salvation they live in a neglect of that holy obedience which the Gospel requires and so believe themselves into eternal misery But as long as men make their obedience necessary though but as the fruit and effect of Faith it shall not want its reward for those whose hearts are purified by Faith shall never be condemned for mistaking the notion of it and they who live as those that are to be judged according to their works shall not miss their reward though they do not think they shall receive it for them But such who make no other condition of the Gospel but Believing and will scarce allow that to be called a Condition ought to have a great care to keep their hearts sounder than their heads for their only security will lie in this that they are good though they see no necessity of being so And such of all others I grant have reason to acknowledge the irresistable power of Divine Grace which enables them to obey the will of God against the dictates of their own judgments But thanks be to God who hath so abundantly provided for all the infirmities of humane Nature by the large offers of his Grace and assistance of his Spirit that though we meet with so much opposition without and so much weakness within and so many discouragements on every side of us yet if we sincerely apply our selves to do the will of God we have as great assurance as may be that we shall be kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation SERMON V. Preached at WHITE-HALL Hebrews II. 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation WHen the wise and eternal Counsels of Heaven concerning the salvation of Mankind by the death of the Son of God were first declared to the World by his own appearance and preaching in it nothing could be more reasonably expected than that the dignity of his Person the authority of his Doctrine and the excellency of his Life should have perswaded those whom he appeared among to such an admiration of his Person and belief of his Doctrine as might have led them to an imitation of him in the holiness of his life and conversation For if either the worth of the Person or the Importance of the Message might prevail any thing towards a kind and honourable reception among men there was never any person appeared in any degree comparable to him never any Message declared which might challenge so welcome an entertainment â—rom men as that was which he came upon If to give Mankind the highest assurance of a state of life and immortality if to offer the pardon of sin and reconciliation with God upon the most easie and reasonable terms if to purge the degenerate World from all its impurities by a Doctrine as holy as the Author of it were things as becoming the Son of God to reveal as the Sons of men to receive nothing can be more unaccountable than that his Person should be despised his Authority slighted and his Doctrine contemned And that by those whose interest was more concerned in the consequence of these things than himself could be in all the affronts and injuries he underwent from men For the more the indignities the greater the shame the sharper the suâ—ferings which he did undergo the higher was the honour and glory which he was advanced to but the more obliging the instances of his kindness were the greater the salvation that was tendred by him the more prevailing the motives were for the entertainment of his Doctrine the more exemplary and severe will the punishment be of all those who reject it For it is very agreeable to those eternal Laws of Justice by which God governs the world that the punishment should arise proportionably to the greatness of the mercies despised and therefore although the Scripture be very sparing in telling us what the state of those persons shall be in another life who never heard of the Gospel yet for those who do and despise it it tells us plainly that an eternal misery is the just desert of those to whom an eternal happiness was offered and yet neglected by them And we are the rather told of it that men may not think it a surprize in the life to come or that if they had known the danger they would have escaped it and therefore our Blessed Saviour who never mention'd punishment but with a design to keep men from it declares it frequently that the punishment of those persons and places would be most intolerable who have received but not improved the light of the Gospel and that it would be more tolerable for the persons who had offered violence to Nature and had Hell-fire burning in their hearts by their horrid impurities than for those who heard the Doctrine and saw the Miracles of Christ and were much the worse rather than any thing the better for it But lest we should think that all this black scene of misery was only designed for those who were the Actors in that dolefull Tragedy of our Saviour's sufferings we are told by those who were best able to assure us of it that the same dismal consequences will attend all the affronts of his Doctrine as if they had been offered to his own person For it is nothing but the common flattery and self-deceit of humane nature which makes any imagine that though they do not now either believe or obey the Gospel they should have done both if they had heard our Saviour speak as never man spake and seen him do what never man did For the same disposition of mind which makes them now slight that Doctrine which is delivered to them by them that heard him would have made them slight the Person as well as the Doctrine if they had heard it from himself And therefore it is but reasonable that the same