"In well doing commit yourselves to God as unto a faithful Creatorp;" there is no committing ourselves to God without well doing, "For God will render to every man according to his deeds; to them that obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath; but to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory, and honour, and immortality, to them eternal life." So that if faith apprehends any other promises, it is illusion, and not faith; God gave us none such, Christ purchased none such for us, search the Bible over and you shall find none such. But if faith lays hold on these promises that are, and as they are, then it becomes an article of our faith, that without obedience and a sincere endeavour to keep God's commandments, no man living can be justified: and therefore let us take heed, when we magnify the free grace of God, we do not exclude the conditions. which this free grace hath set upon us. Christ freely died for us, God pardons us freely in our first access to Him; we could never deserve pardon, because when we need pardon we are enemies, and have no good thing in us; and He freely gives us of His spirit, and freely He enables us to obey Him, and for our little imperfect services He freely and bountifully will give us eternal life; here is free grace all the way, and he overvalues his pitiful services, who thinks that he deserves heaven by them: and that if he does his duty tolerably, eternal life is not a free gift to him, but a deserved reward. Conscius est animus meus, experientia testis, it was the meditation of the wise chancellor of Paris, 'I know that without a good life, and the fruits of repentance, a sinner cannot be justified, and therefore I must live well, or I must die for ever. But if I do live holily, I do not think that I deserve heaven. It is the cross of Christ that procures me grace; it is the Spirit of Christ that gives me grace; it is the mercy and the free gift of Christ that brings me unto glory. But yet he that shall exclude the works of faith from the justification of a sinner by the blood of Christ, may as well exclude faith itself; for faith itself is one of the works of God: it is a good work, so said Christ to them that asked Him, "What shall we do to work the works of God? Jesus said, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." Faith is not only the foundation of good works, but itself is a good work, it is not only the cause of obedience, but a part of it; it is not only as the son of Sirach calls its, initium adhærendi Deo, a beginning of cleaving unto God,' but it carries us on to the perfection of it. Christ is the author and finisher of our faith, and when faith is finished, a good life is made perfect in our kind. Let no man therefore expect events for which he hath no promise, nor call for God's fidelity without his own faith P [1 Pet. iv. 19.] 9 [Rom. ii. 6 sqq.] [John vi. 28, 29.] [Ecclus. xxv. 12.] fulness, nor snatch at a promise without performing the condition; nor think faith to be a hand to apprehend Christ, and to do nothing else; for that will but deceive us, and turn religion into words, and holiness into hypocrisy, and the promises of God into a snare, and the truth of God into a lie. For when God made a covenant of faith, He made also the vóμos Tíσтews, the law of faith; and when He admitted us to a covenant of more mercy than was in the covenant of works or of the law, He did not admit us to a covenant of idleness, and an incurious walking in a state of disobedience, but 'the mercy of God leadeth us to repentance,' and when He gives us better promises, He intends we should pay Him a better obedience: when He forgives us what is past, He intends we would sin no more: when He offers us His graces, He would have us to make use of them; when He causes us to distrust ourselves, His meaning is we should rely upon Him; when He enables us to do what He commands us, He commands us to do all that we can. And therefore this covenant of faith and mercy is also a covenant of holiness, and the grace that pardons us does also purify us; for so saith the apostle, "He that hath this hope purifies himself even as God is pure." And when we are so, then we are justified indeed; this is the vóμos míσTews, 'the law of faith; and by works in this sense, that is, by the works of faith, by faith working by love, and producing fruits worthy of amendment of life, we are justified before God. And so I have done with the affirmative proposition of my text; you see that a man is justified by works. But there is more in it than this matter yet amounts to: for S. James does not say, 'We are justified by works, and are not justified by faith; that had been irreconcilable with S. Paul; but we are so justified by works, that it is not by faith alone; it is faith and works together: that is, it is by the Tакой пíσтеwя, by the obedience of faith,' by the works of faith, by the law of faith, by righteousness evangelical, by the conditions of the gospel