made the Children of God Gal. 3. 26. Ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Iesus Joh. 1. 12 13. As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to those that believe on his Name Which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Now to be born of God or which is the same to be made the Child of God is to have ones Nature restored to the likeness of God in which Man was first made and is the same thing with that wich is called Regeneration and a being born again and a new Creature Which new Creature or the nature of Man renewed by Faith is also called the new Man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes. 4. 24. To be born again is to have the faculties of Mans Nature restored to a rectitude in their motions and operations in reference both to God and Man to be restored to their proper moral use for which they were made It is in a word that which is called a being made partakers of a Divine Nature For those which are begotten of God are begotten in or to his likeness Men can adopt those which are not their natural Children to inherit their Estates but they cannot adopt them to a participation of their Moral Endowments But God adopts his Children to a participation with him in the Inheritance by adopting them to a participation of the Moral perfections of his Nature that is to a consimilitude to him in them And this we say is done by Faith that is by Faith in God and by Faith in his Word For in order of Nature God is first believed to be a God of Truth before his Word is believed to be the Word of Truth And the creditableness of his Word depends upon the knowledge or belief of the fidelity of his Nature And this Truth of God and of his Word is the immediate Object of Faith By Faith a Man believes that to be true which God reveals or declares as his Mind and Will let the Import of it be what it will But then this Faith operates upon the Will and Affections according to the Tenour and Import of that which is revealed If it be matter of sad import it works a hatred to him that threatens it and a fear of the thing threatned if it be apprehended to proceed from an enemy And this is the effect of the Faith of Devils who believe and hate God who believe and tremble Iam. 2. 19. But if that which is revealed by God and believed by Man betoken unspeakable love good will in God to Man and matter of the greatest benefit to him as a proof of such love then it worketh love to him that expresseth such love for Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. and a longing desire after the promised benefit And as the Soul grows more and more in love with God because of his love in love with his blessed Nature and Divine Perfections such as are his Love and Goodness Truth and Faithfulness Purity and Patience Mercifulness and readiness to forgive which render him altogether lovely so it contracts a likeness to God in these upon the Soul and so changes and renews the Moral habit and constitution of the Soul and consequently of the whole Life There is an aptness and promptness in men to imitate that in others and so in God for which they love them And frequent imitating Acts beget habits Custom changing Nature And hence it is that through Faith we are made partakers of a Divine Nature We all with open face beholding as in a Glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. This beholding the glory of the Lord is by Faith For we walk by Faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5. 7. and by it Moses saw him who is invisible Heb. 11. 27. And the medium by which this Prospect is taken is the Gospel by which the Lord in his lovely Perfections is now openly revealed And Faith being from time to time busied in beholding of and conversing with these Perfections it transforms the Soul into the same Image or likeness from glory to glory that is gradually as by the Spirit of the Lord that is through the co-operation of God's Spirit with Mans Faith To comprehend the breadth length depth and heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge is the way to be filled with all the fulness of God by transcribing all his imitable perfections upon the Soul Ephes. 3. 18 19. And it is by virtue of their Relation to Christ and being thus begotten and born of God and made partakers of a new Nature conformable to God's that Men can with confidence call God Father This blessed effect of God's Spirit is the Spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba Father And it is this new Nature that is the Spring and Fountain of a good Life of all Pious and Virtuous Actions As it is said of God Thou art good and dost good so it is true of all those that are born of him A good Man out of the good treasure of his heart thus renewed bringeth forth good fruit The Tree being good the Fruit will be good And as this new Creature groweth up to strength and maturity so doing of good and acting worthily will become natural and pleasant to him in whom it is To such an one the Commandments of God are not grievous but he will be able in some good measure to say I delight to do thy will O God yea thy Law is in my heart And for sin it being contrary to this new Nature there is a kind of Moral Impotency in him in whom it is to commit sin He cannot sin because he is born of God 1 Joh. 3. 9. Or if such an one be overtaken in a fault it will work a disturbance in the Soul just as that will in the stomach which a Man hath eaten against which he hath an antipathy in Nature But as for such as perform Religious Duties and do things materially good only by the strength of Extrinsecal Motives and not froman inward Principle of this new Nature or love to the things themselves to such those actions being unnatural become grievous and burdensome and will be continued in no longer than those Motives continue in their strength Sect. 8. The last thing I proposed to consider about God's Promise to Abraham is What we are to understand by God's counting Abrahams Faith to him for righteousness And I take it to signifie thus much That God in a way of special grace or by virtue of a new Law of grace and favour which was established by God in Christ Gal. 3. 17. that is in reference to what Christ was to do suffer in time then to come did reckon his Practical
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
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
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
