at the last day and the eternal judgement that will follow thereupon which are two great Arricles of the Christian Faith and fundamental Doctrines Heb. 6.2 does depend upon our beleef of the Resurrection of Christ For if Christ the Son of Gods love him in whom his soul delighteth more than in any man should not have been raised by the glory of the Father there would have been little reason for any other man to expect so great a favour But now is Christ risen from the dead and is become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 as a pledge of their Resurrection also In that any have a lively hope of being raised again to an inheritance uncorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away they are thereunto begotten by the resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead so saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1.3 4 And again verse 21. In that God raised him up from the dead and so gave him glory it was that our Faith and hope might be in God that he will do so to us likewise For God hath both raised up the Lord and will also raise up us by his own power 1 Cor. 6.14 For if we beleeve that Iesus dyed and rose again even so them also which sleep in Iesus will God bring with him 1 Thes 4.14 Because I live ye shall live also saith he who is the Resurrection and the life Iohn 14.19 and 11.25 And that there shall be a righteous Judgement following the Resurrection and that Christ Jesus shall be the Judge is such a thing of which the Father hath given assurance or offered Faith unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead Acts 17.31 Sect. 8 5. The Word Gospel or Doctrine of Christ and of his Apostles is so the object of Faith as that salvation is promised unto the right beleef thereof Mark 16.15 16. Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel to every Creature he that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved 2 Thes 2.13 Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and beleef of the truth 2 Thes 1.10 When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that beleeve because our testimony among you was beleeved in that day The Doctrine of Christ and of his Apostles may well be counted the object of Faith inasmuch as to beleeve it is all one as to beleeve that the Father hath set forth his Son to be a propitiation for sin through Faith in his blood and so it is to beleeve that Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures because the Doctrine of the Gospel is a testimony and declaration of these things and he that beleeves the one beleeves the other also Gods giving his Son to dye and Christs dying and rising again without a declaration of the mind and counsel of God thereabout as viz. for what cause upon what account and for what end he did so as also upon what termes and conditions men shall reap the fruit of his Death Resurrection and Intercession I say the one without the other does not seem to be the adequate object of Faith but both together are For which cause the Doctrine of the Gospel in its Enunciations Precepts and Threatnings as well as in its Promises is the object of Faith And because the Doctrine of the Gospel contains declares and amply sets forth all these things together with those things which are to come viz. the Resurrection of the Dead and Eternal Judgement in order to which the former first take place as being all of them matters about which Faith is busied therefore is it that the Doctrine of the Gospel is frequently called the Faith Gal. 1.23 and 3.2 5 23. Acts 6.7 Romans 1.5 1 Tim. 4.1 Iude 3. And so now I have done with my first point touching Faith viz. the object of it or the beleeving of what it is that shall be imputed for righteousness CHAP. V. Shewing that that Faith which consists onely in assenting unto the truth of that report which the Gospel makes touching Christ his being the Son of God and of his coming into the World to save Sinners by dying for them will not availe to Iustification and Salvation as a Gospel-Faith of the right kind will do Sect. 1 HAving briefly shewed from the holy Scriptures the beleef of what it is objectively that hath the promise of Salvation annext to it I shall now in the next place come to enquire what and what manner of beleeving it is subjectively that hath the same promise or whether every act of beleeving that is placed on a right object hath this great priviledge of Justification entailed to it And upon due enquiry it will be found that not any act or acts of Faith one or more be they never so many of them that fall short of engaging the Soul in true Love and sincere obedience unto the Lord Jesus will avail the man in whom they are unto the saving of the soul If I mistake not all the acts of a saving Faith may be reduced to and comprehended under these three heads The first I call an act of Credence the second an act of Adherence and the third an act of Confidence in the exertion of which three acts of Faith having Christ for their object the whole soul mind will and affections are engaged which make up the beleeving with all the heart which the Gospel calls for Acts 8.37 By that act which I call an act of Credence I mean the assent of the mind unto the truth of what the Gospel reports especially touching Christ and Gods love to mankind in him as that he is the Son of God and Saviour of the world that he was sent of God the Father to shew unto men the way of salvation and then to dye rise again and after his ascension to make intercession to bring that salvation about and that remission of sins is to be had through his name By that act of Faith which I call an act of Adherence I understand the souls fast cleaving unto the Lord Jesus in affection and subjection as counting him more worthy of both than any Creature or thing in all the world as also taking hold of that grace and strength which is in Christ for deliverance from the power of sin and of bringing the soul back again to God in point of holiness And lastly by an act of Confidence I mean the Souls relyance rest or dependance upon Christ or on the Father through Christ for remission of sins acceptation and eternal salvation the committing of the Soul to his mercy the throwing it upon his grace These three acts of Faith relate to each other by way of dependance the second depending upon the first as the acts of the Will do upon the Understanding and the third upon both the
the curse as Infidelity it self does Mat. 10.37 1 Cor. 16.22 If any man love not the Lord Iesus let him be Anathema Maranatha By which it's evident that all the while this Love is wanting he is under the curse that wants it whatever his belief otherwise may be and consequently that no Faith in Christ but such as knits the Soul in unfeigned Love to him wil deliver a Man from the curse of God and consequently nor justifie And alass how manies Faith is hereby manifested to be meerly counterfeit Who are lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God which appears in that they follow them rather than God lovers of the World more than the Lord which appears in that they chuse to please the Men of the World rather than him and are more intent and thoughtful about getting the World than honouring of him and will rather run the hazard of displeasing him in holding fast the things of the World than part with them upon his call For it is not every degree of Love to Christ that will denominate a Man a true Lover of him but Love in such proportion and to such a degree as prevails against all other objects that stand in competition with Christ and carries away the Soul from them all to Christ Mat. 10.37 He that loves Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me and he that loves Son or Daughter more than me is not worthy of me It 's not only lawful for a Man to love his Father and Mother his Son and Daughter but it is his duty so to do yea and to love them much more than others that are not so related and yet for all that if his Love to Christ do not exceed in proportion that Love and