of weak and low parts and in that respect but vessels of dishonour in the worlds eye are not in that danger to be courted by the world nor under any probability or hopes of obtaining honour from the world though they should seek it thence it comes to pass that their minds are more at liberty to look after glory and greatness in the next world since they neither have nor are like to have any in this and so to fall in with the doctrine of the Gospel which both offers and opens the way to the glory to come but makes little of this world calls mens minds off it and teaches self-denial about it And then when such have actually imbraced the truth as it is in Jesus though they themselves are but poor and meane in parts and humane abilities and of shallow capacities yet the Spirit of God now becomes their guide and he takes of the things of Christ viz. his Doctrines contained in the Scriptures and shews them unto them John 16.14 And what ever parts and humane abilities men may have by the power of which they may go for us to the Grammatical sense of the Scriptures yet as to the spiritual designe of them whilst they themselves are strangers to the sense of such a thing upon their own hearts and consequently have not that presence of the spirit of truth who keeps at a distance from the high-minded and worldly-wise they must needs be in greater danger of wresting the Scriptures as unto the spiritual design of them then the poor humble and meek Soul with whom God delights to dwell and whom he hath promised to guide in judgement and teach in his way Psal 25.9 Isai 57.15 though very far inferior in humane accomplishments But since the mis-understanding of the Scriptures about the doctrine of Justification by Faith without the works of the Law hath proved and I exceedingly fear doth still prove a snare of death unto vast multitudes of poor souls as I intimated before therefore to awaken men who have been but in a spiritual dream about this important business and to undeceive many poor souls who are in extream danger of perishing eternally under a mistaken confidence of Salvation I shall as of the ability which is of God by comparing the Scriptures hereabout endeavour to open and further to clear this mighty point upon the practical understanding of which doth depend even the salvation of all our souls CHAP. II. Shewing of what sort or kind of Works those are which Paul in his Epistles excludes in the point of Mans justification before God Romans 4.5 But to him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted unto him for righteousnesse SECT I NOT to meddle with the coherence of these words for the present because I shall have a fit occasion to touch that afterwards You may easily perceive that they do in themselves contain a brief description of the Man whom God will justifie And we have him here described both negatively and affirmatively 1. Negatively he is such an one as worketh not so saith the Text To him that worketh not c. 2. Affirmatively he is such a one as does believe on him that justifieth the ungodly for the Text tells us concerning him that his faith is counted to him for righteousness I shall God willing speak something to both parts of the description and shall begin with that first which is first in the Text. How then is the Apostle to be understood when he affirms the man that works not to be the capable subject of Justification provided otherwise he be such a one as doth beleeve what kind of Works are they which he shuts out from having part and fellowship in this matter and in what respects 1. Whatever they are it is not the presence of them which he excludes as if a man that hath the works he here speaks of could not be justified but it is such a justifying vertue power and property which some supposed to be in them but were deceived which he excludes as having no hand less nor more in any mans Justification for otherwise Paul though whilst he was a Pharisee and to the very time of his beleeving was such a worker as that he could say that as touching the righteousnesse of the law he was blameless Phil. 3.6 yet this was no obstruction to his Justification when he did beleeve indeed 2. But the Apostles meaning is that the absence of the Works here spoken of would not at all hinder a mans Justification in case he did beleeve but that he was in as good a capacity of Justification upon his beleeving though he had none of the works he here speaks of as he would or could have been in case he had them all 3. But then in the next place the main question will be what and what manner sort or kind of Works it is without which a man if he beleeve shall be justified and whether he intends to exclude all and all manner of works in this case or some one sort or kind only For the resolution whereof we must consider upon what occasion these words of the Apostle are here brought in and what people and what opinions they are against which he is here disputing the knowledge of which will be as a key to open the door of this Text and to give us clearly to understand what Works they are without which a man beleeving may be justified That it is not against any such opinion as reckons a Gospel conversation consisting of self-denial mortification of worldly lusts and sinful affections the love of Christ above all and the preferring other mens spiritual interest and profit before their own temporal and a tender caring for others temporal good as well as their own I say that it is not any such opinion against which the face of the Apostles present argumentation is bent will evidently appear 1. By the carriage of other