such a latitude of sense as may also include the presence of the person as opposed unto his absence for the word taken in this sense is elsewhere rendred presence in our last English Translation See Act. 3.13 and Act. 5.41 and 2. Cor. 10.1 and 1. Thess 2.17 and 2. Thess 1.9 and Heb. 9.24 Unto the Churches of Judea i. e. unto the Churches in the Regions of Judea both at Jerusalem and other Countrey-Townes and Judea must not heere bee taken strictly as sometimes it is when it stands opposed unto Galilee and Samaria but largely as it contayns the whole land of Israel including Galily and Samaria and as Judea is opposed to Syria and Cilicia For the persecution at Jerusalem arising upon the dispute of Stephen with the Synagogue of the strangers there grew so fearful and bloudy for divers were put to death that the faithful were scattred all abroad not only throughout the Regions of Judea strictly taken but of Samaria also Act. 8.1 And the good providence of God by the scattering of the faithfull scattered also the Gospel for they who from Jerusalem were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Gospel Act. 8.4 Hence Philip to whom Peter and John soone after adjoyned themselves planted the Gospel in Samaria and preached it in many Villages of the Samaritans Act. 8.25 And after the baptisme of the Eunuch he preached in all the Cities of Samaria till he came to Cesarea which frontiers upon Syria Act. 8.40 As for Galily the Gospel had her beginning there and thither it redounded about this time with peace and rest from persecution which was now fully ceased throughout all the Churches of Judea Galily and Samaria Act. 9.31 Yet Paul departing from Jerusalem makes not his addresse to any of the Churches in the Regions of Judea Galilee or Samaria where hee might have rested with safety and security for it was now a time of tranquility from the tempest of the former persecution but he proceeds into the Regions of Syria and Cilicia because unto the Churches of Judea Galilee and Samaria he was altogether a stranger unknowne by his bodily and personall presence neither the teachers nor members of those Churches had ever seen his face to his knowledge And the reason heereof might be because in a maner Paul was a stranger in the Countreyes of Judea Samaria and Galilee for he was then but a yong man who was borne at Tarsus and brought up at Jerusalem where he had alwayes lived till about three yeers before during which time he had preached in Arabia and at Damascus in Syria Which were in Christ A note of distinction whereby to discerne the Churches of Christ from the Synagogues of Moses for heerby hee would specifie what Churches of Judea hee understood namely not the Jewish Synagogues but the Christian Congregations because in all the Regions of Judea Galilee and Samaria the Churches of Christ were intermingled with the Synagogues of the Jewes for heereby it came to passe that the Christians were subject to so many persecutions from the Jews who for their abode were their Countrey-men as Paul intimates to the Thessalonians where he expresseth the Churches of Judea with the like note of distinction of being in Christ 1. Thes 2.14 To be in Christ beares two senses 1. Generally and so to bee in Christ is to be a Christian and hee is a Christian who hath taken the new Covenant whereof Christ was and is the Mediator and he hath taken that Covenant who beleeves the truth of it and accepts the grace of it for in this sense to be in Christ is taken heere and so the word is opposed to a Jew and a Heathen 2. Specially and so to be in Christ is to be a reall sincere and true Christian in opposition to the hypocrite the carnall and false Christian and he is a reall Christian who puts on Christ and lives according to the life of Christ who not only beleeves the verities of the new Covenant and accepts the promises of it but also obeyes the precepts of it by being a new creature according to the new Covenant for thus to doe and be is to be in the spirit and to have the spirit of Christ which if any man have not he is not in Christ See and compare Rom. 8.9 and 2. Cor. 5.17 and Gal. 5.24 and 1. John 4.13 The reason of the words in this verse for the History was shewed before in the context but the reason for their argument is thus q. d. I was so far from learning any point of doctrine eyther from the Apostles at Jerusalem or from any other Teachers amongst the Christian Churches of Judea that they never saw my face but my person was wholly unknowne unto them for to my remembrance I never was in presence with any of them VERSE 23. Text. But they had heard only That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed Sense But they viz. The Churches of Judea Heard only Supply Some men say That he c. The faith i. e. The doctrine of Faith or the Gospel Which once Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. In times past He destroyed Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. He wasted Reason An Illustration of his former saying or a Limitation of the generality therein by specifying in what sense and how farre hee might be or sayd to be known unto the Churches of Judea Comment The believing Jewes heard of Paul That from a Persecutor hee was become a Preacher BUT they had heard onely The Greeke placeth the enclusive particle onely in the first place reading it thus But onely they had heard viz. men say for the words must bee supplyed with some impersonall or indefinite tearme to perfect up the sense thus But onely they had heard say or men say That hee who persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith for so it is supplyed in the French Translation They had heard The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. they were hearing which is both an Hebraisme and a Grecisme used heere by way of elegancy to encounter his former words of himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I was unknowne to them but they were hearing of mee Some knowledge therefore the Churches of Judea had of Paul yet none by sight or view of his person for they had not seene his face but their knowledge of him was onely by report and hear-say for they had heard of his actions two wayes whereof the one was extreamely contrary to the other for first they had heard that hee had persecuted and wasted the faith and secondly they had heard the quite contrary that now hee preached that faith which formerly hee had persecuted and wasted Yet these two contrary reports of him were both true for hee had done both not at one and the same time but successively one after the other in times different Of his former action they had heard long
before even then when his persecution was in action for the deede thereof being done at Jerusalem the same thereof came presently to the Churches of Judea and afterwards spread beyond Syria and Cilicia even to the Churches of Galatia who had also heard of it as hee mentions it unto them before in this Chapter vers 13. But of his latter action in preaching the faith the Churches of Judea for the space of three yeares after hee began to preach it heard not a word or if they heard any thing thereof they beleft it not for when Paul after three yeares of preaching the Gospel in Arabia and Damascus came from Damascus into Jerusalem neither the Churches of Judea nor those of Jerusalem had heard of it for the faithfull at Jerusalem were all afraid of him and beleeved not that hee was a Christian as was shewed before from Acts 9.26 But upon that returne of Paul to Jerusalem the Church of Jerusalem first heard of his Preaching the Faith and she heard of it by Barnabas who brought Paul to the Apostles and declared unto them both his calling and his Preaching how wonderfully Christ had called him and how powerfully he had Preached Christ at Damascus Act. 9.27 And from the Church of Jerusalem the Churches of Judea circumjacent might easily heare the report of it That he which persecuted us in times past These words are related here by Paul but are the words spoken by the Churches of Judea containing the report they had heard of Paul Paul before in this Chap. vers 13. saith to the Galatians that he had persecuted the Church of God and here he saith that the Churches of Judea had heard of him he which persecuted us yet between his saying and theirs there is no difference concerning the object of his persecution or the persons by him persecuted who in his saying and theirs are still the same because the Churches of Judea were the Churches of God for they were particular Churches of that universall Church which Paul in particular places persecuted in times past And very probable it is that some single persons either teachers or Members in those Churches of Judea were by Paul actually persecuted and forced from Jerusalem upon the Martyrdome of Stephen because the times past were not long past for it was but a matter of three yeares before And those Saints which then were not at Jerusalem were notwithstanding persecuted in that persecution for as when one member of the body suffereth all the members suffer with it so when any one part of the Church is persecuted all the faithfull who are the members thereof and Christ himselfe who is the head thereof is also persecuted for Christ complained that in that very persecution himselfe was persecuted see Act. 9.5 Now the Apostle inculcates the memory of his former persecution into the mindes of the Galatians thereby to maintaine their perswasion of him that so great a Zelot for the Law of Moses as therefore to persecute the Church of Christ had not cast off his patronage of the Law or layd aside his malice against the Gospel without just and weighty causes Now preacheth the Faith which once he destroyed The Faith i. e. the Doctrine of faith or the Gospel of Christ for so it is recorded of Paul that at Damascus he had preached Christ and in the name of the Lord Jesus Acts 9.20.27 For in Scripture Faith is often taken for the Motive whereby we believe and for the matter which we believe whether that matter be a single verity or the whole body of the Gospel See Gal. 3.2.5.23 and Ephes 4.5 Which once The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in times past for so it was translated in the words immediatly going before in reference to the persecution and seeing here is the same word in the same sense why should it not here have the same expression for where the elegancies in the Language of the holy Ghost may be fully expressed in our native language there is no reason we should decline them Hee destroyed The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wasted for so it was rendred before in this translation verse 13. and he wasted the Faith or the Doctrine of it by using all meanes either by himself or by his Friends to withdraw men from the profession of it and by labouring to being a great destruction upon them for therein consisteth the nature of wasting as was shewed before verse 13. And the words of this verse are serviceable to continue his argument q. d. The Christian Churches in Judea knew me not by face but only by heare-say yet they heard nothing how I learned the Gospel but only that I taught and preached it VERSE 24. Text. And they glorified God in mee Sense They. i. e. The Churches of Judea In mee i. e. In my behalfe for me or by reason of me Reason A Christian consequent of Devotion in the Churches of Judea to praise God for his mercy to his Church Comment AND they glorified God The Churches of Judea hearing that Paul preached the Faith did thereupon glorifie and praise God for it was an ancient custome among the people of God to give praise and thankes to God for any extraordinary worke of God See Mat. 9.8 and Mat. 15.31 and Luk. 7.16 and Acts 4.21 particularly upon the same of a sinners repentance or of any mans conversion to the faith especially if he had been a persecutor of it because such a conversion hath in it more then ordinary and is an immediate worke of God And such was Pauls conversion wherein the good grace of God was extreamly powerfull by drawing him from one extreame to another that is from being a Persecutor of the Faith not only to the state of a Beleever but beyond that state to become a Preacher of it In mee The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in my behalfe by reason or because of me for the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is here put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. because in which sense this phrase is an Hebraisme noting any kinde of causality especially that which is rationall and so it is used elsewhere See and compare John 13.31 32. and John 17.10 and 2. Cor. 12.9 and Ephes 3.13 The ground or reason why the Churches of Judea glorified God was because of Gods grace to Paul in converting him to the Faith and because of Gods grace to his Church by Pauls Preaching of the Faith The Contents of this First Chapter 1. Preface Wherein are contayned 1. Authour Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father verse 1. 2. Approvers All the brethren which are with me verse 2. 3. Direction Vnto the Churches of Galatia verse 2. 4. Salutation Grace bee to you and peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who gave himselfe for our sins that c. vers 3.4 5. Devotion To God bee
promised Hence it appeares that Faith is a passion for although it bee an act of the will yet it is not an act active which consisteth in working or doing any thing but an act passive or act of sufferance in receiving and imbracing that state or condition wherein the love and kindenesse of God would put thee or which is all one in not refusing or rejecting the good will and pleasure of God towards thee And therefore in Scripture Faith is expressed by these two passive words of Receiving and Imbracing as Receiving the word Luk. 8.13 They on the Rock are they which when they heare receive the word with joy i. e. Believe or accept the word of Gods promise as it plainely appeares by the words immediately following wherein the Verbe receive is changed into believe which for a while believe and Receiving Christ John 1.12 But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sonnes of God even to them that believe on his name where wee see in like maner that the former Verbe received is interpreted by the latter to signifie believing and Embracing the promises Heb. 11.13 And were perswaded of the promises and embraced them i. e. believed them for that act which naturally followeth perswasion is Beliefe And by these two passive words of Receiving and Embracing Faith is opposed to the two contrary words of Refusing and Rejecting which will not bee passive and therefore signifie Unbeliefe as Refusing Christ Heb. 12.25 See that yee refuse not him that speaketh i. e. See that yee believe him for not refusing is receiving and receiving is believing and Rejecting Christ John 12.48 Hee that rejecteth mee and receiveth not my words i. e. Hee that believeth not in mee for of the former words the latter are an Exposition And Rejecting Gods Counsell Luk. 7.30 But the Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsell of God i. e. They would not believe or receive Gods promise which is his divine and heavenly counsell Thou seest heereby that in making faith all the action lies on Gods part in declaring his promise and perswading thy acceptance Bee thou onely Gods Patient to suffer his action and operation upon thee and the act of faith is done For the passion or sufferance on thy part is neither painefull nor shamefull but most easie gentle and noble for it consisteth onely in accepting receiving or embracing his kindenesse towards thee or at least in not refusing or rejecting it So that all thy act of faith seemes but this what Gods good will would have to be firm do but thou affirme or unto his promise say but Amen i. e. So bee it for Amen is the Hebrew word for Faith or unto the word of his promise set but thy Fiat fiat quod dicitur i. e. Let his word bee done for from this Fiat is framed the Latine word Fides and it may bee also the English word Faith by transposing the Vowells and asperating the last Consonant which the Licence of Etymology will well allow and doth commonly practice Yet among Latine Authours the Latine word Fides is commonly taken actively for fidelity or faithfulnesse in performing faith given But although this promissory faith bee a passion or sufferance for the essence of it yet for the efficacy it is or ought to bee so strongly effectuall that in and upon the faithfull it produceth mighty effects events and issues as doth appeare in a long list of Beleevers Hebr. 11. and will appeare in this Chapter ver 18. For a true and lively faith is somewhat like the affections of the minde or like the diseases of the body both which are passions and yet have powerfull and violent operations Yet unto both these faith is unlike heerein that her effects flow not from her necessarily and naturally ex natura rei according to the course of nature but jurally and arbitrarily ex instituto Dei according to the ordinance and appointment of God And although de facto some of her effects doe not actually follow yet de jure ex debito according to the course of right and duty they alwaies ought to follow for where they follow not that faith to that effect is ineffectuall frustrate voyd and dead There is betweene faith and sin this contrariety that as Faith is the acceptance of Gods promise so Sin is a repugnance to his precept and therefore the effects of faith have a contrary resemblance to the effects of sin Sin hath in it lesse entity then to be a passion because every sin is a privation and most sins are meere omissions yet such are the effects of sin that from thence follow all the stirres and troubles on earth as the privates miseries of distresses imprisonments banishments and fearfull executions and the publicke calamities of warre famine and pestilence for too manifest it is that sin hath strength enough to produce all these effects yet sin hath not this strength from her selfe but from the Law 1. Cor. 15.56 The strength of sin is the Law So of faith though it be a passion such are the effects that from thence follow all the favours and blessings of heaven as the Justification of thy person the Regeneration of thy minde the Remission of thy sins the Resurrection of thy body and thy Life everlasting For manifest it is from Scripture that faith hath strength enough to produce all these effects yet faith hath not this strength from her selfe as she is an act of man but from the grace of God who to the praise of the glory of his grace is gratious and favourable unto faith by honouring it in that high degree as to attribute assigne or impute unto it these strong and mighty effects Whereof preparatively to our present purpose I shall mention those which flowing immediately from the essence of it doe yet further illustrate the notion of it and they are chiefly fowre 1. The first effect of this promissory faith is To enter Gods covenant of grace For Gods promise before the accesse of thy faith to accept it is in respect of thee but a sponsion or single act of his will on his part to devise unto thee a present right to the future possession of his blessings But by the accesse of faith on thy part to accept it his promise is advanced and formed into a Covenant with thee in particular whereinto thou entrest by the act of thy faith Because thy faith is an act of thy will to accept and take that present right which his will is to grant and give thee and consequently by meanes of thy faith thy will is agreeable to his will touching one and the same thing to be had and agreement of wills betweene severall parties for the having of one and the same thing makes up the intire nature of a Covenant and consequently makes up thy entrance thereinto And the covenant entred by meanes of this faith is the covenant of Grace which is so called because the ground thereof
c. That they which are called might receive the promise of eternall inheritance There is in the Divels an estimatory faith of Christ for they have acknowledged and confessed of Christ that he is the holy one of God and the son of God See Marc. 1.24 and Marc. 3.11 And in them there is a preceptory faith of Christ for they yeeld to his authority and when he commanded them out of the possessed they obeyed his command Marc. 1.26.27 And there is in them a juducatory faith in Christ for they beleeve he is their Judge who hath power to condemne and torment them and they submit unto his sentence only they petition him to stay the execution and not torment them before the time Compare Mat. 8.29 and Luk. 8.28 But in them there is no promissory faith eyther in God or in Christ not that they want will to accept Gods promises but that they want promises to accept for the promises of the Gospel are not ordayned or made to them because they are not to be justified to have a present right to any future blessing but are already condemned to have a present doome to a future curse Mat. 25.41 in everlasting fire prepared for them And Jude 6. they now lie in everlasting chaines untill the day of their execution But the right subject of a promissory faith in Christ is man because the promises of the Gospel i. e. the Legacies of Gods last Will and Testament are predestinated devised or bequeathed unto man and therefore man is the person who is to be justified to have a present right unto those future blessings and this right man hath and acquires by the title of his faith in Jesus Christ And his faith is restrayned unto Jesus Christ not to exclude his faith in God for all faith in Jesus Christ is also faith in God but partly to distinguish it from all other faith in God as from the faith of the Patriarcks which was immediate and from the faith of the Jews which was mediate by the means of Moses and partly to determinate it upon Christ as the only Meanes or Mediator of it unto whom under the Gospel faith is restrayned for fowre reasons 1. Because Christ is the Conveyer of it through whom wee believe in God For that our faith may meete with God aright it must passe unto him in the same way whereby his promises are conveyed unto us And Gods promises come unto man two ways one is immediately when God himselfe doth by himselfe declare his promises so God immediately by himselfe declared his promise unto Noah for the saving of him and all his Family in the Arke from the flood Gen. 6.18 and such an immediate promise God gave by himselfe unto Abraham for a Sonne and Heire of his owne body Gen. 15.4 The other way is mediatly when God declares the will of his promise by the meanes of a Mediatour or Messenger whom God employeth on purpose to deliver it Such was Gods promise to the Israelites for their deliverance out of Egypt wherein Moses was imployed as the Mediatour or Messenger to deliver it Exod. 3.16 Such was Gods promise to David by the message of Nathan for the establishing of the Kingdome of Israel upon the seede of David 2. Sam. 7.4 Such was his promise to the Jewes by the message of the Prophet Jeremy for their returne from Captivity Jer. 29.10 Such was Gods promise to Zacharias by the message of the Angel Gabriel that his Wife Elizabeth should beare him a sonne Luk. 1.13 And such are all Gods promises specified in the Gospel unto man by the message of Jesus Christ whose Ministery is more excellent then any of the former because Heb. 8.6 Hee is the Mediatour of a better Covenant established upon better promises Now our faith in God must go Gods way for when his promise is immediate by himselfe our faith in him must bee immediate as was the faith of Noah and Abraham But when Gods promise is mediate by the meanes of a Mediatour or Messenger our faith in God must bee mediate to believe in God by or through his Mediatour or Messenger for by or through the Messenger our faith is conveyed and arriveth at God as by or through the Messenger Gods promise is conveyed and arriveth at us For faith in Gods Messenger is faith in God who sent him as our Saviour plainely delivers it John 13.20 Hee that receiveeth whomsoever I send receiveth mee and hee that receiveth mee receiveth him that sent mee i. e. believeth in him that sent mee And contrarily diffiding or despising of Gods Messenger is diffiding or despising of God himselfe as Christ in another Evangelist tells his Disciples Luk. 10.16 Hee that despiseth you despiseth mee and hee that despiseth mee despiseth him that sent mee i. e. diffideth or not believeth him that sent mee For want of this mediate faith to believe in God by the meanes of his Messenger God threatens a fearefull judgement upon the Jewes Jer. 29.18 To persecute them with the sword with the famine and with the pestilence and to deliver them to bee removed to all the Kingdomes of the Earth to bee a curse and an astonishment and a hissing and a reproach among all Nations because they have not hearkened to my words saith the Lord which I sent unto them by my servants the Prophets rising up early and sending them but yee would not heare i. e. yee would not believe And for want of the like faith Zacharias was for a time strucken dumbe Luk. 1.20 because hee believed not the words of the Angel Gabriel who was a Messenger from God unto him Such a mediate faith in God had the Israelites who believed in Moses by and through whom their faith was conveyed and arrived at God For Moses was the Messenger from God and the Mediatour of Gods Testament and Covenant with them It was Gods will that the people should believe him for therefore he was to worke Miracle after Miracle before them Ex. 4.8 and it was Gods worke that they did believe in Moses for therefore the Lord sayd unto him Exod. 19.9 Loe I come to thee in a thick cloud that the people may heare when I speake with thee and believe thee for ever where the Originall hath it believe in thee though the nicety of Translators spare to expresse it For Christ testifieth of the Jewes John 5.45 That they trusted in Moses Yet this faith of theirs in Moses was not terminated in Moses but in God for God was the end in whom this faith rested and Moses was the Meane through whom it passed And all faith under the Gospel is a mediate faith for although it bee terminated in God to settle and rest in him as in the finall object or last end of it Yet it mediateth in Christ as the Meanes by and through whom it is carryed and conveyed unto God For 2. Cor. 3.4 The trust wee have to God-ward is through Christ and Ephes 2.18 Through
