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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33212	Eleven sermons preached upon several occasions and a paraphrase and notes upon the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth chapters of St. John : with a discourse of church-unity ... / by William Clagett.	Clagett, William, 1646-1688.	1699 (1699)	Wing C4386; ESTC R24832	142,011	306

commandments of God are ever with me We see by experience that men arrive to great skill in the business which they have in liking and esteem because they frequently exercise themselves in it and daily employ their thoughts about it Now that veneration of Divine Truth that value of Christian Knowledge which is implied in a sincere intent to do the will of God is incomparably greater and more operative and effectual than that which is founded either upon desire of praise or preferment or the mere pleasure of speculation only Therefore that esteem which the good man hath for Divine Truth will enforce a more frequent and attentive meditation thereupon and that assiduity will procure a better understanding of it and this again more delight and pleasure in it and if such proficiency and such satisfaction do thus whet one another and if they are not caused but by a great value and esteem of Divine truth then the good man who values it most has a singular advantage in his study and search after it 4. Every prevailing Lust and Passion is in it self an impediment to the knowledge of the Truth For instance the affection of the praise of men is that which frequently perverts a right judgment of things it was our Saviour's own Expostulation with the Jews How can ye believe that receive honour one of another and seek not that honour which cometh of God John 5.44 One would wonder what a strange delusion the Pride of the Pharisees kept them under the Delusion was so great that they could not judge whether they believed or disbelieved what they read in Moses for our Saviour tells them v. 46. Had ye believed Moses ye would also have believed me for he wrote of me Could we or could they themselves have thought that they who trusted in Moses that they who were the great Teachers of the Law of Moses that they who rejected Jesus because they thought his Doctrine overthrew the Law of Moses should be mistaken in their own belief of Moses and yet he adds v. 47. If ye believe not his writings how shall ye believe my words By which we may learn these things 1. If vain glory had not infatuated these men if the conceit of their own wisdom had not kept them from doubting of what they once thought if they had been humble enough to permit the Writings of Moses to convince them they must needs have read there that Jesus was the Christ 2. If one sin be predominant in a man's heart as Pride he may be so deluded by it as not to believe that to be in the Scripture which is plainly there and this too in a matter of great importance and concernment as the case now mentioned plainly shews 3. Much more will the judgments of men be perverted by several Lusts and Vices in conjunction with one another if to Pride and Ambition Covetousness and Envy and Revengefulness be added the fatal influence whereof upon the Understanding is so plainly discernable in the gross mistakes of those men that are engaged to serve a by-Cause and to maintain a Party against all the World Did we not know it by experience we should think it incredible that in these circumstances men of learning and subtilty should not be able to judge of the strength or weakness of Arguments of the true or false interpretation of Scripture of the pertinent or impertinent application of it even where the case is so plain that it requires neither subtilty nor learning to make a judgment of it Could any disinterested man believe that from the saying of Saint John in the conclusion of his Revelation If any man shall add unto the words of the prophecy of this book God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in it that from this Saying the unlawfulness of all Human Forms and Constitutions in Divine Worship might be inferr'd that is to say Because a Curse is threatned to any that shall attempt to corrupt the Bible by making any alteration in the Revelation of St. John therefore nothing is to be done in God's Worship which is not positively required in the Word of God And yet by such applications of Scripture as this the pretence hath been carried on by men of name and authority in the World Would it ever have come into a mans head to suspect that the Power of the Roman Bishop to depose Kings and Emperors might be argued from those words of our Lord to Peter Feed my sheep If Ambition and Covetousness and the serving of a Cause had not interven'd he would think the Sheep of Christ were to be fed with wholsome Doctrine and to be instructed in the duties of Patience and Constancy under Persecution and not with those inhuman Principles which turn them into Wolves and it is plain enough that without any wit and with infinitely greater probability the quite contrary conclusion may be several ways inferred from these words the quite contrary I say to what they of the Church of Rome would infer from them I shall not stand to expose their arguing from those words Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my Church in behalf of the universal Supremacy of the Roman Bishops and that because of the allusion of Petrus to Petra which if it would hold good for St. Peter's being the Rock how it will serve to make Boniface or Clement the Rock too would be hard to say or if it did that Rock implies Universal Supremacy would not suddenly have been thought of if it had not been to serve a Cause there would be a little more colour in those words and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven were it not plain That when the Keys were given to him as they were not till after the Resurrection of Christ they were given to all the other Apostles as fully and effectually as to him But suppose that had been said of Peter which St. Paul said of himself that the care of all the Churches was upon him which is a Saying more likely to conclude an Universal Pastorship from than the other how many learned Treatises may we think had been written upon it before now But for all that if any man should in earnest offer that place to prove that St. Paul was Christ's Vicar-General on Earth he would be answered no other way than by contempt So foully are the understandings of men overruled by their affections after they have wedded a Cause and resolved to go through with it and to maintain it right or wrong but that which is still worse is this that where the Spirit of Faction prevails and worldly Interest is carried on under the pretext of Religion the understandings of men are frequently disabled from judging right between good and evil otherwise how were it possible for men to believe that Hypocrisy and Lying and Perjury and Murder and Treason are in some cases not only excuseable but laudable that they

