what is now revealed in the Gospel by which Life and Immortality is brought to light 2 Tim. 1. 10. But how obscurely soever a future happiness was promised to Abraham yet promised it was for which we have the testimony of St. Paul Gal. 3. 18. If the inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise But God gave it to Abraham by Promise He was here proving against the Pharisaical Iews and Judaizing Christians that Justification unto Life was to be had by the Promise and not by the Law by Faith and not by works of the Law that the Iust should live by Faith as vers 12. And therefore by Inheritance here which he saith God gave to Abraham by Promise he doubtless means eternal Life which elsewhere he calls the Promise of eternal Inheritance Heb. 9. 15. Consider now how God carryed on his design of restoring Man by the promise of those benefits For if expressions of the greatest Grace and Love in God to Men is the way to beget in them a love to God again and in begetting that to beget all the desirable effects of Love which are no less than a sincere conformity in Man's Nature and Life to the Divine Law And if the giving of great and precious Promises is the way of recovering Man again to a participation of the Divine Nature as I have shewed it is then the Promise of God to Abraham which was expressive of the greatest Grace and Love and contained in it Promises than which there are not materially greater nor more precious was a wise and graciovs contrivance of God to recover Man to a likeness to himself wherein the glory and perfection of his Nature did first consist Sect. 4. The next thing to be considered is the extent of the Promise of God to Abraham The greatness of God's love and good-will was not expressed only in the greatness of the beneâ—its promised to Abraham but also in the extent of the Promise reaching not only to the Iewish people and their Proselytes to which another Covenant was restrained but even to all Nations of the Earth Gen. 12. 3. and 22. 18. which shews it to be of the same nature with the general Promise in the Gospel though it was not so intelligible then as it is since made by the Gospel But God we see so loved the world as first to promise and after to give his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3. 16. Christ gave his life for the life of the world Joh. 6. 8. He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2. 2 He gave himself a ransome for all 1 Tim. 2. 6. And tasted death for every man Heb. 2. 9 Sect. 5. Consider we in the next place the security given by God for the performance of his Promise to Abraham and his Seed For because men knowing how ill they have deserved from God having made themselves enemies to him would be apt to question whether there were indeed so much love and good will in God to them as the greatness of his Promise did import Therefore God to remove all jealousie of this nature and to give them the greatest security and assurance he could of the reality of his intentions and of his heart and good will towards them he confirmed his Promise by an Oath swearing by himself because he could swear by no greater And this he did that they to whom the Promise did extend might have strong consolation from God such as might work in them strong and vigorous affections to him such as were in Abraham through which he was wrought to an entire resignation of himself to God and to his will and by which he was denominated the friend of God Heb. 6. 17 28. Wherein God willing more abundantly to shew unto the Heirs of Promise the immutability of his Counsel confirmed it by an Oath That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lye we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us Sect. 6. The next thing I have to shew is That this Promise of God to Abraham was conditional If the Promise of sending Christ was absolute yet the actual collation of the great benefit of Remission of Sin and eternal Life by him was not promised but upon condition of Faith and Repentance as appears by the Scriptures frequent explanation of the the general Promise Abraham believed in the Lord and it was counted unto him for righteousness Gen. 15. 6. If Abraham had not believed God he had not been justified notwithstanding the Promise So that this Justification depended as well upon his performing the condition of the Promise as upon the Promise itself And when God said to Abraham Walk before me and be thou upright and I will make a Covenant with thee Gen. 17. 1. The Lord made Abrahams upright walking before him the condition of his keeping as well as making Covenant with him Besides it is apparent that God made Circumcision to be the Covenant to be kept on Abraham's and his Seeds part as the condition of what God had promised on his part Gen. 17. 4 7 10. As for me my Covenant is with thee c. Thou shalt keep my Covenant therefore thou and thy Seed after thee in their generations And this is the Covenant which ye shall keep between me and you every Man-child among you shall be circumcised By which is to be understood not so much Circumcision in the flesh as in the Spirit as I shall shew anon And the truth is it would not suit with God's end and design in his Covenant of restoring Man to the rectitude of his Nature mentioned before to do it without Man's endeavours in the use and exercise of his natural faculties of Understanding and Will as he is a rational Creature and free Agent For God works that change in Mans nature designed in his New Law or Covenant not meerly Physically but Morally also 1. By proposing great and important Truths to his mind and understanding and in assisting this natural faculty in considering how his happiness is concerned in that which is proposed in case it should prove true and in considering likewise what reason there is to believe that it is true and in discerning the truth of it upon consideration And 2. By proposing Motives to the Will to incline it to follow the dictates of the enlightned mind and by assisting the Will to be governed thereby So that Man himself is not wholly passive in this change or what goes to the making of it but is so far active in it as to denominate what he doth by God's assistance to be his own act So that the Man is said to believe to repent to obey when he doth believe repent and obey For so he is every where in Scripture said to do God doth not repent in Man but Man
the parts of it For it is written Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them And all the people shall say Amen Deut. 27. 26. And this extended to Heart-obedience and Heart-sinning as well as to the outward act commanding love to God forbidding to covet as under the Heart-searching Political Soveraign who reserved to himself the final Judgement and Execution even in temporal respects in many cases 2. Laws of Indemnity of which also this Covenant did consist were partly those which ordained Sacrifice and Offerings for the Expiation of many sins made pardonable by those Laws so far as to exempt the Delinquent person from the temporal penalty threatned for breach of those other Laws which for distinction sake I call Laws of Duty for otherwise these also were Laws of Duty as well as of Priviledge There were other Laws of Indemnity likewise for the purification of persons legally unclean which being observed the persons unclean became delivered from the penalties they suffered while their uncleanness was upon them such as was their separation from the Congregation Consider we next the Sanction of these Laws and that did consist in Promises annexed to the observing of them and in a curse denounced against the transgressors of them And for our better understanding the Nature of the Promises of this Covenant we will consider them Negatively and Affirmatively 1. Negatively The Promises of this Political-covenant as such were not Promise of eternal life And when I say so I do not deny but that first the Iews in Moses time and before had Promises of eternal life implyed in the Covenant made with Abraham and his Seed And accordingly the faithful ones among them sought after the Heavenly Countrey and looked for a City which hath Foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10 14 16. Nor secondly will I deny but that there are some passages in the Law of Moses if you take the Law of Moses in a large sense which look somewhat like a renewall of the antient Covenant with Abraham to his Seed As when for instance God made a conditional Promise to the Israelites in Moses his time to be their God and that they should be his people as in Levit 26. 12. Deut. 29. 13. Which form of words is interpreted sometimes to imply a future happiness in another World Heb. 11. 16. Matth. 21. 31 32. And I do not deny but the Iews had by Moses as express a Promise of the Messias as Abraham had Deut. 18. 15. 19. But St. Paul doth not speak of the Law in this large sense when he opposeth the Law and the Promise the Law and Faith one to another But if we understand by the Law of Moâ—es the Law as Political the Law of the Common-wealth so the Promises of it were not Promises of Eternal Life For Promises of this nature did pertain to another Covenant to wit thâ—t made with Abraham and his Spiritual Seed as such First Therefore St. Paul doth down-rightly deny that the Promise of the Inheritance which in Heb. 9. 15. is called the Eternal Inheritance was by the Law which yet it would have been if by Law he had meant the Law in that large sense in which the Law and Promise to Abraham are conjoyned and not in that strict sense by which he means the Political Law distinctly And if the Inheritance had been promised upon the same terms as temporal Blessings were in the temporal Covenant the Inheritance might have been obtained by the Law as well as temporal Blessings were Rom. 4. 13. For the Promise that he should be Heir of the World was not through the Law but through the Righteousness of Faith Secondly St. Paul evinceth the badness of that Opinion to think that Eternal Life was Promised upon the Law-terms from the absurd consequence of it shewing that if it were that then it would make void the Promise of God to Abraham and the way of saving men by Faith in that Promise of none effect Gal. 3. 18. For if the inheritance be of the Law it is no more of Promise But God gave it to Abraham by Promise Rom. 4. 14. For if they which are of the Law be Heirs Faith is made void and the Promise made of none effect It was altogether unreasonable to think that the Inheritance should be promised upon such distant and inconsistent terms as are Faith in the Promise and by Works of the Law Thirdly The Law saith the Apostle is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Gal. 3. 12. meaning that what the Law promised it did not promise it upon condition of believing but upon condition of doing And Eternal Life is not since the fall promised upon condition of doing without Faith but upon condition of believing For the Iust shall live by Faith Vers. 11. and therefore Eternal Life is not promised by the Law Fourthly Wherefore else are the Promises of that better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. said to be better Promises But because they are Promises of better things than were promised in the first Covenant which yet they could not be if Eternal Life had been promised in that Covenant because that is the best of all Promises To say they are better only in respect of Administration and clearness of Revelation would not satisfie such as should well consider That if the betterness of the Covenant and Promises lay only in that the difference would not be so great as to denominate them two Covenants and two so vastly distant as the Scripture represents them to be The difference then would be but only gradual as that is which is found in the same Covenant of Grace in the several Editions of it to Adam to Abraham to David and now to all Nations since Christ's coming and not Essential as that between the two Covenants seem to be as it is represented in Gal. 4. 24. Besides St. Paul represents the Administration of the two Covenants to differ as much as Righteousness and Condemnation Life and Death differ which sure is more than a gradual difference The one is the Ministration of Death and Condemnation the other the Ministration of Righteousness and Life 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8 9. The Law made nothing perfect but the bringing in of a better hope did Heb. 7. 19. By which it appears again that the hope of the Gospel in which the things hoped for upon the Promises of the Gospel are not the least is better than what the Law promised the observers of it This is the Promise which he hath promised us even Eternal Life 1 John 2. 25. 2. And Affirmatively It was then a long and Prosperous life in the Land of Canaan that was promised in the first Covenant Deut. 28. 11. The Lord shall make thee plenteous in Goods in the fruit of thy Body and in the fruit of thy Cattel and in the fruit of thy Ground in the Land which the Lord sware