punishment should belong to both especially since God hath provided so abundantly for the assurance of our Faith by the miraculous and powerfull demonstration of that divine spirit which did accompany those who were the first publishers of this Doctrine to the world And therefore the Author of this Epistle after he hath in the words of the Text declared that it is impossible to escape if we neglect the great salvation offered us by the Gospel in the following words he gives us that account of it that at first it began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will So that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost falling upon the Apostles and the many signs and wonders which were wrought by them were the great testimony of God to the world that these were the persons imployed by himself to declaâ—e that Doctrine whereon the eternal salvation of Mankind did depend And since we have so lately acknowledged the truth of
the Fire we mourn for this day When it began like Sampson to break in pieces all the means of resisting it and carried before it not only the Gates but the Churches and most magnificent Structures of the City what horror and confusion may we then imagine had seized upon the spirits of the Citizens what destraction in their Councils what paleness in their Countenances what pantings at their Hearts what an universal consternation might have been then seen upon the Minds of men But O the sighs and tears the frights and amazements the miscarriages nay the deaths of some of the weaker Sex at the terror and apprehension of it O the hurry and useless pains the alarms and tumults the mutual hinderances of each other that were among men at the beholding the rage and fury of it There we might have seen Women weeping for their Children for fear of their being trod down in the press or lost in the crowd of people or exposed to the violence of the flames Husbands more solicitous for the safety of their Wives and Children than their own the Soldiers running to their Swords when there was more need of Buckets the Tradesmen loading their backs with that which had gotten possession of their hearts before Then we might have heard some complaining thus of themselves O that I had been as carefull of laying up treasures in Heaven as I have been upon Earth I had not been under such fears of losing them as now I am If I had served God as faithfully as I have done the world he would never have left me as now that is like to do What a fool have I been which have spent all my precious time for the gaining of that which may now be lost in an hours time If these flames be so dreadful what are those which we reserved for them who love the world more than God! If none can come near the heat of this Fire who can dwell with everlasting burnings O what madness then will it be to sin any more wilfully against that God who is a consuming fire infinitely more dreadful than this can be Farewel then all ye deceitful vanities now I understand thee and my self better O bewitching world than to fix my happiness in thee any more I will henceforth learn so much wisdom to lay up my treasures there where neither moths can corrupt them not Thieves steal them nor fire consume them O how happy would London be if this were the effect other flames on the minds of all her Inhabitants She might then rise with a greater glory and her inward beauty would outshine her outward splendour let it be as great as we can wish or imagine But in the mean time who can behold her present ruines without paying some tears as due to the sadness of the spectacle and more to the sins which caused them If that City were able to speak out of its ruines what sad complaints would it make of all those impieties which have made her so miserable If it had not been might she say for the pride and luxury the ease and delicacy of some of my Inhabitants the covetousness the fraud the injustice of others the debaucheries of the prophane the open factions and secret hypocrisie of too many pretending to greater sanctity my beauty had not been thus turned into ashes nor my glory into those ruines which make my enemies rejoyce my friends to mourn and all stand amazed at the beholding of them Look now upon me you who so lately admired the greatness of my Trade the riches of my Merchants the number of my People the conveniency of my Churches the multitude of my Streets and see what desolations sin hath made in the earth Look upon me and then tell me whether it be nothing to dally with Heaven to make a mock at sin to slight the judgments of God and abuse his mercies and after all the attempts of Heaven to reclaim a people from their sins to remain still the same that ever they were Was there no way to expiate your guilt but by my misery Had the Leprosie of your sins so fretted in my Walls that there was no cleansing them but by the flames which consume them Must I mourn in my dust and ashes for your iniquities while you are so ready to return to the practice of them Have I suffered so much by reason of them and do you think to escape your selves Can you then look upon my ruines with hearts as hard and unconcerned as the stones which lye in them If you have any kindness for me or for your selves if you ever hope to see my breaches repaired my beauty restored my glory advanced look on Londons ruines and repent Thus would she bid her Inhabitants not weep for her miseries but for their own sins for if never any sorrow was like to her sorrow it is because never any sins were like to their sins Not as though they were only the sins of the