he lays down in the remaining part of the Text. 1. That this Righteousness proceeds from Faith The righteousness of God from faith to faith 2. That this principle of Righteousness was mentioned in the Old Testament As it is written the just shall live by faith And therefore we are first to enquire 1. What is the meaning of that Passage from faith to faith In what sense is the Righteousness which God requires said to be from faith to faith I answer that the meaning is this The Righteousness which pleaseth God is that which must begin from Faith which must still proceed from Faith and which at last must end in Faith For this is a saying like to that in Rom. 6.19 As ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity even so yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness For by serving iniquity unto iniquity is meant adding one sin to another and daily growing worse And by serving righteousness unto holiness is meant adding one degree of goodness to another and growing better And thus here the Righteousness which is from faith to faith is a Righteousness which first proceeds from Faith and is always built upon it afterwards and is at last perfected by it For that which the Apostle intimates by these words is That the Righteousness of a good Christian having Faith for the ground and reason of it does encrease as his Faith encreases and that the more he is rooted and strengthned in Faith the better he grows and he pleases God the more This seems to be the most natural interpretation of these words viz. That Faith is all along the Principle and Ground of that Righteousness which God expects and is pleased with But then 2. What relation hath that Passage out of the Old Testament to this matter As it is written the just shall live by faith I answer That the Apostle does hereby design to shew that though the Promises of the Gospel are incomparably more excellent than those that were made under the Law yet it was the belief of God's Promises then that held good men to the performance of their duty and intituled them to the favour of God The words are taken out of Habakk 2.4 God had promised the Jews that they should return from their Captivity in his appointed time v. 3. therefore says he though the vision tarry wait for it because it will surely come but the just shall live by his faith that is to say The sure belief of this Promise would support good men in the service of God under the Captivity in an Idolatrous Land and their Faith should be rewarded with a return into their own Country in God's appointed time In like manner Christians who have better promises viz. of an Heavenly Countrey do in this Faith work that Righteousness which the Gospel requires and for thus living by Faith in this World they shall live for ever in their Heavenly Countrey Faith was the foundation of the Jews observing their Law of outward Works and it was rewarded with such Blessings as that Law promised But the Gospel of Christ as we read in the foregoing Verse is the power of God unto salvation and therefore it is still true but in a much higher sense that the just shall live by faith because the Gospel requires an inward and spiritual Righteousness to which we are brought by the belief of promises of spiritual and eternal good things and because such Faith shall bring us to everlasting life Thus much for the Explication of the Text. And now my work shall be to enquire upon what ground it is that the Scriptures do attribute so much to Faith as they do and to shew that this is done without any disparagement at all to Godliness and Virtue And I have chosen this Argument to discourse upon that it may appear how unreasonably we of the Reformation are charged by our Adversaries as we often have been with Solifidianism as they call it that is with attributing all to Faith and leaving no necessity for Righteousness and good Works We do indeed with the Scriptures say That we are justified by faith and that the just do live by Faith but we do with the Scriptures also affirm Faith to be the principle of obedience and there is a righteousness from faith to faith without which we cannot please God nor be justified before him We do also renounce the merit of good Works and resolve the acceptance of them into the Grace and Mercy of God in not imputing our sins to us and when we have done all they are the gracious Promises of God and it is not the dignity of our own Righteousness that we rely upon but then we say it is the faith of these Promises that maketh us live to God by Repentance and good Works which are so necessary that we are dead without them Now from hence indeed it follows That where there is that faith which God requires holiness will follow For if we are justified by faith if he that believes shall be saved and yet without holiness no man shall see the Lord then they that believe are holy which if it be found true then we not to say the Scriptures are justified in attributing so much to Faith as we do that it is by Faith we please God that we live by Faith and that we are saved by Faith On the other hand it seems hard to understand how those great things should be spoken of Faith when there are many that do not hold faith and a good conscience but hold the truth in unrighteousness And since it follows more certainly That a man believes because he is holy than that he is holy because he believes it should rather have been said that a Believer shall live by his Righteousness than that the just shall live by faith and yet following the Scriptures we say that we live by faith and are justified by faith To clear this difficulty it will be requisite to consider well these two things 1. What the Nature of Faith is And 2. What power it has or what efficacy must necessarily be granted to it and when it hath that power and efficacy I shall not only aim at making the notions of these things clear but also profitable unto Godliness 1st then As to the Nature of Faith I do not see that the Scripture means any thing by Faith but a persuasion of the truth of something that is affirmed upon the Testimony of one that affirms it or upon some other reason besides sensible evidence or immediate knowledge And thus Divine Faith is a persuasion of the truth of those things which we have God's testimony for And that we are thus to understand these words Faith or believing in the Scriptures is very plain because otherwise the Scriptures must have altered the common sense and signification of words But can we think that when our Blessed Saviour required believing under the penalty of

