Innocency and the Law of Grace and in it the Promise made to Adam and Noah and that to Abraham and the peculiar Mosaical Law and Covenant and the perfecter Edition of the Law or Covenant of Grace by Christ Incarnate a true Student of Theology may easily discern Wherein I hope the Reader will find that among the many late Treatises on this Subject the Authour here hath done considerable service to the Church of God Of which Subject I have written long ago so much my self and am attempting to make it yet more plain that I need not here tell you what is my judgment only lest any who know not how to stop in Mediocrity should be tempted by Socinians or Papists to think that we countenance any of their Errors or that our Differences in the Point of Justification by Faith or Works are greater than indeed they are and lest any weak Opiniative persons should clamour unpeaceably against their Brethren and think to raise a name to themselves for their differing Notions I shall here give the Reader such evidences of our real Concord as shall silence that Calumny Though some few Lutherans did upon peevish suspiciousness against George Major long ago assert that good Works are not necessary to Salvation And though some few good men whose zeal without judgment doth better serve their own turn than the Churches are jealous lest all the good that is ascribed to Man be a dishonour to God and therefore speak as if God were honoured most by saying the worst words of our selves and many have uncomely and irregular Notions about these matters and though some that are addicted to sidings do take it to be their godly zeal to censure and reproach the more understanding Sort when they most grosly erre themselves And though too many of the people are carried about through injudiciousness and temptations to false Doctrines and evil lives yet is the Argument of Protestants thus manifested 1. They all affirm that Christ's Sacrifice with his Holiness and perfect Obedience are the Meritorious Cause of the forgiving Covenants and of our Pardon and Iustification thereby and of our right to Life Eternal which it giveth us And that this price was not paid or given in it self immediately to us but to God for us and so that our foresaid benefits are its effects 2. They agree that Christ's Person and ours were not really the same and therefore that the same Righteousness which is an Accident of one cannot possibly be an Accident of the other 3. They all detest the conceit that God should aver and repute a Man to have done that which he never did 4. They all agree that Christ's Sacrifice and Merits are really so effectual to procure our Pardon Justification Adoption and right to the sealing gift of the Holy Ghost and to Glory upon our Faith and Repentance that God giveth us all these benefits of the New Covenant as certainly for the sake of Christ and his Righteousness as if we had satisfied him and merited them our selves And that thus far Christ's Righteousness is ours in its effects and imputed to us in that we are thus used for it and shall be judged accordingly 5. They all agree that we are Justified by none but a Practical or working Faith 6. And that this Faith is the Condition of the Promise or Gift of Justification and Adoption 7. And that Repentance is a Condition also though as it is not the same with Faith as Repentance of unbelief is on another aptitudinal account even as a willingness to be cured and a willingness to take one for my Physitian and to trust him in the use of his Remedies are on several accounts the Conditions on which that Physitian will undertake the Cure or as willingness to return to subjection thankful acceptance of a purchased parden and of the Purchasers love and future Authority are the Conditions of a Rebels pardon 8. And they all agree that in the first instant of a Mans Conversion or Believing he is entered into a state of Justification before he hath done any outward works And that so it is true that good Works follow the justified and go not before his initial Iustification As also in the sense that Austin spake it who took Justification for that which we call Sanctification or Conversion 9. And they all agree that justifying Faith is such a receiving affiance as is both in the Intellect and the Will and therefore as in the Will participateth of some kind of love to the justifying Object as well as to Justification 10. And that no Man can choose or use Christ as a means so called in respect to his own intention to bring him to God the Father who hath not so much love to God as to take him for his Endâ—n the use of that means 11. And they agree that we shall be all judged according to our Works by the Rule of the Covenant of Grace though not for our Works by way of Commutative or Legal proper Merit And Iudging is the Genus whose Species is Iustifying and Condemning And to be judged according to our Works is nothing but to be Iustified or Condemned according to them 12. They all agree that no Man can possibly merit of God in point of Commutative Iustice nor yet in point of Distributive or Governing Iustice according to the Law of Nature or Innocency as Adam might have done nor by the Works of the Mosaical Law 13. They all agree that no Works of Mans are to be trusted in or pleaded but all excluded and the conceit of them abhorred 1. As they are feigned to be against or in stead of the free Mercy of God 2. As they are against or feigned instead of the Sacrifice Obedience Merit or Intercession of Christ. 3. Or as supposed to be done of our selves without the Grace of the Holy Ghost 4. Or as supposed falsly to be perfect 5. Or as supposed to have any of the aforedisclaimed merit 6. Or as materially consisting in Mosaical observances 7. Much more in any Superstitious Inventions 8. Or in any evil mistaken to be good 9. Or as any way inconsistent with the tenor of the freely pardoning Covenant In all these senses Justification by Works is disclaimed by all Protestants at least 14. Yet all agree that we are Created to good Works in Christ Jesus which God hath ordained that we should walk therein and that he that nameth the Name of Christ must depart from iniquity or else he hath not the Seal of God and that he that is born of God sinneth not that is predominantly And that all Christ's Members are holy purified zealous of good Works cleansing themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit that they might perfect holyness in God's fear doing good to all Men as loving their Neighbours as themselves And that if any Man have not the Sanctifying Spirit of Christ he is none of his nor without holiness can see God 15. They all
judge reverently and charitably of the Antients that used the word Merit of good Works because they meant but a moral aptitude for the promised Reward according to the Law of Grace through Christ. 16. They confess the thing thus described themselves however they like not the name of Merit lest it should countenance proud and carnal conceits 17. They judge no Man to be Heretical for the bare use of that word who agreeth with them in the sense 18. In this sense they agree that our Gospel-obedience is such a necessary aptitude to our Glorification as that glory though a free gift is yet truly a Reward of this Obedience 19. And they agree that our final Justification by sentence at the day of Judgment doth pass upon the same Causes Reasons and Conditions as our Glorification doth 20. They all agree that all faithful Ministers must bend the labour of their Ministry in publick and private for promoting of Holiness and good Works and that they must diifference by discipline between the obedient and the disobedient And O! that the Papists would as zealously promote Holiness and good Works in the World as the true serious Protestants do whom they factiously and peevishly accuse as enemies to them and that the Opinion Disputing and name of good Works did not cheat many wicked persons into self-flattery and perdition while they are void of that which they dispute for Then would not the Mahometans and Heathens be deterred from Christianity by the wickedness of these nominal Christians that are near them Nor would the serious practice of that Christianity which themselves in general profess be hated scorned and persecuted by so many both Protestants and Papists nor would so many contend that they are of the true Religion while they are really of no Religion at all any further than the Hypocrites Picture and Carkass may be called Religion Were Men but resolved to be serious Learners serious Lovers and serious Practisers according to their knowledge and did not live like mockers of God and such as look towards the life to come in jest or unbelief God would vouchsafe them better acquaintance with the true Religion than most Men have Having prefaced this much for the rest I refer thee to the perusal of this Treatise which will give thee much light into the nature of the Gospel and especially help thee to the right understanding of the meaning of the Apostle Paul in all his Epistles about the Law the Gospel and the Justification of a sinner O pray and labour for A CONFIRMED PRACTICAL FAITH as daily doth Your fellow Disciple Ri. Baxter Iune 4th 1672. The chief Heads of Discourse 1. THe nature of the Promise to Abraham 2. Why the Law was added to the Promise 3. How those under the Law were saved 4. The nature of the Legal Covenant 5. The mistakes of Iews about the Law and Promise and how St. Paul counter-argues those mistakes 6. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Iustification by Faith and not by Works was then mistaken by some 7. That the Doctrine of St. Paul and of St. James about Faith and Works do not differ 8. With an APPENDIX touching the difference and the reason of the difference between saving and ineffectual Faith A DISCOURSE Of the Nature Ends and Difference OF THE TWO COVENANTS THe mistake of the unbelieving Iews about the true import of Gods Promise to Abraham and of the Law of Moses was a principal cause of their rejecting Christ and his Gospel and their own salvation thereby To rectifie which mistake the Apostle St. Paul used various reasonings according to the various Errors contained in it In which reasonings of his there being some things hard to be understood there were others again which probably mistaking the Apostles reasonings against the Jew-Jewish Notion of Justification by Works ran into a contrary extream thinking they might be saved by Faith without Works as on the contrary the incredulous Iews thought they might be saved by Works without Faith And if many in our dayes had not run into somewhat alike extream through a misunderstanding also of the Apostles writings labour and pains would not have been so necessary as now they are to rectify their mistake and to prevent it in others To the end therefore that the plain Truth may the better appear touching Gods promise to Abraham touching the Law of Moses and the Apostles arguings about these I shall very briefly endeavour these seven things 1. To open the Nature and Design of Gods promise to Abraham And to shew 2. For what ends the Law was added to the promise 3. By what Faith and Practice the Iews under the Law were saved 4. That the Law contained a Covenant different from that with Abraham 5. The grand mistakes of the unbelieving Jews and St. Paul's counter arguings touching both the Law and the Promise 6. The mistake of some pretended Christians in the Apostles days touching the Doctrine of Iustification by Faith without Works 7. That the Doctrine of St. Paul and St James about Faith and Works in reference to Iustification do not differ I shall begin with the first of these CHAP. I. The Nature and Design of Gods Promise to Abraham I Shall endeavour to open the Nature and Design of Gods Promise to Abraham Which Promise is also called the Covenant Act. 3. 25. Gal. 3. 17. In doing of which these eight things will come under consideration 1. What the nature of this Promise is in general 2. What the design of it is 3. What are the special benefits promised 4. What the extent of it is 5. The security given by God for the performance of it 6. That this Promise was conditional 7. What the condition of it was 8. What we are to understand by Gods accounting Abrahams Faith to him for Righteousness Sect. 1. Of the nature of it in general This Promise I take to be of the same nature with that which in the Gospel is called the New Covenant It 's true indeed they greatly differ in the Administration the one being but general implicite and obscure and the other more particular express and perspicuous But though in this they differ yet in their general nature they agree in one and are the same For 1. This Covenant as delivered to Abraham was confirmed in Christ as well as the Gospel afterwards Gal. 3. 17. and that 's a Character of the New Covenant Mat. 26. 28. 2. The Gospel is said to have been preached to Abraham in the Promise that was made him Gal. 3. 8. 3. He was justified by Faith which he could not have been but by vertue of a New Covenant And it was by Faith in the Promise made to him by God by which he was justified Which two things supposed it necessarily follows that that Promise was of the nature of the New Covenant 4. St. Paul argues against the erroneous Iews in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians the necessity of Evangelical Faith unto justification
now under the Gospel from Abraham's being justified by Faith and from God's setting him forth for a pattern and example to all after-ages of his justifying both Iews and Gentiles upon the condition of believing The strengh of which arguing seems to depend upon this supposition That the Promise by the belief of which Abraham was then justified and the Promise in the Gospel by the belief of which men are now justified do both agree and are one in the general nature of them And upon these grounds and under this notion of the Promise to Abraham I intend to discourse of it But when I consider for what reason he that is least in the Kingdom of God is said to be greater than Iohn the Baptist though not Abraham himself nor any of the Prophets were greater than he and when I consider likewise how ignorant the Apostles were for a time touching the necessity of the Death and Resurrection of Christ notwithstanding the many plainer Revelations thereof in the Prophets than we find Abraham had I cannot I confess think that Abraham had or could have a distinct notion of all that was contained and implyed in the Promise as now it is opened and unfolded in the Writings of the New Testament it does appear was wrapt up in it And therefore though I think I may well found a Discourse of the New Covenant upon the Promise made to Abraham as it is now explained in the New Testament yet I would not be understood to suppose Abrahams apprehension or Faith to have then been commensurate to the Promise as it is so explained Supposing then the Promise to Abraham to be the New Covenant it self in a more imperfect Edition of it than afterward came forth I shall now a little further consider what it was and what the New Covenant is ever hath been in the general nature of it since it first commenced And it is a new Law or Covenant made by way of remedy against the rigour and extremity of the Law of Nature under which Man was created For the Law of Nature the Law of Gods Creation as well as his instituted Law in Paradise being violated and impossible to be kept inviolable by Man in his lapsed state by reason of his moral impotency and the pravity of his Nature derived from Adam he must inevitably have sunk and perished under the condemnation of it unless there had been a new Law instituted to supercede the procedure of this Law against him in its natural and proper course If Salvation had been attainable by Man in his lapsed state without this remedying Law of Grace there would have been no need of a New Covenant If there had been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the Law Gal. 3. 21. But there was no such Law given besides this new Law Nor could the Original Law be repealed for the relief of faln Man it being founded in the Nature of God and the nature of Man as he was created after Gods own Image and is no more changeable than the Nature of good and evil are changable And therefore as I said there was a necessity that Man must have perished under the condemnation of the Law of his Creation as the lapsed Angels did under theirs unless a Law of Indemnity had been Enacted But God whose tender mercies are over all his works to the end so great and considerable a part of his Creation as Man is might not be wholly lost and undone to all eternity out of his infinite compassion mercy and love did constitute a new Law or Covenant for mans relief which well may be called the Covenant of Grace against the rigour and extremity of the first Law Which new Law was in some degree though but obscurely made known to Man not long after Adams fall or else there would have been no ground for that Faith which we are assured was in Abel Enoch c. Heb. 11. But it was doubtless somewhat more fully declared to Abraham than to any before and at last compleatly established and published by Jesus Christ the Mediatour of it who was given for a Covenant to the people And this new Law in the last edition of it under the Gospel is variously denominated being called the Promise the New Covenant the Law of Faith the Law of Liberty the Gospel the Grace of God or the Word of his Grace And so we come Sect. 2. To consider what the design of God was in this New Covenant or Promise unto Abraham Next to his own glory it was to recover the Humane Nature from its degenerate state to a state of holiness to that likeness to God in which Man was at the first made and therein and thereby to a state of happiness both which were lost by the fall Holiness love and goodness as they were once the glory and happiness of Man before he lost them so are still perfective of his nature And therefore it is impossible in the nature of the thing to recover Man to happiness without recovering his nature to a conformity to God in these or for Man to be perfectly happy whose nature is not perfected in them Sin is the disease and sickness of the Soul and it 's as possible for a sick man to enjoy the pleasure of health as it is for the sinful and corrupt nature of man while such to enjoy the pleasure which the humane nature did naturally enjoy or was capable of enjoying in its innocency and purity But when the nature of Man is once recovered to perfection in knowledge holiness love and goodness it will then be matter of unspeakable delight to him to love God Angels and Men and to do the will of God in every thing It is so to the holy Angels And it was so to our blessed Saviour who counted it as his meat and drink to be doing the will of his heavenly Father And to what degree the nature of man is here in this world restored towards its proper perfection to the same degree it is matter of pleasure and delight to him to act holily and righteously and to be doing good It iâ— joy to the Iust to do judgment Prov. 21. 15. It is a pain to a man to act contrary to the bent and inclination of his nature by compulsion or fear And therefore unless the corrupt nature of Man were changed Heaven would not be Heaven to him in case he were there Those Divine and Heavenly exercises which are there the unspeakable delight of Saints and Angels would be his pain and torment as being contrary to his nature And the pleasures of that state as having not what will satisfie the unsatiable lusts of mans corrupt nature would not be such to him but add rather to his anguish For as it would be a torment to a Man to be in extremity of hunger and thirst and to be without Meat and Drink and all hopes of any to satisfie him So will