strong affection which he may and ought to bear to such Relations Christ you see hath already judged him unworthy of him A Man though he love his Wife better than most other Women yet if he love but one Woman more than his Wife with that affection that is proper to his Wife wil be judged by sober men no true Lover of his Wife In like manner though you should love Christ more than many other enjoyments or many other sins which you have parted with for his sake yet if you retain but any one sin or sinful lust and are tender of it for the profit or pleasure that comes into you by it and will harbour it to the offence and provocation of the Lord and chuse rather to run the hazard of loosing his company and all the comforts of it than to turn such an offensive guest out of doors assuredly the Lord who doth alwaies judge according to truth wil judge himself despised and unworthily rejected by you He you see then that wants this prevailing degree of Love to Christ is stil under the curse and therefore no belief in Christ whatsoever that hath not this Love in it or is not certainly accompanied with it can be any sufficient ground for any Man to be confident of his Salvation Nothing less availeth than that Faith which thus worketh by Love Gal. 5.6 By all these considerations then you may see that when Promise of Life is made unto believing in Christ indefinitely exprest it is no wise safe to understand the Scriptures as intending any other lower kind of Faith than that definitively which is of power and force to change the heart and life of him that hath it and to renew him to God in holiness Jesus Christ himself in his words to Paul having plainly declared this to be the true nature of the Faith that is in him Acts 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified by Faith that is in me And therefore John the bosome Disciple of Christ as was noted before saith Whosoever beleeveth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God 1 Iohn 5.1 which as you see must be understood of that vigorous belief that gives a man a new being furnishes him with new principles of motion and action new thoughts new affections a new life that gives him victory over the World as it follows verse 4. Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Christs proffers and the Worlds proffers Christs threats and the Worlds threats striving which shall carry the Man to follow their waies Faith steps in by which the Man believes that as Christ is the Son of God so he is more worthy to be followed and his proffers infinitely more worthy to be regarded and his threats dreaded than the World with all that she can do or say and so delivers the Man out of the Worlds hand that he is at liberty to attend the Lord. Sect. 8 And whereas among other Scriptures objected in the beginning of this Chapter one promiseth salvation to such as believe with the heart and confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and others affirm that whosoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh and is the Son of God are of God and dwell in God and God in them they are to be understood as spoken according to the exigencies of those times wherein a Man confessing Christ exposed himself to persecution Iohn 9.22 and 12.42 and consequently manifested his effectual Faith in an unfeigned Love to the Lord Jesus and thus to call Iesus the Lord no Man could do but by the Holy Ghost and his special assistance 1 Cor. 12.3 But now in times wherein to deny him to be the Lord would sooner expose a man to suffering than the confessing of him so to be the bare confessing of him will not invest him with the great priviledges that then were promised unto the confessing of Christ according to that Mat. 7.21 Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Sect. 9 THe truth is if a Man do but take the Scriptures together and shape his judgement according to their result when compared as its every Mans wisdom to do as it is not safe so it is impossible for him then to be confident of his salvation meerly upon account of his believing Christ to be the Son of God unless this Faith of his be proved to him to be the Faith of Gods elect by some good degree of those holy affections and that christian demeanure which the holy Word and Doctrine of the Lord calls for And the reason hereof is because such Scriptures as I have been now insisting on that curse all those that do not love the Lord Jesus that sentence with eternal death all those that live after the flesh that exclude all such the blessed Vision of the Lord that have not holiness that shut the gates of Heaven against all such as do not make conscience to do the will of the Father I say such Scriptures stand up to oppose such a
accounting men righteous or the termes upon or according to which he does so esteem them and accordingly deal with them we have set down in the next verse 22. which is saith he By faith of Iesus Christ unto all and upon all that beleeve for there is no difference that is this righteousness of God or this Justification of God or which is of God it is by Faith of Jesus Christ that is it does accrue to men or is vouchsafed by God unto men by the Faith of Christ that is by that Faith which men that rightly beleeve have concerning Christ And this is a priviledg a glorious one indeed which is vouchsafed unto all men indifferently who do beleeve whether Jew who hath followed the Law or Gentile who hath been without Law it is unto all and upon all that beleeve for there is saith he no difference the Jew by his Law is never the nearer Justification nor the Gentile by his living without it never the farther off it in case he do beleeve but both in a like capacity and both actually justified upon their beleeving and neither the one nor the other at all justified till then For saith he ver 23. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God both Jews and Gentiles and therefore both alike are cast upon the meer mercy and free grace of God vers 24. Being justified if ever they be justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Iesus Christ ver 25. whom God hath set forth both to Jews and Gentiles to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood Upon which the Apostle ver 27. makes this demand Where is boasting then if the Gentile without the Law be on equal termes with the Jews under his Law if there be no difference between them if all have sinned and all to be justified freely by grace if this Justification or righteousness be vouchsafed unto all and conferred upon all that beleeve and not otherwise and that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile in these respects then pray you where is boasting what is become of the boasting of the Jews who were wont to say we have Abraham to our Father and rejoyced in circumcision and made their boast of the Law Rom. 2.23 if for all the priviledges which in this kind they had enjoyed above the Gentile yet if the Gentile by the grace of the Gospel is made equall to the Jew though he do not at all come under the Law where then is there any longer place for boasting And in the 28 verse he draws up his conclusion from his premises saying therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law the same in effect with my Text If there be no difference between Jew and Gentile as was said before and that the Righteousness of GOD without the Law is manifested and tendred to the Gentile we may well conclude that a man even an ungodly Gentile that hath no Deeds of the Law if he once come to forsake his ungodlinesse and to beleeve and obey the Gospel which is to be preached to every Creature we may conclude that he is indeed justified his sins pardoned and he accepted in the Beloved in whom he hath beleeved But though the Apostle concludes the thing ver 28. viz. that the Gentiles might as well be justified without the Deeds of the Law as the Jews with them and both alike upon condition of beleeving yet he does not there conclude his discourse of this matter but is at it again and again And