Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A65814
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A discourse upon I Peter IV., VIII wherein the power and efficacy of charity as it is a means to procure the pardon of sin is explained and vindicated / by John Whitefoot.
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Whitefoote, John, 1610-1699.
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1695
(1695)
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Wing W1862; ESTC R26478
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56,458
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143
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name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins Where 't is observable that whiles two other things are prescribed by the Apostle to be done in order to the remission of sin viz. to repent and to be baptized no mention is made of Faith other then is included in those words be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ which do indeed necessarily imply the act of Faith But besides this Baptism which is one thing required to be done for the remission of sins Repentance also which is another thing is expressly required as necessary to this end not in that Text only but in an hundred others of both Testaments from whence it is that this remission of sin is mentioned as the signal effect of Repentance Mark 1.4 Luke 3.3 John is said to have preached the Baptism of Repentance for the Remission of sin And in the Conjunction of these two things the Sum of the Gospel to be preached to all Nations is comprised by our Saviour in St. Luke chap. 24.47 That Repentance and Remission of sin should be preached in his Name to all Nations Hence also is the same called Repentance unto Life Acts. 11.18 and Repentance to Salvation 2 Cor. 7.9 From which Texts it doth sufficiently appear not only that Repentance is necessary unto the Remission of sin and to Life and Salvation as a Condition or Causa sine quâ non but that it is also effectual and really available to these Ends For to call that Repentance unto Life and Repentance to Salvation which contributes nothing at all nor hath any manner of Efficacy to these Ends is an absurd Form of words And if the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto doth not signifie some kind of Efficacy or Qualification for these Ends it signifies just nothing But if it doth signifie any manner of Efficacy to this End one of these Things must needs be true either that Repentance is the same thing with that Faith which abstracts from Works as an Act really distinct from them all which is a plain Contradiction or that something besides Faith and really distinct from it is effectual and available to the Remission of sins which is the thing that was to be demonstrated Thus I have named two Things besides Faith which are generally necessary to Remission of sin viz. Prayer and Repentance Whereunto might be added the practice of Fasting Mourning Humiliation and Confession of sin as things frequently mentioned in Scripture with prescription to their use in order to this end I forbear to cite the particular Texts wherein these things are prescribed because they are all but appendages or parts of the general duty of Repentance Nor are these things necessary to this effect barely and only by their antecedent presence as meet and convenient preparatives for this Grace of Pardon but also by and in respect of such a Moral Efficacy and Prevalency as they are justly presumed to have by their declared acceptance with God which is all the Efficacy that can be reasonably attributed to Faith it self And if upon the stress of this Argument it should be said that Faith in the practical Sense as a living energetical operative habit doth include Repentance with all the proper fruits thereof the whole Question is yielded For then to say that Faith is available for the remission or covering of sin is to say that Repentance Prayer Charity and Good Works are so too which is all we contend for It being far from our meaning to exclude Faith from any necessary concurrence to this effect of Charity that is to say that Charity without Faith can cover sin For neither can Christian Charity be without Faith nor if it could would it be any wise effectual to this end The only thing that we assert is that Charity together with Faith and as a proper and most Excellent Fruit of it is available to this end And the summ of the Argument which we have here urged to confirm this Assertion is this 1. That if nothing but Faith can be available to this end then ought nothing to be done in order to it but believing And Prayer Repentance Humiliation and Confession of sin notwithstanding that in Scripture they be all prescribed as means to be used to this end are not only useless or needless but unlawfull to be practised with respect to this end Or secondly that if any of these things be available to this purpose so also is Charity This is our first Argument 2. Argument If Charity and Good Works of any sort be not available towards the obtainment of remission of sin Eternal Life and Salvation then do all promises of these Benefits made to the use and exercise of these means signifie nothing or at least they must needs lose all power and signification of Motives to any of these Duties For how can that be considered as a reasonable Motive to any act which doth no way promote it Whereas the General Design and end of all conditional Promises is to encourage perswade and move the Persons to whom they are made to the performance of those Conditions and Acts which are recommended by the respective Promises upon the hope of obtaining the promised Benefits by those means But this hope can have no foundation without the believing that the performance of those Conditions will be some ways effectual to the obtainment of these Benefits But if the performance of such Acts and Conditions must be believed to contribute nothing at all to the obtainment of these Benefits the forementioned Faith in the Promises which is the only foundation of the hope is utterly destroyed And by consequence the said Promises are deprived of all Vertue or power of Motives to the practices whereunto they are annexed 3. Argument All Precepts Exhortations and Counsels such as that in our Text to the practice of Charity or any other Christian Vertue beside Faith urged by such Motives as are no ways promoted by the Acts whereunto we are exhorted are vain and delusory Were such Precepts and Exhortations delivered simply and absolutely as only declarative of our Duty or designed only to move Men to their Duties as Testimonies of Gratitude or Thankfulness for those Benefits which we receive only by Faith as some late Divines would have them they would indeed be reasonable upon that account But when they are expressly urged as in this Text and many others they are to move Men to the Practice of particular Duties as means to obtain the proposed Benefits what can they signifie but a plain imposing upon us or abusing our minds and perverting our Faith supposing that the doing of those things whereto we are exhorted can nothing avail us to those ends What can such Exhortations signifie more then if a man should be perswaded to stretch forth his hands to behold the Glory of the Heavens or to open his eyes to hear the sweet Melody of Musick But the force of these Arguments is by many late Divines thought to