City which have brought this evil upon her no but as far as the judgment reaches so great hath the compass of the sins been which have provoked God to make her an example of his justice And I fear the effects of Londons calamity will be felt all the Nation over For considering the present languishing condition of this Nation it will be no easie matter to recover the blood and spirits which have been lost by this Fire So that whether we consider the sadness of those circumstances which accompained the rage of the fire or those which respect the present miseries of the City or the general influence those will have upon the Nation we cannot easily conceive what judgment could in so critical a time have befallen us which had been more severe for the kind and nature of it than this hath been 2. We consider it in the series and order of it We see by the Text this comes iâ— the last place as a reserve when nothing else would do any good upon them It is extrema medicina as St. Hierom saith the last attempt that God uses to reclaim a people by and if these Causticks will not do it is to be feared he looks upon the wounds as incurable He had sent a famine before v. 6. a drought v. 7 8. blasting and mildew v. 9. the Pestilence after the manner of Aegypt v. 10. the miseries of War in the same verse And when none of these would work that effect upon them which they were designed for then he comes to this last way of punishing before a final destruction he overthrew some of their Cities as he had overthrown Sodom and Gomorrah God forbid we should be so near a final subversion and utter desolation as the â—en Tribes were when none of these things would bring them to repentance but yet the method God hath used with us seems to bode very ill in case we do not at last return to the Lord. For it is not only agreeable to what is
heartily wish it may never be said of us what the Orator once said of the Greeks Quibus jusjurandum jocus testimonium ludus they made it a matter of jest and drollery to forswear themselves and give false testimonies But supposing men keep within the bounds of justice and common honesty yet how unsatiable are the desires of men they are for adding house to house and land to land never contented with what either their Ancestors have left them or the bountiful hand of Heaven hath bestowed upon them Till at last it may be in the Prophets expression for their covetousness the stone cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber answer it i. e. provoke God to give a severe check to the exorbitant and boundless desire of men as he hath done by this days calamity Thus while the City thought with Babylon to sit as a Lady for ever while she dwelt carelesly and said I am and there is none else beside me evil is come upon her and she knows not from whence it comes and mischief is â—allen upon her and she hath not been able to put it off and desolation is come upon her suddenly which she did not foresee 3. Contempt of God and his Laws That we read of v. 4. where the Prophet speaks by an Irony to them Come to Bethel and transgress c. he knew well enough they were resolved to do it let God or the Prophet say what they pleased For these Kine of Bashan were all â—or the Calves of Dan and Bethel and some think that is the reason of the title that is given them These great men of Samaria thought it beneath them to oâ—n Religion any further than it was subservient to their civil interests They were all of Ieroboams Religion who looked on it as a mear politick thing and sit to advance his own designs by I am afraid there are too many at this day who are secretly of his mind and think it a piece of wisdom to be so Blessed God that men should be so wise to deceive themselves and go down with so much discretion to Hell These are the grave and retired Atheists who though they secretly love not Religion yet their caution hinders them from talking much against it But there is a sort of men much more common than the other the faculties of whose minds are so thin and aiery that they will not bear the consideration of any thing much less of Religion these throw out their bitter scoâ—fs and prophane jests against it A thing never permitted that I know of in any civilized Nation in the world whatsoever their Religion was the reputation of Religion was always preserved sacred God himself saith Iosephus would not suffer the Iews to speak evil of other Gods though they were to destroy all those who tempted them to the worship of them And shall we suffer the most excellent and reasonable Religion in the world viz. the Christian to be prophaned by the unhallowed mouths of any who will venture to be damned to be accounted witty if their enquiries were deeper their reason stronger or their arguments more perswasive than of those who have made it their utmost care and business to search into these things they ought to be allowed a fair hearing buâ— for men who pretend to none of these things yet still to make Religion the object of their scoâ—fs and raillery doth not become the gravity of a Nation professing wisdom to permit it much less the sobriety of a people professing Christianity In the mean time such persons may know that wise men may be argued out of a Religion they own but none but Fools and madmen will be droll'd out of it Let them first try whether they can laugh men out of their Estates before they attempt to do it out of their hopes of an Eternal happiness And I am sure it will be no comfort to them in another world that they were accounted Wits for deriding those miseries which they