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36 - The Law Established through Faith, Discourse II - Sermons on Several Occasions · Sacred Texts Archive

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The law established through faith. Discourse too, do we then make void the
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law through faith? God forbid, yea we establish the law Romans three thirty
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one. It has been shown in the preceding discourse, which are the most
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usual ways of making void the law through faith. Namely, first the not
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preaching it at all, which eventually makes it all void a stroke, and
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this under color of preaching Christ and magnifying the Gospel, though it be in
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truth, destroying both the one and the other. Secondly, the teaching whether
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directly or directly, that faith supersedes the necessity of holiness, that this less
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necessity now, or a less degree of it, necessary than before Christ came,
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that it is less necessary to us because we believe that otherwise it would
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have been, or that the Christian liberty is a liberty from any kind or
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degree of holiness, so perverting those great truths that we are now under the
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covenant of grace and not works, that a man is justified by faith without
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the works of the law, and that to him that worketh not, but
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believeth his faith is counted for righteousness. Or Thirdly, the doing this practically,
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the making void the law in practice, though not in principle the living
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or acting as if faith was designed to excuse us from holiness, the allowing
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ourselves and sin. Because we are not under the law but under grace.
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It remains to inquire how we may follow a better pattern, How we may
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be able to say with the apostle, Do we then make void the law
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through faith? God forbid? Yea we establish the law. We do not
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indeed establish the old ceremonial law. We know this is abolished forever. Much
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less do we establish the whole mosaic dispensation. This we know our Lord has
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nailed to the cross. Nor yet do we establish the moral law, which
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it is feared too many do as if the filling it, the keeping all
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the commandments were the condition of our justification. If it were so, surely
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in his sight should no man living be justified. But all this being allowed,
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we still, in the apostle sense, establish the law, the moral
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law. We establish the law first by our doctrine, by endeavoring to preach
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it in its whole extent, to explain and enforce every part of it,
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in the same manner as our great teacher did while upon earth. We establish
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it by following Saint Peter's advice. If any man speak, let him speak
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as the oracles of God, as the holy men of old, moved by
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the Holy Ghost, spoke and wrote for our instruction, and as the apostles
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of our blessed Lord. By the direction of the same spirit, we establish
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it whenever we speak in His name, by keeping back nothing from them,
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that here by declaring to them without any limitation or reserve the whole counsel of
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God. And in order the more effectually to establish it we use herein great
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plainness of speech. We are not as many that corrupt the word of God
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Capeleontes, as artful men their bad wines. We do not componize, mix,
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adulterate, or soften it to make it suit the taste of the hearers.
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But as of sincerity, not as of God. In the sight of
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God, speak we in Christ, as having no other aim than by manifestation
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of the truth, to commend ourselves to every man's conscience. In the sight
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of God. We then, by our doctrine, establish the law when we
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thus openly declare it to all men, and that in the fullness wherein it
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is delivered by our Blessed Lord and his apostles, when we publish it in
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the height and depth, and length and breath thereof. We then establish the
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Law when we declare every part of it, every commandment contained therein, not
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only in its full literal sense, but likewise in its spiritual meaning, not
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only with regard to the outward actions which it either forbids or enjoins, but
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also with respect to the inward principle, to the thoughts, desires, and
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intents of the heart. And indeed this we do more diligently, not only
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because it is of the deepest importance, inasmuch as all the fruit, every
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word, and work must not only be evil continually if the tree be evil,
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if the dispositions and tempers of the heart are not right before God,
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but likewise, because as important as these things are, they are little considered
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or understood, so little that we may truly say of the Law too,
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when taken in its full spiritual meaning, it is a mystery which was hid
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from ages and generations since the world began. It was utterly hid from the
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heathen world. They, with all their boasted wisdom, neither found out God
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nor the Law of God, not in the letter, much less in the
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spirit of it, their foolish hearts were more and more darkened. While professing
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themselves wise, they became fools. And it was almost equally hid as to
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its spiritual meaning, from the bulk of the Jewish nation. Even these who
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were so ready to declare concerning others this, people that know not the law
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are cursed, pronounce their own sentence therein as being under the same curse,
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the same dreadful ignorance. Witness our Lord's continual reproof of the wisest among them
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for their gross misinterpretations of it. Witness the supposition almost universally received among them
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that they needed only to make clean the outside of the cup, that the
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paying tithe of meant annis and common outward exactness would atone for inward unholiness,
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for the total neglect both of justice and mercy, of faith and love of
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God. Yea, so absolutely was the spiritual meaning of the law hidden from
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the wisest of them, that one of their most eminent rabbis comments thus on
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those words of the Psalmist. If I incline into iniquity with my heart,
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the Lord will not hear me. That is saith he if it be only
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in my heart, If I do not commit outward wickedness, the Lord will
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not regard it. He will not punish me unless I proceed to the outward
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act. But alas the Law of God, as to its inward spiritual meaning,
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is not hid from the Jews or Heathen's only, but even from what
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is called the Christian world, at least from a vast majority of them,
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the spiritual sense the commandments of God is still a mystery to these also.
