A Beggars receiving an Alms argues no merit in the Receiver but meer Grace in the Donor We count that he who only receives a benefit he doth nothing for it it comes freely Indeed he doth something naturally in receiving but nothing morally by way of merit for the thing received Thus it is among Men and so we understand it in all such actings of ours but when we come to deal with God how do our proud hearts put a value upon them then we put a value upon every thing upon our coming upon our adhering upon our relying upon our asking upon our receiving We grow proud of those very Acts of Grace by which we do express our Poverty and Beggary our absolute Dependance upon another as if Christ was beholden to us for our accepting of him So naturally prone are we to rest upon any thing that looks like our own doing Brethren There are two things to be considered in Faith. 1. The Motion of the Soul in receiving which is an Act naturally necessary to all manner of receiving it is as reaching forth and opening the hand 2. You may consider the passive reception it self wherein the Nature of Faith doth chiefly consist in admitting applying and owning the Gift Though the word Believing doth Grammatically imply an Action yet really and physically we are passive in believing For these Reasons First The first Reason is this They who make our Act of believing a part of our Justifying Righteousness do manifestly make Faith to contradict it self in and by its own Act If by an Act of believing we go out of our selves to Christ for all I do not see how by the same Act we can possibly settle upon any thing in our selves that is not Christ If by being justified by faith they understand the Object of faith then we agree with them then faith and Christ is all one By faith we mean Christ applyed and nothing but Christ. But if they understand the bare Act of believing in distinction from Christ the Object therein we differ from them And they must so understand it who make our Act of believing a part of our justifying Righteousness distinct from Christs Righteousness and therein I say they make faith to contradict it self in and by its own Act I do not know whether I am understood I think I understand my self in what I have said Take it thus Pray consider what is the sense of a believing Soul under a present Act of faith in Christ I appeal to you all I desire you would all be Judges in this matter who have ever been serious and in good earnest dealing with God by an act of faith for Salvation You believe in Christ what is the English of that What do you mean by it Is not this your sense you desire to cast your self wholly upon Christ to be found in Christ not having on your own Righteousness to be built upon that Foundation to lay hold on Eternal Life in Christ to go out of your selves unto Christ for Righteousness and Life to seek that in another which you have not in your selves to count all things but loss and dung that you may win Christ don't you mean this Pray what an absurdity then is it what a gross contradiction to say I am justified by something in my self by virtue of that very act of faith by which I do purposely go out of my self to Christ for all If this be Reason and Sense I have quite lost the use of both and will never pretend to understand any thing But how do some Men fight with their own shadows and lose themselves in their own expressions They cannot speak of Christ and of the way and manner of applying Christ but presently they must be Co-workers with Christ in their Justification Brethren We must not be perswaded out of our Christian Names nay out of Christianity it self by those who would impose their own notions upon us and indeed preach another Gospel let them read on and tremble But I will say this that if Paul were alive and should hear any man upon Earth or Angel from Heaven compound Faith and Works Works and Christ in the matter of our Justification I doubt not but he would curse them in the name of the Lord. Certainly we are not to be Mealy-mouthed and silently suffer the grand principles of the Gospel to be decryed as if we doubted whether they were true or no. These are the Pillars of the House all fall with them if they be taken away These are the Ancient Land marks and bounds of our Religion they must not be removed for if you suffer that you will quickly have a dead Child in the room of the living New Notions though not contrary to any received foundation should be warily uttered but supposing there is the least discrepancy or opposition it is our duty and wisdom to be silent and not break the eye of the Needle by forcing our Camel through New Notions must yield rather to antient received Truths they must be governed and over-ruled by them It is dangerous to force plain Scripture and plain principles to make good our own private interpretations 2. Our act of believing is no part of our justifying Righteousness because justification is an act of God not properly subsequent to our Faith but simultaneous with it They are concomitants so close so instantaneous that we cannot say which is first or last in time we cannot say the one takes its rise from the other I explain my self thus it is one thing for the Scripture to speak Doctrinally of Faith another thing to speak of a Believer under the actual exercise of Faith. When the Scripture speaks of the Doctrine of Faith in the Abstract it tells us the consequents of it that according to Gods order and appointment Faith is requisite unto Justification and so Faith is antecedent to Justification and Justification is spoken of as a thing to come upon our believing The Doctrine of Faith shews what shall be to all who obtain it the actual exercise of Faith shews what is to them who have it and do believe it It is not only he that believes shall be saved and justified but is justified It is true who ever believes shall be saved the just shall live by faith this is Doctrinally true But he that believes hath everlasting Life Iohn 3. 