Good Works doth plainly suppose a negation of any antecedent necessity of Conversion and Repentance which are the two first things which he treats of under that Title of Thankfulness unto the Effect of our Justification and Salvation unless it be reasonable to say that a man is obliged to be thankfull for a Benefit before he hath it or to the end that he may receive it Conversion unto God and Repentance by this mans Doctrine must be looked upon as a thing not in it self necessary to our Justification or Remission of sin but as a Duty of Gratitude for this Grace given unto us either before or without respect to our Conversion And we are to repent and turn to God not that our sins may be forgiven but because they are so not that we may be saved but because we believe and are confident that we shall be saved So the whole practice of Christian Piety Holiness and Righteousness before God must proceed upon an account of Thankfulness to him for his free Grace that requires none of these things at our hands as conditions of our Pardon or Reconciliation with his offended Majesty Not but that some other Ends and Reasons and particularly those which we mentioned before are also named by the same Author as part of the necessity of Good Works But all are reduced unto the general account of Thankfulness and exclusive of any Moral causality or condition of Justification and Salvation How well this Doctrine agrees with Natural Religion the Scriptures of the Old Testament or even with the design of the Gospel I must leave to be judged by indifferent Readers Because I hold not my self obliged in this place to engage any further in the great Controversie about Justification by Faith alone or to take particular notice of the Texts of St. Paul commonly alledged for the Solifidian Doctrine which have been exactly considered by so many of our own Divines and my own Sense of them elsewhere delivered in brief Besides that the covering of sins attributed to Charity in the present Text though it extends to the Effect of Justification in the most Eminent Sense of the Phrase yet is not by our Interpretation limited to that signification but extended as hath been said to the removal of punishments in this life and to the abatement of them both in this Life and that which is to come which are the Benefits that may be obtained by Charity without any perfect Justification of a sinner Now if any Person that reads this Discourse having not been prepossessed with any Prejudice against this Doctrine or doubt of the Truth of it shall think that the Work is over-done by the Allegation of so many Texts and Arguments for the Confirmation of it and so much pains taken in answering Objections against it and shall therefore charge me with loading the Readers with a tedious Accumulation of superfluous Arguments thereby abating the Perspicuity of the Matter as Cicero speaks upon occasion of his long Discourse Perspicuitas enim argumentatione elevatur Remque meâ sententiâ minimè dubiam argumentando dubiam facis Tull. de Oratore Lib. 3. to prove the Existence of a Deity I must answer that this Objection can only be made by him that is ignorant of the contrary Doctrine commonly asserted and contended for not only by Lutherans and Calvinists abroad but by several of our English Divines till of late years going that way And 2. Although the bad Consequences of that Doctrine have been strongly averted by the Authors thereof in some of their Discourses yet the Event and Effect thereof hath to my own Knowledge in a multitude of Persons with whom I have had Occasion to converse notoriously abated the exercise of Charity and the Zeal or Conscience of Good Works supposed by this Doctrine to be neither absolutely necessary nor available to the Salvation of a Christian Many Persons I have known who upon this only Ground have neglected and slighted the practice of Charity not only in their Life time but also at their Death comforting themselves against all fear of Peril by this Neglect from a mistaken Notion and Confidence of Justification by Faith alone without Good Works The Sense of this dangerous Errour was one thing that moved me to the Pains of this Plain Discourse Having visited divers Persons in their Last sickness earnestly moving them according to the Injunction of our Church Liturgy in that Office to Liberality towards the Poor with little or no Success upon a Misperswasion of the no Necessity and as little Validity of such Works to the safety of their future State And though I have known Some and do believe there are many of that Perswasion that upon other Considerations and better Principles have been very Charitable and Forward to Good Works yet I have also had a particular Opportunity of observing Knowing something more than other Men concerning the Neglect of this Duty from the Place of my late Habitation for some Years belonging to an Office of Registry kept for the Probate and Custody of Wills and Testaments made within the Jurisdiction of the Arch-deacon of Norfolk wherein I have observed this last Record and Testimony of Charity which should have made up the Neglect and Defects of that Duty before to have been either wholly omitted or very penuriously and disproportionably expressed in many and indeed most Wills of Considerable Estates But to take off all appearance of Scandal to our Religion upon this Account it hath been or may be made Evident upon a just Reckoning that the Publick Good Works and Donations of Protestants to pious Uses in this Nation since the Reformation have been more than Equal to any that ever were done by Papists within the same Compass of Time in any precedent Age This personal Apology for the present Discourse might perhaps have been spared but was piously intended to the best Advantage and greatest Concern of all Persons in the time of their Life and at their Death There being certainly no possible Use to be made of Worldly Goods so Acceptable to God or so Advantagious to the Owners thereof both in their Lives and at their Death as that which I am labouring to promote from this Text. FINIS