Luke xvi. 2 18. Ivii. 15. 10. 120. 1 Pet. i. 17. SER M. conceited, which God hates; and on this hand there VII. ufually lies humility, modefty, and poverty of spirit, which God loves. As every high thing (every eleva15. xviii. tion of mind) is abominable in God's fight, and he de1 Sam. xxii. presseth him that exalteth himself; fo lowly thoughts are 28. gracious in God's regard; he raifeth him that humbleth Pfal. xxxiv. himself, and is lowly in his own eyes: he hath an espeIfa. Ixvi. 2. cial refpect to him that is of a poor and contrite heart, and trembleth at his word. It is a property of good men, (being fuch as often reflect upon their own hearts and ways, and thence difcern the defects in Gen. xxxii. them,) with Jacob, to think themselves less than the Pfal. cxix. leaft of God's mercies; with David, to be afraid of God's judgments: it is their duty to pass the time of their fojourning here in fear, to work out their falvation 2 Pet, i. 10. with fear and trembling. I may add, that sometime a perfon much loving God, and much beloved of Pfal. cii. 6. him, may be like a pelican of the wilderness, and an owl of the defart; from an apprehenfion of God's Pf. xxxviii. anger, may have no foundness in his flesh, nor reft in his bones, by reafon of his fin; may have his Spirit overJer. v. 25. whelmed, and his heart within him defolate; may fear Pf. xxii. 1. that his fins have feparated between him and his God; and that he is forfaken of God; God hiding his face, and withdrawing the light of his countenance, he may be xxxi. 22. troubled, may have his foul caft down, and difquieted within him; may be ready to fay, I am cut off from before thine eyes: even fuch a man, in fuch a ftate of distress and doubt, may continue a believer; he retaining honourable thoughts of God, (in which the worth and virtue of true faith confifteth,) although dejected by the confcience of his own infirmities, by fufpicion of his own indifpofitions, and confequently by the fear of God's difpleasure. 3. Pf. cxliii. 4. xxx. 7. lxxxix. 46. xlii. 5. lxix. 16. Farther, that this faith doth not effentially include a respect to fuch particular propofitions', or does not 1 Sed fide hoc beneficium accipiendum eft, qua credere nos oportet, (as many in these two latter ages have deemed and S ER M. taught) confift in our being perfuaded that our fins vII. are pardoned, or our perfons juft in God's efteem; that we are acceptable to God, and ftand poffeffed of his favour, it appears from hence, that faith is in holy Scripture reprefented in nature precedaneous to God's benevolence, (efpecial I mean, not general benevolence, for that prevents all acts and difpofitions of us, or in us,) to his conferring remiffion of fins, accepting and juftifying our perfons; it is a previous condition, without which (as the Apostle teaches us) it is impoffible to please God; it is a reason of God's Heb. xi. 6. love, (The Father, faith our Lord, loves you, because ye John xvi. have loved me, and believed that I came from God;) it 27. is a ground of divine acceptation and good will, (Abraham believed him, faith St. James, and it was ac-James ii. counted unto him for righteoufiefs, and he was called the 23. friend of God;) it is a mean, or inftrument, (fo it is conftantly reprefented,) by which we are juftified, obtain God's favour, and the remiffion of our fins; and therefore is in order of nature previous and prerequifite thereto; it is therefore required before baptism, in which remiffion of fins is configned: God juftifies, accepts, and pardons him, that hath been impious, but not him that is an infidel. This is the method plainly declared in Scripture; wherefore if faith implies a perfuafion that God hath remitted our fins, it muft imply an antecedent faith, (even a juftifying faith, antecedent to itfelf,) or that we believe before we believe, and are juftified before we are juftified. I add, that by this notion many, or moft (I will not, after the council of Trent, fay all) humble and modeft Chriftians are excluded from oportet, quod propter Chriftum nobis donentur remiffio peccatorum et juftificatio. Conf. Aug. Quum juftificamur fide, vult te intueri filium Dei fedentem ad dextram Patris, Mediatorem, interpellantem pro nobis, et ftatuere, quod tibi remittantur peccata ; quod juftus, id eft acceptus reputeris. Meland. Loc. com. p. 418. SER M. being believers; even all those who are not confident VII. of their own fincerity and fanctity, and confequently cannot be affured of their standing in God's favour: and on the other fide, the most presumptuous and fanatical fort of people are moft certainly the trueft and strongest believers, as moft partaking of the most effential property thereof, according to that notion ; for of all men living, fuch are wont to be most affured of God's fpecial love unto them, and confident that their fins are pardoned; experience fufficiently shews this to be true, and confequently that such a notion of faith cannot be good. Much lefs is that notion of faith right, which defines faith to be a firm and certain knowledge of God's eternal good will toward us particularly, and that we shall be faved; which notion (taught in the beginning of the Reformation, by a man of the greateft name and authority) was thus lately expreffed by the Profeffors of Leyden in their Synopfis purioris Theologia: Faith (they fay in their definition thereof) is a firm affent-by which every believer with a certain truft refting in God, is perfuaded not only that remiffion of fins is in general promifed to them who believe, but is granted to himself particularly, and eternal righteoufnefs, and from it life, by the mercy of God, &c. Which notion feems to be very uncomfortable, as rejecting every man from the company of believers, who is either ignorant or doubtful, not only concerning his prefent, but his final state; who hath not, not only a good opinion, but a certain knowledge of his prefent fince Calv. Inft. lib. vii. §. 