then feel and smart under the severity of it will be no mitigation of their flames that they go laughing into them nor will they endure them the better because they would not believe them But while this is so prevailing a humour among the vain men of this Age and Nation what can we expect but that God should be remarkable and severe judgements seek to make men more serious in Religion or else make their hearts to ake and theâ—r joints to tremble as he did Belshazzars when he could find nothing else to carouse in but the Vessels of the Temple And when men said in the Prophet Zephany chap. 1.12 that God neither did good nor evil presently it follows therefore their goods shall become a booty and their houses a desolation the day of the Lord is near a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of wastness and desolation as it is with us at this time Thus we see how sad the parallel hath been not only in the judgments of Isreal but in the sins likewise which have made those judgments so severe 4. The severity of the Judgment appears not only from the Causes but â—rom the Author of it I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah God challenges the execution of his Justice to himself not only in the great day but in his judgment here in the world Shall there be evil in a City and the Lord hath not done it When God is pleased to punish men for their sins the excution of his justice is agreeable to his nature now as it will be at the end of the world We all know that he may do it if he please and he hath told us that he doth and will do it and we know withal that without such remarkable severities the world will hardly be kept in any awe of him We do not â—ind that love doth so much in the World as Fear doth there being so very few persons of tractable and ingenuous spirits It is true of too many what Lactantius obâ—erves of the Romans Nunquam Dei meminerunt nisi dum in malis sunt they seldom think of God but when they are afraid of him And there is not only this reason as to particular persons why God should punish them but there is a greater as to Communities and Bodies of men for although God suffers wicked men to escape punishment here as he often doth yet he is sure not to do it in the life to come but Communities of men can never be punished but in this World and therefore the Justice oâ— God doth often discover it self in these common calamities to keep the World in subjection to him and to let men see that neither the multitude of their Associates nor the depth of their Designs nor the subtilty of their Councils can secure them from the omnipotent arm of Divine Justice when he hath determined to visit their
for the reputation of their wisdom than the meer vogue of the people He who was pronounced by the Heathen Oracle to be the wisest among the Greeks was the person who brought down Philosophy from the obscure and uncertain speculations of Nature and in all his discourses recommended Vertue as the truest Wisdom And he among the Iews whose soul was as large as the sand on the Sea-shore whose wisdom out-went that of all the persons of his own or future Ages writes a Book on purpose to perswade men that there is no real wisdom but to fear God and keep his Commandments that sin is the greatest folly and the meaner apprehensions men have of it the more they are infatuated by the temptations to it But as there are degrees of sinning so there are of folly in it Some sin with a blushing Countenance and a trembling Conscience they sin but yet they are afraid to sin but in the act of it they condemn themselves for what they do they sin but with confusion in their faces with horror in their minds and an earthquake in their Consciences though the condition of such persons be dangerous and their unquietness shews the greatness of their folly yet because these twitches of Conscience argue there are some quick touches left of the sence of good and evil their case is not desperate nor their condition incurable But there are others who despise these as the reproach of the School of Wickedness because they are not yet attained to those heights of impiety which they glory in such who have subdued their Consciences much easier than others do their sins who have almost worn out all the impressions of the work of the Law written in their hearts who not only make a practice but a boast of sin and defend it with as much greediness as they commit it these are the men whose folly is manifest to all men but themselves and surely since these are the men whom Solomon in the words of the Text describes 1. By their character as Fools and 2. By the instance of their folly in making a mock at sin We may have not only the liberty to use but 1. To prove that Name of reproach to be due unto them and 2. To shew the reasonableness of fastning it upon them because they make a mock at sin But before I come more closely to pursue that it will be necessary to consider another sence of these words caused by the ambiguity of the Hebrew Verb which sometimes signifies to deride and scorn sometimes to plead for and excuse a thing with all the arts of Rhetorick thence the word for Rhetorick is derived from the Verb here used according to which sense it notes all the plausible pretences and subtle extenuations which wicked men use in defence of their evil actions For as if men intended to make some recompence for the folly they betray in the acts of sin by the wit they employ in the pleading for them there is nothing they shew more industry and care in than in endeavouring to baffle their own Consciences