and the measures of Christ. I have many things to say in this particular; but because I have but a little time left to say them in, I will sum it all up in this proposition, that in the question of justification and salvation, faith and good works are no parts of a distinction, but members of one entire body. Faith and good works together work the righteousness of God: that is, that I may speak plainly, justifying faith contains in it obedience; and if this be made good, then the two apostles are reconciled to each other, and both of them to the necessity, the indispensable necessity of a good life. Now that justifying and saving faith must be defined by something more than an act of understanding, appears not only in this, that S. Peter reckons faith as distinctly from knowledge, as he does from patience, or strength, or brotherly kindness; saying, "Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge";" but in this also; because an u [2 Pet. i. 5,] [1 John iii. 3.] error in life, and whatsoever is against holiness, is against faith. And therefore S. Paul reckons the lawless and the disobedient, murderers of parents, man-stealing and such things, to be against sound doctrines ; for the doctrine of faith is called ἡ κατ ̓ εὐσέβειαν διδασ kaλía", 'the doctrine that is according to godliness.' And when S. Paul prays against ungodly men, he adds this reason, où yàp πávTwv TiσTIs, for all men have not faith: meaning that wicked men are infidels and unbelievers, and particularly he affirms of him that "does not provide for his own," that "he hath denied the faith." Now from hence it follows that faith is godliness, because all wickedness is infidelity, it is an apostasy from the faith. Ille erit, ille nocens qui me tibi fecerit hostem2; he that sins against God, he is the enemy to the faith of Jesus Christ; and therefore we deceive ourselves if we place faith in the understanding only; it is not that, and it does not dwell there, but ev kalapậ ovvednoel, saith the apostle, the mystery of faith is kept no where, it dwells no where but in a pure conscience.' For I consider that since all moral habits are best defined by their operations, we can best understand what faith is by seeing what it does. To this purpose hear S. Paulb, 'By faith Abel offered up to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.' By faith Noah made an ark.' 'By faith Abraham left his country and offered up his son.' "By faith Moses chose to suffer affliction, and accounted the reproach of Christ greater than all the riches of Egypt.' In short, the children of God by faith subdued kingdoms, and wrought righteousness.' To work righteousness is as much the duty and work of faith as believing is. So that now we may quickly make an end of this great enquiry, whether a man is justified by faith, or by works, for he is so by both; if you take it alone, faith does not justify, but take it in the aggregate sense as it's used in the question of justification by S. Paul, and then faith does not only justify, but it sanctifies too; and then you need to enquire no further; obedience is a part of the definition of faith, as much as it is of charity. This is love,' saith S. John, that we keep His commandments: and the very same is affirmed of faith too by Bensirach, He that believeth the Lord will keep His commandments.' I have now done with all the propositions expressed and implied in the text; give me leave to make some practical considerations, and so I shall dismiss you from this attention. 1. The rise I take from the words of S. Epiphaniusd speaking in praise of the apostolical and purest ages of the church, 'There was at first no distinction of sects and opinions in the church; she knew no V [1 Tim. vi. 3.] b (Heb. xi.] [Ecclus. xxxii. 24.] Panar. lib. i. edit. Basil., p. 8, 1. 46. [al. § 5. tom. i. p. 6 B.] difference of men, but good and bad; there was no separation made, but what was made by piety or impiety, or (says he) which is all one, by fidelity or infidelity, πίστις μὲν ἐπέχουσα τοῦ χριστιανισμοῦ εἰκόνα, ἀπιστία δὲ ἐπέχουσα ἀσεβείας τὸν χαρακτῆρα καὶ παρανομίας. For faith hath in it the image of godliness engraven, and infidelity hath the character of wickedness and prevarication. A man was not then esteemed a saint for disobeying his bishop or an apostle, nor for misunderstanding the hard sayings of S. Paul about predestination; to kick against the laudable customs of the church was not then accounted a note of the godly party: and to despise government was but an ill mark and weak indication of being a good Christian. The kingdom of God did not then consist in words, but in power, the power of godliness; though now we are fallen into another method, we have turned all religion into faith, and our faith is nothing but the productions of interest or disputing; it is adhering to a party, and a wrangling against all the world beside; and when it is asked of what religion he is of, we understand the meaning to be what faction