And that this is the Condition upon which Christ is ours and upon which his Righteousness becomes ours and thus Faith Justifies And thus Faith comes to be through such very Discourses of Faith an Eclipse upon the Righteousness of Christ And so the Works of Faith come to be so also for say they Every true Faith must have VVorks And the Apostle saith A Man is justified by VVorks and not by Faith only Now these things they raise not only great Disputes concerning which it were indeed much and earnestly to be desired that they may be laid among the Servants of God that they may be calmed and composed because it is greatly to the dishonour of the Gospel that there should be those noises of Axes and Hammers in the Work of the Gospel and because Men are ready to be scandalized And it is told in Gath and published in the streets of Askalon as the Expression is And therefore I say we should earnestly desire to speak all the same thing and to be in one Mind and in one Judgment according to the Truth of the Gospel And then besides they are ready to stagger Souls and to make them they know not which way to turn and they must dispute the things with themselves and so they are kept off from the healing that wound of Conscience and from the getting that full Assurance of Faith and of Hope and of Knowledge So that while the wound of Conscience and the bleeding of Conscience should be stanched and while the close Application of the Blood of Christ should work the Cure the Souls and Spirits of Men are greatly in Dispute and Perplexity which way and in what Method what they should lay first as it were to the bleeding Conscience and to the distressed Spirit Now I have lately given you this Rule and I would renew it and 〈◊〉 it to you That you labour after and seek after these things from God and that you would not perplex your selves about the term of Dispute in which these things are conveyed O! Let but our Souls find that we have Christ indeed for ours and that we apply to his Blood by Faith and that we turn from every Iniquity by Repentance and it is no matter for all the Disputes about the Order and whether a Man should stay for this or for that But let him give up his Soul according to the Impression of Grace and the Spirit of God upon him But yet however when we discourse of these things plainly and peaceably and according to the clearest Light and Reason of the Gospel they are to be attended to And our Minds thereby shall have Ideas and Representations of them that may be suitable to the inward Case of our Souls And therefore at this time I shall lay down four Positions in which I shall open to you the nature of Faith in Relation to Justification Or The true nature of Justification as it is taken in by Faith The First Position that I shall lay down is this I say No Righteousness but a Divine Righteousness an Everlasting Righteousness can be the Righteousness of a Lost and undone Sinner Of an Immortal Eternal Soul lost and undone by sin No Righteousness but a Divine Righteousness an Eternal and Euerlasting Righteousness O! Keep this always in your mind It must be such a Righteousness Or it will not serve the great Purpose of your Souls The Second thing that I would lay down is this that there is no possibility that Faith by any virtue or Excellency of its own should be our Righteousness And therefore tho there be a great Renown of Faith in the Gospel compared with the Graces of the Spiâ—… â—f God and the working of that Spirit in the Hearts and Lives of Châ—stians yet still it is not with Relation to God so as to be our Righteousness But onely as I shall shew you it takes in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ and wherein the Excellency of it lyes to that purpose In the Third place the Third Position that I would lay down is this That tho it is true that the Faith the Gospel speaks of is a vigorous working active Faith yet the works of Faith are further off from the Justifying of a Sinner than Faith it self is So that take the most excellent works of any of the Believers in Jesus Christ It is not their works I say it is not their works that are their Righteousness to Justification they are further off from Justification than their Faith is And yet this Faith cannot be their Justification The Fourth Position that I would lay down is this that Faith has not a Power of it self to take Christ But Jesus Christ gives himself to the Soul And then the mighty Power of Faith flows out from him and Twines about Christ and unites it self unto Jesus Christ These Four Positions I do not find upon the most severe Examination that they do in the least Abridge or take off any thing from the Holiness of the Gospel and from the duties in which all Christians are to be found And yet they give us indeed the truth of the freeness of the Grace of the Gospel and will Redeem us from all mistakes and misapprehensions or from lessening the Glory of Christ and his Righteousness I Begin at this time with the First of them And that is that no Righteousness but an Everlasting a Divine Righteousness can possibly serve the case of our Souls You find therefore in Dan. 9. 24. When Jesus Christ came into his great Action as a Mediator He is said to finish transgression and to make an end of sin and to make Reconciliation for Iniquity and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness He brings in Everlasting Righteousness David has an Expression which I confess one would be ready If one does not weigh and compare it with the whole Scripture to think it was the Righteousness of Holy works onely he or rather the Holy Spirit intended by him in it But if we consider it close and with the whole Scripture there is Reason to look upon it as having Relation to the great salvation by the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Psal 119. 144 The Righteousness of thy Testimonies is Everlasting c. I say it does seem to refer to those Righteous and Holy Precepts of God But he calls it the Righteousness of thy Testimonies That is the Great Testimony of Revelation that God hath given anew by the word Not that Righteousness that was written upon the heart of man But the Righteousness of the Testimony of the Revelation of God And therefore give me understanding herein and I shall live According as he said there is a Covenant made with me ordered in all things and sure And it is an Everlasting Covenant And therefore the Righteousness of his Testimonies is to be expounded by those very words Sam. 2. 23. 5. Although my house c. And though his house was not so with God That is though he could not
of God I say should send out so great a Minister of the Gospel as the Apostle James was to lay down a Position so contrary as it seems to be to Paul That a Man is not Justified by Faithly but by Works And to make so great an Appearance against that Truh that great Truth of the Gospel and to give occasion to so many Enemies of the Free Grace of God and to so many Devines and strange kind of Representations of this great Truth by Men in all Ages bearing up themselves upon the Authority of such a place of Scripture as this is Now therefore by way of Answer to it I shall not be long altho the thing requires indeed a great deal of Thought and Consideration And I hope God will enable me to give it in summ tho I cannot speak so large of it The first thing I desire you to consider is That certainly upon this great Point I am very clear in it We are call'd to Consider that if we speak indeed strictly and down-right to the Point a Man is no more Justified by Faith as it is a Grace or an Act or a Work or whatsoever you call it in it self I say no more Justified by it than he is by Works Certainly God would have us fetch about every way and consider how this can be that the Apostle James can seem so to Contradict the Apostle Paul Now The first thing that offers it self to us is That a man is not indeed Justified by Faith upon any Merit Excellency or Worth or Desert that is in Faith it self As I told you if Faith should pretend to it it would be thrown like Lucifer out of Heaven And therefore it is not by Faith in it self And then Secondly I do believe that in the same sense wherein Faith is said to be Justifying in dependence upon the Righteousness of Chriâ—t in the same sense Works may be said to Justify in dependence upon Faith Pray observe what I say I say Faith Justifies in dependence upon Christ And works may be said to Justify in dependence upon Faith For in the same degree wherein Faith stands to Christ for Righteousness in the same degree may works stand to Faith in the matter of Justification So that works depend upon Faith and that depends wholly upon the Righteousness of Christ And if this be seriously considered it will clear to you what else might seem a very great doubt Now therefore to lay down plainly my sense of the Apostles scope of being Justified by Works and not by Faith only There are these three senses in which it may be understood And I shall make out every one to you by plain Expressions of the Apostle James and yet very briefly Leaving it especially to your own Meditation and Thoughts upon it The first is this That wherever a Man is supposed by the Apostle James to be Justified by Works and not by Faith only it is because Faith and Works have a kind of Hypostatical Vnion a Personal Vnion So that to say Faith and VVorks is to say no more than to say whole Faith entire Faith For if Faith have not works it is false Faith it is Counterfeit Faith it is not whole entire true Faith And therefore the Apostle means nothing more by it than only that if you would know what Faith you are Justified by it is Faith that hath a Mighty Power of Operation or VVork And therefore I understand no more by the Apostle James speaking of Works joyned with Faith than the Apostle Paul said The work of Faith with Power Faith hath a mighty Power of working By Faith they did so and so all along Heb 11. This is through Faith a mighty operating working faith And when Jesus Christ gives himself he always gives an operating Faith so he gives himself only to a Faith that he knows hath mighty Power and Principles of Operation It is because it is true Faith whole Faith entire Faith the Faith of God's giving like precious Faith As you know in a Jewel if it be only a counterfeit it wants some of the essential Excellencies of a Jewel As if a Man should think to be made Rich by a false Jewel it is a false counterfeit appearance though it may have some appearance of a true Stone yet it wants the true Exccellency and Value of it So the Apostle Discourses and shews what a true real working justifying operating Faith is James 2. 16. If a Brother or Sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto him Depart in peace be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful for the body You know this is a false Charity And so it is a false faith that pretends to believe in Christ and cannot act suitably And again he faith As the Body without the Spirit is dead so Faith without Works is dead also Now if we should make a dead Man set his hand to a Writing you know that Writing is of no value though you may guide the Hand of the dead Man to write so and so while you guide the Hand because he is a Man without Spirit He has not the Spirit of a Man And so Faith if it hath not all the Graces and Actions suitable to it it is but a dead Faith It is dead as the Apostle saith and it is but the faith of Devils It is not a perfect faith it hath not truly the Nature of faith It is not as I may the whole Person of faith This is the first Sense the Apostle aimed and drove at to distinguish true faith from a meer formal professionary faith saying as Men do I believe in one God the father Almighty And so you know they go on Now a meer Profession of Faith without the power of Faith in a Man's Soul It is but the counterfeit Image of faith and not faith it self So James saith Thou believest there is one God c. In this second place This indeed is the way that God doth generally demonstrate and manifest the Truth of faith to the Souls of Believers and to the Observation of others And so it is true That faith cannot demonstrate it self either to a Believer's Soul or in ordinary and general speaking it cannot manifest it self except it have Works And so that Sense that some Interpreters give of this Discourse of the Apostle here is That one Faith justifies before God and the other justifies before Men that is Faith in its Works justifies before Men But faith alone taking Christ and his Righteousness before God though it is always a faith that hath within it self such a power of Action as to demonstrate it self to Men or else it is but a dead Faith And a vain Man it is that looks upon a faith to be faith that has not this mighty Operation And so the Apostle saith Faith wrought with Works He does not say His works were alone but faith wrought
THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Justified IN Scripture-Sense According to Scripture Opened Explained and Applied on Rom. 5. 1. In Six Sermons Published as Preached with little or no Alteration at the Desire of some of the Hearers Esaiah 55. 1. Ho every on that Thirsteth come ye to the Waters and He that hath no Money come ye Buy and Eat without Money and without Price LONDON Printed for W. Marshal at the Bible in Newgate-street 1695. THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Justified c. The First Sermon Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ INtending to Treat of Faith whereby we are Justified I have taken this Weighty Text as the Foundation of the Discourse wherein we have these Four remarkable Points concerning Faith as we are Justified by it 1. This plain Point first comes before us That we are Justified by Faith expressed thus Being Justified by Faith 2. That we are Justified by Faith is a conclusion resulting from a strong nervous and vehement Reasoning of the Apostles that had gone before in the foregoing Chapters signifyed in that Particle Therefore assuring to us this great Truth 3. The Blessed consequence of being Justified by Faith we have peace with God the Judg of all This gives full Peace Rest and Quiet to Conscience Peace and Assurance for ever according to the Nature of a full and perfect Righteousness 4. The supreme Principal Cause of our being Justified by Faith and having Peace from it is our Lord Jesus Christ by whom as the Apostle goes on we have access unto this Grace wherein we stand This then is the grand Proposition of the Apostle That being Justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ I shall at this time therefore propose to open the great Grace of Gospel Faith to you by which we are Justified because indeed it is one of the greatest Points that can be spoken of And therefore these Heads of Discourse I will now undertake to handle to you concerning it First To shew you that the Supreme and Highest and Original Account or Description of Faith is to be taken by its Relation to Jesus Christ the Mediator And it is nothing at all if you remove that If you take away that Respect that great Respect that it looks upon and Eyes Jesus Christ the Mediator In the second place I shall come to consider how Faith even in its relation to Christ and as it looks upon him is said to be Justifying Faith or that whereby we are Justified For if we did not rightly state this as the Gospel doth as it is said the last Error might be worse then the first And therefore I would particularly guide your Thoughts and Apprehensions how Faith as it looks to Christ Justifies I shall therefore shew you that it is not Faith it self but only the great Righteousness of Jesus Christ received by Faith that Justifies In the Third place I shall comâ—… consider that great certainty that Faith is to obtain in every point wherein it so Acts which it ought to reach after and to aspire to in every point wherein it hath to do with Christ that we may have Peace by it through our Lord Jesus Christ as Christ saith John 17. 7 8. They have surely known and have believed that I came forth from thee and that thou didst send me So in every thing Faith is surely to know And then In the Fourth place I shall shew you the Life and the Power and the Activity of this Faith and compare thein Heb. 11. and James 2 where that Apostle speaks of Faith being Dead that is without Works And I shall endeavour to shew you that there is no such Commentary no such way of Reconciling the Apostle James with the Apostle Paul The Apostle Paul speaking of Faith Justifying without Works And the Apostle James speaking that a Man is not Justifyed by Faith only but by Works also I say the great Reconciliation will be by laying Heb. 11. and James 2. together Now I begin at this time with the first of these And I 'll lay down with great assurance this Assertion concerning the respect Faith hath to Christ That there never had been such a thing as the sound of Faith in the World there had never been the Name Not the Air and much less the Thing had not God brought the first Begotten as the Apostle saith into the World Had not Jesus Christ given a Being to Faith there had never been such a thing as Faith And therefore it is very observable that the Apostle calls Christ by this very Name Gal. 3. 23. Before Faith came saith he we were under Tutors and Governors We were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed Before Faith came It is certain Faith was in the World before the Gospel before the New Testament For it is said Abraham was Justified by Faith and Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness and yet saith the Apostle before Faith came that is before Christ came because Faith is so Essentially Dependent upon Christ and Respective unto him Christ is such a real Foundation and support of Faith that he is worthily and properly called by the very Naâ—… or by the word Faith before Faith came But for the clearer opening and making out of this to you I shall insist upon these three Heads First That Jesus Christ is the highest Revelation of God Now Faith it is described by almost all in part at least to be an Assent to a Divine Revelation upon the Credit that we give to the Revealer upon the Authority and Veracity and Certainty of the Truth of the Revealer For Faith you know properly is a believing the Report of another or the Witness of another We cannot properly be said to Believe when we do know the thing our selves and have seen it by our own Eyes but when we Trust and Credit that Assurance that another gives us of it Now therefore I shall endeavour to make out to you That Jesus Christ is He Faith must needs Live and Die with him as I may so express it in familiar Language it is as Essential to Faith to have the Manifestation and Revelation of Christ as it is for the Eye to have Light And then In the Second place Whereas the notion of Faith is a Trust and a depending upon some great Good that is offered to us from the Supreme Good that we have no Right nor Title to in our selves I shall shew you that Jesus Christ is that Great and Rich Good that is given to us from the Father And that tho we have no Right to the thing in our selves yet we come to Trust and to Depend and to Rely upon it as if we had a Title And then In the Third Place Whereas Faith is very truely tho not in the first Account of it described to be a Power
union and no other way As I hope by the assistance of God and his Goodness giving leave evidently to make out by Scripture I shall therefore pitch upon that Heb. 6. to shew you that Faith flyes with all the speed it can for Righteousness saith the Apostle who have fled for Refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us verse 18. who have fled All the speed they can possibly make is little enough too little as it were to lay hold upon that Hope that is set before us Jesus Christ so saith the Apostle I desire to be found in him The Expression evidently alludes to that Expression in Scripture when the Man slayer fled from the Revenger when the Pursuer of Blood and the Minister of Vengeance was at his Heels he made all the way he could to fly to the City of Refuge So I say the Soul by Faith makes all the way it can with all the speed it can to flee for Refuge to the Hope set before it in Jesus Christ Now I would argue another thing to you as I did in the former as I told you All Truth comes in by the Knowledge of Christ the Great Truth All the Report of Truth comes in by Jesus Christ the supream Truth So all Trust and Hope of Good comes in the Great Sacrifice As now suppose a Man be in want or in fear of Danger or in fear of this or that Inconeniency in the present State Why Faith this Saving Faith in Christ having taken him in as the great Redeemer as the great Sacrifice it flies to God through him in every Case As now It was certainly a Fruit of Saving Faith in David when he said to God I flee to thee to hide me from danger when my Heart is overwhelmed Lead me to the Rock that is higher than I. I make no doubt but this was a Fruit of Saving Faith And so when the Servants of God cry to him for necessary Food and Rayment if they have taken Christ it is a Fruit of Saving Faith of that kind When Jehoshaphat cryed out to God when he was likely to have been slain as Ahab was it was Saving Faith in Jehoshaphat that cryed to God why because he had taken in the Redeemer But if we cry to God without the Redeemer it is but howling But when once we have taken hold of Christ it is Saving Faith There 's one Scripture more and then I 'll conclude this with Application to shew when we come to Christ upon a Title when we have first taken Christ as the supreme Good and Saviour and Deliverer 1 Pet. 4. 19. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the Will of God commit their Souls to him in well doing as unto a faithful Creator He does not say a faithful Redeemer but a faithful Oreator Why because Jesus Christ the Redeemer had been taken in We can never trust in God as a faithful Creator till we have first trusted in Jesus Christ the great Redeemer the great Sacrifice of Attonement I come therefore to make the Application of this in these three Particulars in which I will be very brief The first Vse is Oh! I beseech you let us in every thing consider Faith When ever you think of Faith don't look upon it in it self but only in its Relation to the Redeemer Indeed Faith is like the Eye there is a great deal of admirable curious Workmanship in the Eye as the Anatomists of the Eye have made very plain One would stand amazed to behold the admirable Skill of the Creator in the Eye that excellent Machine as I may call it And yet notwithstanding all this Without Light what were the Eye even nothing at all And so Faith hath a great deal of curious Workmanship It is a great Work of God The Work of Faith with Power as the Apostle saith It is the Faith of Gods Power It is the like precious Faith But if you take away Christ from it alas It is nothing at all All its Excellency is in its Union to Christ I speak this that I would not in the least seem to quarrel or to raise a Controversie with any Holy Servants of Jesus Christ Yet I say we are ready to run into such a kind of Notion of Faith as if there was some Excellency in its self and because it obeys as it is very true it does And because it purifies the Heart and Life and lays Arguments and Engagements of Obedience I don't deny any thing of this but desire to speak the same thing But I still affirm that we may not be mistaken in Faith For this is not its Excellency no more than it is the Eyes Excellency that it is curiously made whereas it would be nothing no not so much a beauty if it were not for Light It were all one as if a Man were blind or had no Eye So it is all one if it were not for Christ whether there were such a thing as Faith or no such thing as Faith It were of no value or Account if it were not for him And therefore I beseech you keep all this strictly in your Thoughts Faith is excellent Why because Christ is excellent and it hath to do with him It hath a great many Subordinations of Excellency on this side Christ but its great Excellency is it touches Christ And then In the second Place I beseech you let us always mind this the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ Don't think of his Benefits divided from his Person for God gives you his Son he gives you his Son first and Principally but when he gives you his Son all his Benefits come with him There is Pardon Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption every thing comes in by Jesus Christ He gives you Christ himself first It is He that is made this to us There are so many Scriptures in this Point that I don't know where to stay when I come to consider it As now He that hath the Son hath Life And God gives his Son and all things together with Him And we have not Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption as it were apart that God sends them by themselves and we have them And though Christ be to be known to be the Author only of them it is no matter whether we mind him further or not I say this is not the Truth of the thing But ye are of God in Christ Jesus who is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness c. And you cannot have them except you have Christ first you must have him first and unite first with him But that which I shall pitch upon is Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me But indeed the first and principal thing that we are to look to in Christ is Redemption