Scriptures which are so far off from affirming any man to be justified by Faith without these Works as that contrarily they do positively and peremptorily conclude and declare that Faith to be dead unprofitable and vain and such as shall never save that is without these And therefore we may by no means understand the Apostle in any such sense as would make him clash with and fall foul upon the general current of the Scripture elsewhere But the further opening and handling of this I must respite unto its proper place afterwards Sect. 2 2. But that the Works here cast out of doors by the Apostle in the matter of mans Justification are precisely of that sort or kind which are elsewhere called by him the deeds of the Law Rom. 3.28 viz. Mosaical ordinances and services especially such as were Circumcision and Sacrifices and the like which were Works required in the Law of Moses I come now to demonstrate And for the clearing of our way to this we will as I
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
said consider the persons and their opinions against which the Apostle disputes The persons against whom the Apostle was ingaged in this dispute of his were the unbeleeving Jews or at least such as did judaiz it that is in a great measure comply with them in their opinion touching the necessity of Circumcision and other Mosaical Rites to Justification For the Jews then being scattered among the Gentiles here and there in the Roman Cities and Provinces and particularly here at Rome Acts 28.17.24 did vehemently oppose the doctrine of the Apostles especially in their preaching Salvation to the Gentiles upon their beleeving without the works of the Law forbidding them to speak to the Gentiles or to declare unto them that they might be saved upon any such termes 1 Thes 2.16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved c. To fortifie the beleevers whether Jews or Gentiles against their insinuations and oppositions in this kind the Apostle at large debates the case in difference between them both in this Epistle to the Romans and in that to the Galatians which Churches viz. of Rome and Galatia it is like were then pestered more than others in this kind The unsound opinions held by them and which this Apostle in his doctrine of Justification doth oppose in this and other of his Epistles were such as these Sect. 3 1. That the Messiah or Christ which God had promised they expected should whenever he came abide for ever and not die John 12.34 We have heard out of the Law say they that Christ abideth for ever and how sayest thou the son of man must be lift up This was a doctrine which it seems past for current among them their guides mis-interpreting some one or more passage in the Old Testament to that purpose that the Messiah should never dye but abide for ever without any change by death which doctrine they took as inconsistent with Jesus his being the Christ indeed and yet suffering death by being lift up upon the Cross which he Prophetically fore-told 1 Cor. 2.7.8 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory Which none of the Princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory What was that wisdom of God in a mystery which he sayes they preached why it was this that God had offered Salvation to the world by Christ as crucified which both to the Jews and Greeks was such a mystery as but few of them understood but was their occasion of stumbling at Christ 1 Cor. 1.23 24. But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God Which mystery saith he 1 Cor. 2.7 8. viz. that the counsel of God was so laid to bring about the life of men by the death of the Messias None of the Princes of this world knew viz. the chief of those that had their hands in his death for had they known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory No surely they would not but it was their ignorance touching those Scriptures which fore-told his humiliation and death that proved a snare to them first to reject him because of his low condition and afterward to crucifie him so saith the Text in effect Acts 13.27 For they that dwell at Jerusalem and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath day they have fulfilled them in condemning him Sect. 4 2. The next damnable opinion which they held into which they were led by the hand of the former was this that Jesus was not the Christ For they concluded him therefore not to be the Christ because he suffered and was crucified they holding the former opinion that such a thing was impossible to befall the Christ of God This is clear from 1 Cor. 1.23 it was his being crucified that caused them to stumble at him and not believe him to be the Christ as it is still unto this day In opposition to which opinion it is that the Apostle hath that saying Heb. 9.16 For where a Testament is there must also of necessity be the death of the Testator Where he argues the necessity of the death of the true Christ for the ratification of the New Testament of which he is Mediatour in opposition to some of another mind Therefore we shall find that to prove the necessity of the Death and Resurrection of the true Christ as also to prove that Christ his being Crucified did not at all argue him not to be the true Christ but the contrary was a great part of the Apostles dispute against the Jews who as it thereby appears held the contrary Acts 17.2 3. And Paul as his manner was went in unto them viz. the Jews in their Synagogue ver 1. and three Sabbath dayes reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alledging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead