so may he also believe that there is a Christ; but he cannot more cordially accept of the Lord for his God than he can accept of Christ for his Saviour. In the soul of every unregenerate man, the creature possesseth both places, and is both God and Christ, Can Christ be believed in, where our own righteousness or any other thing is trusted as our Saviour; or doth God ever thoroughly discover sin and misery, and clearly take the heart from all creatures, and self-righteousness, and yet leave the soul unrenewed? The truth is, where the work is sincere, there it is entire; and all these parts are truly wrought; and as turning from the creature to God, and not by Christ, is no true turning ; so believing in Christ, while the creature hath our hearts, is no true believing. And therefore in the work of self-examination, whoever would find in himself a thorough sincere work, must find an entire work; even the one of these as well as the other, In the review of which entire work, there is no doubt but his soul may take comfort. And it is not to be made so light of as most do, nor put by with a wet finger, that Scripture doth so ordinarily put repentance before faith, and make them, jointly," conditions of the Gospel; which repentance contains those acts of the will's aversion from sin and creatures before expressed. It is true, if we take faith in the largest sense of all,a then it contains repentance in it; but if we take it strictly, no doubt there are some acts of it go before repentance, and some follow after. Yet it is not of much moment which of the acts before-mentioned we shall judge to precede, whether our aversion from sin, and renouncing our idols, or our right receiving Christ, seeing it all composeth but one work, which God doth ever perfect where he beginneth but one step, and layeth but one stone in sincerity; and the moments of time can be but few that interpose between the several acts. If any object, That every grace is received from Christ, and therefore must follow our receiving him by faith,' I answer, There be receivings from Christ before believing, and be z Quum inter se comparantur et distinguuntur, seu distincte à nobis considerantur, salutis illius partes: tum fides respectu justificationis rationem habet conditionis prærequisitæ; nemo enim justificatur nisi per fidem; respectu autem sanctificationis (i. e. a holy life, and holy motions of the heart,) habet se ut ejus causa.—Doctis. Ludov. Capellus, in Thes, Salmur. vol. 2. p. 110, sect. 39. a As it is put for all obedience to the commands proper to the Gospel, fore our receiving of Christ himself. Such is all that work of the Spirit, that brings the soul to Christ; and there is a passive receiving of grace before the active. Both power and act of faith are, in order of nature, before Christ, actually received; and the power of all other gracious acts is as soon as that of faith. Though Christ give pardon and salvation upon condition of believing, yet he gives not, in the first degree, a new heart, a soft heart, and faith itself, nor the first true repentance on that condition; any more than he gives the preaching of the Gospel, the Spirit's motion to believe, &c., upon a pre-requisite condition of believing. Sect. V. 4. And as the will is thus averted from the forementioned objects, so, at the same time, doth it cleave to God the Father, and to Christ. Its first acting in order of nature, is toward the whole divine essence; and it consists, especially, in intending and desiring God for his portion and chief good: having before been convinced that nothing else can be his happiness, he now finds it is in God, and therefore looks towards it. But it is yet rather with desire than hope; for, alas! the sinner hath already found himself to be a stranger and enemy to God, under the guilt of sin and curse of his law, and knows there is no coming to him in peace till his case be altered; and, therefore, having before been convinced, also, that only Christ is able and willing to do this, and having heard his mercy in the Gospel freely offered, his next act is, secondly, to accept of Christ for Saviour and Lord. I put the former before this, because the ultimate end is necessarily the first intended, and the divine essence is principally that ultimate end; (John xiv. 6;) yet not excluding the human nature in the second person: but Christ, as Mediator, is the way to that end; and, throughout the Gospel, is offered to us in such terms as import his being the means of making us happy in God. And though that former act of the soul toward the Godhead, be not said to justify as this last doth, yet is it, I think, as proper to the people of God as this; nor can any man, unregenerate, truly choose