was but temporary and being old was ready to vanish and to give place to a New and Everlasting Covenant Chap. 8. 13. 2. That the first Covenant was faulty or defective or else there would have been no place sought for a second ver 7. 3. That the Promises of that first Covenant were not of such things as men stand in need of to make them everlastingly happy as those better Promises of the second Covenant are ver 6. 4. And yet more particularly that in this New Covenant there is promise of such a forgiveness of sins as that iniquity shall be remembred no more ver 12. whereas the first Covenant did not promise any such pardons All that it promised was a forgiveness only as to the concerns of this life otherwise their sins were still kept upon the File to be taken away if ever taken away by the Mediatour of the New Testament by means of his death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament Chap. 9. 15. But in those Sacrifices which were but the Sacrifices of the first Covenant there was a remembrance again made of sins every year Heb. 10. 3. And now by all these reasonings of the Apostle put together it sufficiently appears that the unbelieving Iews did expect Justification and Eternal Life only upon the terms of the first Covenant and that they held that Covenant as comprehending the Covenant of Circumcision to be the Covenant of Eternal Life And indeed this last mentioned Error of theirs in holding the first Covenant to be the Covenant of Salvation did in a manner contain in it all the rest mentioned before which did naturally grow out of it For if that had been the Covenant of Salvation then it would have followed that the Sacrifices of that Covenant had been sufficient and the death of Christ needless and that Circumcision and keeping the Law of Moses would have been necessary to the salvation of the Gentiles c. And now after all this considering what Erroneous Opinions the incredulous Iews held about the Law and about Circumcision and considering in what sense they asserted Justification by the Law and by Circumcision it will be no difficult thing to understand exactly in what sense the Apostle doth every where deny Justification to be by the Law or by the works of the Law For doubtless St. Paul's denial of Justification and Salvation to be by the Law or works of the Law is to be understood in the very same sense in which the incredulous Iews against whom he disputed did hold these to be attainable thereby For else his reasonings would have been beside the question under debate between them And therefore we must take our measure of St. Paul's sense in the Negative part of the Question by his Adversaries sense of it in the Affirmative And if so then in his denying Justification and Salvation to be by the Law or by works of the Law we must understand him to deny a freedom from the Eternal Punishment to be attainable by Legal Sacrifices And also to deny that the Promise of Eternal Life was made upon condition of Literal Circumcision and a Literal Observation of the Mosaical Law without being by Faith renewed in the inward frame Moral constitution of the Soul And likewise to deny Eternal Life to be attainable by the terms of their Political Covenant the Promises whereof were not made upon condition of believing but of doing The Law is not of Faith but the man that doth those things shall live in them Gal. 3. 12. For these and such like were the Opinions which those Jâ—ws did hold as I have shewed and these were the things in which St. Paul opposed them They divided and separated Circumision and the Law in the letter of them from the Spirit of them both claiming Justification by the Letter alone And they divided the Law from the Promise rightly understood and looked to be justified by Works of the Law without Faith in the Promise rightly understood They looked for the Mâ—ssias indeed but not to become a Propitiation for Sin or to establish a New Covenant of Salvation but to further their Temporal and Eternal Felicity in the way of their Obedience to the Political Law But then it doth not in the least appear that St. Paul in denying Justification to be by the Law in the sense thus explained doth also thereby deny works of sincere Obedience to God to concur with Faith in Man's Justification in all respects And if any shall yet suppose that St. Paul in denying Justification by Works in the Jews corrupt sense doth also on the by deny all Works of Evangelical Obedience to bear any part of the Condition on which God promiseth to justifie Men through Christ such a Supposition if admitted would make his Doctrine herein inconsistent not only with the Faith of the holy Men of Old who were wont to express the Condition of the Covenant of Merey by loving God and keeping his Commandments but it would also make him inconsistent with himself and his own Doctrine and the Doctrine of other Apostles as I doubt not but plainly to make appear before I have done with this Discourse There is one Character of Works given by which you may certainly know what Works they were which St. Paul denyed Men were justified by and they were such Works which were apt to occasion boasting Ephes. 2. 9. Not of Works lest any man should boast Rom. 4. 2. For if Abraham were justified by Works to wit in the Jews sense by Circumcision in the flesh to which St. Paul alludes ver 1. he hath whereof to glory but not before God but only before Men who were not Circumcised as he was For the unbelieving Jews who sought and expected Justification by Circumcision and other Legal Observations did glory over the poor Gentiles that were destitute of those Works which consisted in the outward Priviledges which the Jews had and looked down upon them with contempt though some of them were much better than themselves such as Cornelius whom they looked upon as unclean This boasting humor of the Iews over the Gentiles is described and reproved Rom. 2. from ver 17. to 29. Now the Doctrine of Justification by Faith of obtaining pardon by anothers undertaking for us to wit Christ Jesus and of being accepted with God through him upon our sincere though otherwise imperfect obedience which sincere Obedience too is not performed without his special Grace and assistance takes away all occasion of boasting in reference both to God and Men and laid the Iews as low as the Gentiles and made St. Peter a Jew to say But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Acts 15. 11. And therefore when St. Paul had said that now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested even the righteousness of God which is by Faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon
he saved us are wont to be alledged to prove that Works after conversion as well as those before are opposed to the Mercy of God in the saving of Men. But whether this be duly collected from these words will best appear by opening the Scope and meaning of the words with the Context The words in the 3 4 and 5 verses are these For we our selves also were sometimes foolish serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice and envy hateful and hating one another But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward Man appeared Not by Works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost By their being saved here is meant their being rescued and delivered from their sinful state mentioned vers 3. In that this is said to be done not by Works of Righteousness which they had done but according to God's Mercy The plain meaning I doubt not is that this change of their condition and deliverance from their sinful state was not effected or so much as begun among them by any Reformation of their own till the Gospel came to work it which is meant by the appearing of the kindness and love of God vers 4. and is of like import with that Chap. 2. 11 12. which God of his mercy and not of their desert sent among them to that end And if this be the meaning of the words the Apostle was far from intending by Works of Righteousness in this place Works after Conversion I might rather well argue on the contrary from this place That Baptism which is an Act of Evangelical Obedience in the person Baptized Regeneration which is Evangelical Obedience in the root principle are together with the mercy of God and as subordinate to it opposed to the Works of Righteousness here mentioned in the Work of Salvation For it is probable that by the washing of Regeneration here is meant Baptism as the Figure of Regeneration and by the renewing of the Holy Ghost Regeneration it self By both which as subordinate to God's mercy therein they were said to be saved and not by the Works of Righteousness which they had done before these There is another place in 2 Tim. 2. 9. which is wont to be urged with this to Titus to the same purpose But it being of the same nature with this the same answer may serve both with a little variation 2. St. Paul in speaking against Justification by Works gives sufficient caution not to be understood thereby to speak against Evangelical Obedience in the Case When he had asserted Justification to be by Faith without the deeds of the Law and that the Gentiles might be justified by believing without ever observing Moses Law Rom. 3. 28. lest he should be understood thereby to favour Gentilism or loose living in men provided they would but turn Christians he frames and answers an Objection thus vers 31. Do we make void the Law through Faith God forbid Yea we establish the Law And how did they so certainly they did not thereby establish the Ceremonial Law in the Letter of it but in the Spirit of it they did in as much as in Preaching Justification in the Gospel-way they preached in plain Precepts the necessity of that Spiritual purity unto salvation which was but darkly and in a Figure taught by the Ceremonial Law And this they did in Preaching the necessity of Mortifiation instead of Circumcision And by the Doctrine of Justification by Faith they established the Moral Law both in the Letter and Spirit of it in teaching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience to it after a more Spiritual and forcible manner than had been taught before So again when he had charged the unbelieving Iews with a great Error in going about to establish a Righteousness of their own in opposition to God's in adhering to their Law against the Gospel Rom. 10. 3. to the end it might not be thought that he would take them off their Law that they might be lawless or less Religious he adds vers 4. that Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth For so he is in his Doctrine having therein taught that Righteousness of living which the Law it self taught but in a far more Excellent Spiritual and effectual manner than was taught by the Law So that all that he designed in taking them off from their Law was but to put them under a better conduct To make them dead to the Law that they might be married to another viz. to Christ by his Gospel that they might bring forth fruit unto God as it is Rom. 7. 4. And likewise in ver 6. he saith We are delivered from the Law but not to be lawless but that we might serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter that is according to the Spirit Scope and Design of the Law now expressed in plain Precepts and not in the oldness of the Letter and Ceremony And so he saith of himself Gal. 2. 19. I through the Law am dead to the Law i. e. he through a better understanding of God's Design in the Law became dead as to all his former expectations of Justification by it But then if he were dead to the Law it was as he saith that he might live unto God live a life in the flesh through the Faith in his Son through believing his Gospel in its Precepts and Promises the one directing and the other quickning unto a most excellent life ver 20. And if St. Paul were thus careful in denying Justification by Works to assert the necessity of Evangelical Obedience we may well conclude that he never intended under the notion of Works of the Law to exclude Evangelical Obedience from having any hand sooner or later in Justification 3. Regeneration or the new Creature as including Evangelical Obedience is opposed to Works of the Law in the business of Man's Justification as well as Faith is and as well as the Grace of God it self is Gal. 6. 15. For in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature Circumcision is here as elsewhere by a Synecdoche put for the Works of the Law in general For there were none that were for circumcising but who were also for keeping the Law of Moses Only Circumcision is mentioned frequently instead of all the rest because they held it to be not only a part of the Law but more and because they laid the greatest stress upon it as I shewed before Chap. 5. Now in that which the Apostle deniâ—s Circumcision and the Works of the Law to avail a Man in that he affirms the becoming a new Creature will avail him and that was in the business of Justification and Salvation For in that sense the unbelieving Iews and Iudaizers held Circumcision and other Works of the Law available And this new Creature
