without reflection may conceit that the Honour they do to God by confessing all and more than all the sins they are guilty of may procure a Connivance for some sins though they never forsake them It is enough or very well to load themselves with the heaviest Accusation though they do not or perhaps think they cannot grow better Much like a great Debtor who will readily own greater Summs than he really owes if for that his Creditor will permit him to run further into his Debt and not be angry But the most frequent Cause of this Miscarriage is Superstition i. e. a groundless Timidity by reason of mistake in the Nature and Degrees of Sin which is a thing of bad consequence when our Judgments are deceived and our Affections abused we may swallow that which is truly wicked and greatly mischievous and be frighted at that which is really so far from being evil that it may be good and commendable Let our confession therefore of sin be truly informed and well advised Which is the first Direction 2dly The second is to confess our sins most impartially As we must not on the one side make or magnifie our Sins through Self-revenge Flattery of Almighty God Superstition or Timidity So we must on the other hand take great care that we do not excuse connive at or extenuate any Such are our most profitable and delightfull Sins Those which by corrupt Nature or evil Custom and Practice are deepest in our Hearts and therefore most difficult and painfull to forsake We must be in all sincerity most willing to see acknowledge and amend what is truly faulty in our selves and what is most so The Design of a true hearted Christian is to be better and his hearty desire is to reform universally and in order to that he must know what is really amiss and out of order Like the wounded or sick Man who longs for his Cure and Health He is not willing to conceal or forget any of his Ailments from himself or his Physician So far from that that he beseecheth his Physician 's care as well as useth his own observation to discover all least through ignorance or neglect something may prove fatal to him And what a foolish thing is it to say nothing of or slubber over some sweet some darling Sins we are loth to leave when we are upon our knees before God He needs not our confession for his information He seeth the most secret and dark Corners of our Hearts and knows full well whether we hide any thing there or no. He observes whether we deal truly or hypocritically with him and if he find the last will reject us and our confession too Follow we that great Example David Cleanse me from my secret sins Psalm 19. 33. prays that holy Man and see if there be any way of wickedness in me and lead me in the way everlasting He that thus prayed for the discovery of all his sins without reserve no doubt in his Confession spared none 3dly A third Rule of our Confession is that it be performed seriously and affectionately The confession here meant is not uttering a few words with our Mouths though never so good but it is in the mind and spirit though we should not speak a syllable Nor is it to be slight and careless as if it were a thing of no great moment whether it were true or no and we indifferent whether it were done at all No! It is at the same time to be expresly assented to by our Judgment owned by our Consciences and thence pass further into our affections We are to be really troubled ashamed disordered and tremble at the mention and remembrance of our sins according to the various Degrees and Aggravations We are to be affected with them in our Devotion when our own Conscience only can accuse us as if men of Gravity and Authority should openly and publickly charge us Nay setting aside the difference which the hopes of pardon here may make as if God himself instead of our Consciences was judging of us And do we think at that terrible Day when Jesus Christ shall appear with all the Ensigns of Justice and Majesty with Rewards and Punishments in his hands we shall be looking another way Shall we then stand unconcern'd and confess our sins in such a manner as if neither God nor our selves need take any notice of it No then with sinking Hearts and trembling Knees we shall see believe and confess that we are miserable Sinners indeed And yet all in vain because it proceeds only from the Terrour of the Sentence and Punishment just ready to be executed not from the hatred of sin from the dread of the Judge not from the love of him or hatred of our Crimes But now in this Day of Grace our passionate Confession and Cries from a truly penitent that is changed Heart to the Judge of all the World that indeed we have presumptuously and ungratefully offended against his holy Laws and that he would have mercy upon us miserable offenders shall through Heav'ns Goodness find a gracious Audience and Acceptance Of such temper and in such manner should be our confession in the third place 4ly Our confession ought to be suitable and proportionable I mean our confessions is to be proportionable