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Nor is this observation only in those lands which are overspread with roman much darkness
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and ignorance. But this is too sure that the greater part, even of
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those who are called reformed Christians, are utter strangers at this day to the
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Law of Christ and the purity and spirituality of it. Hence it is that
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to this day the scribes and Pharisees, the men who have the form but
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not the power, of religion, and who are generally wise in their eyes
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and righteous in their conceits hearing, these things are offended, are deeply offended
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when we speak of the religion of the heart, and particularly when we show
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that without this, were we to give all our goods to feed the poor,
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it would profit us nothing but offended they must be, for we cannot
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but speak the truth as it is in Jesus. It is our part whether
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they will hear, or whether they will forbear to deliver our own soul.
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All that is written in the Book of God we are to declare, not
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as pleasing men, but the Lord. We are to declare not only all
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the promises, but all the threatenings too, which we find therein. At
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the same time that we proclaim all the blessings and privileges which God hath prepared
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for his children, we are likewise to teach all the things whatsoever He hath
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commanded. And we know that all these have their use, either for the
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awakening those that sleep, the constructing of the ignorant, the comforting of the
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feeble minded, or the building up and perfecting of the saints. We know
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that all scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable either for doctrine or for
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reproof, either for correction or instruction in righteousness, And that the man of
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God, in the process of the work of God in his soul, has
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need of every part thereof that he may at length be perfect thoroughly furnished unto
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all good works. It is our part thus to preach Christ by preaching all
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things whatsoever he hath revealed, may indeed without blame, and yea with a
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peculiar blessing from God, declare the love of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
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We may speak in a more especial manner of the Lord our righteousness. We
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may expatiate upon the grace of God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
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We may, at proper opportunities dwell upon His praise, as bearing the iniquities
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of us, all as wounded for our transgressions, and bruise for iniquities,
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that by His stripes we may be healed. But still we should not preach
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Christ according to his word. If we were holy to confine ourselves to this,
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we are not ourselves clear before God unless we proclaim Him in all his
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offices. To preach Christ as a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
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is to preach him not only as our great high Priest, taken from among
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men and ordained for men in things pertaining to God, as such, reconciling
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us to God by His blood and ever living to make intercession for us,
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but likewise as the prophet of the Lord, who of God is made unto
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us wisdom, who by his word and his spirit is with us, always
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guiding us into all truth yea, and as remaining a king forever, as
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by giving laws to all whom he is bought with his blood, by restoring
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those to the image of God whom he had first reinstated in his favor,
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as reigning in all believing hearts, until he has subdued all things to himself,
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until he hath utterly cast out all sin and brought in everlasting righteousness.
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We establish the law. Secondly, when we so preach faith in Christ,
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as not to supersede, but to produce holiness, to produce all manner of
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holiness, negative and positive of the heart and of the life. In order
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to this we continue declare what should be frequently and deeply considered by all who
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would not make void the law through faith, that faith itself, even Christian
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faith, the faith of God's elect, the faith of the operation of God,
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still is only the handmaid of Love. As glorious and honorable as it
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is, it is not the end of the commandment. God hath given this
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honor to love alone. Love is the end of all the commandments of God.
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Love is the end, the sole end of every dispensation of God,
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from the beginning of the world to the consummation of all things. And it
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will endure when heaven and earth flee away. For Love alone never faileth.
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Faith will totally fail, It will be swallowed up in sight in the everlasting
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vision of God. But even then, Love, its nature and its office
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still the same, lasting its lamp and unconsumed, its flame and deathless triumph.