the first Law he was put under would have been far from having any right to such happiness upon the terms here mentioned viz. of sincere though imperfect Obedience But seeing that a Right to Salvation doth accrue to Men upon a sincere keeping of God's Commandments notwithstanding their forfeiture of their first Right by Man's first fall it evidently follows that Evangelical or Sincere Obedience is part of the Condition of the Promise of blessedness in the new Law or Covenant and is here put for the whole of it as at other times Faith is put for the whole of the Condition And that Moses David Solomon Nehemiah and Daniel received it in this sense and understood all along that sincere Obedience flowing from Love was the Condition of God's Covenant of mercy when they styled him a God keeping Covenant and mercy with those that love him and keep his Commandments Deut. 7. 9. 1 King 8. 23. Neh. 1. 5. Dan. 9. 4. I have before shewed If it shall be here said that sincere obedience is indeed a Condition of Salvation but not of Justification and that it is so made here in this 22d of the Revelation I have I think sufficiently answered this Objection in the former Chapter but shall here add That such as thus say are morecurious and nice in distinguishing between Justification and Salvation than St. Paul was For he calls Justification the Iustification of Life Rom. 5. 18. Whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8. 30. and proves that men shall be justified by Faith because it is written that the Iust shall live by Faith Gal. 3. 11. Thus with him to be justified to be blessed are all one Gal. 3. 8 9. Ro. 4. 7 8 9. And to confirm this Righteousness or Justification and Life are used by him as Synonimous terms Gal. 3. 21. For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily Righteousness should have been by the Law And Justification and Condemnation are put in direct opposition to each other Rom. 5. 18. 8. 33 34. And to be from Condemnation which is Justification and to be saved are as much one as not to dye is to live In short Salvation as well as Justification is promised to believing Ioh. 3. 16. Act. 3. 31. Heb. 10. 39. And therefore Salvation as well as Justification must needs be the immediate effect of Faith if we take Salvation as begun here in this Life as the Scripture represents it to be Ioh. 5. 24. 1 Ioh. 3. 14. 5. 12. From all which me may conclude that what is absolutely necessary to Salvation must needs also be necessary to Justification Add we hereto that to be justified and to be saved is the same thing with St. Iames as well as it is with St. Paul according to the tenour of his reasoning Chap. 2. from ver 14. to the end What doth it profit my brethren saith he though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works can Faith save him vers 14. This Interrogation implyes an Emphatical Negation and the meaning is that such a Faith can by no means save a man and he gives the reason of it twice over in vers 17 20. because Faith without Works is dead And then afterwards argues the necessity of Works together with Faith unto Justification or unto Salvation which was the thing he began with by God's justifying Abraham by Works together with his Faith who was the great Patern or Example of God's justifying all others If then to be juâ—tified and to be saved amounts to the same in St. Iames's Discourse here then by the way they do not rightly understand St. Iames who think he doth not speak of a Justification before God in this his Discourse about Justification by Works together with Faith but of a Justification before Men and to their own Conscience only Which supposition of theirs doth directly thwart the very Scope and Design of his whole Discourse which is to set forth what will and what will not avail a Christian-Professor in the sight of God to the saving of his Soul as abundantly appears So that the Scripture which saith Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for Righteousness and which St. Iames saith was fulfilled in Abraham's being justified by Works as well as by Faith was not fulfilled in Abraham's being justified to others and to his own Conscience but in his being justified before God and so St. Paul understood it Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. But this was touched before in Chap. 1. The result then of what hath been argued in Answer to the Objection is this viz. That all that are justified are thereby put regularly into an immediate capacity of Salvation so that if they should dye the very next moment after they are once justified they would undoubtedly be saved And therefore Evangelical Obedience can be no more necessary to Salvation than it is to Justification and it is as necessary to the one as to the other And if to say Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification be injurious to Christ and to the Grace of God as some would pretend how comes it to pass then that to say Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Salvation is not so too For our final Salvation is as much the effect of God's Grace and of Christ's undertaking for us as our Justification it self is and of as much value And therefore if the one be not injurious in this kind neither is the other 8. As the Promise of forgiveness of sins by the Blood of Christ or the Promise of an interest in his Blood to the pardon of Sinne is sometimes made unto believing so sometimes again it is made unto Evangelical Obedience or a holy Life as in 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the light as he is in the light that is endeavouring to be holy as God is holy then have we fellowship one with another and the Blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin but otherwise it doth not And so the Christians to whom St. Peter wrote were said to be elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the Blood of Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 2. But they were not elect to the benefit of being sprinkled with the blood of Christ without obedience And therefore by this we see also that Evangelical Obedience is part of the Condition of the Promise of Justification by the Blood of Christ. 9. To forgive Injuries is an act of Evangelical Obedience to that Precept of our Lord Mar. 11. 25. And yet without this act of Obedience Men that have been injurious cannot be justified because they cannot be pardoned according to the Word of our Lord Mark 11. 26. Mat. 6. 15. 18. 35. Therefore Evangelical Obedience must needs be part of the Condition of Justification 10. Repentance is an eminent Act of Evangelical Obedience Acts 17. 30. and yet
their future sincere Obedience with perfect and perpetual happiness I say when all this is represented to the Will as unquestionably true it will work in it a love to that God and Saviour that hath been so loving if it be but kept close to it A minifestation of such love and goodness to Man and that while yet in enmity against God so ill deserving and so obnoxious to the power of his wrath when he hath no need of him nor can be profited by him will create good thoughts of God and reconcile Man's mind to him and work melting affections in him to God when heartily believed What Rebel is there or Nature so bad that would not be won to leave off rebelling against his Priuce and to love and please him upon undoubted assurance that by so doing he should not only be pardoned and restored to favour but also preferred to the greatest honour and happiness he is capable of receiving from any mortal And yet how weak a motive is this in comparison of what comes from God to reduce men to their love and loyalty to him God's love to Man when perceived and heartily believed is the great motive and attractive of Mans love to God We love him because he first loved us 1 Joh. 4. 19. Love is an active and commanding Principle in Man and procureth Thoughts Cares and Endeavours of pleasing God If any Man love me he will keep my words saith our blessed Saviour Iob. â—4 23. And after this manner Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. Thus I have represented to you how and after what manner Faith in the Understanding works a saving Consent in the Will unto the Condition of God's Covenant of Salvation V. Some few Objections answered 1. Some have thought Men may be justified only by their believing even while they are ungodly in their lives and have thought that Scripture Rom. 4. 5. will bear them out in such a conceit which saith He that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness But they grosly mistake the Scripture and deceive themselves For that Text speaks of God's justifying the Gentiles upon their sincere conversion to the Christian Faith and Life though they had lived in Gentilism in all ungodliness before and until then and though they should not work at all as the Judaizers would have had them in turning Proselytes to the Jewish way But otherwise it 's flatly against the express Doctrine of the Gospel and current of the Scriptures for Men to hope to be pardoned by any believing whatsoever while they remain impenitent as every Man doth while he remains ungodly To justifie the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. It 's said that Christ made the blind to see the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak as well as it 's said God justifieth the ungodly But is any man so senseless as to think that Christ made them to see to hear and to speak while they remained blind deaf and dumb And if not but that they know the meaning is that Christ made those to see to hear to speak which had been blind deaf and dumb before those Curâ—s were wrought upon them they might as well know also that the meaning is that God justifieth those upon their believing which had been ungodly until then and not that he justifies them while they remain ungodly 2. Some alledge that although the Faith which is alone and with the concomitant effects of it Repentance Regeneration c. doth not justifie yet that Faith alone which doth produce such effects doth justifie without the concurrence of these in the justifying act Which they illustrate by this Similitude A Man sees with his Eye alone though he doth not see with his Eye that is alone or separated from his body In return to all which let these things be considered 1. They that go thus far do grant that which will secure the Notion of the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and new Obedience unto Justification They grant we see such a necessity of these as without which no man can be justified no not by Faith In granting which though we suppose them to err in their foresaid Notion yet this makes their Error the less dangerous because the presence of Repentance Regeneration and Obedience are no less necessary to Justification according to this account than they esteem them to be who say they concur with Faith in the very act of Justification 2. When they say Faith alone is all that is necessary to the justifying act without the concurrence of any thing else done by us By justifying Act they mean either God's Act or Man's Act. If Man's Act that 's nothing but Man's performing the Condition upon which God hath Promised to justifie Men. If they mean God's Act it is his imputing Mens performing the Condition of the Promise unto them for Righteousness The only thing then in question will be what it is which is a fulfilling of the Condition of the Promise of Justification which God imputes for righteousness If they say it is only the Assent of the Understanding unto the Truth of Gods Testimony in the Gospel or this Assent together with a relyance on Christ for Salvation I have shewed before that both these may be found in Men unregenerate and unjustified And that these two of themselves without Repentance and hearty Obedience to the Laws of Christ are not a fulfilling of the Condition of the Promise and that consequently Men without these cannot be justified by any Faith whatsoever and so not by Faith alone unless they will call Repentance and Heart-Obedience in conjunction with the foresaid Assent of the mind and relyance of the Soul by the name of Faith Which if they will we are agreed as to the thing at least if not to the name that we are justified by such a Faith alone And yet I doubt not that when ever Justification is promised to believing singly and alone exprest but that there the foresaid effects are comprehended under that name also for the Reasons formerly given 3. They which say we are justified by Faith alone but not by that Faith which is alone do distinguish where the Scripture doth not distinguish The Scripture no where saith we are justified by Faith alone as contradistinguished from Repentance Evangelical Obedience c. The third Chaper of Rom. 28. and Tit. 3. 