to our sins Thus we ought between God and our own selves most frequently and passionately to confess those sins which are in themselves really the greatest and which we most frequently and deliberately commit To be always with great vehemency filling our Prayers with smaller Faults though none are to be slighted and indulged for small sins known weaken conscience and make way for greater but more rarely or faintly to mention those sins which are truly more provoking is to offend against this Rule Thus to confess impertinent and wandering Thoughts in Religious Duties vain use of God's Name though these things are by no means to be allowed or neglected but never to say any thing of Pride Covetousness Injustice Fraud Hypocrisie Malice or the like or so coldly as if we scarce thought them any sins I say this is to perform this Duty with great indiscretion if not Hypocrisie For it is a shrewd sign we can be very favourable to sin when it is agreeable or profitable and therefore painfull to subdue and mortifie it When we are clamorous against the sins we get little by or which cost us little of expence or pains to forsake but otherwise silent or soft it is very suspicious that there is not in us that hearty Zeal against sin which we would seem to be possessed withall 5ly And lastly Our confession will be the more commendable if it be voluntary and from pious Motions in our heart allowed by our judgments when we freely open and disclose our Souls to God and earnestly desire witness and judge God and our Consciences to inform and remember us of our Faults As may be more especially done at those times which
words read and see what instruction they will afford us to discourse upon By the term Fool it is well known that in the Scripture generally is not meant only an ignorant or erroneous Person but also one who is wicked and of ill-manners because he knows not or mistakes his own interest as well as departs from his Duty The Hebrew word is here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies him that doth foul as well as foolish Actions So Nabal is said to have done according to his Name when he was so ungratefull and churlish to David as well as so foolish and imprudent that had it not been for Abigail by sparing a little he had lost all 1 Sam. 25. 25. And the Syriack Version here renders the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. an unjust wicked and perverse Man 2. It follows hath said in his heart i. e. he hath thought so though perhaps he never dared to say so for that was Blasphemy and therefore death by the Jewish Law 3. There is no God i. e. there is no such thing really existent 't is but a name or an imagination Or if he be any where yet he is not present upon this Earth he meddles not with humane Affairs Some foolish wicked Men in their thoughts deny either the Being or the Providence of God extending it self to this lower World Like the Ancient Sect of the Epicureans among the Greeks long after these Fools of the Psalmist and consequently the true and necessary Perfections and Attributes of his Nature his Omnipresence Omniscience Omnipotence his Universal Goodness whereby he governs and directs the whole Universe at once to the best Ends his Sanctity Justice and the like And further consequent to this they deny all distinction between Moral good and evil right and wrong vertue and vice other than the present gratification and fulfilling their own lusts of haughtiness pride violence covetousness voluptuousness c. which sort of Men the Psalmist here more particularly means by the Fool. Nay finally hence it must necessarily follow that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Jews speak i. e. they denied their Religion despised even the Authority and Laws of Moses and were Judaical Infidels as ours now-a-days are Christian ones which is the more usual signification of the word and restrained to revealed Truths This last sense wants not Equal probability with the former For it is likely that from the beginning of Mankind there have been many more who have question'd the Providence and true Attributes than the Existence of a God for want of the true notion of his Nature and therefore the Chaldee Paraphrase seems not to have done amiss when it paraphraseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fool hath said in his heart that God hath no Dominion or Government in the Earth 4. The words they are corrupt they have done abominable works c. may be looked upon with the coherence either of a cause or an effect of the preceding Proposition The fool hath said in his heart c. As if they should be thus uttered Because they are corrupt c. therefore they have proceeded to that extremity of folly and impudence as to think there is no God at all and that he doth not see and know what they do or if he doth yet he cannot or will not concern himself to punish them Or we may read then to this sense Foolish and lewd Men have first perswaded themselves that there is no God or no Providence which