believe so far as to assent in their minds that Christ was no Impostor but one that came from God and that therefore his Doctrine must needs be true but they did not believe so as to be converted in their Wills to consent to part with their carnal interest of honour and reputation with their party the Pharisees which they must have done as the case then stood if they would have confessed him openly which to do was necessary to make them capable of the Promise of Salvation by him Ioh. 12. 42 43. Among the chief Rulers many believed on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue for they loved the praise of Men more than the praise of God These had more understanding than the common people who as they said knew not the Law Ioh. 7. and yet not so many of them as of the people believed on Christ so as to confess and follow him because their wordly interest being greater it held them faster and had the greater power over their Wills The unbelief then of Men where the Gospel comes is generally to be resolved into the obstinacy of their Wills in opposition to the convictions of their Understanding Iohn 5. 40. Ye will not come to me that ye might have life How oft would I have gathered you and ye would not Mat. 23. 37. O that my people had hearkened to my counsel but Israel would none of me Psal. 81. 11. They did not chuse the fear of the Lord Prov. 1. 29. They chose their own ways their Souls delighted in their abominations Isa. 6. 3. Thus much in general But I would shew yet more particularly how the Will doth obstruct the perfecting the work of Faith after it 's begun in the Understanding And it doth it as I conceive I. By calling off the Understanding from a frequent consideration of that evidence by which it was first convinced of the Truth of Gods Testimony touching the Promised Benefits and the Condition and Means of obtaining them and from a frequent application of it to the Will and this the Will can do For as the Understanding hath a power over the Will so far a to represent it's apprehensions to the Will in order to its acting thereupon according to a Man 's own concerns therein so also the Will hath akâ—nd of power over the Understanding both to put it upon frequent consideration to strengthen it self in the belief of that which the Will would have to prove true and to be believed and also to call it off from so doing when there is a great reluctancy in the Will against having that prove true which the Understanding represents as true And if the Understanding be taken off so that it hath not frequent recourse to that evidence which first procured its assent unto the Truth of God's Testimony in the Gospel that it might be thereby nourished strengthened and maintained that Faith in the Understanding will languish and grow weak and so have no powerful operation upon the Will to change and renew it and to procure its effectual consent to perform the Condition of the Promise when the Will stands disinclined of it self to the Verdict of the Understanding Besides if the Understanding doth not ply the Will and frequently inculcate upon it it s own apprehensions concerning God's Testimony and the consequence and concernment of it to a Man 's own self thereby to make the Word believed to be an ingrafted Word it will not not work any Cure upon it or any through change in it The unwillingness in Men to have their Minds ingage in the consideration of God's ways and their own is the reason of their turning back from him Ioâ— 34. 27. They turned back from him and would not consider any of his ways As on the contrary the Scripture represents the conversion of a sinner as proceeding from the consideration of the bad tendency of his evil ways Ezek. 18. 28. Because he considereth and turneth away from all his transgressions which he hath committed he shall surely live he shall not dye And our Saviour seems to cast mens profiting or not profiting their belief or not belief by hearing Gods Testimony in the Gospel upon their considering or not considering of it Mark 4. 24. And he said unto them consider what you hear so Dr. Hammond reads it for with what measure ye mete viz. in considering or not considering it shall be measured to you again in profiting or not profiting which is to be understood according to God's ordinary proceeding with men The reason why the Faith of those resembled by the stony ground doth not abide or come to perfection is because they have no Root in themselves and that comes to pass for want of much consideration and a frequent working the first conviction of the mind from the evidence of Truth into the Will Affections by a constant Consideration and close Application of it Acts 17. 11. They searched the Scriptures daily whether thâ—se things were so and therefore they believed 2. When men hold fast their lusts out of their great love to them notwithstanding their conviction in their Understandings and are â—ot willing to part with them upon any terms the Fumes of those lusts continually ascending will cloud and darken the Understanding as a thick Fogg doth the Sun and by degrees make it less capable of discerning its Object viz. saving Truth in its clear evidence and proportionably hinder in its that opperation upon the Will The cares of this World and the deceitfulness of Riches and the lusts of other things choaked the Word and it becometh unfruitful Mar. 4. 19. He that hateth his Brother is in darkness and walketh in darkness and knoweth not whether he goes because darkness hath blinded his eyes 1 Joh. 2. 11. 3. Sinful Mens understandings are â—ot so uncorrupt but that they are apt to be bribed by their Wills to cast about and devise how to evade the force and edge of their own notices and Dictates and to attempt and baffle their former apprehensions and convictions to the end they may still retain their lusts without any great disturbance from their Understandings This when it is yielded to and put in practice is that which in Scripture is called Mens closing their eyes leâ—t at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and should be converted and healed Mat. 13. 15. And when this takes place in Professors of Christianity that do believe that Faith Repentance and Obedience are necessary to Salvation as the Condition on which it is promised the way by which they uâ—ually deceive their own hearts is by perswading themselves that they do perform the Condition of the Promise in these when indeed they do not but frame to themselves Notions of saving Faith Repentance and Obedience different from the Scripture Notions of them as I shall shew in
