(3.) Repentance from dead works. Sermon IX. (4.) Sincere Obedience and Holinefs of Life. But I have already proved at large, that all these are comprehended in the New Teftament notion of Faith, which fignifies the whole of Chriftian Religion. And that Repentance and Obedience are Condititions of our Pardon, and confequently of our Juftification, appears from thefe Texts, Acts 3. 19. Repent therefore and be converted, that your fins may be blotted out. Doth not this imply that upon condition we do repent and be converted, God will Pardon our fins? 1 John 1. 9. If_we confefs our fins, (that is, with a Refolution to leave them; as it is faid elsewhere, he that confeffeth, and forfaketh his fins;) he is faithful and just to forgive us our fins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Matt. 6. 14, 15. For if ye forgive men their trefpaffes, your heavenly father will alfo forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trefpaffes, neither will your father forgive your trefpaffes. And to the fame purpofe, Matt. 18. 35. So like R 2 Volume likewife shall my heavenly Father do unXII. to you, if je from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trefpaffes. Luke 6. 37. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. Luke 11. 4. And forgive us our fins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. Where doth the Scripture make any thing more plainly a Condition of Pardon, than it here does our forgiving of others? upon condition of the performance whereof he promises to forgive us; and without which he threatens not to forgive us. I know not what a Condition is, if it be not that which if we perform we shall receive the benefit promised; if we do not, we ihall fall fhort of it. 4. That the Scripture where it fpeaks of Juftification by Faith, fpeaks of this Faith, and no other, of fuch a Faith as takes in the whole of Chriftian Religion. The principal places where the Scripture defignedly treats of Juftification by Faith, are the 3d and IX. 3d. and 4th. Chapters of the Epiftles to the Romans; the 2d and 3d. to the Ga-Sermon latians; and the 2d. of St. James. In the Romans and Gallatians St. Paul doth plainly oppofe Faith to the Law, and the Righteoufnefs of it to the Works of the Law; and it will clearly appear to any one that will carefully read over thefe Difcourfes of St. Paul's, that by Faith is meant the Dispensation of the Gofpel, and by the Law the Mofaical Adminiftration: and the refult of all thofe Difcourfes is, that men are not justified by performing the works which the legal Difpenfation required; but by affenting and fubmitting to the Revelation of the Gofpel. And this is agreeable to what he fays, Acts 13. 38, 39. Through this man is preached unto you forgiveness of fins; and by him, all that believe, are juftified from all things, from which ye could not be juftified by the law of Mofes. It is true likewife, that the Apoftle, in the Epiftle to the Romans, doth not only dispute against thofe who fimply contended for Juftification by the legal Difpenfation; but were fallen al fo into the grofs error and mistake,that Volume they did merit Juftification and ParXII. don at God's hand; which is impoffible for Pardon is free, and of grace, or else it is not Pardon. Therefore the Apostle afferts, that we are so juftified by Faith, that neither our Affent to the Gospel, nor our Obedience to the Commands of it, do merit this at God's hands; for this would directly contradict Juftification by the Faith of the Gospel. For how can any Man poffibly think, that he merits Pardon by his believing and obeying the Gofpel, when this is part of the Gospel which we believe, that Chrift died for our fins, and purchased our Pardon at fo dear a rate; which had been very unjuft, if we our felves could have done any thing to have merited it. And that Faith is taken for the Revelation of the Gofpel, in oppofition to the legal Administrations, will appear by confidering thefe Texts. Gal. 3. 23. But before faith came, we were kept under the law; by which the Apostle plainly means this, that before the Revelation of the Gofpel to the World Sermon World, we were under the legal Administration: for he adds afterwards, We were shut up unto the Faith that IX. fhould afterward be revealed; and what is the Faith that should afterward be revealed, but the Gofpel? which in the fulness of time was to be revealed to the World, till which time we were held under the difpenfation of the Law: and ver. 24. Wherefore the law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Chrift, that we might be justified by Faith; that is, The Law was a Difcipline preparatory for the Gofpel,that when that came, we might be juftified by it: and ver. 25. But after that Faith is come, we are no longer under a Schoolmaster, that is, After the Gofpel was revealed, we were fet free from the severe and harsh Difpenfation of the Law; and our Affent and Submiffion to that Revelation, is that whereby we are faid to be juftified. Rom. 3. 23. Even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith of Jefus Chrift, that is, by the Gospel, unto all, and upon all them that believe. And, ver. 26. That he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jefus; τὸν εκ πίσεως Ιησέ, the juftifier of him that R 4 yields |
