CASE. 2. For the receiving part of faith, How shall we do to interest ourselves in the assistance of Jesus Christ?
1. We must lie at God's feet in a sense of our own weakness; as Jehoshaphat said in another case, 2 Chron. xx. 12, 'Lord, we have no might.' So, when you come to engage upon any duties, acknowledge your weakness: 2 Cor. iii. 5, 'Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God,' - he speaks of the management of the work of the ministry.
2. You must plead God's promises, wherein he hath engaged to help you in holy duties. You must come and throw him his handwriting, show him his promises; as Tamar dealt with Judah, when she showed him the ring and staff - 'Whose are these?' Gen. xxxviii. 25. Urge God with his promises in a humble plea of faith: Ps. cxix. 49, 'Remember thy word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope;' Lord, is not this thine own promise? and didst thou not by this draw out and invite my hope? Not as if God needed the mementoes of his creatures; but it is the only rational way to make our confidence arise. Look, as by wrestling we gain a heat to ourselves; so we, wrestling with God by prayer, revive the grounds of our hope, - show him his own institution, that there may be greater confidence in our own souls.
3. Cast yourselves upon the performance of duty in the expectation of his help. It is true God is not bound to give the arbitrary assistances of his Spirit; he doth all things according to his pleasure. But though God be not bound, you are bound; you must engage in duty whatsoever the success be. Say then, I will do what God hath commanded, let God do what he please. There is much of faith in this. The work of faith is to bring us to a cheerful engagement. By this means God's power is glorified, that he is able to help you; and God's mercy is glorified, you leave the business with him, and trust to his mercy. And his sovereignty is much glorified when you can lie at his foot, and leave him to the working of his own grace; as David: Ps. lxxi. 16, 'I will go in the strength of the Lord God;' that is, to the duty of praise; Eph. vi. 10, 'Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.' The Lord chides his children for this, because they would neglect duty out of their own discouragement. Thus, Jer. i. 7, when God sent him in a message - 'Say not, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatever I command thee thou shalt speak;' and Exod. iv. 10-12, when Moses would excuse himself - 'I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. The Lord said unto him, Who hath made man's mouth? ... Have not I the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and will teach thee what thou shalt say.' Weakness must never be urged to exclude duty; when there is a clear command, we should cast ourselves upon the duty, and refer the help to God's good pleasure.
Case 3. The third case respects the reasoning work of faith, How far is assurance necessary, that so faith may have some strength and encouragement, that we may be persuaded into acts of obedience by these arguments of faith? I answer -
1. We live by faith, and not by assurance. The first act of faith is vital, and unites and implants into Christ: Heb. iii. 14, 'For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.' If you can but maintain the first act of faith, this is enough to make you partakers of Christ, when you can roll and cast the soul upon Christ.
2. Assurance is very comfortable, and we have a great loss, when we are upon terms of uncertainty. It is far better to say, Christ died for me, than barely to say, Christ died for sinners; then the arguments of faith are more sharpened, and fall with a more direct stroke upon the soul, when once you can plead, all this he hath done for me, and this is for my sake.
3. We may reason from the general acts of Christ's love, when we are not able particularly to apply them. And that gratitude is very pure when I can bless God for Christ without reflection upon my own private benefit, for putting salvation into so possible a way. This is enough to urge the soul to duties of obedience: Titus ii. 11, 12, 'For the grace of God that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.' That general salvation that the grace of God hath brought into the world ministers holy arguments and discourses to the soul, whereby we may resist lusts and overcome temptations - ' He came into the world to save sinners, whereof I am chief,' saith Paul, 1 Tim. i. 15. Here is some kind of application in this, when we take hold of the promises on the dark side; when we can reason as Paul - 'It is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,' Christ died for sinners.
Now I come to handle the consequents of Abel's faith.
