A Glass of Justification OR THE VVORK OF FAITH WITH POVVER Wherein the Apostles Doctrine touching Justification without the Deeds of the Law is opened and the sence in which Gospel-obedience as well as Faith is necessary to Justification is stated Wherein also the nature of that dead Faith is detected by which multitudes that hope for Salvation are as is to be feared deceived and the true nature and distinguishing properties of the Faith of Gods Elect is handled Finally the Doctrine of the imputation of Faith for Righteousness is herein also briefly discussed and the great wisdom and folly of men about the proof of their Faith touched Published on purpose to rectifie some dangerous and other damning mistakes of Men about their Faith and expectation of Justification thereby and to awaken and quicken all to the Work of Faith with Power By William Allen a poor Servant to the Lord Jesus What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works Can faith save him James 2.14 LONDON Printed by G. Dawson for Francis Smith and are to be sold at his Shop in Flying Horse Court in Fleetstreet near Chancery-Lane end 1658. To that small Remnant of Christs Little Flock which are wont to wait on him in his PUBLICK WORSHIP at their place of Assembly in Loathbury London The Author truly desireth a being filled with all the fulness of God As he does also to all the Churches of like constitution for whose use this Address is secondarily intended Dearly Beloved Brethren Sect. 1 I May truly say that if any others besides your selves shall receive any benefit by the publication of the following Discourse they will be in good part debters unto you for it for that it was never like to have come abroad had not your Desires and Requests prepared its way What sence you had of the usefulness of these Sermons to your selves and what desires and hopes you had of their producing the like effect in others by this publication you your selves best know but this I may say that it was your professed experience of the former and your good perswasion of the latter that induced me to undertake a Work of this nature which circumstances considered in my case I fore-saw as since I have found would be to me a business of no small difficulty You that have had so great a desire hereby to promote the good of others will I hope and am perswaded be very careful to improve this new opportunity of a further inriching your selves with the knowledge sense and savour of the Doctrine contained in this Book as a thing then which I know not wherein you are more concerned But Experience shews that it is not an overly hearing or cursory reading though of things of highest import to the Soul such as are the way means method and terms of mans Justification before God and of the apparent danger that men are in of being mistaken hereabout and through this mistake of missing Justification it self I say it is not a perfunctory doing of these matters that will fill the soul with any due sense of these things For how many are there that frequently hear and sometimes read things that for the nature of them make the spirits of others to burn and boil within them and yet they themselves hardly at all moved thereby or if they do for the present just while they are under the immediate force of them work some little relentings and faint wishes that things were better with them yet such motions soon vanish like a dream when a man awaketh which while he was dreaming of it did somewhat affect him If then you would have this labour of mine which yet is not so much mine as Gods by whose help you have it truly to serve you not only by informing you more perfectly about the termes of your Justification but also in quickening you to more abundant care and diligence about the making good your title to the promise of Justification it self Then in reading hereof let your mind be as much upon the temper of your heart and tenour of your life as your eye is upon the Book and compare the Work of the one with the Doctrine of the other And be often making a pause and putting the question to your Conscience are things so and so with me or does my Faith work thus and thus as there you will find in the discovery of the living and dead Faith The effect of which carriage of yours according to this counsel of mine you will find through the blessing of God to be that when you find the evidence of your faith which is your title to life not to be so clear nor of so perfect an appearance in this and that as in a matter of that consequence were to be desired you will thereby be stirred up to give all diligence to make your calling and election sure by amending what is amiss about the proof of your faith and by adding what is lacking to it And when you shall feel the lively impressions which it may be a close consideration of the Doctrine of this Treatise hath wrought in you in the hearing of it or shall work in you by the reading of it I say when these impressions decay and want reparation your wisdome then will be to get close to that fire again where you had your former heat and that will warm you again stand by those words of eternal life and hear them talk to you a while Prov. 6.22 When thou awakest it shall talk with thee and they speaking with fiery tongues will kindle upon you and put you into a flame Luke 24.32 Did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures And this do as oft as there is need by calling to mind what you have heard or what you shall have here read in this kind for as the often rubbing of one hand against another will keep them warm in cold weather So the frequent exercising of the mind with this holy and heavenly Doctrine will preserve the spirit from growing chill and more especially from freezing And if the particulars of matter which have or which shall have affected you in this kind shall at any time escape your memory as Nebuchadnezzars dream did his with which he had been so much affected Dan. 2.5 you have here put into your hand that which will be a present help to you at such a pinch So that God hath one way or other abundantly provided you with means for your furtherance in grace in reference both to the information of your judgments quickning of your wills and affections and the helping of your memories and all in order to your godly conversation and Saintly walk Sect. 2 It remains therefore that I as one though but a poor one God knows of the dressers of this little Vineyard of the Lord in which every one of you particularly
and Saviour of the world alone not justifying faith the reason why 44 Antinomian Doctrine touching sins past present and to come being pardoned upon mens first being in Christ decryed as erronious and dangerous 95 Apostacy and decay the cause of it what 122 Alms-giving must answer the Estate of the Giver and what to be thought thereabout 145 B BLood of Christ nothing to be joyned with it in merit or atonement making 25 Believing and obeying put one for another 70 Believing and receiving of Christ equivalent 73 Bounty where wanting an argument there 's no right Faith 143 Badness of mens condition no reason why it should not be looked into 160 C COntinue to continue well is harder than to begin well Ep. S. 17 Covenant Attributing that to the blood and obedience of the first Covenant which properly belongs to the Blood Faith and obedience of the Second Covenant was the Jews grand mistake 21 22 Christ in what respects he is the object of justifying Faith 37 Confidence of Salvation without ground whence it proceeds 49 51 Confidence of being saved may be strong in men both while they live and when they dye and yet suffer disappointment in the Resurrection and judgement day 64 Conquer to conquer and more what 134 Conscience Christs Delegate and how to have it on ones side in time of tryal 166 D Decayes of spiritual sense and affection how repaired Ep. § 1 Deceive the Devils craft to deceive Ep. § 4. Dead Faiths being dead what 54 E Esteem of People to their Pastors the mischief of it when it grows low Ep. § 17 Epistle of Christ how the Church is so Ep. § 19 F Fruit upon what account due to God as procured by the labours of men Ep. § 2 Fruit Being yielded to God comes home to ones self Ep. § 2 Fruit yielding fruit the way to enjoy more cost and care from God Ep. § 3 And to be fenced from devourring temptations Ep. § 4 5 Fruit the want of it the cause of Apostacy and Church desolation Ep. § 6 7. Form the danger of turning Religion into Form Ep. § 8 9 Father how and in what respects Justification is ascribed to God the Father 33 154 Faith as it Justifies hath three acts credence adherence and confidence 43 Faith how acted on God the father in relation to Justification 36 Faith how acted on Christs death and bloud in relatioa to Justification 38 Faith a reprobate Judgment concerning it and a Form of godliness oft found in the same person 57 Faith and Love their near affinity 71 Faith without repentance cannot justifie 76 Faith without Love cannot justifie 77 Faith when found in Abrahams seed walks in the steps of Abrahams faith 84 Faith magnifies the word and power of God though crossed with greatest unlikelihood and humane improbability 84 Faith of right kind engageth to obey the hardest precepts 87 Faith eyes and adheres to Gods counsels for the way as well as his promise for the end 98 Faith depends on the Lord for supply of strength to do his will 109 Faith derives from Christ the power by which the Christian life is led 110 Faith how supported in dependance for supplies 114 Faith works by Love and how 127 Faith how it is not and how it is counted for Righteousness 150 Faith in its justifying office or power depends wholly on Gods will and its matter of great comfort that it does so 154 Faith not strictly and properly a mans Righteousness but does him the service of a Righteousness in the account and imputation of grace 156 Forgiving of wrong want of it an argument such have no justifying faith 148 G Grace the womb that bears justification 33 Ground what faith is resembled by the thorny ground hearers 59 H Holiness in men as well as the happiness of men Gods aim in contriving the terms of salvation 68 I Integrity not to be questioned meerly for difference of judgment in the point of Infant-Baptism Ep. § 13 Justification without Works the danger of mistaking the Scripture thereabout 2 Justification by Works in what sense opposed by the Apostle 12 to 17 Justification the necessity of Works thereunto not opposed by the Apostle no not among the Jews in all respects 21 Justification depends upon after acts of faith as well as the first 90 Justification attributed not only to faith but also to those works that flow from faith 94 Justification from eternity or before faith disproved 156 The ill consequence of that opinion touched 158 Judgment day the issue of that dayes proceeding in relation to ones felf to be known now 162 L Love to the Lord how known 121 Love how it casteth out fear 133 Love to men how known 137 M Ministers of the Nation how to be treated by the Baptists Ep. § 14. Maintenance for Gospel Ministers in what respect necessary Ep. § 16 Miscarriages in life proceed from want of faith 106 N Negative Christianity not to be rested in Ep. § 20 O Opinions four Opinions of the Jews contradictious to the Gospel opposed by Paul in opposing their seeking of Justification by Works 7 to 11 Opinion that holds Justification by Faith to be Justification not before God but in mens conscience proved rotten 157 Offence giving when shunned an argument of what 138 P Power to justifie by what means soever depends on the will of God 33 35. Promises indefinitely made to beleeving how to be understood 67 70. Perseverance in grace why found in persons of weak parts when many times those of greater parts fall 123 Power of the creature undue thoughts about it very dangerous 127 Q Quakers how deceitful Ep. § 4 R Reading or hearing how to profit by it Ep. § 1 Reflections unseemly and provoking in controversies condemned Ep. § 12. Relyance on Christ for Salvation not justifying without obedience 49 Resurrection of Christ how excellently it contributes to our Justification 39 Receiving Christ what it imports 73 Result of Scriptures duely compared a wise mans guid 79 S Scandals the mischief of them Ep. § 10 19 Study the necessity of it in order to the most profitable preaching Ep. § 15. Steps of Abrahams Faith what 84 Supplies from Christ how received by Faith 112 Spirit how received by Faith 118 T Terms of Salvation the danger of mistaking them 2 25 Tryal of ones state in Faith backwardness therein an ill sign 159 Temptations about ones present and future good condition not to be vanquished but by substanal evidences of a holy Faith 163 W Works that are the same in themselves differ in respect of different Covenants enjoyning them in different respects 19 Works of what sort they are that accompany true Faith in its first justifying acts 27 Works evangelical in what sense necessary to Justification 26 55. Works evangelical their necessity to Justification a Protestant Doctrine 28 30 Word or Gospel how the object of justifying Faith 36 41 Wresting the Scriptures to destruction what 3 ERRATA PAge 4.