it be a grievous torment to the corrupt nature of Men in another morld to retain their lusts and the violent cravings of them and yet to be without all hope of having wherewith to satisfie them which yet is like to be the condition of men in Hell Here mens unnatural lusts are not such a torment to them because they can make provision to satisfie them or live in hopes so to do and in the mean while drown the noise of them by diversion But in Hell it will be quite otherwise And therefore its easie to imagine that the torment which will arise from the corruption of mens natures there will be unspeakably great besides the piercing sence of the happiness they have lost and the other intollerable pains which they must indure and therefore as whoever hath not his nature renewed in this World is never like to have it renewed in another so without renewing of it it is impossible he should be happy there Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Joh. 3. 3. That is he cannot enjoy it and why It is not only from Gods Decree or established Law to the contrary that he cannot but also from the utter incapacity of his Nature as corrupt Wherefore all the Vessels of Mercy are such as God aforehand prepares unto glory Rom. 9. 23. They are such as are made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. Such as God hath wrought for the self same thing 2. Cor. 5. 5. So that as I said there is a necessity in the nature of the thing that if God would design the Restoration of the Nature of Man to happiness that in order thereto he should design a Restoration of it to holiness as indeed he hath He hath chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit 2 Thes. 2. 13. And therefore the end of Christs great undertaking for the Redemption and Restauration of Man is described by his saving his people from their sins By his redeeming them from all â—niquity and purifying to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works By his washing and sanctifying of them that he might present them to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing That this was the design of Gods promise to Abraham appears in that at the very first it was propounded to him by way of Motive to quit the Idolatry of his Fathers and the evil customes of his Countrey for they served other Gods Iosh. 24. 2. Get thee out of thy Countrey and from thy Kindred and from thy Fathers house and I will make of thee a great Nation and thou shalt be a blessing and in thee shall all the Families of the Earth be blessed Gen. 12. 1 2 3. In which God had a farther design than to reform Abraham only His design in him and by him was to set on foot the Reformation of the World and the recovering the Nations thereof from the dregs of Idolatry into which they were sunk And therefore God said unto him Thou shalt be a blessing And this he designed not only in giving him a numerous Issue and making them a great Nation whose Education in the worship of the true God was founded in Abraham but also in making both him and them eminent examples of his special favour in the â—ight of the Nations by which they might see how much better it was to serve the God of Abraham than the Gods of the Nations And thereby to invite and draw them from their Idolatry Superstition and Ungodliness to worship and serve the true God And God in promising to Abraham both the Messias in his Seed and also that he would bless them that should bless him and curse them that should curse him and that his Seed should possess the gate of his enemies had it should seem this in design viz. to encourage and quicken them to a holy life Luke 1. 72 73 74 75. To perform the mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant The Oath which he sware to our Father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life But besides all this considering that the Promise made to Abraham was the New Covenant as it was then exhibited as I have shewed before the benefits therein promised had a proper tendency in them to restore Man again to a likeness to God in the Moral perfections of his Nature For the great and precious Promises contained in the New Covenant as such are given for this very end that by them we might be partakers of a Divine Nature the glory whereof is knowledge purity and charity 2 Pet. 1. 4. And for God by such promises to make overtures unto Man of love and good-will and of desires of reconciliation is the direct way and method of recovering faln Man from a state of enmity against God to a mind reconciled to him to think well of him to love him and delight in him For we love him because he first loved us 1 Joh. 4. 19. And God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself and how by not imputing their trespasses to them but being willing upon their repentance and returning to their duty to forgive them 2 Cor. 5. 19. God useth the same way of overcoming mans enmity against him which he hath taught us to use to overcome mans enmity against us and that is by overcoming their evil with our good Rom. 12. 21. David dealing so with Saul though a bitter enemy melted him into tears and made him cry Is this thy voice my son David 1 Sam. 24. 16. And to whom much is forgiven the same person loveth much Luke 7. 42 47. And if God by these methods do once recover Mans love to him he will quickly recover him to his loyalty and duty of which Love is the proper Source and Spring If a man love me he will keep my words Joh. 14. 23. Now that God's promise to Abraham did contain expressions of wonderful grace and love and consequently what is most apt to beget in Man a love to God again and all the desirable effects of it will appear if we consider the special benefits comprehended in that Promise Which is the third thing now to be considered Sect. 3. The special benefits contained in the Promise made to Abraham were such as these 1. It contained a Promise of the Messias a promise of sending Christ into the world and that he should come of his Seed In thy Seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed Gen. 12. 3. and 18. 18. and 22. 18. which Seed is Christ as is said Gal. 3. 16. And in this promise of sending Christ were implyed the things he was sent for the things by which he should bless the world as his Death and Resurrection
repents through his grace and assistance And therefore God's grace and Man's indeavours in working this change are very consistent Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure If Man do but what he can do through the assistance of God's common Providence in whom we live and move and have our being God is most ready through his good pleasure or out of the goodness of his will and pleasure to work in him both to will and to do savingly to carry the work quite thorow Otherwise if there were nothing that Man could do in a way of common Providence towards his salvation why should he be exhorted and perswaded to do that which yet will not be done to effect and quite thorow without the assistance of God's Grace and good Spirit The co-operation of God's grace with Man's endeavours in this change in the nature of Man which is necessary to his salvation is a Doctrine that lies very fair and plain in the Scriptures And therefore men are called upon to make themselves new hearts Ezek. 18. 31. Make you a new Heart and a new Spirit for why will ye dye O house of Israel And God is said to make them new hearts also Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you Men are called upon to circumcise their own hearts Deut. 10. 16. And God is said to circumcise the heart Deut. 30. 6. Men are required to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of the flesh and Spirit 2 Cor. 7. 1. And they are also said to be washed and sanctified by the Spirit of God 1 Cor. 6. 11. Men are commanded to repent Acts 17. 30. And God is said to give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. 35. Acts 5. 31. It is by reason of this co-operation of God's assistance and Man's endeavours that St. Paul expresseth himself as he doth once and again Gal. 2. 20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me 1 Cor. 15. 10. I laboured more abundantly than they all Yet not I but the grace of God which was with me He doth not by these last words so deny what he had said in the former as if he had not spoke true for he speaks the same thing in effect in another place without any such correcting himself as here he useth 1 Cor. 3. 