him both Jewes and Gentiles have an accesse by one spirit unto the Father and 1. Pet. 1.21 By Christ wee doe believe in God that our faith and hope in Christ might bee faith and hope in God Hence Christ saith that our faith in him is not faith in him John 12.44 Hee that believeth on mee believeth not on me but on him that sent mee i. e. Hee believeth not on mee ultimately and finally but his faith is carryed through and beyond mee to determine and end finally in him that sent me 2. It is called the faith of Christ because Christ is the Authour or Beginner of it who worketh it in us who by his publishing and preaching of Gods promises doth invite call and draw us to that acceptance of them which is our faith For some may peradventure say how shall a man know whether the promises of the Gospel come from God and whether the beetle Will and Testament of God seeing many things are imposed on the World for the will of God which either are not his will or are not sufficiently declared and proved to bee his will Unto this query the answer is That Christ hath abundantly made full faith unto the World both of his person that hee was the Sonne of God and of his Message that it was the Will and Testament of God and consequently on his part doth sufficiently worke in us that faith whereby wee accept the Legacies or Promises therein contained and devised unto us And Christ was the Founder or Beginner of this faith who first made it unto the World For that faith which is wrought in us by reading those Evangelists and Apostles who have written the Gospel or by hearing those Ministers who preach the Gospel is but a derivation and propagation of that faith which was originally and primitively taught by Christ From whom the Apostles and all the Ministers of the Gospel since succeeding have their Commission and Authority to teach it and unto whom they are Witnesses to attest that truth which was first testified by Christ as the first person that made faith of it And Christ hath made faith of Gods last Will and Testament by two Acts. 1. By Declaring Gods Will. The last Will and Testament of God was decreed or determined long since even from the foundation of the World But during many Ages and Generations it was but a Mystery namely a Will sealed up concealed and kept secret For hence it is called Gods secret Will the purpose and counsell of his Will and hence the Apostle calls it Col. 1.26 The Mystery which hath beene hidden from Ages and from Generations Knowne it was in generall that there was such a Will for the Being of it was witnessed by the Law and by the Prophets Yet the contents of it in particular were not knowne But in the last Age of the World God nuncupated his Will unto Christ by expressing unto him particularly the decree purpose or counsell thereof which in former Ages had beene so long concealed And Christ by speciall Commission from his Father sent into the World revealed published declared and made knowne that Will to worke in us our faith of it For first hee made it knowne unto his Apostles John 15.15 All things that I have heard of my Father have I made knowne unto you And againe John 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest mee and they have received them and have knowne surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send mee And afterward hee commanded his Apostles to make the same Will knowne to all Nations for the obedience of faith Rom. 16.25 Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest and by the Scriptures and by the Prophets according to the commandement of the everlasting God made knowne to all Nations for the obedience of faith And againe Ephes 1.9 Having made knowne unto us the Mystery of his Will according to his good pleasure which hee hath purposed in himselfe 2. The second Act whereby Christ makes faith of Gods Will is by Proving it for as hee was the Publisher of that Will to declare the matter of it So hee was the Probator to certifie the verity of it that it was the true whole and last Will of God All which hee hath proved so fully that never any Will in the World whether Will of man or the first Will of God had such a probation for thereof Christ hath made faith five wayes 1. By his Witnesses For hee had the Testimony of John Baptist who John 1.6.7 was sent from God and came for a witnesse to beare witnesse of the Light that all men through him might believe And John witnessed of him John 1.29 that hee was the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinne of the World And heereof John was not an eare-witnesse who heard it from others but an eye-witnesse who John 1.31 saw the spirit descending from Heaven like a Dove and it abode upon him And Christ had the Testimony of God the Father who by a voice from Heaven witnessed of him at his Baptisme saying Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased And his Father witnessed of him againe at his transfiguration on the Mount saying Mat. 17.5 This is my beloved sonne in whom I am well pleased heare yee him Hence saith Christ John 5.36 I have greater witnesse then that of John for the Father himselfe who hath sent mee hath borne witnesse of mee Now if wee receive the witnesse of men for the proofe of mens Wils and Testaments as commonly wee doe much greater is the witnesse of God for the proofe of Gods Will. And if at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall bee established Much more shall a Will bee established when one of the Witnesses is God himselfe Hence saith the Apostle 1. John 5.10 Hee that believeth not God heerein hath made him a Lyar because hee believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son 2. By his Miracles The signes and wonders which Christ wrought were not bare signes but full proofes to make faith that his message was from God For he rebuked the windes and the Sea from a great tempest into a great calme hee cast out Divels from the possessed and they obeyed his command hee cured the sicke of diseases incurable and hee raysed the dead who had lyen in the grave Now if two or three miracles of Moses made faith of his message as they did for Exod. 4.30 When he did them in the sight of the people the people beleeved much more the many marvellous and mighty workes of Christ are of power to produce faith in Christ Because they were so incomparable that by the confession of multitudes Mat. 9.33 the like had never
compulsory on the Jewes and Pilates part but also voluntary on his own part by yeelding himselfe unto death From which if he would have shunned it he could easily have rescued himselfe not only by his owne single power but Matt. 26.53 by the ayd of more then twelve Legions of Angels which at his request his Father would have presently given him but hee willingly yeelded and gave himselfe up to death So the word unto death must be understood Ephes 5.2 Walke in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himselfe for us viz. unto death as the words immediatly following declare it And Ephes 5.25 Husbands love your wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himselfe for it viz. unto death And 1. Tim. 2.6 Christ gave himselfe a ransome for all i. e. Gave himselfe unto death And Tit. 2.14 Christ gave himselfe for us that he might redeeme us from all iniquity i. e. Gave himselfe unto death For our sinnes Heere againe another word must be supplied which in many places of Scripture is silenced but yet supposed and understood because in other places it is mentioned And that word is Remission or forgivenesse that Christ gave himselfe unto death for the remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes So the word Remission must be understood Rom. 4.25 who was delivered for our offences i. e. Was delivered unto death for the remission or forgivenesse of our offences for this sense is declared by the words immediatly following and rose againe for our justification And 1. Cor. 15.3 I delivered unto you how that Christ died for our sinnes i. e. For the remission of our sinnes And Heb. 10.12 But this man after he had offered one sacrifice for sinnes for ever i. e. For the Remission of sinnes for ever For when in other places of Scripture our sinnes are referred to the death of Christ or unto his bloud being put for his death the word Remission is mentioned expresly As Matt. 26.28 This is my bloud of the new Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sinnes And Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to bee a propitiation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sinnes that are past And Ephes 1.7 In whom wee have redemption through his bloud the forgivenesse of sinnes according to the riches of his grace All which sayings and the like are explications or comments upon these words of Paul heer who gave himselfe for our sinnes Sometime the word Remission is not mentioned expresly but implicitly by substituting in stead thereof some other word therto equivalent as the word Taking away for the Remission or forgivenesse of sinnes is nothing else but A taking away of that punishment which by the Law is due unto sin Hence John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world Heere Christ is compared to a Lamb in respect of his death for sin which by his death is taken away i. e. is remitted or forgiven And 1. John 3.5 Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sinnes i. e. To remit or forgive our sinnes And the word Bearing which when it is applied unto Christ in respect of sin signifieth bearing away i.e. taking away from us the punishment of sin which is all one with Remission or forgivenesse As Esay 53.11 By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many and shall beare their iniquities And againe in the next verse following Hee was numbred with the transgressors and bare the sin of many i. e. He shall and did beare away or take away from many the punishment of their iniquities and sinnes which in one word is the Remission or forgivenesse of their sins And 1. Pet. 2.24 Who his owne self bare our sinnes in his own body on the tree i. e. Tooke away from us the punishment of our sins Yet Christ did not take the punishment of our sinnes upon himselfe to beare and suffer in himselfe the punishment due to us for our sinnes for he was not punished in our stead for our sinnes but he only tooke away or bare away from us the punishment of them without inflicting it upon himselfe The certainty of this truth for this sense of these two words taking and bearing is taught us by Matthew for when the Prophet had sayd Esay 53.4 Surely he hath borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes Matthew cites this upon the miracles of Christ in healing all that were sick saying Matt. 8.17 Himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sickenesses Now in healing the sicke Christ did not so take their infirmities and beare their sicknesses as to be infirme or sicke himselfe but he only tooke away or bare away from the sick their infirmities and sicknesses For when a Physitian cureth a disease he doth not take it unto himself to be sick of it himself but he only takes it away from the Patient So Christ in dying for our sins took not unto himself the punishment of thē to beare or suffer the punishment himself but he only took away and bare away from us the punishment of our sins And when by the meanes of the Physitian the disease is taken from the Patient it is not necessary it should be layd on the Physitian or on any body else for it sufficeth if the disease be abolished So when by the means of Christ the punishment of sin is taken away from sinners it is not necessary it should bee layd upon Christ or on any else because it is finally abolished For the punishment of sin is eternall death which is already abolished in grant or promise and shall be abolished in esse at the Resurrection for death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed Our sinnes then are not the efficient cause of Christs death for Christ died not to be punished for them but his death is an efficient cause of the Remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes for by the meanes of his death the punishment of our sinnes is taken away or borne away And consequently the Remission of our sinnes is a finall cause end or effect of Christs death yet not immediat or proximous but a remote effect For as shall bee more largely declared cap. 2. ver 21. the immediat or proximous finall causes ends or effects of Christs death were to testifie to confirm and to execute the last Will and Testament of God whereof one article is the Remission of our sinnes which by way of Legacy is therein devised or promised unto us Christ then gave himselfe to death for our sinnes partly because by his death he testified and confirmed the new Testament wherein the right of Remission of sinnes is given us for that Testament being confirmed becomes of force and we by meanes of our faith have a present right to the future forgivenesse of our sinnes And partly because through his death he was made perfect with power to execute that Testament that he might actually
remit or forgive our sinnes by doing all such acts whereby we might finally enjoy the benefit thereof when hee shall rayse us from death to give us the possession of eternall life That he might deliver us Heer is another end or effect of Christs death subordinat to the former and therefore somewhat more remote from it namely our deliverance from the servitude of sin which though causally on his part it be a deliverance yet effectually on our part it is our Repentance The Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie to exempt take out or pluck out in delivering from some sodain danger and delivering in a speciall maner namely powerfully and hastily plucking or snatching away the party by force and speed As Peter was delivered by the Angel out of prison from the hand of Herod the night before he should have been slaine wherof Peter making relation useth the same word Act. 12.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth he the Lord hath sent his Angel and delivered me out of the hand of Herod Or as Paul was delivered by Lysias the Colonel who with an army or band of men rescued him from the Jewes when they were about to kill him as Lysias relates Acts 23.27 where he useth the same word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayth he which in our last English Translation is there rendred rescued To the same sense the Scripture useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to exempt redeeme or rescue From this present evill world The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. out of the sinfulnesse that he might deliver or pluck us out of that sinfulnesse which reigneth in the men of this present world For evill is heer put for sinfulnesse and the world for the men of the world or worldly men whose maners conditions and actions are evill sinfull or wicked If our deliverance be good as comming from Christ it must needs be then the terme or state from whence we are delivered must needs be evill Yet the evill heer meant is not the evill of punishment because thence we are delivered by the Remission of sinnes whereby the punishment is taken away as was intimated in the former clause of this verse Nor the evill of Affliction from which we are many times delivered and from which we pray for deliverance as 2. Thess 3.2 That we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men i. e. From the afflictions and violences which we suffer under them But Affliction cannot be heer meant because that is not an end or effect of Christs death for he died not to deliver us from affliction but rather to animate us against it and to encourage us to suffer it But the Evill heer intended is the evill of sin or rather that degree of sin which is wickednesse as it is opposed to sins of Errour and Frailty such wickednesse as Idolatry Murder Adultery c. For so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth properly signifie and the substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in King JAMES his Translation is constantly Englished Wickednesse Wherefore To be delivered from this present evill world is not meant locally as if we should be taken away from being in the world or be so separated from worldly men as not to feare any affliction from their violences or any corruption from their examples for then we must altogether go locally out of this world But the words are to be understood Morally for a separation from their wicked courses by abstayning from all wickednesse and in undergoing a course of life contrary to the common course of this present evill world framing our selves to the workes of love and to the wayes of holinesse according to the precepts and rules of Christ This distinction betweene a locall and a morall separation is taught us by Christ when he prayed to his Father for his Disciples Joh. 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keepe them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the evill i. e. From doing that evill which is wickednesse And so I understand Christ when he taught us to pray Matt. 6.13 And lead us not into temptation but deliver us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from evill i. e. Not only from suffering of that evil which proceeds from the wickednesse of others but chiefly from our doing of any evill which is wickednesse For we pray that God would not lead us into temptation now when we are tempted whether by meanes of affliction or otherwise the purpose whereat the temptation aymeth is not our suffering of evill but our doing of it See heere the nature of true Repentance Repentance is a separation from wickednesse For it is a deliverance or separation or turning from evill not from that of affliction which is the suffering of evill but from that of sin which is the doing of evill Yet not from all sin in every degree of it as errours and frailties for unto such a Repentance as to bee wholly sinlesse no sinner ever yet did or ever can attaine in this life But it is a separation from that degree of sin which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. malignity malice or wickednesse which consisteth either in a wilfull custome of sin or in the act of some one sin whereof the pravity amounts to a custome Repentance then is a liberty or freedome from wickednesse for when Christ by forgiving our wickednesse delivereth us from it then he causeth our repentance and when we by forsaking wickednesse are delivered from it then are wee come to Repentance Unto this Repentance many have attayned and thereto every Beleever may and must attaine in this life or else his faith is not effectuall unto salvation And this Repentance is really one and the same thing with holinesse though betweene them there may bee some rationall differences as the words in divers mens understandings may bee diversly dilated or restrayned For holinesse may bee in a person who never sinned as is that of God of Christ and of Angels but when the subject of holinesse is a person that was a sinner and the terme from whence it began was sin then such holinesse is repentance and in this life the holinesse of Beleevers is no other although therof there are diverse degrees wherein some far exceed others The Motive unto repentance or holinesse of life or the cause that should invite and draw us unto the workes worthy thereof or which is all one the Means whereby Christ delivereth us from the evill or sinfulnesse of this present world is the remission or forgivenes of our sinnes For to what end or effect did Christ die for us It was to this end to testifie and confirme the New Testament that it might be in force unto us and that we might have a present right to the Legacies therein devised or promised whereon one is the Remission or forgivenesse of our sinnes And to what end or effect are our sinnes forgiven