and please themselves in their folly till death and eternal â—lames awaken them That we may not therefore seem to beg all wicked men for Fools till we have heard what they have to say for themselves we shall first examine the reasonableness of their fairest Pleas for their evil actions before we make good the particular impeachment of folly against them There are three ways especially whereby they seek to jusâ—ifie themselves by laying the blame of all their evil actions either upon the fatal necessity of all events the unavoidable frailty of humane nature or the impossibility of keeping the Laws of Heaven But that none of these will serve to excuse them from the just imputation of folly is our present business to discover 1. The fatal necessity of all humane actions Those who upon any other terms are unwilling willing enough to own either God or Providence yet if they can but make these serve their turn to justifie their sins by their quarrel against them then ceaseth as being much more willing that God should bear the blame of their sins than themselves But yet the very fears of a Deity suggest so many dreadful thoughts of his Majesty Iustice and Power that they are very well contented to have him wholly left out and then to suppose Man to be a meer Engine that is necessarily moved by such a train and series of causes that there is no action how bad soever that is done by him which it was any more possible for him not to have done than for the fire not to burn when it pleases If this be true farewel all the differences of good and evil in mens actions farewel all expectations of future rewards and punishments Religion becomes but a meer name and righteousness but an art to live by But it is with this as it is with the other arguments they use against Religion there is something within which checks and controlls them in what they say and that inward remorse of Conscience which such men sometimes feel in their evil actions when conscience is forced to recoil by the foulness of them doth effectually confute their own hypothesis and makes them not believe those actions to be necessary for which they suffer so much in themselves because they knew they did them freely Or it is as fatal for man to believe himself free when he is not so as it is for him to act when his choice is determined but what series of causes is there that doth so necessarily impose upon the common sense of all mankind It seems very strange that man should have so little sense of his own interest to be still necessitated to the worst of actions and yet torment himself with the thoughts that he did them freely Or is it only the freedom of action and not of choice that men have an experience of within themselves But surely however men may subtilly dispute of the difference between these two no man would ever believe himself to be free in what he does unless he first thought himself to be so in what he determines And if we suppose man to have as great a freedom of choice in all his evil actions which is the liberty we are now speaking of as any persons assert or contend for we cannot suppose that he should have a greater experience of it than now he hath So that either it is impossible for man to know when his choice is free or if it may be known the constant experience of all evil men in the world will testifie that it is so now Is it possible for the most intemperate person to believe when the most pleasing temptations to lust or gluttony are presented to him that no consideration whatever could restrain his appetite or keep him from the satisfaction of his brutish inclinations Will not the sudden though groundless apprehension of poyson in the Cup make the
Drunkards heart to ake and hand to tremble and to let fall the supposed fatal mixture in the midst of all his jollity and excess How often have persons who have designed the greatest mischief to the lives and fortunes of others when all opportunities have fallen out beyond their expectation for accomplishing their ends through some sudden thoughts which have surprized them almost in the very act been diverted from their intended purposes Did ever any yet imagine that the charms of beauty and allurements of lust were so irresistible that if men knew before-hand they should surely dye in the embraces of an adulterous bed they could not yet withstand the temptations to it If then some considerations which are quite of another nature from all the objects which are presented to him may quite hinder the force and efficacy of them upon the mind of man as we see in Ioseph's resisting the importunate Caresses of his Mistress what reason can there be to imagine that man is a meer machine moved only as outward objects determine him And if the considerations of present fear and danger may divert men from the practice of evil actions shall not the far more weighty considerations of eternity have at least an equal if not a far greater power and efficacy upon mens minds to keep them from everlasting misery Is an immortal soul and the eternal happiness of it so mean a thing in our esteem and value that we will not deny our selves those sensual pleasures for the sake of that which we would renounce for some present danger Are the flames of another world such painted fires that they deserve only to be laughed at and not seriously considered by us Fond man art thou only free to ruine and destroy thy self a strange fatality indeed when nothing but what is mean and trivial shall determine thy choice when matters of the highest moment are therefore less regarded because they