9. For we are labourers together with God And therefore by his so correcting himself saying Not I but the grace of God which was with me he only intends to magnifie Gods grace as having the principal stroke in the work It is a phrase of like import with that 2 Cor. 3. 10. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth So mans indeavour though it be somewhat in it self considered yet comparatively and in respect of the work of Gods grace by his Spirit which excels it is nothing Therefore in fine as men are said through the Spirit to mortifie the deeds of the body Rom. 8. 13. So they may be said through the same Spirit to believe repent obey that is through the assistance of the Spirit who is said to help our infirmities Rom. 8. 26. Considering then that there is promise of Divine assistance to Man using his endeavours in doing what he may and can do towards the performing the condition of the Covenant we may well conclude that there is no Man under the Gospel doth perish but through his own fault and neglect It is true God doth sometimes for special reasons meet with and convert sinners with a high hand of grace whil'st they are pursuing their sins in a full career and using no indeavours at all towards their own salvation as he did Saul before he was Paul But such extraordinary instances are no Rules to us by which to judge of God's ordinary proceedings in converting men Nor hath the Lord put men in expectation by any promise of his of their being converted after that manner and upon such terms And therefore it will in no wise be safe for any man to expect to be converted by such extraordinary workings of grace and to neglect to do what he can do and what God requires he should do towards his own conversion There are many things which men may and can believe and do without any supernatural grace and by vertue of God's common grace It is no Supernatural Act to believe the Being of God and the Immortality of the Soul or future state Or to know that we are â—inners against God and consequently that we stand in need of his mercy Nor is it a Supernatural Act for a man to desire the future happiness of his own Nature or Being or to hear the Word of God which directs the way to that happiness no more than it is to hear any other Doctrine that only pretends to do so Nor is it a Supernatural Act to consider the Doctrine of the Scriptures with as much seriousness as men do or may the contents of any other Books Nor is it a Supernatural Act to consider how we are concerned in the Doctrine of the Scriptures in case it should prove true No more is it a Supernatural Act seriously to consider the strength and force of those Reasons that tend to perswade men to believe that Doctrine to be true Nor under the natural desires which men have to be happy in another world is it a Supernatural Act for them to pray to God to direct and assist them in the use of means that they may be happy These I take to be no Supernatural Acts in men For though the depraved wil of Man needs special or Supernatural grace to do these so seriously and effectually as is needful to true Sanctification yet in some sort and measure they may be done by common help And if men would but go thus far as they can out of a real desire to be happy I should make no question but that the Spirit of God would yield them his assistance to carry them quite through in the work of conversion And whether our Saviour doth not by the hearers resembled by the good ground mean such men as before their conversion have some such working of heart about their future state as doth incline them to hear and consider what with any fair probability may be said about the way to be happy in that state and not to hear out of curiosity or for fashion-sake or to carp I submit to consideration It is doubtless then mens inconsideration carelesness and negligence in those things which they do believe and which they can do that undoes them It is because seeing they see not and hearing they hear not which is the reason why more is not given but rather that taken away from them which they had That is The reason
Circumcision if the great benefits of the Covenant of which Justification was one were suspended upon that as a necessary condition And yet that hâ— was justified when not Circumcised there is the express Authority of Scripture for This he asserts Rom. 4. 9 10. For we say that Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness How was it then reckoned when he was in Circumcision or in Vncircumcision Not in Circumcision but in Vncircumcision Afterwards he proceeds to undeceive them in the apprehension they had that the benefits of the Covenant were entailed upon Abraham's Natural Seed as such or at least as such with the addition of a literal observation of Circumcision and the Law without respect to the Spiritual and new Birth Rom. 9. 6 7 8. They are not all Israel which are of Israel as they thought they were neither because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all Children But in Isaac shall thy Seed be called That is those shall be called Abraham's Seed which are born as Isaac was by Faith in the Promise which are therefore called Children of the Promise For so the Apostle expounds it saying They which are the Children of the flesh these are not the Children of God but the Children of the Promise are counted for the Seed to wit such as are born after the Spirit as it is explained Gal. 4. 28 29. And this agrees to what he had said before Rom. 2. 28. He is not a Iew which is one outwardly c. Against which corrupt Opinion Iohn the Baptist did oppose himself when he admonished the Pharisees to bring forth Fruit meet for Repentance and think not to say within your selves we have Abraham to our Father Mat. 3. 7 8. The Apostle labours to cure this grand Error about Literal Circumcision as disjoyned from Spiritual in many other places and shews how that Circumcision availeth nothing but a new creature such as Spiritual Cirâ—umcision makes a man to be Gal 6. 15. Not Circumcision but Faith Gal. 5. 6. Not Circumcision but keeping the Commandments is that which would only reach those great ends which they sought after in Literal Circumcision 1 Cor. 7. 19. But I shall have occasion to improve these Scriptures further upon another Head of this Discourse And by the way we may observe that those who build their hopes of future happiness upon their having been Baptized and their being of the Church without the inward Grace signified by Baptism which is the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost they are much a-kin to those miserable mistaken Iews 2. They not understanding the Typical and Spiritual use of the Legal Sacrifices as they did prefigure the death and suffering of Christ and the general Atonement which was to be made thereby nor yet the Predictions of the Prophets touching his death they ran into another gross Error and that was That the promised Messias should not by suffering death become a Sacrifice for sin And therefore they said to him when he spoke to them of his death We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever and how sayest thou the Son of Man must be lift up Joh. 12. 34. They did not dream of his dying but of his Reigning visibly as a mighty Monarch among them and subduing all Nations under them Because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him Acts 13. 27. Their ignorance in the meaning of the Types and Predictions touching the death of the Messias would have been the more excusable if they had not wilfully and obstinately persisted in that Error after those Types and Prophecies were fulfilled and explained to them Ignorance in this matter was found in Christ's own Disciples a great while but their slowness to believe those Types and Prophecies after they were fulfilled was a thing which our Saviour rebuked them for saying O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory Luke 24. 25 26. But the unbelieving Iews were tenacious of this Opinion after they had sufficient means to have been convinc'd of their Error in it In opposition to which Opinion the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews argues at large the necessity of Christ's suffering by death As first he argues it from his Priesthood For having proved him according to Prophecy to be a Priest not after the Order of Aaron but of Melchizedeck and so a Priest of greater Dignity Chap. 5. and 7. He infers Chap. 8. that as a Priest he must have something to offer in Sacrifice and that of greater value than what was offered by Priests under the Law that were but of an inferiour Order and that he shews to have been himself and his own Blood as the Antitype of all those Legal Sacrifices Chap. 9. Secondly He proves his death necessary for the confirmation of the second and new Covenant as he was Mediatour of it As the first Testament was not dedicated without Blood so neither is the second For where a Testament is saith he there of necessity must also be the death of the Testator Chap. 9. 15 23. Thirdly His death was necessary for the obtaining of Remission of Sins a Benefit promised in the new Covenant For without shedding of Blood saith he there is no Remission of Sin Chap. 9. 22. with Chap. 10. 5 18. And indeed it was a good part of the Apostle's work to beat down this Opinion that the Messias was not to dye Acts 17. 3. St. Paul as his manner was went into them and three Sabbath days reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead Yea this Opinion had so generally obtained among them in our Saviours time that it seems the Apostles of Christ at first were not free from it For when our Saviour told them that at Ierusalem he should be delivered to the Gentiles and that they should scourge him and put him to death and that the third day he should rise again it 's said they understood none of these things and that this saying was â—id from them neither knew they the things which were spoken Though they were spoken plainly and in no Parable Luke 18. 32 33 34. Christ his being crucified became a stumbling-block to the Iews through this Error of theirs and that which they insisted upon as a Reason why they would not receive him as the Christ of God 1 Cor. 1. 23. 3. They held another Error which probably was Mother or Daughter of the former and that was That the Legal Sacrifices did expiate and take away Sin not only so as to free them from Legal penalties and temporal punishments as in many Cases they did but so also as to free them from all Obligation to Eternal punishment And so they did attribute to
