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

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The law established through faith? Discourse one. Do we then make void the
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law through faith? God forbid? Yea, we establish the law Romans three
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thirty one. Saint Paul, having the beginning of this epistle, laid down
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his general proposition, namely that the Gospel of Christ is the power of God
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unto salvation to every one that believeth the powerful means whereby God makes every believer
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a partaker of present and eternal salvation. Goes on to show that there is
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no other way under Heaven whereby men can be saved. He speaks particularly of
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salvation from the guilt of sin, which he commonly terms justification, and that
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all men stood in need of this, that none could plead their own innocence.
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He proves at large by various arguments addressed to the Jews as well as
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to the Heathens. Hence he infers in the nineteenth verse of this chapter that
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every mouth, whether of Jew or Heathen, must be stopped from excusing or
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justifying himself, and all the world become guilty before God. Therefore saith he
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by his own obedience by the words of the Law, shall no flesh be
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justified in his sight. But now the righteousness of God is without the law,
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without our previous obedience. There too is manifested, even the righteousness of
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God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all
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that believe. For there is no difference as to their need of justification or
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the manner wherein they obtain it. For all has sinned and have come short
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of the glory of God, the glorious image of God wherein they were created,
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And all who attain are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that
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is in Jesus Christ, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through
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faith in his blood blud that he might be just. And yet the justifier
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of Him which believeth in Jesus, that without any impeachment to his justice,
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he might shew his mercy for the sake of that propitiation. Therefore we conclude,
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which was the grand position he had undertaken, to establish that a man
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is justified by faith without the works of the law Verses twenty through twenty eight.
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It was easy to foresee an objection which might be made, and which
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has in fact been made in all ages, namely that to say we are
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justified without the works of the law is to abolish the law. The apostle,
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without entering into a formal dispute, simply denies the charge. Do we,
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then, says he make void the law through faith? God forbid,
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yea we establish the law. The strange imagination of some that Saint Paul,
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when he says a man is justified without the works of the law means only
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ceremonial law is abundantly confuted by these very verses. For did Saint Paul establish
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the ceremonial law? It is evident he did not. He did not make
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void the law through faith, and openly avowed his doing so. It was
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the moral law only of which he might truly say, we do not make
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void, but established this through faith. But all men are not hearin of
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his mind. Many there are who will not agree to this. Many in
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all ages of the Church, even among those who bore the name of Christians,
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have contended that the faith, once delivered to the Saints, was designed
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to make void the whole law. They would no more spare the moral than
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the ceremonial, but were forhewing as it were, both in peaces before the
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Lord, vehemently maintaining, if you establish any law, Christ shall profit you
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nothing. Christ is become of no effect to you. He are fallen from
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grace. But is the zeal of these men? According to knowledge? Have
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they observed the connection between the law and faith, And that, considering the
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close connection between them, to destroy one is indeed to destroy both. And
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to abolish the moral law is, in truth, to abolish faith and the
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law together, as leaving no proper means either for bringing us to faith or
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of stirring up that gift of God in our soul. It therefore behooves all
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who desire either to come to Christ or to walk in Him whom they have
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received, to take heed. How they make void the law through faith to
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secure us effectually? Against which let us inquire first which are the most usual
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ways of making void the law through faith? And secondly, how may we
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follow the apostle and by faith establish the law. Let us first inquire which
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are the most usual ways of making void the law through faith? Now,
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the way for a preacher to make it all void at the stroke is not
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to preach it at all. This is just the same thing as to blot
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it out of the oracles of God. More especially when it is done with
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design when it is made a rule not to preach the law, and the
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very phrase a preacher of the law is used as a term of reproach,
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as though it meant little less than an enemy of the Gospel. All this
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proceeds from the deepest ignorance of the nature, properties, and use of the
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Law, and proves that those who act thus either know not Christ, are
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utter strangers to living faith, or at least that they are but babes in
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Christ, and as such unskilled in the Word of righteousness. The grand plea
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is this, that preaching the Gospel, that is, according to their judgment,
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the speaking of nothing but the sufferings and merits of Christ answers all the
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ends of the law. But this we utterly deny. It does not answer
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the very first end of the law, namely, the convincing man of sin,
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the awakening of those who are still asleep on the brink of health.
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There may have been here and there an exempt case. One in a thousand
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may have been awakened by the Gospel, but this is no general rule.
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The ordinary method of God is to convict sinners of the law, and that
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only the Gospel is not the means which God hath ordained, or which our
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Lord himself used for this end. We have no authority in scripture for applying
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it. Thus, nor any ground to think it will prove effectual, Nor
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have we any more ground to expect this from the nature of the thing.
