Meet. IVa Of SanE7i zcation 7t` turally ePteem that it is too fmall and flight a thing to produce fo great effe&s ; as Naaman thought wafhing in Jordan too fmall a matter for the cure of his leprofy.. They contemn the true means of entering in at the trait gate, becaufe they feem too eafy for fuch purpofe; and thereby they make the entrance not only difficult, but impofible to them- felves. Some will allow, that faith is the foie con- dition of our juftification, and the inftrument to re. ceive it, according to the do&rine maintained for- merly by the Proteftants againft the Papiffs ; but they account, that it is not fnficient or effeaual to fan&iftcation, but that it rather tendeth to licenti- oufnefs, if it be not joined with fome other means, that may be powerful and effe&ual to fecure an ho- ly pra&ice. They commend this great do&rine of Proteftants, as a comfortable cordial for perfons on their death-beds, or in agonies under terrors ofcon- fcience; but they account, that it is not good for or- dinary food, and that it is wifdom in minifters to preach it feldom and fparingly ; and not without fame antidote or correaive, to prevent the licenti- oufnefs to which it tendeth. Their common anti- dote or corre&ive is, that fan&ification is neceffary to falvation as well as juftification; and that though we be j uftified by faith, yet we are fanaified by our own performance of the law: and fo they let up fal- rtation by works, and make the grace of juftification to be of none effe&, and not at all comfortable. if it had indeed fuch a malignant influence upon prac- tice, it could not be owned as a do&rïne proceeding from the molt holy God; and all the comfort that it affords, muff needs be ungrounded and deceitful. This confequence is well underftood by fome late re- finers of the Proteftant religion; and therefore they have thought fit to new-model this doarine, and to make faving faith to be only a condition to procure a right and title to our juftification by the righteouf_ nefs of Chrift, which mull be performed, before we F
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