all them that believe for there is no difference meaning between Iews and Gentiles Rom. 3. 21 22. he thereupon demands in ver 27. saying where is boasting then It excluded By what Law Of Works Nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we find the holy Men of Old among the Iews who expected acceptance with God upon other terms than the Pharisaical Iews did who placed their confidence called trusting in the flesh Phil. 3. 4. in their External Priviledges and Performances alone were so far from glorying in such a Righteousness as that that they cryed out in reference to that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Isa. 64. 6. Thus Regenerating Grace made David so far from boasting either of Priviledges or of his Performances that he saith unto God Who am I and what is my people that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thine own have we given thee 1 Chro. 29. 14. This made St. Paul to say We are not sufficient of our selves as of our selves to think any thing but our sufficiency is of God 2 cor 3. 5. And by the grace of God I am what I am 1 Cor. 15. 10. And of him are we in Christ Iesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord having nothing but what he hath received from him gratis and without all desert yea contrary to his demerits 1 Cor. 1. 30 31. The good Works which the Saints do they do them by vertue of their being created in Christ Iesus in order thereunto Ephes. 2. 10. and all that good is is through Christ strengthening them Phil. 4. 13. From whence therefore we may well conclude that if the works which St. Paul wholly excludes in the matter of Justification were only such as were apt to occasion boasting that then Acts of Evangelical Obedience were none of those Works According to the sense explained then I presume we may well understand that Text Rom. 3. 28. which of all others seems in the Phrase and Expression to be most Exclusive of Works in the point of Justification the words are these Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Which words if you consider the context seem to import no more but this viz. That a Man is justified in the Gospel-way which in the verse before is called the Law of Faith And not by the deeds of the Law or upon the terms of the first Covenant which in the verse before likewise is called the Law of Works Which two the Gospel terms the first Covenant terms are still opposed to each other in the point of Justification Now although the Conclusion here laid down is true in reference to the Iews as well as to the Gentiles yet it seems to be written here with special reference to the Gentiles Intimating that upon their belief they might be justified without turning Proselytes to the Jewish way as appears by that Interrogation in the very next words following ver 29. 30. Is he the God of the Iews only is he not also of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the Circumcision by Faith and Vncircumcision through Faith And the words in the 31 ver do intimate that the words in the 28th vers are to be understood in such a limited sense as I have assigned in my Explication viz. as excluding the deeds of the Law in the act of Justification only in the Iews corrupt sense of the Law because St. Paul therein affirms his foresaid Doctrine of Justification by Faith without the deeds of the Law not to be at all destructive of the Law but contrariwise tending to establish the Law if we take the Law not in that distorted sense in which those Iews held it but as it was appointed by God to promote holiness in the World which is the end and scope of all his Laws In which sense the Apostle was so far from excluding the works of the Law from having any thing to do in the Justification of Men as that he had expresly affirmed before That though the hearers of the Law were not just before God yet the doers of the Law should be justified Rom. 2. 13. Meaning by doers such as do sincerely obey that Law of God under which they are and not such as do perfectly fulfil it as some would seem to understand it For I have shewed before that God never made Promise of Justification upon naturally impossible conditions as that would be and they are dishonourable thoughts of God to think he hath and therefore the Apostle may not be understood to promise Justification to the doers of the Law upon any such terms There is one vein of Texts moâ—â— wherein the Opposition is made in such a form of words between the Iews way of seeking Justification by the Law and the Gospel-way of seeking it by Faith that being a little opened will both illustrate and confirm what I have been representing to you And they are such in which the Iews erroneous way is called their own Righteousness and the true Christian-way of Justification the Righteousness of God by Faith and the Righteousness of God Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of God s Righteousnâ—ss and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves to the Righteousness of God Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith This Righteousness is called their own Righteousness in opposition to the Righteousness of God upon a three-fold account as I understand it 1. Because they sought the pardon of their sins by that only which was their own their own Sacrifices Sacrifices which they themselves brought to be offered Whereas the Christian Justification is called the Righteousness of God because the Sacrifice by which pardon of sin and acceptation with God is obtained was from God and given by God to wit Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation Rom. 3. 25. and Christ hath given himself an offering and a Sacrifice for us Ephes. 5. 2. And he is made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness c. 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2. It was called their own Righteousness because they did not think Regeneration or Supernatural Grace necessary to the obtaining of it but a Literal observation of the Law and Circumcision such as passed for a Righteousness among Men and such as they without Supernatural aid were able to perform As for those Precepts which commanded the loving of God with all the heart and the circumcising the heart because these were not enjoyned under express penalties as those things were of which the Rulers were to take cognizance therefore the Phâ—risees counted them but Counsels only
such as were injudicious concerning the Faith that will save and under mistakes of the Apostles Doctrine about it All this will easily appear to any that shall but with a competent measure of understanding view and consider the Scope and Contents of that Epistle And thus you see how plainly it appears by the Epistles of the Apostles that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works in the sence in which the Apostles asserted it was misunderstood by many Gnosticks carnal Gospellers or Solifidians The sense in which the Apostles did assert it was that Faith justifies without Works Antecedent to believing and without Works as the Works of a literal observation of Moses Law which was opposed by the Iews to Faith as having Christ crucified for its Object and Repentance Regeneration and sincere Obedience in a holy Life for its inseparable Effects But these deceived Souls that deceived their own Hearts seem to have understood the Apostles as if they had taught Justification by Faith considered only as having the Death of Christ and the Atonement made thereby for its Object without respect to Regeneration and new Obedience as any part of the Condition And it had been much better for the Christian World if those corrupt Notions about the Doctrine of Faith as justifying had dyed with those Men which in the first Ages of the Christian-Church were infected with them But alas it is too apparent that the same or much of the same dangerous and destructive mistakes have been transmitted to or revived in these latter Ages of the Church For we find by experience in this present Age that very many of those who are called Christians presume themselves to be Christians indeed and such as shall be saved by Christ though their lives declare them to be far from being new Creatures from â—eing renewed in the Spirit of their Minds Wills Affections and Conversations as those are that have been taught as the Truth is in Iesus Ephes. 4. 