1. The first is a testimony - By which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts.
2. The second a special privilege - By it he, being dead, yet speaketh.
First, The testimony, and that is double - (1.) Of his person, 'That he was righteous;' (2.) Of his performance, 'God testifying of his gifts.' The one proves the other: he proves his person was accepted of God, because God gave testimony concerning the acceptance of his gifts. By which, by what? In the original it is di hès. Some apply it to faith - by which faith he obtained witness; others apply it to sacrifice, by which sacrifice he obtained witness.
There are arguments on both sides. Most probably it must be referred to faith - 'By faith he obtained witness that he was righteous.'
1. Because the apostle had laid down the general proposition; ver. 2, that 'by faith the elders obtained a good report;' and now he comes to make it good by special instances, for by it Abel 'obtained witness that he was righteous.'
2. If it be referred to offering sacrifice, the apostle would rather have said di hou, by which act of his, in offering sacrifice. However, in a sound sense, it may be referred to either. His righteousness may be referred to his faith, and the testimony of his righteousness to his sacrifice, which was but the witness of his faith. It is one thing to be righteous, and another thing to obtain witness that we are righteous. By faith Abel was a righteous person in foro coeli, accepted in the Messiah in the court of God; but by his better sacrifice, as a fruit of faith, he obtained the testimony of his righteousness in foro conscientiae, in his own feeling, and in foro ecclesiae, in the solemn approbation of the church.
He obtained witness that he was righteous, emarturèthè einai dikaios, he had a good report of his righteousness. It is the same word with emraturèthèsan, ver. 2. How did he obtain this witness? I answer, Either in the word of God: Gen. iv. 4, 'The Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offering' (and everywhere he is spoken of as a holy and righteous man; it is his solemn title, 'righteous Abel,' Mat. xxiii. 35); or else it may be meant of the respect God bore to his person and sacrifice, for so the apostle himself proveth it - 'God testifying of his gifts,' viz., by some outward and visible demonstration of acceptance, to which now is equivalent the inward witness of the Holy Ghost; for when graces have their full work and exercise, God there gives in the light and comfort of them. For a more full clearing of this passage, you must know this sacrifice was an act for the election and consecration of one of the two brethren as the head of the blessed seed and race. I say, the trial now was which of them God would choose, in whose family the line of the church and the blessed generation was to be continued. As afterwards Moses puts Korah upon the like trial, when he had a contention with Aaron about the succession and line of the priesthood: Num. xvi. 6, 7, 'This do: Take you censers, Korah, and all his company; and put fire therein, and put incense in them before the Lord to-morrow: and it shall be, that the man whom the Lord doth choose, he shall be holy' - whom God will decide by special testimony and designation from heaven, he shall be holy and set apart. Upon such an occasion as this is were the two brothers before God at this time, as appeareth partly from God's answer to Cain, when Cain took it ill that his younger brother should be preferred before him: ver. 7, 'If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him;' meaning thus, if he had rightly offered, he should have been accepted with God, and have had pre-eminence, and been head of the blessed line and race. As also it appears by what is said, Gen. iv. 25, when Eve had her third son born, and she calls his name Seth, 'For God,' saith she, 'hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel whom Cain slew;' not only another son, but another seed; Cain being, to their knowledge, rejected by God, she had greater joy from the birth of this son, because now there was one raised up to continue the holy seed. And it is not of small consideration that carnal hypocrites are said by the apostle, Jude 11, 'to walk in the way of Cain;' for he is the patriarch of unbelievers, as Abel was to be the head of the believing state. This was the occasion of this solemn sacrifice, whom God would accept as holy and righteous, and as head of the blessed line. Now this was the type and sign of the general acceptance of all believers in Jesus Christ; so that upon the whole we may pronounce that by faith he was righteous and accepted with God, and that by faith acting in his sacrifice he received witness that he was righteous, accepted, and chosen by God. By faith he was righteous, that is, by faith in the promised seed. He was not righteous by his own worth and merit; partly because it is the apostle's scope to show that the righteousness of all ages did reside in Christ, which was apprehended by the faith of the patriarchs which made them famous in the churches; and partly because his own personal merit and righteousness is actually disclaimed by his sacrifice; for it was a sacrifice of propitiation, disclaiming of his own righteousness, and a solemn protestation of his hopes of acceptance in the promised seed.