It is true Because as God saith they were his Servants in the doing of them And they were as the Axe and as the Saw in his hand he gave them great strength And so now what is done and has been done by the French Potentate certainly it is because God hath had a great End and Design in it And I am very sure it is well known that God hath set him up to do all that he has done for special purposes of his own and According to all that Frame of Prophesy that is given But now here 's a great Difference As here do but observe it As God speaks in the Prophet Isaiah There 's great difference between David and Nebuchadnezzar Between Joshua and such a one as Nebucadnezzar or such a one as Alexander or such a one as Julius Caesar that History makes so famous I say here 's the great difference As God saith They are but like the saw in his hand Isa 10. 15. Shall the Ax boast it self against him that heweth therewith Or shall the Saw magnify it self against him that shaketh it That is These are things without Sense You know an Ax or a Saw whatever it doth it does without any Sense of what it does So these have done great things because they have been in God's hand to do by But they had no sense at all of the things they did They had no Faith Here 's the great difference Now I say if we could receive it this I look upon to be the great Reconciliation between the Apostle Paul and the Apostle James This 11th to the Hebrews it Expounds what the Apostle means by a Faith of Works He does not speak of the ordinary Works of Holiness but he speaks of extraordinary As Abraham Sacrificing his Son and Rahab leaving the Int'rest of his Country from a sight that God was pleased to Exalt that People of Israel These were the Heroick Acts of Faith And these the Apostle properly speaks of And therefore to Argue the ordinary Duties Practice and Conversation and Holiness to Justification is not according to the sense and intention of the Apostles meaning not in Justifying Abraham as I shall speak particularly to that wherein and how Faith comes to Justify But still I go on further Lest any one should say why then are not the ordinary ways of Holiness under the Power of Faith and so Derived by Christ Yes by all means as I have spoken to you before He is our Sanctification But I speak of it only now as under this Head the Heroick Acts of Faith For all the ordinary Acts of Faith come under him As now suppose any one is called out either as a General in this very Age if he be truly a Believer in Christ tho he does but the things that are Accountable according to the Law of Arms if I may so speak according to the Law of a General and the great use and office of a General yet still even those ordinary Actions where they are Believers are done by the Power of Faith You 'll say Why when others do the same thing I Answer as I did before They are but Axes and Hammers As God calls Nebuchadnezzar the Hammer of all the Earth And his Empire was the Hammer of all the Earth They do things but as Hammers There 's a great deal of difference I 'll assure you in this thing tho the outward Action be the same yet the inward is not the same When a Man as a General leads an Army in the Cause and Interest of God and when another does it by his own Prowess The one does it by Faith the other by an Instrument There is a living Spirit in Believers and therefore God does many times raise them up to greater Actions than Ordinary But I only speak when God calls Men to Deny to be the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter as Moses when he calls Joshua to be so great a Warriour in the World And David and those Worthies to do extraordinary Works It is by Faith through the Mediator it is all upon his Account and is managed for him and by his strength by Faith The Fifth thing in which I would open to you the great excellency of the Nature of Faith That in the obtaining of Wonderful things it is a Wonderful thing how God hath enlarged Faith to the obtaining of extraordinary things in several Ages of the World Indeed you may say such things are ceased now But as I have endeavoured to shew you there shall be a Revival of them But now when such great things as we read of at any time in the Scripture Extraordinary Appearances of God in a way of Deliverance of his Saints When Elijah prayed and shut the Heavens When great Deliverances were obtained by Prayer in Fights When there has been great Answers of Prayer extraordinary Answers of Prayer in any case That God hath Appeared in the Mount This hath been from the Power of Faith And therefore the Apostle Heb. 11 one of the things that he puts into the great Record of Faith it is this That they obtained promises vers 33. They stopt the Mouths of Lyons When the Fire could not burn upon those three Shadrach Meshach and Abednego Why this was by the Power of Faith they quenched the Violence of the Fire And Women received their Dead raised to Life again This was by the power of Faith All these things are extraordinary things given to the Mediator to do for his Servants according to the season that he sees fit And they are conveyed to But I would very earnestly desire to add something concerning the Kingdom of Christ What is the Reason that the Scripture is so abundant of such a World to come Whereof as the Apostle saith we speak In such a new Heaven in such a new Earth In such a Sabbattism that remains for the people of God In such a glorious Inheritance as shall he What is the Reason we are so hard to believe it It is only the want of Faith I 'll give you one Scripture concerning this Heb. 11. 39 40. These all having obtained a good report through Faith receiving not the promise God having provided some better thing for us that they without us should not be made perfect This place of Scripture if it were but well pursued followed and Argued from would prove to you That the great Point of Faith is the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Undoubtedly there should have been an Eternal Life an Eternal Happiness for Adam If he had stood in Innocency There had been a preparation and a provision But this very state of things comes in by the Mediator by his entring into Rest for us this great Sabbattism comes in But now the thing that I would urge I wouid help you in this thro' Faith they obtained a good Report A great Fame as I told you before a great Renown But they received not the Promise How can it be said They received not the
And then In the third place It acknowledges all to God back again It gives Glory to him in the Action That that I mean now is setting to the Seal that God is true depending upon Infinite Grace Infinite Power And then when the thing is done it returns all back again to God To him be Glory that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb who Loved and Washed in his Blood To the Holy Spirit as seven Spirits before the Throne It returns all to him And then In the last place It Receives even to Eternity by way of free Communication from God and from Christ And therefore tho there be some kind of Faith I acknowledg that fails as the Apostle saith and ceases in the Happiness and Blessedness of Eternity and of the Kingdom of Christ some kind of Faith doth But yet that Faith whereby the Spirits of Saints even to Eternity receive Glory and Blessedness and Life from God and from Christ That Faith never fails I am very assured when Saints have been ten Thousand Thousand of Ages in Happiness and Blessedness They 'll own it still as Free and pure gift of Grace in and through the Mediator That they are one with the Father through Christ And the Love wherewith the Father Loveth Christ is in them because Christ is in them This never Ceases to Eternity a dependence upon God in Christ a Being in him I shall make but two brief Applications of what I have spoken and so conclude And The First Application I would make of it is To bring all our Hearts to that we read in the Gospel when Peter said to Christ Matt. 18. 22. How often shall my Brother not sin against me and I forgive him Till seven times Jesus saith unto him I say unto thee until seven times but until seventy times seven And in another Evangelist when Christ had said thus to Peter He cries out in the great Sense of this thing It seemed so great a kind of Difficulty and Impossibility to him the forgiving so often Saith Peter upon Christ's saying there must be a forgiving so often Lord encrease our Faith Now this is that I desire every one of us to make use of what I have spoken to you to cry out unto Christ Lord encrease our Faith And another Matt. 9. 24. When the Father had brought his Children to Christ and Christ told him All things are possible to him that Believes straight-way the Father of the Child cryed out and said with Tears Lord I believe help mine unbelief So I say O that we could cry out with Tears If Faith be such a thing as certainly it is or this Book of God is not true I say certainly Faith is such a thing as I have described O that we could cry out with tears in every case I have named to you O Lord I Believe Help thou my unbelief That we could cry out with Tears O! Want of Faith is the great want among us all We have not so much Faith as a Grain of Mustard-Seed certainly O How therefore are there not great things done among us because we believe not No great things done in our Souls no great things done for us in a way of Providence There are no great and mighty Conquests over Lusts and Corruptions No great and mighty Powers of Holiness and Heavenliness because we want Faith Indeed Men go to work without Faith and they think they can manage the thing But as I hope to have opportunity to shew you No one in the World can make so much as a grain of Mustard seed so not so much Faith as would amount to a grain of Mustard seed O! therefore Let us cry out to Heaven for more Faith We should obtain Promises we should have great things done if we had but more Faith And then The Second thing with which I conclude to beseech you to look to that Kingdom and Glory of Christ wherein so much mighty Power both of Faith and Action shall be given Psal 46. 1. God is our Refuge and Strength a very present help in trouble therefore will we not fear tho the Earth he removed c. We should not be so intimidated so full of fear if we had but Faith Tho the Waters c. even when Mountains were thrown in the midst of the Sea and the Waves Roaring yet there shall be a still silent stream that shall make glad the City of our God The End of the Second Sermon THE FAITH BY WHICH We are Iustified c. The Third and Fourth Sermons Rom. 5. 1. Therefore being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ I Have in the former Discourses set out the Nature and Excellency of Faith as it hath so close an Union with and derivation from Christ in the whole Nature and Action of it Now I shall go on in shewing you how much All is in Christ and not in Faith it self by shewing you That if you consider Faith as in it self it cannot be that which Justifies if you consider it in and by it self And then In the Second Place I shall more plainly lay down to you how and upon what account Faith is said to Justifie And then In the third Place I shall shew you that if Faith it self considered in it self cannot Justify Then the works of Faith tho they be never so excellent they cannot Justify much less then faith it self And so conclude this point with the Application And then there will remain one point more concerning Faith And that 's the Plerophory and full Assurance They have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me But that will be the last point The First thing therefore that I shall endeavour not in a Controversal but in a Practical Applicatory way and in all the Sweetness of it to all our hearts in the power and life and vertue of it The First thing that I lay down is this that Faith considered as a work It cannot Justify The account that I give you of it is this That Scripture doth every where when it speaks precisely and clearly to the point It doth assure us it is the Righteousness of God And not the Faith that takes the Righteousness of God I desire to be very far from stirring up any Controversy But to draw out our hearts I say into the Sweetness of it Head 1. I begin now therefore to handle this great Point and that is Seeing we meet every where in Scripture with these Expressions Justified by Faith The Righteousness of Faith The great Question that I shall handle first shall be to shew you how and in what sense Faith justifies and in what sense it cannot be said to justifie For indeed this is a point very necessary to be cleared seeing many are ready to say That Faith is now instead of Righteousness and that it justifies as the perfect Righteousness of the Law should have done
come up any way either before Conversion or after Conversion to the Holiness that every person is tyed by to the Law Yet there is an Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure Which is all our salvation and all our hope For the opening therefore of this Position to you more fully The First thing that I desire may be well Apprehended by us is this That there is no Communication of Righteousness but the Righteousness of God himself I say of God himself through the humane nature of Christ The Righteousness of him who is Eternal God through the Humane Nature No other Righteousness is that Righteousness that the Gospel Expresses to us for Justification And therefore you know it is several times in Scripture called the Righteousness of God Indeed the Scriptures are not to be numbred Easily Those in the New Testament call it the Righteousness of God I know It may be Interpreted to be called the Righteousness of God because it is a Righteousness of God's providing and that he approves But there is one place of Scripture that will clear this to us that there is more intended than that Phil. 3. 8 9. Saith the Apostle yea doubtless I count all but Dross that I may be found in Christ not having my own Righteousness but that which is of God the Righteousness of God by Faith of Jesus Christ. Observe the Righteousness of the Law is truly the Righteousness of God so far as it is Commanded and so far as any one can have it that is the Righteousness that God hath Commanded and that God hath proposed But that which is by the Faith of Christ is the Righteousness which is of God which flows from God and is received by Faith the Righteousness which is of God by Faith The great Fountain of it is God himself in Jesus And therefore there is nothing so great in Scripture as the Apprehending of Christ the Son of God by Faith You shall find oftentimes he is so called The Son of God And John 17. 7 8. They have known that I came out from thee and that thou didst send me Here is this very thing our Lord intends to shew himself that Divine Person that is The Son of God John 9. Consider that place that you may know how to direct and place your Faith You must not rest in the Humanity of Christ in the Man Christ Jesus But your Rest must be in the Divinty of Christ the Godhead of Christ There 's the great Rock as Christ told Peter that the Church is founded upon As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father saith Christ therefore I beseech you that we may all go to the very height of this That is to look to Jesus Christ as the Son of God John 9. 