reacheth humane Affairs and then have let loose the Reigns to their lusts which have carried them to the most wicked Works and abominable Practices From whence we may learn these Two things 1. That they who deny the Being or Providence of God over Mankind and the consequent Truths mentioned are both ignorant and wicked or infidelity is the quality of vicious Fools The fool c. 2. That the denying of those great Truths and such like is the cause of corrupt manners or infidelity is followed with still greater corruption of manners and wickedness of practice To take the first of these Among many heads of Discourse which have and may be handled in this great and most important Argument I shall choose but these Two 1st To observe some of the most frequent causes of this Disease And 2ly To propose some remedies to prevent or suppress their Efficacy And because those of both parts are many to be named I shall be as brief as I can in each of them and do little more than enumerate them 1st The first cause then of this infidelity is ignorance A charge which perhaps they may wonder or smile at who have so often been by themselves and others taken for more than ordinary Wits and so indeed they are but 't is in levity shallowness temerity self-conceit and boldness and some other as worthy qualities to be mentioned And we affirm still that one of the leading and first Causes of infidelity is great ignorance of the Nature of all Beings short of infinite Perfection and particularly of the material or corporeal World to believe it possible for any thing to exist without a God or a Being whose Essence is to be infinitely perfect and consequently necessarily to exist himself and to be the productive and conservative Cause of all other things whatsoever existent And then when there is such a Being it is to have lost the faculty of reasoning seriously to deny those Attributes of his Nature before mentioned and his Universal Providence For it would be to ungod him again It must be from a gross ignorance more particularly for any man to doubt his Universal Goodness whereby he disposeth and ordereth all things for the best State of the Universe of Beings in all its duration taken together and consequently his Justice so that it shall be better with the Good and Righteous than with the Evil and Wicked all Conditions or their whole Duration considered and comprehended It is from no better Cause that any man questions the Immortality of humane Souls in their own Nature and the unsuitableness of the Divine Attributes to annihilate them And it is far more incredible and further from all belief that God should make our Souls only for this point of time we live upon this Earth than that he should make all humane Race to come into this World only to cry and die 'T is I say it again from a contemptible ignorance of the Nature of Body and Spirit the Nature of God the true Ends of all Being Life and Action that these grand and fundamental Verities are seriously and ex animo disputed or denied by any It would be at present too tedious and impertinent to deduce at large the particular proofs of these most important Truths It hath been especially in this last Age excellently well performed to which in some things a further Addition may be made Let Infidels or Scepticks sufficiently
Justification it self God's imputing Christ's Righteousness to us in such manner is one Cause of our Justification but Justification it self or the using of us in such favourable and kind manner is the effect of that imputation Nor 6 and lastly is Justification a bare remission of sins They who say so speak too little for the using a man as a Righteous and just man is not negative only or doing him no harm but positive also doing him good and therefore it contains not only security and exemption from the evil of suffering but the bestowing the good things of enjoyment the principal of which are spiritual and eternal the Assistances for Vertue here and Heaven hereafter or Grace and Glory as is usually said I will only here observe that although such as I have said be the general notion of Justification of sinners yet it must here in the Text be restrained to those instances of favour which follow Faith taken for a quality in us such as remission of sins c. because it is said justified by saith Faith is the Cause of Justification viz. a condition qualifying or capacitating Cause Justification or being used kindly by God is the effect of this our Faith And so much for the Explication of the Term Justification In summ this it is to use or treat a Person as useth to be done to a just and good man which is to do him no harm but to bear him good Will some way or other to do him good shew him favour and kindness For the second Term faith I mean justifying or saving Faith by which we are said to be justified it is as much contested and perhaps with more difficulty and less certainty resolved than the former of justification I for my part have observed these three significations of it The last