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
is true in him and in you In him who hath not onely given this new command Iohn 13.34 A new Commandement I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you but also hath given us the pattern of it in his own example having so loved us as to lay down his life and to give himself for us Gal. 2.20 Which thing as it is true in him so in you saith he 1 Iohn 2.8 because we ought therefore not only to love our Neighbour as our selves as before it was commanded but now even to lay down our lives for the brethren 1 Iohn 3.16 as he hath done for us Of all which viz. that the same command though in one respect it was old yet in another it was new and truly verified both in Christ and in the Saints the Apostle gives this reason in the forementioned place 1 Iohn 2.8 Because the darknesse is past and the true light now shineth the different dispensing of the same thing hath made this difference in it it was an old Commandement as it was once enjoyned under the old Covenant but now the darkness and obscutity of that Covenant and dispensation being past as when once it grew old it was then ready to vanish Heb. 8.13 and the true and new light in the Gospel and new Covenant now shining under which the same duties of Love are enjoyned upon other terms then before it might upon this account be well stiled a New Commandement which yet in substance was an old one Sect. 3 2. But Secondly and chiefly the reason why the Works of Love Justice and Mercy as commanded in the Gospel are not opposed to Faith by the Apostle in the point of Justification though these and all other Works commanded in the Law in the sence in which they were asserted by the Jews are opposed to Faith in that case is this because there is so vast a difference between the sence in which we do assert an Evangelical necessity of these to Justification and that sence in which the Jews did assert the availableness of these together with other Works of the Law unto justification as that the Apostle might well withstand the one sence as damnable and yet the other in the mean while remain under his full approbation For our Apostle was so far from denying the necessity of the Works of the Law unto justification saving in that erronious sence in which the Jews maintained them as that he did affirm that during the time in which they were enjoyned by God justification was not to be had without them as conjoyned with Faith Rom. 2.13 For not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified It was no more mens hearing of the Law and leaning upon God as some did Mic. 3.11 without sincere obedience to the Law in one thing as well as in another that would render them acceptable to God then than mens barren formal and dead Faith under the profession of the Gospel will without an upright and careful conformity to the doctrin of Christ render them acceptable to God now As concerning that sence in which the Jews asserted and the Apostle denied the necessity of the works of the Law to justification take it thus They being ignorant of Gods Righteousness Rom. 10.3 and of his designe to teach men by the types and figures of the Law as by a school-master to expect justification by the death of Christ and Faith in his blood For by reason of the vail that was upon their hearts they could not see to the end of that which is abolished 2 Cor. 3.13 14 15. I say they being herein altogether ignorant were on the other hand highly confident that God had ordained their legal Sacrifices to purge them from their sins and their obedience in them and other points of the Law to be the only means to invest them with all the good that ever the Lord intended them not only in things temporal but also spiritual and eternal So that that which the Gospel attributes to the New Covenant to the blood of it to the faith of it to the obedience of it they attributed and ascribed all of it to the blood and obedience of the Old Covenant So that the question between the Apostle and them was but this Whether Eternal Redemption were to be had upon the First Covenant termes or the Second whether by the Works of the Law or the Faith of the Gospel the beleeving in and subjecting to the Lord Jesus as that only name way and means in which Salvation is to be had The Apostle he affirms that Salvation is to be had by the latter without the former by the New Covenant termes without the Old the Jews on the contrary they held that Salvation was to be had by the former without the latter by the Works of the Law without beleeving in or obeying of Jesus It is most evident and certain that thus and thus as hath been declared is the true sence in which the Jews held the Works of the Law available to justification and salvation and it is as clear likewise that in the very same sence the Apostle doth deny and reject them charging the whole stresse of all upon Christ and beleeving in and following of him Sect. 4 This is easie to be discerned in the Apostles Writings of which I have given an account in my Second Chapter to which I refer you and shall here add two or three Texts more Phil. 3.7 8 9. But what things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I do count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousnesse which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by Faith He had shewed before what the Jews trusted in boasted of and which he himself also whilst he was as they were did count his gain viz. Circumcised the eight day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews touching the righteousnesse of the Law blamelesse But when he became a Christian he let go all these things which he held so fast before took off and removed that confidence and stresse which he had placed in these and now laies all upon Christ and Faith in him That which he now expected by Christ he did indeed expect by his righteousness in the Law before but that which was his hope and his confidence his joy and his glory before is now but loss and dung with him when once the excellency of the knowledge of the way of Salvation by Christ does appear Now all his desire is to be found in Christ rejoycing in Christ trusting in Christ cleaving to Christ not
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
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
or as he had said vers 14. to save For that clearly is the sence of Faiths being dead in this place and not its barrenness of good Works Though that 's true likewise that Faiths being dead in another sence i. e. void of spiritual vigour force and power is the cause why it is alone and not accompanied with the goodness of conversation yet here in this place the deadness of Faith is the effect of its being alone and not the cause of it the deadness of Faith proceeds from the absence of Works as here spoken of and not the absence of Works from the deadness of Faith Faith is dead being alone saith he that is because it is alone for so it is plain that its being alone carries the force of a reason why it is dead And therefore Faiths being dead here notes it utter inability to justifie or save which answers the scope of the Apostle which is to convince the carnal professor that his Faith without Works would not save him as is manifest by the fourteenth Verse upon which the following Discourse to the end of the Chapter depends He sayes after Verse 26. That as the body without the spirit is dead so Faith without Works is dead also In which comparison or similitude as the body answers Faith so the Spirit answers Works and as the absence of the spirit from the body is the cause why the body is dead and does not the service unto which a living man is appointed so the absence of Works from Faith is the cause why Faith is dead and does not him in whom it is the service unto which the true Faith is appointed to wit to justifie or save him that hath it Sect. 4 And here by the way we have clearly set before us the true sence in which Works are necessary to justification as well as Faith and that is as they do qualifie Faith for that Work or Office of justifying unto which God of his meer Grace hath designed it For so is the will of God that though he will so magnifie his grace in the salvation of men as to justifie and save them by Christ upon or upon condition of their believing in him yet hath he therein made such provision to magnifie his holiness and his love of it in his Creature as that he will not confer the grace of Justification upon any other Faith or entitle any other believing unto that attonement which Christ hath made by his blood than such as hath its fruit unto Holiness the end of which will be everlasting life In which sence I conceive it is that Faith is said to be made perfect by Works James 2.22 that is as I understand put into a compleat capacity of attaining its end which is to justifie as a house is then said to be perfected when nothing is wanting in it as to the end and service for which it is built 2 Chron. 8.16 So is Faith when nothing is wanting to it to answer the end whereto it is to serve But now as long as Faith is alone or by it self without Works it is dead as we heard before and so in no capacity to justifie or reach its end Nor does it come under the saving influence of the Promise till it Work by Love that being the only kind of Faith that hath the promise to avail Gal. 5.6 and therefore Works added to Faith as children are added to their Mother being the same thing that makes the difference between that Faith that will justifie and that which will not and which brings that kind of believing under the promise without which all other believing is excluded hence it is I conceive that Works may well and truly be said to perfect Faith as putting it into a right capacity of reaching its end But thus much on the by in this place Sect. 5 As Iames so Iohn opposeth the vain confidence that is built upon the dead Faith 1 Iohn 1.6 If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth This doubtless he wrote in opposition to some professors of the Christian Faith who though they walked in darkness led lives disagreeing to the light of Christs Doctrine yet said profest and were confident that they had fellowship partnership with God and with his Son Jesus Christ in his Love Saving-mercy and promises of Grace as if as these were Gods to give so they were all theirs to enjoy But as he would take them off their vain confidence in this so he directs them how to be better built in the next Vers 7. saying But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Meaning I suppose that if that perswasion which they had of fellowship with God interest in his Grace Love and Mercy and share in Christs blood were but accompanied with an upright endeavour of purifying themselves as he is pure and of being holy in all manner of conversation as he that had called them is holy which I think is the same thing as to walk in the light as he is in the light then they might be confident indeed that they had fellowship with God in his Grace and Love and share in Christs blood to cleanse them from all sin But otherwise and without this what ever their opinion pretence or confidence was of their good condition they did but lie and falsifie the truth Of which delusion and dangerous deceit he admonisheth the Christians Chap. 3.7 8. saying Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous as he is righteous he that committeth sin is of the Devil By which saying he suggests that there were some amongst them of another opinion and perswasion and that they were in danger of being deceived by them to think that though they did indulge themselves in some sin yet they might be counted and dealt withall as righteous persons as being in Christ and knowing of him as they supposed In opposition to which vain conceit and lying imagination he had said in the verse before Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him The like admonition ministred by Paul to the Ephesians implyeth like danger from men of the same profession Eph. 5.6 Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience .. Implying that there were some among them that were otherwise perswaded than that those unholy wayes from which he had newly before dehorted them would expose them to the wrath of God who trusted in Christ for salvation For of such he prophecied whilst he was yet with them Acts 20.30 That of their own selves should men arise speaking perverse things wrested or swerving things to draw away Disciples after them Men professing the same Faith and expecting
