but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God v. 5. We must needs take this for a description of saving Faith because those that are born of God and overcome the World are the Children and so the Heirs of God To the same purpose are those words John 2â— 31 These are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name And to this description of Faith agrees the several confessions of Faith we read of Thus Peters confession runs Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God Mat. 16.16 And again John 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the Living God Thus runs Martha's John 11.27 I believe that thou art Christ the Son of God which should come into the World And thus runs the Ennuchs also Act. 8.37 I believe that Christ is the Son of God But in as much as we are assured by the same authority of Scripture that those that repent not shall perish Luke 13.3 and that those that obey not the Gospel shall be punished with everlasting destruction 2 Thes 1.7 8. and that except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God John 3.3 nor without holiness see God Heb. 12.14 it follows of necessity that the Faith afore described is such a belief that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God as doth effectually draw Men to believe his Doctrine and to obey his Laws in doing of which they become New Creatures and overcome the World For he that believes Christ to be the Son of God and considers what he believes must needs believe all his sayings and the whole of his Doctrine to be true for it is impossible for God to lie And he that believes his Doctrine to be true and considers what he believes must needs be under the influence of the most powerful Motives imaginable to repent of a bad and to lead a good Life because Christ hath expresly declared from God that the one shall be punished with everlasting Destruction and the other rewarded with Life Eternal So that Faith works that change in Men by which they become New Creatures are born of God and sanctified by way of Motive as it doth evidence to the Soul and bind upon the Mind the things not seen as those wherein a Man is infinitely more concerned than in any than in all the things which are seen and therefore must needs be governed in the course of his Life by them and not by the other but in subordination unto them For Faith as it is a powerful Motive is an Operative Principle of a good and Holy Life And upon this accoont all the brave and Heroick Acts of those Worthies mentioned in Heb. 11. are said to be done by their Faith as that was to them the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and as such an active Principle of those effects And thus the Life which St. Paul lived in the Flesh he lived through the Faith of the Son of God as every good Christian doth as being thereby perswaded thereto Gal. 2.20 And because Faith is thus Motive-wise such an Operative Principle of a good and Holy Life therefore it is that Men of such a Life are usually described by it in the New Testament and are stiled Believers And when good Men are otherwise described by their fear of God and Love to him as many times they are especially in the Old Testament it is because Fear and Love are also powerful Principles of Action that Govern Men in their way A true Believer then according to the New Testament Dialect is neither more nor less than a Disciple of Christ or a faithful follower of him one that frames his Belief and Life according to his Doctrine and Example And the Faith of every such one is such in its Operation and Effects as doth constitute and denominate him a good Man By all this it may easily be diserned that when Men are said to be justified or to be saved by Faith it is not to be understood of the meer Act of believing abstracted from its effects and alone but as it is an Active and Operative Principle changing the Heart and reforming the Life And accordingly Justification and Salvation are in Scripture attributed to the Effects of Faith as well as to the Act of believing Jam. 2. And when ever they are attributed to believing indifinitely it is not without reference to the effects proper to it when it is of the right kind Now as Faith is described in the Scriptures forecited by its Object and by its acting upon its Object by assent so it is in other Scriptures described by its effects which are produced by its actings upon its Object And so a Believer is described by his coming to Christ John 6.35 He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that Believet on me shall never Thirst saith Christ For mens coming to Christ to learn of him what he hath done and will do for their Souls and what they themselves are to do that they may be saved is the effect of their believing him to be the Son of God and sent of God to bring Salvation unto Men and to declare how and upon what Terms it is to be had And so when Believers are described by their receiving of Christ as John 1.12 As many as received him to them he gave power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name they are then described by the effect of their Faith also For when they receive him for what indeed he is Priest Prophet and King it is because they believe that evidence by which he appears to be so Furthermore when Believers are described by their Trusting in Christ or Relying on him as