of which I intend principally to enlarge my present Discourse upon First The first Sense of it may be Piety or Religion in general or rather religiousness i. e. Such an habitual Temper of mind whereby a man is disposed to obey the Will of God and consequently to do that which is right and just however made known to him from God It is this temper of Soul by which God estimates a good Man and by which he is qualified for God's Approbation Acceptance and Beneficence Particularly in those great Instances of Pardon Grace and Glory Which if vigorous and prevalent and constant enough to denominate us good men will certainly exert it self in all actual Obedience of inward Will and outward Action when it is not necessarily hindred as it may be by pure and invincible Ignorance by Diseases and Disorders of the Body or any external Impediments I say again because I think it wants and deserves Observation that it is according to the Degree and Constancy of this habitual Inclination of Soul that God estimates us and we shall be dealt withall by him Outward Actions especially and inward too are contingent may cease and are liable to an hundred Hindrances and Obstructions when the habitual Inclination of the Will is a constant thing and remains fixed in the Soul which God certainly knows though others and even our own selves sometimes may be ignorant of it so that the Jews from whom probably the Mahometans had it might save themselves and God the labour of casting up and weighing their good and bad Actions to know which Number weighs most and how the Case will stand with them in the Day of Judgment any further than they are signs of the Degree and Constancy of habitual Temper sometimes fallible enough But let this stand for a little Digression To return I cannot yet tell what better notion to fix upon faith when it is said The just shall live by faith quoted by Saint Paul Rom. 1. 17. and Gal. 3. 11. from Hab. 2. 4. to prove Justification not to be by the Law but by Faith and that too Synecdochically put viz. The Doctrine of the Condition of Justification for all the rest of the Gospel-doctrine concerning it as we shall presently more largely discourse The just shall live by faith i. e. A good and just Man by his Piety and Religiousness shall be in the Favour of God so as to be safe and happy when the proud and wicked Man forsaking God shall be forsaken by him An habitually Religious man which will certainly produce actual Obedience to God whensoever he sufficiently declares his Will and Laws ever was and ever will be approved accepted and favoured by God Which as he did once by Moses so hath he in these last days more evidently and perfectly by his Son the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore it is not necessary that the just Man should live or be justified only by the actual Observance of the Mosaical Law which is what the Apostle proves by these words Let us examine a little the importance of the whole Verse in Heb. 10. 38. and Hab. 2. 4. The just shall live by faith but if he draws back so it is to be rendred there being no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there but supposed to be put in by our own Interpreters in favour of the Doctrines of absolute Election and Perseverance My Soul shall have no pleasure in him We shall not meddle with the difference of the Heb. in Habb and this quotation by the Author to the Hebrews but only observe That to live is to fare well from God to be approved by him and be in his favour so as to receive from him the Promise of Salvation and Deliverance from their suffering Condition here or after this Life the reward of a happy Condition or both or as it is expressed in the next Verse the saving of the Soul This I say is the sense of living as it is commonly of the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because God's having no pleasure in him i. e. God's disfavour is opposed to it Besides in the Gal. To live not only vivere but valere is plainly of the same importance with Justification in the latter part of the Verse And then for Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is manifestly the believing of God's promises so effectually as to produce an entire submissive and obsequious Temper of Heart to God and consequently an actual Obedience and doing the Will of God in the profession and practice of the Christian Religion because it is opposed to a Man's withdrawing viz from that his Duty to God through fear or diffidence or any other evil Affection And it is of the same importance with that in the following Verse believing to the salvation of the Soul by which a good Man lives Faith by which a good Man lives cannot be either according to common reason or the Tenor of Revelation a bare Assent to God's Veracity Goodness and Power or the fulfilling of his Promises but the effect thereof a dutifull and obediential Heart to God It was in the same manner that Abraham was justified viz. by his Piety and