God for his Lord, his portion, and chief good; therefore do they both mistake: they who only mention our turning to Christ, and they who only mention our turning to God, in this work of conversion, as is touched before. Paul's preaching was 66 repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ." (Acts xx. 21, v. 31, xi. 18, and xxvi. 20.) And life eternal consists, first, in knowing the only true God, and then Jesus Christ, whom he hath sent. (John xvii. 3.) The former is the natural part of the covenant, to take the Lord only for our God; the latter is the supernatural part, to take Christ only for our Redeemer. The former is first necessary, and implied in the latter. Though repentance and good works, &c., are required to our full justification, at judgment, as subservient to, or concurrent with, faith; yet is the nature of this justifying faith itself contained in assent, and in this accepting of Christ for Saviour and Lord: and I think it necessarily contains all this in it; some place it in the assenting act only, some in a fiducial adherence, or recumbency; I call it accepting, it being principally an act of the will; but yet also of the whole soul. This accepting being that which the Gospel presseth to, and calleth the receiving or accepting Christ: I call it an affectionate accepting, though love seem another act quite distinct from faith, and if you take faith for assent only, so it is; yet I take it as essential to that faith which justifies. To accept Christ without love, is not justifying faith. Nor doth love follow as a fruit, but immediately concur; nor concur as a mere concomitant, but essential to a true accepting. For this faith is the receiving of Christ, either with the whole soul, or with part; not with part only, for that is but a partial receiving and most clearly, divines of late conclude, that justifying faith resides both in the understanding and the will; therefore, in the whole soul; and so cannot be one single act. I add, it is the most affectionate accepting of Christ; because he that loves father, mother, or any thing more than him, is not worthy of him, nor can be his disciple; (Luke xiv. 26;) and consequently not justified by him. And the truth of this affection is not to be judged so much by b So Dr. Preston's judgment is, and Dr. Wallis against the Lord Brook, p. 94. It is an accepting of Christ offered, rather than the belief of a proposition affirmed. So that excellent philosopher and divine. Love to Christ whether it be not essential to justifying faith; see more of this in the positions of justification. Love to Christ must be the strongest love. To accept is only velle bonum oblatum, and to love, as it is in the rational appetite, is only velle bonum too (as Aquinas often); so that faith, as it is in the will, (in its most proper act,) and love as in the same faculty towards the same object, are but two names for one thing. But this with submission. The objections are to be answered elsewhere. с Scriptura fere utitur verbo λaußávei, quod propter sophistas est tutius. Illud tribuitur fidei multoties; John i. 12, ubi Jansenius, &c. et Bellarm. Credere est Christum recipere.-Johan. Crocius de Just. Disp. 12. p. 657. d Dr. Sibbs's 'Soul's Conflict.' VOL. XXII. feeling the pulse of it, as by comparing it with our affection for other things. He that loveth nothing so much as Christ, doth love him truly, though he find cause still to bewail the coldness of his affections. I make Christ himself the object of his accepting, it being not any theological axiom concerning himself, but himself in person. I call it an accepting him for Saviour and Lord. For in both relations will he be received, or not at all. It is not only to acknowledge his sufferings, and accept of pardon and glory, but to acknowledge his sovereignty, and submit to his government, and way of saving; and I take all this to be contained in justifying faith. The vilest sinner among us will accept of Christ to justify and save him, if that only would serve the turn to his justification. The work (which Christ thus accepted of, is to perform) is, to bring the sinners to God, that they may be happy in him: and this both really by his Spirit, and relatively in reconciling them, and making them sons; and to present them perfect before him, at last, and to possess them of the kingdom. This will Christ perform : and the obtaining of these, are the sinner's lawful ends, in receiving Christ; and to these uses doth he offer himself unto us. 5. To this end doth the sinner now enter into a cordial cove→ nant with Christ. As the preceptive part is called the covenant, so he might be under the covenant before, as also under the offers of a covenant on God's part. But he was never strictly nor comfortably in covenant with Christ till now. He is sure by the free offers, that Christ doth consent, and now doth he cordially consent himself; and so the agreement is fully made; and it was never a match indeed till now. 6. With this covenant concurs a mutual delivery; Christ delivereth himself in all comfortable relations to the sinner, and the sinner delivereth up himself to be saved and ruled by e Fides considerat Christum ut redemptorem, adeoque sanctificatorum nostrum, inquit.