39. is justified this is experimentally true God if you rightly consider the point doth justifie us by working Faith in us It is his way of Justifying it is the way God hath chosen to communicate the Righteousness of God which is a stupendious Mystery and cannot be otherwise applied to the soul. He doth not justifie us because of any antecedent act of Faith we have lying by us and which we could now produce as a price as it were and Meritorious Means of our Justification God justifies us by working Faith in us God being willing in so great an act of Grace to speak to
in bitterness The sense he has of the love of God to sinners in Christ Jesus kindles love in his heart towards God which is a full evidence of real Conversion We never turn to God but we begin to love him then we grieve for sin as sin with a true godly sorrow that causeth Repentance unto Salvation 'T is the duty of Ministers to make known the mystery of the Gospel Paul was afraid he should not speak out speak plain enough and so am I. CHAP. V. Of the Time of Regeneration SOmething of this fell in under the former Heads therefore I shall say the less of it now The Time is in this life All who live with God in Heaven hereafter are born to him and of him here on Earth This whole time is called the day of Grace To day if you will hear his voice And there is a particular hour in that day wherein Saving Grace takes hold of us by God's Effectual Calling which is best known by our Obediential Hearing when we answer to the Call Lord here I am ready to comply with thy Will in all things What wouldst thou have me to do and I will do it Consult your selves about this when you first find your wills brought over to Christ write down that as the day of thy Conversion you can give no account of a real work of Grace till then your knowledg cannot prove it self Saving till it thus operate upon the Will in turning that to God So that the time of thy Regeneration is when thy heart is first drawn up to trust in Christ let it fall in what year of thy life in what hour of the day it will so the thing be done it matters not when as to the issue of it to be converted is necessary to Salvation but to know precisely the time when is not necessary provided you know the time when it was not or at least not so manifest to you as now it is It shall be done unto the last as unto the first the last and the first Converts in an Age are equally welcome to God and there is something peculiar in both that does very much set forth and signalize the freeness of God's Grace viz. That he converted the one so soon and the other so late that he came so early to one who had heard so little and that he came at all to the other who had heard so much and despised it Late Converts are very rare he that comes not in now while 't is called to day may slip his opportunity and die under a dreadful conviction that he obstinately refused a fair offer of life and pardon that was made him at such a time in such a Sermon by such a Preacher who may be called forth to witness against him at the last day Whether you believe or not believe the Word will have its effect one way or other upon you all either as a favour of life or death When the favour of the knowledg of Christ is not a sweet Savour we take offence at it Death indeed may follow that deadly scent 't is a dangerous symptome of Eternal death to be offended at Christ at the purity and strictness of his Heavenly Doctrine A distinct remembrance of the certain time means and manner of our conversion is very comfortable but tho we be at some loss here yet if we can prove the thing it self 't is enough He that does the real actions of a living Man gives sufficient proof and demonstration of his first conception and real birth into the World tho he knows not the day and hour of either CHAP. VI. The End of Regeneration 1. THAT God may raise up a Holy Seed unto himself that shall be counted for a Generation to serve him That he may have a Church and People here on Earth devoted to his fear professing his Name and keeping up his Worship All people will walk every one in the name of the Lord his God and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever By our first birth we are brought forth into the World Enemies to God and Godliness by our second birth we partake of the Divine Nature become a Holy people unto the Lord our God a peculiar people 2. That his Elect may be made meet for Heaven and fitted up for Glory God begins all this in Regeneration which is pursuant to Election All those Names that are written in Heaven or in the Lamb's Book of Life shall be begotten again unto that Life which in the Eternal purpose of God belongs to their Names They are a chosen Generation which is the cause and ground of their Regeneration All the rest of the World will be left in darkness in Idolatry to worship the Dragon whose Names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World. They who belong not to this chosen Generation are rejected of God never to be born again Regeneration is a sure evidence of Election God demonstrates his Eternal Love to us by this signal effect of it in our Regeneration CHAP. VII The Scripture Marks and Signs of Regeneration 1. HE doth not commit Sin. 2. He doth Righteousness 3. He believeth that Jesus is the Christ. 