their Repentance Prayers Sacrifices and all other their good Works and Qualities were not barely a capacitating Condition of Justification forgiveness of Sins and the happy Life to come but meritorious and that God was obliged in Justice to give these for them And as for the perfectly Righteous who needed no Repentance no question but that God was strictly bound to reward them with a future happy State of Life especially at the Resurrection of the Dead and the Day of the great Judgment Nay when they wanted Merits of their own they had recourse to those of their Ancestours Abraham Isaac and Jacob and others like the Works of Supererogation among the Papists Nay some were so besotted with vain Conceit and Arrogance that they thought God chose their Ancestors for their Merit and was in love with their Posterity for it too And still there remains among them an Enthusiastical and Arrogant strain beyond all this probably older than St. Paul That God created the World for their sakes foreseeing I suppose what a lovely and excellent People they would prove We need but look into both Ancient and Modern Jewish Authors to learn all this Though if we knew nothing of this their Arrogant Opinion and Temper from themselves yet the Holy Scripture would sufficiently inform us d Now St. Paul so zealous for the Honour of God and Jesus Christ most deservedly in his disputes with them about Justification represseth and refutes such insolent and false Opinion and Language And therefore asserts the Righteousness or Justification of God or of God's Appointment by Faith of Jesus Christ described and taught in the Gospel to all them that believe This way of Justification of God's Appointment was first to believers i. e. real Christians in their hearts and lives And then through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus the propitiation and lastly freely by the grace of God This God's way of Justification being thus upon the Condition of our Christian Obedience and Consideration of perfect Obedience and Death of Jesus and of the free grace of God every way excludes the boasting of the Jews which they thought in their way they had so much reason for This Righteousness of God was neither without the interposition of the perfect Obedience and Sacrifice of Jesus the true Messias nor by any Merit of theirs by which they may claim Justification as a Debt from God Nor was it so much as upon Condition of the Observation of the Law of Moses of which presently much less upon the Account of its Merit Rom. 3. 22. And because the Jews had so great an Opinion of the Merit of their Father Abraham He affirms that Abraham himself was justified in the same manner too He was justified by Faith too taking Faith first for a godly religious Temper of Heart as the Condition and then this one part of the Gospel-doctrine of Justification for the whole of it by a Figure ordinary enough with St. Paul and other Holy Writers as hath been before observed But he denies peremptorily that Abraham was justified by his Works of any sort i. e. that he was justified either according to their Doctrine in general or more particularly by the Merit of his Works He doth not deny Justification by good Works as a Qualification or Condition which is the Sense of St. James writing against an Errour of some Christians who taught a bare Belief in Jesus and Profession of it enough And it is likely they had it from the Jews too the Vulgar of whom thought their mere being Jews sufficient for Salvation Nor hath either the Jewish or Christian Church ever wanted such sort of People and very numerous too especially in times and places of great ignorance when their idle ignorant and corrupt guides themselves have taught them as much St. Aug. tells us that there were some in his time who believed all to be saved Civ Dei lib. 21. cap. 22. who gave Alms who said daily in the Lord's Prayer Forgive us our Trespasses c. and did forgive when asked sometimes who remained in the Church however they lived otherwise And he believes there were many in St. Paul's time too who not rightly Lib. 80. quaest understanding St. Paul's Justification by Faith without Works did really think that having once believed in Christ they should be saved by that Faith though they lived wicked and flagitious Lives Those Christians in St. James seem such a sort of People And if the Epistle to the Romans was written before that of St. James they also might be led into such a Conceit by St. Paul himself misunderstood not minding what he had otherwise by word or writing every where taught and particularly in Rom. 10. 