'God testifying of his gifts.' How so? The apostle points to what was said: Gen. iv. 4, 5, 'The Lord had respect to Abel, and to his offering; but unto Cain, and to his offering, he had not respect.' How was this known? It must be known by some visible token, for thereupon Cain was angry with Abel, and in his envy and wrath slew his brother; therefore there must be some token of the different acceptance of God. Now what was this visible token? Divers conceit divers things. One saith that the smoke of Cain's sacrifice was beaten downwards towards the earth, which was a testimony of God's detestation, and the smoke of Abel's sacrifice went up to heaven, as it were into the nostrils of God; but this is a groundless conceit, that cannot be established by the least probability of conjecture. Others think that it was by some apparition of an angel, or some different appearance of God to them; but this also is asserted without warrant or probable reason. Therefore it is most probable that this visible sign that God gave as a token of the accepting of his offering was this - viz., the consuming of Abel's sacrifice to ashes by fire coming down from heaven. What is in the Hebrew wjsj' God respected Abel, is rendered by others enepurisen, God regarded Abel, and set his sacrifice on fire. And indeed there is much ground for this opinion, for this is the usual sign in the word of God of favourable acceptance. Let me name a few places to you: there is a prayer, Ps. xx. 3, 'The Lord accept thy burnt-sacrifice.' In the margin it is, The Lord turn thy burnt-offering to ashes, because the devouring of the sacrifice was a sign from heaven of God's acceptance. So when God accepted Aaron's sacrifice, Lev. ix. 24, it is said, 'There came a fire out from the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat; which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces.' When Solomon was accepted, 2 Chron. vii. 1, it is said, that 'fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt-offering and the sacrifice;' this was a solemn token. When Elijah and Baal's priests would put it to trial who was the true God, I Kings xviii. 38, 'The fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt-sacrifice.' This was a token God would give to Gideon, Judges vi. 21, 'There arose fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes.' Manaoh, when Samson was to be born as the deliverer of the church, Judges xiii. 20, 'The flame went up towards heaven from off the altar; and the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame of the altar.' And I Chron. xxi. 26, when David offered solemn sacrifice to God, it is said, 'God answered him from heaven by fire upon the altar of burnt-offering.' This was the usual sign of acceptance. Fire upon the sacrifice was a token of God's favour; but fire upon the sacrificers was a token of God's curse and wrath. When Aaron's two sons had displeased the Lord 'fire came down from the Lord, and devoured them,' Lev. x. 2. So that out of subsequent experiences we may gather what kind of testimony it was. And indeed herein also, as in the sacrifice, there was some type of Christ; for he who is our sacrifice of propitiation was to be offered upon the altar of the cross; as he was to be roasted in the flames of his own love, so in the fire of divine wrath. Out of the whole you see the privileges were then more sensible. The head of the elect family God would decide; and the testimony is sensible, for fire came and devoured the sacrifice, which is now supplied us by the suggestion of the Holy Ghost.
I draw three points from the words thus opened -
1. That by faith we are justified and made righteous. It is said, 'By which he obtained witness.'
2. That upon the solemn operation of faith in holy duties we obtain witness that we are thus righteous, and are accepted with God.
3. That the works only of such righteous persons are accepted with God.
First Abel's person is accepted in Christ by faith, and the apostle infers that, because God accepted his gifts.
Doct. 1. By faith we are justified, made righteous, and accepted with God.
Justification by faith is one of the most cardinal articles of religion; and here it is confirmed by the instance of Abel, one of the ancientest experiences of the church. Therefore I shall not pass it over without some regard.
Three things I shall inquire into - (l.) How we are justified by faith; (2.) Why faith is deputed to this service of all other graces; (3.) What kind of faith it is that justifieth.
First, How we are justified by faith?