4. He overcometh the World. 5. He loves Christ and all the Saints 6. He desires the sincere Milk of the Word They are not my Marks but God's laid down in his own terms as 't is written in your Bibles what you find in your selves answerable thereunto I must leave to God and your own Consciences The Text tells you Vnless a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Iohn in his Epistle tells you unless these marks be found upon him he is not born again and dying in that estate is excluded Heaven for ever Iohn foreseeing what false notions of Regeneration men wouâ—â— taks up with and rest in to prevent all fraud all mistakes in so great a point lays down these infallible marks of true real Regeneration as 't is distinguished from that which is but pretended false and counterfeit For ought I see there is no more required to Regeneration in the judgment of some men than to be born in such a Country where Christianity is professed and to be Baptized according to the custom of the place this is the whole of Regeneration as some state it tho none of these marks appear in them but the quite contrary They commit Sin they don't do Righteousness they hate Christ and his Members are overcome every day by the World and the temptations of it yet these must go for Regenerate persons let the Scripture say what it will to the contrary But let us not deceive our selves God will judge us by the Word and none will be looked upon at the last day as truly regenerate in whom all these marks are not found I do
perish may thank your selves for it how speechless will sinners be then as to remain in impenitency under the outward Light of the Gospel does argue the height of unbelief so to be brought to Repentance by the Preaching of the Gospel does necessarily imply Faith in the Gospel 't is impossible that a Tender of Grace should work Repentance till 't is believed 't is of no force makes no impression upon the Mind of a Man till then therefore Faith must be presupposed I make it out thus That which is brought as a motive for the doing of a thing must be first understood received and believed before the thing can be done upon that motive there is in the Gospel a general offer of Mercy to sinners this proves an effectual means to beget Faith in all that are ordained unto life upon their believing this general offer of Grace their hearts begin to melt under it and some inclination to Repentance is wrought in them this Faith and this Repentance wrought in a more general way at first do form themselves into more particular and distinct acts afterwards thus the principles of the Doctrine of Christ viz. Repentance from dead works and Faith towards God are first laid and then there is in the light and power of these principles a going on unto perfection Heb. 6. 1. Our first Faith is a more general Faith and so is our first Repentance rather an inclination and tendency to believe and repent then actual Faith or actual Repentance Our first Faith wrought in us upon the general proposal of Gospel Grace contains in it a saving Conviction of Sin 't is impossible to receive grace without it grace is nothing to us of no signification to us but as it gives relief against sin which we must have some sense of before we apply our selves to the grace of God for Pardon we must see something in our selves that wants a pardon and which we are willing to repent of and forsake in Case of a pardon Repentance is as true an effect of Faith as Pardon and Comfort Faith first brings a sinner to Christ under some hope of Pardon and then busies it self in working Repentance in order to a comfortable sense of Pardon The Spirit lets in some sense of Gospel Grace tendred unto sinners and affects the heart with it as very desireable as a very seasonable offer by no means to be slighted the Soul begins to be taken with it conceives some hope from it and this is the begining of Faith and with our first Faith Light comes in giving us some Gospel Conviction of sin in order to Repentance I call it a Gospel Conviction because it is wrought by means of the Gospel all after acts of Faith and Repentance have their rise from this first work which brings me to the second Point viz. That Faith is not only joyned with Repentance in the first production of it as has been shewed but in all the subsequent acts of it ever after which I make out thus Faith and Repentance do constantly refer to each other in their several actings Faith to Repentance and Repentance to Faith he that believes repents because he believes and he that repents believes because he repents i. e. as Faith is the cause of Repentance so Repentance is the reason of every particular act of Faith put forth upon Christ for Pardon 't is impossible to make up the full sense of an act of Faith on our part if you fetch not the reason of it from Repentance Why do we go to the Physitian is it not because we are sick weary and faint ready to die of such a Disease So why does