of the Schools Where the hand is used to the Plough and the Spade the head is seldom elevated to sublime Notions or exercised in mysterious reasonings 'T is well if Men of that rank to say nothing of the other Sex can comprehend plain propositions and a short reasoning about things familiar to their Minds and nearly allied to their daily experience Go beyond this and you amaze the greatest part of Mankind And may as well talk Arabick to a poor day Labourer as the Notions and Language that the Books and Disputes of Religion are filled with and as soon you will be understood The Dissenting Congregations are supposed by their Teachers to be more accurately instructed in matters of Faith and better to understand the Christian Religion than the vulgar Conformists who are charged with great ignorance How truly I will not here determine But I ask them to tell me seriously whether half their People have leisure to study Nay Whether one in ten of those who come to their Meetings in the Country if they had time to study them do or can understand the Controversies at this time so warmly managed amongst them about Justification the subject of this present Treatise I have talked with some of their Teachers who confess themselves not to understand the difference in debate between them And yet the points they stand on are reckoned of so great weight so material so fundamental in Religion that they divide Communion and separate upon them Had God intended that none but the Learned Scribe the disputer or wise of this World should be Christians or be Saved thus Religion should have been prepared for them filled with speculations and niceties obscure terms and abstract notions But Men of that expectation Men furnished with such acquisitions the Apostle tells us I Cor. I. are rather shut out from the simplicity of the Gospel to make way for those poor ignorant illiterate Who heard and believed promises of a Deliverer and believed Jesus to be him Who could conceive a Man dead and made alive again and believe that he should at the end of the World come again and pass Sentence on all Men according to their deeds That the poor had the Gospel Preached to them Christ makes a mark as well as business of his Mission Mat. XI 5. And if the poor had the Gospel Preached to them it was without doubt such a Gospel as the poor could understand plain and intelligible And so it was as we have seen in the Preachings of Christ and his Apostles FINIS Printed for A. J. Churchil in Pater-Noster-Row A View of Universal History from the Creation to 1695. Wherein the most Remarkable Persons and Things in the known Kingdoms and Countries of the World are set down in several Columns by way of Synchronism according to their proper Centuries and Years In 16 Copper Plates By F. Talents A. M. A compleat Journal of both Houses of Parliament throughout the whole Reign of Q. Elizabeth By Sir Symonds Dewes Knight Fol. Notitia Monastica Or A History of all the Religious Houses in England and Wales c. 8vo By Tho. Tanner The Resurrection of the same Body asserted from the Tradition of the Heathens the Ancient Jews and the Primitive Church With an Answer to the Objections brought against it By Humph. Hody D. D. Octavo Bishop Wilkins of Prayer and Preaching enlarged by the Bp. of Norwich and Dr. Williams Octavo The Gentleman's Religion with Grounds and Reasons of it 20. By a Private Gentleman Dr. Patrick's New Version of all the Psalms of David 120. To be sung in Churches Gen. III. 17-19