him that justifieth the ungodly I desire to be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is after the law Phil. 3.9 but that which is through the Faith of God and the like are to be understood chiefly of the works of the ceremonial law which the Jews so tenaciously adhered to as is evident by the whole Epistle to the Galatians partly of the works of the moral law which the Gentiles performed by the power of Nature as appeareth by the two first chapters to the Romans but if we speak of the works of the evangelical law which proceed from faith and assistance of the spirit If we turn over the whole new Testament we shall be so far from finding any thing in derogation or diminution of them that it will appear they are the great design of our religion so the Apostle telleth the Ephsians we are his workmanship Ephes 2.10 created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Tho' there is not such merit in them that we shall be saved for them yet there is such necessity of them that we shall not be saved without them No believing without obedience will avail us for as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also This being so very clear giveth cause enough to spend more than the remainder of the time in lamentation in sad lamentation for the dead I mean for the faith of Christians whose want of works doth so plainly manifest it hath too generally given up the ghost Instead of making it the guide and rule of our lives 1 Kings 9. we use it as a name of faction and distinction wrangling and clamouring as the Harlots did before Solomon about the child one saying the faith is mine the other nay but it is mine only with this woful difference theirs was about a living child ours God knoweth about a dead one What can we think else when we see it on all hands to be so very void works This is sad in any that call themselves Christians but we have the least to excuse our selves of any By how much our faith is the sounder by so much is our sin the greater For however we may flatter our selves it will be more tolerable in the day of account for such as have been serious even in a trifling religion than for such as have been trifling in such a serious one The Kingdom of God is not meat and drink Rom. 13.17 but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost It is a duty indeed and a commendable one to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. but what will it be but a reproach to us if all our zeal be only for the profession of it and we have none for those fruits of it as are most becoming Saints Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap Trust ye not then in lying words saying the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord. The Protestant Religion the Protestant Religion It will be but odious to God and fulsom to men if it be not adorned with an unanswerable conversation Who then is a wise man among you James 3.13 and endued with knowledge let him show out of a good conversation his works with meetness of wisdom that so our profession and our practices may meet together our faith and our works kiss each other and glory may dwell in our land FINIS
A SERMON Preached before the King Queen AT WINDSOR-CASTLE SEPT 21. 1690. By R. Meggott D. D. Dean of Winchester and Chaplain in Ordinary to Their Majesties Published by Their Majesties Special Command LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCXC James II. XXVI For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also MAthias a Michou l. 1 c. 5. Desarmat Asianâ telleth us the reason why the Tartars embraced Mahometism was because the Saracens perswaded them that that Religion was more favourable and fit for their turn than the strict and rigid Christian But had they been acquainted with those indulging comments which we our selves as occasion hath served have made on it this need not have in the least disheartned them There is no Text so severe no saying so hard in it that these with one distinction and evasion or another have not softned and sweetned so that even the most delicate and wanton Palates may away with them Finding it irksome to rectify their Manners by the Rule to satisfy their grumbling Consciences Men have bowed the Rule to their Manners And to avoid the Reproach of disobeying the Oracle found out Devices to Misinterpret it So the Aethiopian that he may seem Beautiful himself Painteth his God black too Tho' 't is but now and then we meet with a boysterous Athiest so rude as impudently to dash the Looking-glass against the ground because it sheweth him sights so unwelcome and affrighting yet nothing more common than to use such Arts in ordering and placing it that it may be sure to flatter and reflect things pleasingly Tho' the most Charitable Religion the World was ever blessed with it hath been quoted in Justification of Cruelty and Persecution Tho' the most sincere Religion it hath been alledged as a Warrant for Perfidiousness and Aequivocation Tho' the most Rational Religion it hath been wrested to hallow Enthusiasm and Disorder Pure and spotless holy and harmless as it is yet as if Celsus and Zozimus's Malicious Calumny had been true that it was indeed an Asylum where the most Lewd and Scandalous Offenders were promised Protection scarce any thing so grosly Vile that some or other have not pleaded its Commission for And notwithstanding the clear obligation which it layeth upon the Professors of it to all good Works some have taught as if it were a special Dispensation from the doing them So instead of Conscientiously paying these Debts they deny them Audaciously appealing to the Book that they are already discharged by