Doctrine of the Apostles for shee her selfe distinguisheth them from the Precepts of the Apostles For if Pauls Doctrine which contained not those Traditions of the Church were sufficient to salvation with wâ—â—â— authority can those Traditions bee urged as necessary and by what meanes shall they who urge them escape the curse heere menaced But if they alleage that their Traditions are not contrary to the Doctrine of the Apostles but onely additionall even the concession of this is enough for their conviction for in adding to the Doctrine of the Apostles and urging their additions as necessary to salvation they thereby teach besides the Doctrine of Paul as much as they did who unto the faith of Christ would adde the legall Ceremonies which is the maine point in this Epistle condemned because those legall Ceremonies though they were not contrary and against yet were different and besides those things which Paul affirmed as sufficient to salvation But the Galatians by necessitating of their additions must needes deny them sufficient and therefore the Churches of Rome joyne heerein with the Churches of Galatia that unto the Gospel of Christ they make additions though the additions bee not the same Let him bee accursed The censure and doome upon the former presumption that whosoever shall attempt it shall become a curse i. e. an abominable and execrable and devoted thing which no man may or dare touch In poynt of false Doctrine urged against or besides the Gospel of Christ no respect is to bee had to the Dignity or quality of the Person though hee bee an Apostle or an Angel from Heaven for if such Persons as these may by no meanes corrupt the Gospel what person else shall dare to doe it Whosoever therefore shall wittingly and purposely with arrogance and pertinacy attempt this corruption directly or indirectly against or besides the Gospel that person cannot escape the thunder of this curse but hee may escape it who out of ignorance or errour teacheth somewhat which hee thinkes consequent to the Doctrine of the Gospel though indeed it bee repugnant or different from it if afterward upon the sight of his errour hee forsake it and submit to the truth for such a one is not forthwith to bee accursed but must first bee refuted and instructed in the truth VERSE 9. Text. As wee sayd before so say I now againe If any man preach any other Gospell unto you then that you have received let him bee accursed Sense Then that yee have received Viz. from mee who first planted and afterward confirmed it amongst you Reason A Repetition of the former sentence to the same sense yet expressed in words somewhat more generall and full lest any man should thinke that the former clause was too severe and fell from him rashly or unawares VERSE 10. Text. For doe I now perswade men or God or doe I seeke to please men for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ Sense Doe I now viz. Since I was made an Apostle Perswade men i. e. Doe I teach humane doctrines or the opinions of men Or God Doe I not teach divine doctrine proceeding from God For if I yet viz. Since I became the servant of Christ Pleased men viz. Against or besides the pleasâ—â—e of Christ I should not be the servant i. e. I would not have been the servant Reason An entrance upon the third part of this Chapter wherein he vindicates the authority both of his Ministery and Doctrine and whereby he will conclude that such a person is worthy to be accursed who shall presume to oppose or corrupt his doctrine by teaching any thing against it or by adding somewhat besides it because his doctrine was altogether divine for he was taught it by God from heaven and by God from heaven he was commanded to publish it Comment The word Now. Men put for humane Doctrines and God for Divine Doctrine Paul was no Men-pleaser The particle yet How farre Men may must bee pleased and how far not Ministers are the servants of Christ FOR doe I now perswade men or God The particle now and the particle yet in the words following though sometime they be taken for the very instant and moment of the time present yet heere in this place they must bee ampliated or extended to a greater latitude to signifie such a time present as comprehendeth some compasse and includeth a certaine state and condition of things which state as long as it lasteth the same is so long accounted the time present See Matt. 3.10 and John 12.31 and Rom. 13.11 and 1. Cor. 13.12.13 and 2. Cor. 6.2 In this place therefore the particle now signifies that space of time from whence the Apostle being made a Minister of Christ did begin to preach the Gospel and yet continued to preach it for it is opposed to that former time when he was a Pharisee and a vehement maintayner of the Law He demands therefore whether now during his Ministery of the Gospel hee perswade men or God which he proposeth by way of Interrogatory signifying thereby that the matter was so evident to the Galatians that they must needs be forced to confesse the truth of it for this Interrogation must bee resolved and construed for two vehement assertions one a Negation thus I doe not now perswade men the other an affirmation repugnant to the former negation thus I doe now perswade God The word Men is here figuratively put for humane doctrines or for those opinions whereof men are the Inventors as wee often use the words Plato and Aristotle for the opinions or writings of Plato and Aristotle And in like manner the word God is put for divine Doctrines and for those verities whereof God is the Authour and Revealer so Christ is sometimes put for the Doctrine of Christ and the preaching of Christ is put for the preaching of his Doctrine See Act. 5.42 and Act. 8.5 and 2 Cor. 4.5 and Phil. 1.15 q. d. When I was a Pharisee zealous of the Law I perswaded and pressed humane Doctrines as the traditions of our Fathers and other opinions of men but now since I was ordained an Apostle and a Minister of Christ I dare urge no humane Doctrine but contrarily the Doctrine which now I urge is wholly Divine whereof God is the Authour and Revealer unto mee This Phrase to perswade men is taken in another sense 2 Cor. 5.11 for there he affirmes that he perswades men which heere he flatly denyes and the reason is because there men are taken for the personall object of his perswasion to whom the matter which he perswaded was piety but heere Men are put for the reall matter of his perswasion that the matter which now he perswaded unto men was not the Doctrine of men Or doe I seeke to please men A reason of his double assertion contained in his former interrogation by removing the cause impulsive which might seeme to move him to perswade humane Doctrines and
God to undertake that journey which they had already determined upon him because Gods will is sometime subsequent to follow not only mans will but his act by approving and confirming afterward what man before hath willed and acted for hence Christ sayd to his Disciples Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall bee bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven Mat. 18.18 Now Paul mentions this Motive of his journey that he went it by revelation thereby to signifie that hee went then to Jerusalem chiefly as a Messenger sent from God lest his adversaries to diminish the authority of his Ministery should suggest to the Galatians that Paul went that journey as a meere Messenger and servant to the Church of Antioch And communicated unto them that Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles And communicated The Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I declared related or reported for in all the New Testament the word is used but in one place besides and that is by Luke who sayth that Festus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. reported Pauls cause unto King Agrippa where our last English Translation renders it declared Act. 25.14 The pronoune them is here a relative without an antecedent as the manner of the Hebrewes is sometimes to use it yet it is referred antecedently not to any persons mentioned before expresly but tacitly as they are couched in the word Jerusalem and it is referred subsequently to persons that shall be mentioned in the next following clause of this verse namely to them which were of reputation in Jerusalem The matter which unto them he related was not that whole Gospel wherein at his conversion Christ was revealed unto him but the summe of that Gospel or of that Doctrine which as part of the whole Gospel he preached among the Gentiles particularly to the point of circumcision and the rest of the legall ceremonies namely he preached that men are justified only by faith in Christ without either circumcision or other observances of the Law which he no where pressed upon the Gentiles or mentioned as necessary to salvation But privately to them which were of reputation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. secretly apart or aside for so also the word is commonly rendred elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to the principall or chiefe persons for among the Greekes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are such who are personages of chiefe esteem or repute of whom other men hold a great opinion for their knowledge wisedome and integrity such among the Apostles were Peter James and John and whosoever else were principall persons in the Church of Jerusalem To the chiefe persons therefore of that Church Paul related the summe of his Doctrine for they were most concerned in the point because they were best able to examine it and to give their judgement in it And with these he first dealt privately at a secret meeting as in like cases commonly the maner is before he communicated the matter to the whole Church of Jerusalem to whom the matter was referred and to whom afterward Paul and Barnabas publickly delivered it in the Synod For when in a full audience of the Synod they two had rendred an account of that Doctrine which they had preached among the Gentiles and had declared the miracles and wonders which God by them had wrought among the Gentiles presently upon their silence James gave the sentence which was approved by the whole Synod and thereupon the Decrees were drawne up to be sent abroad among the Gentiles as Luke reports it Acts 15.12 13. Against which order of proceeding this makes nothing that here in this Epistle he mentions his conference with the chiefest persons secretly in the last place for he might therefore doe so because he would expresse the generall act of his message before that which therein was particular without respect to the order of time Yet if any man will urge the contrary I shall not much stand upon it Lest by any meanes I should run or had run in vaine The finall cause why he made this relation of his Doctrine to the Apostles Not that Paul made any doubt concerning the certainty of his Doctrine as if he would acknowledge the verity and certainty thereof from the approbation of those who were the chiefe in reputation for as we heard before the verity and certainty of his Doctrine was by God himselfe miraculously revealed unto him and every where confirmed by divers miracles But he therefore related it to avoyd the inconvenience of losing his labour q. d. Unlesse I had thus communicated my selfe at Jerusalem to the Apostles I might have lost all my labour in preaching of the Gospel for my adversaries would continually have clamoured against my Doctrine that the chiefest of the Apostles thought and taught otherwise by which meanes they would have subverted their Faith who had beleft it and consequently I should have run in vaine losing all the fruit of my labour in preaching VERSE 3. Text. But neither Titus who was with me being a Greeke was compelled to be circumcised Sense Neither i. e. Not indeed A Greeke i. e. A non-Jew or Gentile Compelled The Greeke is necessitated Reason The issue of the conference at Jerusalem that circumcision was not decreed necessary neither was Titus a Gentile necessitated to be circumcised Comment A Greeke who Why Titus was not circumcised and why afterward Timothy was BUT neither Titus who was with me being a Greeke We may now perceive from these words why Paul mentioned Titus before as the companion of his journey to Jerusalem and why he tooke him with him by Revelation namely that from his person he might draw an evident testimony against the necessity of circumcision upon the Gentiles The particle neither stands not here for a copulative but is put for the single negative firmely denying of not indeed A Greeke i. e. a non-Jew or a Gentile for by the Jew every non-Jew of what Nation soever is generally called sometime a Greeke sometime a Gentile or Heathen See Rom. 1.16 and Rom. 2.9 q. d. From the result of the Synod no not Titus a man of great repute in the Church of God and my frequent assistant in the Gospel who was then with me at Jerusalem and present in the Assembly although by nation and birth he was not a Jew but a Gentile was ordered to be circumcised no not although circumcision seemed of great moment in regard of his person that he might be a precedent and leading man to the rest of the Gentiles Compelled to bee circumcised Compelled the Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. necessitated to bee circumcised for the question was whether circumcision were necessary to salvation and to shew it not necessary Titus was not necessitated to bee circumcised An infallible argument that the judgement of the Apostles was that neither circumcision nor the rest of the legall Ceremonies were no way necessary neither
the reproof is by way of Interrogation which therefore redounds to the sharper reprehension for in demanding a reason of his action why he being a Jew compelled the Gentiles he seems to tell him that he had no reason at all for his action but rather his action was against all reason Yet the Interrogatory of his reproofe is but one and that one so concise that the language and the argument of it is contained and couched under a marvelous brevity q. d. seeing thou art a Christian Jew and by vertue of thy Christianity hast relinquished Judaisme and hast hitherto lived after the liberty of the Gentiles eating all sorts of meats after their maner for so thou didst eate till certaine Jewes came from James why art thou now become so contrary to thy selfe as to relapse back againe into Judaisme and in one fact to commit three offences for therein thou dissemblest with thine owne soule seeing thou hast declared thy judgement to the contrary and therein thou confirmest the Jewish Christians in their infirmity for by thy fact they will be hardened and therin thou compellest the Gentile-Christians to Judaize for thereto they are forced by the example of thy fact and for feare of thee Why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as doe the Jewes Why some read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. how but it matters not at all what the Interrogation should be for although the words be Interrogatory yet the sense is reprehensory thus certainely thou art too blame in compelling c. Compellest thou The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. necessitatest not by way of violence but by way of example whereby thou dost occasion and move them and by thy fact dost impose a kinde of necessity upon them to doe the like or at least that for fear of thee and of thy authority that dare not do otherwise For he is sayd to necessitate or compell who by force of reason or of example doth vehemently perswade or urge a thing to be done for in this sense the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used See afterward cap. 6. vers 12. and Luke 14.23 and Mat. 14.22 and Marc. 6.45 and Act 28.19 and 2 Cor 12.11 The Gentiles to Judaize i. e. The Christian-Gentiles to abstaine from certaine meats after the Jewish manner seeing neither that Ceremony nor any other part of the Law of Moses was ever by God imposed on the Gentiles for that Law to them was never given nor never binding q. d. Why dost thou now contrary to thy declared judgement and to thy former custome force the Gentiles to forsake their liberty and to apply themselves to the Ceremonies and observances of the Jewish Lawes whereto the Gentiles were never obliged this is not onely against all equity but against the liberty of the Gentiles and against the freedome of the Gospel The Law of Moses did not now binde the Jewes for by the accesse of the new Testament the old ceased and was expired much lesse should the Gentiles be compelled to it now being expired seeing formerly while it was in force it never obliged them But so great was the authority of Peter that any notable act of his was in a maner compulsory to prescribe and impose upon others especially when the rest of the Jewish Christians and even Barnabas himselfe followed the example of it Neither could all know that Peter herein dissembled for they might believe that he did it as moved in conscience and that now he corrected that errour whereinto before he somwhat swerved in love and courtesie to the Gentile-Christians Seeing then this fact of Peter might have occasioned great troubles seeing it might have disquieted the consciences of many and have much hindred the liberty of the Gospel therefore Paul had great reason to pluck off the vizard in publicke and to discover before all men the person which Peter had assumed For necessary it is that even great Persons when their example grows to a publick offence should undergoe a publick reproof yea the greater they are and the greater the danger that may arise from their example so much the greater should our care be that their authority which otherwise is to be maintained for the publicke good be not turned to the publicke ruine Hence for our better understanding of the former foure verses and of divers passages in the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles wee may and must observe that in the Church of Christ there then were and still are and ever will bee three sorts of Christians or three severall parties which agreeing all in the faith of Christ differed much among themselves 1. The sincere Christian who was intirely and wholly a Christian believing in Christ and walking in Christ or as from Pauls words in this verse they may bee described who believed uprightly and walked uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel edifying their faith and composing their life according to the Doctrines Precepts and Rules delivered by Christ and his Apostles These laboured for the sincerity and purity of the Gospel to preserve the truth therof clean and free from the admixture leaven of all Religions Opiniōs whatsoever that therunto were alien and forraine These were inoffensive peaceable and quiet giving no scandall to any party who differed from them in judgement or practice not busying their mindes with foolish questions and fruitlesse disputes to no profit but exercising themselves not in the workes of the Law but in the workes of their callings and in the good workes of the Gospel by doing all Offices and Services of Love Charity Equity Mercy Courtesie and Kindenesse towards all men but especially towards the houshold of faith and chiefely one toward another These were the children of the Kingdome the good seede which Christ sowed in the field of the world and they were the Wheate among which his Enemy sowed Tares Of this sort were the Friends Landlords and Companions of Paul to whom and from whom in his Epistles hee sendeth salutes also Aquila and Priscilla and the Church in their house also the houshold of Cloe of Crispus Gaius and Stephanas in the Church of Corinth also the house of Onesiphorus and all those in the Church of Ephesus whom Paul salutes in these words Ephes 6.24 Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and also those in the Church of Philippi to whom hee writes thus Phil. 1.9.10 And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgement that yee may approve things that are excellent that yee may bee sincere and without offence till the day of Christ 2. The second party of Christians were the Judaizers for by that name Paul seemes to denote them heere by using the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. to judaize or to live as doe the Jewes These in respect of their faith were Christians but by their life they were Jewish for they did believe
or clayme in the Lord that he is their God and thereof they shall not boast in themselves but shall glory in him And Esay 53.11 By his knowledge my righteous servant jizdik shall justifie many i. e. Christ who shall be upright in executing my will and obedient even to the condition of a servant shall by the knowledge or Doctrine by him taught make many to have a right interest and clayme in God as his sonnes and heires to everlasting life for Paul expressing the sense of this place doth instead of the words shall justifie many use these many shall bee made righteous Rom. 5.19 By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous i. e. Many shall bee jurally justified or made to have a right in God which before they had not for the word made heere doth not signifie Declaratively but Efficiently Because the Originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies constituted ordained or appoynted and in some places of our last English Translation is so rendred See Act. 6.3 and Tit. 1.5 and Heb. 5.1 And Rom. 3.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being justified freely by his grace i. e. procreantly jurified or made to have our right in God without any deserts any workes or any suit on our part but onely by grace on Gods part him thereto especially moving And Roman 4.2 if Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were justified by workes hee hath whereof to glory i. e. if Abraham were procreately or initially jurified or made to have his right of inheritance to the Kingdome of Canaan by the title of his workes he may well boast of them for certainely they must bee mighty workes that could entitle him to a Kingdome or make him to bee the Heire of the World as Paul phraseth it afterward ver 13. And to instance in the first clause of the present Text Knowing that a man is not justified by the workes of the Law i. e. Procreantly jurified or made to have a right to bee constituted or initiated by the workes of the Law 2. Conservantly and so hee is justified or rather jurified who is made to hold his right when that right which hee was made to have before is afterward and moreover preserved continued and maintained unto him for by this efficiency his right is made to subsist and remaine according to the former creation or constitution of it and consequently is kept from escheating reverting revoking forfeiting or otherwise losing for in vaine a man is made to have a right if hee bee not also made to hold it In this sense the word is taken James 2.21 Was not Abraham our Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justified by workes when hee had offered Isaac his sonne upon the Altar i. e. That right of Inheritance to the Land of Canaan which Abraham was first made to have by his faith or which was created constituted imputed or initiated unto him upon his faith was it not afterward held continued preserved and maintained by his workes in offering up his son And againe vers 24. Yee see how that by works a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is justified and not by faith onely i. e. that right unto salvation which a man is first made to have by his faith is held or continued by his workes for though his faith onely without workes doth first create constitute and commence that right in making him to have it yet faith onely without workes doth not preserve continue and maintaine that right in making him to hold it and though his workes have no efficiency procreant in making him to have that right yet they have an efficiency conservant in making him to hold it And againe vers 25. Was not Rabah the harlot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justified by workes when she had received the messengers and sent them out another way i. e. the right to be saved at the sacke of Jericho which was first created constituted and imputed unto Rahab by her faith in God was it not afterward preserved continued and held by her workes in receiving the messengers and dismissing them another way Yet this jurall efficiency of the Verb justified doth not necessarily exclude the declarative sense but is so compliant and consistent therewith that it doth advance and further it For if the right which is made us be declared it becomes thereby the more manifest before men and consequently the lesse questionable and therefore in all the places formerly quoted out of James the Verb justified may and doth carry a declarative sense yet not principally but secondarily and accessorily for that our right should be conserved and continued unto us is of absolute necessity to salvation because otherwise wee cannot be saved but that it should be declared and manifested otherwise then Gods Will and Testament declares it we find no such necessity in Scripture And certainly our workes doe declare our right yet not assertorily to pronounce it for workes cannot doe so but illatively and consequently to argue or inferre it by the meanes of our fayth for workes by declaring our fayth doe consequently declare that right which by our fayth wee are made to have For faith being an inward thought of the heart lies of it selfe covered and concealed untill by some outward meanes it be declared or manifested and the proper meanes for that act are not words for a man may easily say hee hath faith but workes for workes are the proper evidence which shew it Hence sayth the Apostle Jam. 2.18 Shew me thy faith without thy workes i. e. Declare or manifest unto mee thy faith which is without workes not by thy words in bidding the poore Depart in peace but by thy workes in giving them those things which are needfull to the body as it is in the former verse before but shew it by thy workes thou canst not because it is solitary alone and without workes as thou sayst it may bee and is Workes then justifie not only efficiently to conserve our right but declaratively also to manifest it by declaring that faith whereby we are made to have it See heere a solid and easie way to cleere that seeming contradiction which some have conceyved betweene Paul and James in the point of Justification for although both these Apostles have the same word justified and both use it in a jurall sense and both in a consignification of efficiency yet apparant it is that both understand not the same kind of efficiency For Paul understands that efficiency which is procreant in making us first to have a right by creating producing and constituting of it which kind of efficiency is proper wholly and only to fayth but no way to workes which are altogether excluded from it But James understands that efficiency which is conservant in making us afterward to hold our right by preserving continuing and maintayning it unto us which kind of efficiency is proper to works yet not wholly and only so as to exclude fayth for fayth is also conservant