and that Jesus whom I preach unto you is Christ Sect. 5 3. Another thing which they held also was this that their Sacrifices in conjunction with Circumcision and other observances did take away sin For 1. In that they offered Sacrifices for sin they thereby acknowledged themselves to be sinners and such as stood in need of attonement for saith the Apostle Heb. 10.3 In those Sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year 2. In that they held the true Christ should never dye as we heard before they must therefore needs hold withall that sin was not to be purged by his death and Sacrifice And then 3ly If not by that by what then but by those very Sacrifices of Bulls and Goats which were offered for sin which indeed was the naughty opinion against which the Apostle saith so much in the Epistle to the Hebrews Heb. 10.1 For the law having a shaddow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those Sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect as some it seems on the contrary did hold Again ver 4. For it is not possible that the blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away sins What shall we think that the Apostle sets up a man of Straw and then fights with it or that he beats only the aire with his word shall we think that he so solemnly over and over and over denies that which no man affirmed or would he make such a business of it to argue the inefficaciousness the unavailablenes of those sacrifices to take away sin if no body had asserted their power and efficacy in that behalf surely he would not such a thing is much below the wisdom of an ordinary man and much more below
nature and not sinners of the Gentiles knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have beleeved in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law for by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified By which the Apostle plainly intimates that it was so far from being necessary to compel the believing Gentiles to keep the law of the Jews to make them capable of justification as that the Jews themselves who had the Law and the works of it must needs lay aside the consideration thereof in their coming to God for justification and must be content to receive it upon like termes of grace with the Gentiles themselves as Paul himself did Phil. 3.9 who desired to be found in Christ not having his own righteousness which was of their law as he was a Jew but that which was through the Faith of Christ as he was a Christian CHAP. III. Shewing how Love Iustice and Mercy though commanded both in Law and Gospel are to he rejected in the Iewish sense and yet imbraced in the Christians as necessary unto Iustification Shewing also in what sence Works are necessary unto Iustification Sect. 1 HAving thus far shewed what Works they are which the Apostle in our Text excludes from Justification as unnecessary thereunto viz. such Works as were proper to the Jews in contra-distinction to the Gentiles which are in Scripture usually called the works of the Law for about them did the controversie grow as we have seen before all that I shall now add by way of use as to this matter shall be for caution To take heed how we oppose Faith to Works and that when we do so be we sure to keep the Scripture road which I have been now tracing out It is true Faith and Love are often in the New Testament distinguished or mentioned as things distinct in a strict sence Ephes 6.23 1 Tim. 1.14 and 2.15 2 Tim. 1.13 Philem. 5. c. but I am not without much confidence that they are never opposed as Faith and the Works of the Law are as if a man that hath no Love might be justified by his Faith as he that worketh not or which hath no Works in our Apostles sence may It is no where neither in words nor sence said But he that loveth not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted to him for righteousnesse but the contrary in substance is flatly affirmed by the Apostle James chap. 2. besides other Scriptures as I shall God willing come afterwards to shew And therefore I do think that our Protestant Writers have given too much advantage to the Papists whilst in asserting justification by Faith alone without any Works at all they have in the mean while chiefly if not only built this their assertion upon such Scriptures as my Text with others of like nature which treat not of all Works in generall but of such as did belong unto the Jews in special and therefore are usually called the Works of the Law or the Deeds of the Law Works of what Law I pray you but of that Law which as the Apostle saith pertained to the Israelites Rom. 9.4 and which as the same Apostle saith also the Gentiles had not Rom. 2.12.14 1 Cor. 9.21 Objection Sect. 2 But when the Apostle opposeth this Law that was given unto the Jews unto Faith and when he denies Justification to be by the works of that Law is it not all one as if he should oppose Faith unto Works commanded in the Gospel for the same Works of Love Justice and Mercy that are enjoyned in the Gospel are also commanded in the Law Answer This indeed is an Objection that deserves consideration but for answer take it thus Though it be very true that the same Works of Love Justice and Mercy be enjoyned both in Law and Gospel yet it will not follow that when the Apostle opposeth the Works of the Law to Faith that then he opposeth Gospel-works to Faith likewise for these two Reasons 1. Because those Works as they were enjoyned the Jews in the Law were part of the first Covenant but as they are enjoyned in the Gospel so they are part of the second Covenant But now the Law or