does he follow; what are the articles of his sect, not what is the manner of his life and if men be zealous for their party and that interest, then they are precious men, though otherwise they be covetous as the grave, factious as Dathan, schismatical as Corah, or proud as the falling angels. Alas, these things will but deceive us; the faith of a Christian cannot consist in strifes about words, and perverse disputings of men: these things the apostle calls profane and vain babblings;' and mark what he says of them, these things will increase ἐπὶ πλεῖον ἀσεβείας πλεῖον ἀσέβειαν. they are in themselves ungodliness and will produce more; "they will increase unto more ungodliness;" but the faith of a Christian hath other measures that was faith then which made men faithful to their vows in baptism. The faith of a Christian was the best security in contracts, and a Christian's word was as good as his bond, because he was faithful that promised; and a Christian would rather die than break his word, and was always true to his trust; he was faithful to his friend, and loved as Jonathan did David. This was the christian faith then; their religion was to hurt no man, and to do good to every man; and so it ought to be. True religion is to visit the fatherless and widow, and to keep ourselves unspotted of the world;' that's a good religion, that's 'pure and undefiled,' so S. James 8. And S. Chrysostom defines evoéßetav, 'true religion,' to be míoтw кaða. pàv kaì ỏμ¤òv ßíov, 'a pure faith and a godly life,' for they make up the whole mystery of godliness; and no man could then pretend to faith, but he that did do valiantly, and suffer patiently, and resist the devil, and overcome the world. These things are as properly the actions of faith, as alms is of charity, and therefore they must enter into the moral definition of it. And this was truly understood by [2 Tim. ii. 16.] [sic edd.] [chap. i. 27.] h [vid. in Mat., hom. lxiv. § 3.-tom. vii. col. 640 B.] Salvian, that wise and godly priest of Massilia; "What is faith, and what is believing?" saith he; Hominem fideliter Christo credere est fidelem Deo esse, h. e. fideliter Dei mandata servare, 'that man does faithfully believe in Christ who is faithful unto God, who faithfully keeps God's commandments:' and therefore let us measure our faith here by our faithfulness to God, and by our diligence to do our Master's commandments; for christianorum omnis religio sine scelere et macula vivere, said Lactantius', the whole religion of a Christian is to live unblamably; that is, in all holiness and purity of conversation. 2. When our faith is spoken of as the great instrument of justification and salvation, take Abraham's faith as your best pattern, and that will end the dispute, because that he was justified by faith when his faith was mighty in effect; when he trusted in God, when he believed the promises, when he expected a resurrection of the dead, when he was strong in faith, when he gave glory to God, when against hope he believed in hope; and when all this past into an act of a most glorious obedience, even denying his greatest desires, contradicting his most passionate affections, offering to God the best thing he had, and exposing to death his beloved Isaac, his 'laughters, all his joy at the command of God. By this faith he was justified, saith S. Paul, by these works he was justified, saith S. James; that is, by this faith working this obedience. And then all the difficulty is over; only remember this, your faith is weak and will do but little for you, if it be not stronger than all your secular desires and all your peevish angers. Thus we find in the holy gospels this conjunction declared necessary, "Whatsoever things ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Here is as glorious an event promised to faith as can be expressed, faith shall obtain any thing of God. True: but it is not faith alone; but faith in prayer; faith praying, not faith simply believing. So S. James', "The prayer of faith shall save the sick;" but adds, it must be "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man;" so that faith shall prevail, but there must be prayer in faith, and fervour in prayer, and devotion in fervour, and righteousness in devotion, and then impute the effect to faith if you please, provided that it be declared, that effect cannot be wrought by faith unless it be so qualified. But Christ adds one thing more", "When ye stand praying, forgive; but if ye will not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you. So that it will be to no purpose to say a man is justified by faith, unless you mingle charity with it: for without the charity of forgiveness, there can be no pardon; and then justification is but a word, when it effects nothing. 22 3. Let every one take heed that by an importune adhering to and [De gubern. Dei, lib. iii. p. 38.] 1 Div. inst., v. 9.-[tom. i. p. 385.] j [Gen. xvii. 19.] 1 [Mark xi. 24.] [chap. v. 15 sq.] m [Mark xi. 25.] |