5. are sometimes made use of to countenance their Notion but to how little purpose hath been shewed already in the Treatise which needs not be here repeated 4. The Scripture is not only silent in the case not any where affirming we are justified by Faith alone but it expresly affirms the quite contrary Iam. 2. 24. Ye see then how that by Works a Man is justified and not by Faith only That this is affirmed in reference to our Justification before God hath been shewed before 5. Faith and Repentance are a joynt Condition upon which
many as shall believe in his Son and repent of their sinfulness in changing their Minds and reforming their Lives and becoming new men in yielding sincere obedience to the Precepts of the Gospel 3. It declares that those that believe not shall be damned and such as repent not shall perish and that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God This summarily is that which the Gospel declares concerning God's grace and displeasure and Mans duty Now it is the Practical belief of all this that is the saving Faith It is not the bare belief that God hath given his Son to be the Saviour of the World and a Propitiation for the sin of it Nor is it a bare belief that he will for Christ's sake pardon and save as many as truly repent and amend their lives and become new Creatures unless they so believe all this as seriously and heartily to Repent themselves of their former folly and to return to their duty in new Evangelial Obedience For otherwise for a Man barely to believe all this and not to act according to his own concerns in it will be so far from being a believing to the saving of the Soul as that it will rather plunge him the deeper in destruction for living and acting contrary to his own light and belief as holding the truth in unrighteousness the wrath of God being revealed from heaven against all such Rom. 1. 18. A man of this practical Faith which I have described eyes as well the condition upon which the saving Benefits are Promised through Christ as the Promise it self of those benefits and expects the enjoyment of those benefits upon God's Promise and Christ's purchase no otherwise than as he with the assistance of God's grace is careful to perform the condition Which belief of his makes him as careful to perform the condition in discharge of his own duty therein as ever he hopes to enjoy the promised pardon of Salvation by Christ and to escape the damnation threatned against those who perform not the condition So that a Man by this Practical Faith belives one part of God's Declaration in the Gospel as well as the other and his own duty to be as well necessary to his Justification as the condition appointed by God as the Grace of God through Christ it self is upon another account And by this belief he is effectually moved as well to act in a way of duty to God as to expect mercy from him considering how his happiness is concerned in both when he hath the whole of God's Declaration in all the parts taken together in prospect as the Object of his Faith When he hears that God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life When he hears that God hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood And when he hears again that God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them he believes all this to be true as coming from God that cannot lye and accordingly is incouraged to hope in God's mercy and is comforted thereby But then when he hears again that except we repent we shall all perish that except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God That without holiness no man shall see the Lord and that the pure in heart shall see God That not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of the Father which is in Heaven That the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire to render vengeance to all those that know not God and which obey not the Gospel of our Lord Iesus Christ But that he is the Author of eternal Salvation to all those that obey him I say when he hears all this he as verily believes this part of Gods Declaration in the Gospel to be the faithful and true sayings of God as he accounted the other to be And accordingly doth as seriously and sincerely set upon the work of Repentance and as carefully useth God's appointed means for the changing of his Heart and renewing of his Nature for the purifying of himself as God is pure and doth as carefully obey all the Precepts of the Gospel as he hopes upon the account of Christ's sufferings and God's Promise to be pardoned and saved as believing that those Benefits are neither promised nor can be obtained but in this way of performing the Condition And I doubt not to say this practical Faith as it respects God's Declaration touching Mans duty in conjunction with his own Grace in Christ is where the Gospel comes the only saving justifying Faith 3. Come we now to shew Reason why Faith is made the Condition of the Promise 1. It is of Faith that it might be of Grace saith the Apostle Rom. 4. 16. It is that the Grace of God to miserable Men might the more shew it self For so it doth not only in promising unspeakably great things through Christ to Man who is not only un-deserving but ill-deserving also but also in that these are promised upon such a possible practicable easie condition as Faith is considering the means and assistance promised by God to work it And considering also that the Promise is made to the truth unfeignedness and sincerity and not to perfection of Faith Repentance and new Obedience in their utmost degree So that Christ might well say my Yoke is easie and my Burden light Matth. 11. 30. Whereas the old way of promising the Inheritance on the Law terms would have been to have promised it upon impossible conditions as the case now is with fallen Man And if God should Promise never so great things to Man in his impotent and miserable state upon an impossible condition he would have been so far from manifesting abundance of Grace Compassion and Love to him in that condition as that he would rather have seemed to insult over him in it And therefore if the Promise should have run upon the Law-terms and not of Faith it would utterly have frustrated God's design of manifesting his grace to Man and of recovering Man's Love and Loyalty to him thereby Rom. 4. 14. If they which are of the Law be Heirs Faith is made void and the Promise made of none effect But it is of Faith that it might be by grace to the end the Promise might be sure to all the Seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the Faith of Abraham ver 16. 2. This may be another reason why such a Faith as I have described is made the condition of the Covenant of Salvation viz. Because it best answers God's design in this Covenant of renewing the nature of Man in Holiness and Righteousness and by that means restoring it to happiness For by Faith Men are born of God or
and not direct Precepts But the Christians-Righteousness which is by Faith may be said to be of God because by Grace they are saved through Faith in Christ Iesus and that not of themselves it is the gift of God And we are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus Ephes. 2. 8 10. 3. It was called their own Righteousness because it was a way of seeking to be justified of their own devising and not of God's appointing And on the contrary the Gospel-Method of Justification is called the Righteousness of God through Faith because it is of God's Institution and appointment It is the substance of God's new Law or Covenant The result of all then is That they were the Works of the Law as exclusive of Faith in Christ and his death which the Apostle denied any Man to be justified by and not those works of the Law which are the immediate effects of Faith in Christ in his Death and in his Doctrine CHAP. VI. How St. Paul's Doctrine of Iustification by Faith and not by Works was then mistaken by some I Come in the next place to shew how that St. Paul's reasonings about Faith and Works in reference to Justification were probably mistaken by such Solifidians as St. Iames reasoned against For he having taught that God did justifie the ungodly Gentiles upon their believing and without the deeds of the Law but denying Justification to as many of the Iews as did not believe though they were Observers of the Law there were some who thereupon through mistake laid the whole stress of Salvation upon believing to the neglect of a holy and virtuous life And St. Paul being sensible how apt some were to make a bad use of his good Doctrine and to draw bad Conclusions out of good Premises he frequently mentions such Inferences on purpose to caution Men against them As for Instance He having said in Rom. 5. 20. That where sin abounded grace did abound much more In Chap. 6. 1. he saith What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound as some it seems were ready to infer God forbid saith he how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein You may consult to like purpose in general Rom. 3. 5 6 7 31. 6. 15. Gal. 2. 17. and find that St. Paul and others were slanderously reported to have said let us do evil that good may come That there were such as did misrepresent St. Paul's Doctrince touching God's grace and long-suffering and wrest several passages in his Epistles and other Scriptures to their own destruction we are told by St. Peter also 2 Pet. 3. 15. 16. And account that the long-suffering of the Lord is Salvation even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the Wisdom given him hath written unto you as also in all his Epistles speaking in them of these things In which are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction And after St. Paul in his 2 Tim. 3. 2 3 4 5 verses had by many black Characters described a sort of Christians that had a form of godliness but denyed the power thereof In ver 8. he further describes them by that which was the cause of the forementioned unsavoury fruits of the flesh to wit that they were men of corrupt minds or understandings and reprobate concerning the Faith or void of Judgement concerning the Faith as the Margin hath it They were Men of corrupt Principles and injudicious concerning the Doctrine of faith They did not discern faith to be necessary in the operative and practical nature of it But as they did satisfie themselves with a form of godliness without the power so they did likewise with a formal inefficacious and liveless Faith which made them so unsavoury in their lives And St. Iohn after he had in his first Epistle antidoted the Christians against the pretentions of the Gnosticks who held a bad life consistent with Communion with God through illumination of mind and the Christian Faith deceiving themselves and labouring to deceive others in thinking they might be righteous without doing Righteousness 1 Ioh. 3. 