of that right which it first created if fayth it selfe bee conserved but fayth cannot conserve it selfe without workes because by workes fayth lives and breaths but without workes is frustrate and dead as the body is without breath Workes therefore being efficient to conserve our faith must consequently needes bee efficient to conserve that right which by the efficiency of our fayth was created unto us for though fayth alone bee efficient to create our right yet faith alone is not sufficient to conserve or declare it without the co-efficiency of workes Wherefore workes are not only a signe of our right to declare it but also a cause to conserve it because they are a cause to conserve our faith which without them would be dead And this jurall sense of the Verb Justified may be further illustrated and confirmed from divers other words which carry a jurall construction and are referred to Justifying which words for better order may be distributed into fowre sorts 1. Words of Circumstance whereof some doe create or constitue a Right or Interest as Grace Gift Goodwill Will and Testament Covenant and Promise all which are jurall words signifying the principall motives and causes of our Justification some doe confirme or assure a Right as Seale and Earnest for the holy Spirit is sayd to be the Seal and Earnest of that Inheritance whereto wee are justified and some other words doe specifie a Right constituted and assured as Liberty Freedome Communion Fellowship Inheritance and Peculiar all which and many more are the results and effects of our Justification 2. Words of Contrariety which are opposite to Justifying as Injurying and Condemning for the two Greeke words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifie Injurying and Condemning are both contrary and opposite to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is Justifying As therefore he who is Injuried is against Law made to lose some right which he had before and which by Law was due unto him and as he who is Condemned is according to Law made to lose some right which he had before and which by Law hee was to lose for all Condemnation effecteth on the condemned eyther the abolition or the abatement of some right which the party had before eyther in deed or in pretence so contrarily he who is justified is beyond or above Law made to have some right which before hee had not and which by Law was not due unto him And as Condemnation is the Imputation of a present sin to a future punishment so Justification is the Imputation of a present right to a future blessing for although Justifyng and Condemning be opposite and contrary one to another yet they agree in this that both are under one and the same genus which is Imputation Seeing then Injurying and Condemning are jurall words therefore so is Justifying because it is opposite and contrary to them both 3. Words of Affinity or nearenesse which are subordinate to justifying and comprehended under it as Naturalizing Legitimating Manumising Redeeming Pardoning Adopting and such like all which are severall kindes or sorts of justifying which is the genus to them all For Naturalizing is the Justifying of an Alien by imputing or giving the right of a Native to him that was borne in a forraigne Countrey Legitimating is the Justifying of a Bastard by imputing or giving the right of Birth to him that was born misbegotten Manumising or Infranchising is the Justifying of a Villaine or Bondman by imputing or giveing the right of freedome to him that was borne a Slave Redeeming is the Justifying of a Captive by giving the right of Liberty to him who before was a Prisoner to his Enemy Pardoning is the Justifying of an Offender by imputing or giving the right of impunity to him who stands by Law condemned Adopting is the Justifying of a Stranger by imputing or giving the right of a Sonne and Heire to him who was borne in another Family Any one of these acts severally is justifying and all of them concurring joyntly for concur they may upon one and the same person are no more saving that then the justifying is exceeding gracious for when an Alien a Bastard a Bondslave and a Captive and so much worse beside as to bee a Malefactor is made an Heire to some Kingdome such a Justifying in regard it passeth from one extreame to another is extreamely gratious and so gratious is our Justification by Christ as to an observant Reader will afterwards appeare 4. Words of Attribute whereby the justified are in Scripture stiled and called as Sonnes and Heires of God Gal. 4.7 Wherefore thou art no more a Servant but a Sonne and if a Sonne then an Heire of God through Christ Co-heires or joynt-heires with Christ Rom. 8.16.17 The spirit it selfe beareth witnesse with our spirit that wee are the Children of God and if Children then Heires Heires of God and joynt-heires with Christ Fellow-citizens and Domesticks of God Ephes 2.19 Now therefore yee are no more Strangers and Forraigners but Fellow-citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God The Lords Freemen 1. Cor. 7.22 For hee that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords Freeman Which last Attribute of Freeman is a generall word including all the former for Citizens Sonnes and Heires are but severall sorts and rankes of Freemen and it is a word so jurall that the state of Liberty or Freedome is the Primitive Originall or Fundamentall Right whereon all other Rights and Priviledges are raised and without which none can subsist for a Bondman during his bondage hath no right at all neither can hee have any till first hee bee infranchised or made free seeing all the right hee hath before is onely a crooked right to accept or refuse freedome for a will to refuse freedome was by the Law of God allowed to a Bondman who otherwise hath no freedom of will Exod. 21.5 If the servant shall plainely say I love my Master my Wife and my Children I will not go out free then his Master shall bring him to the Judges c. And the word Freeman is so intimate genuine proper unto Justified that those 2 words are reciprocall adequate to denote the same person for Freeman is the proper name whereby a person justified is called a person justifyed is the proper essence or differēce which defines a Freeman seeing a Freeman is a person justified or made to have some right for hereby he is absolutely opposed to a bōdman who absolutely is not justified or hath no right at all heereby hee is respectively opposed to an Alien a Forraigner or Stranger who locally is not justified or hath no right in this or that place as none in such a Kingdome such a City or such a Family Hence in the Scripture the word Justified is sometime put for freed as Act. 13.39 and by Christ all that believe are justified i. e. freed from all things from which yee could not
Lord thy God doth drive them out before thee and that he may performe the word which the Lord sware unto thy fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. The right therefore which the Israelites had to enter that Land proceeded not from their workes but descended from that right which was before in their fathers Nay Abraham himselfe to whom God gave the originall right to that Land and by whose right the Israelites possessed it had not his title to that right by vertue of the literall worke of Circumcision for manifest it is he had that right before his Circumcision Rom. 4.11 and he received the signe of Circumcision as a seale of the righteousnesse of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised i. e. As a seale of the right or title which he had by faith for faith is the right title whereby a man is justified as will appeare in the words following Text. But by the faith The right title to the former state to be understood Exclusively The particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Faith needs not be defined Neither can it be defined Yet it may be designed a wayes 1 An high esteem of God is faith exemplified in the Ninevites and the Devils 2. An acceptance of Gods promise is faith Explicated the Nature of Gods Promise and of his Precept and illustrated 3 wayes 1 From the common definition of it 2 From the ConcurreÌ„ce of it to a Promise 3. From Examples in the Old Testament and in the New Faith is a Passive act of Receiveing and Embracing in an easie and noble maner Yet faith hath mighty effects yet only jurally and of grace and they are chiefly 4. 1 It enters Gods Covenant of grace that why so called and how it differs from that of works 2 It assures Gods promise for the possession of it against all difficulties exemplified in Abraham Amen what it signifies 3 〈◊〉 obligeâ—â—â—oth parties 1. God who bindes himselfe by his Promise and by his Oath 2. The Faithfull who is bound by his Acceptance which makes a Contract and by his Baptisme 4. It justifies the faithfull as his Title exemplified in the Old Testament and in the New The faithful are heires of God The second assertion for the Affirmative touching the doctrine of Justification wherein is declared the true and right title whereby a man is justified i. e. whereby procreantly and acquisitively he is made to have a right of divine alliance to bee the son and heire of God namely that this title is by Faith because faith is the cause efficient procreant or meanes acquisitive whereby the right of this state is first acquired initiated commenced or had for what person soever whatsoever act or whatsoever thing is eyther a cause or a meanes of mans Justifying by such person act or thing a man is sayd to be justified and because faith is that act of man therefore a man is justified by faith And this Affirmative amounts to an Exclusive That a man is justified by faith only to exclude and debarre from Justifying all those acts of man which before were called the workes of the Law unto which faith is heer opposed For although the Schoolmen in their Arguments call Faith a Worke and from thence would inferre that a man justified by faith is consequently justified by workes yet the Apostle in his arguments will not endure that faith should be a worke but makes them as contrary in Divinity though both be acts of man as fire and water are in Philosophy though both bee elements of the world Which God continuing his light unto us shall be further made evident in our following Exposition of this clause The particle But hath in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is commonly a word of excepting and signifies unlesse and thereupon to that sense it is generally rendred by the Romish Translators as if the meaning of the Apostle were that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law unlesse to such workes hee adde his faith in Christ. But this cannot bee the meaning in this place for two reasons 1. Because the Apostle argues against this assertion and produceth severall reasons to overthrow it all which were inconclusive by admitting of that meaning 2. Because such a sense would have made no controversie betweene Paul and the false Teachers of Galatia whom hee heere opposeth but would have beene very pleasing unto them and have sided with their opinion For they maintained not that a man should forsake his faith in Christ but that unto his workes of the Law he should adde his faith in Christ and bee justified by virtue of both together joyntly Wherefore the Greeke particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not in this place signifie exceptively but adversatively and is put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies But as it doth in many other passages of the New Testament and is so translated See Mat. 12.4 and John 5.19 and 1. Cor. 7.17 and Revel 9.4 In all which plaplaces and more the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth signifie and is Englished But. There is no more necessity of defining Faith which unto mans Right of alliance with God is his right title then there was before of defining workes which were the wrong title For mans Justification is commonly in Scripture referred disjunctively to one of these three titles that it is either by Birth or by Workes or by Faith and the Scripture doth cleerely disclaime the two former titles by Birth and Workes to inferre the latter by Faith The title by Birth is disclaimed Rom. 9.6.7.8 For they are not all Israel which are of Israel neither because they are the seede of Abraham are they all children but in Isaac shall thy seede bee called i. e. They which are the children of the flesh these are not the children of God but the children of the Promise are counted for the seede And the title by Workes is excluded Rom. 3.19.20 Now wee know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may bee stopped and all the World may become guilty before God therefore by the deedes of the Law there shall no flesh bee justified in his sight for by the Law is the knowledge of sinne And therefore according to that right reasoning which is framed in a disjunction the conclusion must needes inferre the remaining title by faith for so the Apostle concludes Rom. 3.28 Therefore wee conclude that a man is justified by faith As therefore there needes no definition to open the nature of Birth and Workes because those things are sufficiently knowne of themselves and therefore all Writers passe them over undefined So there needes no definition to declare the nature of Faith Because Faith is either manifest enough of it selfe or sufficiently poynted out by the contradistinction of it as it stands opposed to Birth and Workes for things contradistinct and opposite are or should bee equally knowne Neither is there possibility
to give an intire and true definition of Faith because Faith is a thing so indefinite and so generall that it hath no genus which will comprehend it and it is a thing so notable so well known that there are not other words more knowne whereby to expresse and teach the nature of it They therefore who define Faith to bee a Confidence in God are peccant against the nature of a definition two wayes 1. Because Confidence is a word more obscure then Faith and therefore cannot teach the knowledge of it for hee that knowes not what Faith is will never bee made to know it by telling him that it is a Confidence because the word Confidence is more unknowne unto him and leaves him more to seeke then the word Faith doth 2. Because Confidence is a word more narrow for all Confidence is Faith but all Faith is not Confidence seeing Confidence is but one kinde of Faith or rather a degree of it the like defect may bee found in the word Affiance Other definitions of faith commonly exhibited by Divines are either so wide that they will not justifie at all or else so narrow that they will justifie onely under the Gospel Yet because divine faith is an act so acceptable to God and so desirable to bee understood I shall sutably to our present purpose declining all definitions and other significations of the word which in divers learned Writers are sufficiently layd out propose two Notions designes or cases thereof one in generall as it magnifies God the other more particular as it justifies man Both which added together may serve as signes and markes to breed a competent and comfortable knowledge thereof 1. The first notion is this An high esteeme of Gods existence greatnesse and goodnesse is Faith in God For Believing is opposed to Dispising as therefore when wee have a base and low esteem of the weakenesse and badnesse of any person wee are sayd to despise him So contrarily when wee have a rich and high esteeme of that greatnesse and goodnesse which wee conceive in any person then wee have faith in him and when God is the person whom wee so esteeme then wee have faith in God But although such a faith bee acceptable and pleasing unto God because it is agreeable to his will and to the truth that hee should bee esteemed as hee is Yet this kinde of faith is not Justifying to acquire any right unto the believer because it is generall and common to persons justified and to some not justified in whom this faith is onely servile to breed in them feare and trembling Such a faith was in the people of Nineveh for at the preaching of Jonah that within forty dayes Nineveh should bee overthrowne the people Jon. 3.5 believed God i. e. They had such an high esteeme of Gods greatnesse and goodnesse of his power and justice therein included that hee could and would execute the judgement threatned against them and this faith bred in them a feare of God and that feare bred a Fast whereby they declared their Repentance And such a faith is in the Divels Jam. 2.19 The Divels also believe and tremble i. e. They have an high esteeme of the greatnesse of Gods Power and the goodnesse of his Justice that hee can and will execute his vengeance upon them for their Rebellion and this their faith is onely servile for it breeds in them feare and makes them to tremble 2. The second notion of faith is this An acceptance of Gods promise is Faith The difference betweene Gods Promise and his Precept will cleerely teach us the nature of faith and workes and consequently the true difference betweene them The right to a thing and the possession thereof are distinct respects that may bee transferred either joyntly both at once at the same time as is done in a Donation or they may bee transferred severally one after another by conveying the right at one time and respiting the delivery of possession till another as is done in a Promise Gods Promise therefore is his declared Will to impute unto thee a present right to the future possession of some blessing For God in his Promise willeth unto thee two distinct things 1. That thy right to the blessing should bee in present 2. That thy possession of that blessing should bee future And then according heereto hee requires from thee two distinct acts of thy will in corresponding and consenting to his 1. Thy Acceptance or taking of the present right to the blessing 2. An Expectance or trusting to the future possession of it I say God requires thy acceptance because Gods promissory will is not compulsory to will and command thy acceptance by necessitating or binding thee thereto for in so thinking thou destroyest the nature of Gods promise by turning it into a Precept whereof the effect is compulsory and binding But Gods promise is only Invitatory to will and require thy acceptance by calling moving and drawing thee thereto in using all the gratious and proper meanes conducing to that end Yet leaving thee free at thine owne choice either to accept or refuse it A refusall or Rejecting of Gods Promise is Unbeliefe an Acceptance or taking of the present right to the blessing promised is Faith and an Expectance or trusting to the future possession of the blessing is Hope for Faith and Hope are the acts of mans will answerable and agreeable to the will of Gods promise Contrarily Gods Precept is his declared Will to impose upon thee a present bond to the future observance of some duty And herein Gods Will is that thy bond to this duty should be present and thy observance of the duty should be future from thence forward But Gods Preceptory Will is not Invitatory to will and require thy observance or to leave thee free at thine owne choyse either to observe or transgresse it for in thinking so thou destroyest Gods Precept whose nature it is to will and command thy observance by laying upon thee a necessity thereof yet that necessity is not fatall but legall A transgression of Gods Precept is sin an observance thereof is workes and when the workes are cordiall and liberall done heartily and freely with all the heart and all the soule then the workes are Love For workes and love are acts of mans will answerable to the will of Gods Precept and therefore are different from faith and hope which answer to the will of his promise because his promise and his Precept are Wills different and opposite This last notion of faith may be further illustrated from three grounds 1. From the common definition of Faith That faith is an assent to every revealed word of God which kind of faith is so large and wide that it may aswell condemn as justifie yet it will serve to enlighten our notion For Gods Precepts are his revealed word but these because they proceed from his holines and uprightnes are but hard words and so hard that when they