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
Justification is suspended and are both constituted so by the same means and that is by promise of pardon to such as do believe to such as do repent and by threatning the contrary to those that do not both And if they are a joynt Condition of the Promise of Justification then Justification proceeds not upon either of them alone but upon both together 6. Whereas it is said in the Similitude that a man sees with his Eye alone though not with his Eye which is alone or when it is alone I doubt this is no more true than that which is intended to be illustrated by it For Naturalists will tell them the contrary that it is not the Eye alone by which a Man sees but that it is the Soul that sees by the Eye as its Organ The Eye sees not when the Soul is departed though it be not then alone I confess I cannot possibly conceive either how the Soul should not concur with the Eye in the act of seeing when the Eye cannot see without it nor yet that Repentance should not concur with Faith in the act of Justification so long as men cannot be justified by Faith it self without it or in the absence of it as they themselves grant 3. This lyes in the way of some they cannot conceive how Justification by Evangelical Obedience as well as Faith should consist with the possibility of somes being justified by believing who yet may not live so long after as to have an oppertunity of doing good Works How rare Instances of this kind are I shall not dispute But doubtless when ever men so believe Gods Promise of pardon through Christ upon their Repentance and the necessity of their own Repentance for the obtaining of it as that they in Will and a fixed and lasting Resolution become new men then they first believe unto Justification And it is not impossible but that some may so believe that may never after they do so have opportunity to be much active in External Acts of Obedience But though this should so fall out yet such are not justified without Evangelical Obedience as wel as Faith For 1. These Motions and Acts of the Will are themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience 2. They are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come I. They are in themselves Acts of present Evangelical Obedience For by these Motions and Acts of the Will Men do when ever they take place turn from sin to God and their Duty out of hatred to that they turn from and out of love to that they turn to And these Acts of the Will which consist in affection and resolution are proper effects and fruits of Faith in the Understanding and Acts of Heart-Obedience in the sight of God and a conformity of Soul to his declared Will and Commandment And they may as well and as truly be called Works as evil Acts of the Will may such as are a love to evil and desires and resolutions of perpetrating it Which evil Acts of the Will are yet in Scripture called Works and a working of wickedness Psal. 58. 2. Ye work wickedness in your hearts Micah 2. 1. He that looketh upon a Woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Matth. 5. 28. And envy wrath and hatred which are Internal Acts of the Soul are called Works of the flesh Gal. 5. 19 20 21. And if such inward fixed resolutions in Men of obeying God in External Acts if ever they have opportunity and a Call to it did not pass in God's account for Obedience and were not accepted in stead of the Deed when opportunity for the Deed is wanting the best Man in the World could be no Disciple of Christ who doth not actually forsake all that he hath and lay down his life for him Whosoever of you forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple saith he Luke 14. 26 33. Whereas Christ pronounceth the poor in spirit blessed many of whom never became actually poor for his sake as not being called to it But if they are poor in Spirit if they firmly resolve to become poor in forsaking all for Christs sake when called to it these are capable of blessedness in Christ's account as well as those that suffer the loss of all for Righteousness sake Matth. 5. 3. II. Those Acts of the Will are in the Root and Cause Evangelical Obedience future and to come Because those resolutions against evil for good when they are of a fixed and lasting nature as they alwayes are when together with Faith they make men capable of Justification will certainly produce External Acts of sincere Obedience as opportunity doth occur When the Tree is made good it will bring forth good Fruit in the season of Fruit if it be not cut down before When the heart is renewed in affection and resolution the course of a Mans Life will certainly be answerable to it if ever he have opportunity of shewing it A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things Mat. 12. 35. And God who knows the heart doth judge of and estimate men according to what they are in the inward frame of their heart and prevalent bent of their Wills If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not 2 Cor. 8. 12. We judge of the Cause by the Effects of the goodness of mens hearts by the goodness of their lives to us the Tree is known by its Fruit But God who is greater than our hearts and knows them better than we do judges of the effect by the Cause and knows what a Mans Life will be by what his heart is upon its first conversion to him and so confers on him the benefit of Justification when the Foundation of a good Life is laid in the conversion and renewing of the heart The Understanding of this Part of Discourse will serve not only to satisfie the foresaid doubt but also to inform us what Evangelical Obedience is necessary to Justification in its beginning Not but that actual Obedience in Life is necessary to the continuance of Justification where Life is continued And therefore we find that Abraham was justified by his after-believing and after-obedience as well as by his first and so was Noah before him Noah was a righteous Man and justified before he became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith by his believing and obeying God in preparing the Ark Gen. 6. 9. Heb. 11. 7. It was by Faith in God's Promise that Abraham left his Countrey to obey God at the first and by that he was first justified Heb. 11. 8. And yet his believing God's Promise so shall thy Seed be which was not made till some years after was imputed to him also for righteousness Gen. 15. 6. It was many years after that again that by Faith he offered his son Isaac upon the