7. He towards the conclusion of that Epistle sums up his general scope in it in these words These things have I written unto you that believe in the Name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have Eternal Life and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God Chap. 5. 13. His meaning is as I conceive that he wrote this Epistle first to the end they might be the better assured of salvation by Christ upon their rightly believing on him And secondly To the end they might not be drawn into mistakes in the point of believing as if any Faith less than such as is accompanied with a constant adherence to Christ's Doctrine and example touching a holy life would give them that assurance He wrote to them that did believe that they might believe that is that they might believe yet more understandingly more groundedly and so perseveringly against all temptations to Apostacy from the Profession of the Faith or to loosness in the Profession of it St. Iude also ver 3 4. stirred up the Christians to contend earnestly for the Faith the Doctrine of saving Sinners in the way of Believing because as he told them there were certain Men professing Faith but of ungodly lives that were amongst them that turned the grace of God into lasciviousness so understanding the Law of Grace the Gospel as if it had been a Proclamation from Heaven of a general pardon for Christ's sake and through Faith in him of as many sins as Men had a mind to commit The which Error led them into those Monstrous Impieties charged upon them in that Epistle By reason of which the way of Truth the right Faith they pretended to was evil-spoken of in the World as St. Peter notes they being indeed Spots and Blemishes to the Christians and Christian-Profession so long as they were admitted to their Feasts of Charity as owned by them to be of their number This was indeed an ungodly Faith But the Faith which he exhorted them to contend for and to build up themselves upon as on a sure Foundation he calls their most holy Faith vers 20. such a Faith as is an Operative Principle of a holy life And they were such Christians as St. Iames in his Epistle did expostulate with that did lean so much upon a meer believing upon a meer assent of the mind unto the truth of certain Propositions as that they were careless in the subduing of their Passions and bridling their Tongues and regulating their Actions as if these had not been necessary to Salvation But thought themselves safe upon account of their barren Faith though they were proud and conceited of their knowledge and Atainments censorious and contentious unmerciful and uncharitable In a word they were
such as were injudicious concerning the Faith that will save and under mistakes of the Apostles Doctrine about it All this will easily appear to any that shall but with a competent measure of understanding view and consider the Scope and Contents of that Epistle And thus you see how plainly it appears by the Epistles of the Apostles that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works in the sence in which the Apostles asserted it was misunderstood by many Gnosticks carnal Gospellers or Solifidians The sense in which the Apostles did assert it was that Faith justifies without Works Antecedent to believing and without Works as the Works of a literal observation of Moses Law which was opposed by the Iews to Faith as having Christ crucified for its Object and Repentance Regeneration and sincere Obedience in a holy Life for its inseparable Effects But these deceived Souls that deceived their own Hearts seem to have understood the Apostles as if they had taught Justification by Faith considered only as having the Death of Christ and the Atonement made thereby for its Object without respect to Regeneration and new Obedience as any part of the Condition And it had been much better for the Christian World if those corrupt Notions about the Doctrine of Faith as justifying had dyed with those Men which in the first Ages of the Christian-Church were infected with them But alas it is too apparent that the same or much of the same dangerous and destructive mistakes have been transmitted to or revived in these latter Ages of the Church For we find by experience in this present Age that very many of those who are called Christians presume themselves to be Christians indeed and such as shall be saved by Christ though their lives declare them to be far from being new Creatures from â—eing renewed in the Spirit of their Minds Wills Affections and Conversations as those are that have been taught as the Truth is in Iesus Ephes. 4. 21 24. For they are confident they believe all the Articles of their Creed and in doing so they are confident they shall be saved and so they would if that belief of theirs were but so effectual and operative as to produce such a change in Heart and Life as would denominate them new Creatures But the mischief is they deceive themselves in the nature of their Faith it being but an Opinionative inoperative and dead assent to the truth of the Gospel such as is only an act of the mind or understanding and doth not powerfully influence the Will and so it is not a believing with all the Heart but is the act only of one faculty of the Soul A Belief its probable may be found in the Devil himself And such a Belief was found in some who were so convinced by the power of Christ's Miracles in concurrence with his Doctrine and Life that they could not choose but believe him to be an extraordinary Person sent from God though their carnal interest prevailed so much in them as that it would not suffer them to confess him openly because they loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God Joh. 12. 42 43. And besides these Men deceive themselves about their Faith in this also that they do not heartily believe the whole Doctrine of the Gospel but are partial in their Faith They in a sort believe Christ to be the Son of God and that he came into the World to save sinners and that he dyed for our sins and the like But then they do not heartily believe his Doctrine touching the necessity of Repentance of being born again of denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts of living righteously godly and soberly in this present world Or else they frame such Notions of these things unto themselves of Repentance and Regeneration as that they think they believe Christ's Doctrine touching them when they believe only the lying imagination of their own brains And there is too much ground to fear that many Mens ill managing the Doctrine of Justification by Faith hath not a little strengthened Men in this vain confidence For while Evangelical Obedience it self under the Notion of those Works to which Faith is opposed hath been decryed as Popish when interessed in Justification and Justification asserted to be by Faith alone in opposition to all works whatsoever inward and outward as well Evangelical as Legal as well those after Conversion as those before yea and the disposition thereunto the Flesh and the Devil to help it hath got great advantage thereby to perswade men against the necessity of a holy Life in such a sense of a holy Life as the Scripture makes absolutely necessary to Salvation For though its true that good Works have been acknowledged and pressed too as necessary to Salvation yet when withall they have been denyed to be necessary to Justification and Men have been taught that when once they are Justified they can never fall away from a state of Justification they have easily been drawn to believe that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation no more than to Justification but Faith only And upon supposition that the other 2 Points of Doctrine are true it would be but rational for them so to believe For if good Works be not necessary to Justification at all And if it is impossible but that those who are once justified should be saved how should Men chuse but infer from hence that good Works are not absolutely necessary to Salvation unless it shall be said that Men are not put into an immediate capacity of Salvation by being justified Which to affirm would be to say Men are not freed from Condemnation by being freed from Condemnation which would be a contradiction in terms For to be justified is to be freed from condemnation Rom. 8. 33 34. 5. 16 18. and therefore Justification must needs put Men into an immediate capacity of being saved And as there is great reason to think that the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone in opposition to the works of Evangelical Obedience hath been a stumbling-stone unto many and a back-friend to the power of godliness so there is another which hath been wont to be joyned with it that hath rendred it the more dangerous and it self no good friend to holy living and that is the Doctrine of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto Justification in that way in which it hath been managed by very many for otherwise there is a sense as I have shewed in which it is a great and a comfortable truth For when Men have been taught to esteem their own Righteousness but as filthy rags not only because of its utter insufficiency to justifie in stead of Christ or as he justifies in which respect indeed it is no better but also as any part of a Condition of Justification or of our acceptance with God And when they have been taught also that upon their believing only Christ's Righteousness in fulfilling
â—ach of them 1. Many delude themselves by taking up a wrong Notion of saving Faith and so think they have it when they have it not They believe indeed Christ to be the Son of God and Saviour of the World and that those shall be saved that believe in him and those damned that do not because the Scripture which they believe to be the Word of God saith so And thus far they believe rightly objectively But then they deceive their own Souls by perswading themselves that a meer assent of their mind to the Truth of these and other Evangelical Verities is the Faith to which the Promise of Justification and Salvation is made though it hath no such powerful operation upon their Wills as to make them new Creatures to make any thorow change in the temper of their hearts and tenor of their lives And many doubtless have been greatly strengthened in this delusive confidence by having been taught that Faith justifies without any Works at all And these again perswade themselves that they believe in Christ to the saving of their Souls because they rely on him alone for Salvation and upon what he hath done and suffered for them though they love their sins and live in them still Just like some Iews of old who though they were very bad in their lives yet leaned upon the Lord and said is not the Lord among us none evil can come upon us Mich. 3. 11. Isa. 48. 1 2. They leaned upon God's Promise of being their God as those do upon Christ's undertaking to be a Saviour although they overlooked the Condition to be performed by them in being a people unto him in loving and serving him as those Christians I speak of also do Though Christ alone is to be relyed on for Salvation as touching all that is proper to the Mediatory Office and Work yet no man is to rely on him so as to think he should excuse him if he do not repent or be not regenerate or as if he did repent or were regenerate for him If they do they promise themselves from him that which he never promised or undertook but hath told them plainly that except they themselves repent they shall perish and that except they themselves be born again they cannot see the Kingdome of God 2. They deceive their own hearts also in the nature of Repentance their Notion of it being one thing and the Scripture-Notion of it quite another So that they perswade themselves they have repented when indeed they have not They know and believe perhaps repentance to be necessary to Salvation because Christ hath said that except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish But then they mistake in perswading themselves that they do repent because they are frequently sorry for what they have done though they cease not to do the same again Indeed when the pleasure of Sin is over and rebukes of Conscience come in the room of them these trouble their minds for what they have done which was the Repentance of Iudas and there is no peace to the wicked who are like the troubled Sea Now this they count repentance though it work no effectual and thorow change in Heart and Life but when that sad fit is over they appear to be the same Men they were before by returning to the same sins And herein the Romish Church hath most unhappily laid a Snare which as is to be feared catcheth multitudes of Souls to their destruction in asserting Contrition yea Attrition with confession to be repentance sufficient to Salvation Whereas sorrow alone though it be godly sorrow is not Repentance but as St. Paul saith Godly sorrow worketh repentance 2 Cor. 7. 