were spoken from Mount Sinai the Israelites could not indure to heare them but entreated that they might heare no more of them See Exod. 20.19 Deut. 18.16 Heb. 12.19 20. And Gods Judgments are his revealed word but these because they come from his wrath and anger are but ill words and farre worse then the former for they are cursed and fearefull words see the Curses of them at large Levit. 26. and Deut. 28. But Gods promise is his revealed word also and this word because it proceeds from his love and kindnes is his good word for so it is called 1 Kings 8.56 There hath not failed one word of all his good promise where for good promise the Hebrew hath good word and Jerem. 29.10 I will visit you and performe my good word unto you i. e. my promise for your returne from captivity If therefore an Assent to the words of Gods precepts and judgements which are hard and ill words be Faith as indeed it is though in effect it prove but a sorrowfull and wofull faith which can justifie no man but may convict all of sin and condemne many to death for it is that faith wherewith the Divels believe and tremble much more an Acceptance of Gods promise which is his good word is faith because Acceptance is more then Assent and more then Consent for it is an act subsequent unto a Consent whereby a Consent is seconded and ratified As plainly appeares in most contracts and particularly in that of Marriage where after the mutuall Consent of the parties to have each other there followes a mutuall Acceptance in taking each other Hence it is manifest that over and besides all other sorts of Faith there are three sorts answerable to the word of Gods Will viz. a promissory a preceptory and a judicatory faith for so let us call them till we finde fitter appellations because the promises precepts and judgements of God are the words of his Will 2. From the Concurrence of faith to a promise The acts about a promise are chiefly three namely the Making the Accepting and the Performing of it unto all which from the first to the last faith must needs concurre in a manner as a Soule wherewith the promise is animated and lives and without which it expires and dyes becomming frustrate and voyd For the Making of a promise is a giving of faith so the best Canonists and Casuists define a promise though we for thy better understanding defined it otherwise And the Performing of a Promise is a keeping of faith which is commonly called Faithfulnes for hence God is called faithfull because when he hath been gracious to give his faith by making a promise he will be faithfull to keep his faith by performing it And therefore the Accepting of a promise which intercedeth between the making and performing is a taking of faith for when the thing given is faith then the thing taken must needs be the same and therefore faith also And if the performance of a promise doth denominate him faithfull who makes it as in all good Writers and in common speech it doth much more doth the Acceptance of the promise denominate him faithfull who takes it because the faith of the taker doth naturally precede the faithfullnesse of the giver as acceptance naturally precedes performance But if Gods Promise have any effect at all and be not frustrated by a refusall that effect in thee must needs bee faith for seeing Gods Promise is a Declaration of his Will to devise unto thee a present right to the future possession of some blessing this Declaration comming from God doth or should worke in thee a ground to hope for that future blessing and a ground of things hoped for is faith as the Apostle notifies it Heb. 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for i. e. a ground for hope is faith And because the blessing is future therefore it is not seene for things future are not seen yet Gods declaration of the futurity thereof doth or should produce in thee an evidence or knowledge of it and an evidence or knowledge of things not seen is faith as the Apostle againe designes it in the former verse 3. From the Examples of Faith In the Old Testament Gen. 15.4.5 God promised unto Abraham a Sonne and Heire of his owne body and a numerous Posterity as the Starres of Heaven i. e. God declared unto Abraham his will to give him a present right to that future blessing and in the verse following Abraham believed in the Lord i. e. Hee accepted of Gods Promise in taking it and this taking was seconded with trusting to it for by his acceptance hee had a good ground to hope for a sonne and an evidence for a sonne not yet seene which ground and evidence is faith or beliefe But the act which caused that ground and evidence was his Acceptance or taking the Promise God by the message of Moses promised unto the Israelites in Egypt a deliverance from their bondage and an entrance into Canaan and Exod. 4.31 the people believed i. e. They accepted of this promise by taking it and their taking caused their trusting to it i. e. Their faith caused their hope of it and to expresse their thankfullnesse for it They bowed their heads and worshipped In the New Testament God by the message of Jesus Christ hath made unto thee most precious promises for hence that Testament is called the Gospel i. e. The good message or word of God as the promise of present freedome or alliance with him to bee his sonne jurally by having a present right of inheritance the promise of present sanctity to regenerate thee with his spirit to bee his Sonne morally by leading a holy life and the promise of future priviledges and blessings to bee his sonne gloriously in the finall state of blessednesse as the future forgivenesse of thy sinnes the future resurrection of thy body and thy future life everlasting for God by Christ hath declared his will to impute unto thee a present right to all these blessings Is now thy will answerable and agreeable to Gods will to correspond and consent to him heerein And further dost thou actually accept of these promises to take God at his word Then thou hast faith and dost believe For although these blessings bee not seene yet by thy accepting the promises of them thou hast a good evidence for them and a good ground for thy hope of them and such evidence and ground is faith and beliefe And though thou dye before thou possesse all these blessings as certainely thou shalt and must either dye or bee changed before thou canst enter the possession of all Yet thou dyest in faith because Heb. 11.13 Thou hast seene them a farre off and wast perswaded of them and hast embraced them for by these reasons the Apostle proves that the Patriarchs dyed in faith though they had not received the promises i. e. Not the possession of the blessings
is Gods grace which moveth him to this act of kindnesse in making or passing his promise unto man and because the matter thereof is meerely gratious consisting of those favours benefits and blessings conferred upon man which are not due to man by any Law In the Old Testament Gen. 15. God covenants with Abraham by way of promise that God on his part would bee unto Abraham a shield and an exceeding great reward that he would give him a son and heire of his owne body and Abraham therupon enters covenant with God that hee on his part did beleeve in the Lord i. e. did accept receive and embrace those promises heere was a Covenant of Grace because the ground of it was Gods grace and the matter very gratious In the New Testament Heb. 8.10 God covenants with thee by way of promise that hee on his part will put his Lawes into thy mind and write them in thy heart that he will be a God unto thee and take thee for one of his people that he will teach thee to know him in respect of his greatnes goodnes and kindnes toward thee that he will be mercifull to thy unrighteousnesse not onely to forgive but also to forget thy sins and iniquities If thou on thy part accept these promises by thy faith thou thereby entrest Gods Covenant and the Covenant thou entrest is the Covenant of Grace because the ground of it is Gods grace and the matter of it very gracious Contrarily the Covenant made with God by meanes of a Preceptory faith is the Covenant of workes because the ground thereof is mans duty as he is the worke or creature of God owing all allegiance obedience and observance unto his Lord and Maker and because the matter thereof is laborious consisting of those workes Offices and services which by Gods Law are due from man to God In the Old Testament Gen. 17.1.10 God covenants with Abraham by way of Precept that Abraham on his part should walke before the Lord and be perfect upright or sincere and that every male childe in Abrahams family should be Circumcised here was a Covenant of workes because the ground of it was Abrahams duty and the matter somwhat laborious for workes to be done Againe in the New Testament Mat. 5.3 God covenants with thee by way of Precept that thou on thy part shalt be poore in spirit shalt mourne shalt bee meeke shalt hunger and thirst after righteousnesse shalt bee mercifull shalt be pure in heart shalt be a Peace-maker shalt suffer persecution for righteousnesse sake Heere againe is a Covenant of works because the ground of it is thy duty and the matter somewhat laborious In a word every promise of God is a Covenant of grace every Precept of God a Covenant of workes every judgement of God a Covenant of Curses and every voluntary sin of man is an involuntary Covenant to suffer those curses 2. The second effect is to assure Gods promise The promise of God though in respect of his will on his part it be firme sure and fast yet in respect of any right or benefit thence accruing to thee it is neither firme sure nor fact before thy faith or acceptance of it but by vertue of thy faith or acceptance it is made stable firme and sure Because that promise which Gods will is should be stable firme and sure is by thy faith actually established affirmed and assured for as was shewed before thy faith doth advance and forme Gods promise into a Covenant and a Covenant is an agreement so stable firme and sure that the parties agreed cannot repent revoke recede or goe back And if a Consent of the parties to be married doth make the mariage sure for upon their consent we use to say they are sure together much more doth thy acceptance of Gods promise make thy alliance to him stable firme and sure And this faith doth assure not onely thy present alliance but also the future possession of all those blessings which unto this alliance are appendent and consequent as the Regeneration or sanctification of thy minde the Remission of thy sins the Resurrection of thy body and thy Life everlasting And unto this assurance this faith is quickened and strengthened by the first notion of faith which is a high esteeme of Gods goodnes and greatnes that what the goodnes of his will was pleased to promise that the greatnes of his power is able to performe For this estimatory Faith by giving unto God the glory of his goodnes and greatnes doth nourish and feed up thy promissory faith into an assurance of a strong and full perswasion of Gods performance though unto thy selfe thou seeme never so poore and dead a Creature For notwithstanding all the difficulties and casualties in the world that may seeme to disturb Gods performance notwithstanding thy ignorance in many poynts of Religion that may seeme to hinder it notwithstanding thy sinnes of errour and frailty that may seeme to crosse it notwithstanding thy death and dissolution in the grave that may seeme to bury it Yet after all these God remaines constant firm and sure both willing and able to performe his promise and will actually performe it unto thee And of this assurance thou hast a precedent in Abrahams faith which notwithstanding the deadnesse of his owne body and of Sarahs Wombe was so firme sure and strong that hee was sure of a sonne because he considered not the deadnesse of his body but the goodnesse of Gods will and the greatnesse of his power Rom. 4.19 And being not weake in faith hee considered not his owne body now dead when hee was about 100. yeare old neither yet the deadnesse of Sarahs wombe hee staggered not at the promise of God through unbeliefe but was strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully perswaded that what hee had promised hee was able also to peforme Hence Amen the Hebrew word for faith doth also signifie verity constancy firmenesse and surenesse Because it is the nature of faith to bee true constant firme and sure not onely formally for the quality of it as it is opposed to falshood doubting staggering and wavering but also effectively for the virtue of it because it makes the promises of God to bee stable constant true firme and sure which otherwise and without it will prove frustrate and voyd to bee of no force or effect to him who diffides them And this Assurance of Gods promise is an effect so peculiar to thy faith that not workes but faith is ordained for thy title to this very end and purpose that the promise might bee sure unto thee Rom. 4.16 Therefore it is of faith that it might bee by grace to the end the promise might bee sure to all the seed 3. The third effect is to oblige both parties God at the first was not obliged to make any promise but was altogether free either to make or forbeare it and having made it hee is not obliged to performe
beene seene in Israel And because they were so available to beget faith and beliefe that Mat. 11.21 had they been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long agoe in sackcloth and ashes or had they beene done in Sodome it would have remained untill this day Hence Christ to make the fuller faith of his message appeales from his words unto his workes for sayth he John 5.36 The workes which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I doe beare witnesse of mee that the Father hath sent mee And againe John 10.37 If I doe not the workes of my Father beleeve me not but if I doe though ye beleeve not me beleeve the works that ye may know and beleeve that the Father is in me and I in him Hence also in Scripture miracles are called Signes because they are good proofes of that truth for which they are wrought and doe naturally beget the beliefe of it for every signe is a proofe of that which it signifieth 3. By his Holinesse Christ was a person so holy that one of his ordinary titles wherewith he is stiled in Scripture is to bee called The Holy one See Act. 2.27 and Act. 3.14 and 1. John 2.20 And that uncleane spirit who knew of no holinesse in himself did openly acknowledge the holinesse of Christ Marc. 1.24 I know who thou art the Holy one of God His Birth was holy for at his conception the Angel Gabriel tels the blessed Virgin Luk. 1.35 The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God His Life was holy for through all the whole course of it hee was so innocent and so sinlesse that 2. Cor. 5.21 hee knew no sin And Heb. 4.15 hee was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin And 1. Pet. 2.22 He did no sin neyther was guile found in his mouth His Death was holy for he repined not at the sentence though most unjust hee complayned not at the execution though most painefull but Act. 8.32 He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and like a 〈◊〉 dumbe before his shearer so opened he not his mouth But hee bare all with an holy silence 1. Pet. 2.23 Who when he was reviled reviled not againe when he suffered he threatned not but committed himselfe to him that judgeth righteously Now Holinesse is a quality of mighty force to gaine faith and beliefe to the words of a person indued with that vertue for who would not beleeve the repent of that person whose holinesse is so eminent that in all his life he never sinned will such a person forge a Will or frame a deceit or maintaine an untruth and father it upon God certainly it is impossible that one and the same person should be 〈◊〉 holy and yet false 4. By his Death Christ tooke his death upon it that his message was from God For when hee openly acknowledged himselfe the son of God that saying was made the blaspheâ—y whereat the high Priest rent his cloths and it was made the crime for which he was adjudged to die and consequently was the cause for which hee suffered the shamefull and painefull death of the Crosse See Mat. 26.63 64 65 66. and John â—9 7 Yet neither the shame nor the paine of his death could force him to renounce that saying but he persisted in it to his last gasp and then crying with a loud voyce and commending his spirit unto God he called him his Father and gave up the ghost Luk. â—â— 46 Had not that saying of calling God his Father beene most certainely true the shame of the Crosse and the paines of his sufferings would have forced him to forbeare it at that time as a saying too insolent and wholly vaine which in that caâ—e could advantage him nothing But for our sakes it was this he would not forbeare it because hee would make full faith of it by making it in effect his last words and witnessing the truth of it with his bloud For as that saying caused his death so his death caused the faith of it because among men there As no greater proofe to make faith of a truth then when the person who averres it doth take his death upon it And the death of Christ seconded with some miracles at it was to this purpose so effectuall that presently at his giving up the ghost it bred the faith of this truth in the minds of many yea in some of his Executioners and the Centurion openly confessed it upon the place saying Mat. 27.54 Truly this was the son of God 5. By his Resurrection The Resurrection of Christ from the dead was such a strong proofe of his mission from God that it confirmed all the former proofes Not that those former were not sufficient but because his Resurrection was a speciall proofe which Christ had singled out to take away the scandall of his death that notwithstanding the Jewes would take away his life yet he could and would take it againe in rising from the grave the third day For when first the faithlesse Jewes demanded a signe of his authority hee proposed his Resurrection to oppose the scandall of his destruction Joh. 2.19 Destroy saith he this temple and in three dayes I will rayse it up And when he foretold his Disciples of his Passion hee alwayes comforted their minds against it by foretelling also his Resurrection Mat. 16.21 and Mat. 17.23 If therefore according to these Predictions his Resurrection had not followed then by default thereof his doctrine and his miracles had beene discredited and diffided The Resurrection therefore of Christ declared him to bee the sonne of God Rom. 1.4 and declared to bee the sonne of God with power according to the spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead It prooved him to be the Judge of the world which because to the world it seemes incredible therefore God hath made faith of it by raysing him from the dead Act. 17.31 Because hee hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordayned whereof hee hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raysed him from the dead This giving assurance heere is making faith for so is the Originall and so the vulgar Italian renders it and it is almost so in the margin of our last English Translation for there it is offered faith yet the sense comes all to one because all giving assurance is making faith And the Resurrection of Christ was of such force to make faith that the Apostles who were to spread faith made it the forme of their ordination ordayning Matthias to bee an Apostle under this forme Act. 1.22 To be a witnesse with them of Christs Resurrection And they made it the summe of their preaching for when they began to preach that Jesus was the Christ their
latter act all promises are finished to have their finall and last effect for the verity or truth of the promiser which is concealed and may bee doubted in the grant of the promise doth cleerly and fully appear in the performance Unlesse therefore there bee a full performance of Gods promise by a future delivery and possession of that inheritance whereto by faith we have now a present right then both God failes of his truth and wee of our right For when a promise is conveyed unto mee in the best and surest manner by being devised or bequeathed unto mee by way of Legacy or Gift in a Will and the Will bee also confirmed Yet if it bee not performed what benefit have I by a promise so devised Now the person who performes the promises of Gods last Will and Testament is Jesus Christ for by and through him all the promises of God have the verity and truth of their performance 2. Cor. 1.20 For all the promises of God in him are yea and in him Amen i. e. are performed and fullfilled by Christ who thereby doth perfect the verity and truth of them Yea Christ was raised from the dead that hee might bee inabled with full power to performe the promises of our Justifying Rom. 4.25 And was raised againe for our Justification i. e. to performe the promises whereto wee are justified for as hee was delivered unto death to Confirme the promises So hee was raised againe to performe them The Reason why Christ doth Performe Gods last Will and Testament and the Promises or Legacies therein contained is because as was before shewed Christ is the Executor thereof It is the office of the Executor to execute or performe the will of the Testator for as it is his office to declare the nature of the will and to Prove the verity of it So his finall office whereto the former are but mediall is to Performe the Legacies of it Otherwise the Faithfull who are the Legataries in Gods Will and Testament and who therein are Co-heires with the Executor have no meanes nor hope to attaine and possesse the precious Legacies therein devised and bequeathed unto them Because although they have their right and claime by the good will and gift of the Testator Yet of themselves they have no ability to take or seize upon their Legacies For what ability have the Dead to raise themselves from the dust of their corruption and rottennesse unto celestiall and glorious bodies whereby to ascend into Heaven and take possession of that Kingdome Or what ability have the Living to transforme or change their bodies earthly and mortall into bodies heavenly and immortall Or suppose that the Legatary hath ability to take his Legacy of himself as in humane wills hee many times hath Yet regularly hee hath no authority to doe it for if hee doe hee doth in many cases forfeit it The course therefore of the Legatary is to addresse himselfe unto the Executor to whom hee must make suit for the Legacy that in due manner hee may receive the possession of it from him who is to deliver it according to the will and minde of the Testator Partly because the Executor being the Mediator or mediall person betweene the Testator and the Legatary must first be possessed of the Testators estate that thereby he may be enabled to deliver the Legacies thence issuing and partly because a Legacy according to the definition and nature of it is a gift left by the Testator to be delivered or performed by the Executor Seeing then Christ is the Executor of Gods last Will and Testament therefore his Office it is to execute and performe it by delivering unto the Faithfull the possession of those blessed Legacies whereto by vertue of Gods Will they are justified Thus Christ is the Beginner of our faith by working in us our acceptance of Gods Promises and he is the Finisher of our faith by performing unto us the Promises which we have accepted for hence he is called Hebr. 12.2 the Athour and Finisher of our faith Text. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ. Reason An Inference from the former assertion Because a man is justified not by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ therefore we who are Jewes by nature or native Jewes knowing the verity and certainty hereof have believed in Jesus Christ for these words are to be referred unto the 15. verse before as was there noted Wee who before the comming of Christ did believe in God for before the comming of Christ we were the peculiar people of God to whom appertained the adoption and the glory and the Covenants and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises even we have relinquished all these carnall Priviledges and have accounted them but losse that we might gaine the promises and priviledges which come by Christ For because Gods former Will and Testament wherof Moses was the Mediatour is now expired and that God is pleased to declare a new Testament whereof Jesus Christ is the Mediatour therefore now even we have relinquished the former Testament and have adhered to the latter by accepting the promises of it and by receiving Christ for the mediator of it now placing all our faith and hope in God by and through Jesus Christ For it is great reason we should now adhere to that Will and Testament of God which God now appointeth to stand in force Justifying is the effect of faith but not of workes The Reason of it From a testimony of Scripture The Proposition of the Reason the Assumption and the Conclusion much pressed by the Judaizing Christians for 2 Inconveniences That wee might be justified by the faith of Christ. The finall cause end or effect of our beliefe or faith in Christ namely our Justification that we might have a present right to those future blessings which are promised devised and bequeathed unto us in Gods last Will and Testament For if it be true as it is that faith is the Meanes of our Justification then also this truth must needs follow that Justification is the end of our saith seeing we believe to this end that by meanes of our faith we might be justified And because of that Will and Testament wherein we are Justified Christ is the Mediatour by whose meanes wee have our present right to those blessings and by whose meanes we shall enjoy the future possession of them therefore our faith is limitted and restrained unto Christ 1. Because Christ is the Conveyer of our faith by and through whom we believe in God 2. Because Christ is the Authour or Beginner of our Faith by declaring the contents of Gods Will and Testament and by proving the verity of it by his Witnesses his Miracles his Holines his Death and Resurrection 3. Because faith in Christ is the Title or appellation whereby we are instituted or nominated in Gods last Will and Testament which is a Testament ad pias causas