9 10. That if thou shalt confess with thy Mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved For with the heart man believeth unto Righteousness i. e. Justification and with the mouth Confession is made unto Salvation Here it is observable how one Circumstance of the Persons who are written to and their Opinion may determine the sense of words St. Paul wrote to the Jews who affirmed that their good Works merited Justification St. James to Christians who believed and taught that they were not so much as a qualification or condition and no way necessary to it They both wrote true Justification was and was not by good Works It was by them as a qualification and condition it was not by them as meritorious in the most received and common sense of that word But to return to St. Paul he flatly denies that Abraham himself was justified by the Merits of his Works so as that God was in manner of a Debtour obliged to it much less was his Posterity Abraham indeed was a Person extraordinary and so might justly pretend to some privilege amongst Men but had no reason to claim or challenge any thing particularly so great things as remission of sins and salvation from God merely for his own sake or in such manner as a Creditour or Servant may do from his Debtour or Master Rom. 4. This Doctrine of his so directly opposite to theirs he proves from Moses and David for one saith that Abraham's Faith his Piety and Obedience was imputed to him for Righteousness or Justification and the other blessed is the Man to whom the Lord will not impute sin Now this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impute imports in God nothing of payment of a Debt nor of Merit from him but an Act of Discretion Liberty Choice Goodness though most wise and reasonable too in pursuance of the one great End of all his Counsels and Actions This was the Doctrine of St. Paul and the other Apostles else-where as if it were a matter they much desire Christians should be well instructed in And in truth it is most agreeable to natural Reason For to talk of Merit in its proper sense and so as it
not in the least to doubt it being an exceeding manifest and plain thing but that this Jesus is this Messias but are to believe it firmly and profess it boldly and consequently to become his Disciples particularly shewing their Piety to God and their most religious Disposition of Heart Submission and Obedience to him by the Observance of his Will and Laws by this Jesus the Christ if they intend to be saved Obedience to God by Moses was now Obedience to Jesus Christ is and ever hence-forward will be as the Jews falsly imagine concerning their Law the Condition of and Qualification for the Divine Favour Justification Remission of Sins and finally Salvation Such may be the Sense of St. Paul so we may suppose him to have spoken to us in those obscure words The only thing of moment which the Jews had to object and which converted and unconverted to Christianity were very fond of was the perpetuity of the Law of Moses clearly as they thought affirmed in their Law and Prophets But this St. Paul every where absolutely denies with the rest of the Apostles and with great reason For besides that that Law is impossible to be observed by all mankind neither Moses himself nor any of the Prophets ever affirmed it Nay they have intimated the contrary Jer. 31. 31. with Heb. 8. Moses himself promiseth the Jews That the Lord their God would raise up a Prophet like him whom they should hear Deut. 18. with Acts 7. This as it may promise a Succession of Prophets so it had a principal Respect to the Messias who was a Person sent immediately from God with larger Authority than Moses and to be heard by them Not as they too meanly thought of him as if he were to be only the Servant and second of Moses No he was to be a Law-giver from God like Moses and to take and leave what he thought fit in his Law And so the Prophecy is only compleatly fulfilled in the Messias None of the Prophets were so like Moses as he The Messias only was a Legislator from God like Moses 'T is true none of the Talmudists Paraphrasts or Rabbins that I remember have apply'd this place to the Messias but neither have they done that by many other places where they fairly might and with much more reason than where oft-times they have But it is enough if Moses and the Prophets never really and in truth affirmed the perpetual Duration of the Law For now God hath given abundantly more ample Proof of his Mission of Jesus than ever he did of Moses by his Doctrine Life Miracles Resurrection Ascension Mission of the Holy Ghost upon them who believed in Jesus and not upon the Jews and from this Jesus I have learned saith St. Paul that a great part of the Mosaical Law should be abolished principally in order to the uniting all Mankind into one Body by Religion That Circumcision and Uncircumcision now availeth nothing to Justification but Faith working by Love A religious and obedient Heart to God by Jesus Christ producing all the substantial Actions of Piety and Charity to God and our Neighbour the summ and end even of the Mcsaical Law it self that no man who now believeth in Jesus ought to oblige himself by Circumcision to the observance of all the little temporary and now useless things of the Mosaical Law Nay if he doth Christ shall profit him nothing as being disobedient to one express Command of Christ liberty and freedom from that comparatively mean institution Such then is the