do; nor here offer them any Reprimand; But only to mind them a little to Confider, How the Right Reverend Bifhop Hall, (whose name and memory leaves fo fweet a Savour to all goed men,) Capitulates with Arminius, upon his Upstart Doctrine; (7.Ep. 6. Decad.) If it be Truth thou Affecteft, What alone? Could never any Eyes, till Thine, be bless'd with this Object? Where has that Sacred Verity hid her felf thus long, from all her careful Inquifitors; That fhe now firft fhews her head to thee Unfought? Has the Gospel fhin'd thus Long and Bright, and left fome Corners unseen ? Away with all New Truths: Fair and Plaufible they may be, Sound they cannot. Some may Admire thee for them; None fhall Bless thee.

Thefe [Some, ] may agree with the Church, Art. 1. To think it a Doctrine full of Comfort, indeed, That we are Juftified by Faith only. But to Believe it alfo a most Wholfome Doctrine, There they leave her. Unless they can fetch themselves off, with that New Notion of Faith, (they seem fo Fond of, and fo Hot upon ;) which helps to Establish Ju.. ftification by Works; even at the fame time, as they profefs the Doctrine of the Church, That it is only by Faith. And how is this, but by the fine Equivocation of making Faith and Works to be all One; And taking Faith only for Faithfulness, or fincere Obedience? Nay a certain Clergyman (of strange. Confidence, and feeming Ignorance of his own Church's Doctrine,) in a Folio Dedicated to his Metropolitan, (in the late K. Charles's Reign,) Defines the Juftifying Faith, which S. Paul Speaks fo

much

much of, to be nothing but the Chriftian Religion : And Justification by Faith, nothing but an Adhering to, and Practice of, Chriftian Religion. And this he counts not enough yet, but foon after adds, That the Law of Faith demands much more, than the Law of Works did. (Beftowing a great deal of Railing and Scoffing upon all that are contrary minded.) And after him, a Greater man, and much more Wife and Modeft, yet calls this Faith, Our Obfervation of the Laws of Chrift. And the entire Condition of the New Covenant; Comprehending all the duty which it requires. And this Seems to be the Prevailing Notion among all the Writers of that new Stamp.

Now do I Blefs God for the Scriptures, and particularly S. Paul's Epiftles: from which I can eafly gather up a Satisfying Notion of Justifying Faith: When these men, methinks lead us into a Wood; as if they had a mind only to Darken a Plain matter, and Amule and Lofe the Reader. And while they Confound Faith with Works, and make no difference between Believing and Obeying; what do they but take away all diftinction between the Caule and the Effect? And may as well tell us, That the Sun in the Firmament, and the Fruits upon the Ground are one and the fame: Or that a man's natural Life, and all the Actions produced by that Life, are the fame. For Faith works by Love; and is fhew'd good Works; As the Sun helps to produce Fruits, and the Life to perform Actions. It does indeed virtually include Obedience, and is the Principle of it. But yet I cannot call it the very Obedience it felf. For Effence

Effence and Properties ftill ufe to have a distinct confideration: Though the truth of that may better be known, by the Workings of thefe: Tet ftill, 'Tis one thing, What the true Justifying Faith is; and another thing, What it does Effect, where it is. Now fome that take pains to prove, That to be no true Faith, which works not a Holy Life, do only tell you, What Faith is not: To guard it from the Abules of rude Pretenders: But they say nothing at all, What it is, to the Eftablishment of any true Believers: As long as they Conceal or Deny, Faith to be the Soul's Relying and Trufting on the Merits and Satisfaction of Christ Jefus for Pardon and Salvation: Nay while they hold you in hand, (by the Drift of all their Difcourfes on Faith,) That Right Believing is nothing else but Holy Living; and that no Faith, but Evangelical Obedience, or a Godly, Righteous and Sober Converfation, (which we grant, is the necessary way of Salvation; and a Superstructure that must be built upon Faith's Foundation: That nothing else) will ever avail to Juftification, i. e. (directly oppofite to the Apostle, That we are Juftified by Works, and not by Faith. And here their Affurance and Swaggering grows to fuch a height; that they seem to carry all before'em. And had we not better Authority and ftronger Conviction, wherewith to Confront their words and Reafonings, We must even give up the Caufe; and Own our Silly Miftake. But when we come to Confult Scriptures; the Unanimous Confeffions of the Reformed; the pofitive Determinations of our own Church; the Confciences

of

of the Best men; and the Experiences of all trué Believers in the World; Then we cannot but ftand amazed at the Audacity of fome Church-men, and Proteftant Writers, That they should fo courfely use their own Church; and fo fiercely let fly at the Proteftant Religion. And from fuch I shall not be much startled to hear Antinomian: which I know. they can throw, as a hard word, at the heads of Some that leaft deferve it. When really the mad rage is at another thing, that founds like it, [ Anti-Arminianifm:] This is meant ; Though lefs nam'd; because the other founds more Invidious.

But indeed, They that make Believing Infignifi cant; where there is but the Probity of Living, thus ftand ready to Surrender the great Articles of our Faith, to any Jews, Turks and Infidels: Provided they lead but a Good Life; or what they are pleas'd to call fo. And then Tully and Seneca may do evn as well as S. Peter and S. Paul: And we must not regard our Lord Jefus, when he is fo pofitive, Joh. 8. 24. If ye Believe not that I am He, you fhall dye in your Sins. I will not fay, They would bring us back from Chrift to Mofes again : For indeed it is from Chrift and Moles both, to the. old Pagans; that had but the Light of Nature: which thefe now fo cry up, and Magnify above the Law and the Gospel too. And at the fame time, How do they Run down the Doctrine of our Church? Which teaches us, (Art. 18:) They are to be had Accurfed, who prefume to fay, That every man fhall be Saved, by the Law or Sect which he profeffeth; So that he be diligent to frame

(a)

his

his Life according to that Law, and the Light of Nature.

But though I grant, and in the following Dif courfe, fhall make appear, to all Abusers of our Doctrine, ) That any Pretences to Good Faith without Good Life, are a dangerous Cheat, and fcandalous Hypocrify: Tet we must not therefore Jumble and Confound the Nature and Distinction of things, to make Credenda and Agenda Terms Synonimous: Nor dare to give God the Lye, in refufing to Believe the Record which he has given of his Son. 1 John V. 10, 11. That he has given to us Eternal Life: and this Life is in his Son. Tho we might pretend to Live as well, without that Belief: Tet ftill must we Abide by what is Written; and throw all our Faith and Religion upon the Holy Scripture Revelation. And whoever Deride fuch Credulity: we hall at last find that to be the bestgrounded Religion: When 'tis not, What this man Javs, or what the t'other Magifterially lays down; But what the Lord fays, and How he has Determined; To which we must ftand, And by which we must be Doom'd: And therefore should not suffer our felves to be carried about with every Wind of Dotrine; As this or that proud Wanton Opinionist Dogmatizes or Dictates: Nor let all the World ever Unhinge or Shake us out of that, which we find plainly Fixt and Setled in the Gospel of Truth. No; Even he that was for becoming all things to all men, that he might Gain fome; yet would not Heal and Accommodate between Chrift and Belial. And however, in Leffer matters, (as to