are such Hast thou no other plea for thy self but that thy sins were fatal thou hast no reason then to believe but that thy misery shall be so too But if thou ownest a God and Providence assure thy self that justice and righteousness are not meer Titles of his Honour but the real properties of his nature And he who hath appointed the rewards and punishments of the great day will then call the sinner to account not only for all his other sins but for offering to lay the imputation of them upon himself For if the greater abhorrency of mens evil ways the rigour of his laws the severity of his judgments the exactness of his justice the greatest care used to reclaim men from their sins and the highest assurance that he is not the cause of their ruine may be any vindication of the holiness of God now and his justice in the life to come we have the greatest reason to lay the blame of all our evil actions upon our selves as to attribute the glory of all our good unto himself alone 2. The frailty of humane Nature those who find themselves to be free enough to do their souls mischief and yet continue still in the doing of it find nothing more ready to plead for themselves than the unhappiness of mans composition and the degenerate state of the world If God had designed they are ready to say that man should lead a life free from sin why did he confine the soul of man to a body so apt to taint and pollute it But who art thou O man that thus findest fault with thy Maker Was not his kindness the greater in not only giving thee a soul capable of enjoying himself but such an habitation for it here which by the curiosity of its contrivance the number and usefulness of its parts might be a perpetual and domestick testimony of the wisdom of its Maker Was not such a conjunction of soul and body necessary for the exercise of that dominion whâ—ch God designed man for over the creatures endued only with sense and motion And if we suppose this life to be a state of tryal in order to a better as in all reason we ought to do what can be imagined more proper to such a state than to have the soul constantly employed in the Government of those sensual inclinations which arise from the body In the doing of which the proper exercise of that vertue consists which is made the condition of future happiness Had it not been for such a composition the differencâ— could never have been seen between good and bad men i. e. between those who maintain the Empire of reason assisted by the motives of Religion over all the inferiour faculties and such who dethrone their souls and make them slaves to every lust that will command them And if men willingly subject themselves to that which they were born to rule they have none to blame but themselves for it Neither is it any excuse at all that this through the degeneracy of mankind is grown the common custom of the world unless that be in it self so great a Tyrant that there is no resisting the power of it If God had commanded us to comply with all the customs of the world and at the same time to be sober righteous and good we must have lived in another age than we live in to have excused these two commands from a palpable contradiction But instead of this he hath forewarned us of the danger of being led aside by the soft and easie compliances of the world and if we are sensible of our own infirmities as we have all reason to be he hath offered us the assistance of his Grace and of that Spirit of his which is greater than the Spirit that is in the World He hath promised us those weapons whereby we may withstand the torrent of wickedness in the world with far greater success than the old Gauls were wont to do in the inundations of their Country whose custom was to be drowned with their arms in their hands But it will be the greater folly in us to be so because we have not only sufficient means of resistance but we understand the danger before-hand If we once forsake the strict rules of Religion and Goodness and are ready to yield our selves to whatever hath got retainers enough to set up for a custom we may know where we begin but we cannot where we shall make an end For every fresh assault makes the breach wider at which more enemies may come in still so that when we find our selves under their power we are contented for our own ease to call them Friends Which is the unhappy consequence of too easie yielding at first till at last the greatest slavery to sin be accounted but good humour and a gentile compliance with the fashions of the world So that when men are perswaded eithâ—r through fear or too great easiness to disuse that strict eye which they had before to their actions it oft-times falls out with them
may be kept to salvation but it must be through Faith 1 Pet. 1.5 3. Which is the last particular of the words the necessity of believing the Gospel in order to the partaking of the salvation promised in it it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes to the Iew first and also to the Greek An easie way of salvation if no more were required to mens happiness but a fancy and strong opinion which they will easily call Believing So there were some in St. Augustin's time I could wish there were none in ours who thought nothing necessary to salvation but a strong Faith let their lives be what they pleased But this is so repugnant to the main design of Christian Religion that they who think themselves the strongest Believers are certainly the weakest and most ungrounded For they believe scarce any other proposition in the new Testament but that whosoever believeth