in Ephes 1.12 Who first trusted in Christ Their Faith is described by its effect For men will not venture their Souls in trusting in Christ and relying on him for the expiation of their Sins by his Blood for direction what to do that they may be saved and for Pardon and eternal Life upon the condition upon which those Benefits are promised untill they first believe him to be the Messiah the Son of God and Saviour of the World upon some evidence they have that he is so But although the Holy Penmen of the Scriptures did not in every description of saving Faith attend unto the Rules of Art by taking in all the essential parts but described it sometimes by its assenting Act and Object and sometimes by its Fruits and Effects as occasions did occur Yet we for our parts shall be best able to make a right Judgment of the true Nature of Saving Faith by that which results out of the several descript ions of it in Scripture when compared together And by comparing those several descriptions together we may also perceive that when Faith as saving is described by its Effects yet then the assenting Act of Faith upon its Object is still implyed supposed and ought to be understood though it be not there exprest and so are the effects too when but only the Act and Object are mentioned By all which we may learn that those are none of the best definitions of saving Faith which Men make when they define it by the Act and Object alone or by any of the Effects alone THE END ADVERTISEMENT THere is lately published a Book called A Perswasive to Peace and Unity among Christians notwithstanding their different apprehensions in lesser things To be sold by B. Aylmer at the three Pigeons in Cornhil
all thoughts and conceits of high attainments in the things of God they would repent and do their first works and begin as it were again at the first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ and so lay their Foundation a new in the beginning work of Christians Also that they would frame their Notions and apprehensions of things absolutely necessary to Salvation according to that plainness in which they are expressed in Scripture not affecting nor entertaining Mystical Notions of them More particularly that they would furnish their minds with right apprehensions of the person of Christ as Son of God and Son of the Virgin Mary and of the Nature of his Mediatory Office That as Priest he offered himself in Sacrifice to expiate Sin by his Death and in vertue thereof makes continual Intercession for us That as Prophet he revealed and declared the New Covenant of Salvation That as King he hath given Laws to the World and that he doth Rule and Govern his Church through his Spirit by those Laws and that at last he will try and judg all men by them that have lived under them and that he will reward all with eternal happiness or endless torments according as they have been obedient or disobedient to them That they be careful also that their Notions of the New Covenant be according to the plain Doctrine of the Gospel in the Scriptures Particularly That it consists of two parts of Promises and of conditions of those Promises Also that the Promises of it are made upon account and for the sake of Christ his undertaking as Mediator That the great and special Promises of it are pardon of sin or justification the assistance of God's Spirit in our endeavouring to perform the condition and eternal Life That the condition on which these Promises are made are Faith in Christ Repentance sincere Obedience and the craving of the assistance of God's Spirit in the use of appointed means and our endeavours to perform the condition That they be careful also to form right Notions of the nature of the condition on our part on which the Promises of the New-Covenant are made As that no Faith short of such a belief in Christ and of his Doctrine as worketh unfeigned Repentance and sincere Obedience is justifying and saving That no Repentance short of a desire resolution and endeavour to forsake all known sin is saving Repentance That no Obedience short of a desire resolution and a continued endeavour to observe all the Laws of Christ without baulking any one of them when known to be such is sincere That no Faith no Repentance no Obedience short of these as thus described is a fulfilling of the condition of the Promises of Salvation in the Covenant of Grace As these great things of the Gospel are in Scripture expressed in great plainness so great care must be had to keep close to and to hold fast the form of sound words according to which they are so declared not affecting any Notion Phrase or Expression which makes them more hard to be understood by common capacities than they are by the very Letter of the Scriptures but when other expressions are used than what are in the Letter of the Text as its necessary there should sometimes especially in explaining metaphors and Idioms of Speech proper to the times and places in which the Scriptures were written they should be such and so used as may give a clearer insight into the Nature of the things themselves than without them can well be had carefully avoiding to take words properly which are spoken metaphorically or to be led by the meer sound of words but to take the measure of the sence of them by the scope and design of the Author since words of the same sound are not always