any more to be found in the dress of his own righteousness which was of the Law the first Covenant righteousness that righteousness in the Law touching which as he sayes he was blameless vers 6. Which whilst he expected Salvation by it was a righteousness or way of justification of his own setting up never of Gods appointing In opposition whereto he desires now to be found in that righteousness which is of God through Faith in that state of justification and salvation which God in the Gospel hath setled and established upon beleeving in Jesus So that here in this Contexture of Scripture you have the Jews righteousness or justification and the Christians through both which this Apostle had passed and of both which he had made tryal the Jews claim was by the Law and the works thereof but the Christians by the Gospel and the Faith and obedience thereof the act of his conversion was his renouncing of the former and cleaving to the latter Romans Chapter 9. Verse 30 31 32. What shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousnesse have attained to righteousnesse even the righteousnesse which is of Faith but Israel which followed after the Law of righteousnesse hath not attained to the Law of righteousnesse Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the Law for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone Here we have two manner of people the Gentiles and the Jews and two sorts of righteousness the one of the Law the other of Faith or of the Gospel The Gentiles who had not followed after righteousness but lived in Idolatry Sin and Wickedness and without God in the World being altogether strangers to the Common-wealth of Israel and that Covenant of Promise yet attained to righteousness a state of justification and acceptation before God upon their receiving the Gospel the doctrine of life and salvation when it was brought among them The Jews though they followed after the law of righteousness those laws wherein a righteous conversation was commanded by God and did many of the things that were commanded therein having a zeal towards God yet for all that did not arrive at that justification and acceptation with God which the Gentiles attained and the reason was because they did not seek it in the Gospel-way in which the Gentiles found it they should have let go the doctrine of Moses and have imbraced the doctrine of Christ and have reckoned themselves but in the same capacity with the Gentiles for all their Works of the Law and have said as some of them did We beleeve that through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even as they Acts 15.11 But instead of this they stumbled at that stumbling-stone Christ Jesus and him crucified and the offer of salvation by him and did adhere unto the works of the Law for all things pertaining to salvation and would have Justification upon the Law termes this ran in their mind if a man do those things he shall live in them and so ventured all upon that score It was quite beyond their expectation that the Messiah when ever he should come should turn them out of their way of Sacrificing by becoming a Sacrifice himself or that their expectation of remission of sin should be taken off the former and placed on the latter and therefore they cleaving to the letter of the Law for eternal salvation which so far was ordained by God but for a temporal and rejecting Christ and the termes of salvation by him which the Law pointed them to in the spiritual signification of it of which they were wholly ignorant hence it came to pass that for all their labouring seeking and striving after righteousness justification and salvation yet they missed it as seeking it out of Gods way upon their own termes not Gods Gal. 2.21 For if righteousnesse come by the Law then Christ is dead in vain How could that be but that they did attribute and ascribe the same attoning virtue and sin-purging efficacy unto the works of the Law which the Gospel does attribute unto the blood of Jesus And then indeed if it had been so as they supposed it was that sacrifices or any other works of the Law could have purged sin so as Christ does by his death and blood then the death of Christ would have been in vain God would never have put himself to that charge as to give his Son to death to take away the sin of men if the works of the Law had been a competent means to bring it about If there had been a Law saith the same Apostle which could have given life verily righteousnesse should have been by the Law Gal. 3.21 If the Law and the Wotks therein commanded could have done the same thing towards the conferring of life and salvation upon men which is now brought to passe by the coming and dying of Jesus then righteousness and life should have been by that But now inasmuch as that God hath given his Son to dye for here he writes to those that did acknowledge Christ and his death but withall inclined to that opinion Acts 15. that except men kept the law of Moses they could not be saved since God hath given his Son to dye it is as if he should say manifest that the Law fell short in ability of doing that for men for the doing of which God sent his own Son Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sent his own Son in the similitude of sinfull flesh and for sin or by a sacrifice for sin as it is in the margent condemned sin in the flesh What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh that is I conceive through or by reason of the sins of the flesh the sinful condition of man was so great as that it quite over-topt the purging power of the Law the disease was too strong to be cured with such a purge the sins of the flesh overmatched the Law in this kind and rendred it weak and therefore God was fain to send his own Son to condemn sin to take away the destroying power of sin by the sacrifice of himself for that the Law could not do it by its sacrifice In that the Apostle writes so much and in so many places for there are many more besides these touching the weaknesse and dis-ability of the Law to do that for men which God sent Christ to do for them it is in opposition to those who magnified the Law as if it had been able to do all that for them which the Apostle doth ascribe to Christ as done by him By what hath been now said I think it doth fully appear in what sence the Jews asserted the Works of their Law in the point of Justification and likewise in what sence the Apostle denies them Sect. 5 And now if any man shall say that Love Iustice and
Mercy yea or the act of Faith it self or any other work commanded in the Gospel does justifie as Christs blood justifies by way of attonement for sin let him be accursed It is the prerogative royal peculiarly and alone belonging to Christ thus to justifie in which no creature in Heaven or Earth or any action of any creature bears any the least share Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high To purge from sin is the self-work of Christ Heb. 7.27 and 9.26 28. and 10 12 14. When some of the Galatians were but about to attribute the same justifying power unto the Law which they had acknowledged to be in Christ Paul testifies to them that in doing so they would render Christ of none effect to them and fall from grace Gal. 5.4 So dangerous a thing is it to joyn any in competition or co-partnership with Christ in this work or to attribute the same justifying vertue to any beside him And if any among the Papists should ascribe any such operation or vertue to any of their works though as dipt in the blood of Christ and receiving their vertue from that it would doubtlesse be found a piece of high presumption and a sin of a daring nature before the Lord. But alass how far off are we from ascribing any such power operation or vertue unto any work which a Christian can do Nay Faith it self though it be so necessary unto justification as that without which the blood of Christ will not justifie and save men yet it is far from being necessary upon any such account as if it could in the least operate as Christs blood does or add any thing unto the saving vertue thereof and yet necessary it is because such is the Will of God as that the saving benefit of that blood shall not be made over unto any man but upon condition of his beleeving So I say of Works I mean Gospel-obedience though we say they are so necessary as that no mans Faith shall justifie him that is void of them or which is all one that no mans Faith shall justifie him without them yet we say also that they are far from being necessary upon any such score as Christs blood is necessary or as if they could contribute any thing unto its atoneing vertue Nor is it necessary in this case to suppose them to be formally of the nature of Faith nor to be essential to the act of beleeving nor that the same justifying act office or power is placed in them by God as is in Faith Yet necessary they are unto justification because such is the will and good pleasure of God as that though he will have Faith to entitle men to the justifying and saving benefit of Christs blood yet he will not interess an unprofitable dead barren fruitless formal Faith in that saving benefit and priviledges of the New Covenant but reserves this honour for that Faith only which is an active lively working Faith and which makes a man as well ready and desirous to give honour and glory unto the Lord in doing his will as to receive honour and glory from him in the way of beleeving his promise This God willing I shall make fully evident when I come to treat of the doctrine of Faith and Justification by it in the handling of the second part of my Text. Sect. 6 In the mean while if this burden any mans mind how to think or conceive that Faith in its first justifying act in closing with Christ should be accompanied with Works when as that first act is done in an instant but Faiths bearing of Fruit and producing of good works is a work of time and shal therefore think that sure Faith must needs be alone and without works in the first act of its justifying work whatever it be after I shall ease this burden and answer this objection by distinguishing of Works There are two sorts of Works 1. Such as consist in will purpose and desire 2. Such as consist in the actual execution of those resolutions and desires That those motions resolutions and desires that are transacted in the wil by way of preparation of turning them into actions of another nature when opportunity shall serve I say that these are works in Gods account who is as well privy to them as to external actions is most evident Mic. 2.1 Wo to them that devise iniquity and work evill upon their beds when the morning is light they practice it because it is in the power of their hand Their devising and resolving upon evill in the night in order to the practice of it in the day is called a working of evill upon their beds Again Psalm 58.2 Yea in heart ye work wickedness you weigh the violence of your hands in the earth The evill actions and motions of the mind and will are called a working of wickednesse in the heart as the looking on a Woman to lust after her is called the committing adultry with her in the heart Mat. 5.28 All which is as true of good intentions resolutions and desires as of evill the resolving upon good when opportunity presents is a working of good in the soul as well as the resolving upon evill upon like termes is the working of evill Now then that Faith which is not accompanied with good Works of this kind in the souls first fastening upon Christ by Faith for salvation I say that soul that does not come to Christ with a sence of such worthinesse in him as to desire and resolve through the strength of his grace to give up it self to him and to be commanded by him that Faith that soul by all the light that I can get from Scripture is never like to be accepted or to pass for currant in Christs account Nor will such desires and resolutions do it neither that are but airy and of the nature of false Conceptions and which spend themselves and languish and vanish in desiring and resolving like the sluggard Solomon speaks of Prov. 13.4 Whose soul desireth and hath nothing No unlesse they have that truth and reality that strength and substance as to be delivered of such conceptions and to bring forth fruit to perfection when opportunity comes and not like that corn that groweth upon the house-top that withereth before it come to maturity they are never like to obtain the honour and reputation of such desires and resolutions as will passe for good works in Gods account But if the soul in its first closing with Christ by Faith go armed and the Faith of the soul attended with real hearty and unfeigned desires and purposes to render unto the Lord in love honour and service according to the benefit it expects to receive from him and that nothing but lack of opportunity hinders the real acting and executing these desires and resolves with suitable endeavours doubtlesse that soul that faith is accepted with the Lord as