another for them and are not now owing Even while the Apostles were alive there arose Men speaking such perverse things and against these St. James directeth a considerable part of this Epistle irrefragably proving the necessity of Universal Obedience in order to our everlasting Happiness that the belief of our Religion will never profit us without an answerable Conversation For as the body without out the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also In which words here are the Subject and its Praedicat to be considered of The Subject is Faith What is here Praedicated of it is That without Works it is dead as the body without the Spirit The former of these the Subject here spoken of is Faith Very glorious things are spoken of this in the Book of God but it is a word of such various significations and there are so many things of the Name that it seemeth a little difficult to say which of them they must be applied to In the Latin Concordance of the Vulgar Bible published by Stephanus there are reckoned up no less than twenty two several acceptations of it with the divers places of Scripture set down that have been accounted to refer to each of them Not to take up your time about them consider it as that Theological Grace distinguished from Hope and Charity and it is but another word for Believing and so is an assent of the mind to all the known Revelations of God whether Doctrines or Commands Promises or Threatnings as unquestionably true and certain If this account seem not so accurate as some Scholastick or so Spiritual as some Practical Divines have given of it we need not be concerned because the Holy Ghost himself speaketh of it on this wise Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen That is it is such a Conviction of the truth of those things which God hath spoken tho' we have no Ocular or Sensible demonstration of them as maketh us patiently and confidently expect the fulfilling them This is the genuine proper and comprehensive Notion of it If any shall say it is not such a general Faith the Gospel setteth so great a price up on but a special one if by special they mean an undoubting Perswasion a certain and full assurance of our own Justification and Salvation as (a) In Cap. 48 Genes Luther (b) Iust it l. 3. c. 2. § 7. Calvin (c) Confes c. 4. Art 5. Beza (d) Tom. 7. l. 1. de certa salute Ecclesiae Zanchy's and several others about that time spake of this Grace in their Definitions of it with due reverence to the Names of those useful Men in their Generations this is so far from being a more excellent kind of Faith that to speak plainly it is no Faith at all The Object of faith is Divine Revelation which is this case being but general and conditional such an Absolute and Particular conclusion if it be not a Delusion and over-weaning opinion of our own State which it is to be feared too oft it is yet however if never so well grounded it can be at most but a Rational Deduction arising from Self-examination By reason therefore of the Inconveniencies they perceived it clogged with this since hath been generally quitted by the most * Vide Baronium Philos Theol. Ancil Exercit. 3. Davenant Determ Q. 37. Judicious of them who in all other things adhered to them who first broached it they choosing rather to excuse those Worthies in this than defend them But notwithstanding their wariness in this instead of contenting themselves with that plain simple and substantial account the Scriptures give of it these also have nicely Coyned so many disputable sorts of it as gave but too much occasion to Maldonat's spiteful Sarcasm upon the Churches Reformed that they had alluding to the Aequivocalness of the Latin Word Tot fides quot in lyra Besides that of Miracles which is now ceased the most famous distribution of it is into these three Kinds Temporary Historical and Justifying And yet these Terms currantly as they have passed it may be upon consideration will appear not so much to have explained as confounded the thing and indeed to have been but distinctions without a difference For that which they call Temporary Faith the faith of them that believe but for a time is of the
same Species with that which they call justifying the duration of a thing doth not at all belong to the Essence of it He was as truly a Man that dyed at Thirty as he that liveth while he is Fourscore And our Saviour speaking of it Luke 8.13 doth not make it to be another but the same kind of Seed that fell upon the Rock where it withered away after it sprang up because it had no Root with that which fell upon the good ground and brought forth fruit with patience And so that which is called Justifying Faith considered in it self is nothing else but that which they call Historical which without all doubt doth Justifie if all those other things which the new Covenant doth require to the justification of a Sinner doth accompany it Every one will subscribe to that of our Apostle v. 14. of this Chapter that if a man say he hath Faith and hath not Works his Faith cannot save him So that faith of no kind when it is alone is justifying and faith of that kind they call Historical made perfect by works will be justifying And thus upon the whole matter it is evident that he who doth really believe whatsoever is contained in Gods Word to be true hath Faith whatever other Grace he may be deficient in But lest any Man should from some mistaken places of Scripture flatter himself that this is sufficient to qualifie him for the favour of God and admission into Heaven We are informed that without a good life it will never profit This is that which is here Praedicated and declared