of the same signification § 24. And now after I have laid things before you which are very apt in their own Nature to rectifie you in one of your grand and fundamental mistakes especially if invincible prejudice hinder not I should be very sorry to think or suspect that what is done herein should turn to no better account than to be a witness against you in that great day in which every mans work will be tryed of what sort it is And therefore to prevent that I cannot for your sakes and for the longing I have after your salvation but earnestly perswade you to give things purposely prepared to serve you a due consideration in your minds and not to pass over such things slightly as wherein your eternal Estate is much concern'd Remember that Heresie is one of those works of the Flesh which shut Men out of the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.20 21. And considering the Nature and bad influence of several of your opinions and with what pertinaciousness you persist in them it s greatly feared not to say confidently believed by such as are jealous over you with a Godly jealousie that many of you at least lye under no less guilt than that of grand Heresie And do you not then owe all seriousness of consideration to what is offered to rescue you from so great a danger Doubtless you do Let not then the height of your confidence to the contrary deceive you For it is not the greatness of your confidence that will in the least alter the nature of things or make them bend to your humour You are not the first that have been as confident as confidence it self could make them that they had fast hold of Truth when all the while it hath been but a lye they have had in their right hand But the more confident you are in your way you are like to be so much the more surprized with amazement when in another World you shall find yourselves to have been mistaken in that of which you are now so strongly confident in this if you should be so unhappy as to carry such mistaken confidence with you thither without a pardon Which that you may not is I assure you all the hurt that is designed you in this Address And therefore let me tell you again that it will be your wisdom much rather to bestow your thoughts and pains in labouring to find out whether you be not indeed under a delusion than in darkning of words without knowledge in labouring to obscure to your selves and others the evidence of Truth offered which clearly tends to your conviction FAREWEL THE END POSTSCRIPT THere being some vacant Leaves and because I have not so plainly represented the nature of Faith which is the condition of the New Covenant as I have the other parts of it in my advice touching a right Notion of the Nature of the Mediatory Office and of the Covenant of Grace I shall for these and other Reasons add a short hint of the help which the Scripture doth offer us herein When St. John saith Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God 1 John 5.1 and again Who is he that overcometh the World
sort poured out on them that believed their Prophesie likewise as now it was upon those that received the Apostles Doctrine And therefore such a thing as this was foretold by the Prophets as peculiar to the coming of the Messias and as that by which he might be known to be come when the event of such Predictions took place even as it came to pass here The Prediction Joel 2.28 was that in the last days the Spirit should be poured out upon all flesh in the last days that is in the last days of the Jewish State or Common-wealth as may be evinced by the Context in which Christ came as was foretold by his Prophets in which time also the Spirit was poured out in miraculous gifts and operations as a testimony that the Messias was come The Holy Spirit in the effects of it in these extraordinary gifts and operations is called the testifying of Christ or the witness which he bore touching his being the true Messiah and Saviour of the world John 15.26 27. But when he the Comforter is come even the Spirit of Truth he shall testifie of me and ye also Apostles shall bear witness because ye ye have been with me from the beginning And again 1 John 5.6 This is he that came by water and blood and it is the Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is truth John 16.8 And when he the Comforter is come he will convince the world of sin because they believe not on me saith Christ of Righteousness because I go to my Father was taken up into heaven and of Judgment because the Prince of this world is judged the Devil dethroned and cast down as he was when the Mouths of his Oracles were stopped and the Idol-Temples shut up and his Kingdom and Rule demolished by the preaching of the Gospel among the Heathen accompanied with these Miraculous Effects of the Spirit which bore down all before it as it were and therefore this is called the Demonstration of the Spirit and Power as opposed to Humane Oratory among Heathen Philosophers and the way of Humane Demonstration 1 Cor. 2.4 This wonderful effusion of the Spirit in miraculous Gifts was that Baptism of the Spirit we read of which you with some others have in these days vainly pretended to under another Notion of being baptized with the Spirit But if you will but compare Mat. 3.11 and Acts 1.5 with Act. 2.3 4. and 11.15 16. you may easily discern your Error in applying it to