therefore in ver 29. he begins again demanding as it were with authority thus Is he the God of the Jews only is he not also of the Gentiles yes of the Gentiles also As if he should say what do you think that God only takes care of the Jews and of their Salvation and that he hath no regard at all to the Gentiles let them sink or swim Is he not the God of the Gentiles also is he not willing to bring them to Salvation as well as the Jews To which interogation he returns this answer yes he is the God even of the Gentiles also one propitious and favourable to them as well as the Jews which appears in this thirtieth verse Seeing it is one God which shall justifie the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith the same God hath vouchsafed the same means and proposed one and the same way of justification and salvation both to those that are circumcised and to those that are not and that is the Faith of the Gospel Where there is neither Iew nor Greek circumcision nor uncircumcision i. e. no difference between these but as the Scripture saith They are all one in Christ Iesus Gal. 3.28 Col. 3.11 Sect. 8 Come we now to the fourth Chapter and draw we nearer the Text. In this fourth Chapter in which my Text is we have the truth under consideration drawn in lively colours viz. that men without Circumcision and the rest of the Jewish Ordinances may upon their cordial imbracing the Gospel attain justification in the sight of God This he makes plain and proves against all contradiction from the example of Gods proceeding with Abraham in the matter of his justification who as he was the Father of the Jew and one in whom they gloried as counting themselves the only people of God upon the account of that Covenant which God made with him and his seed whose seed according to the flesh they were so also was he a Father of many Nations even of as many as should beleeve in all Nations of the world and why so but because God was intended to justifie them upon the same termes as he justified Abraham Rom. 4.1 The Apostle begins thus What shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh hath found In which affirmative interrogation we have laid down a vehement negation of the thing interrogated according to the usual custome and dialect of the Scriptures in that kind As if he should say look now upon Abraham our Father and consider Gods proceeding with him and the termes upon which God conferred righteousness or justification on him And what then shall we say or think that Abraham our Father according to the flesh hath found hath found what namely justification in the sight of God for that 's the thing in question the subject of his present discourse and that which he presently mentions vers 2. as that to which the interrogation relates Hath he found it as pertaining to the flesh what 's that hath he found it in that way in which the Jews boastingly think they have met with it and urge the Gentiles to seek after it viz. Circumcision and other works of the Law which in opposition to the Gospel-way of Justification is called flesh Phil. 3.3 4 5 6. Gal. 3.3 hath he found or did he meet with justification in this way no certainly he did not
but fairly construed and argued upon This by what I have but newly said doth plainly appear might be further evinced by other of their sayings wherein they do acknowledg That that Faith which is alone severed from charity and destitute of good Works doth neither justifie nor save but that there is a necessity of them a necessity of presence though not of efficiency and that they must concur with Faith in the subject or party justified though not in the act of Justification And what 's all this less than that which I have said I say Faith void of Works will not justifie They say that Faith which is alone severed from charity and destitute of good Works will not justifie nor save I say it 's not necessary to hold or say that the same justifying act office or power is placed in them as is in Faith They say they are not necessary by way of efficiency I say God denies the justifying priviledge unto a barren dead Faith and reserves it only for a lively working Faith they say there 's a necessity of presence and that they concur with Faith in the subject or party justified though not in the act of justifying So that a necessity of Gospel-obedience to accompany that Faith which shall justifie is acknowledged on all hands And if men had but laid out themselves as much to possess the people with a thorow sence of this as they have to preserve them from the errors of the Papists on the other hand it might I conceive have been much better with their Souls then now it is For while their ears and eyes have been filled so much with the doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works when they have meant it only in opposition to the Popish sence and so little with the Doctrine touching the unavailablenesse of that Faith unto Justification that does not knit the Soul to Christ with such love as by which men deny themselves of their Lusts and sinful pleasures and follow after righteousnesse and holinesse with them that call upon the Lord with a pure heart hence I fear it hath come to passe that the generality of men among us have had so little sence of the necessity of a godly life and have presumed so much upon their Faith touching Christ which yet hath been but the dead Faith James speaks of as that they have to the sad deceiving of their own Souls thought themselves in safe condition although they have lived sensual and carnal lives and have been strangers to the work of the new Creature the power of Godlinesse and the life of Holinesse without which for all their Faith no man shall see the Lord. But alass how should it be otherwise when as it is too manifest that the Leaders and Guides of the people themselves except here and there one have had little of this sence and savour but have built so much upon the act of beleeving and so little upon a faithful subjection to Christs Doctrine which for ought I can see is as necessary to render Faith available in its place as Faith is necessary to render the blood of Christ available in its place as to a mans personal Justification as if that subjection were not at all necessary unto the being of a mans justification before God but usefull onely to declare him to himself and unto men to be justified And under this Soul-deceiving apprehension and mistaken notion and principle the Ministers too many of them have indulged themselves and people too in a dull heavy cold partial flat and lesse than formal way of professing the Gospel to the hazard of their precious Souls And O that this might but awaken any of them that take upon them the care of Souls to lay this matter more to heart before it be too late and the opportunity past And thus I have now done with the first part of my Text wherein I have shewed in what sence Paul makes no reckoning of Works in the point of Justification Come we now to the handling of that which remains touching the imputation of his Faith for righteousnesse who beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly CHAP. IV. Setting forth the object of justifying Faith and shewing the beleeving in whom and the beleeving of what it is that will be counted for Righteousnesse Sect. 1 IN the handling of the latter part of these words But to him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for righteousnesse I would open these three things 1. The believing in whom and the believing of what it is to which the promise of Justification or the Imputation of Righteousness is made 2. What or what manner of believing it is that hath the great promise of Justification annexed to it 3. How or in what sence this Faith in men is counted unto them for righteousness Which three things I conceive contain the sum and substance of the Doctrine of Justification Let us now begin with the first of these and see from the Scriptures who and what is the right object of saving Faith Him whom the Apostle here in the Text