concerning faith The other General of the Text that without Works it is dead as a Carcass when the Soul is departed For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also And here again there is A Supposition and an Assertion The Supposition is that faith may be without works The Assertion that wheresoever it is so it is unacceptable to God and unprofitable unto Men it is dead The Supposition here is that faith may be without works If it did necessarily draw Obedience after it as some with plausible shows of reason Camero praelect ad Met. 18. have attempted to maintain this whole discourse about it would have been omitted as impertinent Why should our Apostle have argued so earnestly and closely about an utter impossibility It is true there can be no good works without Faith Hebr. 11.6 Without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him He that doth not believe this that God will reward him for it in another World will never Mortify his corrupt inclinations in this But true as it is that there can be no good works without Faith it is as true that there may be faith without good works else why are we exhorted 2 Pet. 1.5 To add to our Faith Vertue If this habit could not be in us idle and un-active there would have been no more need of it than to admonish the fire that it would warm or make orations to the water that it would cleanse or moisten It is a Moral motive to good Works but it is no irresistible Cause no it may be barren and unfruitful It is so in two very common Cases In case of Inconsideration In case of Presumption I. First in case of Inconsideration There is no question but that it is sufficient to produce good works St. Gregory Expounding that passage of our Saviour B. Greg. in Ebany hom 29. Mark 16.17 18. These signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover Because saith he faith doth not work these Wonders now shall we say it is not Faith No it doth now as mighty things upon the spirits of Men as then it did upon their Bodies Where it really is it casteth out Devils still the Envious the Proud the Unclean the Revengeful every Evil Spirit that possesseth Men. It maketh Men speak with new tongues still that which is good to the use of Edifying instead of Blasphemies Slanders Lyes Oaths Corrupt and Filthy Communication It taketh up Serpents still stinging Scoffs and Censures when called to it the greatest dangers and losses for the keeping of a good Conscience If they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt such still the sollicitings and temptations of bad Company which is so deadly unto thousands they shall not be Poysoned with They shall lay their hands on the sick and they shall recover still their many Infirmities and Frailties they labour under by degrees they shall overcome and conquer waxing stronger in the Lord These saith he are the wonderful effects of faith still But then it must be remembred it produceth them not as a Charm but as a Medicine not in a Magical way but in a Moral It representeth Arguments to our hopes and Fears of such amazing moment as are proper and apt enough to influence the stupidest or wildest Persons that will but weigh them but yet no Vertue will come out of them except our Minds touch them And are there not some who seldom or never seriously and in earnest think of these things tho' they know them And then what can be expected The sharpest Sword will not cut as long as it is in the Scabard In this case tho' there be Faith woful experience showeth it worketh no more than the Potion in a Glass which the Patient doth not take in the case of Inconsideration The other is like unto it and that is II. The case of Presumption Altho' Inconsideration with the Philistines cutteth the Hair wherein the strength of Faith lyeth this will not serve always in time it will grow again and make its fresh assaults on us Tho' Men may for a while by casual or contrived diversions have these things out of their thoughts they cannot so utterly rid their Consciences of its company but that sometime or other it meeteth them as the Angel did Balaam with a naked Sword in its Hand so dreadful that it maketh the the most Brutish sort of Sinners for the present to start and boggle in their ways and yet for all this oft-times they will not go back again No when they dare not run full-butt against it then they find out a trick cunningly to slip by it They suppose the things to be true but then they promise themselves selves that they will be wise They resolve they will repent before they dye and then they assure themselves the threatning will not take place Behind this Sconce they stand secure against the most dreadful Artillery of Heaven that is discharged at them having once imbibed this Opiat Principle like those Indian Kings mentioned by *
Vita Apollorii l. 3. c. 1. Philostratus when they had drunk out of their Enchanted Cup they conceive themselves Invulnerable That Servant who had not quite lost all fear of his Lord but believed he would call him to a reckoning when once he said in his Heart that he (a) Mat. 24.48 delayed his coming it would be a great while first At the present maketh bold to do any thing Smiteth his fellow Servants and eateth and drinketh with the drunken It is a very Atheistical Age we live in but yet I am very far from thinking all the loose ones in it to be Atheists most of them I perswade my self believe there is a God and that he will by no means acquit the guilty but with them in the Prophet who said The Vision is for many days to come Ezek. 12.27 they hope hereafter will be time enough to be reconciled to him and with this Salvo it is they sin so unconcernedly