from sinne and because yee disclaime the works thereof from being any part of the title whereby yee acquire this right restraining your title to faith onely And in case you doe live thus by continuing your life in sinfullnesse it will thence further follow that Christ who gave you this liberty did thereby give you a licence to sinne and consequently did open a doore and minister an occasion to all wickednesse For the word Sinne in this place must bee understood not generally for any small degree of sinne by way of errour or frailty for in such sinnes the faithfull doe and cannot but continue in this life but specially and eminently for a high degree and constant course of wickednesse and lewdnesse as Perjuries Murthers Adulteries Thefts c. from which sort of sinnes all that are truely faithful may and must abstaine in this life This Objection against Justification by faith onely without workes was much pressed and frequently urged as may appeare by the mention of it in this place and by these words Rom. 6.2 Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound and by these Rom. 6.15 Shall we sinne because we are not under the Law but under grace and by severall passages in the first Epistle of John cap. 3. where consider verse 4 5 6 7 8 9. The parties who urged this objection were not unbelievers who refused and rejected the faith of Christ but over-believers who received the faith of Christ and moreover retained the Law of Moses I meane those Judaizing Christians who in their zeale unto Gods Law laboured for a compliance between Moses and Christ excluding neither but retaining both For they supposing that the Gospel of Christ was but an addition or superstruction unto the Law of Moses did confidently teach that the workes of the Law were the entrance and the way unto faith in Christ and consequently they urged the workes thereof principally Circumcision to bee retained by the believing Jewes and to bee imposed upon the believing Gentiles as things necessary to Justification and salvation as it appeares Acts 15.1 And these Judaizers did by vertue of this objection spread their false Doctrine against Justification by faith onely in the Churches of Judea of Syria of Galatia and of Italy for in the Epistle to the Romans wee finde the Apostle copiously refelling this objection and wee finde the like in the generall Epistle of St. John The Matter of this objection containes two inconvenient or absurd Consequences which the urgers thereof conceived would necessarily follow upon the Doctrine of Justification by faith onely without works 1. That then Believers would take occasion to continue in all kinde of sinne and licenciousnes 2. That thereupon Christ would become the occasioner and minister unto all sinne and licenciousnesse By which two Consequences they would conclude that the Doctrine of Justification by faith onely without workes was ungodly because that Doctrine whatsoever it be must needs be ungodly from whence there will necessarily follow ungodly consequences A generall Answer God forbid A generall answer unto the former objection plainly denying the necessity of the Consequences therein pretended that in the way of true reason they cannot be necessarily deduced from the Doctrine of Justification by faith onely without workes And this deniall is not a bare and naked negation which onely rejecteth the former objection but it is a negation vested with a word of abomination for it is expressed by a phrase which consignifies a high degree both of disdaining and abhorring the objection as a profane and wicked discourse because the ungodly Consequences therein mentioned cannot bee rationally collected from the former Doctrine of Justification The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. never be it so which word is a forme of Supplication or prayer unto God against some future and fearefull evill that God would divert and crosse the accesse of it For it is equivalent to the Hebrew Chalilah and to the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are the expressions of a minde highly disdaining and abominating And it is opposed to the Hebrew Amen i. e. so be it and to the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God grant it which contrarily are formes of Application benediction that God would approve and confirme with his fiat some present or future good the blessing whereof wee earnestly wish and desire VERSE 18. Text. For if I build againe the things which I destroyed I make my selfe a transgressor Sense Build againe Viz. By my acts of sin and lewdnesse of life The things i. e. The state of sin and misery wherein I stood before I was justified Which I destroyed i. e. Which state of sinne I exstinguished upon my Justification by faith whereby a new state was created unto me I make my selfe a transgressor i. e. I become a very sinfull sinner who after pardon relapseth and it is not Christ who makes me so but I make my selfe so Reason An Answer particularly the Phrase of it by way of Proverb the Frame of it by way of Personation the Scope of it The particle For doth teach us that these words contayne a Reason why he so disdainfully denyed the consequences pretended in the former objection carrying withall particular Answers to those two particular Consequences To the first consequence that Men justified by faith of Christ onely would continue in all kind of sinfulnesse hee Answers Men must not build againe by acts of sin that state of sin which by their Justification they destroyed for in so doing they become transgressors To the second consequence that Thereupon Christ would become the minister unto sin he Answers In case men justified become transgressors it is not Christ who maketh them so by ministring of grace but they make themselves so by abusing the grace which he hath ministred The Phrase of this Answer By building againe things destroyed seemes to be a Proverbe which argueth in a man not onely a pure levity of doing undoing and re-doing of the same thing but a levity seasoned with much folly when a man is at great charges and takes much paines to compasse a matter which makes his condition a great deale the worse For building is an action very painefull and chargeable and when the edifice is sin and transgression the matter is so much the worse The Frame of this Answer is disposed by way of Prosopopy or Personation wherein by a suddaine change of the person from the third to the first the Apostle translates the subject of the point in debate and attributes it unto himselfe Because the matter being somewhat odious and offensive he would qualifie and temper it by the modesty of his discourse by speaking that in his owne person and of himselfe which was true of every Christian especially of a Jew by nature or of a native Jew wh◠〈◊〉 lived under the Law of Moses and had deserted it to embrace the Gospel of Christ For the Apostle himselfe was such a
and strengthneth mee to performe the workes duties and services sutable to my faith and worthy of that divine alliance and inheritance whereto God by my faith hath admitted mee For what greater strength more can possibly bee added to my faith then such an infinite engagement and such a powerfull assistance But my true and strong faith wants life and efficacy or rather I want will enough to give it life and efficacy Yet I have will enough to give it life and efficacy passively to Accept those Promises and Legacies of Gods Will and Testament wherto I am justified But I will not give it life and efficacy actively to Performe those Precepts and Conditions of Gods Will and Testament whereto I am sanctified that it may become a faith working by love Heereby it comes to passe that my true and strong faith comes not to be a lively active working and effectuall faith But remaines a dead idle lazie and slothfull faith and this deadnesse idlenesse lazinesse and slothfulnesse of my faith is the unfaithfulnes of it For God promiseth unto mee a present right of divine alliance and inheritance to bee his Sonne and Heire to eternall blessednesse and I by faith Accept this promise and am thereupon actually in that divine state of a Sonne and Heire to God This Acceptance is my passive or taking faith and by this acceptance I doe againe on my part repromise unto God that I will perform the workes duties offices and services of a Sonne and Heire to love honour and obey my heavenly Father This promise I certainely make though really I neither mention it in words nor mentally conceive it in my heart for my act in accepting that right doth naturally and jurally according to the nature and equity of the thing make this promise for mee though my tongue and heart bee never so silent And the state of a Sonne and Heire wherein I stand doth naturally engage and oblige mee not onely to make this promise but also to performe it For hee that accepts of any beneficiary state or condition doth ipso facto thereby promise to performe the workes duties offices and services unto that state appertaining and incident For the nature and equity of his Acceptance doth make this promise for him though it bee neither expressed nor minded and the Law of nature and equity doth oblige him to performe it though there bee no written Law to inforce it Seeing experience teacheth mee that there are promises obligations and engagements as well naturall as civill and as well tacite as expresse Now if my faith be not lively and active to performe that promise of love honour and obedience which I on my part have made to God or if my faith be so dead idle lazy and slothfull that she will not or doth not performe it this non-performance of my promise to God is the unfaithfulnesse of my faith and this unfaithfulnesse is one default by reason wherof I come to make my selfe a transgressor against my Justification 2. The second default is my Unthankfulnesse or rather my Ungraciousnesse which is but the Latinisme of unthankfulnesse saving that in my apprehension of the word it noteth an aggravation and soundeth a high degree of unthankfulnesse Especially if I consider the greatnesse of the Blessing which I have received and the greatnesse of the person from whom I received it for to proove unthankfull to God for his grace what can this be else but extreame ungraciousnesse God hath given mee a state of divine alliance and inheritance to bee his son and heire to eternall blessednesse And this state hee hath given mee most freely out of his meere love and grace without any desert of mine without any desire of mine without any motion by mee made or any act by me done saving my faith to accept it What an infinite blessing is heere improoved and exalted with infinite kindnesse for what greater blessing could God confer upon me and how could he confer this with greater kindnesse Certainly this blessing accompanied with such kindnesse deserveth my thankes and those not only verball to give God good words by acknowledging this blessing and singing praises to his Name but reall thankes by the workes duties offices and services of a son to love and honour my heavenly Father who hath so much loved and honoured me For what lesse thankes then these can I returne Seeing I have nothing else worthy of him nor nothing at all but what was his before and came from him Yea even my workes of loving and honouring him proceed from him for he by loving and honouring me hath begotten those workes in mee and deserved them from mee hee hath obliged me to them and enabled me from them Should an earthly Prince give or but promise me some temporall estate incomparably short of Gods kindnesse what duties offices and services would I deny to such a Prince thereby to expresse my thankfulnesse to him If therefore to the King of Heaven who hath so much loved and honoured me as to make mee his son and heyre I will not or doe not performe the duties offices and services of a son to love honour and obey him with all my heart and all my soule this non-performance is extreame unthankefulnes and this unthankfulnes or rather ungratiousnes is another default whereby I come to make my selfe a transgressor against my Justification Hence there appeare unto mee these 4 following verities 1. My state of Justification is mutable It is in it selfe a state firme stable and permanent and the firmenesse thereof is not onely durable but may and should be perpetuall Yet the firmenesse thereof is casuall and may be not perpetuall for during my naturall life and before I dye it may be defeated and destroyed I say not it must be defeated and destroyed for the mutability thereof is not necessary as is the mortality of my body which God hath created from the dust and hath decreed that unto dust it shall returne But the mutability thereof is possible for manifest it is that it may bee not defeated and not destroyed because God hath given mee the state of a son and heyre by way of perpetuity for ever to continue not onely for my life but after death When I am dead and dissolved into dust God still remaineth my Father and my God for hee acknowledgeth himselfe the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob who are long since dead And from the Dead he will rayse mee at the last day to put me in possession of that inheritance whereto I am now an heyre For as Marriages so also Alliances are states not temporary for terme of yeares but of perpetuity for ever Hence in the family the son differs from the servant severall wayes whereof this is one that the servant hath no right of perpetuity there but the son hath for saith Christ John 8.35 The servant abideth not in the house for ever i. e. hath not a right to abide for ever but the son abideth
make not also some benefit of it for that state is to no purpose from whence ariseth no benefit In my Justification therefore I am to consider both these meanes viz. not onely the meanes procreant or title whereby my state is constituted acquired or had but also the meanes conservant or Tenure whereby my state is continued preserved or held Because I am truly sayd to be justified as well by the tenure wherby I continue and hold this state as by my title whereby I acquire and have it For all states whatsoever not onely jurall but naturall of all creatures whatsoever whose existence hath any duration doe necessarily require a cause conservant meanes retentive or tenure whereby they may be continued or preserved to abide and remaine in being for otherwise their state would not be permanent at all but actually transient and sodainly passe away Yea the Earth it selfe whose state above all other elements is most firme and stable and the whole world whereof God is the sole cause procreant who created and established it for ever should he cease to be thereof the cause conservant would suddainely in a moment runne to ruine Much more is such a tenure necessary to my Justification which is my state of alliance unto God Because this state above all others is to mee most pretious and consequently the losse of it becomes most grievous 3. The Tenure whereby I am justified is workes I am not afraid to expresse this verity in these words because the phrase Justified by workes is the expresse saying of the Holy Ghost For Jam. 2.24 This Assertion that A man is justified by workes and not by faith alone is the language and word of God as well as this that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Jesus Christ For the Scripture delivereth both these assertions mentioning neither of them obviously as it were in transitu But handling both equally purposely and by way of doctrine for shee proposeth both and presseth both insisteth upon both confirmeth both by severall arguments and illustrating both by Similies and examples And therefore I cannot use such partiality to bee so earnest for either as thereby to bee against the other but I must maintaine them both and maintaine both for current doctrine to bee duly taught in the Church of God Because both in their due senses are infallibly true and of great consequence as well to magnifie Gods grace as to edifie his Church But I must allow unto both their proper senses and due distinctions for if I side with the assertion of Paul and cast off James with a distinction or side with James and cast off Paul with a distinction then I doe not rightly divide the word of truth But I rather make that right-downe division which Paul himselfe condemneth 1. Cor. 1.12 I am of Paul and I of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ. As therefore my faith is the Title whereby I am justified viz. procreatively and acquisitively i. e. Whereby my Justification is created produced and constituted to have the originall existence and beginning or whereby my state of divine alliance and inheritance to bee the Sonne and Heire of God is acquired commenced and initiated So my workes are the Tenure wherby I am justified viz. conservantly and retentively i. e. Whereby my Justification is continued preserved and maintained to abide subsist and remaine in that existence which originally it had by faith or whereby my state of divine alliance and inheritance is prolonged for my finall continuance to bee the Sonne and Heir of God untill such time as I possesse and enjoy that inheritance in heaven whereto I am now the heire and have a present right For that the verbe Justifie as also many others of the like nature doth consignifie these two kindes of efficiency namely procreant and conservant hath beene formerly shewed And by workes I understand good and holy workes for if the workes which unjustifie mee by building againe the state of sin which I destroyed are evill and sinfull then the workes which sub-justifie or support my state of justification must needes bee good and holy For seeing my Justification which procures unto mee a divine alliance to bee the sonne and heyre of God is a state of sanctity and holines what can bee more suitable convenient and comely then that a holy state should bee preserved by holy workes In this sense James affirmeth that A man is justified by workes and not by faith alone Which assertion hee prooves three severall wayes 1. By two reasons whereof one is Because faith without workes is dead i. e. the act of faith in justifying is frustrate voyd and of no effect as a Bill Bond or other writing whereto there is no hand nor seale For a man justified by faith if his faith be not seconded by workes to continue and maintaine his Justification he shall never possesse and enjoy that heavenly inheritance whereto hee was by faith justified and his faith falling of this effect is therefore voyd or dead The other reason is Because faith working with workes is by workes made perfect i. e. faith alone by it selfe is a thing imperfect and ineffectuall for in Justifying it doth but commence begin and enter the state of Justification and consequently it createth but an imperfect and weake right namely a right of Institution and Expectation a right of a son and heyre a right of interest clayme and hope a right escheatable and defeasable that may possibly bee destroyed But faith seconded accompanied and animated with workes is by workes made effectuall to continue consummate and 〈◊〉 the state of Justification into the state and assurance of salvation and consequently to procure a perfect plenary and full right namely a right of possession and fruition a right of peace rest and quiet an inheritance executed and seized subject unto no defeaâ—ance relapse or other casualty or as the Apostle calls it 1 Pet 1.4 an inheritance uncorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not 〈◊〉 reserved in Heaven for us Secondly he proves it by two Similyes or comparisons 〈◊〉 of one is that Faith alone without workes is like the Devils Faith for they have a kinde of faith whereby they believe the existence and unity of God And their faith is alone without workes namely without good and holy workes but they are not without evill and wicked workes and their faith with evill workes hath this evill worke upon them that it makes them to tremble The other Simily is that faith alone without workes is like the body without breath for as the body without breath is dead so faith without works is dead also Thirdly hee proves it by two Examples One of Abraham Was not Abraham our father justified by workes when he had offered Isaac his son upon the Altar i. e. The Justification of Abraham constituted long before by his faith whereby was imputed unto him a right of alliance and amity