33. They cast out the blind Man that Jesus had healed They cast him out of the Synagogue When Christ found him he said unto him Do'st thou believe on the Son of God Pray observe Do'st thou believe on the Son of God He did not say Do'st thou believe on me that thou seest before thee in the Figure and appearance of a Man and to be truly a Man But do'st thou believe on the Son of God Indeed there may be places of Scripture where Christ speaks of Believing in himself without this high Stile But when there is one great place of Scripture or several great places I may rather say that lead higher It is certainly our Duty to go up to the highest and to carry all thither Now saith Christ do'st thou believe on the Son of God He Answered and said Who is he Lord that I might believe in him And Jesus said unto him thou hast both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee And he said Lord I believe and he worshipped him Here is the excellent Order of Faith we must go up to the height To the Son of God And then consider the Communication through the Human Nature I am he saith he Thou hast seen him and it is he that talketh with thee I 'll give you one very Evident place of Scripture more to this purpose that your Faith and your Hope might be in the Son of God O! could we but apprehend the Righteousness of the Son of God to be our Righteousness what a Rock of Support and Defence would it be to our Souls How would it satisfy our Scruples and all our Fears Indeed it is a high act of Faith to lay hold thus upon the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ c. Jesus Christ was Crucified through weakness as the Apostle saith in another place He was Crucified through weakness That is as a man But he lives by the Power of God That is by the Divinity Now saith the Apostle I am Crucified with Christ I receive by Communication from Jesus Christ as Man a Crucifixion of my own Righteousness So the Life which I live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God c. who hath conveyed his Salvation through his Human Nature The great height of Faith is to reach Jesus Christ the Son of God So in 1 John 1. 1. You may see how the Divine Excellency of Christ streams through his Human Nature unto eternal Life That which was from the begining He does not say He that was from the begining But that which was from the begining to direct our Hearts more Emphatically to the Eternal Word which we have heard c. Speaking of Jesus Christ especially and principally of his Divine Nature And yet Communicated through Human Nature So that we have seen with our Eyes and looked upon and our hands have handled the word of Life This therefore is the first thing that we may understand the Nature of Justification It is the Righteousness of the Son of God conveyed through the Human Nature In the Second place which I have mentioned in general Phrases already and I would now imprint upon all our Hearts through the Grace of God That is it is not the Righteousness of Christ divided from himself but the person of Christ and his Righteousness of Christ divided from Christ but the Righteousness of Christ in himself as that person from whom it always flows So that our Faith it must be upon the Person of Jesus Christ For indeed this is a great mistake in our understanding and in the working of our Hearts to Christ tho I would not entangle any Person in the nicities of Discourse But by touching and apprehending and applying the Benefits of Christ the Believer does really take Christ himself Yet that we may clearlier understand this thing I say it is not a Righteousness cut off from Christ and imputed to us As if Christ should say Here I lay you down so much Righteousness a Righteousness that I am sure will Answer in every regard for you And take that Righteousness As if a Man should lay down a great Treasure of Gold
Therefore the Fourth Particular is this That indeed if any one could frame a Notion of the Righteousness of Christ to be his Righteousness Or of the Blood and Death of Christ to be his for Justification and Pardon and clearing from sin If that Righteousness separated from Christ It would be no other to us and in us but as a Creature-Righteousness and as a self-Righteousness And for us to trust in it and to stay our selves upon it would be a trusting to our own Righteousness Therefore as it is in him a Spring and a Fountain There is the Life and there is the Glory of it I 'll give you but one Scripture Rom. 5. 17. Mark Here 's a Receiving abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness Nothing can be more express than this A man takes in by Faith abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness But now the Question is does he live by this receiving abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness No For the Apostle goes on He shall reign in Life by one Jesus Christ He shall not reign by abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness which he receives simply and separately and distinct from Jesus Christ But he shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Surely this Scripture does cut off all disputes and all Controversies and shews that Justification is onely by union to Christ and by nothing else whatsover is the abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness And healed by the Wings of Christ and flowing out and Righteousness streaming out continually from the Sun of it that is Christ Oh then that we were but clear in this great truth of the Righteousness of God Jehovah being our Righteousness For if such a poor weak thing as Faith because it is conformable as is supposed to the Evangelical Law were our Righteousness we should have Reason to fear and much more because indeed no one comes up so much as to the Evangelical Law as they would phrase it Our Faith is so weak and low that if we were to be Justified by it we should be utterly undone even by that which we call the Gospel-Law but when it does but onely attend the Communication and giving of the Righteousness of the Eternal Jehovab to us when it does onely that O we that are in this Righteousness and are made the Righteousness of Jehovah It is impossible we should be condemned We must needs condemn every tongue that rises in Judgment against us because we have the Righteousness of Jehovah I confess the thing is so great that many even would be ready to look upon it as strange and next to Blasphemy But it is the very words of Scripture and even the thing it self it always presses Not that we are Righteous as God is Righteous As some would Infer from such Expressions or Righteous as Christ is Righteous That is according to the Divine Original Righteousness of Jesus Christ or according to any perfections that are proper to him But that we are utterly uncondemnable and set out of the reach of Condemnation hereby and arrayed as in our degree with this rich Robe Because it is the Righteousness of God we are found in and that we are made by Vnion to Christ the Righteousness of God And yet all the distinction that ought to be preserved to the greatness of the Righteousness of God and Christ is still preserved And that 's the first thing in which I would open this point The second thing is to shew you that Faith in it self it cannot be looked upon as our Righteousness Because there is a great deal of difference in all our Reason and Apprehension between the taking of a Gift and the Gift Because I take a great Gift shall therefore my taking be counted of Equal value with the Gift You know this is contrary to all our Reason to all our Apprehension in the case A man may have a Pearl of Incomparable value given to him suppose in a state of necessity and want Shall his taking of the Gift or of the Pearl be look'd upon as of equal value with the Pearl it self Why now if we were Justified by Faith as it is a work or an act of ours or any thing let it be called by what name it will as it is in us would it therefore Justify us as it is in us Because of its taking of an incomparable invaluable gift must it be equal with the gift it self Therefore though Scripture speaks so much of Faith as it does and of being Justified by Faith yet let Faith lye low before Christ For It is not our taking If it were the most perfect act it could be supposed But it is not so But we have Reason to cry out Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief But if it were so It were nothing at all in the case As you know the most perfect and grateful and delightful Receiving of a gift can no way answer or stand in account with the gift it self Now therefore this I desire should be Imprinted upon our spirits both to take down all imagination of our selves and also to give Consolation in many of the Anguishes and Agonies of Conscience that come upon Believers through the weakness of their Faith Rom. 5. 17. They which receive saith the Apostle abundance of Grace Now can any of us suppose that the Receiving abundance of Grace should be any way equal to the abundance of Grace it self And so in the first Chapter of John saith the Evangelist there He came unto his own and his own received him not But to as many as received him ver 12. Now I would desire to ask you whether you think that the receiving of him that is of Christ whether it be any way matchable or can countervail the Excellency of Christ himself Or whether it can come near in any of the vertues or the Powers of Jesus Christ to Adoption or Justification therefore it is most evidently cleared that it is not the worth of Faith or the Excellency of Faith or the Activity or Applicatoriness of Faith But it is wholly in that Great and Excellent and Infinite Person whom we receive by Faith there 's the whole of the thing And therefore If you ask where is our Riches where 's our Righteteousness where 's our Strength It is evident it is not in our receiving But in him whom we receive It is not in our receiving but in the abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness that we receive together with the receiving of Christ himself and no otherwise Not by receiving of it and going away with it from Christ and saying we have it now But by keeping close to him as our Sun and as our Fountain the Sun of Righteousness and Fountain of Righteousness keeping close to him And so that Righteousness of his overflows and runs out upon us and then as I said our Consolation depends upon it For O! How do
we find our hand to shake A Paralytick hand a Palsy hand it is that the best of us have And if we depend upon that the hold that we take certainly this Rich Righteousness this Incomparable Rich Pearl will fall out of our hand Do but consider how our hand shakes in all our layings hold on Christ But indeed it is the Jewel it self that will be ours that is pleased to be ours That is Jesus Christ is pleased to be ours and though our hand shakes in the taking of him yet it cannot shake or Palsy as I may so express the love of Christ in giving himself He is constant and Invariable in that Where he loves a Soul he loves him to the End As it is said peculiarly of Christ in that of John when he was about to dye being about to depart out of the world having loved his own which were in the world he loved them to the end Chap. 13. 1. Now if you consider how they behave themselves Pray do but Remember I say how these Own behaved themselves at that time when he was going out of the world They left him they fled from him they forsook him And Peter that pretended highest denyed him most shamefully Now I say if it had depended upon their Faith they had certainly lost Christ But having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end So though our Faith is never so weak never so imperfect yet he that hath said I have given my self for them and loved them He holds them fast to his own Gift and within his own Gift though they would ten thousand times as I may so express it let him go if it depended upon their Faith Now in all these things I humbly desire to call God to witness that I do not speak for expression-sake or to set out a thing with all the advantage I can But really as Scripture gives evidence and as I hope I am perswaded of the truth of the thing in my own heart by the assistance of the Divine spirit Neither to manage a Controversy or any thing of that But that it is the necessity of our Case that it should be thus Or else we are lost and undone though never so much were attributed to Faith Because our Faith is such a Cripple such a Lame hand and foot in taking Christ and coming to him that we should certainly lose him if he did not resolve to make good his own Gift of himself to us And then In the Third Place I argue that it cannot be in Faith it self Because then Christ should dye to bring in something more imperfect than the first Righteousness that was given to man Christ should dye to bring in something more imperfect and yet still it should be our own and we should glory in it even as our first Righteousness For now when God made man he made him perfect as the Scripture expresses he made him in his own image in his own Righteousness knowledge and in true holiness And there was a Perfection there was no blemish as to the Creation of God and so far as it could be in a Creature Why now God in his infinite wisdom in the Abyss and unfathomable depth of his own wisdom and understanding He leaves man to fall And all men as the Apostle argues Rom. 3. They