propounds as the object of this belief is said to be him who justifieth the ungodly Whether by him that justifieth the ungodly we should understand God the Father distinctly or his Son Jesus Christ it will not be so needfull to enquire since as both concur in justifying the ungodly so both are the object of justifying Faith For as in due time Christ dyed for the ungodly Rom. 5.6 that he might justifie them by his blood so God the Father hath set him forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 And as to understand the Apostle as meaning the Father seems to suit best with the precedent verses so to understand him as not excluding the Son will well answer his general design in asserting attonement remission of sins or justification by Christ for the ungodly Gentiles upon their beleeving in opposition to those who appropriated these to the Works of Moses Law It 's true there is a great variety of expression used in Scripture to set forth the object of Faith sometimes making God the Father and his record concerning his Son the object and sometimes Christ as Messiah promised as Son of God as dying as rising again and sometimes the word or doctrine of Christ or his Apostles but all relating to and depending originally upon the Father I shall touch each of these particularly but with much brevity because I hope you are not so much unacquainted with these things as I fear you are in that upon which I principally intend enlargement Sect. 2 I. Justification is ascribed unto God the Father as him in whom we must beleeve and upon whom we must depend for it in many other Scriptures beside my Text Rom. 8.33 and 3.30 Gal. 3.8 Hence justification is called the righteousnesse of God and the righteousnesse which is of God as he being the
Author and founder of it Rom. 3.21 and 10.3 Phil. 3.9 1. It was found out and contrived by his infinite wisdom Eph. 1.7.8.11 and therefore Christ whom he sent to put in execution that wonderfull profound contrivance of his is called the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1 24. Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God 2. God the Father is the Author of it and object of our Faith about it because it issues and proceeds out of the womb of his grace where this blessed design was first conceived Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his grace The goodness and compassionateness of his nature meeting with the misery and necessity of his poor creature inclined him to set such a thing on foot disposed him to use both his Wisdom and Power to contrive and bring it to passe The creature neither did nor could put any obligation upon him to do this thing for him but by sin and unworthiness provoked him to that which was quite contrary and therefore the more wonderfull that it should make its way through so many and so mighty contrary provocations which it meets with from men This grace of God is so great a doer hath so mighty a hand so potent an influence in the whole and entire business of Mans Election Redemption Justification Adoption Sanctification Eternal Life and Salvation that all from first to last from the beginning to the end is worthily ascribed to the riches of his grace both in the things themselves and means of their accomplishment as might easily be shewn from Scripture but I will hasten on my way 3. The means by which this justification is effected and brought to passe are of and from God the Father and their power to justifie depends upon his will appointing them to that end 1. Christ is the great means of bringing this about but yet is given and sent by the Father for that purpose Whom God saith he hath set forth to be a propitiation for sin Rom. 3.25 In that Christ becomes righteousness or justification to men it is because God would have it so 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom righteousness c. Again it is God that was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing trespasses 2 Cor. 5.19 It is he that hath made us accepted in the beloved Ephes 1.6 Then said he lo I come to do thy will O God by the which will we are sanctified through the offering up of the body of Jesus Christ once for all Heb. 10.9 10. Though we are sanctified by the offering up of the body of Jesus yet it is by vertue of the will of the Father which the Son came to do and to fulfill According to these Scriptures the attoneing purging power and vertue of Christs blood seems to depend upon the Divine will and good pleasure of the Father Else if it did not why should not the whole world be justified for Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world 1 Iohn 2.2 and why then is not the whole world justified Surely it is not because the Sacrifice of Christ is not as sufficient to justifie all as some the whole world for whom he dyed as a few only which shall actually be justified and saved but it is because the Fathers will is such that the justifying saving benefit of his death shall be limited unto such only as do beleeve Iohn 3.16 God so loved the world as that he gave his only begotten Son viz. to or for the world or whole world 1 Iohn 2.2 but yet so and upon such termes as that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The will of the Father piches the bounds how far the justifying vertue of his Sons blood shall extend and determines the termes upon which it shall be actually enjoyed And so 2. It is in respect of Faith another and compared with Christ an inferior means of mans justification it does not justifie in its own name or by its own power or vertue but its ability in this behalf to justifie and save depends meerly upon the will of him that hath appointed it to this office but of this afterwards So then the grace power and authority to justifie recides originally in the Father and what force and power there is in Faith or more remotely in Works to justifie they have it by way of designation and act what they do act in that kind not out of any intrinsical worth or merit but meerly in the strength and by the authority of the will of God And however there is in the blood of Christ a richness of intrinsical worth and vertue of it self to justifie as is clearly intimated when it 's said We are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 Purchased with his blood Acts 20.28 c. yet since Christ did not glorifie himself to be made an High Priest and to offer himself a Sacrifice but was made so by the Father Heb. 5.5 thence it is that the Priestly offering and sacrifice it self in the effecting of that thing to which it is appointed by the Father viz. the purgation of sins and justification of sinners hath a dependance upon the Fathers will And therefore when men do beleeve in and depend upon Christ for justification they do ultimately beleeve in and depend upon the Father for it Iohn 12.44 Jesus cryed and said he that beleeveth on me believeth not on me but on him that sent me 1 Peter 1.21 Who by him do beleeve in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your Faith and hope might be in God The Father hath the power of life and death hath the power of giving Laws to his Creature Iames 4.12 it 's his Law that is transgressed by Sin and against him that the offence is committed Psal 51.4 and therefore it belongs to him to forgive sin Isai 43.25 Luke 5.21 and accordingly Christ directs us to pray the Father to forgive our Trespasses Mat. 6.12 It 's true also that the Son hath the same power of life and death of giving Laws and forgiving sins For all power both in Heaven and earth is given unto him that all men should honour the Son even as they that honour the Father But this he hath according to the order of his being from the Father Mat. 28.18 Iohn 3.35 and 17.2 Faith acts it self upon the Father as its object in three respects especially First by believing him to be the true God in opposition to Idols and all false gods Iohn 17.3 This is life eternal to know thee the only true God c. 1 Cor. 8.6 But to us there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in him Eph. 4.6 One God and Father of all Secondly by believing that notwithstanding the sin of men that he having received an attonement in his Sons blood is most willing to be favourable and