10. But Repentance itself which is saving consisteth chiefly in a real change in Mens apprehensions of and affections to both sin and duty and in ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Others again deceive themselves in taking a partial Reformation for true Repentance Because they have left some sins which they could best spare as blemishing their Reputation or impairing their Estates or their Health And because they have done many things which yet Herod also did Mar. 6. they think they have repented and are converted though they retain others which are more gainful or yield them more pleasure Whereas the sincerity of Repentance can be proved by nothing less then a hatred of and turning from sin as sin and so from all sin by diligent and careful endeavours 3. They deceive themselves by a false Notion of that Obedience which is necessary to Salvation They believe in the gross indeed that Obedience to the Commands of God to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel is necessary to Salvation because the Scripture so plainly declareth it to be so But then they deceive their own hearts in thinking and perswading themselves that they have performed this part of the Condition of the Promise when as they have not performed one half of it They have been it may be somewhat careful to be found in acts of External Worship and and Devotion both publick and private and to keep themselves from Idolatry Swearing Cursing Sabbath-breaking Murder Adultery Stealing False-witness-bearing and the like in the outward and gross acts of them But all the while have made no conscience of governing their Thoughts Affections and Passions nor their Tongues neither as to many things And in all this wherein do they exceed the Pbarisees whom if we exceed not in Righteousness Christ hath told us who best knows that we shall never â—nter into the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 5. 20. They were strict and zealous in the observation of the Laws for Circumcision Sacrifice Sabbaths Tythes and other positive Precepts and that to a tittle and fasted often and made long Prayers and gave Alms and made Ostentation also that they were not as others were Extortioners Unjust Adulterers nor as the Publicans And why would not all this bring them to Heaven Because all this notwithstanding as they had not Faith in Christ so they were Covetous Proud and Ambitious seeking Honour one of another contemning and despising others they were envious and malicious cruel and ill-natured unmerciful and persecuting such as faithfully reproved them They made clean the outside of the Cup and Platter and so far as they did so they did well But that for which Christ denounced wo to them was that their inward part was ful of ravening and wickedness and for want of love to God and of Judgment Mercy and Fidelity God is a Spirit and the Service that is acceptable to him as being most agreeable to his Nature is that which is done in Spirit and Truth And therefore his Preceps are given to govern the inward Man as well as the outward He that said thou shalt not kill hath said also Thou shalt not hate thy Brother in thy heart nor be angry with him without a cause or bear a grudge against him He that said Thou shalt not commit adultery
exercised about these things And hence comes that change which is made in the Hearts and Lives of true Believers who walk by Faith and not by Sight that is they govern their Lives by the belief of invisible and not sensible things 2 Cor. 5. 7. This in general But more particularly the Faith of Assâ—nt in the Understanding works the Faith of Consent in the Will by its operation upon those three Passions or Affections of the Will Hope Fear and Love 1. As a firm asseâ—ting to the Truth of God's Promise through Christ of pardon of Sin and Eternal Life upon Condition of Repentance and new Obedience together with his Faith gives a man hope and confidence of obtaining these great benefits upon the terms on which they were promised The hope of this happiness causeth a Man to be willing to comply with the Condition upon which it is promised in order to the obtaining the happiness it self There is a Principle of self love planted by God in the nature of every Man by which he doth naturally desire and aspire after the happiness of his own being And that will put a man upon the use of such means and the performance of such a Condition without which he believes and is verily perswaded he cannot be happy Now every Man in whom there is the Faith of assent unto the Truth of God's Testimony in the Gospel firmly fixed being verily perswaded that everlasting happiness is not attainable without Repentance Regeneration and sincere Obedience because God hath declared this as plainly as he hath done any thing And it is the nature of Faith to acquiesce in his Testimony The love of the end which is Mans own happiness makes him in love with the means such as is Repenting Mortifying and Obeying work without which he cannot attain his end in being happy This Principle of Self-love under the conduct of a Mans Understanding and Reason enlightned and regulated by a Declaration of the Divine Will and influenced by a firm belief of it will work in a Man new apprehensions of and new Affections to both Sin and Duty and will cause him to abandon the little pleasures of sin which are but for a season that he may come to the fruition of that fulness of joy and those Rivers of pleasure which are in the presence of God and at his right hand for evermore when once he knows and firmly believes that they cannot otherwise be obtained Thus by Faith is the victory over the world obtained in all its temptations from Honours Profits and Pleasures 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For by such a Faith a Man well perceives that the World offers him to his unspeakable loss though it should offer him all of these that it is able to confer upon him if it be upon condition of doing or omitting to do that by which he shall certainly deprive himself of that Glory Honour and Immortality which he is well assured of through Faith in God's Promise if he overcome We see Men are so commonly governed by a Principle of Self-love in parting with a lesser good or conveniency for a greater even in the things of this life that they are worthiâ—y an â— deservedly counted fools that do the coâ—trary And therefore those are guilty of so mucâ— the greater folly and madness who deprive themselves of the happiness of Heaven by a sinful seeking or possessing of the Honors Profits or Pleasures of this life as the happiness of Heaven exceeds the enjoyments of this World in kind and height of satisfaction and in continuance and duration so rational a thing it is to live and walk by Faith of unseen things and unreasonable and unmanly to be governed by the sense of present things in opposition thereunto 2 Thâ—ss 3. 2. 2. The Faith of Assent in the Understanding worketh a Consent in the Will to the Condition of the Promise as the passion of fear is awakened by believing God's threatnings against such as do not observe and fulfil that Condition There is a Principle of self-preservation planted by God in every Man's nature by which he fears and abhors that which he knows and verily believes tends to the infelicity and misery of his being and which puts him upon the avoiding of that which he believes hath such a tendency in order to the declyning the misery or destruction it self When a Man receives such sayings into his Understanding as threaten that if ye live after the flesh ye shall dye that except ye repent ye shall all perish That without holiness no Man shall see the Lord and the like and doth assent unto them as the true sayings of God which assent is his Faith the fear of the misery threatned and the Principle of self-preservation work in him a desire and endeavour to have his sinful inclinations and appetites mortified and a care to avoid the outward acts of sin as really and truly as he desires to escape Eternal Destruction it self as believing and knowing they tend thereto and that he cannot escape the one without a sincere desire and endeavour to destroy and avoid the other And in this way Faith is a Believers Victory by which he also overcomes the World when it tempts him to sin by threatning him with disgrace loss of Estate or Liberty or with enduring of corporal punishment or death it self For he believes the punishments in the other world to be of such a nature and duration as that the worst things which Man can inflict are altogether inconsiderable in comparison of them By which belief he is so far guided that he chuses to suffer the less when his faithfulness to God and his own best interest doth expose him to it rather than to expose himself by unfaithfulnes to infinitely the greater to avoid the less And thus Faith purifies the heart of all inordinate affection to Riches Honour Ease and Pleasures Acts 15. 9. 3. The Faith of Assent or Credence in the Understanding touching the exceeding greatness of God's love to mankind in the gift of Christ for their Redemption and in his great and precious Promises made in him upon a very gracious Condition works in the Will a love to God and so a love to please him in doing those things which he hath made the Condition of his Promise When once the Understanding represents it to the Will as a certain Truth upon clear evidence that notwithstanding Mens Apostacy from God and Rebellion against him and the Condemnation they are under thereby yet God is reconcileable to them yea willing and so desirous to reconcile them to himself that as an evidence and proof of it he hath given his own Son Christ Jesus to become a Ransâ—me for them and that he hath made a new Covenant declaring that upon account of his Son 's undertaking for them he is not only abundantly willing to pardon all such as shall unfeigâ—â—dly repent of their disloyalty and sincerely return to their duty but that he will also bountifully reward