a weary Soul come to Christ is it not to be eased of his Burden that insupportable burden of sin that is ready to sink him into Hell. If Faith and Repentance be thus always joyned together does it not follow that we are justified by our Repentance as well as by Faith I Answer No. Though we are not saved without Repentance it does not therefore follow that we are justified by our Repentance but some to make good this Assertion have coyned many subtle distinctions relating to both Before I give a particular reply to this let me say something in general Religion may be considered either in its primitive purity and simplicity as it was laid down in the Fundamental Principles of it by Christ and his Apostles Or as it has since been drawn through the various Discourses Reasonings and Writings of Men for so many Centuries past this has so much overcharged Religion with so many nice distinctions intricate questions and endless disputes that it seems to be quite another thing then it was in the Apostles dayes The best way is to return to the primitive simplicity of the Gospel especially in judging of Fundamentals which are plainly and clearly laid down there in Terms very intelligible Though Faith be the Gift of God and is given of meer Grace but to a few yet all who live under the Light of the Gospel may know what they ought to believe which will render their unbelief more inexcusable did we dwell more upon what is plainly revealed as fundamentally necessary to Salvation we should better discern by the light of those Fundamentals the just consequences of them in any deductions from them which may not be so particularly and expresly spoken unto in Scripture But now to answer the query whether we may not be said to be justified by our Repentance as well as by Faith since we are not saved without Repentance Answ. There is a great deal of difference between Justification and Salvation Salvation includes all qualifications belonging to that state Justification lets us into that state gives us right to Life from whence spring all Qualifications becoming that Life Besides Saving Graces are so called not that they are the Causes of Salvation but because they accompany it we cannot be saved without them Faith it self as a Grace inherent in us is no meritorious Cause of our Justification 't is that which carries us out of our selves to Christ for Righteousness upon the account of which we are justified in the sight of God when we say we are justified by Faith we don't mean we are justified by any thing in our selves we can't understand it so but the contrary that we must be beholding to Christ for all He that receives all from another gives nothing to himself he does indeed apply to himself to his own use and benefit what is freely given to him by another but he cannot in any propriety of Speech be said to ascribe any thing to himself or to owe himself thanks for what he receives from another Faith in its justifying act does not look to it self as our grace but unto Christ as our Righteousness the inherent grace of Faith is not our justifying Righteousness though it lead us out to him who is Faith is the hand but Christ is the gift nay the hand
to justifie us that we might be justified without him or at least not only and solely by him which is highly derogatory to the death of Christ neither will their owning Christ to be the meritorious cause of our Justification salve the matter while they do in any sense require another Righteousness distinct from that of Christs for the justification of our Persons in the sight of God. And having given you this brief account of the matter in difference I shall now proceed The Point in General which I am to speak to is this That though good works are highly necessary in a justified person yet they not required in any way of causality to the Justification of the Person Or thus no part of our inherent Righteousness can be any part of our justifying Righteousness This I might prove to you many ways First From the subject of Justification an ungodly Person a believing Sinner flying in the sense of Sin unto Jesus Christ for Life and Pardon Sin is that from which we are Justified the Righteousness of Christ is that for which or by which we are Justified Act. 13. 39. Secondly Because there must be a change of state in Justification and by Justification before we can derive any saving Grace from Christ to enable us to the least good work I might also Thirdly Argue from the weakness and imperfection of all Inherent Holiness which is not able to justifie it self much less the Person And many Arguments may be brought but my design is to contract this general to a particular point concerning the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere or the act of believing and I shall shew that that part of our inherent Righteousness that flows from our doing the Word of God that is the Work of Faith as done by us in an act of believing is no part of our justifying Righteousness This is that which seems to have the fairest claim to and interest in our Justification and if this be disproved the Argument will hold a fortiori against all the inferiour branches of our inherent Righteousness they must be forced to quit their claim also That which seems to intitle Faith to such an Interest in our Justification as is pleaded for by some is the phrase and manner of expression which the Scripture uses in speaking