21 24. For they are confident they believe all the Articles of their Creed and in doing so they are confident they shall be saved and so they would if that belief of theirs were but so effectual and operative as to produce such a change in Heart and Life as would denominate them new Creatures But the mischief is they deceive themselves in the nature of their Faith it being but an Opinionative inoperative and dead assent to the truth of the Gospel such as is only an act of the mind or understanding and doth not powerfully influence the Will and so it is not a believing with all the Heart but is the act only of one faculty of the Soul A Belief its probable may be found in the Devil himself And such a Belief was found in some who were so convinced by the power of Christ's Miracles in concurrence with his Doctrine and Life that they could not choose but believe him to be an extraordinary Person sent from God though their carnal interest prevailed so much in them as that it would not suffer them to confess him openly because they loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God Joh. 12. 42 43. And besides these Men deceive themselves about their Faith in this also that they do not heartily believe the whole Doctrine of the Gospel but are partial in their Faith They in a sort believe Christ to be the Son of God and that he came into the World to save sinners and that he dyed for our sins and the like But then they do not heartily believe his Doctrine touching the necessity of Repentance of being born again of denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts of living righteously godly and soberly in this present world Or else they frame such Notions of these things unto themselves of Repentance and Regeneration as that they think they believe Christ's Doctrine touching them when they believe only the lying imagination of their own brains And there is too much ground to fear that many Mens ill managing the Doctrine of Justification by Faith hath not a little strengthened Men in this vain confidence For while Evangelical Obedience it self under the Notion of those Works to which Faith is opposed hath been decryed as Popish when interessed in Justification and Justification asserted to be by Faith alone in opposition to all works whatsoever inward and outward as well Evangelical as Legal as well those after Conversion as those before yea and the disposition thereunto the Flesh and the Devil to help it hath got great advantage thereby to perswade men against the necessity of a holy Life in such a sense of a holy Life as the Scripture makes absolutely necessary to Salvation For though its true that good Works have been acknowledged and pressed too as necessary to Salvation yet when withall they have been denyed to be necessary to Justification and Men have been taught that when once they are Justified they can never fall away from a state of Justification they have easily been drawn to believe that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation no more than to Justification but Faith only And upon supposition that the other 2 Points of Doctrine are true it would be but rational for them so to believe For if good Works be not necessary to Justification at all And if it is impossible but that those who are once justified should be saved how should Men chuse but infer from hence that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation unless it shall be said that Men are not put into an immediate capacity of Salvation by being justified Which to affirm would be to say Men are not freed from Condemnation by being freed from Condemnation which would be a contradiction in terms For to be justified is to be freed from condemnation Rom. 8. 33 34. 5. 16 18. and therefore Justification must needs put Men into an immediate capacity of being saved And as there is great reason to think that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone in opposition to the works of Evangelical Obedience hath been a stumbling-stone unto many and a back-friend to the power of godliness so there is another which hath been wont to be joyned with it that hath rendred it the more dangerous and it self no good friend to holy living and that is the Doctrine of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto Justification in that way in which it hath been managed by very many for otherwise there is a sense as I have shewed in which it is a great and a comfortable truth For when Men have been taught to esteem their own Righteousness but as filthy rags not only because of its utter insufficiency to justifie in stead of Christ or as he justifies in which respect indeed it is no better but also as any part of a Condition of Justification or of our acceptance with God And when they have been taught also that upon their believing only Christ's Righteousness in fulfilling
the Law for them becomes imputed to them in it self and not only as the procuring cause of their Justification upon the terms of the Gospel so that they are looked upon as having themselves perfectly kept the Law in him it hath doubtless infeebled their endeavours after an inherent Righteousness and proved a temptation to them to think that so long as they have such anothers inherent Righteousness essentially in it self imputed to them as Christs is they have no great need to find it in themselves considering also that if they had it they must rather loath themselves for it than take any comfort in it But let no man deceive you saith St. Iohn he that doth righteousness is righteous as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. I do acknowledge that many of them have been worthy men who yet have propagated these Opinions But that makes the Opinions never the better but have done more hurt in gaining thereby the more credit It is true also that those worthy Men have zealously pressed the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life which proved indeed an Antidote against the Poyson of the other Opinions so that they did not become mortal to many as otherwise they would have done And indeed they would have made mad work if they had not been yoked with wholesomer Doctrine as we see they did among Antinomians Ranters and other carnal Chistians that have followed the Docture of those Opinions but have been shy of letting the Doctrines of Mortification and strict living to have any power over them But then if the preaching of those sounder Doctrines of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life have done much good notwithstanding they have been clogged with Opinions of another tendency it is easie to imagine that they would have done much more good if they had not been checkt by those unsound Principles But I shall say no more of this though more might be said because I hope I may say that most of those who have formerly imbibed these Opinions are now come to deliver themselves with more caution than heretofore And so I shall procâ—â—d to the last thing I propounded to touch upon and that is to shew CHAP. VII That the Doctrine of St. Paul and of St. Iames about Faith and Works in reference to Iustification do not differ but are wholly one IT is true indeed though the Doctrine of St. PAVL and St. IAMES was in nothing opposite the one to the other yet the nature of the subject-matter of their Epistles did differ just as the Errors they engaged against did differ The Errors of the unbelieving Iews consisting much in denying Justification to be by Christ and Faith in him and in placing it in their own works of Circumcising Sacrificing and other Mosaical Observations And St. Paul designing in some of his Epistles to antidote the Christians against the infection of them and to establish them in the saving Doctrine of the Gospel was led of course to bend his discourse in great part against Justification by Works of the Law and on the contrary to assert it to be by Faith in Christ in his Death and in his Doctrine without those works Whereas St. Iames having to do in his Epistle with such as professed the Christian Faith and Justification by it but erring dangerously about the nature of Faith as justifying thinking that opinionative Faith would save them though destitute of a real change in the moral frame and constitution of their Souls and of a holy Life Hereupon it became in a manner as necessary for him to plead the Renovation of Man's Nature and Evangelical Obedience to be some way necessary unto Justification as it was for St. Paul to contend for Justification by Faith without the deeds of the Law And therefore though their Doctrines in this respect did in great part differ yet they did not differ as Truth differs from Error nor as opposites but only as one Truth differs from another For otherwise when St. Paul had to do with the like Erroneous and Scandalous Christians as those were which St. Iames expostulated the matter with When he had to do with such as had a form of godliness but denyed the power thereof he could and did decry a reprobate faith and plead the necessity of a Faith that is unfeighned and of a holy Life as well as St. Iames as appears in part by what was said in the former Chapter and will I doubt not be made sufficiently evident in this In order whereto I shall recommend to consideration these ten things 1. That Works of Evangelical Obedience are never in Scripture opposed to God's Grace 2. That St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works gives sufficient Caution not to be understood thereby to speak any thing against Evangelical Obedience in reference thereto 3. That Regeneration or the new Creature as including Evangelical Obedience is oposed to Works in the business of Man's Justification as well as Faith is and as well as the grace of God it self is 4. That Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith and together with Faith is opposed to the Works of the Law in reference to Justification 5. That Evangelical Obedience alone is opposed to the Works of the Law 6. Faith it self is an act of Evangelical Obedience 7. By Evangelical Obedience Christians come to have a right to Salvation 8. The Promise of benefit by the Blood of Christ is made to Evangelical Obedience 9. Repentance And 10. Forgiving Injuries are both acts of Evangelical Obedience without which a Man cannot be justifyed And if these things be made out they will I think amount to such a Demonstration as that we cannot well desire a clearer or fuller proof that St. Paul together with other the Apostles taught Justification by Evangelical Obedience as the effect of Faith as well as St. Iames. 