first Covenant in the letter of it was not of Faith saith the Apostle the things promised in it were suspended not upon the condition of beleeving but of doing But the man that doth them shall live in them Gal. 3.12 Upon which account and in respect whereof the Works even of Love Justice and Mercy as enjoyned under that Covenant may possibly be opposed to Faith Whereas the Gospel or new Covenant which also contains in it precepts of Love Equity and Mercy as well as promises of pardon acceptation and salvation and not promising the enjoyment of the one without obedience in the other as is further to be shewed afterwards I say this Gospel or New Covenant is so of Faith and all the conditional part of it so relating to and depending upon Faith as that it is so far from being opposed to Faith as the other Covenant is as that the whole Gospel New-Testament or Covenant both in its precepts and promises bears the denomination of Faith being sometimes stiled the Faith Gal. 1.2 3. and 3.23 Acts 6 7. Romans 1.5 Iude 3. Sometimes the Law of Faith Romans 3.27 And when we suppose the duties and Works of Love to be opposed to Faith under one Covenant for reasons proper to it and yet yet the same Works not to be opposed to Faith in the other Covenant for reasons peculiar to it let it not seem strange to any man for it is no new thing to affirm and deny the same thing under several circumstances and different considerations As the Apostle Iohn for example touching this great Commandement of Love of which we now speak he affirms it to be no New Commandement but an old and yet presently again sayes the same is a New Commandement 1 Iohn 2.7 8. Brethren I write no new Commandement unto you but an old Commandement which ye had from the beginning the old Commandement is the word which ye have heard from the beginning Again a new Commandement I write unto you which thing is true in him and in you because the darknesse is past and the true light now shineth The Law of Love is an old Commandement as it is part of the old Covenant and yet the same is a new commandement as it is part of the new Covenant being given a new by Christ the Mediator thereof and now upon new termes too not as opposed to Faith as in the former but as in a collateral and subservient way joyned with it in the latter And besides this the same Commandement under this new edition of it comes out with inlargement which makes it new Which thing saith the Apostle
atonement for sin without which the Creature is undone and without which Faith cannot justifie And therefore that which is impossible as to it self in this respect it hath from another from Christ Who is the propitiation for our sins So then righteousness coming upon or accruing to men upon or by means of their beleeving and yet proceeding or issuing principally by way of result from that which is extrinsical to Faith to wit the blood of Christ and unspeakable grace of God there is good reason why Faith though it be a mans righteousness or that upon or by means of which he enjoyes the priviledges of a just and righteous man yet he should have and hold this great and blessed benefit by way of imputation or altogether upon the account of Grace as having that transferred to his account in the result of it which resides in another and which indeed hath the greatest stroke in his Justification Sect. 8 Which Doctrine of Faiths being counted to men for Righteousness according to the explanation given if it be true then the opinion and Doctrine of some who hold and teach that men are justified before beleeving or when Christ suffered or from eternity must needs be false For if there be no Justification but by the blood of Christ and no application of this blood in the justifying vertue of it to persons of years of discretion for of such I speak but by Faith which is the thing ordained by God to interess them in the justifying vertue and saving benefit of it then there can be no actual justification of men till they do beleeve but that there is no Justification by the blood of Christ nor right to or saving application of that Blood without beleeving is that which from the Scriptures hath been asserted in the first head of explanation and might be abundantly further made out from the Scriptures if what hath been already said on this behalf were not sufficient And so again if that be true that whosoever shall be justified must be justified declaratively or sententially by the Gospel and acquitted by that and that the Gospel acquits no man but such as perform the termes and fulfill the condition of it upon which its promises of Justification do depend and that the Gospel-termes or condition upon which it promises Justification and eternal life is Beleeving then certainly till men do indeed Beleeve the Gospel does not will not cannot acquit and justifie any man but cast and condemn him But that no man shall be justified without the acquittance or discharge which the Gospel gives and that it gives this acquittance or discharge to none but such as perform its condition and fulfill its terms and that the said terms or condition is Beleeving are things that lye very fair and obvious in the Scriptures and are in part to be seen in the second head of explanation of the Doctrine of Faiths being counted for Righteousness Sect. 9 By the light of the same Doctrine of Faiths being imputed for Righteousness that opinion also which holds that the Justification by Faith which the Scripture speaks of is not meant of mens being justified in the sight of God but only in the Court of their own Conscience by way of evidence or