any thing but to that extraordinary and miraculous effusion of the Spirit By all this you may see how one Scripture falls in with and explains another if you will but take hold of a right Notion of the end for which the plentiful effusion of the Spirit was foretold and promised Which was not to guide all Christians by its inward motions without outward teaching but to enable some to teach the right Faith and Life to others even to those of other Tongues in their own Language and to confirm their Doctrine thereby and by other operations of the Spirit to be from God And these extraordidary effects of the Spirit were greatly necessary to accompany the first promulgation and planting of the Gospel in the world to procure credit to it belief of it from the Jews who otherwise would not have been taken off from their old way of Levitical Ceremonial worship which they had received from God and from the Gentile-Nations who otherwise would not have been taken off from their Idolatrous and Superstitious way of Worship in which they had been deeply rooted by long and ancient Tradition received from their Forefathers And therefore St. Paul saith as was observed before that Tongues that is the gift of speaking divers Tongues on a sudden are a sign not to them that believe but to them that believe not 1 Cor. 14.22 As the giving of the Law by Moses was accompanied with Signs and Wonders which were wrought by Moses both before and after the first promulgation of it to procure belief from the Jews that he was sent of God and that the Law given by him was from God So it was as necessary that the first promulgation of the Gospel by the Son of God himself and by those that were immediately sent by him should be for the same reason accompanied with more and greater Miracles and Wonders than those wrought by Moses were as Christ himself was greater than Moses and as the abrogation of the Old and the giving of the New Law was more than the giving of the Law only when there was no promulgate Law before in being And therefore our Saviour said of the Jews that would not receive his Doctrine but still stuck to the Letter of the Law of Moses If I had not done among them the works which none other man hath done they had not had sin John 15.24 And as it was not necessary to continue those or the like Miracles and Wonders in the Jewish Church after the Law had been well established by them but that the Law being once committed to writing might be as it was their standing Rule of Worship and Conversation Even so after the Gospel had received a sufficient attestation to be from God by the continuance of those miraculous Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Church for some time till the Doctrine and History of the Gospel were committed to writing and those Writings owned as Authentick Records every where by the Church in all known parts of the world it was then no more necessary as the event shews to perpetuate Miracles in the Christian Church for the confirmation of the Gospel than it was to perpetuate them in the Jewish for the ratification of the Law but that the Doctrine and History of the Gospel in Books of the New Testament should be of like use to Christians as the Law and Prophets in Books was to the Jews of old The Prophets of old who though they were extraordinarily inspired did all along in their time call the Jews to obedience to the written Law of Moses and to Repentance for transgressing that And when prophesying in this sence was to cease from among them for several Ages God by Malachy the last of those Prophets gave it in charge to that People to remember the written Law of Moses as that by which they were to govern themselves Remember saith he the Law of Moses my Servant which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel with the Statutes and Judgments Mal. 4.4 And it was foretold by Moses concerning Christ that a Prophet should be raised up by God like unto him Deut. 18.15 18. And although Christ that Prophet was unlike unto Moses in many other things wherein our Lord excelled him yet he was truly like unto him in this viz. in that he as Mediator gave forth the Evangelical Law at his Appearance in the world as that which was to be the standing Rule unto Christians throughout the whole duration of
go by but are continually liable to most horrible mistakes and to think that to be a teaching or command from God which is indeed a delusion from the Devil Nor without this Rule in Scripture which lies open to all have you any way to satisfy others that what you say or do is from God You have no miracles amongst you by which God was wont to bear witness to his servants when he sent them on messages new to the World And have you indeed such an opinion of your selves as to think men ought to believe only because you say it Our Saviour said if I bear witness of my self my witness is not true John 5.31 and is your credit better than his And I pray you what have you to bear witness for you in what you say if the Scriptures cannot To the Law then and to the Testimony of Christ in the Doctrine of the Scriptures if you speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in you § 21. There is one thing more which I would admonish you to beware of and that is a high opinion of your selves and a low and despicable opinion of all others that differ from you a thing which I