Ans. 1. Negatively: (1.) Not by faith as a joint cause with works; (2.) Not by faith as an act and grace in us; (3.) Not by faith as it receives the Spirit's witness.
1. Not by faith as a joint cause with works; as the papists say that we are justified by faith, as it receives a merit and value by works. This were to part stakes between God and the creature, and to confound the covenants, which are altogether inconsistent, as the apostle reasoneth, Rom. xi. 6, 'If by grace, then it is no more of work; otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it is no more grace; otherwise work is no more work.'
2. Faith doth not justify as it is an act of grace in us, but relatively and instrumentally; not as it works by love, but as it apprehends Christ; not as if the act of believing were instead of perfect obedience to the law, but only with reference to the object as it lays hold of Jesus Christ, because of its necessary concurrence as the instrument and condition of the covenant. There are different expressions in scripture; sometimes God is said to justify, and Christ is said to justify, and faith is said to justify, but with a different respect.
[1.] God is said to justify, and that two ways; partly as the first moving cause. The rise of all is God the Father's mercy in ordaining Christ: Rom. iii. 24, 'Being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.' By the antecedent and free electing love and mercy of the Father, as the first moving cause. Partly, as the supreme judge: Rom. viii. 33, 'Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth;' that is, how shall the executioner lay anything to my charge? God is there spoken of as the supreme judge. So Rom. iii. 26, 'The Father is said to justify him which believeth in Jesus;' 1 John ii. 1, 'If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father,' &c. In the order of the persons he sustaineth the person of the highest judge, and all things are authoritatively ordered by him.
[2.] Christ is said to justify; as Isa. liii. 11, 'By his knowledge shall righteous servant justify many;' that is, Jesus Christ, as God's. righteous servant of his eternal decrees. Now Christ justifies, partly by meriting that righteousness for us which will serve for justification. It is he that hath procured it by his obedience and death, and suffering in our stead; and therefore he is said to introduce 'an everlasting righteousness,' Dan. ix. 24. His obedience is the matter of our justification, being 'the the Lord our righteousness,' Jer. xxiii. 6. And partly by interceding for us, that we may be interested in this righteousness, that the Spirit may work faith in us.
[3.] Faith is said to justify, because without it we cannot apprehend the righteousness of Christ; as the hand may be said to feed and nourish the body, but the nutritive virtue is not in the hand, but in the meat. And therefore when faith is said to justify, it is meant, as it receives the righteousness of Christ, and with reference to its object. There is nothing more usual than to apply that to the instrument that is proper to the object; and usually in the expressions of the word it is complicated and folded up together with its object. Faith in Christ, faith in his blood - it receives all its merit and value from thence. As also the righteousness of faith is spoken of as contradistinct from the righteousness which is in ourselves; therefore it cannot be understood of faith itself, but of the righteousness of Christ: Rom. x. 3, 'They being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God;' and, Phil. iii. 9, 'And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.' Yea, there are distinct places which call it 'God's righteousness,' in opposition to any act of man and make faith only to be the instrument to receive it: Rom. i. 17, The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith;' that is, in opposition to the act of man, procured and merited by a person, that is, God, and accepted by God: Rom. iii. 21, 22, 'The righteousness of God, which out of the law is manifested,' &c; 'even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all, and upon all them that believe.' We are not said to be justified propter fidem but per fidem.
3. Again, faith doth not justify in the sense of the Antinomians, as a receiving witness of the Spirit's testimony. They say there is the sealing and receiving witness, and make the sealing witness to be the Spirit of God, and the receiving witness to be faith. They take faith to be nothing else but assurance; but that is a thing that follows upon faith. We may be justified, though we have not received this solemn testimony and witness by the Holy Ghost. Assurance is spoken of as a thing consequent to faith: Eph. i. 13, 'After ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise;' first faith, then sealing. The Spirit's testimony is nothing but the certioration of grace already wrought, and is subsequent to the testimony of the renewed conscience: Rom. viii. 16, 'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.' The Holy Ghost doth not seal to a blank. First there must be faith, then the Spirit of God puts on his seal.