fourth false Doctrine of the Jews concerning Justification Fifthly and lastly In few words The Jewish Doctors taught that they might perform and fulfill all the Commandments of their Law by their own natural Strength and Power e but St. Paul and the Divine Writers teach a contrary Doctrine viz. That the grace of God is absolutely necessary for our performance of good Works or rather for being good men the Condition of our Acceptance and Justification f These are all of the most considerable Opinions and Doctrines of the Jewish Doctors or Expounders of the Mosaical Law concerning Justification that I at present remember Now all these Doctrines of the Jewish Doctors put together are the Justification by the Law or the Works of the Law as I conceive Which in not many words are to this effect Some men needed no Justification but those who did were justified without any Merits but their own viz. for the due Observance of the Law of Moses by their own Strength Care and Industry Justification then by Faith or according to the Christian Doctrine as opposed to the Law must be on the contrary That all men being sinners are justified and particularly receive remission of sins the Holy Spirit and Everlasting Salvation from the free and undeserved goodness of God upon the consideration of the perfect Righteousness and the meritorious Sacrifice of Jesus Christ and upon the Condition or Qualification of a pious Temper of Heart for the future to obey the Will of God and consequently to do the thing that is right and just howsoever he shall be pleased to declare it but particularly by the Lord Jesus Christ which very Condition too we had never been able to perform without the assistance of the grace of God This as I think may be the comprehensive Sense of Justification by Faith but if it should prove otherwise it is but a mistake in the signification of a Phrase I confess obscurely enough delivered to us now at this distance of time and of so different a way of speaking from the Apostolical Age. However that be certain it is that the Doctrine it self is taken out of and according to the Holy Scriptures in which I see nothing but what is plain easie and reasonable After this we may in very short observe that if any of the three Senses of justifying faith mentioned viz. A general Piety or a Christian Obedience or according to the Christian Doctrine be that of the Holy Scripture then justifying Faith is not a meer assent to the whole Doctrine of the Gospel nor Secondly is it a bare reliance upon God and Christ and trust in their promises or as others express it a rolling and throwing our selves upon Christ for pardon and salvation nor Thirdly is it a confident persuasion that our sins are pardoned in Jesus Christ nor Fourthly is it whatsoever men have confusedly meant by those Metaphors of going to Christ or embracing Christ or eying him by Faith as an instrument as if such a thin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Exile Relation of Faith were a thing for which Faith should be so much predicated and to which no less than Justification and Eternal Salvation should be attributed Besides if Faith should thus justifie because it apprehends takes hold of and embraces Christ how much more should love be said to do it which more properly may be said to take hold of and embrace Christ Finally There is no mention in
the Scripture of Faith's justifying or saving as such a kind of instrument nor of any thing which infers it or would so much as give any hint or suspicion of it but as a necessary Condition or Qualification every where in the same manner as Repentance Obedience Confession of Sins and believing him to be raised from the Dead Rom. 10. 9 10. Both these last are Synecdochically taken for being true Christians or Obedience to God by Jesus Christ These notions I conceive have been invented and received principally in opposition to the Pontifician sense and then for want of the knowledge of the Oriental way of speaking or from former prejudices Such notions and language would have seemed very strange and unintelligible to the Greek the Roman and especially the Jew the Adversary of St. Paul whom he endeavours to convince and confute and when understood very mean and improbable And yet there may be truth under all these expressions if they be taken figuratively with some sort of explication and we may be so charitable as to believe that pious and good Men have so understood them and that others sometimes can better tell and explain their thoughts than they themselves As for example if we take Faith first strictly for an Assent but then add so firm repeated attentive and deliberate an one like that of Thomas as to produce in us profound veneration and submission of Soul to God and Christ and an actual Obedience to their Will and Commands and consequently a true Vertue and real Sanctity of Heart and Life I say if this be the Sense of justifying Faith it is true and good and so if believing and relying upon Christ and trust in him