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Shall it ever live and endless good, diffuse and endless praise receive.
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Very excellent things are spoken of Faith, and whosoever is a partaker thereof may
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well say, with the apostle, thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.
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Yet still it loses all its excellence when brought into a comparison with Love.
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When Saint Paul observes concerning the superior glory of the Gospel above that of
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the Law, may with great propriety be spoken of the superior glory of Love
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above that of faith. Even that which was made glorious hath no glory in
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this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which
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is done away is glorious, much more doth that which remaineth exceed in glory.
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Yea, all the glory of faith, before it is done away arises.
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Hence that it ministers to love. It is the great temporary means which
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God has ordained to promote that eternal end. Let those who magnify faith beyond
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all proportion, so as to swallow up all things else, and who so
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totally misapprehend the nature of it as to imagine it stands in the place of
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love. Consider further that as love will exist after faith, so it did
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exist long before it. The angels, who from the moment of their creation
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beheld the face of their Father, that is in Heaven, had no occasion
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for faith in its general notion, as it is the evidence of things not
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seen. Neither had the need of faith in its more particular acceptation faith in
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the blood of Jesus, for he took not upon him the nature of angels,
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but only the seed of Abraham. There was therefore no place before the
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foundation of the world for faith, either in the general or particular sense.
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But there was for love. Love existed from eternity in God, the great
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ocean of love. Love had a place in all the children of God from
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the moment of their creation they received at once from their gracious creator to exist
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and to love. Nor is it certain, as ingeniously and plausibly as many
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have discanted upon this, that faith, even in the general sense of the
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word, had any place in paradise. It is highly probable, from that
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short and uncircumstantial account which we have in holy writ, that Adam, before
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he rebelled against God, walked with him by sight and not by faith.
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For when his reason's eye was strong and clear, and as an eagle can
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behold the sun might have beheld his maker's face as near as the intellectual angels
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could have done, he was then able to talk with him face to face,
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whose face we cannot now see and live, and consequently had no need
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of that faith, whose office it is to supply the want of sight.
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On the other hand, it is absolutely certain faith in its particular sense had
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then no place, for in that sense it necessarily presupposes sin and the wrath
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of God declared against the sinner, without which there is no need of an
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atonement for sin in order to the sinner's reconciliation with God. Consequently, as
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there was no need for an atonement before the fall, so there was no
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place for faith in that atonement, Man being then pure from every stain of
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sin, holy as God is holy. But love even then filled his heart.
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It reigned in him without rival. And it was only when love was
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lost by sin that faith was added, not for its own sake, nor
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with any design that it should exist any longer than until it had answered the
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end for which it was ordained, namely to restore man to the love from
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which he had fallen. And the fall. Therefore was added this evidence of
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things unseen, which before was out as useless, this confidence of redeeming love,
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which could not possibly have any place till the promise was made that the
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seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head. Faith, then, was
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originally designed of God to re establish the law of love. Therefore, in
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speaking thus we are not undervaluing it or robbing it of its due praise,
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but on the contrary, showing its real worth, exalting it in its just
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proportion, and giving it that very place which the wisdom of God assigned it
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from the beginning. It is the grand means of restoring the holy Love wherein
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man was originally created. It follows that although faith is of no value in
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itself, as neither any other means whatsoever. Yet, as it leads to
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that end, the establishing it knew of the law of Love in our hearts,
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and as in the present state of things, it is the only means
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under Heaven of affecting it. It is on that account an unspeakable blessing to
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man, and of unspeakable value before God. And this naturally brings us to
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observe. Thirdly, the most important way of establishing the law, namely the
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establishing it in our hearts and lives. Indeed, without this, what would
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all the rest avail. We might establish it by our doctrine. We might
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preach it in its whole extent, We might explain and enforce every part of
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it. We might open it in its most spiritual meaning and declare the mysteries
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of the Kingdom. We might preach Christ in all his offices, and faith
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in Christ as opening all the treasures of His love. And Yet all this
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time, if the law we preached were not established in our hearts, we
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should be of no more account before God than sounding brass or tingling symbols.