fear hath betrayed you into that desperate error which I have been detecting together with many others For when men by reason of their New Mystical notions of plain Scriptures and familiar points of Doctrine and of their new-minted phrases answerable thereto do fancy themselves to be spiritual and all the rest that still stick to the plainness and simplicity of the Gospel to be but carnal and formal professors though in their tempers and lives better than themselves they then begin to think that they are nearer and dearer to God than they and consequently that God will reveal himself after a more intimate way and manner to themselves than he doth to such And when they are intoxicated and grown giddy with such conceits then they are drawn by degrees to imagine themselves to be brought into some kind of equality with the Apostles themselves that now they do not need to be taught by such whom they esteem so much below themselves but that they shall be now taught of God immediately And when they are thus transported and exaltted with these dreams fancies and high conceits then they conclude that all those Scriptures which speak of mens being taught of God led by the Spirit and anointed with the Unction of the Holy One that teacheth all things and the like do speak directly to their case and represent the happy state and condition into which they are now brought And now they look down upon all others with a kind of compassionating contempt as men in the dark sticking in the form and imitation and the Letter and guided by carnal reason and fleshly Wisdome to whom the things of the Kingdome of God are altogether a Mystery And by this time they fancy themselves to be in the Resurrection to have attained to the perfect state and are came so for as to be in the judgment and to sit in judgment upon the World And thus through the abundance of revelations not which they have had but which they fancy to have had they are exalted above measure And doth not your Conscience witness that this comes home to you and represents your Case or the Case of many of you I confess Pride especially Pride of this kind is not so easily discerned by them that are infected with it as it is by by-standers as a Feaver when come to its height sometimes is not by them that are in it And no doubt but you rather fancy your selves to be the humblest and most self-denying people of all others nay to be the only humble people for you have thrown off and cryed down the bravery and Pride of the World which others retain But do you not know that a voluntary humility and a being vainly puft up with a fleshly mind do often keep company If you do not then read Col. 2.18 And do you not remember that false Prophets are wont to come in sheeps clothing and to wear a rough Garment to deceive who yet inwardly are ravening Wolves not sparing the Flock but preying upon them Zach. 13.4 Be perswaded then to enter into a serious and impartial examination of your selves and of your own hearts and feel the Pulse of your Spirits and try whether things have not been so and so with you as I have said And remember what our Saviour said to those Disciples who were ambitious of being greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven and of sitting the one at his right hand and the other at his left except ye be converted said he to them and become as little Children ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 18. Remember who hath said if any man think that he knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know 1 Cor. 8.2 Remember again that if he which is but a Novice come to be lifted up with Pride it s many to one that he falls into the condemnation of the Devil 1. Tim. 3.6 for God resisteth the proud and knoweth them afar off He is far enough from being familiar with them or communicating his mind and Counsels to them in any extraordinary way it is the humble he will teach and the meek he will guide in judgment Psalm 25. Therefore take the Apostles Counsel who said see that no man among you think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of Faith Rom. 12.3 Learn rather to esteem others better than your selves as knowing your own weakness better than you do theirs and not to lift up your selves in your own conceits above all others that are not of your way how worthy soever they are as your manner hath been remembering who hath said he that exalteth himself shall be brought low Do not flatter your selves with an opinion that you are nearer and dearer to God than all others or that he hath anointed you with the oyl of gladness above your fellows or that he will teach you more immediately himself than he hath taught others before you Think it not below you to be taught by the Scripture or by the ministry of man no though you were indeed so highly in God's favour as you suppose your selves to be The Churches of Smirna and Philadelphia were much favoured and highly commended and applauded by Christ when the rest of the Churches in Asia were rebuked and yet when he would make his mind known to them and the rest of the seven Churches he doth not do it immediately by himself but first acquaints an Angel with it and by that Angel makes it known to John and by John to the Churches and yet not by him in person neither but by his writings Rev. 1. Christ could have taught Paul himself when he appeared to