to bee and bee called the friend of God was it not afterward continued by his worke in offering his son for was not that worke wrought by his faith and was not his faith and the Scripture mentioning it fulfilled by that worke The other example is of Rahab Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by workes when she had received the Messengers and had sent them out another way i. e. The Justification of Rahab constituted long before by her faith whereby she became a Proselyte and an Israelite in beleeving that the God of Israel was God in Heaven above and in earth beneath was it not afterward continued by her worke in Receiving the Messengers For was not that worke wrought by her faith and at the sacke of Jericho was not she and her family preserved by that worke and thereby continued Proselites unto Gods People Now from these Examples and Similies of James but especially from his two reasons it evidently followes that workes doe justifie in the sense alleadged namely conservantly For because Faith without workes is dead and working with workes is by workes made perfect or effectuall therefore workes doe preserve and continue the life perfection and efficacy of Faith and consequently they preserve and continue the state of Justification which is the effect of faith and whatsoever doth preserve and continue Justification that doth Justifie True it is that Neither faith nor works are the principall and prime efficients of my Justifying because God is the personall principall and prime efficient who makes mee to have my right and who makes mee to hold it but faith and workes are the reall mediall or meane efficients on my part For God willeth and ordayneth that fayth should bee my title whereby I acquire and have this right and that workes should be my tenure whereby to continue and hold it From my title I wholly exclude my workes allowing them neyther efficiency to justifie nor presence in my person at my Justifying For faith alone without any efficiency or any presence of workes within mee doth make me to have this right Because when I am to bee justified I have not within me any workes at all that any way qualifie me or can bee truely sayd to be resident in mee For manifest it is that I am then in the state and condition of a sinner if not legally of a transgressor against the Law yet morally of one somewhat improbous who was many wayes peccant in the rules of morality equity decency and mercy and jurally of one calamitous who must suffer and die like a sinner for the proper subject of Justification is a sinner But from my Tenure I exclude not faith but include and suppose it adding and adjoyning my workes unto it Because in my Justification faith hath a double efficiency first a procreant to constitute it and secondly a conservant to continue it Yet that degree of conservancy which flowes from faith is so imperfect that unlesse it be perfected by the accesse of works fayth alone is not able to conserve it selfe for without workes shee is dead Yet from my Tenure I exclude the solitarinesse both of my faith and of my workes for neither faith alone without workes nor workes alone without faith but both concurring and joyned together viz. faith conducting and co-operating with workes and workes accompanying and seconding faith doe justifie me conservantly as my Tenure making mee to continue and hold that state of divine alliance which faith alone did create and constitute And heerein I give the preeminence to faith for I say not thus Workes with faith but thus Faith with workes doth make up my Tenure faith as the principall and workes as accessories thereto to animate enable and render faith effectuall unto that effect which alone without workes it can not performe Because faith without workes is imperfect and dead but working with workes is by workes made perfect and effectuall And true it is that Workes doe also justifie declaratively because they declare manifest and shew that faith which doeth justifie efficiently and which alone without workes is efficient procreantly and which being alone without workes can not be declared For words will not serve the turne to declare the existence of faith but this service must be done by works And therefore the existence of that faith which is solitary alone and without workes can by no meanes bee sufficiently declared Hence saith the Apostle Jam. 2.18 Shew mee thy faith without thy workes Shew me if thou canst or thou canst not shew mee that faith of thine which is without workes or which is solitary or alone by it selfe for by thy words in saying thou hast faith it is not sufficiently shewed and by thy workes it cannot possibly be shewed because as thou acknowledgest it is a solitary faith which is alone by it selfe destitute of workes And I will shew thee my faith by my workes i. e. But I will shew thee my operary faith which worketh with workes for I will and doe declare it by my workes because I acknowledge that my faith is seconded and accompanied with workes Now because faith is declared or shewed by workes therfore workes are a Signe of faith and consequently they are a Signe of Justification to declare and shew the state of it because faith is a cause whereof Justification is the effect and whatsoever is a Signe of the cause is also a Signe of the effect Yet this is not all and the whole influence which workes have unto Justification that they are a Signe of faith to declare it But moreover workes are a cause of faith to effect it yet not a cause procreant to constitute and produce it but a cause conservant to continue and maintaine it For Jam. 2.26 As the body without the spirit is dead so faith without workes is dead also Now the Spirit whereby the body respireth and breatheth is a cause of the body yet not a cause procreant to give the body life and being but a cause conservant to continue and maintaine the life and being of it And consequently workes are also a cause conservant of that Justification whereof faith is a cause wholly procreant and partly conservant and to conserve Justification is to justifie For seeing that unto many words I willingly allow severall senses not only modall but reall I cannot with equity deny the like courtesie unto the Verbe Justified for the honour of those two great Apostles Paul and James who were planters of the Gospel and pillars of the Church especially when I consider the severall parties with whom they had to deale For Paul by his assertion opposeth the Judaizers who as was formerly shewed upon the 14. verse of this Chapter were Operaries and Rituaries standing so much for the workes and Ceremonies of the Law that they made workes the sole and whole efficient cause of Justification both the cause conservant to continue and maintaine the state of it and also the cause procreant to
constitute and produce the being of it And therefore against the Infirmity of these Paul in his Epistles to the Romans Galatians and elsewhere stoutly maintaines this doctrine that A man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by faith only Wherin according to the quicknesse and shortnesse of his speech hee intends these two points 1. That no workes at all are the cause procreant to constitute and build mans Justification as was largely explicated verse 16.2 That no workes of the Law are a cause conservant to continue and maintaine mans Justification as shall bee discovered in the next verity For in these two points the Judaizers held the contrary as it plainly appeares partly by their practise and partly by his arguments against them But James in his assertion opposeth the Gentilizers who were a party quite contrary to the former and in opposition of them were Fiduciaries and Libertines standing onely for fayth and liberty neglecting despising and disgracing all maner of works as no cause at all of Justification neyther procreant to constitute or build the state of it nor conservant to continue and maintayne it as before was intimated after the 14. verse And therefore against the vanity of these James maintaynes this doctrine that A man is justified by workes and not by faith onely Wherein his meaning is as it was well enough understood of the Gentilizers that good workes â—ot of the Law but of Grace love and kindnesse were necessary both to faith and Justification as causes conservant to continue and maintaine both untill Justification bee consummated determined and finished into salvation for without such workes faith is dead but with and by them is made perfect Allowing therfore unto the word Justified being a Verbe efficient or factive these two senses of efficiency procreant and conservant and thereupon affirming that Faith only without workes doth justifie procreantly to constitute the state of Justification But faith with workes and by workes doth justifie conservantly to continue that state Then it will plainly appeare concerning Paul and James that neyther of their doctrines is a paradoxe that neyther is to other repugnant but each with the other is consistent and both are conducent to the verity and sanctity of Christianity Nay more the doctrine of James is to that of Paul a necessary consequent borrowing from Paul those principles whereby it is both raysed and proved For because as Paul teacheth my faith only without works doth procreate or build my Justification and because evill workes destroy the state of it and build againe my state of sinne therefore it must needs follow as Saint James teacheth that good workes doe continue and maintaine the state of it For although they doe not procreate or build that state yet they preserve and uphold it from that destruction and ruine which evill works would bring upon it Againe because as Paul teacheth my continuance in sin is the cause corrumpent and destruent to decay destroy my Justification which is to unjustifie me therefore as James teacheth my continuance in good workes is the cause conservant and restituent to preserve the state and to restore the decayes of it For in case I should fall my faith alone cannot restore mee but if I recover my faith working by workes of Repentance must be the meanes of my Recovery Besides because as Paul teacheth 1. Cor. 13.2 Though I have all faith so that I could remove mountaines and have no charity I am nothing Therefore as James teacheth faith without workes is dead because the acts of charity are good workes and of all other the greatest Lastly because as Paul teacheth Gal. 5.6 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love Therefore as James teacheth Faith working with workes is by workes made perfect that it may finally availe in Jesus Christ Thus James in his doctrine and in his reasons thereof secondeth Paul not differing from him in sense and truth but onely in words and tearmes and for that verball difference there was a just occasion For Paul being an Apostle to the Gentiles tempereth his doctrine with such words and tearmes that hee might give no offence either to the unbelieving Gentiles who thereupon would continue in their unbeliefe or to the believing Gentiles who thereupon might recede from their beliefe For hee made it his rule not to offend any party but to please all seeking to save as many as hee could labouring to plant the Gospel and to increase the Church of God as much as might bee And James being an Apostle to the Jewes and writing to the twelve dispersed Tribes doth correspondently carry himselfe with the like temper that hee likewise might give no offence either to the unbelieving Jew or to the believing Judaizer Yet let no Christian presume to censure this temperate carriage with temporizing seeing heerein these two great Apostles practized the great rule of Charity which is To walke without scandall or giving of offence especially to parties opposite but rather to please both A rule by Paul both taught and practised as appeares 1 Cor 10.32 Give no offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God even as I please all men in all things not seeking mine owne profit but the profit of many that they may be saved And seeing under the tearmes of Justifying by workes taken in different senses opposite Errours did trouble the Church who can say to the contrary but that these two Apostles might bee moved to use these very termes either by the spirit of God or by their owne agreement that each should confute those severall errours within his severall line namely James within the line of Circumcision and Paul elsewhere Concerning this seeming opposition between Paul and James whereof I spake somewhat before but not enough there are extant divers other Reconciliations whereof I oppose none but leave every man to that sense whereby hee may bee most edified 4. The fourth verity is this The workes which continue my Justification are acts of Love The tenure whereby the Israelites continued their Justification to the kingdome of Canaan to hold and enjoy it were the workes of the Law in the literall sense For thus speakes Moses to the people Deut. 5.33 You shall walke in all the wayes which the Lord your God hath commanded you and that you may prolong your dayes in the Land which ye shall possesse i. e. Your walking in Gods Lawes shall continue and prolong your possession in the Land whereto yee are justified or have a right And in after-ages when their children should aske them the meaning of these Lawes they must answer their children thus Deut. 6.24 The Lord commanded us to doe all these statutes to feare the Lord our God for our good alwayes that hee might preserve us alive as it is this day and it shall be our righteousnesse if wee observe to doe all these commandements before
Italian in the Vulgar French and in our former English Translation in use before that of King JAMES which leaveth the Greeke and followeth the Latine of Beza Yet in the Translation of King JAMES the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in other places of the New Testament is rendred in that as Rom. 6.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. for in that hee dyed I live by the faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the faith for so the Vulgar Latine Italian and French render it The Greeke Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though many times it signifie by or through Yet heere it doth not so for the Apostles meaning is not to shew the meanes whereby hee lived but the manner wherein hee lived And the word faith by way of metonymy or transnomination is heere put for Religion which is the proper and due effect of faith for so faith is taken in divers places as Gal. 1.23 Now preacheth the faith which once hee destroyed i. e. the Religion which once hee destroyed And 1. Tim. 4.1 In the latter times some shall depart from the faith i. e. from the Religion And 1. Tim. 5.8 If any man provide not for his owne especially for those of his owne house hee hath denyed the faith i. e. the Religion of Christ To live in the flesh is to performe the naturall and civill acts of a mortall man who is compassed with flesh and blood as to eate drinke and sleepe to labour traffick or otherwise follow the workes of my worldly calling But to live after the flesh is another and a contrary thing not allowable to any Christian not compatible with mortification nor consistent with salvation For living after the flesh is a continuance in those sinnes which will for certaine exclude the sinner from his divine inheritance in the Kingdome of God as will appeare afterwards in this Epistle cap. 5. vers 19. c. To live in the faith or Religion of Christ is to performe those workes of Love which belong to a Believer professing the faith of Christ as workes of love to himselfe by Patience Temperance Chastity and Humility Love to his brother by Equity Mercy Meekenesse and Kindnesse Love to God by Piety and Devotion in his Worship and Service Or to live in the faith as the Apostle expresseth it in other words Ephes 4.1 Is to walke worthy of the vocation wherewith wee are called with all lowlinesse and meeknesse with long-suffering forbearing one another in love And againe Coloss 1.10 It is to walke worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good worke c. In a word it is to live a religious and holy life according to the profession and obligation of my faith for if my faith have not this effect upon mee to make mee live thus my faith is dead I were as good have no faith as have the Divels faith which justifies not And I were as good againe have no faith as to have such a bare semblance or shadow of a justifying faith which sanctifies me not For my Justification is before my Sanctification not onely in nature and time but also is or ought to bee the cause of it and will bee frustrate unlesse it have that effect An Objecti ∣ on The words then of this clause are another prevention of a tacit objection that might bee made against his former words immediately preceding For some man might thereupon say Seeing you and all other Christians are mortall men cloathed with flesh yee must needes therefore live after the manner of other men by performing those actions which belong to flesh and blood as actions naturall in eating drinking and sleeping and actions civill in discoursing buying selling and negotiating in the works of your calling All which actions and the like seeme nothing pertinent unto Christ and to life spirituall but carnall the Answer To this Objection his Answer seemes to bee thus as for my former sinfull actions they are wholly crucified and mortified for I have utterly renounced them and live not in them at all And as for my naturall and civill actions they are altered and changed for they are not now wholly the same that they were before but are all done in faith for they are as it were animated and quallified with my faith which governeth and ordereth them after a religious way For while I performe those naturall and civill actions which belong to flesh and bloud as necessary to the course of this mortall life I have alwayes a respect to the Faith and Religion of Christ which I professe thereby moderating ordering and ruling all my actions that I may walke worthy of the vocation whereto I am called carrying all things in a due conformity thereto and avoyding all tnat eyther may bring a scandall upon it or bee any way unworthy thereof For even my naturall and civill actions are now all referred unto God and being done in thankefulnesse to him for his grace they serve to declare and advance his glory Whether I eate or eat not to the Lord I eate or eate not and give God thankes Rom. 4.6 Hee that eateth eateth to the Lord for he giveth God thankes and hee that eateth not to the Lord hee eateth not and giveth God thankes This clause therefore of Living in the flesh and yet living in the Faith seemeth to be the same with that 2. Cor. 10.3 Though we walk in the flesh we doe not warre after the flesh Hence it appeeres that Our naturall and civill actions as far as they are capable of morality doe belong unto fayth For even upon such actions faith may have such an influence that they may be done in faith and that action which in one man is meerely naturall may in another be both naturall and religious being cloathed with some circumstance which may make it a service acceptable unto God Although my Faith and Religion oblige me not to undertake every kinde of action yet faith must moderate the maner of every action which I undertake that it be suitable to the will of God and faith must direct the end of every action that it tend to the glory of God Hence the Scripture is copious in her Exhortations that all things be done in a due maner nothing uncharitably Rom. 14.15 If thy brother be grieved with thy meat now walkest thou not charitably Nothing offensively 1. Cor. 10.32 Give no offence neither to the Jewes nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God Nothing contentiously Phil. 2.3 Let nothing be done through strife or vaine glory c. And that all things bee done to the right end All unto the Lord Rom. 14.8 Whether wee live wee live unto the Lord or whether wee die we die unto the Lord. All unto his glory 1. Cor. 10.31 Whether yee eate or drinke or whatsoever ye doe doe all to the glory of God All in thankfulnesse to him Col. 3.17 Whatsoever ye doe in word or in deed doe all