of Faith telling us that Faith is imputed to us for Righteousness that we are justified by Faith that he that believes shall be saved and the like The question is in what sense these Scriptures are to be understood whither we are to take up our standing partly in the act of Faith and partly in the object of Faith making up a Righteousness partly from our selves and partly from Christ or whether we are by Faith to go out of our selves unto Christ for our whole sole and only justifying Righteousness and this is that which I affirm and shall endeavour to make good and shew you that the Scriptures alledged do not ascribe our Justification to the Act but wholly to the Object of Faith not to our believing but to Christ believed on which I prove thus First From those Expressions of Scripture peculiar to Holy Writ by which the Holy Ghost doth of set purpose limit Faith to its Object Iohn 6. 47. Rom. 9. 33. Ephes. 1. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to believe in into or upon Christ which plainly points out this that Faith is alwayes to be taken in relation to its Object that by Faith is meant Christ apprehended by Faith. Life is promised not simply to believing but to believing in in whom in Christ or nothing Faith is a relative term as to its whole sense and signification to the Object Christ. It must be Faith in Christ or Faith in nothing Believing is a Scripture Phrase setting forth our leaning upon Christ. Faith as our Act adds nothing to Christ doth not make his Death satisfactory it was so in its self before though by an applicatory act of Faith it is made so to us that is we do reap the benefits of his Death and satisfaction we are not united to Faith but by Faith we are united to Christ. Faith is the Medium uniens we do not trust in our Faith but by Faith we trust in Christ all that Faith signifies is in relation to Christ all that it doth is in the Name of Christ without Christ it signifies nothing it doth nothing it is nothing When we are said to be justified by the Faith of Christ or justified by Faith in Christ Gal 2. 16. pray must the meaning be that we are justified by Faith and Christ as some would have it giving the priority to Faith and making Christ but a remote cause of our Justification and our inherent Righteousness to be the next and immediate cause Were Men more willing to exalt Christ and debase themselves this would be English plain enough Faith in Christ would then signifie but one Righteousness it would not be Faith and Christ. Let Men have a care how they speak unadvisedly of Christ to the lessening and diminution of his Honour God hath said he is our Righteousness without any Limitation without any restriction Now for Men to say ay but not all our Righteousness not our only Righteousness I say 't is a bold word thus to distinguish whatever remote inferences they may gather out of Scripture to justifie their meaning yet since God hath not thought fit to drop any such diminutive expression of Christ in Scripture I say it is a bold word for Men to speak You may see how severely speaking against God was punished Numb 21. 5 6. And God complains of it Ezek. 35. 13. With your mouths ye have boasted against me and have multiplyed your words against me I have heard them We may safely deny any thing of God that implies weakness or imperfection but to deny that of Christ which tends to the Exaltation of his Name and riches of his Grace let Men distinguish how they will it is dangerous meddling here This is a tender point that is the first Secondly If the bare act of Faith without any relation to the object justifies then any act of Divine Faith will justifie us as well as Faith in Christ for the Act is specified by the Object Take away the Object and all Acts of Faith are alike equally insignificant But I proceed Thirdly To the third Argument that shall be drawn from the Nature of Faith which consists in receiving As it is the Act of a Believer it implies doing but properly as an Act of believing it consists in receiving and that with an empty hand Now the question is whether by this receiving Act of Faith there do redound to us a Righteousness of our own distinct from that which we receive from Christ I say no We are not justified by a Righteousness that we do but by a Righteousness that we receive Now the bare Act of receiving in a common Natural way is not counted morally meritorious
our Understandings and Knowledge he hath appointed Faith as a fit means by which the soul not only doth the thing but also le ts in a sense of what is done upon the soul and therefore saith the Apostle it is of faith that it might be of grace God will be understood in all the acts of his Grace towards us Now that there might be in us a sense of reception of so great a benefit God resolves to put it into the hand of Faith which hath a natural sutableness in it and fitness to receive what free Grace tenders to it and so it doth when it is in any strength Christ and our Souls would never meet were it not for Faith. There is no letting down any thing spiritual and supernatural into the soul but by Faith Faith is our modus habendi it is the way the means by which we come to have God and Christ and an Interest in the things of Heaven We have what we have from Christ by Faith and we hold it by Faith. Faith and Repentance as acted by us and reflected upon are very good Evidences of our Justifications for it is in that reflection only that they do give evidence of themselves and of any thing produced from them Therefore I say as they are reflected upon they have retrospection to our Justification of which they are very good and evident proofs but they have no antecedent causality to produce the thing signified because they signifie it as a thing already done past and perfect 3. And lastly Justification is frequently set down in Scripture without any relation to these acts of Grace in us to shew that it wholly flowes from Christ and that by our believing we add nothing to our Justifying Righteousness but do only apply it as wholly derived from Christ alone 1 Ioh. 5. 