a matter it will be to beat them out of their confidence of being owned by him that he wil be fain not only to tel them again and again I know you not but at last to profess to them that he never knew them no not then in your life time as if he should say when you thought your selves cock-sure of my approbation I then knew you not to be any true Friends of mine but you loved your selves and Relations and loved the world more than me you loved your own wills more than mine and your own honour more than mine and entertained motions from the flesh and from the Devil sooner than from me and therefore now without any more ado depart from me all ye workers of iniquity a sad parting Who shall not say with David whilst he is under the contemplation hereof My flesh trembleth for fear of thee and I am afraid of thy judgements Psalm 119.120 That which I further note in the third and last place from this Doctrine of Christ which with the rest astonished those that heard him preach it Mat. 7.28 is this that the true reason why these mens confidence and all that upon which it is built and all their pleadings beggings and mournful supplications added thereto will all fail them and fall to the ground is in short this they were workers of iniquity as men work at their Trades to bring them in what they lack and love so these men work iniquity that is commit sin do and speak things contrary to the Laws and instructions of Christ to bring them in that present carnal content which they love and prefer before that future happiness upon those self-denying termes without which it is not to be had That Faith which they had was not of that kind which purifies the heart and renews the Soul to God but for all it the flesh still retained the commanding interest in the Soul and therefore as they had in their life time sowed to the flesh so of the flesh they must now reap corruption They were told that if they lived after the flesh they should dye as well as they were told that Christ came into the world to save sinners but they would not believe the one though they did the other but now they must find and feel that which they would not before believe These things considered I heartily beseech all those into whose hands this shall come to take warning now it is given and not to deal slightly in the business of their Faith or to dally with their precious Souls take heed of that vain confidence of many which you see will be all turned into disappointment and confusion of face when the day of tryal comes and be working out your salvation with fear and trembling with fear lest you should be mistaken about the ground of your confidence and evidence of your hope It 's a thousand pitties that men should be so wary and solicitous lest they should be deceived with a trackt title in their outward Estates and so presuming and careless about rheir title to the next World as generally they are as if the eternal Estate of their Souls were but a trifle to the momentary enjoyment of a little spot of this World If the inconvenience of a mistake herein could be born without any considerable breach upon ones comfort or could afterward be rectified though with some loss as in externals it may well be a mans folly would be the less but to be slight yea not to be exceeding curious solicitous and thoughtful to prevent a mischief that for nature is intollerable and for duration eternal and the loss irrepairable argues the extremity of sottish madness which yet O that it were not the case of all men a few only excepted Mat. 7.13 14. CHAP. VII Shewing that that Belief unto which the Promise is made though indefinitely exprest is to be understood of Belief of a special kinde and that it is no waies safe to notion it in the lowest narrowest and meanest sence of the Word but to frame our notion of it according to that result which the Scriptures compared do give of it under which notion of it it will be hard for any man to retain a confidence of Salvation without an holy conversation Sect. 1 ANd because men are oft betrayed into that vain confidence of Salvation which I have spoken of by mistaking some Scriptures which they wrest to their own destruction therefore to prevent that mischief for the future as much as may be as I have in the former part of my discourse been labouring to deliver some from their mistakes of such Scriptures as promise Justification upon believing without the Works of the Law so I shall here also add a few words to save them from the danger of an undue understanding of such Scriptures as represent the believing Christ to be the Son of God and that he dyed and rose again and the like to be that Faith that carries Life and Salvation in it For whereas I have asserted in the two former Chapters that neither the assenting to the truth of that report which the Scriptures make touching Christ his being the Son of God and Saviour of the World c. nor yet the relying on him as such for Salvation will indeed avail a man unto Salvation without a loving loyal and obediential cleaving to him it may be some will be ready to object and say Does not the Scripture plainly say That these things are written that ye might beleeve that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that beleeving ye might have life through his Name Iohn 20.31 and was not the acknowledging of this the very form of the Saints Faith in the first times of the Gospel Iohn 4.42 and 6.69 and 11.27 Acts 8.37 Mat. 16.16 and does not the Scripture also expresly say That if thou shalt confesse with thy mouth the Lord Iesus and shalt beleeve in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.9 and again every spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 1 John 4.2 and whosoever shall confesse that Iesus is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God verse 15. and whosoever beleeveth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God 1 Iohn 5.1 These things being so if I do both believe and confess Jesus to be the Christ and Christ to be the Son of God and that he dyed and rose again why may I not be confident of Salvation can I have any better security than the plain letter of the Scripture that promiseth salvation upon these termes Sect. 2 To all which I answer first that it is very true that this is the Faith of the Gospel and that to which eternal life is promised and that if thou doest so believe these things as that thy Faith do but answer the latitude of these Scripture expressions thou mayest be confident of Salvation and
well as if all those purposes inclinations and desires of the soul were so many visible works so many actual performances For 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 If it hath but passed the will in good earnest it is not the want of more ability or more opportunity that will hinder the mans acceptation but accepted he is and shall be with the Lord with what he hath in this kind be it more or be it lesse And now having shewed you both in what sence the unbeleeving Jews did and in what sence we do hold Works necessary unto Justification and salvation I now pray you to make judgement upon the whole and let your own conscience speak whether there be the least or lightest probability that when the Apostle rejecteth the works of the Law from Justification in the sence in which the Jews asserted them that then and therein he should also reject the christian resolutions and endeavours commanded in the Gospel upon pain of damnation from justification in the sence in which I have supposed them absolutely necessary thereunto Sect. 7 Neither is this any new Doctrine only it may be I have used a little more liberty of expression in asserting the necessity of Works to justification then many others who have been over-awed by a misunderstanding of Pauls saying in my Text have adventured to do Otherwise though there seems to be an