indeed to convince a man of that mistake that his form of godliness will supply the want of the real power of it But alas where Truth is professed without the mixture of any Doctrinal Errors of this kind there is still too much room left for this practical Error of holding the truth in unrighteousness For whilst some men are led into sin by Error do not others who are guilty of the same sins hope that they shall be overlooked for the sake of their opposition to those Errors and the professing and maintaining the contrary Truth 'T is true that our Church according to the truth of the Scriptures and the clearest reason that there is for any thing in the world holds forth a necessity of actual reformation in order to God's Pardon and eternal Life and we disclaim all manner of ways to supply the want of effectual repentance and a thorough change of heart and life from Sin to God But my Brethren let us lay one Particular seriously to heart under this General and that is this That our very Profession of this Truth in the natural and proper sense of it That without holiness no man shall see the Lord will not serve our turn without the practice of it our profession of the necessity of an holy life is not that holy life which is necessary And if the unavoidableness of professing some Religion and the desire we have to keep our Sins too works this way upon us as to make us trust in the purity of our Profession we are guilty of one Error as pernicious if we continue in it as if a thousand more were added to it I say if we continue in it for there is this advantage of a true and pure profession of Christianity that whosoever makes it to use the words of our Saviour in a sense something different he is not far from the Kingdom of God there is less to do to recover him to repentance no false Principle being in the way to hinder it he lies open to Exhortation and Persuasion and every serious Instruction and Admonition smites his very Conscience he feels the truth that is delivered to him there is that within him which confesseth it all and will not easily let him be quiet till it hath made him a new man But to proceed 3. In some Persons a dishonourable opinion of God may be the reason of expecting his Rewards without performing the Duties of Purity and Charity I fear there are those in the world who think that God hath appointed the confession of his Name with Prayer and Thansgivings and other holy Offices of Religion that by these things men might give him the satisfaction of hearing the greatness of his Perfections and the excellency of his Works applauded by his Creatures and therefore that these things being performed they have entitled themselves to his thanks and favour But this is in truth to have but a very low and mean opinion of the Divine Majesty and seems to suppose God to be altogether such an one as our selves who perhaps are so vain as to take great delight in our own praises and love to be flattered into a great opinion of our selves If we believe worthily of the Divine Nature we must say That because God is holy and good therefore he will have men to be so and that he expects to be glorified by us to be confessed and adored not that he needeth us or is taken with our commendations of him but because it is infinitely fit and reasonable and equitable that we should thus worship him and because this is a necessary means also of forming our minds and actions into the likeness of what God is and of what he does in the World We are mistaken if we think that our Saviour is beholden to us for keeping up the profession of his Name or that some great Interest of his is served when Religion gets ground upon the World because there will be more and more to speak his Praise and to celebrate his Goodness and his Greatness as if he were like some one of those great men who if they have Flatterers enough and can make others seem to honour them though there be no such matter are very well pleased The Religion of our Saviour was not sent into the world for the ostentation of his Power and Greatness and he plainly told us that he sought not his own honour It is indeed our indispensible duty to honour him before all the World with all expressions of gratitude and humble reverence and we are most inexcusable and wretched Creatures if we do it not But the end of his Religion was to turn us from our iniquities and to make us a peculiar people zealous of good works and so far as this Design takes so far he approves of us otherwise he hath plainly told us what we are to expect from him even that Sentence Depart from me ye that work iniquity I know you not 4. The conceit and expectation of some unpromised mercy of God must necessarily be one ingredient into the presumption o● those men that hold the truth in unrighteousness For the Threatnings of God's Word are so undeniably plain that a man of sense who believes the truth as it is in Jesus can have no ease under a guilty Conscience but upon a supposition that God will or may at least abate something of the rigour of his threatning and accept of less perhaps a Death-bed Repentance of less I say than he hath required This seems to be at the bottom of their Confidence of whom our Lord foretold that they should say Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name c. that is to say they had been instrumental to maintain and support his Doctrine in the World and expostulate now with him as if they always had some secret hope this would at last be accepted though there was no promise of it before-hand But to prevent this presumption Our Saviour hath said before-hand Then will I profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity which plain dealing was very necessary For though it is true that he that threatens punishment doth not delight in taking punishment but intends to prevent the fault yet when God threatens for this end and adds moreover Declaration upon the Threatning That he will not spare if the fault be not prevented 't is an affront to him to presume that he will spare for all that To conclude Let us seriously lay to heart these words of our Saviour which are an answer to the most concerning Question in the World who are they that shall be saved Not every one that saith Lord Lord but he that doth the will of our father which is in heaven He that can say I was by my natural temper and inclination thus and thus but the Religion of Jesus and the Worship of God according to the Gospel hath given me a new heart and a new nature and