-Camero Præiect. in Matt. xviii. 1. f. 78. f The pitch of your love, if it be a right conjugal love, is upon the person of Christ rather than any thing that comes from him, saith Burroughs on Hosea, p. 603. Irenæus, lib. 1. p. 6., saith, that the Valentinians would call Christ their Saviour, but not Lord: justifying faith is the accepting Christ both for Saviour and Lord. g Christo servabatur, omnia retro occulta nudare, dubitata dirigere, prælibata supplere, prædicata repræsentare; mortuorum certe resurrectionem, non modo per semetipsum, verum etiam in semetipso, probare.-Tertul. in Lib. de Resurrect. Carnis in principio, p. 405. h Si igitur tradideris ei quod tuum est, id est, fidem in eum, et subjectionem, Christ. This which I call the delivering of Christ, is his act in and by the Gospel; without any change in himself. The change is only in the sinner to whom the conditional promises become equivalent to absolute, when they perform the conditions. Now doth the soul resolvedly conclude, I have been blindly led by the flesh and lust, and the world, and the devil, too long already, almost to my utter destruction; I will now be wholly at the disposal of my Lord, who hath bought me with his blood, and will bring me to his glory. And thus the complete work of saving faith consisteth in this covenanting, or mystical marriage, of the sinner to Christ. 7. And lastly, I add, that the believer doth herein persevere to the end; though he may commit sins, he never disclaimeth percipies ejus artem, et eris perfectum opus Dei. Si autem non credideris ei, et fugeris manus ejus, erit causa imperfectionis in te, qui non obedisti; sed non in illo qui vocavit. Ille enim misit qui vocarent ad nuptias; qui autem non obedierunt ei, seipsos privaverunt regia cœna. Sed ille qui non consequitur eam sibimet suæ imperfectionis est causa. Nec enim lumen deficit propter eos, qui seipsos excæcaverunt, &c.-Irenæus adv. Hæres. lib. iv. c, 76. So Dr. Preston tells you frequently. And in the primitive times none were baptised without an express covenanting, wherein they renounced the world, flesh, and devil, and engaged themselves to Christ, and promised to obey him, as you may see in Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, and others, at large. I will cite but one for all, who was before the rest, and this is Justin Martyr: speaking of the way of baptising the aged, he saith, " How we are dedicated to God, being renewed by Christ, we will now open to you. As many as being persuaded, do believe these things to be true which we teach, and do promise to live according to them, they first learn by prayer and fasting to beg pardon of God for their former sins, ourselves joining also our prayer and fasting. Then they are brought to the water, and are born again, or baptised, in the same way as we ourselves were born again: for they are washed with water, in the name of the Father, the Lord and God of all, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of the Holy Ghost. Then we bring the person thus washed and instructed, to the brethren, as they are called, where the assemblies are, that we may pray both for ourselves and for the illuminated person, that we may be found, by true doctrine and by good works, worthy observers and keepers of the commandments, and that we may attain eternal salvation. Then there is brought to the chief brother, (so they called the chief minister,) bread, and a cup of wine, washed, which taking, he offereth praise and thanksgiving to the Father, by the name of the Son and Holy Ghost: and so awhile he celebrateth thanksgiving. After prayers and thanksgiving, the whole assembly saith Amen. Thanksgiving being ended by the president, or chief guide, and the consent of the whole people, the deacons, as we call them, do give to every one present part of the bread and wine, over which thanks were given, and they also suffer them to bring it to the absent. This food we call the eucharist; to which no man is admitted but only he that believeth the truth of our doctrine being washed in the laver of regeneration for remission of sin, and that so liveth, as Christ hath taught.'—Apol, 2. This, then, is no new overstrict way, you see, : |