have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God And what is it that follows from this It therefore follows saith the Apostle that there can be no Glorying before God ver 27. Where is boasting then It is Excluded By what Law Of works No But by the Law of Faith Boasting is Excluded Now I say if works that were perfect were excluded because they would be looked upon as our own merit and Faith is brought in and if that should be brought in as our own and that should Justify us as our own Faith Why then it would be a more imperfect thing than the first Righteousness For take Faith as it is in us it is more imperfect than the first knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness in which God created man and yet it should be our own and boasting should arise from this that we have believed Nay if it were our believing then it were a more imperfect thing I say that is brought in and boasting would not be excluded by this Law of Faith And therefore it is very evident that Faith is not the thing that Justifveth but onely that which Faith receiveth that is the Righteousness of God in Jesus Christ is the onely â—hing that Justifieth And this I desire should be imprinted upon our â—houghts upon our hearts to this great end and purpose that we may always lye low before God and that we may say we will boast in him all the day long Living and Dying and were we but able to be cut off from every thing in our selves and to lay fast hold upon God and Christ and to have our whole in him our whole in God our whole in Christ This is the true life of Faith the true Excellency of Faith to have nothing at all in all in ourselves as I shall speak further to you Therefore I go on to the Fourth Particular And that is to affirm this That it cannot be by Faith as any thing of it self because the Righteousness of the Law that was given man in his Creation was as free a Gift as Faith it self is now If any one should say But herein is a difference The Work of Righteousness in the first Creation and the Habits of it they were our own But Faith is a free gift I say There is no difference in this for Faith is no more a free gift than the Righteousness that Adam had at first was a free gift In confess indeed there was a becomingness that the Creator should make his Work perfect But it was Grace free Grace that gave to Man at first his Being and that gave to Man all the Accomplishments of his Being And therefore there is not so great difference in that But herein is the great difference That now all that we have is in God and by him and from him alone and it is never separated from him I look upon this to be the great difference between Adam in his first Estate and in the Creation of Angels and a sinner now in Christ reconciled to God that we have all in Christ and never out of him whereas before we had all in our selves If any man should say I 'll take the Righteousness of Christ and say Here I 'll take my Portion it is given in and it is out of God and out of Christ it is in me This would presently be a broken Cistern or it would dry up of it self it would fail or let out that precious thing committed to it It would certainly do so and therefore here 's our great security that we are never out of God and Christ as is evident throughout Eternity by
the 17 th of John That they all may be one As thou Father art in me that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them c. And so Christ is even in them and his Righteousness and his Glory and his Perfection are always in himself and in a Communication unto them and they in Union with him and in that Communication If this be not truly the sense and the Spirit of the Gospel I must freely acknowledge I am not in any capacity to speak of these things For there is nothing more evident to me than this That our whole Salvation according to the Gospel does no more stir out of God and Christ than to speak of a thing that we know we see now the Beams of the Sun and the Light of the Sun stir out of the Sun but all is in the Sun For if any one should go to say this Room or Place is full of Light or full of the Beams of the Sun we 'll presently shut up all the Avenues between us and the Sun and we 'll have the Light as our own you know how presently the place would be dark and there would be no remainder of Light at all in it because the Sun is shut out So now and to Eternity if you could shut out God and Christ the Eternal fountain of Righteousness from any Soul that Soul would be immediately dark as to the state of Grace and so grow darker and darker to the darkness of Hell And now in the fifth Place If the Righteousness of Faith were a Righteousness onely because it is freely given why then Love and Repentance and Obedience they are all freely given even as Faith And yet for all this Scripture never speaks of them as Justifying And therefore I come to the last thing to shew you wherein Faith Justifies It is onely in this that by the most simple and abstracted and the most naked Apprehension of the thing that can be It has nothing but what it is made to receive in this great point of Justification I say it is made to receive and to do nothing but to receive It is made to depend and to do nothing but to depend To trust and to do nothing but trust I do acknowledge there 's a great vertue of Faith outward but this is that Immanent act of Faith As I may so speak as Divines call those Immanent acts of God in the Father the Son and the Spirit that do not go out of Himself So I say that Immanent act of Faith that is betwixt Christ and the Soul It is to trust and onely to trust to depend and onely to depend and to receive and onely to receive And as for Faith It hath nothing It is nothing but onely this Receipt So it is the most perfect dependence that Faith hath upon Christ I will trust and not be afraid In that Isa 12. 2. And in that day thou shalt say O Lord I will praise thee though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me Behold God is my Salvation I will trust and not be afraid Here therefore is the great Excellency of Faith the meet Excellency of Faith not in it self but onely that it wholly depends It is made and fitted by God on purpose wholly to depend I would come now to the second thing that I proposed which I shall very briefly represent to you For if Faith it self can do nothing It is certain then that the works of Faith can do nothing And therefore that great objection that is made against this out of the 2d of James that Faith which hath not works is Dead and can't Justify It is nothing at all to this Great Point But onely this it is indeed to shew us that if any man has Faith in Christ this Faith shall appear not to be an Idle and a Dead Faith But it shall every way be active from the Power it receiveth from Christ to walk in all ways of obedience to Render up the Soul entirely in the Love of God according to the present state I mean with sincerity and uprightness But it is not to this great point For it is very plain when two things are spoken of in Scripture If there be a higher and a Lower the Lower must be always subordinated to the higher that I look upon to be a stable and unchangeable Rule Now we are said to be Justified by a Faith that is not without works and yet without works we are Justified and in other places we are said to be Justified in God In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be Justified and shall Glory And Jehovah is our Righteousness And the Righteousness of God Now I say that which is infinitely above Faith As we will all grant God and the Righteousness of God Christ and the Righteousness of Christ are far above Faith Why then though sometimes we are said to be Justified by Faith and the Faith by which we are Justified is said to have works Yet certainly the Righteousness of God and of Christ must infinitely take place of these because they are so far above in the Transcendency and Infiniteness of their own nature So that it can never be that the Righteousness of God and of Christ can be brought down Therefore we are said sometimes to be Justified by Faith But it is very plain that Faith in its Justifying Power it must be brought up to God and Christ And there is all that is to be said of it that it takes hold of God and Christ That 's the whole of it it takes hold of God and Christ Therefore indeed I cannot but think of that expression though I don't say it will hold in this Solomon says the Spider is very wise because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces The Spider seems a base Creature yet notwithstanding the baseness and poisonousness of its nature yet in this it prefers and advances it self because it takes hold with its hands and is in Kings Palaces So I say in regard of us who are poisoned with sin and Corruption yet Faith takes hold with its hand and it is in the Righteousness of God and in the Righteousness of Jesus Christ Now still if you look upon us in our selves or look upon Faith in it self Alas What can it do onely it can take hold of the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness of Jesus Christ And therefore I do acknowledge that Faith is of great power and vertue The 11 Chapter to the Hebrews makes evident as well as the 2d of James Therefore I wonder that men look so disproportionably The great things there ascribed to Faith all along in the 11 th of Heb. make out the very same thing So that the Apostle James did not contradict the Apostle Paul nor the Apostle Paul the Apostle James both of them speaking by the spirit of God and therefore I
Christ But I say it cannot be throughout so For then men should be saved by Christ and never know that they are saved by Christ Then Christ would be no more the Saviour of his people than he is the Saviour of stones or insensible Rocks We must therefore come to have a feeling and knowing that Jesus Christ is ours Or else we could not receive his salvation How should we be the better within if we did not know Christ An understanding and Intellectual Being must have such a knowledge of Faith to know Christ And therefore as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. I must know him Not that this Contributes any thing to our happiness but onely the feeling and enjoying that happiness That happiness is onely from God But as you know a blind man is never the better in point of Light and sight though the Sun be never so Glorious Every one that seeth the Son and believeth in him We must see him or else we could not know he is ours we could have no Enjoyment of him our Souls would be still like unsensible Rocks and Marbles if there were not this sense by Faith and the knowledge of Christ by believing And therefore it is a very great truth that Faith is a manifestation to us and within us that Christ is ours When our Souls receive the touches of his Love and grace upon us and we come to know and find the sweetness to taste that the Lord is Gracious and to know what a Pearl we have in some measure and that we find Christ is ours and hath given himself for us In the third place there could not else be a manifestatory Glory It is true Christ is glorious as a Saviour But we could not Glorify him if we did not know by Faith that he is such a Saviour This is that that the soul makes its Boast in God by this draws it to Glory in Christ and to give all the Glory it can do to him Because it finds it is saved by him and him alone Now it is very Evident God had no need of Glory from Angels nor from men to manifest his Glory by them But it pleased the wisdom and Grace of God to declare his infinite Being before such Beings as Angels and men fitted with understandings to behold it Why so Christ had no need of our Glorifying of him But yet it is very Evident that he is pleased to be Glorifyed by us and that we Glorify him by acknowledging all our salvation from him And herein is Faith of great use It gives Glory as the Apostle speaks Abraham was strong in Faith giving Glory to God Rom. 4. So Faith gives Glory to the Righteousness and Freeness of the Grace of God in Jesus Christ And then In the Fourth place it is also necessary upon this Account for I am far in all this discourse from that which is truly called Antinomianism or Libertinism I say as Faith looks outward and from Christ into holy Action the knowledge that Faith gives is serviceable in the hand of Christ to all holiness and purification of Life To live to him to live and to walk by Faith to be every way self-Resigning according to that whole 11th Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews And thus I have endeavoured with all briefness to set out the Excellent nature of Faith I shall but make one short Application of it And that is to stir up all our hearts in looking up to God according to that great prayer Ephes 3. 