in the name of the Lord Jesus giving thankes to God and the father through him When I live thus ordering my humane actions in this maner and to this end then I may truly say of my selfe In that I now live in the flesh I live in the faith of the son of God as it followeth in the next words Of the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I live in the faith or religion in that faith or religion of the son of God The particle that being placed after faith doth emphatically determine and specifie the Author of that faith and religion wherein he lived namely in that of the Son of God And there is another emphasis in the article affecting the son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in that faith or religion of that Son of God that hee might lay out a singular designation of Christ in distinguishing him from other sons of God For he hath reference unto that person whom in this verse hee had before mentioned by the name of Christ in saying I am crucified with Christ and Christ liveth in me Heere therefore hee againe mentions the same person by another name in saying I live in the faith or religion in that of that Son of God who loved mee and gave himselfe for me i.e. of Christ for these words are an eloquent and affectionat circumlocution or description of Christ Wherein are expressed two excellencyes or eminent qualityes of Christ the one of his Birth in relation to God that he was the Son of God the other of his death in relation to man whom he so loved that he dyed for his sake Every Angel every Prophet and every Believer is A son of God but Christ is The or That son of God in a most eminent and singular maner above all other persons that are sons of God whether they be men or Angels Because to omit all other reasons not serving to the Apostles scope in this place hee was begotten on a Virgin not by the power of any man or Angel but by the power of the Highest for as the Angel Gabriel certifies the Virgin Mary his mother Luke 1.35 hee was therefore called the Son of God And heere the Apostle understands no other filiation of Christ then that whereby he was a mortall man because hee argues from his death in saying who loved mee and gave himselfe to death for mee Hee describeth Christ by this attribute of the Son of God that thereby he might expresse another cause that moved him to forsake the Law and Religion of Moses to embrace the faith and Religion of Christ and thereby to regulate all the actions of his life namely because Christ is the Son of God Which first argues for his person that Christ is a person of farre greater dignity then Moses For although Moses were a great Prophet yet his ordinary stile in reference to God runnes but thus that hee was the servant of God and the man of God But the constant title and stile of Christ is to bee the Son of God For from this very difference of condition the Apostle argues the high prerogative of Christ above that of Moses Heb. 3.5 And Moses verily was faithfull in all his house as a servant c. but Christ as a sonne over his owne house And secondly heereby hee highly commends the Religion introduced by Christ beyond that which was setled by Moses as a Religion and service more agreeable to the will and pleasure of God For the Authour to the Hebrewes doth in this respect exalt the Religion of Christ in that God hath delivered the message thereof by his Sonne Heb. 1.1.2 God who spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last dayes spoken unto us by his son Hence it will easily bee collected that the Religion of Moses being but the servant of God was but a servile Religion for the services thereof were very servile Heb. 9.10 which stood onely in meates and drinkes and divers washings and carnall ordinances imposed on them untill the time of Reformation Hence that whole Religion is called Rom. 8.15 The spirit of bondage to feare because it wrought in the people a passion of slavish feare such as they commonly have who live under bondage or servitude Hence also the services thereof are called Gal. 4.3 the Elements or Rudiments of the World under which as under Tutors and Governours the Jewes though they were the adopted Children and Heyres of God were held in bondage in a condition nothing different from servants But the Religion of Christ who is that sonne of God is a filial liberall and noble Religion whose services are fitted for the sonnes of God according to the state and degree of sonnes in their plenage who are come to their perfect growth and fullnesse of time For so it followeth in the place fore-cited But when the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his sonne to redeeme them that were under the Law in the condition of children and servants that they might receive the adoption of sonnes i. e. That they might receive their emancipation from the state of children to have their liberature according to the state and degree of sonnes in their plenage or full age The highest dignity which the Scripture ascribes to the Law or Religion of Moses is taken from the Publication of it in that it was ordayned and spoken by Angels and yet even in this respect she preferres the Religion of Christ before it because this was ordayned and spoken by that son of God who is the Lord not only of men but also of the Angels Heb. 2.2 For if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall wee escape if wee neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord Who loved me and gave himselfe for me Heere hee addeth the other attribute or eminent quality of Christ expressing thereby another motive that caused him to forsake the Religion of Moses and to embrace that of Christ namely because Christ had thereto endeared him by dying for him who sayth he loved me and gave himselfe to death for me Whereby he would insinuate that Christ was far more excellent then Moses not only for the dignity of his person in being the Son of God but also for the dearenesse of his affection in dying for Beleevers for neyther of those are true of Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. And delivered himselfe for me Yet heere and elsewhere it is well enough translated gave himselfe because the words give and deliver when they are used in this sense are many times interchanged and one put for the other But in the word Deliver standing thus single and applied to a person there is commonly an ellipsis or defect which is to be supplyed according to the exigency of the matter in hand and which for the most part is some evill
grace 3 Respective to the New Testament and so they are chiefly 3. which was very necessary done very sufficiently and very solemnly and why so from ReasoÌ„ and testimonies of Scripture 2. To Confirme it which also was necessary Effected Yet not by the Testator in his owne person But in the person of his owne Son Which assures my Right and argues the love of God and of Christ Hence is the Bloud of the New Testament opposed to that of Abel and to that of the Old Testament and is farre more holy 3. To Execute it for this is the Life of a Testament and a Bond upon the Executor who of the New Testament was Christ whereof the Reasons and the Testimonies from Scripture Christ a vested Executor for his Inheritance Power Honour and Office But upon the Condition of his Death a Condition strange Yet Possible and Necessary for 2 reasoÌ„s 1. For his owne Inheritance which otherwise he could not enter 2. For discharge of Legacies Hence he is the Captain of Salvation and Author of Salvation Hence at his Ascention he fulfilled Gods Will in giving gifts to men Hence our Expiation our Consolation our Resurrection and Glorification Hence Christs doctrine for the Necessity of his death whereof the causes remote were many yet all subordinate to the three forementioned But the Remission of sins is most mentioned and the Reason The force of Pauls argument The effect of a Testament Gods two Testaments are different and therefore are Repugnant The Old not in force because it was faulty or else Pauls argument is so and Christ dyed without cause Arguments of Gods grace for the Effect of it and the Meanes which was Rich Requiring my Faith and Hope and Love It comes not by the Law but is opposed to it I Doe not frustrate the grace of God The Greeke is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. I doe not despise reject disanul or bring to nothing the the grace of God for these foure ways the word is Englished elswhere and in this place only is rendred frustrate As Luke 10.16 Hee that heareth you heareth mee and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee that despiseth you despiseth mee And Marc. 7.9 And hee sayd unto them full well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee reject the commandement of God And Gal. 3.15 Though it bee but a mans Testament yet if it bee confirmed no man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 disanulleth or addeth thereto And 1. Cor. 1.19 I will destroy the wisdome of the wise and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will bring to nothing the understanding of the Prudent And all these foure wayes the word signifieth heere Because these severall senses are not really different but are either in a maner the same or else one consequent to the other For what I despise that also I reject and what I reject that I disanull or bring to nothing in effect by making it frustrate or void in respect of any use or benefit to my selfe If therefore I frustrate or make voyd the grace of God from having that effect upon mee which God purposed towards mee I disanul his grace or bring it to nothing which argues my refusall of it to reject it and my rejection argues my contempt of it that I disesteeme or despise it Concerning the nature of Gods grace what it is wee have spoken somewhat before cap. 1. vers 6. where the Reader may peruse it Heere therefore wee shall consider that effect of it from which the Apostle argueth and reasoneth in this place for heere the word is put by way of metonymy or transnomination for all those effects both mediall and finall whereof Gods grace is the originary and primary cause The Right whereto I am justified is a divine state of alliance and inheritance to bee the sonne and heire of God for this is the Matter of my right The Title whereby I acquire or have this Right is only my Faith to accept it for my Faith is a meane procreant cause on my part whereby I receive this Right The Tenure whereby I continue or hold it are the Duties and Services of holinesse or the good workes of love for these are a meane cause conservant on my part that my right may not escheat or bee forfeited The principall person who imputeth deriveth or conveyeth this right unto mee is God the Father for who but God as the principall Agent can make mee the sonne and heire of God The Motive inducing God to impute or convey this Right unto mee is his meere Grace I meane that inward affection residing in God which is his goodwill love favour mercy and kindnesse for all these are really the same but rationally different in respects So that my title on Gods part is Gods meere grace which is the supreame or prime cause having no other cause above or beyond it The cause why every Believer is the sonne and heire of God is because God in his last Will and Testament hath so devised or promised it And the cause why God in his Will made this devise or promise is his meere Grace i. e. his love or goodwill to dignifie a person who deserves it not For Gods love is his good-will to benefie or doe good and when the benefit done is a dignity or honour to the receiver and the receiver a person who deserves it not then such Love of God is his Grace My alliance with God to bee his sonne and heire hath it not in it there â—o qualities The one that it is an high dignity and honour unto me the other that it is far beyond my desert For no man can deserve to bee borne of his Father or after hee is borne to bee made the sonne of another But the onely cause of a sonne is love and the onely cause to bee made the sonne of God is the grace of God Because to bee made the sonne of God is the greatest dignity and honour in the Wold for thereby mans dignity approacheth to the Majesty of the most high God who though by reason of his power hee bee the Father of all yet by way of grace he is not so My Justifying therefore unto this alliance with God is by the Scriptures attributed to the grace of God Rom. 3.24 Being satisfied freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ And Rom. 4.16 Therefore it is of faith that it might bee by grace to the end the promise might bee sure to all the seed what is the thing that is of faith The divine inheritance to bee made the heires of God as it appeares in the words preceding vers 13. and 14. And Ephes 1.6 To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein or whereby hee hath made us accepted in the beloved i. e. Whereby hee hath justified us or made us co-heires with his beloved sonne And Ephes 2.4.5 But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith hee loved us even when wee were dead in sinnes hath
first loved mee therefore I must and doe love him 1. John 4.19 Wee love him because he first loved us And it goeth very well and happily with mee if Gods grace have this effect upon mee to bee seconded and followed with my workes of holinesse by way of gratefulnesse for his grace For this effect doth not follow necessarily but onely contingently which may bee or may bee not Seeing too manifest it is that in some men it followeth not Because otherwise Gods grace could not bee frustrated which the Apostle heere supposeth Yet I must constantly note that although my workes of holinesse bee not the cause procreant to produce the existence of Gods grace towards mee Yet they are the cause conservant to maintaine the continuance of it because otherwise his grace will bee frustrated Seeing then Gods grace is on Gods part the cause of my Justification unto this divine alliance and inheritance with him if therefore unto my workes I ascribe that cause which belongs unto his grace doe I not heereby frustrate the grace of God by denying it that effect which properly it doth produce Am I not heereby a Rejector and a Despiser of Gods grace as a thing superfluous and needlesse And consequently am I not an ungratefull and an ungracious wretch to magnifie the poorenesse of my workes above the richnesse of his grace Seeing unto workes of holinesse I stood bound before by the Law of nature as I am Gods Creature though hee had conferred upon mee no such grace of alliance as to make me his son and heir For if righteousnesse come by the Law A further confirmation and illustration of this last argument in the former clause of this verse comprising withall a prevention of a tacit objection An Obje ∣ ction For by reason of his former words some man might say why doe you speake of frustrating the grace of God Should you frustrate his grace if your right of inheritance should bee conveyed unto you by Gods Law and not by faith in Christ The An ∣ swer Heereto his Answer is affirmative that thereby he should frustrate Gods grace for saith hee if the right of inheritance come by the Law then Christ dyed without a cause and consequently the riches of Gods grace which appeared by the meanes of Christs death should bee made frustrate and void The word Righteousnesse in reference to God doth often signifie that vertue of God which is his Uprightnesse whereby all his actions are just and right according to that holinesse which unto him is naturall Sometime it signifieth his faithfulnesse in keeping and performing that promise which hee hath made But more frequently it signifieth his kindnesse which went before his promise and was the cause why hee made it For why doth God keep his promise The reason is because he is just faithful but why did he first make his promise the reason is because he is kind and gracious Of the word Righteousnesse in this latter sense we spake somewhat largely before in this Chapter verse 16. But heere in this verse the word signifies jurally for that right of alliance and inheritance which on my part is the effect or consequent of Gods kindnesse to mee and whereto his righteousnesse or kindnesse doth justifie mee All which amount in one word unto Justification as if the Apostle had expressed it thus if my Justification or the right whereto Gods kindnesse doth justifie come by the Law For Gods kindnesse his Justfying and my Right thence resulting are in this respect either put for the other Because they are all concurrent unto one and the same purpose for his righteousnesse or kindnesse is the cause whereof my Right is the effect and his Justifying is the act whereby through the meanes of my faith his kindnesse doth convey this Right unto me That therefore wee may heere performe what was before intimated in this Chapter vers 16. Wee are to observe that the Hebrew word Zedakah in the Old Testament and the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the New which in our Translations are commonly Englished by the word Righteousnesse doe many times signifie the Latine word Jus whereof the English is a Right Interest or Claime As Gen. 15.6 And Abraham believed in the Lord and hee counted it to him Zedakah for righteousnesse or a Right i. e. God upon Abrahams faith conveyed unto Abraham a right to the blessing which God had promised And Gen. 30.33 So shall Zidkathi my righteousnesse or right answer for mee in time to come when it shall come for my hire before thy face q. d. All the yong ones of the flock which shall fall out to bee spotted shall bee my hire for keeping the flock and my Right to these shall answer your question concerning my future wages for if you finde with mee any other then such let it bee theft in mee And Psal 35.27 Let them shout for joy and bee glad that favour Zidki my righteousnesse i. e. my right or as it is there translated my righteous cause And Proverb 16.8 Better is a little Bizdekah with righteousnesse i. e. with right for the words following require that sense then great revenues without right And Esay 5.23 Which justifie the wicked for reward and take away Zedakah Zaddikim the righteousnesse of the righteous from him i. e. the right of the righteous from him for no man can take away the uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse of the righteous from him but his jurall right may be and many times is taken from him Likewise in the New Testament the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth many times signifie a right As Heb. 11.7 And Noah became Heire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the righteousnesse which is by faith i. e. of the right which hee accepted by his faith For the matter whereto a man becomes heire is some right interest or claime and not uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse because such righteousnesse is not inheritable or deviseable to bee conveyed from one person to another as Rights and Interests may and doe And Rom. 4.4.5 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for righteousnesse i. e. for a Right for it hath reference to the thine former words Reward Grace and Debt which are jurall tearmes concerning matters of Right and plainely teach us this comparison betweene the Laborer and the Believer who agree in this that both have a good right interest or claime the Labourer to his wages and the Believer to his promise But in this they differ that the Labourer by title of his worke hath a right to his wages and his right is of debt But the Believer by title of his faith hath a right to his promise and his right is of grace And in the same Chapter vers 11. And Abraham received the signe of circumcision a seale 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the righteousnesse of the faith which hee had being uncircumcised that hee might bee the Father of all them that believe i. e. A seale of the right which hee had by faith being uncircumcised for a seale is not a signe of uprightnesse or morall righteousnesse but of a right interest or claime and the right sealed unto Abraham is heere specified That hee might bee the Father of all them that believe which condition in Abraham was not a morall righteousnesse but a jurall right of dignity And againe vers 13. For the promise that hee should bee the Heire of the World was not to Abraham or to his seeds through the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through the righteousnesse of faith i. e. through the right which hee had by faith for it hath reference to the two former words Promise and Heire which are jurall tearmes proper to matters of right for a Promise is an act which maketh a Right and an Heir is a person who hath a right The like sense the word Righteousnesse beareth in divers passages of that Epistle the recitall whereof would prove too numerous and tedious Yet for our further confirmation heerein wee may take notice that in the Old Testament the Hebrew word Zedakah doth not onely signifie a right but in King JAMES his translation is sometime so Englished As 2. Sam. 19.28 For all my Fathers house were but dead men before my Lord the King yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eate at thine owne table mah iesh li Zedakah what right have I therefore yet to cry any more unto the King The Right heere mentioned is the right of Inheritance which Mephibosheth had to his Land whereof he stood then disseised by the treachery and calumny of Ziba as it appeares by the words following And Nehemiah 2.20 Then I answered them and sayd unto them the God of Heaven he will prosper us therefore we his servants will arise and build but you have no portion Uzedakah nor right nor memoriall in Jerusalem The Right heere mentioned was a Right of Inheritance or of some speciall Priviledge which the three persons to whom hee spake could not clayme because they were not Jewes but Strangers for Sanballat was a Samaritan Tobiah an Amonite and Geshem an Arabian And Psal 9.4 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause thou satest in the throne Judging Zedek right And Psal 17.1 Heare Zedek the right O Lord attend unto my cry Thus the Hebrew word Zedakah the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the English righteousnesse doth many times signifie a Right and is sometime so Englished Now that the same word doth also signifie a Right here in the Text which we have now in hand though here it be not so Englished it playnly appeares from a parallell place in the next chapter following verse 18. For if the Inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise For first both these sayings carry the same sense because every Inheritance is a Right though not contrarily every Right is not an Inheritance for there be divers other Rights besides Inheritances But an Inheritance is one speciall kind and indeed the best kind of Right when it comes to be in possession because it is an universall and perpetuall Right extended to a whole estate for ever What therefore in one place is meant by the generall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Right the same is expressed in the other by the speciall word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Inheritance Secondly both these sayings carry the same reason because in both places hee argues for one and the same conclusion namely that a man is not justified by the Law which hee proves from the severall absurdities which upon a supposall of the affirmative will necessarily follow for if a man be justified by the Law or if his right come by the Law or if his Inheritance be of the Law for all these sayings are all one in effect then all is frustrate voyd without cause and of no effect for the grace of God is frustrate faith is made voyd the death of Christ is without cause and the promise is of no effect For when he saith It is no more of Promise hee seemes to say The Promise is of no effect for so hee sayth expresly in a place paralell to both these Rom. 4.14 For if they which be of the Law be heires fayth is made voyd and the Promise made of no effect Then Christ is dead in vaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Dyed without cause This is the absurdity which will necessarily follow upon the former supposition that the right to blessednesse commeth by the Law The Greeke Adverbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth not signifie in vaine for that is in vaine which is without effect neither is it elswhere in the New Testament ever translated in vaine neyther is that sense the minde of the Apostle heere though that sense be a truth and will follow upon the former supposition But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifies gratis i. e. for nothing or of gift without desert reward or recompence and in this sense it is commonly translated by the word freely as Rom. 3.24 being justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his grace Yet sometime and so heere in this place it signifieth causelesly or without cause and that is done causlesly or without cause for which there is no reason or at least no just weighty or sufficient reason So the word is rendred John 15.25 they hated me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a cause and so in this place it stands rendred in that English translation which was here in use before that of King JAMES q. d. If the Right of Inheritance unto blessednesse bee Legitimate and come by the Law then there was no just cause nor no sufficient reason can be given why God should deliver Christ and Christ should deliver himselfe up to death But heere in the Death of Christ must bee tacitly comprehended by way of Synecdoche all those other actions of his without which his death would have failed of that due effect for which it was purposed as his Doctrine before it and especially his Resurrection after it For when the Apostle declares the causes of his Death hee commonly also makes expresse mention of his Resurrection joyning it with his death in respect of causality As Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered for our offences and was raised againe for our justification And Rom. 6.4 Therefore wee are buried with him by baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead to the glory of the Father Even so wee also should walke in newnesse of life And Rom. 8.34 Who is hee that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen againe And Rom. 14.9 For to this end Christ both dyed and rose and revived that hee might bee Lord both of the dead and the living And 2.