and their faith sitteth idle all the day long without works God grant it do not so with any of us while the Night cometh that long and dismal Night when no Man can Work To prevent this mighty Evil know assuredly that as long as it is so with any of us our state is as dangerous I might add more than if we had no faith at all This is the thing here asserted the great Truth in the Text now to be discoursed of concerning faith that as long as it is without works it is unacceptable to God it is unprofitable unto Men it is dead For as the body without the spirit is dead so faith without works is dead also There is no such plenty of Faith on the Earth now as to bring down the price of it but rare as it is 't is possible to over-rate it And so we should most unreasonably to think it is all that God requireth of us under the Gospel This is to represent the Christian Religion more absurd than any None so Prodigal as to engage its rewards to as many as are of it meerly for believing some of its Articles except they are likewise observant of its Precepts but this were to make the Commandments of God of no Obligation to as many as shall but confidently rely upon his Promises If it be so disingenuous an abuse of the kindness of Men to misconstrue their words spoke in our favour and put such an extravagant sense on them as they never intended what would it be to deal so with the words of God Instead of blessing his Name for so gracious a Promise that for the Merits of his Son he will accept of the sincere tho' imperfect Repentance and Obedience of every one who by Faith layeth hold on him to pretend that laying hold of Christ by Faith is all that he requireth to the Justification of a Sinner God forbid but that we should give unto Faith the things that are Faith's that we may and yet not own all those indiscreet and dangerous Hyperboles that some in their heats have magnifyed it with this were to take away from Works the things that are works Now look upon faith as separate from these and as great and necessary a grace as it is there is nothing in it which may not be found in a reprobate and cast-away There are but three things that can properly be reckoned up belonging to it Knowledge Assent and Affiance As to Knowledge there is none can make any doubt of that have all the works of iniquity no Knowledge have they not known have they not heard yea verily that Servant who did it not yet knew his Masters Will as well as any of them As for Assent the Devils go beyond us all in it they give it without any mixture of doubting It filleth them constantly with tormenting fears they believe and tremble And for Affiance except there were more ground for it alas there is but too much of it among the most sottish of the people The foolish Virgins tho' they had no oyl in their Lamps were as confident slept as soundly as the wise These things with their due concomitants are glorifications of God and their praise is in the Gospel But alone by themselves like the unfruitful light of the Sun in Winter or the deceptions of a flattering dream they are meer entertainment for imagination they being nothing to perfection That faith which is compounded of all these ingredients if it be not accompanied with a holy life the Apostle here compareth to a dead body whose spirit is departed from it And there are two things wherein it much resembleth it 1. First as the dead body without the Spirit is imperfect wanting its best and noblest part so is faith without works wanting that which dignifyeth and compleateth it without these it appeareth by the view we just now have taken of the parts of it it is in the sight of God of no price This some have not without probability conceived to be one of the chief of those things which St. Peter pointeth at in his brother Paul's Epistles Pet. 23.16 so hard to be understood which they that were unlearned and unstable wrested to their own destruction his doctrine concerning faith because of his attributing such blessed effects to it tho he meant it only of such a faith as worketh by love as he expresseth himself to the Galatians Chap. 5.6 telling the Corinthians 1 Epist 13.2 that he that hath all faith faith of any denomination and hath not charity is nothing yet there were a sort of men who took occasion from thence to teach that all he intended was only an inward and strong perswasion of the vertue and efficacy of Christ's merits and satisfaction and if people but so believed it was enough not much matter how they lived Several of the Ancients and among them St. Augustine hath affirmed that the first Epistle of St. John the second of St. Peter the Epistle of St. Jude and this of St. James all insisting so peculiarly upon the necessity of obedience and keeping the Commandments of God were written chiefly for the confutation of that pernicious tenent All who carefully and without prejudice read the Scriptures will easily see that these make repentance and newness of life as much a condition of our pardon and salvation as faith it self So that when these are attributed so eminently and peculiarly unto faith we are not to understand it of this Grace singly but of the mother with her daughters her with her whole family of evangelical duties Thus St. Paul who is most appealed to in this case expoundeth himself Rom. 10.16 they have not all obeyed the Gospel for Esaias saith who hath believed our report Where obeying the Gospel in the former part of the Verse he calleth believing in the latter accordingly he chargeth all that should preach it to the end of the World Titus 3.8 to teach and affirm constantly that they that believe in God should be careful to