14 15 16. verses For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ of whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his Glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man To what End That Christ may dwell in your hearts by Faith O look up to this You see how Faith is indeed always called up by Christ when he gives himself to any Soul when he comes to dwell in any Soul Faith must receive him it must embrace him it must depend wholly upon him Now therefore O! That our hearts may be strengthened by his Spirit in the Inner man Alas Our Inner man you may see plainly by all that I have said is very weak and unfaithful And it is confirmed by this expression of the Apostle how the Inner man would never draw in Christ it would never hold him if it came to him Our Inner man is such a false thing to the Great things of our Eternal salvation it is such a feeble weak thing it would never be able to hold Christ But the Spirit strengthens the Inner man That Christ may dwell in our hearts by Faith Else I say it could never if you would give me leave to use such a plain word as that fetch in Christ And if he came it would never hold him Our Inner man must be strengthened by the Spirit of Christ that Christ may dwell in us And then we go forward to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ and to Comprehend that love of Christ which passeth knowledge that we may be filled with all the fulness of God I hope there is nothing that I have spoken that can Justly offend any man's mind for it is fully to the sense of Scripture and of Scripture Reason and it excludes all manner of looseness and Libertinism of life For Christ is certainly sanctification to every one to whom he is Justification he gives the power of Holiness And Faith is made serviceable As I told you the immanent acts are those whereby it stays within and has Communion with Christ wherein it has nothing but to depend and trust in him But then It works outward as they say of the works of God Ad Extra The Excellent acts of the Father Son and Spirit they go out of themselves So Faith goes out to all the works of obedience And therefore if you would know what Faith is when it works outward I would propose to you to Read that Chapter Heb. 11. How greatly Faith works outward But Christ still is the Author and finisher And when it comes to Christ it has nothing to do but to trust and depend and receive And O! therefore let us all bow our knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ that he would grant us according to the Riches of his Glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the Inner man We can never have such a thing as Faith if the Riches of Glory does not come in with it and if the spirit of Christ does not come in with it And indeed where the spirit of Christ comes he comes And so Christ and the spirit Elicits as they call it and draws and Brings the Soul to clasp about him to lay hold upon him He brings the Soul thus near to
full assurance of hope concerning our condition Hope is the proper grace that the Gospel insists upon as to the assurance of Eternity Now there is a fourth In these three places I desire you to Remember that the word is one and the same in the Greek in every one of them It is Plerophoria or full-sail-assurance There is a fourth assurance which is very necessary to be considered and that is the assurance of acting suitable and agreeable to our Faith when a man dares venture when he dares Embarque and engage his action upon this very foundation of Faith Now here for I would deal very clearly and faithfully in these points and not pretend to any thing of proof above what really is written there is the Tantamount of it but there is not the very word Plerophoria or full assurance of Faith But I say very near to that very thing The 2. Thes 1. 10. 11 12. Saith the Apostle speaking with great Earnestness wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of his calling and fulfill all the good pleasure of his grace and the work of Faith with power The good pleasure of his grace to be fulfilled and the work of Faith to be fulfilled Plerose a word that bears part with the same word that Plerophoria For there 's the fulness But then in the full assurance signified by Plerophoria there is the carrying of the sayl which signifies a sayl that hath a full Gale upon it and so carryes on the vessel with a mighty swiftness And here the fulness is signified and the mighty Gale also tho there be not the word that he would fulfil the Work of Faith with Power That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Now therefore as I have laid before you the four full Assurances of Faith the great Confidences and Assurances of Faith so I would shew you what there is to bear up these great Assurances of Faith For It is not an ordinary Power that can bear up a Man that hath nothing of it at all in himself to bear up I say in this full assurance of understanding That whereas men make such a do to prove the Truth of the Religion and Christianity of the Gospel If a Man comes in by Faith and says I cannot Reason I cannot Dispute I can not Argue I cannot talk like a Learned Person concerning these things But blessed be God I can do this I can Believe So another comes and says O! I could never get such a thing as this the hopes of the Favour and Love of God in Christ and the Pardon of my Sins But when a Man comes under the mighty Power of Grace to be filled with the Assurance of this by mighty Power he is able to say in some measure I believe these things Lord Help my unbelief And sometimes God raises up his Servants to a Triumphant Assurance even at the time of Dying when they are in the greatest Agonies of Body yet they can say I am sure my Redeemer Lives And then for the state beyond the Line beyond this Life Who can tell this Flesh and Blood is ready to say what there is in another World who hath gone and brought certain Accounts and Intelligences what the state of the other World is O! The full Assurance of Faith and Hope it saith I am sure of an Inheritance Incorruptible and that fades not away Tho I cannot tell you what it is Yet I know I shall be like my Lord for I shall see him as he is And then In the last place saith a man what will you venture your selves Will you venture to lose all that you might Enjoy here in this World and to pin your selves to a strict way of Walking Will you venture to deny your selves in your Pleasures in your Enjoyments here You must lay down Estate and Life and leave all the dearness of Relations Will you venture to do such a thing as this O! saith the Soul if I have but the good pleasure of my God and the Work of Faith fulfilled in me with Power I do not care how God calls me out to glorify the Name of God and of Christ Jesus I 'll begin to lay down the Account of all this to you and that I shall do very briefly There is but one place of Scripture to which I refer to shew you what it is that bears up Faith in all these Things And it is that 1 John 5. 4. c. And I desire that you would please to set a Remark Every person that hears and that does seriously desire to wait upon God in this Discourse That you would set a Remark upon that Scripture I name to you in the four Assurances of Faith Whosoever is born of God saith the Apostle overcometh the World And this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God O! But may the Soul say Here 's the Difficulty How shall I do to Believe this That Jesus Christ is the Son of God That he came forth from God and that God did send him Why saith the Apostle This is he that came by Water and Blood even Jesus Christ not by VVater but by Water and Blood And it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is Truth For there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the VVord and the Holy Spirit And these three are one And there are three that bear witness on Earth the Spirit and the VVater and the Blood if you receive the witness of Men the witness of God is greater Now therefore Here is the thing that I shall endeavour to make out to you That Faith in all these Assurances is born up by those three That bear witness in Heaven Principally and Supremely The Father the VVord and the Spirit And by the Three that bear witness on Earth the VVater and the Blood and the Spirit And indeed the Undertaking is very large and very great to speak of the things according to their Weight according to their worth Only I desire you to take notice before I go on That it is very Evident the Apostle is speaking of the Fulfilling the Work of Faith to overcome the VVorld and to give the Soul Victory through Christ For upon this occasion All this comes on What is it overcomes the World but only our Faith And so he goes on to the great Testimony and the great Operations in those that are Christs and by which Faith is born up If we receive the witness of Men the witness of God is greater It is not only greater in Value but in this that it can enter into the Hearts into the Consciences into the Assurances of his Servants I begin therefore with the First of these And I
known and then said They believed But Faith is a furely knowing And therefore I proposed in the last Discourse to speak of the Assurance of Faith as it is a full Assurance of Vnderstanding as I opened to you from Col. 2. 2. 2. A full assurance of Faith in the Pardon and Forgiveness of Sin As I opened to you from Heb. 10. 22. 3. A full assurance of Hope That I did not speak to before But this of all things is most generally agreed That the Servants of Christ may come to a full Assurance of Hope No one will deny that to a Christian that he should have a full Assurance of Hope now and when he comes to Die I say of hope Men will say you may may hope but you must not take upon you to be Assured beyond Hope Now indeed Full Assurance of Hope is a very great Assurance is a very great and excellent kind of Assurance I might give you several Scriptures that speak of this As 1. Pet. 1. 3. He calls it a Living Hope Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten us again unto a living hope We Translate it a lively Hope But if Living will Agrandize the thing and make it more Emphatical the Original is a living Hope A hope that does not die when we die that does not die when our Spirits are Languid and our Eyes are ready to close and all the Terrors of Death are about us yet this Hope will survive So the Apostle calls it A good Hope through Grace and a Hope that makes not ashamed That 's another Expression And now this great Assurance of Hope you shall see on whom or wherein the Apostle places it Col. 1. 27. last words of that verse which is Christ in you the Hope of Glory So as I have shew'd you all along Faith is wholly depending upon Christ And all its Power and Excellency is in Christ Now can you have a fuller Expression That the full assurance of Hope in Christ Christ in you the hope of Glory It is he himself that bears up this Hope Alas This Hope could no more Live than the Hope of the Hypocrite as Job calls it that is but like a Spiders Web And that is but like a Stream cut off by the Drought of Summer So would Hope be But Christ is in his Servants the Hope of Glory therefore their Hope Lives But because I have designed otherwise the Discourse at this time and that another great point is before us I shall Address my self wholly to that And that is The Assurance of Holy Action The full Assurance Which I grounded in a former Discourse upon the Generals I was to lay down upon that of the Apostle in the 2 Thes 1. 11. Wherefore also we Pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of his calling and fulfil that he would give you a Plerophoria all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of Faith with Power that the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be Glorified in you and ye in him according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Here every one may see plainly that here is a mighty work of God through the Heart into the Lives and Conversations of his People and that it is carried on with a full sail by God And then as I told you in the 11th to the Heb. the Apostle goes throughout that Chapter upon the Action of Faith And therefore if any one would Expound as I said to you that in the 2d of James A man is Justified not by Faith only but by works He should compare it with this of the Apostle in the 11th to the Hebrews For there are the works of Faith Recorded and Recollected all along By which the Elders obtained a good report a great Fame a great Renown Therefore for the opening of this to you because indeed it is a difficult point and that which seems to shake all that I have spoken of our being Justified not by Faith as a work but only as Christ chooses to Unite the Soul to himself and so to Communicate his Righteousness his Obedience and the Value and Merit of his Sufferings by Faith for when the Apostle James shall lay down in such express terms that a Man is Justified not by Faith only but by VVorks and shall Discourse it so as he has done in that James 2. 14. to the very end of that Chapter It looks like a very great Objection And the Enemies of Free Grace and of the Justifying Grace of God by his own Righteousness in Jesus Christ make that Chapter as I may say the Top-gallant of all their Discourse It is the great and mighty Fort to which they retire upon all occasions Therefore these three Heads of Discourse I hope within the limits of Time that is alloted tho it may seem something strait to make out to you First of all I would lay down to you what are properly the works of Faith Secondly I would shew you how the works of Faith are Dependent upon Christ and upon his Righteousness And then Thirdly I would clear to you how the Apostle James Discourses so much of VVorks and that Faith only can do us no good To clear that to you and so to conclude with a brief Application of it I begin with the first and that is to shew you the VVorks of Faith in general and I shall do little more than point and direct your Thoughts to these great concernments because there will not be opportunity to handle them so fully and at large The first kind of the Works of Faith is this Those Acts of Faith which do immediately concern our Receiving of Jesus Christ and the taking of himself and his Righteousness These as I told you might be called the immanent Acts of Faith Those nearest closest privatest Acts of Faith between Christ and the Soul betwixt Christ himself and the Soul it self For I look upon it thus and I desire you to mind it Whatever Faith is not the Faith of God's Elect of God's Operation A Faith of the Operation of God it certainly misses in this first Act Pray consider in this first Act of taking Christ It is certain the first Activity of Faith is in Uniting to Christ in taking him for our Head for our Husband in laying hold upon his Righteousness as in a Reflex Returning Act of the Soul its taking receiving Christ giving himself Now a false Faith misses here it does not take Christ It thinks it takes him and does not take him It is but Faith in a Dream as the Prophet speaks The Hungry Man dreams that he Eats and he awakes and behold he is Empty and he Dreams he Drinks and wakes and finds himself scorched with thirst So a Man Dreams he takes Christ but he misses him And lo nothing is in his hand I shall presently speak how far we may Judg by the Action of Faith