unto thy Fathers to give thee Deut. 11. 21. That your days may be multiplied and the days of your Children as the days of Heaven upon Earth A great variety of outward blessings is promised as the reward of keeping that Covenant And therefore Wisdom under that Dispensation is described as having length of days in her right hand and in her left haâ—d Riches and Honour whose ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths peace Prov. 3. 17. And as this Covenant was National so there were Promises of National Blessings such as was the setting them on high above all the Nations of the Earth making them the Head and not the Tail The giving them victory over â—nemies multiplying the Nation and bestowing on it Health Peace and Plenty Deut. 28. Lev. 26. When it 's said once by Moses thrice by Ezekiel and twice by St. Paul that the Man that doth them shall live in them Lev. 18. 5. Ezek. 20. 11 13 21. Rom. 10. 5. Gal. 3. 12. thereby Epitomizing the first Covenant I conceive that by living is meant a long and prosperous life in this World As on the contrary the condition of one greatly afflicted is in Scripture-Dialect a kind of Death and such an one said to be free among the Dead Psal. 88. 5. And that which inclines me so to think is not only the Reasons already given to prove that no other life was promised in the first Covenant but also the congruity of this sense with other passages in the Writings of Moses As Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before you this day Life and Good Death and Evil. If you would know what is meant by Life here the next verse will inform you That thou mayest live and multiply and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the Land whither thou goest to possess it The contrary whereunto is the death he had set before them saying I denounce unto you this day that ye shall surely perish and that ye shall not prolong your dayes upon the Land c. Deut. 32. 46 47. Set your hearts unto all the words which I testifie among you this day for it is not a vain thing for you because it is your life and through this thing ye shall prolong your dayes in the Land wherein ye go The latter words are exegetical of the former Through this thing ye shall prolong your dayes is the interpretation of those it is your Life And it may be considered also whether this Particle in which if a man do he shall even live in them may not determine the nature and kind of that reward which was promised in the first Covenant as it was a present reward a reward which was received even while the work was doing according to that Psal. 19. 11. In keeping them there is great reward And this is agreeable to what fell out in the event The Lord was with them to prosper them while they were with him but when they forsook him presently troubles overtook them The pouring out of God's fury on them to consume them in the Wilderness being put in Ezek. 20. 13 21. as the direct contrary to those words which if a man do he shall even live in them seems greatly to favour this Nation But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the Wilderness They walked not in my Statutes and they dâ—spised my Iudgments which if a man do he shall even live in them Then I said I would pour out my fury upon them to consume them in the Wilderness And indeed one main difference between the two Covenants which I would have here observed lies in this to wit the presentness of the reward promised in the first and the futurity of that promised in the second St. Paul in his Allegorical description of the two Covenants Gal. 4. 24 c. represents those that adhered to the first Covenant by the children of Bond-servant to whom Abraham gave gifts in present and sent them away as in Gen. 25. 5. and those that adhered to the second by the Son of the Free-woman Isaac who was Abrahams Heir to whom he gave the whole Inheritance at last And the Adoption of Sons as the Priviledge of the New Covenant is opposed to the condition of Servants under the Old Gal. 4. 7. And what are they adopted to but to an Inheritance for the future for by Adoption they are made Heirs If a Son then an Heir of God through Christ an Heir of what of an Inheritance for the future an Inheritance Incorruptible undefiled and which fadeth not away reserved in Heaven 1 Pet. 1. 4. And therefore they are said to wait for the Adoption to wit the redemption of their Bodies at the resurrection Rom. 8. 23. Sons and Heirs serve their Father with a free and ingenuous Spirit though they have but little for the present in confidence of what he will do for thâ—m hereafter in another world when they shall come to age But those under the Old Covenant were like Servants who serve with a servile Spirit because they do it with expectation of present pay The one walk by Faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen the other were influenced in their obedience by the expectation of present reward because that was it which the first Covenant promised to the observers of it These Promises now insisted on were promises of reward to the observers of this first Covenant But besides these there was another sort of Promises exhibited in the first Covenant and they were Promises of pardon in many cases when the Laws of that Covenant were broken There were as I have shewed Laws of Indemnity which made many of the breaches of the Laws of duty pardonable upon certain conditions And such were all sins of Ignorance and Inadvertency and some of those also which were committed wittingly But presumptuous sins and such as carried in them a kind of contempt of the Law these were exempted from pardon Heb. 10. 28. He that despised Moses Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses But for the other there were promises of pardon upon certain conditions which conditions were not always the same In some cases the offering of a Sin-offering or Trespass-offering was the Condition In other Cases that with confession of Sin was the Condition And in some other Cases Sacrificing Restitution and Satisfaction were the Condition And afflicting of the Soul as well a the Sacrifice for Atonement on the day of general Expiation was always a Condition of forgiveness These things in the particularities of them you have in the 4 5 6 16 and 23d Chapters of Levit. And then the Condition of the Promises of Purgation of Legal Uncleannesses and the penal effects of them was the observing the Rules prescribed for purifying the Unclean Now the forgiveness promised by these Laws of Indemnity did not free the Conscience from all Obligation to Eternal punishment but only freed the
pardon of sin which is essential to Justification is not to be obtained without it Luke 13. 3 5. Therefore again it follows that Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification and part of the Condition of it And now by this time I suppose it fully appears to any unprejudiced Reader that the Doctrine of St. Paul yea and of St. Peter and Iohn too do fully accord with the Doctrine of St. Iames touching the necessity of Evangelical Obedience unto Justification The opposition then which some have made between Faith and all Internall and External Works in reference to Justification as well Evangelical as Mosaical hath not been only without Scripture-ground but against Scripture-evidence and looks more like that which was made by the Gnosticks or other Solifidians opposed by St. Iames if it be not the very same than any the Scripture any where maketh And how much injury the Christian Religon and the Souls of Men may have suffered thereby is a thing to be thought on and sadly laid to heart It is a pleasant Doctrine and the worst of Men called Christians are glad to hear that they may be justifyed by Christ only upon their believing in him without any Works of Righteousness or self-denial of their own And upon that account presuming verily that they do believe they are confident that they are justified though they are unsanctified But those especially are in great danger of deceiving their own Souls by building their confidence upon this Doctrine who together with this belief have more of the form of godliness than the other have and are found much more in the use and exercise of the external devotional part of Religion and are zealous for this or that Opinion Party or Way which they think most Orthodox though they be greatly destitute of love to the Nature of God and of Humility Charity strict Justice Fidelity Peaceableness Sobriety Temperance Modesty and Meekness and of that renewed frame of Soul which would make them like Christ Jesus wherein the power of Christiany doth consist The External duties of Hearing Reading Praying and the rest being in great part but means referring to the other as the end So that no Man is to account himself truly Religious further than he attains to these truly Christian Qualifications by the use of the External Means and Internal Aids Yea the fleshly part even in Men good in the main is very apt to make an advantage of such a Doctrine as aforesaid to the lessening of their Care Diligence and Zeal in working out their Salvation in striving to enter in at the straight gate in governing their own Spirits and Appetites in cleansing themselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and in perfecting holiness in the fear of God And therefore there is great need for those that are Spiritual Guides to the people to insist much upon the necessity of Repentance Regeneration and a holy Life as well as Faith in order to their being justified and saved by Christ Jesus For the people yea the better sort of them stand most in need as of being well-grounded touching the truth of the Christian Religion so especially of having the Doctrines of Morality inculcated upon them the Precepts of the Gospel being almost all of that Nature though some speak diminutively of Moral Preaching and tend to the perfecting of the Nature of Man in regulating the Internal operations of the Soul and the External actions of life in reference both to God and Man our selves and others The recovering of Men to which is God's great design by the Gospel in order to their being made perfectly happy at last as I have shewed in Chap. 1. There is indeed an absolute necessity of believing the Gospel in order to Christian Practice And therefore our blessed Saviour did not only Preach the necessity of Faith in him and his Doctrine but also wrought abundance of Miracles to beget this Faith in Men. And yet he knowing the great danger of Mens miscarrying in point of Morality in the disposition of Soul and actions of Life insisted chiefly in his Preaching upon Doctrines of that nature as you may see in his Sermon on the Mount and elsewhere He taught the necessity of being born again Of making the Tree good that the fruit might be good And to inforce this Doctrine of his he was not wont to tell his Auditors that every Man shall be rewarded according to his belief but that when the Son of Man shall come every Man shall be rewarded according to his Works That those that have done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life and those that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation That by their words they shall be justified which are no more Faith than Works are And by their words they shall be condemned That in the great day of the tryal of all Nations every Man shall be acquitted or condemned according to the good they have done or neglected to do Mat. 25. And that then not every Man that had Faith enough to cry Lord Lord or to Prophesie cast out Devils or do wonders in his Name shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but such and such only as have done the will of his Father Great need there is therefore of peoples examining themselves impartially and of being often admonished to take heed left they mistake and deceive themselves in the nature of Religion and in what is absolutely necessary to be done on their part because men are very apt to flatter and deceive themselves in that and to think that when their Faith is right in the Object of it as when they believe in the true God and in his Son Jesus Christ and expect Salvation by him alone that then they are true believers and such as shall be saved especially if therewith they joyn the frequenting of God's Ordinances and the paring off of some of the grosser enormities of their lives though in the mean while they make no Conscience of cleansing their hearts and governing their Spirits of subduing their Passions and inordinate affections and of bridling the Tongue For this cause it is that Christians are so often in Scripture cautioned to take heed lest they should be deceived Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a Man sows that also shall he reap Gal. 6. 7 8. Little Children let no man deceive you He that doth righteousness is Righteous even as he is righteous 1 Joh. 3. 7. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Ephes. 5. 6. An APPENDIX touching the nature and Difference of that Faith which is justifying and of that which is not and the reason of that difference MEn's Eternal Estate of Weal or Wo in another World and their Peace and Comfort in this being very much concerned in their right understanding or mistaking the nature and difference of that Faith which is saving and of that which is not I shall here add to what is said before something to state the nature and