over-tenderness and shiness in our Protestant Authors while engaged against the Papists to say in plain words that any Works are necessary to justification yet in the mean while they confidently and boldly assert in other words that which amounts to as much and signifies the same thing For that they might not be thought by denying the necessity of good works unto justification to open a gap unto carnal liberty and to lay a temptation upon men to be lesse carefull in the great work of Sanctification they are wont to assert over and over that though they do not hold good Works necessary to justification yet they do hold them necessary unto salvation so that though men may be justified without them yet they cannot be saved without them But I demand what Justification is that which will not put men into an immediate capacity of salvation but that there is a necessity of Works to do this for men Can any call this a justification unto life as the Scripture calls that justification which is of the Gospelkinds Rom 5.18 And does it not come to the same issue to say that Faith without Works will not justifie and to say that justification without works will not save for is justification any thing else then a discharging or setting a man free from condemnation and consequently bringing him into a condition of life so that whether the defect lie in the Faith that should justifie because of the absence of Works or whether in the justification it self because of the absence of Works it matters not for it seems there is the same necessity of Works unto Salvation on which side soever it fall with the sence of which necessity to fill the hearts and souls of men is the thing I drive at in this discourse But that to grant Works necessary unto salvation is all one in effect as to grant them necessary unto justification and that there is no more danger in the one then in the other and that the difference between the one and the other is but in a sound of words and not in substance of matter and consequently that they that deny the necessity of Works in the one sence and yet grant it in the other do but restore with the right hand what they unduly took away with the left is a thing clear and evident from the Scriptures as well as from the reason of the thing which I thus declare 1. Our Apostle Paul uses these two phrases to be justified and to live as words equivolent and importing the same thing and reckons it a good demonstration to prove that men are not justified by the works of the Law but by Faith inasmuch as that the Scripture saith The just shall live by Faith Gal. 3.11 But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by Faith Which would be a defective way of arguing if to be justified and to live were not the same thing with the Apostle So again vers 21. of the same Chapter For if there had been a Law given which could have given life verily righteousnesse should have been by the Law Here we see again that righteousnesse and life are convertable termes with the Apostle if life then righteousnesse if righteousnesse then life by the Law And so to be justified and to be blessed is all one thing with the same Apostle Gal. 3.8 9. Rom. 4.7 8 9. And to be saved or to be justified is the same thing which the Apostle James according to the tenour of his reasoning James 2. from verse the fourteenth to the four and twentieth 2. Justification and condemnation are in Scripture put in direct opposition one to another Rom. 5.18 and 8.33 So that he that is justified is free from condemnation and to be free from condemnation and to be in a state of Salvation is as much one as not to dye is to live 3. Salvation as well as Justification is promised to beleeving John 3.16 Acts 16.31 Heb. 10.39 therefore to be in a salvable condition is the immediate effect of Faith as well as to be justified and consequently that a man is as soon in a salvable condition as in a justified condition and if so then look what is necessary to the being of the one is necessary to the being of the other also with a necessity sine qua non without which neither will be And now what doth all this prove but that if men cannot be in a salvable condition without Works which is the thing granted then neither can they be in a justified condition without them because there is no separating of these But I still desire you that when I thus speak of the necessity of good Works unto Justification that you will do me and your selves too that right as to understand me in the sence in which I have explained my self before viz. that they are necessary so as to render that Faith by which men are justified to be of the right kind and such unto which Justification is promised Under which sence I am far enough from complying with the Papists who if they be not wronged hold Works to be satisfactory Propitiatory and meritorious for that 's their charge see Dr. Downam's Treatise Justi lib. 7. cap. 1. § 1. And as I am far from complying w th them so am I far enough from differing from those that oppose them if their own concessions about the necessity of Works may be
gracious not only in forgiving but also in rewarding such who duly and diligently seek his favour grace and love in such wayes and by such means as he himself hath appointed for that end Heb. 11.6 But without Faith it is impossible to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is there 's the former act of Faith touching the truth of his being and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Thirdly by trusting in and relying on his might mercy grace and love for pardon justification and eternal salvation Psalm 52.8 But I will trust in the mercy of the Lord for ever Rom. 4.5 But beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly Iohn 5.24 But all this at least since God was manifested in the flesh in and by Christ there being no coming to or believing in the Father but by him Iohn 14.6 1 Pet. 1.21 Though formerly he was worshipped and served under the name and title of the God of Abraham the God of Isaac the God of Iacob yet now in the New Testament under the Name and Title of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Eph. 1.17 and 3.14 Sect. 3 I might here shew also that the word promise or record of the Father concerning his Son is the object of Faith Yea Abrahams justification is cast upon his beleeving this word of God So shall thy seed be For Abraham beleeved God and it was counted to him for righteousnesse Gen. 15.6 Rom. 4.3.18 Gal. 3.6.8 Iames 2.23 Now the record which the Father hath given of Christ in the New Testament as the object of Faith is two-fold 1. That he is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased and that he ought to be heard and obeyed Mat. 3.17 and 17.5 And 2. That in him is life and that salvation is now offered to the World by beleeving in and obeying of him 1 Iohn 5.9 10 11 12. If we receive the witnesse of men the witnesse of God is greater for this is the witnesse of God which he hath testified of his Son He that beleeveth on the Son hath the witnesse in himself he that beleeveth not God hath made him a lyar because he beleeveth not the record which God gave of his Son And this is the record which God hath given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life This testimony which the Father gave of his Son was partly by voice from Heaven 2 Pet. 1.17 18. and partly by those Works which he gave him to finish by which men saw his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father Iohn 5.36 I have greater witnesse then that of Iohn for the works which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that do I bear witnesse of me that the Father hath sent me John 10.37 38. If I do not the works of my Father beleeve me not but if I do though ye beleeve not me yet beleeve the works that ye may know and beleeve that the Father is in me and I in him Sect. 4 II. As the Father so also Christ the Son is in Scripture set forth as the more immediate object of Faith Acts 16.31 And they said beleeve on the Lord Iesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house Now ye must know that Christ is propounded as the object of Faith in several respects and under several considerations Sect. 5 1. As he is the Messias of which Moses and the Prophets wrote and said should come And therefore is Christ called the He that should come Mat. 11.3 Art thou he that should come or do we look for another John 13.19 Now I tell you before it come that when it is come to passe ye may beleeve that I am HE. It was one thing to beleeve in general according to the Prophets that Messiah should come which was the common Faith of the Jews and as it should seem of the Samaritans too Iohn 4.25 and another thing to beleeve in particular that Jesus which is come is the Christ This was the Faith of such as did receive him and cleave to him when he did come Iohn 11.27 She said yea Lord I beleeve that thou art the Christ the Son of God which should come into the world The want of which is the destroying sin that lies so heavy upon the Jews John 8.24 For if ye beleeve not that I am HE ye shall dye in your sins 2. Christ as he is the Son of God is made the object of Faith Joh. 20 31. But these are written that ye might beleeve that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and that beleeving ye might have life through his name Acts 8.37.1 John 5.1 4 5. and 4.15 By Faith he is beleeved to be the Son of God not as Adam was the Son of God viz. by Creation Lu. 3. last in which sence we are all his Offspring Act. 17.28 Nor yet as the Saints are the Sons of God to wit by Adoption Gal 4.5 but that he is the begotten yea the only begotten Son of the Father so the Son and so begotten of the Father as none else is among all the creation of God John 1.14 and 3.18 He that beleeveth on him is not condemned but he that beleeveth not is condemned already because he hath not beleeved in the name of the only begotten Son of God Sect. 6 3. Christ as dying and shedding his blood is the object of Faith and that by which sinners become justified Rom. 5.9 Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood Faith eyes the blood of Christ as its object under a three-fold consideration First it believes that Christ did dye and shed his blood for our sins 1 Cor. 15.2 3. If ye keep in memory what I preached unto you unlesse ye have beleeved in vain For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received how that Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures Mat. 26.28 For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Secondly that this death and shedding of this blood of Christ is both the only and the all-sufficient means appointed by God to make an attonement for and to purge away sin Heb 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high Revels 1.5 Vnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood c. Heb. 10.14 For by one offering hath he perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Thirdly
which the faithful Prophets of the Lord threatned them with for transgressing the Covenant of the Lord and living in disobedience thereto Just as foolish men now do who because they find by the Scriptures that Christ dyed for sinners and hath commanded that remission of sins and salvation be preached in his name to every creature and hath given many precious encouragements for sinners of all sorts to look unto him from all the ends of the earth and be saved but with this Item that they repent and be baptized every one of them in the name of the Lord Iesus for the remission of sins that they be born again of water and of the Spirit that they deny themselves take up their Cross and follow him and forsake all that they have for his sake if they cannot faithfully obey him upon cheaper termes without which they cannot be his Disciples and that they diligently hearken to and carefully observe whatever Jesus that great Prophet hath spoken and commanded upon pain of being cut off from the number of the Lords redeemed ones they little minding or regarding the termes and conditions of the grace offered or thinking a few outward performances as the Jews aforesaid did of Circumcision Sacrifices and the like will serve for all when indeed the main of the matter the renewing them to God in the disposition and frame of their hearts and a faithful labouring to please the Lord in all all things and striving against all contrary motions and temptations is wholly wanting yet as if all the grace in the Gospel were theirs and designed for all those that will lay hold of it right or wrong they confidently perswade themselves or endeavour so to do that they are built upon a sure foundation that Christ remission of sins and salvation are all theirs and that they do them a great deal of wrong that offer but a word to shake this confidence of theirs Again see the like in another passage Isai 48.1 2. Hear ye this O house of Iacob which are called by the name of Israel and are come forth out of the waters of Iudah which swear by the name of the Lord and make mention of the God of Israel but not in truth nor in righteousnesse For they call themselves of the holy City and stay themselves upon the God of Israel the Lord of hosts is his name This people you see mention the name of the Lord as being called by it look upon themselves as his people call themselves of the holy City and thereupon stay themselves upon the God of Israel depend upon him for all good as their God and upon his promises as if made to them and thus they did but not in truth nor in righteousness for this profession and this confidence of theirs was accompanied with unfaithfulness in the main and therefore their dependance upon God was irregular and deceitful God having no where engaged to stand under such a trust but the contrary Iob 8.13 14 15. Sect. 2 And as it was thus with those under the Old so is it likewise after the same manner with too many now under the New Testament who because they have some knowledg and beleef of Gods gracious intention to save sinners by the death of his Son and the general promises of the Gospel especially if together herewith they have but a form of godliness and something of devotion towards the ordinances of God they perswade themselves that they are the believers to whom the promises of remission of sin and salvation of the soul are made though in the mean time they are under the power of some known sin or other either covetousness or cruelty and hard heartednes or pride or uncleannes or intemperance in word or deed or some other sin and are unrenewed in will and affections or if there be any change it is not so much as will turn the scale and give them in of the victory against the flesh on the Spirits side but though there be so much light as that they can talk of good things and so much conviction as in the general to approve of them yet the interest of the flesh clearly carries it when things come to be done and when temptation is upon them And the main reason I conceive why persons upon their generall belief of the Gospel have this confidence of Salvation though otherwise they are as yet but in the flesh and so cannot please God Rom. 8.8 is this because they are partial in the Scriptures and do not give one Scripture as well as another room in their judgements and affections their minds run upon such Scriptures as declare Christ Iesus to have come into the world to save sinners that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life that he that confesseth with his mouth the Lord Iesus and beleeveth in his heart that God raised him from the dead shall be saved and the like and so far they do very well But then there are other Scriptures that declare that except men repent they shall perish that except they be born again they cannot see the kingdom of God that without holiness no man shall see the Lord that the Lord will come in flaming Fire rendring vengeance to those that obey not the Gospel that those that live after the flesh shall dye that if any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him that