Ans. 2. Positively, faith only justifies as an instrument which God hath deputed to the apprehension and application of Christ's righteousness. The whole order and process is this: by effectual calling God begets faith; by faith there is union wrought with Christ; by being united to Christ there is possession of all of Christ; upon this possession God looks upon us as righteous; God looking upon us as righteous, pronounceth the sentence of justification; which sentence is double, an acquitting us from our sins, and accepting of us in Christ - we are absolved from all sin and death by a free and full pardon, and that is done chiefly by the passive obedience of Christ - and we are accepted as righteous to eternal life, and that is the fruit of his active obedience, or of his fulfilling the law for us.
1. By effectual calling God begets faith. The immediate end of effectual calling is 'to work faith. We are called to holiness and called to glory; these are expressions everywhere in the scriptures; but the immediate fruit of calling is faith: 2 Thes. ii. 14, 'Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.' 'Whereunto,' meaning faith, mentioned in the words before; there is the first end of calling to close with Christ; then the last end, that we may be glorified. The voice of all the calls and invitations of the word is, Come unto me, and come unto Christ.
2. By faith there is union wrought with Christ. Faith is the bond of the spiritual union. We are said to live in him by faith: Gal. ii. 20; 'The life which I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.' And he is said to dwell in us by faith: Eph. iii. 17,' That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.' Now union there must be, for Christ's garments do only cover the members of his own body.
3. Being united to Christ, we are possessed of all that is in Christ, so far as is consistent with our capacity of receiving, and God's ordination and appointment in giving. Union gives us interest in the personal merits and righteousness of Christ, and the benefit of his mediatory actions; they are ours to all effects and purposes, as if we ourselves had satisfied and obeyed the law. Why? because it is not in a person severed from us; it is in our head, in one to whom we are united by a strait bond of union, and therefore they are reputed as ours. It is true, we are not mediators and redeemers as Christ, because that is not consistent with our estate, nor with the will of God; but it consists with the will of God, that we shall be made righteous with his righteousness: 1 Cor. i. 30, it is the Father's pleasure, 'In him are ye in Christ Jesus;' that is, by virtue of our union, God hath willed this; 'who of God is made to us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption;' 2 Cor. v. 21, 'He was made sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.' There is as real a donation and as effectual an application of Christ's righteousness to us, as there was of our sins to Christ. And as by virtue of the latter it pleased the Father to deal with Christ as a sinner; so by virtue of the former it pleased the Father so to deal with us, and to accept of us as righteous. Look, as we may be by the ordination of God made guilty of Adam's sin, though we be not in his public capacity of being a public person and representer of all mankind; so we may be made righteous with Christ's active obedience, though we are not mediators and redeemers, for that was his particular capacity and relation fixed in his person. In short, being united to Christ, we are interested in all his actions as if they were ours; for when we are one with him in the spirit, then we are considered by God as one with him in law. The judicial union always follows the mystical. As the payment of the debt surely is imputed and reckoned to the debtor; so Jesus Christ being our surety Heb vii. 22, his righteousness is imputed to us. Therefore by union we are said, Gal. iii. 27, 'to put on Christ,' with all his personal merits and righteousness.
4. Upon this God looks upon us as righteous. For mark, though justification be a judicial act, yet it is not a naked sentence of pardon without any ground or reason; it hath a real ground and foundation - the donation and application of Christ's righteousness to believers, Therefore when God looks upon a sinner as a sinner, he will never acquit him; but it is founded upon the donation of a true and perfect righteousness, proved by Christ, and communicated to believers upon God the Father's ordination and appointment; for the apostle saith, Rom. iii. 26, 'God will be just, and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus.' When a person is made thus righteous, then God is just in justifying him. God will pronounce none just but those that by faith are thus interested in the satisfaction of Christ. There is first a true donation and effectual application of Christ's righteousness, then is the sentence passed in the court of God.