difference of those two kinds of Faith with what brevity and perspicuity I can I cannot I coâ—fess think that the nature of Faith which is of absolute necessity to the Salvation of the meanest Christian is in it self hard to be understood were it not that the many Controversies about it about its Object and the Acts of the Soul necessary to it had puzzled mens minds and distracted their apprehensions concerning it Things absolutely necessary to Salvation as they are not many so there are hardly any Doctrines delivered with more plainness than they that the weak who are as much concerned in them as the strong might competently understand them as well as they Men may multiply Notions about Faith as the Scripture useth various expressions about it But I doubt not but that the general sense of the Scripture hereabout may be summarily â—xpressed in this plain Proposition That saving Faith is such a belief of Christ to be the Son of God and of the truth of his Doctrine especially touching the virtue of his Death and Resurrection and the necessity of amendment of life for the obtaining remission of Sin and Eternal Life as causeth a man to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live a godly righteous and a sober life This is so plain in Scripture as that there is no Christian so weak but may easily come to understand it and so evident that none who acknowledge the Truth of the Gospel can deny it That I may state the difference then between Effectual and Ineffectual Faith and matters relating to them with all the plainness I can I shall very briefly endeavour these five things 1. To open the comprehensive nature of Faith 2. Shew wherein the defect lies of that Faith which is not saving 3. Shew whence that defect proceeds 4. How and after what manner Faith in the Understanding works savingly upon the Will 5. Answer some few Objections 1. The comprehensive nature of â—aving Faith opened That I may open the comprehensive nature of Faith the better I shall first observe how variously the Condition upon which saving benefits are promised is expressed in Scripture and then what actings of the Soul are thereby signified It is thus variously expressed in Scripture Sometimes it s called a believing God Rom. 4. 3. Gal. 3. 6. a believing in God 1 Pet. 1. 21. a believing on God Rom. 4. 24. a believing the Record which God hath given of his Son 1 Ioh. 5. 10. Sometimes it s called a believing on Christ Ioh. 3. 16 36. Act. 16. 31. a believing him to be the Christ the Son of God Ioh. 20. 31. 1 Ioh. 5. 5. It 's called Faith in his Blood Rom. 3. 25. a believing that God raised him from the dead Rom. 10. 9. Sometimes it s called a believing of the Gospel Mar. 16. 15 16. a believing of the Truth 2 Thâ—s 2. 15. a believing the testimony of the Apostles 2 Thes. 1. 10. Sometimes it is expressed under the Notion of Repentance Acts 2. 38. 3. 19. 11. 18. 2 Cor. 7. 10. and sometimes of obedience 1 Iohn 1. 7. 1 Pet. 1. 2. Heb. 5. 9. The Condion of the Promise of saving benefits being thus variously expressed can signifie no less than a three-fold Act of the Soul The first being the Act of the Understanding The second of the Will The third of the Understanding and Will conjunct I. Such expressions of the Condition of the Promise as is the believing God the believing in God the believing his Record the believing the Gospel the believing Christ to be the Son of God do most properly signifie the act of the mind or understanding in assenting to the truth of what God testifieth or promiseth Which assent is grounded upon a knowledge or belief of God's Veracity his Truth and Faithfulness armed with All-sufficiency of Power Wisdom and Goodness to make good his Word to a tittle And although such expressions as aforesaid do most properly signifie the act of the Understanding yet when ever saving Benefits are promised and the Condition expressed in such a form of words as doth most properly and primarily signifie the assent of the mind even then the act of the Will in consenting to the Condition is implyed and ought to be understood as I shall fully prove in the next Particular And the reason why the whole of the Condition of the Promise relating to the consent of the Will as well as the assent of the Understanding is frequently expressed in such a form of words as primarily and strictly signifie the assent of the mind is I conceive because such assent of the mind is the Principle from which all concurrent acts of the Will necessary to Justification and Salvation do proceed And it is of frequent use in Scripture to denominate the whole of Religion by some one Principal part which is a fruitful Principle of all the rest Thus the knowledge of the true God and of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent is said to be Eternal Life Ioh. 17. 3. And thus sometimes the fear of God and sometimes the love of God is put for the whole of Mens saving Religiousness and the same Promise of blessedness made to one of these singly exprest is to be extended to the whole In like manner the whole of Christianity is frequently denominated by Faith and the Christians stiled Believers and the houshold of Faith and the like and all because that Christian life of theirs by which they differ from other Men flows from their Faith which is the first active Principle of it 2. Another act of the Soul essentially necessary to that Faith which is the Condition of the Promise is the consent of the Will to repent to receive Christ as Lord King to be govered by his Laws as well as to own him for a Priest once ofâ—ering himself and ever making interecession for us For the Condition of the Promise of Pardon and Salvation is expressed under the notion of Repentance and sometimes of Obedience as I shewed before And Repentance and Odience are acts of the Will as renewed And that there is no Promise of saving benefits upon meer believing without observing that part of the Condition which consisteth in Repentance Regeneration and Obedience is most evident Because they are expresly excluded in Scripture from having any share in the saving benefits of the Covenant Justification or Salvation who do not Repent Luke 13. 3. who are not regenerate Ioh. 3. 5. who love not the Lord Jesus Christ and that above any worldly enjoyment 1 Cor. 16. 22. Matth. 10. 37. and who do not obey him Acts 3. 22 23. Luke 19. 27. 2 Thes. 1. 7. By all which we may certainly know that when ever there is Promise of Justification and Salvation made to believing it is to be understood of such a believing as doth at that instant in which a man believes savingly produce a sincere consent of the Will to repent to love Christ and to
hath said also Thou shalt not lust after a Woman in thy heart And he that said Thou shalt not steal hath said also Thou shalt not covet and the like And therefore they that think themselves to be obedient Children to God upon account of their abstaining from outward gross sin and of being outwardly righteous and do not truly endeavour and make a business of it to mortifie and subdue their Pride Covetousness love of the World Envy Hatred Malice thoughts of Revenge the unruliness of Passions and all immoderate Affections but indulge themselves in these or any of these or the like they deceive themselves whatever their External Conformity to Divine Precepts otherwise may be They are the pure in heart that shall see God And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts God observes more what Men are inwardly than what they are outwardly and judges of them accordingly He is not a Iew nor he a Christian who is one outwardly in the flesh but he who is so inwardly in heart whose praise is not of Men but of God Rom. 2. 28 29. And therefore St. Iames counted them but Earthly Sensual and Devilish in their profession of Christianity how high soever they professed and such as did lye against the Truth that indulged bitter envying and strife though it were but in their hearts Jam. 3. 14 15. And if 〈◊〉 and passions within shall break out in an unbridled Tongue in slandering reviling backbiting evil-speaking rash and uncharitable censuring or the like how Religious soever such a man may otherwise seem to himself or others yet St. Iames hath plainly determined his case such an one hath deceived his own heart and his Religion is vain Jam. 1. 26. Mat. 5. 22. Men may go a great way in Religion yea so far as until they are not far from the Kingdom of God Yea many shall seek to enter in by doing many things in order thereto and yet shall not be able for want of striving to do all that is necessary thereto And for that very reason and because of the great danger of Christians falling short though they have gone far and done much are they so earnestly exhorted to work out or to work through their own Salvation with fear and trembling with a fear of falling short Phil. 2. 12. And not only so but to fear even a seeming to come short of the promised rest Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entring into his rest any of you should seem to come short of it The matter is of that huge consequence that every wise Man that doth not despise his own Soul should be afraid to do or omit to do any thing that hath but the least â—eeming shew or appearance of putting his Salvation into any hazard And therefore all diligence is not too much for the wisest Man living to use to make his calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1. 10. Thus when Mens Understandings are bribed by their corrupt Wills they then take up with a partial Faith a partial Repentance and a partial Obedience instead of that which is Evangelically compleat and hope it is a fulfilling of the Condition of the Promise And when Men shut their own Eyes and stop their own Ears against the evidence of the word of Salvation that they may the more quietly enjoy the pleasures of any sin God many times in his righteous Judgment after much striving and long-suffering withdraws the assistances of his Grace and Spirit and leaves them to themselves and their own delusions and to be practised upon by the Devil for their farther hardening according to that dreadful Prophesie in Isa. 6. 9 10. mentioned no less than five or six times in the New Testament Mat. 13. 14. Mar. 4. 12. Luke 8. 10. Ioh. 12. 40. Acts 28. 26. Rom. 11. 8. Go tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not Make the heart of this people fat and make their Ears heavy and shut their Eyes c. When Men will not receive the love of the Truth that they might be saved but have pleasure in unrighteousness God sometimes sends them strong delusions to believe a lye 2 Thes. 2. 10 11 12. Whereas on the contrary the good ground-hearers are described by the honesty of the heart into which they receive the Word They study no tricks or shifts nor use any shuffling upon the account of any dishonest interest to evade the plain Truth but are content that should take place and all other things give place to it They suffer that Word which was received and assented to in the Judgment before in order of Nature to sink down into their hearts by which the Will and Affections become changed IV. How and afer what manner Faith in the Vnderstanding works savingly upon the Will The Faith of Assent in the Understanding worketh a Consent in the Will unto the Condition of the Promise by its operative and affecting influence upon the passions of Hope Fear and Love the powerful Principles of Action in Man For though Faith in the Understanding is the first Principle of Action as Christian yet not that but the Will as it is affected with Hope Fear or Love is the next and immediate Principle of Action The Understanding when it rightly performs its Office doth not only assent unto the Truth of Divine Revelation upon competent evidence that it is from God but also considers and weighs as in a ballance the import of it and how a man is concerned in it as whether it betoken good or evil to him and how much and upon what terms whether absolutely or conditionally and what the Condition is All which when brought down to the subordinate Faculties of the Soul the Will and Affections is apt to affect them and work upon them more or less accoring as the things believed are expressed more or lesse to concern a Man And the things believed Eternal Life and Eternal Death in another World being invisible and absent things it is a mans Faith touching the reality of them that supplies the room or absence of sense For Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. We neither see nor feel the glorious things promised nor the dreadful things threatned in another World otherwise than by Faith which gives the Believer a prospect of them But a man by his Faith in that Gospel by which they are revealed hath a foresight of them as Abraham had of Christs day and that fills the Soul with hope and fear and a sence of God's love in giving such an hope And this hope fear love puts Men upon more or less care diligence and industry in doing what is necessary for the obtaining of the one and efcaping the other as they are more or less influenced by a Faith that is weaker or stronger or more or less active and