assurance is proved to be darkness and not light For when Faith is said to be counted or imputed for Righteousness the meaning is not that when a man comes to Beleeve he thereby comes to know himself to be what indeed he was before viz. justified in the sight of God but that then indeed he comes to be that which till then he was not viz. a man acquitted and discharged from his sins and accepted in the sight of God as one reconciled by the Death of his Son which till then who not actually applyed for his Justification as one under the protection of the Gospel which till then thundred out wrath and judgement against him as it does against all while in the state of unbelief Mark 16.16 John 3.18 36. Which threatnings would be really inconsistent with their safe condition by Justification in the sight of God if there were such a thing as Justification in his sight before Believing For those threatnings are true or else they are false if true as most certainly they are then whosoever dyes before he believes and so before he is justified by Faith is damned and if damned then not justified in the sight of God Sect. 10 And I the rather mention these things as well for caution as confutation because the Doctrine of mens Justification before believing as grounded on the Doctrine of particular and personal Election before Faith hath I fear in these late years rendred the work of Faith with power in the heart and life of too many a matter not of that mighty importance which indeed it is in the Scripture account But hath been a temptation upon them to think that Faith hath not been absolutely and essentially necessary to the being of a Christian or a mans safe standing before God but necessary only unto his comfortable and well being in respect of evidence and assurance And so hath rendred their care and diligence about their proving themselves to be in the Faith proportionably less by how much an assurance of ones good condition is less than ones good condition it self CHAP. XIII Containing an Exhortation by way of vse for Men to behold themselves in this Glass of Iustification and by the help of the precedent Discourse to prove the goodness or badness of their title to life And shewing the ill abode of negligence and the real advantage of care and diligence herein and what must be done to obtain a good testimony from Conscience as Iudge Delegate under Christ touching the goodness of mens spiritual condition in the eye of the Gospel and in the sight of God Sect. 1 DEarly Beloved as you have heard some parts of the Doctrine of Justification more briefly opened so you have had the nature of that Faith by which you are to be Justified if ever justified more largely handled according to that measure of understanding in it which God hath given me By which means you have opportunity given you of beholding as in a Glass your own spiritual state and condition before the Lord whether justified or not and whether your title to that incomparable priviledg be tite and sound or crackt and flawed It remains now that according to the Apostles Exhortation 2 Cor. 13.5 You prove your own selves whether you be in the Faith or no whether you have that Faith in you which hath been discovered to you to be that only kind of Faith which will be counted to them that have it for righteousness As for such as shall be negligent careless and slight in a matter of this moment it 's a shrewd sign that all is not well with them When Trades-men are backward and unwilling to cast up their Books and to see how the case stands with them
profess your selves to be of the planting of the Lord I say it remains now that I in my Heavenly Lord and Masters name do call for and demand fruit of every one of you both of this and all other the labours cost and pains which have through the Lords succour and assistance been bestowed upon you both by my self and by him who hath served with me in the same Work with what love and Faithfulness to you the Lord best knows and your Consciences I trust in part can witness It is true we have an account to give of your Souls and O the weight of such a burden and care of such a charge little does he know it whose Conscience does not feel it but then know ye and consider it that you have an account also to give of all the Heart-affecting care Godly jealousie and fear painful study and labour in the Word and Doctrine which God knows is sustained and used in discharge of our trust towards you And O that our mutual care in discharge of our duties towards each other may be found such as that both you and we may give up our accounts together to Jesus the chiefe Shepheard of the Sheep with joy and not with grief In respect of our own persons alass how little is expected from you We can and you know we can truly say We seek not yours but you 2 Cor. 12.14 But that which puts you under the greater obligation to us-ward in respect of Office is that relation in which we stand between the Lord and you as being those vessels earthen ones indeed by which Jesus Christ is sending and ministring to you from time to time nourishment and Food for your Souls And what ever gifts we have or what ever labour we bestow among you they are not so much ours as the Lords it is not so much from us as from the Lord from whom we receive all and by whom we are inabled to do all and it is his care and love towards you to furnish you with any that have a mind carefully to watch for your souls From whence it is that the Lord expects fruit from you as due to him upon account of our labour and service among you and for the same reason it is that in his name I demand