whether we have been right in the first Act But there has been as they say an Error in the Foundation an Error in the first Concoction as Physitians speak and cannot be mended So there has been an Error in taking Christ and Error in the Foundation becomes Error in the whole course of a Mans Building A man says he has taken Christ and lives under the Power of his Lusts and the Power of the World Because he never look Christ aright Men will say Here you are mistaken in your Profession That you cannot live Holily which your Profession binds you to But I say if the thing were but well traced and enquired into it would be found here was the great miss that your first Action flew off and did not rightly take Christ The 2d Chapter of John is a Scripture that will clear this that a Man may take Christ by a false Action and lose him in the very first Rudiments and the first beginnings by a mistake As now it is in Nature in the forming of an Embrio in the Womb If there be a false formation a monstrous formation in the VVomb there 's an irregularity all along the Life So if Faith be mistaken in its first Act in supposing it takes Christ and does not that Error cannot be mended The Latter Errors may be more apparent than the first but the first is the cause of all John 2. 23 24 25. Now when he was in Jernsalem at the Passover in the Feast-day many believed in his name when they saw the Miracles that he did One would have thought this was true Faith as the great Men of Reason say because they were brought over to believe by seeing the Miracles of Christ But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men And needed not that any should Testify of man for he knew what was in man If he did not commit himself to them we may very well understand he did not Unite himself to them He knew it was not that Faith to which he United himself and his Righteousness Christ does not commit himself to a Faith that is not indeed as I said before a Faith of God's Elect and the like pretious Faith and that is not given by that Divine Lot of Grace as the Expression is 2 Pet. 1. 1. that I have formerly spoken to you of To them who have obtained by Lot by this Divine Lot like precious Faith with us according to the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ I know we cannot look into this but by the Divine Spirit and by feeling the twistings of the Soul about Christ through that great Opperation of God upon us But this we may see plainly Christ did not commit himself to them So he does not commit his Righteousness his Propitiation his Redemption he does not commit it but where he sees a Faith which he himself hath given that is indeed of the true and excellent Alloy For he knows at the very first He sees many that pretend to Believe and that think they Believe but he knows very well where their Faith is wrong and where it loses that great Prize that Pearl of Price that it is to obtain He himself not committing or giving himself knows a true Action of Faith in Receiving him will not follow for that 's the first Action of Faith to Receive Christ giving himself The Second kind of the Actions of Faith they are those that though they are not immediately as the first Acts of taking of Christ by Faith yet they immediately Result and Rise up When any Man hath taken Christ there are some Actions that do immediately Result and Arise They bear the Hiew they carry the Complexion they have upon them the Lineaments of the Death of the Dying of our Lord Jesus Christ They have such peculiar Respects to his Blood to his Death to his Redemption I would instance in two of these we find in Scripture-Saints And then I shall draw out in brief Expressions the general Actions of Christians according to their pattern The first is that in the 11 Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said of Moses v. 28. Through Faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of Blood lest he that destroyed the first born should touch them This he did by faith God commanded him indeed to keep the Passover But Moses had an Eye upon the Redemption of Christ in it And by Faith he kept the Passover So every Act of the Soul by which it makes Recourse to Christ upon all occasions after it hath taken him it is like keeping the Passover Every Act I say wherein we do especially depend upon the Blood of Christ and make close Recourse and Application to it it is an Action Resulting from true saving Justifying faith that true faith by which we are Saved and Justified For so indeed I observe tho we call it Justifying faith the Scripture never calls it so But the faith by which we are Justified To make good that point that I have always press'd upon you that we are not Justified by Faith as an Act But we are Justified only as the Righteousness of Christ is given to it for that Righteousness alone is our Justification But this I say there are Acts of the Soul by which it does make recourse to Christ and to his Blood Another Example and I choose to give it you because it is Seated in that of the Apostle James that is made the great Objection against the faith by which we are Justified through the Righteousness and Propitiation of Christ James 2. 21. saith the Apostle Was not Abraham our Father Justified by works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar Seest thou how faith wrought with his Works and by works was faith made perfect Now this is the thing that I observe to you The Offering of Isaac it was as great a Conversant Act about the Death Blood and Sâ—crifice of Christ as any could possibly be represented in Scripture to us For there could not be a greater Type and Representation of the Father giving his Son to Die for Sinners and to become a Sacrifice for them than that of Abraham the Affectionate Father of Isaac Offering up his Son Isaac Therefore the Apostle uses this for an Argument of a Working faith This was a Work of Faith indeed it was not a work of Faith taking Christ but it was a work of Faith conversant about the Death and Sacrifice of Christ And therefore the Apostle is express in it Seest thou how Faith wrought with his works This was a great act in which Faith wrought mightily when Abraham offered up Isaac But 't was not so properly a work of Moral obedience as the work of Faith in Christ if we Consider the Greatness and excellency of it and the Eye it had to Christ though it was a high act of obedience of self Resigning also So I say there are many acts which are
Conversant about taking Christ and yet are not taking him as when a man layes himself low before Christ after his taking Christ and plâ—…es his whole hope and Expectation in the Blood of Christ When Man in Prayer lifts up his Soul to God through the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ here 's an Act of Faith Now these Acts of Faith they are not taking of Christ but they are Conversant about Jesus Christ and his Redemption taken and many such there are The Third kind of the works of Faith is when Faith goes out into the Noble and Heroick Acts that are more extraordinary in Believers like to the Dying of Christ and the way of Justifying Sinners that God has taken by the Death of Christ When they in their kind and in their Degree bear an Image of that extraordinary These I look upon to be the works peculiarly of Faith So in the 2d of James Abraham's Offering Isaac which was an extraordinary Act if you look upon 't in the way of Obedience and such a one as could not be accounted for according to the Rules or Standards of Reason What! should Abraham Receive from God an only Son and then go and Sacrifice him to God and be satisfied and Resigned in doing of it O how was this above the Power beyond the compass of all the Ordinary Actions of Men Any one that should have come to look upon him and see him prepare to do it would think he was so far from being Obedient to God that they would look upon him as a most Frenzick Distracted Man that had lost all Understanding and all the Affections of a Father or as a cruel and wicked person But Faith fetchâ—d its Compass round about the whole Consideration of the thing and Transcended all the ordinary Rules by which Men proceed in their Actions as seeing God giving Christ his only Son in it And so Rahab she was Justified by sending the Spies another way This was a great Act of Faith And yet if it be look'd upon according as I have several times mentioned by the Eye of Reason it was a berraying her own Country Therefore I say extraordinary and unaccountable Acts many times God calls his Servants to by Faith When Men come to suffer and to lose their Estates to lose all the Enjoyments of their Families upon the Account of a Principle of the Gospel either in Truth of Doctrine or in Purity of Worship a Man would be ready to think as of the Martyrs in Queen Mary's Days they did not understand at all what they did when they laid down their Lives upon the denial of that Idolatrous Principle of Jesus Christ being himself Bodily as they understand it in the Sacrament And so all along in Heb. 11. the Heroick Actions of Christians of the Servants of God are instanced in as I have instanced heretofore to you in Moses Men would have thought him one of the foolishest and softest Men in the World when he should refuse to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter v. 28. And that he should esteem the Reproach of Christ's greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt These are extraordinary Acts of Faiâ—h as I have said to you If it had been any of our Cases at this day to have Refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter How many Appearances Plausible Appearances of Reason should we have to taken up As that we might be serviceable to the People of God! That we might have done a great deal of good to the Oppressed Afflicted Israel But Moses's Faith it fetch'd a compass as I say far above all the general Rules men go by and saw that it was his Duty to do so and to Esteem the Reproach of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt Now when God does lift up his Servants and enlarge them beyond the Line of all the Reason that is in the World Therein are Peculiarly the Actions of Faith the great work 's of Faith are found there so there are many Cases in which he works so now in the Souls of his People The fourth and last kind of the Actions of Faith are in walking by those general agreed Rules of Holiness according to the Commandments of God which are given us in the word of God both of the Old and New Testament they are truly to be called the works of Faith also when men walk in the Commandments of God Purifying themselves even as God is pure being Holy in all manner of Conversation These are properly the works and Actions of Faith also So I have represented them to you each in their Degree The first great Act of Faith is to Unite with Christ and he that misses in that misses in all the rest The Second kind is of those Acts that Result from our continual Application to Christ and his Blood And then Thirdly the great and Extraordinary Actions God calls his Servants to when all the world thinks them Mad and Obstinate and the most unreasonable men in the world to do so And yet Faith by that Compass that is given to it it sees clearly through all And then Lastly Those stated Rules of Holiness I need not shew because every one knows the proper works of Faith are guided thereby also and the power flows from Jesus Christ by Faith I come therefore to the Second thing And that is the great interest Jesus Christ hath in all the great works of Faith and that truly Christ is the Author as well as Finisher as the Apostle calls him Heb. 12. 2. after he had set forth all the great Examples Having so great a cloud of Witnesses v. 1. Let us lay aside every weight c. Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith All the Actions of Faith they are by Jesus Christ the Alpha and the Omega of all the Begining and the End of all And that I would briefly represent to you in these four things The first is this Because he hath Purchased these Actions of Faith for Believers or else they could never have done them if he had not purchased that they should do them VVe indeed are called to all the Actions of faith as our Duty I acknowledg it But it is Jesus Christ that hath Redeemed us to those Holy Actions or else we could never have done them There are abundant Scriptures that prove this plainly to you The 2d Chap. of the Epist to Titus for I can but just name and intimate them to you Tit. 2. 14. saith the Apostle Who gave himself for us that he might Redeem us from all Iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar People Zealous of good works All the good works of faith there is a Purchase of Christ upon them Or else they could never have been performed by any of his Saints And so in the 1 Pet. 1. 18. Ye are redeemed from a vain Conversation by the Blood of Christ That vain conversation received by Tradition from your Fathers The Tradition of