him because he followeth not us But Jesus said forbid him not for there is no man that shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me Though this man did not concur with the Disciples in that orderly way of following Christ yet as long as he did men good by using his name Christ would not have him taken off or to be prohibited to act If any the Ministers I now speak of have so much faith in the name of Christ and love to the souls of men as to be casting the Devil out of their souls by the word of Christ it s ten thousand pitties to hinder them If you can by any means be an help to them to do it better as Aquilla and Priscilla were to Apollos Act. 18.26 well and good but never forbid any man the doing good because he does not do it in the best way Pauls temper is your safe pattern who rejoyced that Christ was preached and the Gospel spread although not alwaies by the best and purest hand What then saith he notwithstanding evary way whether in pretence or in truth Christ is preached and I therein do rejoyce yea and will rejoyce Phil. 1.18 Sect. 15 And now having this opportunity before me I shall crave leave of some of my Brethren that have the oversight of Churches for all do not so much need it to exhort and beseech them diligently to labour in the word and doctrine not only by a frequent preaching of it but also by a diligent meditation and study in it So that when they preach they may preach upon the most edifying and quickning terms Which yet what is it more than Pauls exhortation to Timothy whose gifts doubtless might better have exempted him from that charge than any of ours can Give attendance to reading meditate on these things give thy self wholly to them Study to shew thy self approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth take heed unto thy self and to thy doctrine continue in them and the like 1 Tim. 4.13 15 16. 2 Tim. 2.15 You cannot be ignorant what advantage is made of it against our way when any opportunity can be taken hold of to object the lowness of parts and rawness of matter among those of our way that undertake the great work of teaching And I am very sensible that too much advantage in this kind is given by some who out of an odd conceit and humour for it is no better of declining the way of the National Ministry decline also the best way of edifying the people I know very well that there hath been wont to be a great deal of vain curiosity used many times among many of the National way as if they bestowed more thoughts upon method and quaintness of expression than upon matter more cost upon the triming than upon the garment it self as if they designed more to take the ear of their auditory then to touch the conscience a vanity shall I say to be laughed at no but to be lamented that ever such should undertake the feeding of souls that have no more sense of what belongs to it But where any out of faithfulness to mens souls and out of an earnest desire to convince convert and edifie them shall soberly and gravely contrive their Sermons into such a Form as by which the understanding may be most fed and the conscience best come at and the sence and majesty of the Scriptures in their scope and coherence in their consociations and emphasis rendred most lightsome cutting and quick it would be a lamentable weakness for any to take another course not because its better but because it is another or to think it better because another For one Christian to differ from another where there is cause is commendable but to affect to differ more than needs must argues a frame of spirit far different from blessed Pauls who became all things to all men so far as possibly he might with a good Conscience that he might by all means save some 1 Cor. 9.22 Edification is the end of preaching that course therefore in preparing to preach and that way and method in preaching that tends most to edification and so reaches its end is certainly the best But all experience proves against all contradiction that as the case is with us who speak not upon like terms of special inspiration as the Apostles did laborious study with prayer in preparing to preach and an orderly proceeding from one thing to another in preaching is most edifying and profitable both to the Preacher himself and they to whom he preaches and being so it becomes a duty by vertue of that general rule 1 Cor. 14.12 Seek that you may excel to the edifying of the Church Who ever hath the best gift of speaking extempore to the edification of the People as some do much excel others therein shall yet much improve his ability of speaking more to their edification by a due and convenient proportion of premeditation study And therefore when men may do better and do not that Scripture would be thought on Mal. 1.4 Cursed be the deceiver that hath a Male in his Flock and voweth and sacrificeth to the Lord a corrupt thing Neither is it my intent at all that any man should so lean upon his studies and preparations as to tie himself to any Form of words and expression or in the least to lessen his humble and hearty dependance upon the Lord for assistance but that he should in a deep sense of the weightiness and wonderful concernment of the work and of the vast disproportion that is between the service in the glory of it and his abilities that undertakes it intirely depend upon the Lord for largeness of heart towards the People for freedome of mind and clearness of thoughts for wisdome courage and liberty of speech to declare the matter prepared upon the plainest clearest most affecting and most edifying terms together with what else the Lord shall bring to mind to accommodate and issue the discourse Nor does the promise which God hath made of giving his spirit and of pouring out gifts or the like render the diligent labours and studies of the Ministers of the Gospel needless any more than Gods promise of the earths bringing forth her increase does excuse the Husbandman the diligent labour of plowing and sowing which as the Prophet observes is the fruit of the instruction or teaching of God Isa 28.24 25 26. When God made promise of giving unto the Preacher such wisdome as none had before him or should have after him 1 King 3.12 he did not thereby exempt him from but rather oblige him to the utmost search labour and travel in getting wisdome and methodical contrivement of things in the improvement of it for others instruction To his obtaining of what God had promised in this kind see his behaviour as he himself expresseth it Eccles 1.13 The Preacher was King over
preparations The marriage of the Lamb draws nigh and his Wife hath made her self ready be sure you be not at any time found without your Wedding garment By Faith draw nigh to the Judgement Seat of Christ imagine your selves at the next door of being encompassed with the majesty of that day Let thoughts of it and of your accounts then to be taken keep you company all the day long in your buying selling eating drinking yea in all your converse and communication with men Follow God with incessant prayer to fill your souls brim full with a lively sense of these things whose weight is not to be expressed Hold much communion with your own weakness and do not trust your selves at the least distance from God abide under his shadow and in an humble way of pleasing him be alwaies confident of his strength to subdue your spiritual enemies to uphold you and keep you from falling and to carry you on from strength to strength until you appear before him That these and such things as these in the glory of their perfection may be your present portion from the Lord to prepare you upon the best terms for future glory is the true desire Of him who longs for more strength from Christ to serve you upon yet better terms in the dear Concernments of your precious Souls whil'st he is WILLIAM ALLEN April 13. 1658. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader I Am not unsensible but that the very name of Works as any ways interressed or concerned in mens Justification before God may possibly prejudice this work in the minds of some good people as if it were no good friend to the free grace of God especially considering that Grace and Works are so frequently opposed one to another in the Scripture as inconsistent in the business of mans Justification To prevent which I shall intreat thee to understand that this Treatise does not in the least interess those Works in mans Justification which the Scripture opposes to Grace which are sometimes called and are usually if not alwayes to be understood as meant of the Works of the Law or deeds of the Law Nor yet does it interesse any other Works I mean the most evangelical Works in the office or service of justifying in that sense in which Works are opposed to Grace and were asserted by the Jews and rejected by the Apostle to wit as doing that to justifie which is proper and peculiar only and alone to Christ Jesus For to hold any thing whether Works or Faith necessary for the doing of the same thing which Christ does in Justification would render Christs undertaking in that behalf incompleat and imperfect and disparage the sufficiency of his saving Grace and so lay the hope of salvation built thereon in the dust which yet it should seem was the errour into which the Galatians were running Gal. 5.4 and 2.21 And therefore all care must he had not to give ought of that to Works or Faith either which is the incommunicable prerogative of Christs bloud Though if it were possible that you could from this instant unto the end of your life become as holy in nature and life as the holy Angels themselves yet it would be damnable folly and wickednesse in you if you should in the least depend upon this holinesse for the benefit of atonement for the sins that are past which is to be had only by Christs bloud And therefore he that hath the most and best of Gospel Works of any man living to commend him to God can reasonably expect no more benefit by them as to this nor may with safety any more depend upon them for this then he that hath none at all but must and ought to cast himself as intirely upon the bloud of Christ for the grace of atonement purgation from sin and justification as the Theif upon the crosse did or as any poor forlorn and miserable sinner does at his first coming to Christ before he hath actually accomplished any workes of sanctification But now because Christs bloud does not actually justifie men though never so full of virtue and power to justifie till they doe believe God having suspended their personal interest in his bloud for their Justification upon their believing hence now in another respect Faith is necessary to Justification in its place and for its use as well as the bloud of Christ it self is in that superiour respect which is proper to it And because Faith also without works is dead Jam. 2.17 26. and so is altogether unserviceable to justifie and that that Faith only hath the honour conferred upon it by God to avail men to justifie and save which worketh by Love and no other Gal. 5.6 Hence the works of a holy life are as necessary to render Faith a living Faith an availing Faith and so a Faith that will justifie or which will interesse men in Christs bloud which doth Justifie as the Grace of Faith it self is necessary in order to such an interest Which as it is the utmost which I assert touching the necessity of Gospel-Obedience unto Justification so it is that which if found true which will avouch this necessity with a high hand For as a man may as soon be Justified without a Saviour as without Faith which gives him an interest in him so he may as soon be Justified without Faith as without those Evangelical Works the absence of which will render Faith uncapable to Justifie And to have no Faith and to have a Faith in no capacity to doe the work or business of Faith will be found the same thing in conclusion So that if the one be necessary so is the other but in different respects All that I shall further add is to desire thee to lay aside prejudice and so proceed to the perusal of the Work it self And as thou findest things built upon the Word and substantially backed by evidence of Scripture Light fairly treated so and no otherwise would I have thee to receive them For I assure thee my design towards thee is to make a match between thy Soul and Truth not my Opinion further then under the countenance of Truth And should count it a happiness if as a recompence of this labour I should hereby deliver though but one Soul from any longer contenting it self with that dead and barren Faith by which too many are and are like to be deceived And that the Lord may give thee a right understanding in this and in all things hath been and I hope the Lord assisting shall be the Prayer of him who loves and longs after the health and prosperity of thy soul W. A. A Table of the principal Matters touched or handled in the precedent Epistle and subsequent Treatise A ARgument of good life most taking generally Ep. S. 10 Argument against the form of profession from the miscarriages of professors not good Ep. S. 11 Assent to the Doctrine of the Gospel as true touching Christs being the Son of God
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
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
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
needest no better security for it than the Scriptures And God forbid that I should make the strait gate straiter than it is or the narrow way to life narrower than it is all my designe is to preserve my self and others from conceiting this strait gate to be wider and this narrow way to be broader than indeed God hath made them as knowing an error herein is of a dangerous tendency and such as in all likelihood hath betrayed many a man into the broad way of death whilst he hath strongly fancied himself to be in the path of life The safest and best way therefore to be kept from stumbling at the Word and from wresting these promises of grace to our own destruction will be to understand all Scriptures that promise justification and life to beleeving indefinitely as still meant of such a Faith for kinde as does directly fall in with and not cross Gods general design in offering Salvation to men by Jesus Christ For it is not to be imagined that the Lord will prevaricate his own scope and drift or clogg his design by any the least overture that may leave men under hope of attaining Salvation in any way or upon any termes which do not directly comport with his designe that reverence which we owe to the wisdom of God does with a high hand prohibit any such thought All the words of God in the Scripture in all the variety of expression whether they be promises or precepts or threatnings they all wait on Gods great design towards man and they all march on the same way like the living Creatures in Ezekiels vision who went every one straight forward whither the spirit was to go and turned not when they went Ezek. 1.12 they do neither justle nor hinder nor turn one upon another but strengthen each other in seeking the prize for which they run the Word of God in the several parts of it as relating to the Lords designe is not yea and nay 2 Cor. 1.18 19. but all agreeing to serve the great purpose of God And what is this general design of God I speak of Surely ultimately it is his own glory in the Salvation of men his honour and the Creatures good in conjunction And if his design had been to provide only for the magnifying of his grace and mercy without respect unto his holiness it 's like he would have saved all men without any more ado for the same ransom to wit Christ Jesus would have been and is sufficient for all But then would not wretched sinners have thought God to be like them according to that in Psalm 50.21 These things hast thou done and I kept silence and thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy self would they not have thought that he could endure wickedness well enough in his Creature and hold fellowship with the workers of iniquity and what then would have become of the glory of his great Name how would he have been known to be glorious in holinesse as well as in grace and power And therefore that he might bring such a people unto himself in whom he might delight and whom he might prefer to glory with himself without disparagement unto his holiness he hath in his infinite wisdom so contrived the method and termes of bringing men to his Salvation glory as that thereby his love of holiness in the Creature might be conspicuous and visible as well as his love of the happiness of the Creature And therefore all the means set on foot by God to bring about the salvation of men do all tend to promote holiness in men as well as the happiness of men The whole and intire body of means of mans salvation is called the Mystery of godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 Christ the principal Agent or rather author of eternal salvation the holy one Acts 3.14 the Gospel which is the Word of Life or glad tidings of salvation is called the doctrine according to godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 Tit. 1.1 The Covenant of grace an holy Covenant Luke 1.72 the Faith by which men imbrace the Prince of Life the promise of Life and Word of Salvation is called the most holy Faith Iude 20. the calling of christians an holy calling 2 Tim. 1.9 for they are called unto holiness 1 Thes 4.7 the Spirit by which the means are made effectual and through which by his Workmanship men are formed into vessels of glory is the holy Spirit Ephes 4.30 In a word the very end and scope of Christ his giving himself for his Church and vouchsafeing all the means of Salvation is That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Ephes 5.27 meet for the company of the holy God and the holy Angels in the most holy place the holy Ierusalem as it is called Rev. 21.10 Now this is that which I say then that seeing Gods design is to magnifie his holiness as well as his mercy in mens salvation and to shew that he as well desires and loves their holiness as their happiness and that all subordinate means are appointed and shaped to reach the one as well as the other hence we may well conclude that the believing unto which God hath made promise of life however indefinitely exprest is yet no other than a most holy Faith and such as does dispose that soul where it is unto holiness because salvation being the great motive to perswade men unto holiness God would loose that part of his designe if he should make promise of life unto any other than the most holy Faith And therefore it is neither prudent nor safe for any man to understand or take the word BELEEVING to which the promise is made in the narrowest and strictest sence or lowest signification of the word as it imports a naked bare and barren assent for if it might the Faith of the Rulers that durst not own Christ the Faith of Simon Magus yet such a Faith as the Devils have of which you heard before would carry salvation before it But if you would lay a sure foundation then understand the word BELEEVING or the phrase beleeving Christ to be the Son of God in a more copious and comprehensive sence for such an assent of the mind as carries the will and affections along with it to reverence and love him as such as a Wife who believes her Husband to be her Husband or as a Child who believes his Father to be his Father For whosoever believes Christ to be the Son of God if his Faith be not contradictious in it self does believe all his sayings as certain verities whether precepts promises or threatnings consequently his Faith does dispose the soul to love and fear him and hearken to him In this large sence I conceive Christ is to be understood Iohn 5.44 when he sayes to the Jews how can ye believe which receive honour of one another and seek
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
before by a former and precedent act To this I likewise Answer That Justification taken in a large sence for a mans constant standing acceptable condition before God depends not only upon the first acts of a mans Faith when he begins to beleeve but upon the continuation and reitteration of the same and multiplication of the like and sometimes higher acts all along a mans life unto the end of his dayes which being a point of much consequence I pray you mark how I make it good 1. This clearly appears in Abrahams case for neither was that beleeving of Abraham of which we read Gen. 15.6 which was counted to him for Righteousness the first act of his effectual Faith and consequently not that which began his justification For this act of his Faith was the closing with a Promise which God made him after he had dwelt some years in the Land of Canaan probably near upon ten years as you will have cause to conceive if you compare the process of the history touching his leaving Charon and sojourning in the Land of Canaan with Gen. 16.3 where a period of time is mentioned at which he had dwelt ten years in the Land of Canaan and which so far as appears extended it self very little beyond that time when God appeared to Abraham after his slaughter of the Kings and made that Promise to him the beleeving of which is said to be counted to him for Righteousness But Abraham had a great measure of Faith before ever he left his native Country Vr of the Chaldees first and Charon after to come at Gods call into Canaan as we heard before from Heb. 11.8 where it 's told us That it was by his Faith that he obeyed God therein And by Faith he after sojourned in the Land of Promise Heb. 11.9 wherein by vertue of his Faith he devoutly worshiped and served that God which had called him thither building Altars for his Worship at several places where he pitched his Tent and there called on the Name of the Lord Gen. 12.7 8. and 13.4 18. And all this before that particular act of his Faith mentioned Gen. 15.6 which is there said to have been counted to him for Righteousness And can any man so much as imagine That Abraham having such a Faith so long before and making such proof of the life and power of it in his Love Obedience and Devotion to God as he did and God back again declaring his high approbation of him by a frequent appearing to him and making repeating and enlarging his Promises of the great things he was resolved to do for him that yet he all this while should not be justified and accepted with God upon his beleeving I say Can any such thought possibly enter into any mans heart If not then it is manifest that that act of Abrahams Faith Gen. 15.6 which was counted to him for Righteousness was but an after-act not the beginning-act of his Justification and consequently that a mans Justification does not depend only upon one transient act of Faith when he begins to beleeve but upon a continuation renewing and multiplication of the same or like acts Abraham though he beleeved in God before and was accepted with God before yet his after-Faith is imputed to him for Righteousness as well as his former and if he should not have beleeved God upon this renewing of his Promise as well as at the first making of it I see not how Righteousness could at this time have been imputed to him upon account of his former beleeving No it was imputed upon his present beleeving And seeing that we find that Abrahams justification is here in Gen. 15.6 attributed to an after act of his Faith there 's the same reason why his justification should again be ascribed unto that act of his Faith by which he offered up his Son though it be supposed to follow twenty years after the other as that did many years after the first These things considered it need not be looked upon as any paradox or wonder that James should attribute Abrahams Justification before God unto an act of his Faith which took not place till many years after he had been in the Faith of God We heard before from Rom. 4.12 that the Faith by which Abraham was justified was a walking Faith and had steps and now we see that the latter steps of the same Faith were necessary to his justification as well as the former he having and enjoying means motives and opportunities of exerting these latter acts as well as of the former And it 's of special note to this point That the Lord casts the performance of a Promise which he had made to Abraham many years before upon that act of his Faith and Obedience which took place but now when he would have offered Isaac Gen. 22.16 17 18. By my self have I sworn saith the Lord for because thou hast done this thing and hast not with-held thy Son thine only Son that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the Stars of Heaven and as the Sand which is upon the Sea shore and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies and in thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed because thou hast obeyed my voice Mark how God grounds this Promise noted in these two expressions because thou hast done this thing and because thou hast obeyed my voice And yet this Promise for substance had been made him more than once before he had done that thing and before he had herein obeyed his voice as is evident Gen. 12.2 3 13.15 16. 15.5 6. From which I gather That collateral or after acts of Faith and Obedience are as necessary to continue and make good a mans interest in the Promises for the future as the first acts of his Faith and Obedience were to entitle him to them at the first The Lord at the first makes his Promise to Abraham conditionally that in case he would get him out of his own Country and from his Kindred and from his Fathers house unto a Land which he would shew him that then he would make him a great Nation and bless him and make his name great and make him a blessing and bless them that should bless him and curse them that should curse him and that in him should all Families of the Earth be blessed Gen. 12.1 2 3. Afterward when Abraham upon belief of this Promise had actually obeyed God and was come into the Land to which he led him then God renews the same Promise to him once and again without expressing that Condition because he had now so far fulfilled it this we may see Gen. 13.15 16. 15.5 6. As if he renewed his Promise now by way of reward unto his former Faith and Obedience just as in this case of his offering of Isaac the Lord renews the same Promise with the addition of his Oath to bind it by way
they should but that it is the Spirit that helps the Saints infirmities Rom. 8.26 I say when a Christian upon the knowledge and sense of the absolute necessity of the Spirits presence and assistance is made to value desire him more than any thing than all things in this World then is the Spirit given and then does the Spirit delight to joyn himself to such a Soul and to make his constant abode there But as for the men of the world on the other hand because they are under no such sense they know him not nor the necessity and worth of his presence nor are under any longings of Soul after him for those and the like spiritual ends before mentioned therefore is it that they are in no present capacity of receiving him See both these things set forth in Joh. 14.16 17. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth whom the World cannot receive because it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth with you and shall be in you Why cannot the World receive the Spirit of Truth which Christ promiseth Even because it seeth him not neither knoweth him The antecedent being as I conceive here put for the consequent of not seeing and knowing him and that is Their not prizing nor desiring him For the men of the World who contrary to the Saints walk by Sight and not by Faith do not value and esteem such things whose worth and use are not discerned but by Faith 1 Cor. 2.14 and such is the gift and presence of the Spirit of God but such things are matters of their esteem as do accommodate the natural senses And because they do not thus desire him out of a sensible knowledge of his worth and excellency and their want of him therefore is it that they cannot receive him he being not otherwise given than upon such terms But why then do the Saints receive him So that he dwelleth with them and shall be in them The Reason is Because they know him and so highly prize him and thorowly desire him For the Particle FOR in this place but ye know him FOR he dwelleth with you hath not I conceive the force of a Cause but of an Effect not as if the Reason why they knew him is because he dwelleth with them but the Reason why he dwelleth with them is because they know or have known him The same Particle being used in this sense Luk. 7.47 And indeed the words are thus translated by Dr. Hammond But ye know him therefore he abideth with you and shall be among you And besides all this the antithesis that lies between the reasons why the World cannot and the Saints can and do receive him evidently gives this to be the right sencing of these words For if that be the reason why the World cannot receive him viz. because it knoweth him not as it is then the reason why others do receive him is that knowledge they have of him for the want of which the World cannot receive him That we see then which is said of Wisdom Prov. 8.17 is most true of this holy Spirit which is the Spirit of Wisdom I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me Those that so love him out of a deep sense of their extream want of him and his incomparable worth to them as to seek him early in the first place and before all other things with the first of their strength and desire he loves them and loves to be found of them and loves to dwell with them and to be every good thing to them Sect. 7 2. And the