shall be saved If they did believe that Christ came into the world to reform it and make it better that the wrath of God is now revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness as well as that the just by Faith shall live that the design of all that love of Christ which is shewn to the World is to deliver them from the hand of their enemies that they might serve him in righteousness and holiness all the days of their lives they could never imagine that salvation is entailed by the Gospel on a mighty confidence or vehement perswasion of what Christ hath done and suffer'd for them And so far is St. Paul from asserting this that as far as I can see he never meddles with a matter of that nicety whether a single act of Faith be the condition of our justification as it is distinguished from Evangelical obedience but his discourse runs upon this subject whether God will pardon the sins of men upon any other terms than those which are declared in the Christian Religion the former he calls Works and the latter Faith I know the subtilty of later times hath made St. Paul dispute in the matter of justification not as one bred up at the feet of Gamaliel but of the Master of the Sentences but men did not then understand their Religion at all the worse because it was plain and easie and it may be if others since had understood their Religion better there would never have needed so much subtilty to explain it nor so many distinctions to defend it The Apostle makes the same terms of justification and of salvation for as he saith elsewhere We are justified by Faith he saith here the Gospel is the power of God to Salvation to every one that believes if therefore a single act of Faith be sufficient for one why not for the other also But if believing here be taken in a more large and comprehensive sense as a complex act relating to our undertaking the conditions of the Gosspel why should it not be taken so in the subsequent discourse of the Apostle For we are to observe that St. Paul in this Epistle is not disputing against any sort of Christians that thought to be saved by their obedience to the Gospel from the assistance of divine grace but against those who thought the Grace and indulgence of the Gospel by no means necessary in order to the pardon of their sins and their eternal happiness Two things therefore the Apostle mainly designs to prove in the beginning of it First the insufficiency of any other way of salvation besides that offer'd by the Gospel whether it were the light of Nature which the Gentiles contended for but were far from living according to it or that imaginary Covenant of Works which the Iews fancied to themselves for it will be a very hard matter to prove that ever God entred into a Covenant of Works with fallen Man which he knew it was impossible for him to observe but they were so highly opinionated of themselves and of those legal observations which were among them that they thought by vertue of them they could merit so much favour at God's hands that there was no need of any other sacrifice but what was among themselves to expiate the guilt of all their sins And on that account they rejected the Gospel as the Apostle tells us that they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God Against these therefore the Apostle proves that if they hoped for happiness upon such strict terms they laid only a foundation of boasting if they did all which God required but of misery if they did not for then Cursed is every one that continues not in every thing written in the Law to do it i. e. if they failed in any one thing then they must fail of all their hopes but such a state of perfection being impossible to humane Nature he shews that either all Mankind must unavoidably perish or they must be saved by the Grace and Favour of God which he proves to be discovered by the Gospel and that God will now accept of a hearty and sincere obedience to his will declared by his Son so that all those who perform that though they live not in the nice observance of the Law of Moses shall not need to fear the penalty of their sins in another life Which is the second thing he designs to prove viz. That those who obeyed the Gospel whether Iew or Greek were equally capable of salvation by it For saith he is God the God of the Iews only is he not also of the Gentiles Yes of the Gentiles also because both Iew and Gentile were to be justified upon the same terms as he proves afterwards So that Gods justifying of us by the Gospel is the solemn declaration of himself upon what terms he will pardon the sins of men that is deliver them from the penalties they have deserved by them For the actual discharge of the person is reserved to the great day all the justification we have here is only declarative from God but so as to give a right to us by vertue whereof we are assured that God will not only not exercise his utmost rigour but shew all favour and kindness to those who by belief of the Gospel do repent and obey God doth now remit sin as he forbears to punish it he remits the sinner as he assures him by the death of Christ he will not punish upon his re-repentance but he fully remits both when he delivers the person upon the tryal of the great day from all the penalties which he hath deserved by his sins So that our compleat justification and salvation go both upon the same terms and the same Faith which is sufficient for one must be sufficient for the other also What care then ought men to take lest by mis-understanding the notion of Believing so much spoken of as the condition of our