1. The works of Evangelical Obedience as the effects of Faith and Regeneration by Faith are never in St. Paul's Epistles or any other the holy Scriptures opposed to God's Grace in referenee to Justification and Salvation Works and Grace indeed are opposed to each other But then by Works we are to understand either Works antecedent to Conversion or as they are denyed to merit at the hands of God or the Works of the Law of Moses as Erroneously contended for by the Iews Or the Works of the Law as Typical and as opposed to things Typified Or the Works of the Law as the Law is in its rigour opposed to the milder Oeconomy of the Gospel But the Works of Evangelical Obedience are never opposed to Grace no more than Faith it self is And there is no reason why they should because Evangelical Obedience is the effect of Divine Grace as well as Faith it self is and tends to the praise of it and is accepted and will be rewarded through Grace Contrary hereunto those words in Titus 3. 5. Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy
pardon of sin which is essential to Justification is not to be obtained without it Luke 13. 3 5. Therefore again it follows that Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification and part of the Condition of it And now by this time I suppose it fully appears to any unprejudiced Reader that the Doctrine of St. Paul yea and of St. Peter and Iohn too do fully accord with the Doctrine of St. Iames touching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience unto Justification The opposition then which some have made between Faith and all Internall and External Works in reference to Justification as well Evangelical as Mosaical hath not been only without Scripture-ground but against Scripture-evidence and looks more like that which was made by the Gnosticks or other Solifidians opposed by St. Iames if it be not the very same than any the Scripture any where maketh And how much injury the Christian Religon and the Souls of Men may have suffered thereby is a thing to be thought on and sadly laid to heart It is a pleasant Doctrine and the worst of Men called Christians are glad to hear that they may be justifyed by Christ only upon their believing in him without any Works of Righteousness or self-denial of their own And upon that account presuming verily that they do believe they are confident that they are justified though they are unsanctified But those especially are in great danger of deceiving their own Souls by building their confidence upon this Doctrine who together with this belief have more of the form of godliness than the other have and are found much more in the use and exercise of the external devotional part of Religion and are zealous for this or that Opinion Party or Way which they think most Orthodox though they be greatly destitute of love to the Nature of God and of Humility Charity strict Justice Fidelity Peaceableness Sobriety Temperance Modesty and Meekness and of that renewed frame of Soul which would make them like Christ Jesus wherein the power of Christiany doth consist The External duties of Hearing Reading Praying and the rest being in great part but means referring to the other as the end So that no Man is to account himself truly Religious further than he attains to these truly Christian Qualifications by the use of the External Means and Internal Aids Yea the fleshly part even in Men good in the main is very apt to make an advantage of such a Doctrine as aforesaid to the lessening of their Care Diligence and Zeal in working out their Salvation in striving to enter in at the straight gate in governing their own Spirits and Appetites in cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and in perfecting holiness in the fear of God And therefore there is great need for those that are Spiritual Guides to the people to insist much upon the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life as well as Faith in order to their being justified and saved by Christ Jesus For the people yea the better sort of them stand most in need as of being well-grounded touching the truth of the Christian Religion so especially of having the Doctrines of Morality inculcated upon them the Precepts of the Gospel being almost all of that Nature though some speak diminutively of Moral Preaching and tend to the perfecting of the Nature of Man in regulating the Internal operations of the Soul and the External actions of life in reference both to God and Man our selves and others The recovering of Men to which is God's great design by the Gospel in order to their being made perfectly happy at last as I have shewed in Chap. 1. There is indeed an absolute necessity of believing the Gospel in order to Christian Practice And therefore our blessed Saviour did not only Preach the necessity of Faith in him and his Doctrine but also wrought abundance of Miracles to beget this Faith in Men. And yet he knowing the great danger of Mens miscarrying in point of Morality in the disposition of Soul and actions of Life insisted chiefly in his Preaching upon Doctrines of that nature as you may see in his Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere He taught the necessity of being born again Of making the Tree good that the fruit might be good And to inforce this Doctrine of his he was not wont to tell his Auditors that every Man shall be rewarded according to his belief but that when the Son of Man shall come every Man shall be rewarded according to his Works That those that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life and those that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation That by their words they shall be justified which are no more Faith than Works are And by their words they shall be condemned That in the great day of the tryal of all Nations every Man shall be acquitted or condemned according to the good they have done or neglected to do Mat. 25. And that then not every Man that had Faith enough to cry Lord Lord or to Prophesie cast out Devils or do wonders in his Name shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but such and such only as have done the will of his Father Great need there is therefore of peoples examining themselves impartially and of being often admonished to take heed left they mistake and deceive themselves in the nature of Religion and in what is absolutely necessary to be done on their part because men are very apt to flatter and deceive themselves in that and to think that when their Faith is right in the Object of it as when they believe in the true God and in his Son Jesus Christ and expect Salvation by him alone that then they are true believers and such as shall be saved especially if therewith they joyn the frequenting of God's Ordinances and the paring off of some of the grosser enormities of their lives though in the mean while they make no Conscience of cleansing their hearts and governing their Spirits of subduing their Passions and inordinate affections and of bridling the Tongue For this cause it is that Christians are so often in Scripture cautioned to take heed lest they should be deceived Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a Man sows that also shall he reap Gal. 6. 7 8. Little Children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousness is Righteous even as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Ephes. 5. 6. An APPENDIX touching the nature and Difference of that Faith which is justifying and of that which is not and the reason of that difference MEn's Eternal Estate of Weal or Wo in another World and their Peace and Comfort in this being very much concerned in their right understanding or mistaking the nature and difference of that Faith which is saving and of that which is not I shall here add to what is said before something to state the nature and
