THg PREFACE. thofe promifes are not abfolute , but always require the conditions of repentance andnewobedience ; it can be nothing but a fhadow of Faith where $efeconditions are not. It's true that ( to believe ) in the proper and ial notion, is nothing elfe, but to affent to the truth of a propofition, upon the authorityof the fpeaker, ( And to believein one ) lignifies properly to truft and rely upon him,and doth not in its formal con- ception,confidered barely and abftraEtlybyit felf,include the condition of-.. obedience orany other. And therefore we may be faid to believe or truft in one, that requires no conditionof us, but when thewords are referred toone that commands or requires fomethingofus to bedone,and promiles nothing; But upon fuch condition ofobedience,as nothing is more certain, than that Chrift never promifes remiffionof fins, or life eternal, but upon conditionof Repentance and new obedience , In this cafe to believe in Chrift muffofneceflity include obedienceto theCommandmentsof Chrift, as thevery lifeoffaith,without which it isa meer fanf-,e: &fome have obfer- ved that in theNewTeftament, faith and obedience, and unbelief and dif- obedience areoftenprdmifcuoufly ufed for one and the fame. Besaufe that to truft or believe in one that promifes nothing but to thofe that obey him, and to obey him in hope of what he hath promifed, are all one : and therefore that abfolute affiance or unconditionate belief of Gods mercy in Chrift , which fome make to be Faith in Chrift, is that Mat. ii.3s. ,2S;,.,4.iA,, one of thofe firft andprimitive errors from which thofe dod- rines of Antinomiaits and otherSeEtaries that woulddiffolve the Law, do followwith eafe. When Chrift upbrayded the yews for not believing john the saptifI, though the Harlots and Publicans believed, whodoubts but that his meaning is, that the one repentedupon johns preaching, Aug.deEde u-which the otherdidnot, although (to believe in the proper formal noti- oret bas c. í3 on) lignifies nothing elfe but to affent to the truth of what he faid. HenceSt. Augufline faith, Non folum bonamvitam infeperabilem effe aide, fed e; ipfam elfe bonaiuvitam, that agood life, is not only infeparable from Faith, but that Faith is good life it felf ; andSt. Cyprian, Qomodo fe in Chriftum credere dicit qui non facit quaChriftue facere pracipit, How can he laythathe believes inChrift, who doth not the things which Chrift bath commanded. And before them Ireneon tells us, that Credere in chri(lum eft volantatern e urfasere, to believe in Chrift is to do his will. As for that generalFaith, of thelatter School-men, and theRoinanifts, Gal_ 5.6 which they make tobenothing but an affentto revealed truths for the au- Ja'2'23' thority of God the speaker (I fay the latterShool-men, for fome of the Elder, wherethey fpeakof ,fide charitate formata, which they make tobe trueFaith, meannothing elfe, but that whichSt. Paul calls, Faith work- ing by love,' and Saint Tames, Faith confummatedby works ) As allo that Faith of fome amongft our felves, who would have it tobenothing but a perfwafion that their fins are pardoned inChrift, &c. Neither of thefe have any neceffary connexion with agood life, and therefore neitheir of them is that Faith to which the promifes of pardon and Salvation are an- nexed in theGofpel, Not the firft, asthemfelves acknowledge, and ap- pears by cellar. Who labours to provebymany reafons that true Faith may he m a wicked man. Nor the fecond, for how doth it neceffarily follow, that if a manbelieve all his fins paft, prefent, andto come to be forgiven, thattherefore he muff needs live accordingtheRules of Chrift, whereasthecontrary may rather be inferred. thathe needs not to trou- ble
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