next act of Faith which I would speak of as prevalent for the procuring the Spirits residence in the Soul for the great and spiritual ends for which he is promised is the act of Relyance or Dependance upon the Father and the Son for it Gal. 3.14 That we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith Through Faith not only concerning other Promises but also and especially touching such as concern the Father and the Sons giving the holy Spirit who because he is given and received by vertue of Promises made and embraced is therefore stiled The holy Spirit of Promise Ephes 1.13 And Faith eying Gods knowledge and sense of the Creatures condition in making such a Promise and in what need he was of the thing promised and his love and friendship to him by engaging himself in such a Promise which he needed not to have done had not his good-will been great to him and that therefore his intendment of doing the thing must needs be very thorow and real and eying also his faithfulness in keeping and power of performing Promises hereupon leans and depends upon the Lord for this Promise of the Spirit and so accordingly receives it from him Sect. 8 3. And that in the Third place which follows upon the two former is the Faith of desiring him and the hope and confidence of obtaining and receiving him digested into incessant and fervent Prayer for him For when the sense of the Spirits worth and our want of him renders him exceedingly desirable unto the Soul and when the sense of the Fathers good-will and readiness to give him by his promise of giving him and by what he hath done already in giving Christ when we needed him shall prompt the soul with confidence of obtaining him and the sense of all together shall dispose the Soul Prayer-wise and influence the Prayer with much of desire and longing with much of earnestness importunity and perseverence in begging and with much of confidence in expecting then undoubtedly will the holy Spirit be obtained as an inhabitant to the Soul for so hath our Lord assured us saying If ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luk. 11.13 Sect. 9 This Property in Faith of which I have now spoken humbly to depend on God for spiritual supplies for maintenance of spiritual life and to be strengthened unto spiritual work is I am perswaded that which puts a manifest difference between the living and the dead Faith For the dead Faith being found in that nature which never under-went such a change yet as will denominate it to be a new creature is void of spiritual sense perceives not the necessity of those spiritual supplies which are the new creatures life and nourishment nor feels the want of them and therefore cannot long after them nor depend on God for them but such an one thinks himself in excellent good condition because he beleeves Christ died for him and that he hath been Baptized in his Name and hath Communion in his Ordinances and gives Christ good Words and professes himself to be his Servant and can Discourse it may be many Points in
converse and delightful communication which it hath with this Love of the Lord it comes to contract a habitual similitude of it in the soul by degrees to change the soul into the same image Solomon saith He that walketh with wise men shall be wise Prov. 13.20 Which thing doubtless proceeds from a great aptness that is in men to be transformed into the disposition temper and quality of those persons with whom they much converse and delight so to do especially if superior to themselves and judging what they see in them worthy imitation And so Faith keeping such constant company with the Love of Christ to the poor soul and being so much taken with it as it is and having it self such an influence upon the soul as it hath does by degrees fetch over the soul in conformity of disposition to it This is sweetly set out by the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. The glory of the Lord he here speaks of is doubtless amongst other things the grace or love of the Lord to men which is indeed his glory that by which he hath made us accepted in the beloved being called the glory of his grace Ephes 1.6 and is that thing which in the Gospel ministration here spoken of shines forth with greatest luster and brightness But mark now The souls intent and earnest beholding of this glory of the Lord by the eye of Faith as it is visible to it in this glass of the Gospel works this effect The soul it self is hereby changed into the same image transformed into this likeness of the Lord step by step degree by degree from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord by whose influence Faith does this thing For so Christ foretold Joh. 16.14 He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shall shew it unto you Like as the flocks which Jacob kept by their looking upon the streaked rods in the time of their conception came to conceive and bring forth Cattel that were ring-streaked Gen. 30.37 38 39. even so the soul by Faith dwelling in the serious and pleasant contemplation of the glory of this love of the Lord conceives and brings forth affections and actions in the same likeness The very reason why any man comes to love God is the belief knowledg and sence which he hath of Gods love to him first 1 John 4.19 We love him because he loved us first Which is to be understood of Gods love beleeved and perceived for till then it does not work this reciprocal affection in the Soul And therefore the same Apostle concludes that if any man does not love he does not know God as he is a God of love 1 John 4.8 For if he did and had the true sence of it in his Soul he might sooner draw nigh a great fire and not be warmed than feel the warming influences of this wonderful Love playing hot upon the Soul and not in some measure be transformed into its likeness The Apostle Paul well knowing this made this Prayer for the Ephesian Saints That Christ might dwell in their hearts by Faith that they being rooted and grounded in love might be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the bredth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge that they might be filled with all the fulnesse of God In which Prayer you may observe first his end and scope the thing he had in his eye and that which his Soul exceedingly longed after for them and that was that they might be filled with all the fulnesse of God Which I conceive is not to be understood at least not only to be understood in a passive sence of having the Soul filled with the knowledge and sence of all the fulnesse of Gods love to it for this he had prayed for as the means of their being filled with all this fulness of God but in an active sence for their being so filled with their love back again to Christ as by which to attain the highest pitch and utmost perfection of Christianity which is wrapt up in our love to Christ to which God in Christ designed to elevate and raise the Christian And therefore when we love one another as the Lord hath loved us according to his command John 13.34 he is said to dwell in us and his love to be perfected in us 1 Cor. 4.12 viz. by way of imitation and resemblance of that divine vertue property or perfection in God to wit his love which is so wonderfully remarkable in him as that he is called Love it self 1 John 4.8 16. Now for God to dwell in men and for them to have his love perfected in them what is this lesse than to be filled with all the fulness of God But that which the Apostle prayed for in order to this their being filled with all the fulness of God was that Christ dwelling in their hearts by faith they might be able to comprehend with all Saints what the bredth length depth and height is and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge So that mens being filled with the fulnesse of that love to the Lord which his love to them calls for and designes to procure depends we see upon their comprehending by Faith the glory of his love set out in the dimensions of it upon their knowing very much of that love of Christ which in the utmost extent of it passeth knowledg Sect. 3 2. Faith raises this Heavenly affection of love in the Soul as a principle of worthy behaviour both to God and men by an effectual closing with the Doctrine of the Lord concerning Love For it is mens Faith in that word which calls for Love to the Lord to Saints and to all men that causes the word to incorporate it self with the Soul turning the doctrine of Love into a principle of Love in the Soul making it an ingrafted word James 1.21 as turning the stock into its own nature It is by Faith that all that in the Word is discerned and felt which renders it acceptable to and gives it force and authority in the soul And therefore the Word is said to work effectually in those that believe 1 Thes 2.13 And what 's that but to produce its effect reach its end and to have its errand about which it 's sent working that love it self in the soul which is the business about which the doctrine of Love is sent And therefore Love is said to be the end of the Commandement out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 Love to proceed from unfeigned Faith as the end of the Commandement that is I conceive it 's aim and scope the prize for which it runs and where there is Faith unfeigned first wrought
and procured by the Word there the Word by means of this Faith works effectually to the raising or producing of that love which is the end or design of the Commandement It 's said of some Heb. 4.2 that the word did not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it The Word is then said not to profit men when it looses it's end and design of good towards them when it does not work in them and procure from them that frame and disposition of Soul and habit of behaviour which does answer its nature and scope as when the Doctrine of Love is preached to them and yet no such thing is wrought in them But the cause of this disappointment is the not mixing the Word with Faith If men do not verily beleeve it to be a Word from the Lord or that it comes from him upon like or far better termes than hearty counsel from a Friend as both able and faithful to advise and direct upon the best termes for good or if they think themselves and their own good not much concerned in it and the like no marvel if it profit them not if it procure not that complyance from them which should give it an abiding place in the Soul to work there as seed does which is wont to bring forth Fruit according to its kind But where the Word the Doctrine of Love for example is mixed with Faith with respect to the authority power wisdom design of good in the author and the conducibleness of the word it self to the real and substantial happiness and felicity of the person himself in whom this Faith is there it prospers in the thing for which it is sent Sect. 4 Having now thus shewed how Faith works by love by contributing to its being and consequently to its motions and operations and considering that Faiths working by love is the characteristical mark and distinguishing property of that Faith which shall avail men unto salvation let us now put our selves upon the tryal of our Faith and so upon our title to life by this evidence And I will begin with that love which is wrought by Faith to the Lord. Hath then the sight and sence which Faith hath given you of the wonderfulness of the Fathers love and of the Sons love in doing suffering and designing such marvellous things for Persons so unworthy of them and so worthy of what is directly contrary to them as we are as may well astonish the rational part of the whole Creation I say hath the sight and sence of this divine fire of Love kindled upon your souls and caused a heavenly burning of affection to the Lord. Hath the sence which Faith hath given you of his love to you exceedingly endeared your souls by way of return in love to him Hath your Faith opened such a passage for Christs love to come at the Soul as that you can say with the Saints of old The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again 1 Cor. 5 14 15. Hath it such a force and influence upon you in causing you to devote your selves your lives to him as his love to you had upon him in causing him to give his life for you and himself unto you Sect. 5 1. To what degree any Man or Woman loves another to the same degree they are usually wont to be desirous and careful to please them And therefore the Apostle supposeth this to be the natural effect of that conjugal relation and affection that is between Husband and Wife viz. the ones caring to please her Husband and the others caring to please his Wife 1 Cor. 7.33 34. And there 's no doubt but it is so with all those that love the Lord indeed the more they abound in that affection to him the more desirous the more thoughtful and the more careful are they how to please the Lord in every thing they do and in every thing he would have done And therefore the Scripture measures mens love to the Lord by their care to do his commands which are indeed the things that please him 1 John 5.3 For this is the love of God that we keep his Commandements And again John 14.15 If ye love me keep my Commandements And verse 21. He that hath my Commandements and keepeth them he it is that loveth me And again verse 23. If a man love me he will keep my words And yet again verse 24. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings 1 John 2.5 But whoso keepeth his word in him verily is the love of God perfected And therefore when men are not full of thought and care about what will please and what will displease the Lord and desirous and industrious to come at his mind hereabout but are untender and do things at a venture either in his Worship their own calling or in their converse with men not laying it close to the heart to give glory to God in all it argues that things are not yet as they should be with them in their love to the Lord. Sect. 6 2. Again where the Soul by means of Faith hath had a taste of the exceeding sweetness and preciousness of the Lords love 1 Pet. 2.3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious and is thereby brought in love with his love as highly prizing it and the sence of it there the soul will be wonderful fearful of acting or doing any thing that might make any breach between the Lord and it that might offend or grieve him or that should cause him to turn away in displeasure or to hide his face or to with-hold the influences of his quickening and comforting grace And if at any time through want of care and watchfulness such a soul hath been surprized and drawn to speak or act yea though but in the in most parts of the soul that which tends to grieve the Spirit to provoke the Lord and to work any estrangement O what humbling is there what taking of shame what begging crying and earnest intreating that God would passe it by that it might not obstruct the course of their communion with the Lord And if it hath wrought any distance and the Lord hath hereupon withdrawn himself a little O how the poor soul is cast down how earnest in her pursuit after her Beloved that hath withdrawn himself and is gone and how restless till the breach be made up and the Lord hath smiled again upon the soul by some gracious effects of his presence there Such things as these are undoubtedly found in greater or lesser proportion where true and entire love to the Lord hath been raised by Faith in the Soul Ps 51.7 8 9 10 11 12. Cant. 5.2 8. Sect. 7 3. Furthermore to what degree Faith works by Love to