5. The sentence of God is twofold - (1.) He absolves us from all sin and death, and he doth that by a free and full pardon; (2.) He accepts us as righteous to eternal life. The parts of our justification are privative and positive: John iii. 16, 'That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' The one is done by Christ's passive obedience and the other by Christ's active obedience.
[1.] For the former part; the form of that is laid down, Job xxxiii. 24, there is the formal sentence of God the Father, 'Deliver him from going down to the pit, for I have found a ransom.' Let that soul live, and deliver him from hell and death. Look, as when Abraham found the ram, he let Isaac go; so God, receiving a ransom, a satisfaction to his. justice by the sufferings of Christ, the sinner is absolved - 'Deliver him.' And indeed this is that we may plead when our consciences return upon us and implead us, that we are one in law with Christ, his ransom is our ransom: Gal. ii. 20, 'I am crucified with Christ;' that is, I have satisfied the law in Christ. Faith must look to the surety, and see justice satisfied, and all for me: Col. ii. 14, 'Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.'
[2.] The second part of the sentence is accepting of us as righteous unto eternal life; for Christ hath not only satisfied the old covenant by his death, but ratified the new by his solemn obedience; not only taken away the reign of sin, but also established the reign of grace; therefore the apostle saith, Rom. v. 21, 'As sin hath reigned unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord.' Now the form of acceptance to life we have in those words, Mat. xxv. 34, 'Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.' It will be most comfortable when we shall hear this out of Christ's own mouth at the last day.
Secondly, The reasons why faith is deputed to this service.
1. Because it is the most receptive grace. Other graces are more operative, but faith is most receptive, so fitly suiting the needy condition of the creature. It is the empty hand of the soul to take in the fulness of Christ. Since the fall man is needy and indigent, and lives by borrowing; therefore those graces are most serviceable that are most receptive. Love gives, but faith takes and borrows. We are beggars now rather than workers; therefore the honour is put upon faith rather than love.
2. Because it is most loyal and true to God. It looks for all from him, and ascribes all to him. This is the reason the apostle giveth why faith is made to be the condition of the new covenant: Rom. iii. 27, 'To exclude boasting;' that the creature may look for all from God. God would humble proud creatures; whatever they have, it is but borrowed.
3. To make the way the more sure: Rom. iv. 16, 'Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed.' Things are not so floating and uncertain as when built upon works. We have a sure foundation in Jesus Christ, and a sure tenure by covenant: 2 Sam. xxiii. 5, 'He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.' And we have a sure holdfast by faith: Heb. vii. 19, 'Which hope we have, as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.'
Thirdly, The third question is, what this faith is that justifieth? It is not a general assent, or loose acknowledgment of the articles of religion. The apostle shows that the devils may assent to the truth of the word, and brings the primitive and fundamental truth of all for the confirmation of it, that there is one God. There is a faith which (to distinguish it from all others) is called justifying, described thus - It is a grace wrought in our hearts by the Spirit of God, by which the soul doth rest and cast itself upon Christ, tendered to us in the offer of God for pardon and acceptance. I shall not stand examining every part of this definition, but shall endeavour to discover the nature of faith in the acts of it. There are some things implied, and other things more express and formal in faith.
1. That which is implied in faith is knowledge and feeling.
[1.] There must be a distinct knowledge: Isa. liii. 11, 'By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many;' and therefore the faith that justified the sinner pre-supposeth knowledge. The first creature that God made was light; and so it is in the new creation, the first thing is light. God bringeth into the soul in conversion a stock of truth as well as a frame of grace. Heathens that are wholly ignorant of Christ cannot be justified by him, nor christians that only know him at random, and by a general tradition, for this begets but a loose hope. And though none so confident as ignorant men, which make a full account, that they shall go to heaven, yet when they are anything serious, we find all their confidence to amount to no more than a bare conjecture, or a blind and rash presumption. And usually, the more ignorant the more persuming; they cherish a blind hope. As Paul saith, Rom. vii. 9, 'I was alive without the law once;' that is, in his own persuasion and account. It is a long time ere men can get knowledge enough to be out of conceit with themselves, and to discern their own delusions. The blind world doth not look after justification by Christ, but only liveth by guess and devout aims; some loose hopes they have conceived, out of common tradition and good meanings, by which they secure themselves in their fond presumption. There must be some competent and distinct knowledge of the mysteries of salvation, that we may not foster a blind and mistaken hope.