Justification is suspended and are both constituted so by the same means and that is by promise of pardon to such as do believe to such as do repent and by threatning the contrary to those that do not both And if they are a joynt Condition of the Promise of Justification then Justification proceeds not upon either of them alone but upon both together 6. Whereas it is said in the Similitude that a man sees with his Eye alone though not with his Eye which is alone or when it is alone I doubt this is no more true than that which is intended to be illustrated by it For Naturalists will tell them the contrary that it is not the Eye alone by which a Man sees but that it is the Soul that sees by the Eye as its Organ The Eye sees not when the Soul is departed though it be not then alone I confess I cannot possibly conceive either how the Soul should not concur with the Eye in the act of seeing when the Eye cannot see without it nor yet that Repentance should not concur with Faith in the act of Justification so long as men cannot be justified by Faith it self without it or in the absence of it as they themselves grant 3. This lyes in the way of some they cannot conceive how Justification by Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith should consist with the possibility of somes being justified by believing who yet may not live so long after as to have an oppertunity of doing good Works How rare Instances of this kind are I shall not dispute But doubtless when ever men so believe Gods Promise of pardon through Christ upon their Repentance and the necessity of their own Repentance for the obtaining of it as that they in Will and a fixed and lasting Resolution become new men then they first believe unto Justification And it is not impossible but that some may so believe that may never after they do so have opportunity to be much active in External Acts of Obedience But though this should so fall out yet such are not justified without Evangelical Obedience as wel as Faith For 1. These Motions and Acts of the Will are themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience 2. They are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come I. They are in themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience For by these Motions and Acts of the Will Men do when ever they take place turn from sin to God and their Duty out of hatred to that they turn from and out of love to that they turn to And these Acts of the Will which consist in affection and resolution are proper effects and fruits of Faith in the Understanding and Acts of Heart-Obedience in the sight of God and a conformity of Soul to his declared Will and Commandment And they may as well and as truly be called Works as evil Acts of the Will may such as are a love to evil and desires and resolutions of perpetrating it Which evil Acts of the Will are yet in Scripture called Works and a working of wickedness Psal. 58. 2. Ye work wickedness in your hearts Micah 2. 1. He that looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Matth. 5. 28. And envy wrath and hatred which are Internal Acts of the Soul are called Works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20 21. And if such inward fixed resolutions in Men of obeying God in External Acts if ever they have opportunity and a Call to it did not pass in God's account for Obedience and were not accepted in stead of the Deed when opportunity for the Deed is wanting the best Man in the World could be no Disciple of Christ who doth not actually forsake all that he hath and lay down his life for him Whosoever of you forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple saith he Luke 14. 26 33. Whereas Christ pronounceth the poor in spirit blessed many of whom never became actually poor for his sake as not being called to it But if they are poor in Spirit if they firmly resolve to become poor in forsaking all for Christs sake when called to it these are capable of blessedness in Christ's account as well as those that suffer the loss of all for Righteousness sake Matth. 5. 3. II. Those Acts of the Will are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come Because those resolutions against evil for good when they are of a fixed and lasting nature as they alwayes are when together with Faith they make men capable of Justification will certainly produce External Acts of sincere Obedience as opportunity doth occur When the Tree is made good it will bring forth good Fruit in the season of Fruit if it be not cut down before When the heart is renewed in affection and resolution the course of a Mans Life will certainly be answerable to it if ever he have opportunity of shewing it A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things Mat. 12. 35. And God who knows the heart doth judge of and estimate men according to what they are in the inward frame of their heart and prevalent bent of their Wills If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8. 12. We judge of the Cause by the Effects of the goodness of mens hearts by the goodness of their lives to us the Tree is known by its Fruit But God who is greater than our hearts and knows them better than we do judges of the effect by the Cause and knows what a Mans Life will be by what his heart is upon its first conversion to him and so confers on him the benefit of Justification when the Foundation of a good Life is laid in the conversion and renewing of the heart The Understanding of this Part of Discourse will serve not only to satisfie the foresaid doubt but also to inform us what Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification in its beginning Not but that actual Obedience in Life is necessary to the continuance of Justification where Life is continued And therefore we find that Abraham was justified by his after-believing and after-obedience as well as by his first and so was Noah before him Noah was a righteous Man and justified before he became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith by his believing and obeying God in preparing the Ark Gen. 6. 9. Heb. 11. 7. It was by Faith in God's Promise that Abraham left his Countrey to obey God at the first and by that he was first justified Heb. 11. 8. And yet his believing God's Promise so shall thy Seed be which was not made till some years after was imputed to him also for righteousness Gen. 15. 6. It was many years after that again that by Faith he offered his son Isaac upon the
upon account of believing only Which may serve instead of an Apology for writing this and the forgoing Discourse Saint Paul charged Titus to affirm this constantly that they which have believed be careful to maintain good Works Tit. 3. 8. 〈…〉 pointment in the new Covenant and is regulated by his Word and Promise there is no danger of overcharging Duty It 's true indeed if we should expect that Duty should do that for us which is proper only to Christ as to expiate our sin or the like we should sinfully overcharge it as the Pharisaical Iews did their Sacrifices and other Legal Observances in expecting remission of Sin by them without Christ's Atonement Which Righteousness of theirs is for that cause called their own Righteousness which was by the Law as being no method of Justification of God's appointment but of their own devising which in that respect was indeed but as filthy Rags and loathsome to God But this is not the case with Protestant Christians who lay no such stress upon Duty no not upon Faith it self but do acknowledge that all the power and virtue it hath to justifie depends wholly upon and is derived from the Will and Ordination of God in Christ Ioh. 6. 40. 1. 12. Ephes. 2. 8. And we say the same of Repentance and sincere Obedience also And a confidence of being saved in a way of Duty upon such terms is represented in Scripture as trusting in the Righteousness of God through Faith in opposition to ones trusting in his own Righteousness Phil. 3. 9. so far is it from trusting in our own Righteousness or from derogating from Christ in the Glory of his undertaking for us And now for a Conclusion It would be considered whether such as are educated in Christianity are not hardlier brought to live as becomes the Gospel in point of practice than to believe that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners and that he dyed for them and rose again And whether there is not cause to fear that very many more such do eternally miscarry through neglect of the former than for want of the latter And if there be as doubtless there is Then practical discourses among such must needs be highly necessary however some of weak minds thirst more after Discourses Consolatory upon account of believing only Which May serve instead of an Apology for writing this and the forgoing Discourse Saint Paul charged Titus to affirm this constantly that they which have believed be careful to maintain good Works Tit. 3. 8. FINIS ERRATA PAge 2â— Line 35 read 25. P. 40 l. 6. for of r. and. P 42. l. 29. f. should promise r. should have promised P. 43. l. 28. f. were r. are P. 45. l. 32. dele of P. 49. l. 10. dele a. p. 56. l. 24. f. and r. but. P. 59. l. 2. f. these r. those P. 60. l. 24. f. Law r. Land P. 61. l. 6. f. these r. those â— 28. f. these r. those P. 62. l. 5 6. dele from that P. 65. l. 17. dele from that P. 67. l. 14. f. wherefore r. therefore P. 83. l 30. f. would r. will l. ibid. f. should r. shall P. 84. l. 11. f. seem r. seems P. 87. l. 25. r. the. P. 89. l. 27. f. of r. from P. 91. l. 9. f. sactifieth r. sanctifieth P. 93. l. 14. f. until r. unless P. 95. l. 8. dele as P 97. l. 19. r. to be P. 99. l. 8. r. as he did P. 120. l. 30. r. is P. 133. l. 18. r. such P. 154. l. 8. r. freed l. 18. f. me r. we P. 157. l. 16. f. injurious r. injured P. 180. l. 27. f. a r. as P. 183. l. 10. dele in that l. 14. f. choaked r. choak l. 24. f and r. to P. 189. l 30. f. immoderate r. inordinate P. 193. l. 27. f. expressed r. apprâ—hended P. 202. l. 11. r. without P. 208. l. 2. r. and.