large enough to support themselves and houshold-relations in a free if but in a sober and moderate way of living and yet withall to strengthen the hands and to refresh the bowels and ease the burdens of many poor so neither is it necessary nor as I think Christian for them whose Estates are grown to their full stature so as to be in a competent capacity of answering all a mans truly necessary and convenient occasions according to the rules of Christian moderation and sobriety for them still to be every year making their heap higher Joyning house to house and laying field to field the thing of which the Lord complains Isai 5.8 Surely when Christ saith Lay not up for your selves treasures on earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and Thieves break through and steal Mat. 6.19 He would have men to set some bounds unto themselves in heaping treasure together for the last dayes James 5.3 And therefore it may be necessary for one whose Estate is of competent growth to dispose in a way of charity so much of his yearly Income as is found to be the whole surplusage of necessary expences in a sober way of living though it should amount to as much or more than the whole of his expences do when the same thing cannot be thought to be the duty of another whose occasions as a Christian may call for some augmentation of his Estate if providence vouchsafe opportunity As for those who when they have more then enough already and so much as proves far more frequently a sad occasion of destruction to their Childrens souls as there is cause to fear and many times of bodies too than of any spiritual advantage to them shall yet make it their business to their dying-day to be heaping up more and more while in the mean time many Families are in great distress through want and they contributing little to their relief I dread to think what account they will be able to make unto the Lord who hath directed them to make themselves Friends in a spiritual sence of their unfaithful Mammon and charged them to be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate and hath declared them stark Fools that lay up treasures for themselves and are not rich towards God Luke 12.20 21. and 16.9 1 Tim. 6.17 18. But now since the different circumstances of mens cases do render any one rule of proportion as unlike to suit every man in this case as it 's impossible for the same shooe to fit every mans foot therefore we must leave this matter of proportion to every mans Conscience which faithfully consulted with it having it self first faithfully consulted with the Word of God and the arguments and motives unto bounty which are there will be a competent guide unto a man herein Only let it be remembred to take aime by that before the Law the principles of Love and Godly devotion dictated to the Patriarch Jacob to give the Tenth of what God gave him unto God Gen. 28.22 And under the Law 1. Every third years tenth was to be put apart for charitable uses Deut. 14.28 29. and 26.12 13. 2. Part of the corners of the fields were purposely to be left unreaped Levit. 19.9 10. and 23.22 And 3. Besides this a certain proportion for gleaning was to be left for the poor both in the field and Vineyard Levit. 19.9 10. 4. The forgotten sheaves in the Field Deut. 24.19 And 5. Besides all this a special Law for Relieving with that which was sufficient for his need any poor Brother that was fallen to decay Deut. 15.7 8 9. All which put together did arise to a considerable proportion of a mans yearly increase which was also deeply charged with a Tenth for the Priests and with Sacrifices and oblations otherwise And the law of Love under the Gospel is not lessened but rather much improved and heightened by the great example and obligation of Christs signal love which is propounded as our pattern John 13.34 1 John 3.16 And therefore Christs precepts for charity run very high saying Sell that ye have and give Alms Luke 12.33 And again Give to every man that asketh of thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn thou not away Luke 6.30 Mat. 5.42 Yea as the case may be our very Lives which are more than Estates must be laid down for the Brethren 1 John 3.16 All which considered though a just proportion cannot be set as a Tenth of the whole proceed of the capital stock or the like which is the rule of proportion which some Christians of a middle rank in the world do set unto themselves yet in ordinary lesse than a liberal free and frequent distribution of Alms according in proportion to every mans ability cannot be understood to be the expresse will of our Lord besides what is to be done extraordinarily in extraordinary cases I cannot stand so much as to touch the variety of motives and great encouragements that belong to this duty But if such as profess themselves to be Christians indeed and would be thought to be none of the lowest rank of them neither would but convert their superfluous expences upon back and belly and other bravery and vain delights wherein too too many of the professors of this Age do abound to the great scandal of Religion into works of charity and mercy it would turn to a thousand times better account both in point of evidence of the goodnesse of their Faith and Charity and in procuring reverence and respect to their profession in the Consciences of men and as being that also which would abound to their account Phil. 4.17 in that great day of account which is shortly to come wherein what good soever any man hath done the same shall he receive of the Lord whether he be bond or free But while their superfluity and vanity instead of their moderation Phil. 4.5 is made known unto all men and their worldly glory instead of the light of their good works shines before men Mat. 5.16 I am sure they make but bad provision for that spiritual assurance of the soundnesse of their title to the promise of Justification by Faith and Eternal Life the worth whereof when they come to dye will be discerned and the vanity of the other discovered to the Conscience and their present folly in sowing so liberally to the flesh and so sparingly to the Spirit will then be lamented and bewailed Sect. 17 8. Moreover as giving so forgiving is such an act of love and mercy and so necessary to the evidencing of a mans Faith to be right as without which no man can prove his Faith to be such as by which he shall be justified For when Christ declares this to be the Law of Heaven saying But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your Trespasses Mat. 6.15 and 18.35 He does as good as tell all such in plain words whose hearts serve them not to
and soundness of your Faith and thereby the validity of your title to the promise as will satisfie the Judge Delegate Conscience and make that on your side and then you have cast your adversary and foiled him in his suit he can proceed no further with you his accusation and Bill in this kind being thrown out of the Court of Conscience as malicious and scandalous Sect. 4 But then O how does it concern us to have the evidences and proofs of the goodness of our Faith which is our title to be alwayes in a readiness and not to seek for to be sure shall they be wanting or should they be lost or but defaced and blur'd or but in a capacity of delivering themselves ambiguously our Adversary the Devil is so diligent to prie into matters of this nature as that there will be no hiding them from him and so subtile to improve advantages in this kind given as that we shall hear of him in such a time and season which of all other we have least need to be troubled by him And therefore as you would not have your bitter and cruel Enemy the Devil to vex perplex and worst you in the Court of your own Conscience be careful above all things so to shew forth your Faith by your Works James 2.18 as that you may put the Devil out of heart as it were of attempting you in this kind or if he do that you may be sure he shall but loose his labour He that is begotten of God sinneth not but keepeth himself that the wicked one toucheth him not 1 John 5.18 It 's sinning and matter of miscarriage unevenness and faultering in ones way that gives the Devil advantage against one and power of impleading him but those that are truly careful to walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing mark that Col. 1.10 as those that are begotten of God do they keep themselves out of the Devils reach that the wicked one toucheth them not though he diligently seeks it yet he cannot get this advantage against them It 's in vain for the Devil to bring his accusations against a man at the Barr of his Conscience if Conscience it self which is Judge in the case be able to bear a man witness that his Faith is of that kind that in the tenour of his life worketh by such acts which argue unfeigned love both to God and men This brest-plate of Righteousness will effectually safeguard the Soul from all the thrusts of the Devil that he shall not be able to wound the Spirit Ephes 6.14 Righteousness keepeth him that is upright in the way Prov. 13.6 it 's that to the Soul which a coat of Mail is to the body it preserves the Soul from the molestations of the Devil his weapons cannot enter his insinuations touching a mans bad condition before God cannot take place The armour of righteousness is armour of proof on the right hand and on the left 2 Cor. 6. â—7 If a man have that on the Devil can find no way to enter or to draw blood of the Soul but let a man leave off that but a little and he shall soon feel the Devils darts striking through his Liver to allude to Prov. 7.23 and his Sword passing through his Soul and such aches paines and gripes occasioned thereby in the Soul as sometime caused a stout Souldier of the Lords upon that occasion to roar for the disquietness of his heart Psal 38.8 and to complain of broken bones Ps 51.8 Sect. 5 And truly for Conscience it self which is such a Judge as next to the supream Judge is privy to all a mans wayes inward outward it cannot take a mans part against the Devils accusations and pleas before its Barr touching the unsoundness of his Faith and brokenness of his title to the promise of Justification and life if it discern not in him those spiritual qualifications as will in the eye of the holy Law of Jesus evince his Faith to be living and not dead For as it is the living and not the dead among men in whom the title in Law rests and is alwayes so judged so is it the living and not the dead Faith in which the title in the sence of the Gospel rests and will be alwayes so judged by an upright Conscience And therefore if you would have Conscience to pass the sentence on your side and against the impleadings of your enemy and to be a witness for you in your cause be you sure you do nothing at any time to offend Conscience and to disoblige it or to make it a witness against you For if the Devil shall appeal to Conscience it self which is the Judge whether it be not able to witness that at such and such a time such and such offences and transgressions of the holy Law were committed and done in word or deed not only in its sight but contrary to its items and checks and the Conscience knows it to be true can the Conscience think you in such a case vindicate a mans cause against his Enemy surely no but must give the Devil his due and say as he sayes so far as he speaks true And how far a few instances of this nature will go towards the spoiling of a mans cause when he comes to be tryed for his integrity I leave to every Soul seriously to consider A few acts of this nature will go further to evince a man to be unfaithful and false to God and under the condemnation of his Law in the maine than a great many good actions in company of these will do to prove him to be faithful and under the protection of the Law Ezek. 33.12 13. The righteousnesse of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression Again When I shall say to the righteous that he shall surely live if he trust to bis own righteousnesse and commit iniquity all his righteousnesse shall not be remembred but for his iniquity which he hath committed he shall dye for it Which surely remains in force where true Repentance which consists of contrition and reformation hath not altered the case which otherwise is indeed a remedy against the Sin of backsliding as well as against other evills where it takes place Sect. 6 Again Conscience in its testimony or verdict is that which does not only acquit a man from the accusations of the Devil when calumnious but which also gives him boldness towards God of receiving a gracious and merciful sentence of final Justification and absolution from Christ when the day of his solemn and publick tryal shall come For as here in London at the Sessions of Peace an inferior Court things are prepared and made ready for tryal at the Grand Sessions so that a man may guesse by the verdict of the petty Jury in the lower Court how things are like to go with him in the Upper Court even so may a man be able to make a kind of certain Judgement how things are