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All our preaching would be so far from profiting ourselves that it would only increase
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our damnation. That is wherefore the main point to be considered, How may
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we establish the law in our own hearts so that it may have its full
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influence on our lives? And this can only be done by faith. Faith
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alone it is which effectually answers this end, as we learn from daily experience,
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for so long as we walk by faith, not by sight, we
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go swiftly on in the way of holiness. While we steadily look not at
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the things which are seen, but at those things which are not seen,
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we are more and more crucified to the world, and the world crucified to
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us. Let but the eye of the soul be constantly fixed not on the
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things which are temporal, but on the things which are eternal, and our
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affections are more and more loosed from the earth and fixed on things above,
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So that faith in general is the most direct and effectual means of promoting all
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righteousness and true holiness, of establishing the holy and spiritual law in the hearts
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of them that believe, and by faith taken in its more particular meaning for
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a confidence in a pardoning God, we establish the law and our own hearts
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in a still more effectual manner. For there is no motive which so powerfully
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inclines us to love God as the sense of the love of God in Christ.
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Nothing enables us like a piercing conviction of this to give our hearts to
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Him who was given for us. And from this principle of grateful love to
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God arises love to our brother. Also, neither can we avoid loving our
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neighbor if we truly believe the love wherewith God has loved us. But this
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love to man, grounded on faith and love to God, worketh no ill
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to our neighbor. Consequently, it is as the apostle observes the filling of
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the whole negative law. For this Thou should not commit adultery, Thou shalt
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not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,
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Thou shalt not covet. And if there be any other commandment, it is
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comprehended in this saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Neither is
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love content with barely working no evil to his neighbor. It continually excites us
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to do good, as we have time and opportunity to do good in every
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possible kind, and in every possible degree to all men. It is therefore
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the fulfilling of the positive likewise as well as the negative law of God.
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Nor does this faith fulfill either the negative or positive law as to the external
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part only. But it works inwardly by love, to the purifying of the
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heart, the cleansing it from all vile affections. Everyone that hath this fai
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faith in himself purifieth himself, even as he is pure, purifieth himself from
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every earthly sensual desire, from all vile and inordinate affections, yea, from
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the whole of that carnal mind which is enmity against God. At the same
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time, if it have its perfect work, it fills him with all goodness,
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righteousness, and truth. It brings all heaven into his soul and causes
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him to walk in the light, even as God is in the light.
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Let us thus endeavor to establish the law, and ourselves, not sinning because
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we are under grace, but rather using all the power we receive thereby to
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fulfill all righteousness. Calling to mind what light we receive from God while His
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spirit was convincing us of sin, let us beware we do not put out
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that light. What we had then attained. Let us hold fast. Let
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nothing induce us to build again what we have destroyed, to assume anything great
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or small which we then clearly saw was not for the glory of God or
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the profit of our own soul, or to neglect anything small or great which
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we could not then neglect without a check from our own conscience. To increase
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and perfect the light which we had before, let us now add the light
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of faith, confirm we the former gift of God by a deeper sense of
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whatever He had then shown us, by a greater tenderness of conscience, and
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a more exquisite sensibility of sin. Walking now with joy and not with fear,
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in a clear, steady light of things eternal, we shall look on
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pleasure well praise all the things of earth, as on bubbles upon the water,
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counting nothing important, nothing desirable, nothing worth a deliberate thought, but
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only what is within the veil, where Jesus sitteth at the right hand of
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God. Can you say, Thou art merciful to my unrighteousness, my sins,
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Thou rememberest no more then for the time to come, See that you
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fly from sin as from the face of a serpent. For how exceeding sinful
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does it appear to you? Now, how heinous above all expression, on
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the other hand, and how aimable a light do you now see the holy
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and perfect will of God. Now therefore labor that it be fulfilled, both
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in you, by you and upon you. Now watch and pray that you
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may sin no more, that you may see and shun the least transgression of
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His law. You see the motes which you have not seen before, when
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the sun shines into a dark place. In like manner, you see the
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sins which you cannot see before. Now that the sun of righteousness shines in
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your heart. Now then do all diligence to walk in every respect according to
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the light you have received. Now be zealous and receive more light daily,
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more of the knowledge and love of God, more of the Spirit of Christ,
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more of his life, and of the power of His resurrection. Now
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use all the knowledge and love and life and power you have already attained.
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So shall you continually go on from faith to faith. So shall you daily
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increase in holy love till faith is followed up in sight, and the law
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of Love established in all eternity. This is the end of section thirty six.