it of you and upon the same account that saying of the Apostle will take place 1 Thes 4.8 He therefore that despiseth despiseth not man but God who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit But that which may well render this demand of mine as acceptable unto you as it is reasonable in it self is this that though I demand Fruit yet I demand fruit that may abound to your account Phil. 4.17 For however the Lord by your yielding fruit will be well pleased and his holy name and truth glorified and you shall thereby become to us also a Joy for the present and a crown of rejoycing in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming 1 Thes 2.19 yet in the issue all the glory you shall bring to God and all the good you shall procure to men by rendering unto the Lord fruit in season will return into your own bosom you shall eat of the fruit of your doing if you have your fruit unto holinesse the end will be to you everlasting life Rom. 6.22 and the more fruit in holinesse now the more fruit in happinesse then when you shall be rewarded by him who will render to every one according to their works both for kind and degree if thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self Pro 9.12 Sect. 3 Brethren I beseech you hear me if you shall but lay this thing to heart if the sense of what the Lord hath done and is doing for you to make you fruitful shall but procure from you an earnest desire and care to answer the Lords expectation herein and to yield him a crop of the seed which he hath sown you shall thereby secure unto your selves the Lords constant care of you and prepare the way of a gratious multiplication and increase of prosperous and thriving applications of the Lord to you Every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit saith Christ the true Vine John 15.2 It encourageth a man to bestow more and more cost upon his Vineyard or upon his land when he finds it to quit his cost in an answerable return of fruit And so will the Lord rejoyce over you to continue and increase the means of your growth to prosper them more more for your encrease in grace if you be but found fruit-bearing branches As he will then delight to go down into his garden to gather fruit among you so he will blow upon his garden too with a heavenly breath to cause the spices thereof to flow out and your savour shall be as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed Sect. 4 And as the Lord in this case will spare for no cost that you may yield him more of that fruit which his Soul so loves so to be sure there shall be no care wanting to fence you that no wild beasts break in upon you to make havock and spoile There 's no man but takes most care of those trees that yield the best and most fruit and it s most certain that the eye of the Lord is chiefly upon those plants which yeild him the best increase both for quantity and kind Such a vineyard is indeed regularly capable of that care protection and tendence of which the Lord speaketh saying I the Lord doe keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day Isa 27.3 And I hope you are sensible that it s no small priviledge for you to have God to set a hedge about you and to watch over you in times of such spirituall danger as these are in which you live You know there are beasts of prey that are seeking to break in here and to creep in there Foxes little Foxes that seeke to spoyl the Vines that bear tender Grapes Cant. 2.15 Among which the Quaker is not the least active who under a pretence of singular holinesse and with two faces under one hood have overthrown the faith of some touching the excellency and necessity of the holy Scriptures touching the Resurrection of the body of our Lord and his personal session at Gods right hand and his coming again in person at the end of this world to judg the quick and the dead in many other things this you or at least some of you have proved and found though their equivocations subtile evasions and reservations of their particular and punctual opinions hereabout under general expressions have rendered their heretical deceit herein of a harder preception and a more difficult discerning which many unstable souls abroad in the world not having been able to discover have taken the hook while it hath been covered with a tempting
line 27. for for us read far as pag. 11. line 31. for Jews r. Jew page 12. line 5. blot out as A Glass of Justification Wherein the Apostles Doctrine touching JUSTIFICATION without the DEEDS of the LAW is opened and the sence in which Gospel-Obedience is absolutely necessary to Justification is stated CHAP. I. Containing an Introduction to the following Treatise Romans 4. Ver. 5. But to him that worketh not but beleeveth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted unto him for Righteousnesse AMongst other things in Pauls Epistles which as the Apostle Peter observes 2 Pet. 3.16 are hard to be understood and which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest to their own destruction there is too much cause to suspect the Text now before us to be one For whoever shall but judiciously consider the Epistles of the Apostles James Peter John and Iude besides other Scriptures may easily perceive that many professors of the Gospel then did so bear themselves upon a me form of knowledge and Faith as if the promise of Salvation had been entailed to that alone without respect had to that holy life enjoyned in the Gospel without which no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 Into which most dangerous deadly snare its like enough they might be brought by