for right, hate one another's persons? Why cannot men with patience hear their titles questioned? But, if Christianity be so excellent a religion, why are so very many Christians so very wicked? Certainly they do not so much as believe the propositions and principles of their own religion. For the body of Christians is so universally wicked, that it would be a greater change to see Christians generally live according to their profession, than it was at first from infidelity to see them to turn believers. The conversion from Christian to Christian, from Christian in title to Christian in sincerity, would be a greater miracle than it was, when they were converted from heathen and Jew to Christian. What is the matter? Is not "repentance from dead works" reckoned by St. Paul as one of the fundamental points of Christian religion? Is it not a piece of our catechism, the first thing we are taught, and is it not the last thing that we practise? We had better be without baptism than without repentance, and yet both are necessary; and, therefore, if we were not without faith, we should be without neither. Is not repentance a forsaking all sin, and an entire returning unto God? Who can deny this? And is it not plainly said in Scripture, "Unless ye repent, ye shall all perish?" But show me the man that believes these things heartily; that is, show me a true penitent; he only believes the doctrines of repentance... If I had time, I should examine your faith by your confidence in God, and by your obedience. But, if we fall in the mere believing, it is not likely we should do better in the other. But because all the promises of God are conditional, and there can be no confidence in the particular without a promise or revelation, it is not possible that any man that does not live well, should reasonably put his trust in God. To live a wicked life, and then to be confident that in the day of our death God will give us pardon, is not faith, but a direct want of faith. If we did believe the promises upon their proper conditions, or believe that God's commandments were righteous and true, or that the threatenings were as really intended as they are terribly spoken,-we should not dare to live at the rate we do. But "wicked men have not faith," saith St. Paul; and then the wonder ceases. But there are such palpable contradictions between men's practices and the fundamentals of our faith, that it was a material consideration of our blessed Saviour, "When the Son of Man comes, shall he find faith upon earth?" meaning it should be very hard and scant: "Every man shall boast of his own goodness; sed virum fidelem,' (saith Solomon,) but 'a faithful man,' who can find?" Some men are very good when they are afflicted. Hanc tibi virtutem fractâ facit urcens ansâ, Et tristis nullo qui tepet igne focus ; When the gown of the day is the mantle of the night, and cannot, at the same time, cover the head, and make the feet warm; when they have but one broken dish and no spoon, then they are humble and modest; then they can suffer an injury and bear contempt: but give them riches, and they grow insolent; fear and pusillanimity did their first "Bonum work, and an opportunity to sin undoes it all. militem perdidisti, imperatorem pessimum creâsti," said Galba: "You have spoiled a good trooper, when you made me a bad commander." Others can never serve God but when they are prosperous; if they lose their fortune, they lose their faith, and quit their charity: "Non rata fides, ubi jam melior fortuna ruit;" if they become poor, they become liars and deceivers of their trust, envious and greedy, restless and uncharitable; that is, one way or other they show that they love the world, and by all the faith they pretend to, cannot overcome it. Cast up, therefore, your reckonings impartially; see what is, what will be required at your hands: do not think you can be justified by faith, unless your faith be greater than all your passions; you have not the learning, not so much as the common notices of faith, unless you can tell when you are covetous, and reprove yourself when you are proud; but he that is so, and knows it not (and that is the case of most men), hath no faith, and neither knows God, nor knows himself. To conclude. He that hath true justifying faith, believes P Martial. xi. 57. the power of God to be above the powers of nature; the goodness of God above the merit and disposition of our persons; the bounty of God above the excellency of our works; the truth of God above the contradiction of our weak arguings and fears; the love of God above our cold experience and ineffectual reason; and the necessities of doing good works above the faint excuses and ignorant pretences of disputing sinners: but want of faith makes us so generally wicked as we are, so often running to despair, so often baffled in our resolutions of a good life: but he whose faith makes him more than conqueror over these difficulties, to him Isaac shall be born even in his old age; the life of God shall be perfectly wrought in him; and by this faith, so operative, so strong, so lasting, so obedient, he shall be justified, and he shall be saved. |