12. He that hath the Son hath life they that are in Christ there is no Condemnation to them Rom. 8. 1. Now because we cannot admit sinners to be in Christ but by faith therefore what flows from Christ is attributed unto faith which is I say our modus habendi but still the real cause of our Justification that which makes us just in the sight of God is our being in Christ and our having the Son. There is no mention made of having any thing else but faith is our modus habendi we cannot have the Son but by faith nor be in Christ but by Believing Therefore God speaks to our Understanding and hath attributed that to the act of faith which is only derivable from the Object I shall now shew you the weakness of those grounds and reasons they go upon who differ from us in this point 1. They speak much of a Charge of Infidelity Impenitency and Unholiness to be drawn up against us at the last day and therefore it concerns us to muster up all our good works all our acts of Grace and every part of our inherent Righteousness that we may be in a readiness to answer to this Charge and clear our selves A specious Argument enough to amuse the World and fright men back into the Popish Doctrine of Justification by Works Brethren I do not deny that unbelieving impenitent and ungodly Persons shall be charged with infidelity impenitency and ungodliness and be condemned but to talk of a charge of Infidelity against a Believer at the last day I say it is a groundless unscriptural Notion I do not deny that the faith of the Saints that draws them to Christ and its efficacy afterwards in all its fruits will be taken notice of by Christ when they are admitted into the Kingdom Mat. 25. 34. Come ye blessed and when that blessedness is fixed Christ doth not put them upon the proof of their faith but helps them himself to understand the former actings of their faith and love to God which they were ignorant of before When saw we thee an hungred and fed thee or thirsty and gave thee drink c. In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these ye have done it to me I see more Grace in you saith Christ than ever you saw in your selves so and so appearing in your lives Come ye blessed Brethren Good Works are good Evidences to us to make out the Truth of Grace in us but the All-knowing God needs no such Evidences for his Information he knows what is in man and needs not that any should tell him He searches the Heart Though we see Grace only in the Fruit yet God sees it in the Root and Principle Besides I conceive the last Judgment is not to prove who is and who is not in a state of Grace but rather to pronounce the Sentence according to the state that every one shall appear in at the Resurrection There will be no doubting of any mans state at the Resurrection the method and manner of the Resurrection will decide it Christ himself will separate the Sheep from the Goats and he will do this before the Judgement Mat. 25. 32 33. You shall know a Believer then by his Station at the right hand of Christ by his Company among the Sheep The Angels are sent forth Mat. 24. 31. to gather up the Elect from the four Winds from the one end of Heaven to the other They will ransack every corner of the World to find out every Saint not only the Ninety and Nine but the whole Hundred shall be presented to God not one missing we shall all stand together Now after they are thus ranked by Christ and the Angels have declared them to be Sheep to be true Believers must they come under a charge of infidelity Who must draw up this charge and manage this false Indictment Either God or good Angels or Conscience or the Devil God he hath justified them here sealed them by the Spirit of Adoption to the day of Redemption and he will never reverse his judgment The judgment of God at the last day will be pursuant to the judgment already past by his Word and Spirit in the Hearts and Consciences of Believers here Good Angels are imployed to gather up the Elect and consequently they have a true discerning who they are Our Consciences are sprinkled with the Blood of Jesus and have an answer in readiness by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead And the Devil will have something else to do in that day when he stands at the head of the wicked to receive his sentence with them the time of his torment being then come Though he be now the accuser of the brethren day and night before God he must then Eternally be cast down True he is now our accuser and we must labour to overcome him by the Blood of the Lamb as Rev. 12. 10 11. that is by Arguments drawn from the Blood of Jesus yet I say fear him not after death The last enemy that shall be destroyed is Death saith the Apostle and must we have an after rancounter with