mis-understanding and wresting such Scriptures as my Text which makes the man that Worketh not but Believeth the capable subject of Justification And is there not cause to fear that multitudes of poor Souls to this day are still under the same desperate and destructive mistake Whence else proceeds that high confidence in the most amongst us of their being saved by Christ although but strangers to the life of God having this saying to defend themselves against the reproof of their sinful life no man shall be saved by his Works or else not by the works of righteousnesse which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us leaving out that which follows viz. by the washing of regeneration and renewng of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 Whence is it also that multitudes of Professors under various forms as well that which is right as those which are wrong take themselves to be rich and to have need of nothing more than they have to entitle them to remission of sins and Salvation when as they are meer beggars and bankrupts as to a humble sober self-denying life Is it not that they value themselves by that stock of brain-knowledge and barren Faith which they are sure they have and thereupon think themselves sure of those promises which are made to those that know and believe the truth Nay hath not the doctrine of Justification without Works as commonly asserted from that Text which I have chosen on which to found my present Discourse and other of the like nature proved a Temptation even to many good men to have a lighter and lower esteem of good Works and of the necessity of them to Justification and Salvation than of right belongs to them Yea I am perswaded that the strenuous urging of such Texts against the Papists in disputes about Justification without that due care which ought to be had in distinguishing the works which my Text speaks of from those of another nature hath occasioned many honest hearts to content themselves to write but fifty which otherwise would have subscribed an hundred towards the promoting of the Gospel designe in themselves and others had they clearly understood the mind of God in this business What shall I say Christ Jesus himself though sent on purpose to save and not to destroy and not only to shew but to be the very way unto life and glory yet the ignorance and mis-understanding of the counsel of God touching the termes how and after what manner he is so hath rendred him to very many a stone of stumbling a rock of offence a snare and a gin a means of a more dreadful condemnation than ever they should have fallen into had Christ never been offered to them as a Saviour But to whom is he so but as Peter tells us to those that stumble at the Word 1 Pet. 2.8 not understanding but mistaking the nature and temres of the doctrine of grace and the Scripture expressions thereabout either thinking that Faith will save without Works otherwise than the Scripture intends or that this or that Belief is the Faith unto which Justification and Salvation are promised when as it is neither this nor that but another So that when Peter sayes that such as are unlearned and unstable wrest the Scriptures of Paul and others to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 it is not meant of such as are unlearned in humane arts but unlearned in the method and termes of Gods proceeding with men to bring them to Salvation being carried away with a sound of letters and words not being carefull to order themselves in their understanding of Scripture expressions by those principal heads and veins of Doctrine which are but few unto which a great variety of words and scripture expressions do relate A piece of unlearnedness unto which the wise and prudent of the world Doctors and Rabbies of the times have been and may be more liable and in which more intangled than others who in comparison of them have been but Babes and sucklings as these and the like Scriptures do witness Mat. 11.25 John 7.48 49. 1 Cor. 1.26 27. one main reason whereof is this because they I mean the wise and learned of the world by their wisdom and learning being vessels better fitted and prepared for worldly glory than others are are in that respect under the greater temptation to seek and receive honour one of another and not that honour that comes from God onely and consequently by their greater parts to over-master bend and bow wring and wrest under plausible pretences and fair flourishes the holy Scriptures in their several forms of expression so as that they may not so much as seem to contradict but to countenance their designe of worldly glory and interest and their worldly honour and interest likewise as intermixt with their Gospel profession not so much as seem to obstruct but to accomodate the designe of God and the affairs of the Gospel in themselves and others The prevailing of which carnal device of corrupting the Word reducing and accommodating the pure Gospel doctrine and life unto a nearer complyance with the principles of worldly wisdom and interest than would consist with the simplicity which is in Christ was that which proved the bane of those flourishing Churches which were planted by the Apostles and at this day is the great enemy of the life and power of godliness and such as betrayes men into a soul-deceiving way of professing the Gospel as might easily be shewed might I now stand upon it On the other hand whereas the babes and sucklings I mean persons who by reason of their natural capacities education or rank in the world are but
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