SERM. A wrong to exclude any; to confine and appropriate VI. this great bleffing; to engross, to inclose a common; to reftrain that by forging diftinctions, which is fo unlimitedly expreffed. The undertakings and performances of our Saviour did respect all men, as the common works of nature do; as the air we breathe in, as the fun which shineth on us; the which are not given to any man particularly, but to all generally; not as a proper inclosure, but as a common-they are indeed mine, but not otherwife than as they do belong to all men. A gift they are to all equally, though they do not prove to all a bleffing; there being no common gift, which by the refufal, neglect, or ill use of it may not prove a curse-a favour of death. SERMON SERMON VII. I Believe, &c. Of justifying Faith. ROM. V. I. Therefore being juftified by faith, we have peace with VII. THEREFORE; that word implies the text to SER M. be a conclufion (by way of inference, or of recapitulation) refulting from the precedent discourse; it is indeed the principal conclufion, which (as being supposed a peculiar and a grand part of the Chriftian doctrine, and deferving therefore a ftrong proof and clear vindication) St. Paul defigned by feveral arguments to make good. Upon the words, being of fuch importance, I fhould fo treat, as firft to explain them, or to fettle their true fenfe; then to make fome practical application of the truths they contain. As to the explicatory part, I fhould confider firft, what the faith is, by which we are faid to be juftified; 2. what being juftified doth import; 3. how by fuch faith we are fo juftified; 4. what the peace with God is, here adjoined to juftification; 5. what relation 13 SER M. relation the whole matter bears to our Lord Jefus VII. Chrift; or how through him being juftified, we have peace with God; in the profecution of which particulars it would appear, who the perfons juftified are, and who juftifies us; with other circumftances incident. I fhall at this time only infift upon the first particular, concerning the notion of faith proper to this place; in order to the refolution of which inquiry, I fhall lay down fome useful observations: and, 1. First, I observe, that faith, or belief, in the vulgar acception, doth fignify (as we have it briefly deTop. 4, 5. fcribed in Ariftotle's Topicks) a podeà vórnfis, an earnest opinion or perfuafion of mind concerning the truth of fome matter propounded. Such an opinion being produced by, or grounded upon fome forcible reafon, (either immediate evidence of the matter, or fense and experience, or fome ftrong argument of reafon, or fome credible teftimony; a for whatever we affent unto, and judge true upon any fuch grounds and inducements, we are commonly faid to believe,) this is the popular acception of the word; and according thereto I conceive it ufually fignifies in holy Scripture; which being not penned by mafters of human art or fcience, nor directed to perfons of more than ordinary capacities or improvements, doth not intend to use words otherwise than in the most plain and ordinary manner. Belief therefore in general, I fuppofe, denotes a firm perfuafion of mind concerning the truth of what is propounded; whether it be fome one fingle pro a Aut proba effe quæ credis i aut fi non probas, quomodo credis? Tertul. adv. Marc. V. I. Όταν γάρ πως πισεύη, καὶ γνώριμοι αὐτῷ ὦσιν αἱ ἀρχαί, ἐπίςαται. Arift. Etb. vi. 3. ̓Αρισοτέλης τὸ ἑπόμενον τῇ ἐπισήμῃ κρῖμα ὡς ἀληθὲς, τὸ δέ τι πίςιν εἶναί Pros. Clem. Strom. 2. p. 287. Ἔνιοι γὰρ πιςεύωσιν ἐδὲν ἦτον οἷς δοξάζεσιν, ἢ ἴτεροι οἷς ἐπίσανται. Arift. Etb. vii. 3. pofition, Heb. xi. 19, 11. Pfal. cvi. 24. lxxviii. pofition, (as when Abraham believed, that God was S ERM. able to perform what he had promifed; and Sarah, that VII. God, who had promised, was faithful,) or fome fyftem Rom. iv. of propofitions, as when we are faid to believe God's 21. word, (that is, all which by his prophets was in his name declared ;) to believe the truth, (that is, all the propofitions taught in the true religion as fo ;) to believe 32. God's commandments, (that is, the doctrines in God's Thef. ii. law to be true, and the precepts thereof to be good ;) Palm exix. to believe the Gospel, (that is, to be perfuaded of the truth of all the propofitions afferted or declared in Phil. i. 27. the Gospel.) 2. I obferve secondly, that whereas frequently fome perfon, or fingle thing, is reprefented (verbo temus) as the object of faith, this doth not prejudice, or in effect alter the notion I mentioned; for it is only a figurative manner of speaking, whereby is always meant the being perfuaded concerning the truth of fome propofition, or propofitions, relating to that perfon or thing: for otherwife it is unintelligible how any incomplex thing, as they fpeak, can be the complete or immediate object of belief. Befide fimple apprehenfion (or framing the bare idea of a thing) there is no operation of a man's mind terminated upon one fingle object; and belief of a thing furely implies more than a fimple apprehenfion thereof: what it is, for inftance, to believe this or that propofition about a man, or a tree, (that a man is such a kind of thing, that a tree hath this or that property,) is very eafy to conceive; but the phrafe believing a man, or a tree, (taken properly, or excluding figures,) is altogether infignificant and unintelligible indeed to believe, sú, is the effect T TE 12. Mark i. 15. Ja, of a perfuafive argument, and the refult of ratiocination; whence in Scripture it is commended, or discommended, as implying a good or bad ufe of reason. The proper object of faith is therefore fome propofition deduced from others by difcourfe; as it is faid, that many of the Samaritans believed in Chrift, John iv. 39. because of the woman's word, who teftified that he told John xx. John ii. 23. John v. 45, 20. 25. Acts xxiv. 14. SER M. her all that ever fhe did; or as St. Thomas believed, VII. because he faw; or as when it is faid, that many believed on our Lord's name, beholding the miracles which 29. he did: When then, for example, the Jews are reExod. xiv. quired to believe Moses, (or to believe in Moses, after 31. xix. 9. the Hebrew manner of fpeaking,) it is meant, to be &c. perfuaded of the truth of what he delivered, as proceeding from divine revelation; or to believe him to be what he profeffed himself, a meffenger or prophet 2 Chr. xx. of God. So to believe the Prophets, or in the Prophets, () was to be perfuaded concerning the truth of what they uttered in God's name, (that the doctrines were true, the commands were to be obeyed, the threats and promifes fhould be performed, the Luke xxiv. predictions fhould be accomplished: to believe all which the Prophets did fay, as our Saviour speaks; to believe all things written in the Prophets, as St. Paul.) So to believe God's works (a phrafe we have in the Pf. lxxviii. Pfalms) fignifies, to be perfuaded, that those works did proceed from God, or were the effects of his Jer. xvii. 5. good providence: to believe in man (that which is fo Pfal. cxviii. Often prohibited and diffuaded) denotes the being perfuaded, that man in our need is able to relieve and fuccour us: laftly, to believe in God (a duty fo often enjoined and inculcated) is to be perfuaded, that God is true in whatever he says, faithful in performance of what he promises; perfectly wife, powerful, and good; able and willing to do us good: the being perfuaded, I fay, of all these propofitions, or fuch of them as fuit the prefent circumftances and occafion, is to believe in God: thus, in fine, to believe on a perfon, or thing, is only a fhort expreffion (figuratively) denoting the being perfuaded of the truth of fome propofition relating, in one way or other, to that perfon or thing, (which way is commonly discernible by confidering the nature, or state of fuch a perfon, or fuch a thing;) the ufe of which obfervation may afterward appear. 32. zivi. 25. 8, &c. 3. I obferve thirdly, that (as it is ordinary in like cafes concerning the use of words) the word belief is by |