7. et 28. compar. Nunc justa fidei definitio nobis conftabit, fi dicamus effe divinæ erga nos benevolentiæ firmam, certamque cognitionem, &c. Jam in divina benevolentia quam refpicere dicitur fides, intelligimus falutis ac vitæ æternæ poffeffionem obtineri, &c. -firmus affenfus-quo certâ fiduciâ in Deo acquiefcens firmiter unufquifque fidelis ftatuit, non folum promiffum effe credentibus in genere remiffionem peccatorum, fed fibi in particulari conceffum, æternamque juftitiam, et ex ea vitam, &c. rity and fanctity; yea, not only of this, but of his s ER M. future conftant perfeverance therein fo that if a VII. man be not sure he hath repented, he is (according to this notion) fure that he hath not repented, and is no believer. How many good people must this doctrine difcourage and perplex! To remove it, we may confider, 1. that it altogether inverts and confounds the order of things declared in Scripture, wherein faith (as we obferved before) is fet before obtaining God's good will, as a prerequifite condition thereto; and is made a means of falvation, (without faith it is im- Heb. xi. 6. poffible to please God: By grace we are faved, through Rom. ix. 9. faith.) And if we muft believe before God loves us, (with fuch a love as we speak of,) and before we can be faved; then must we know that we believe, before we can know that God loves us, or that we shall be saved; and consequently we must indeed believe before we can know that God loves us, or that we shall be faved. But this doctrine makes the knowledge of God's love and of falvation in nature antecedent to faith, as being an effential ingredient into it; which is prepofterous. Confider this circle of difcourse: a man cannot know that he believes, without he does believe; this is certain: a man cannot know that he fhall be faved, without knowing he doth believe; this is also certain for upon what ground, from what evidence can he know his falvation, but by knowing his faith? But again backward; a man, fay they, cannot believe (and confequently not know that he believes) without being affured of his falvation. What an inextricable maze and confufion is here! This doctrine indeed doth make the knowledge of a future event to be the caufe of its being future; it supposes God to become our friend (as Abraham was James ii. by his faith) by our knowing that he is our friend; it 23. makes us to obtain a reward by knowing that we fhall obtain it; it fuppofes the affurance of our coming to a journey's end, to be the way of getting thither; which who can conceive intelligible, or : true? SER M. true? Our Saviour doth indeed tell us, that it is the VII. way to life everlasting (or conducible to the attaining John xvii. it) to know (that is, to believe, as it is interpreted 3, 8. in the 8th verfe of that chapter; for what upon good grounds we are perfuaded of, or judge true, we may be faid to know) the true God, and Jefus Chrift, whom he hath fent: but he doth not fay, it is life everlasting (or conducible to the obtaining it) to know, that we shall have life everlasting: that were fomewhat 2 Pet. i. 10. ftrange to fay. St. Peter exhorts us to ufe diligence to make our calling and election fure, or firm, and ftable: but he doth not bid us know it to be fure. If we did know it to be fo, what need fhould we have to make it fo? yea, how could we make it fo? He doth not enjoin us to be fure of it in our opinion, but to secure it in the event by fincere obedience, and a holy life; by fo impreffing this perfuafion upon our minds, fo rooting the love of God and his truth in our hearts, that no temptation may be able to fubvert our faith, or to pluck out our charity. 2. This notion plainly supposes the truth of that doctrine, that no man being once in God's favour, can ever quite lofe it; the truth of which I fhall not conteft now, (nor alledge the many clear paffages of Scripture, nor the whole tenour of the Gospel, nor the unanimous confent of all Chriftendom for fifteen hundred years against it,) but fhall only take notice, that their notion of faith neceffarily prefuppofing the truth of this doctrine, is yet thereby everted: for it follows thence, that no man, who doth not affent to that doctrine, is, or can be a believer: for he that is not affured of the truth of that opinion (although we fuppofe him affured of his prefent fincerity, and being in a state of grace) cannot know that he fhall be faved: fo that only fuch as agree with them in that opinion can be believers, which is fomewhat hard, or rather very abfurd. And to aggravate this inconvenience, I adjoin, 3. that, according to their notion, scarce any man, (except fome have had an especial |