faith in the Lord Jesus was preached, at the same time also they preached repentance from dead works: in so much that St. Paul reckons it among the fundamentals and first principles of Christianity;* nay, the Baptist preached repentance and amendment of life as a preparation to the faith of Christ. And I pray consider; can there be any forgiveness of sins without repentance? But if an apostle should preach forgiveness to all that believe, and this belief did not also mean that they should repent and forsake their sin, the sermons of the apostle would make Christianity nothing else but the sanctuary of Romulus, a device to get together all the wicked people of the world, and to make them happy without any change of manners. Christ came to other purposes; he came to sanctify us and to cleanse us by his word;† the word of faith was not for itself, but was a design of holiness, and the very grace of God did appear, for this end; that teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live holily, justly, and soberly in this present world:§ he came to gather a people together; not like David's army, when Saul pursued him, but the armies of the Lord, a faithful people, a chosen generation; and what is that? The spirit of God adds, a people zealous of good works. Now as Christ proved his power to forgive sins by curing the poor man's palsy, because a man is never pardoned but when the punishment is removed; so the great act of justification of a sinner, the pardoning of his sins is then only effected, when the spiritual evil is taken away: that is the best vindication of a real and eternal pardon, when God takes away the hardness of the heart, the love of sin, the accursed habit, the evil inclination, the sin that doth so easily beset us: and when that is gone, what remains within us that Eph. v. 25.

Hebr. vi. 1. † 1 John iii. 8.

¿ Titus ii. 11.

God can hate? Nothing stays behind, but Gods creation, the work of his own hands, the issues of his Holy Spirit. The faith of a Christian is as agrados vaperian, it destroys the whole body of sin; and to suppose that Christ pardons a sinner, whom he doth not also purge and rescue from the dominion of sin, is to affirm that he justifies the wicked, that he calls good evil, and evil good, that he delights in a wicked person, that he makes a wicked man all one with himself: that he makes the members of an harlot at the same time also the members of Christ; but all this is impossible, and therefore ought not to be pretended to by any Christian. Severe are those words of our blessed Saviour, Every plant in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away. Faith ingrafts us into Christ; by faith we are inserted into the vine; but the plant that is ingrafted, must also be parturient and fruitful, or else it shall be quite cut off from the root, and thrown into the everlasting burning; and this is the full and plain meaning of those words so often used in Scripture for the magnification of faith, The just shall live by faith; no man shall live by faith but the just man; he indeed is justified by faith, but no man else; the unjust and the unrighteous man hath no portion in this matter. That is the first great consideration in this affair; no man is justified in the least sense of justification, that is, when it means nothing but the pardon of sins, but when his sin is mortified and destroyed.

2. No man is actually justified, but he that is in some measure sanctified. For the understanding and clearing of which proposition we must know, that justification when it is attributed to any cause, does not always signify justification actual. Thus when it is said in Scripture, We are justified by the

death of Christ, it is but the same thing as to say, Christ died for us; and he rose again for us too, that we might indeed be justified in due time, and by just measures and dispositions; he died for our sins, and rose again for our justification; that is, by his death and resurrection he hath obtained this power, and effected this mercy, that if we believe him and obey, we shall be justified and made capable of all the blessings of the kingdom. But that this is no more but a capacity of pardon, of grace and of salvation, appears not only by God's requiring obedience as a condition on our parts; but by his expressly attributing this mercy to us at such times and in such circumstances, in which it is certain and evident, that we should not actually be justified; for so saith the Scripture, We, when we were enemies, were reconciled to God by the death of his Son; and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; that is, then was our justification wrought on God's part; that is, then he intended this mercy to us, then he resolved to shew us favour, to give us promises, and laws, and conditions, and hopes, and an infallible economy of salvation; and when faith lays hold on this grace, and this justification, then we are to do the other part of it; that is, as God made it potential by the death and resurrection of Christ, so we laying hold on these things by faith, and working the righteousness of faith, that is, performing what is required on parts, we, I say, make it actual: and for this very reason it is that the apostle puts more emphasis upon the resurrection of Christ than upon his death. is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again.† And Christ was both delivered for our sins, and is risen again for our justification ; implying to us, that as it is in the principal, so it is in the correspondent; our sins indeed are potentially

*Rom. v. 8, 10.

Rom. viii. 28.

Rom. iv. 25.

our

Who

pardoned, when they are marked out for death and crucifixion; when by resolving and fighting against sin, we die to sin daily, and are so made conformable to his death; but we must partake of Christ's resurrection before this justification can be actual; when we are dead to sin, and are risen again unto righteousness, then as we are partakers of his death, so we shall be partakers of his resurrection (saith St. Paul) that is, then we are truly, effectually, and indeed justified, till then we are not.

He that loveth gold shall not be justified, saith the wise Bensirach; he that is covetous, let his faith be what it will, shall not be accounted righteous before God, because he is not so in himself, and he is not so in Christ, for he is not in Christ at all; he hath no righteousness in himself, and he hath none in Christ: for if we be in Christ, or if Christ be in us, the body is dead by reason of sin, and the spirit is life because of righteousness † For this the TTIGTOV, that faithful thing, that is, the faithfulness is manifested; the Emun, from whence comes Emunah, which is the Hebrew word for faith, from whence Amen is derived. Fiat quod dictum est hinc inde; hoc fidum est, when God and we both say Amen to our promises and undertakings. Fac fidelis sis fideli, cave fidem fluxam geras, said he, in the comedy, God is faithful be thou so too, for if thou failest him, thy faith hath failed thee. Fides sumitur pro eo quod est inter utrumque placitum, says one; and then it is true which the prophet and the apostle said, the just shall live by faith, in both senses: ex fide mea vivet, ex fide sua; we live by God's faith, and by our own; by his fidelity, and by ours. When the righteousness of God becomes your righteousness, and exceeds the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees; when the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us by walkPlaut. Captiv.

*Ecclus. xxxi.

Rom. viii. 10.

ing not after the flesh, but after the spirit; then we are justified by God's truth and by ours, by his grace, and our obedience. So that now we see that justification and sanctification cannot be distinguished, but as words of art signifying the various steps of progression in the same course; they may be distinguished in notion and speculation, but never when they are to pass on to material events; for no man is justified but he that is also sanctified. They are the express words of St. Paul, Whom he did foreknow, them he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,* to be like to Christ; and then it follows, Whom he hath predestinated, so predestinated, them he hath also called, and whom he hath called, them he hath also justified; and then it follows, Whom he hath justified, them he hath also glorified. So that no man is justified, that is, so as to signify salvation, but sanctification must be precedent to it; and that was my second consideration du suga, that which I was to prove,

3. I pray consider, that he that does not believe the promises of the Gospel, cannot pretend to faith in Christ; but the promises are all made to us upon the conditions of obedience, and he that does not believe them as Christ made them, believes them not at all. In well doing commit yourselves to God as unto a faithful Creator; 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 † Rom. ii, 6, 7, 8.

*Rom. viii. 29.