hav confidence of Salvation because they believe though they do not indeed believe with that belief unto which Salvation is promised do directly tread in the steps of some in the Apostles dayes who would needs be confident of salvation though all the Faith they had was not of that power as to produce a holy life and the Apostles knowing the danger of such a confidence laboured exceedingly to take them off it and to build them upon a better bottom This is the business in which the Apostle Iames labours so mightily in his Epistle And we may easily perceive what Disease was among the Christians by the remedies which this servant of the Lord applyed for their cure viz. an inordinate love of the world which manifested it self in an adulterous and too near a complyance therewith Chap. 4. beginning And thereupon they despised the poor Saints and preferred men less worthy if they were rich chap. 2. Their want of the true christian humility and love brake out into bitter envying and strife and an undue judging and censuring one of another chap. 3. throughout And yet for all these unchristian and unsaint-like deportments they were ready to glory as if they were the knowing men and men of the right Religion wherein salvation was to be had and that it did belong to them In opposition to which vain-confidence and confident boasting he expresseth himself thus chap. 3.14 15. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth this wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual develish For them to glory of their Religion and of their wisdom and knowledg and yet to be men of such an unchristian carriage they did but lye against the truth which they pretended to have on their side but indeed was point blank against them But if any man would approve himself a wise man indeed endued with the christian knowledge of the right kind the Apostle tells them it must be by shewing out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom v. 13. Again chap. 1.26 he had likewise encountred that vain-confidence that was built upon a form of Knowledge Faith and Profession without the life and power of it saying If any man among you seem to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart this mans religion is vain Men that should give way to the flesh though but in one thing as for instance a licensious liberty to the tongue not endeavouring by watchfulness heed and circumspection to conform to the doctrine of the Lord which forbids not only lying reviling back-biting slaundering corrupt and unclean communication but also foolish talking and jesting yea every idle word how religious soever they might otherwise seem to themselves upon account of their formal knowledg and Faith of external devotion to the Ordinances yet the Apostle testifieth as from the Lord that such do but deceive their own hearts befool themselves with a vain confidence of being religious men and of being accepted with God as such and that such mens Religion is vain that is as to the end for which the true Religion serves Not as if all their Religion were made up of vain notions but though they had never so sound a knowledg and right belief of many excellent Gospel-truths and though they added thereto the doing of many things yea how seemingly religious soever they were upon what account soever yet the want but of this one thing a care to bridle the tongue would render all a mans Religion and all his confidence of salvation built thereupon but vain unprofitable touching the end of Religion the end of Faith which is the salvation of the soul as if he had never had any Religion nor seeming shew of it at all Yet once more Iames 2.14 to the same purpose thus What doth it profit my brethren though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works can Faith save him that is can such a Faith save him a form of speech emphatically denying the thing interogated like unto that afterwards chap. 3.11 12. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Can the figg-tree my brethren bear Olive berries either a Vine Figgs Why no it cannot no more can that Faith save that hath not Works Though a man may say and say truly though a man be able to say he hath Faith yet if he have not Works can his Faith save him do you think it can He is not blaming their Faith as if not placed upon a right object or as if there were not a real closing with that object in point of assent in the beginning of this Chapter he clearly supposeth them to have the Faith of our Lord Iesus Christ only there cautions them not to yoke or couple their Faith with an unchristian carriage assuring them by the tenour of his discourse throughout this Chapter especially from the fourteenth verse to the end that a Faith so yoked and wanting its true yoke-fellow and companion the Gospel conversation which he calls by the name of Works will not profit him that hath it Which unprofitableness of that Faith which hath not Works he further illustrates by way of comparison verse 15 16. If a Brother or Sister be naked or destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them depart in peace be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit Nothing at all that is to the filling or warming of the necessitous person Even so saith he ver 17. Faith if it hath nor works is dead being alone Though a man should give God Christ never such good words though he shall be able to speak at never so high a rate of the grace of God of the love of Christ of the power of his death of the efficacy of his blood and prevalency of his intercession and shall have some kind of belief of what he sayes yet if it do not sincerely engage the soul to serve the interest of the glory of God in a vertuous life answerable to such a profession Faith it will no more profit to the justification of the Soul in the sight of God than a parcel of good words would feed and cloath fill and warm the needy Brother and indigent Sister when a contribution of a real relief is wanting Though I could speak with the tongue of men and Angels and had all Faith so that I could remove mountains and have not Love it would profit me nothing 1 Cor. 13.1 2. And whereas he saith that Faith is dead being alone he plainly supposeth that Faith may be alone without the company of Works a Faith that is truly so in its kind a Faith that is acted on a right object But where ever it is alone there it is dead that is it is unprofitable as to the end for which Faith is appointed viz. to justifie
Faith Abraham when he was called to go out unto a place which he should afterward receive obeyed Another like or rather more wonderful piece of Self denying Obedience which was acted by the power of his Faith was his carriage about the offering up of his Son Isaac in sacrifice unto God at his command Heb. 11.17 18. By Faith Abraham when he was tryed offered up Isaac and he that had received the Promises offered up his only begotten Son of whom it was said That in Isaac shall thy Seed be called Behold Abrahams will desire and delight swallowed up in the Will and good pleasure of God by means of his Faith His Son that had been so much desired and longed for before he had him that all he enjoyed in this world seemed little to him in the absence of such a Mercy Lord God what wilt thou give me seeing I go childless Gen. 15.2 That Son whom he so much loved when he had him yea and his only Son too and that Son in whom the Promise was made of the great things which God would do for Abraham this Son does God command him to offer for a burnt Offering this Son of his hopes this Son of his delights an action than which what lightly could be imagined more harsh and highly repugnant to his own will And yet notwithstanding all Debates and Reasonings of flesh and blood about this matter which one would think should be many and high and such which one should have much ado to get over yet so mighty was his Faith in God and confidence of a good issue of whatever he should do at the appointment and command of God as that he appears as forward in it as if it had been the most acceptable service which God could have put him upon For the Text saith That Abraham rose up early in the morning to go about it Gen. 22.3 And upon account of this very thing was he esteemed the friend of God Jam. 2.23 one that would forsake all and part with the dearest friend he had in all the world rather than not stick close to him in whatever he would have him do a true sign indeed of friendship to the Lord Joh. 15.14 Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Mark whatsoever I command not only commands which it may be may bear little upon the flesh easie and cheap duties but such as will try a mans affection to the uttermost as this to Abraham did such as call for the cutting off the right hand and plucking out the right eye the parting with things that are as grateful to the flesh as these Members of the body are to Nature And not only so but such things also as are as useful and desireable as the right hand and right eye are as Isaac was to Abraham when the holding and enjoying of them will not consist with our intire love to the Lord to be exprest in the most difficult and most self-denying piece of Service when he calls for it He that loves Father or Mother Son or Daughter yea or his own life more than Christ is not worthy of him Matth. 10.37 38. as he does which chuses rather to displease Christ and dishonour his Truth in keeping these than to displease himself or them in parting with them This task which was put upon Abraham was indeed very hard and directly of the nature of that in the Gospel mentioned before and yet as hard and as difficult as it was if Abraham had stuck at it he could not have approved his Faith to God no more than such as love Son or Daughter more than Christ and thereby prove themselves unworthy of him can approve their Faith in him to be right or their Love to him to be true And therefore if you mark it Abraham was said to be justified by Works when he had offered Isaac upon the Altar Jam. 2.21 Implying that as this high act of his Obedience proceeding from his Faith rendred him highly approved in the sight of God Gen. 22.16 So by the rule of contraries had he bogled at this command his neglect herein would not only have deprived him of that high approbation of God which by his fiducial Obedience he had now obtained but also have gone very far in contributing towards the loss of those degrees of Gods approbation whereto he had before attained if not wholly bereaved him thereof until he had repented and done his duty Sect. 5 But here I must make a stand a little and Answer an Objection which is this That though this act of Abrahams offering Isaac was an act of that Faith by which he was justified yet it was not that act of Faith by which he was justified it was an act of his Faith it 's true but not such a one as was essential to his justification and the reason hereof seems to be this because Abraham was justified by or upon his beleeving long before this it 's said Gen. 15.6 And Abraham beleeved in the Lord and he counted it to him for Righteousness And this was before Ishmael was born unto Abraham at whose birth Abraham was but 86 years old Gen. 16.16 But when Isaac was born he was an hundred years old Gen. 21.5 which clearly proves it to be fourteen years or more from that time in which Righteousness was imputed to him upon his beleeving to the time of Isaac's birth And yet this act of his Faith did not take place till some years after the birth of Isaac neither for the Lad by that time Abraham was called upon to offer him was so far grown in years stature and strength as that Abraham made him carry the Wood for the burnt-Offering Gen. 22.6 Now then if Abraham were justified by that act of his Faith which was found in him it may be twenty years before How could it be that be should be justified by another act of his Faith viz. This by which he offered Isaac so long after To which I Answer First That this act of his Faith by which he offered Isaac did concur to his Justification is very plain and manifest by that of Jam. 2.21 24. Was not Abraham our Father justified by Works when he had offered Isaac his Son upon the Altar As if he should say Is it not manifest he was Do you not know this And after he had amplified this Instance a little concludes upon it thus vers 24. Ye see then how that by Works a man is justified and not by Faith only By which it is manifest That this was not only an act of that Faith by which he was Justified but that this act of his Faith was that by which he was justified as well as that precedent act before mentioned and was not irrelative to his justification as the Objection supposeth Sect. 6 But then Secondly as to the Reason of the Objection which supposeth that this collateral act of Abrahams Faith could not do that for him which was done long