evil works passes uncontrolled unquestioned from hand to hand and no body but by faith disputes it if it comes by Tradition As you know the things that are but in fashion They run through not only those that make no profession of the Gospel but those that make a profession so Tradition runs through All. Now how shall we be Redeemed from this There is no way to be Redeemed from the common Evils that are done in the world but by the precious Blood of Jesus Christ And then In the Second place as I began to say Christ is the great Principle of them How can you walk in the ways of Holiness No way but by Jesus Christ being within us the Principle of those Holy Actions And therefore tho I say it is our Duty and we are condemned indeed most righteously in not Answering our Duty Yet still we cannot do the Holy Actions required of us but under a Purchase under a Price Ye are bought with a Price therefore glorify God as the Apostle saith And so we must have that mighty Principle I can do all things saith the Apostle through Christ that strengthens me And in John 15. Our Lord shews plainly that he is the Principle Without me saith he v. 5. ye can do nothing He had compared himself to the Vine and Believers to the Branches Now as the branch can do nothing without the Vine you know it cannot so our Souls can do nothing without Christ He is the great Principle of it And then In the Third place They are washed in the Blood of Jesus Christ And they are all made up in their Imperfections by the great Perfection of the Righteousness and Holiness of our Lord Jesus Christ this must necessarily be considered Take that Action of Abraham as the Apostle speaks he was Justified by the Offering of Isaac Naw I say That very Offering of Isaac was as it was Abraham's Act washed in the Blood of Jesus or else it had never been Accepted There were tho we cannot trace them yet God understands them such Corruptions adhering to this Holy Action of Abraham that if it had not been wash'd in the Blood of Christ it could not have stood before him Rahab sending away the Spies It was washed in the Blood of Christ Moses keeping the Passover and refusing to be called the Son of Pharaoh's Daughter all these they were wash'd in the Blood of Jesus or they could not have stood before God All the Repentance all the Holy Actions of the Best and most eminent of Christians they are wash'd in the Blood of Christ that they may be accepted And wherein they are found Light they are made up by the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ The Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled So I understand that in Rom. 8. 4. It is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit That is by Jesus Christ as the Apostle had said He condemns sin in the flesh viz. His Flesh his Sacrifice And so the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us By all those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus it makes free from the Law of sin and Death VVhat is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus But that perfect Righteousness and that perfect obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ even to the Sacrificing himself The fourth and last thing in which I would shew you that Jesus Christ is supremely to be considered by every Believer as the foundation of all his Holiness and the Acceptance of it is this That Jesus Christ is He through whom alone and through whose perfect Holinest God accounts us Holy This I confess is a Point that is not generally spoken of And it may seem to be something singular But I am fully perswaded of it That we do not only stand before God by Imputative Righteousness But we stand before him by imputative Holiness also That is not as iâ— there were no Holiness Inherent and Real in the Saints of Christ But their Holiness could not be counted Holiness if it were not for the Holiness of Jesus Christ I will not stand much upon it because I know it is a singular Apprehension Yet I would give you two Scriptures that do strongly perswade me that this is the very case Till we are brought into the Perfection of Holiness at the State of the Resurrection of the Dead which as I have formerly told you is either when Spirits go out of the Body or when all the Saints shall appear in the Resurrection then shall they be in a perfection of Inherent Holiness But while we are here in the World we are not in a state of Perfect Inherent inward Holiness And therefore Christ in that that 's the first Scripture that enclines me to this Apprehension 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sactification and Redemption Christ is as truly made to us Sactification as he is made Redemption or as he is made Righteousness or Wisdom in our first being brought home to God Therefore I say if he not our Sanctification our Sanctification could not be looked upon as Sanctification if it were not made Acceptable by the Holiness of Jesus Christ Another Scripture is that in the 7th to the Romans Saith the Apostle We bring forth Fruit unto Death in our selves He is speaking of Sanctification in Believers We bring forth Fruit unto Death In our selves But when we are Married unto another even to him who is raised from the Dead we bring forth Fruit unto God We cannot bring forth Fruit unto God which is certainly meant of Sanctification any other way but by being Married to another even to him who is raised from the Dead because the Resurrection of the Dead in all sense of Scripture is the Perfection of Holiness Till we therefore are in the State of being risen from the Dead being in Spirits separated as I have spoken or in Bodies of Glory we cannot bring forth Fruit unto God but we bring forth Fruit unto Death if we are not in Christ the great Husband who is risen from the Dead All our Holiness is made Perfect by his Holiness But then he brings us into that Perfection that every Saint is indeed perfectly Holy in the state of Spirit and state of a Body of Glory given to that Spirit that went out of the Body long it may be before accordlng to the several times in which the Saints of Christ have Dyed I come now to the Third and Last thing which I proposed in this Discourse And that is To shew you what the Sense of the Apostle James is for it seems to run very Counter to all the Doctrin of Free Justification by Faith and not by Works It seems a wonderful thing that the Spirit of God after it had said so much by Paul of being Justified by Faith without Works That the Spirit
with them That 's the second Sense It manifests and demonstrates it self before Men to be Faith It is that that justifies before a Man 's own Conscience concerning the truth of Faith and before Men concerning that real Operation of God upon faith in the Soul Now to this the Apostle seems to speak very plainly in the 18. verse Yea a man may say Thou hast faith and I have works shew me thy faith without thy works and I will shew thee my faith by my works You know this plainly speaks that faith justifies it self before Men to be true faith when it shews it self in Operations suitable to the Nature and to the Excellency of faith But if a Man have no works if a Man says I believe in Christ and be a Swearer a Drunkard an impure Person every way unrighteous and unsuitable to the Commands of God how can such a Man shew his faith There must be an agreeableness and suitabless of Conversation and Action And seest thou how faith wrought It was visible to Men. And then The third and last Sense is That faith is daily perfecting it self in holy Action till it comes to that Perfection as I have spoken before and several times upon the 3 d. of Philippians till it comes to the Perfection of the Resurrection of the dead And so it fufills the Scripture as the Apostle speaks That is That whereas it was said before of Abraham He believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness long before he offer'd Isaac There was not a staying of his Justification till he had offered Isaac but he was justified before he offered Isaac But yet faith perfects it self and fulfils the Scripture daily going on from Grace to Grace from Strength to Strength from Degree to Degree till it appears before God perfect And so the Apostle saith By works was faith made perfect And this is suitable to the 2 Thes 1. 11. that I named several times That God would fulfil all the pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with power That the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and ye in him Here you see it is very plain That the fulfilling of the good Pleasure of the Grace of God it demonstrates the Truth of Faith and glorifies the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ in Believers and Believers in him according to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ Methinks this very Expression it should silence all the Enemies of the Free Grace of God and of Justification by Free Grace For here is as highly spoken of the working of Faith as all the Understanding of Man can possibly reach to either to conceive or to express What can be greater than the Glorifying the Name of the Lord Jesus in Believers and Believers being Glorified in him And yet all this thrown off quite from any thing of Man or Redundancy by way of Glory upon Man It is said According to the Grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ I shall now close these Things that I have spoken thus narrowly to you I hope God will enlarge them in your Hearts in these three brief Applications and so conclude The first is this That you would consider the infinite Wisdom of Scripture Indeed there is nothing so admirable as these two Things in Scripture to cut off all occasion to turn the Grace of God into Lasciviousness and yet to set out the Grace of God at its full Height and Excellency O do but take these Two Things along which can never divide nor deceive 1. All is Grace And yet 2. Grace is mighty in its Operation And indeed though we have reason to lie low because Grace as in us seems so short and narrow in its Operation Yet these are two Things that can never be disjoined They are one within another It is the Grace of God that brings forth the Holiness and keeps it in Union to Christ even throughout the whole Course of a Christians Life and even indeed throughout Eternity it self Grace keeps us in the way of Holiness and new Obedience O therefore let us not turn the Grace of God into Wantonness And yet let us be continually admiring and adoring free Grace Let us be great Professors of free Grace but Professors of it in the Holiness and Purity of it And then In the second place it teaches us still never to forsake that Fundamental Point of all our Interest of all our Hope of all the Holiness that ever we had or can have If we have any at all we have it from Jesus Christ He is the Alpha and the Omega He is the Author and Finisher He is the Beginning and End He is the First and Last All in All. And therefore whenever we desire to be Holy O go to Christ the Redeemer and Finisher of Holiness Whenever we complain of Corruption go to him that is able to Redeem from all Iniquity Whenever we are like to be drawn to vain Tradition go out to the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ who alone can set us free from the Power of it Lastly I beseech you expect that there will indeed be a greater State of Holiness when that Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ shall come into Succession And don't think it a long time because you see no more Holiness yet I would only desire you to consider one place of Scripture and with that I will conclude On what a sudden God will do this great Thing The 2 Cor. 10 4 5 7. For the Weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to pulling down of strong holds casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the Obedience of Christ And having in a readiness to revenge all Disobedience when your Obedience is fulfilled Herein the Gospel in the Apostles Days for a little time gave a Spetimen and appearance of it self Just like some of the great Conquerors that we read of in the World either Alexander or Julius Caesar or Soliman among the Turks They pass'd through the World as it were and all lay at their feet They brought every thing down As the Scripture speaks they heap'd dust and took every City and derided every strong Hold Hab. 1. 10. As now the way of Bombing you know Men go suddenly through their Undertaking In the same manner and much more shall the Gospel when once it comes to play its Artillery as I may so speak through the World it will open its Magazeen and carry every thing in the World before it though they are never so strong and bring every thought and all into Captivity And it hath in a readiness to revenge all Disobedience If there be any thing that yields not it hath a mighty power to Revenge to bring every thing under And it only stays for this Till the Obedience of Saints be fulfilled Some may say If we were but more Righteous God will make us more Righteous when this time of the Grace of his Gospel shall begin he will then fulfil in our Obedience FINIS