for pardon of sin and acceptance be not a presumptuous one but well grounded upon a true Repentance the real Change and Conversion of the Heart and supposing and comprehending that it may pass for a justifying Faith So may receiving and embracing whole Christ as they phrase it as King Priest and Prophet because it includes Obedience to Christ's Laws as a King And on the other hand to receive Christ as a Priest and Prophet may be included in Obedience because we are commanded to believe Christ's Doctrine and to trust in God for the remission of sins procured by him upon repentance finally when they call their justifying Faith a lively Faith or Faith working by love and bringing forth the Fruits of Holiness and good Works it may do very well tho' it is an odd kind of expression of what some contend for That Faith alone justifies without Works or Obedience which is like as if a Man should say That the Root and the Fruit of a Tree nourisheth to signifie that the Root only doth it We have now gone through the explication of the words promised For the application of them let the Apostles own inference suffice at present to recommend unto us a justified State We that are justified by Faith saith the Apostle have peace with God that is we are in a State of Amity and Friendship with God so that we not only have no reason to fear any harm from that Terrible and Almighty Power which the Confederation of all Heaven and Earth cannot secure us from but we have all reason to hope for and be assured of all Instances of Favour and Bounty which his infinite Wisdom shall think fit more and greater than we can conceive What can intercept or restrain his Magnificent goodness to his Friends whom he delights in and delights to honour And then our Consciences will not terrify us or make us uneasie with Menaces or Suspicions of our Guilt and his Justice one Day and drive us from all thoughts of God But on the contrary they will invite encourage command us to make use of him to make him our Refuge our Trust our Solace in all Conditions at all times Then when all the World as kindly as it may now look upon us shall neglect us or forsake us or hate us or which is certain to come to pass sooner or later shall not be able in the least to help us though it would then when Death shall envisage and summon us to an appearance before that Sovereign Tribunal and when we shall stand there to receive our final Doom and irreversible Sentence Oh most desirable and happy of all Conditions without the assurance of which if we would draw our Curtains about us and be serious but one hour we could not be quiet or easie in our selves We proclaim the Person most happy and fortunate who hath the Eye the Ear the Heart of a Prince but what can the greatest Potentates do for us more than heap upon us Riches and Honors for a few Days which many to one we had better have wanted Even the continuance of bodily Life and Health the greatest bodily Blessings are out of their Power but how much more the goods of the mind and the Treasures of Heaven Whereas the Eternal Sovereign Lord of the Universe hath all things perfectly at his own disposal to bestow upon whom he pleaseth and that here with the Wisdom and Care of a Father but hereafter certainly Fullness of Joy and Pleasures for ever more Besides where God fixes his Affection and vouchsafes his Friendship we are sure there is true Worth and something of real and good Value though of his own gift when Earthly greatness through ignorance misinformation humour or necessity may misplace them And the belief of and reflection upon God's Approbation who is the best Judge is at all times extreamly gratefull and satisfactory to us naturally This is certain that a wise and just Man takes more pleasure in not being unworthy of Favour which he doth not enjoy than in enjoying what he doth not deserve We conclude all in turning St. Paul s Doctrine and Inference into an exhortation and motive Let us use our utmost Care and Endeavour on our part and God will not fail to perform what is to be done on his to get into the Number of those who are Evangelically justified our Sins pardoned our Souls inhabited and sanctified by the Holy Spirit and our Eternal Salvation assured that so we may enjoy the great Honour and the unspeakable Comfort of being the Friends of God and at peace with him through our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit be all Honour and Praise both now and for evermore Amen Annotations and Additions On the Discourse of Justification a FOR the ample Proof of the Notion and Sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes which I have given I think what follows will be abundantly sufficient 1 Let it be premised that though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in its most precise Notion signifies to pronounce just to discharge acquit and absolve from Fault and Punishment yet in its more general Use it signifies more generally Viz. to treat or use as just in our Opinions Words or Actions and