[2.] There must be upon this knowledge some feeling and experience, which the apostle means when he calleth it, Heb. vi. 5, 'Taste of the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come;' some common efficacy and virtue of the spirit. There is a form of knowledge as well as a form of godliness: Rom. ii. 20, 'Which hast the form of knowledge, and of the truth in the law;' some unactive light and speculative contemplation, a naked model of truth, such as scholars have in the brain, or men may gain by parts and attendance on the word. But there must be some feeling and experience, which we usually call conviction; and to consider it only as it concerns our present purpose, it respects two things - a sense of our misery, and our own inability to overcome it. Man is a secure creature, therefore there must be a sense of misery; and man is a proud creature, therefore there must be a sense of our own insufficiency.
(1.) A sense of our misery by sin, and of God's curse due to us. This justifying faith supposeth; for why should a man look to be justified till he be condemned? Who would care for balm that is not wounded? for a pardon that is not accused in his own conscience? Man is a lazy creature, and will not apply himself to the work and care of religion, till he be spurred on and driven to it by his own need. Christ saith, Mat. ix. 12, 'They that be whole need not the physician, but they that are sick.' Men are at ease and heart-whole, and till they are possessed with a deep sense of their own misery they do not care for Christ. The stung Israelites looked up to the brazen serpent; and those that were 'pricked in heart cried, What shall we do?' Acts ii. 37. Men slight mercy till they need it, and are careless of the great salvation till God affect them with the sight of their own sins and his wrath. Israel in Egypt was not easily weaned from the flesh-pots till their burdens were doubled; so till wrath presseth to anguish, till it sits heavy upon the conscience, we do not groan for a deliverer: Jer. xv. 17, 'I sat alone because of thy hand, for thou hast filled me with indignation.' This makes us to sit alone, and ponder seriously upon the matter. It is true, the degree is various and different: this sense of misery worketh in some as far as horror; in all it worketh so far as to make them anxious and solicitous about a saviour, and about our everlasting condition. In short, Jesus Christ doth not seek us till we be lost, and we do not seek him till we be lost.
(2.) There must be a sense of our own inability to help ourselves. Man is not only apt to be secure, but self-confident; and therefore till the soul seeth nothing within itself and nothing without itself but Christ, who is the only way, we shall never go to him. Man is a proud creature, loth to be beholden. A borrowed garment, though of silk, doth not suit with proud nature so well as a russet-coat of our own. So this full satisfaction of Christ, proud man regards it not; we go about to establish our own righteousness. Legal dejection is always accompanied with pride and self-love. The sinner is cast down, but not humbled; doth not come and lie at the feet of Christ, that he may be beholden to him for mercy; therefore there must be somewhat more than a sight of misery. Look, as the Corinthians did not care for Paul because they thought they were full of gifts: 1 Cor. iv. 8, 'Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us;' no more do men for Christ, as long as they have anything of their own. This is the reason why Paul accounts not only his pharisaical righteousness, but his best works loss, Phil. iii. 8, because it hindered him from looking after the righteousness of Christ. We would be sufficient to ourselves, happy within ourselves. Justifying faith implies that man hath given up all his own confidences; for why should we lean upon another when we have a sufficiency in ourselves? Flesh and blood would have its own righteousness; and as long as we can keep conscience quiet by external acts of duty, by any care and resolution of ours, we will never seek after the righteousness of Christ. It is never well till conscience be brought to say as Peter, 'Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life,' John vi. 68. We must confess that all our own works are nothing; Christ only it is that can cure and help us. This is that which is implied.
Hebrews
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