tribulation and wrath shall be upon every soul that doth evill with many the like which they slightly pass over and are not thorowly possest with an apprehension that those other Scriptures that entaile the promise of life to be beleeving are so to be understood as that these others must stand with them or to be understood of such a kind of believing as hath the substance of these other Scriptures working in the bowels of it which they must believe that will not deceive themselves in their Faith and is there not the same reason to believe the one as well as the other doth not the water of both sorts of Scripture proceed out of the same hole from the same fountain But now the carnal beleevers of whom I speak fansying to themselves that the promise of Salvation is made to believing indefinitely not considering that it is tyed up to that special kind of believing which works by love as other Scriptures interpret and they knowing in themselves that they do believe in one sence for so indeed they do with that general Faith of assent thence they conclude confidently that they are heirs of promise and heirs of salvation as well as any and do as verily think they are going to Heaven whereas indeed they are in the way to hell as ever the Syrians thought they were going to Dothan while they were blindly led to Samariah 2 King 6.19 Sect. 3 The men of this formal and dead Faith of which I speak that
not the honour that cometh from God only For in that lower sence which imports only a bare and barren assent they might and some of them did believe and yet did receive honour one of another and did not seek that honour that comes from God only for some did believe and yet loved the praise of men more than the praise of God Iohn 12.43 But by this saying of our Saviour it appears that when men do believe rightly and savingly that belief of theirs carries the affections more to Christ than to men as valuing and preferring his approbation before theirs and consequently engaging the man to please Christ rather than them In which better sence the Apostle Iohn is also to be understood when he saies Whosoever beleeveth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God 1 Iohn 5.1 That is whosoever believes effectually and affectionately is thereby turned into another man which is done not by an idle and an opinionative assent but by an operative belief Sect. 3 But to make it yet farther evident that the Faith to which Salvation is promised is not to be understood in such a restrained sence as sometimes it s used among men and in the Scriptures too for a bare act of the mind without the concurrence of the wil and affections but in a moral and more comprehensive sence for such a believing Christ to be the Son of God as unites and subjects the soul to him as such I shall offer these few things as most worthy your consideration 1. To believe and to obey the Lord or the Gospel are in the Gospel account so much of the same general and common nature as that they are frequently indifferently put the one for the other and so are their contraries unbelief and disobedience Hence it is that those words which the translators of our Bible have in sundry places rendred belief or unbelief the Dutch Translation Englished renders obedience or disobedience Yea our own Translators finding the Original words so indifferently to import either have according in several places given us both in the double reading of Text and margint as you may see Rom. 11.30 31. and 15.31 Acts 5.36 Heb. 4.11 and 11.31 When the Apostle would shew that the Prophesie of Isaiah was fulfilled in the unbelieving Jews which saith Lord Who hath believed our report he does it by saying they had not obeyed the Gospel Rom. 10.16 But they have not all obeyed the Gospel for Esaiah saith Lord who hath believed our report So that with this Apostle not to believe and not to obey the Gospel is the same thing And Peter another Apostle of our Lord puts believing and disobedience in direct opposition one to another as if the word Disobedient were as much the contrary to believing as the word unbelieving is 1 Pet. 2.7 To you that beleeve he is precious but unto them which be disobedient the stone c. 2 Thes 2.12 Sect. 4 2. Again it 's worthy consideration that the two Evangelists Matthew and Luke recording the same saying of Christ for substance yet so far vary the expression as that that which the one calls Faith the other calls the Love of God See the passage Mat. 23.23 And have omitted the weightier matters of the Law Iudgement Mercy and Faith Luke 11.42 thus Ye tithe Mint and Rue and all manner of herbs and passe over judgement and the love of God That which Christ here charges the Pharisees with that whilst they were zealous for the lesser they neglected the weightier matters of both Tables of the Law Judgement and Mercy towards men the great Duties of the Second Table and Faith in and Love to God the great Duties of the First Table and which are more than all whole burnt Offerings and Sacrifices which yet were Duties of the First Table also Mark 12.33 I know that some are of opinion that the Faith mentioned Mat. 23 23. is meant of fidelity to men and so a Duty of the Second Table but considering that the Pharisees and Scribes were not only guilty of the neglect of the weightier matters of the Second Table but of the First also much of their hypocrisie lying in this that they would be deemed great Friends to God upon account of their zeal for some lesser matters of the external and ceremonial part of his Worship when in the mean while they faultered with God and grosly neglected the Spiritual Internal and substancial part thereof it cannot reasonably be thought but that Christs charge and reproof must reach them in this neglect as well as the other which yet cannot be unless by Faith which they were charged to omit we understand Faith towards God for that Judgement and Mercy the other part of their omission are by general agreement understood of duties towards men commanded in the Second Table so that they must be taxed with their neglect toward God in this behalf in that reproof for omitting Faith or else not at all But besides that which I think puts the matter out of doubt is this that Luke instead of Matthews saying that they omitted Faith affirms that they passed over the Love of God which according to Christs own words is the First and great Commandement Mat. 22.38 39. and so in this as in many other particulars Matthew is expounded by Luke This passage of our Saviour mentioned by these two Evangelists being thus understood there is one thing as to my present purpose which I would have observed from hence and that is That the right Faith commanded by God in the nature of it is a fiducial loving of the Lord such a believing him to be what he is and such a depending upon him as such as is accompanied with or which carries in it unfeigned love or true affection to him which interpreted is the keeping of his Commandements 1 Iohn 5.3 According to 1 Tim. 1.5 The end of the Commandement is love out of Faith unfeigned If that Love which is the end and scope of the Law be such as proceeds out of an unfeigned Faith then the unfeigned Faith must in the Nature of it in the Womb of it needs comprehend and contain that Love which is the end and scope of the Commandement it could not proceed out of it if it were not first in it It 's true indeed this act or this ingredient of Faith which affectionately carries the Soul to God bears another denomination different in sound from that of Faith and is called Love as the different operations of one and the same soul give a different denomination of faculties and as the same body of Waters which make the Sea receive other Names when they come to be distributed into several Rivers but it will no more follow that Faith does not originally contain a divine Love in the nature of it because when produced into act it 's called by another name then it will follow that the different acts of the Will and of the Understanding are not acts