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They that be whole, as our Lord himself observes, need not a physician,
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but they that are sick. It is observed therefore, to offer a
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physician to them that are whole, or that at least imagine themselves to be,
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we must first convince them that they are sick. Otherwise they will not
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thank you for your labor. It is equally absurd to offer Christ to them
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whose heart is whole, having never yet been broken. It is in the
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proper sense casting pearls before swine. Doubtless they will trample them under foot,
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And it is no more than you have reason to expect if they also turn
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again and rend you. Although there is no command in scripture to offer Christ
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to the careless sinner, yet are there not scriptural precedents for it? I
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think not, I know not any I believe you cannot produce one, either
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from the four Evangelists or the acts of the Apostles. Neither can you prove
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this to have been the practice of any of the apostles from any passage in
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their writings. Nay, does not the Apostle Paul say in his former epistle
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to the Corinthians, we preach Christ crucified chapter one, verse twenty three,
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And in his latter we preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord chapter four,
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verse five. We consent to rest the cause on this issue, to
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tread in his steps, to follow his example. Only preach you just as
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Paul preached. And the dispute is at the end. For although we are
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certain he preached Christ in as perfect a manner as the very chief of the
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apostle, Yet who preached the law more than Saint Paul. Therefore he did
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not think the Gospel answered the same end. The very first sermon of Saint
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Paul, which is recorded, concludes in these words by him, all that
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believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the
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law of Moses. Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you, which
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is spoken of in the prophets. Behold ye, despisers, and wonder and
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perish, for I work a work in your days, a work for which
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ye will in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you Acts
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thirteen thirty nine forty. Now it is manifest all this is preaching the law
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in the sense wherein you understand the term, even although great part of it,
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if not all his hearers were either Jews or we just prostolytes verse forty
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three, and therefore probably many of them in some degree at least convicted of
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sin. Already He first reminds them that they cannot be justified by the law
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of Moses, but only in faith in Christ, and then severely threatens them
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with the judgments of God, which in the strongest sense preaching the law.
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In his next discourse that to the heathens of Lystra Chapter fourteen, verse fifteen,
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we do not find so much as the name of Christ. The whole
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purport of it is that they should turn from those vain idols unto the living
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God. Now confess the truth. Do not you think if you had been
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there, you could have preached better than he? I should not wonder if
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you thought too that his preaching so ill occasioned his being so ill treated,
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and that him being stoned as a just judgment upon him for not preaching Christ
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from the jailer. Indeed, when he sprang in and came trembling, and
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fell down before Paul and Silas and said, sirs, what must I do
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to be saved? He immediately said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Acts sixteen, twenty nine and thirty. And in the case of one so
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deeply convicted of sin, who would not have said the same. But to
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the men of Athens, you find him speaking in quite a different manner,
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reproving their superstition, ignorance, and idolatry, and strongly moving them to repent
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from the consideration of a future judgment and of the resurrection of the dead Chapter
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seventeen, verse twenty four through thirty one. Likewise, when Felix sent for
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Paul on purpose that he might hear him concerning the faith in Christ, instead
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of preaching Christ in your sense, which would probably have caused a governor either
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to mock or to contradict and blaspheme, he reasoned of righteousness, temperance,
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and judgment to come till Felix hardened as he was trembled. Chapter twenty four,
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Verses twenty four and twenty five. Go thou and tread in his steps
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preach Christ to the careless sinner by reasoning of righteousness, temperance, and judgment
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to come. If you say, but he preached Christ in a different manner
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in his epistles, I answer he did not there preach at all, but
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in that sense wherein we speak for preaching in our present question means speaking before
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a congregation. But waiving this, I answer, his epistles are directed not
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to unbelievers, such as those we are now speaking of, but to the
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saints of God in Rome, Corinth, Philippi, and other places. Now,
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unquestionably he would speak more of Christ to these than to those who were
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without God in the world. And yet every one of these is full of
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the Law, even the epistles to the Romans and the Galatians, in both
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of which he does what you term preaching the law, and that to believers
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as well as unbelievers. From hence it is plain you know not what it
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is to preach Christ in the sense of the apostle. For doubtless, Saint
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Paul judged himself to be preaching Christ both to Felix and at Antioch, Lystra
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and Athens, from whose example every thinking man must infer that not only the
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declaring the love of Christ to sinners, but also the declaring that He will
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come from heaven in flaming fire. Is in the apostle sense, preaching Christ.
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Yea, in the full scriptural meaning of the word. To preach Christ
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is to preach what he hath revealed, either in the Old or New Testament,
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so that you are really preaching Christ when you are saying the wicked shall
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be turned into Hell, and all the people that forget God, as when
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you are saying, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of
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the world. Consider this well, that to preach Christ is to preach all
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things that Christ hath spoken, all his promises, all his threatenings and commands,
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all that is written in his book. And then you will know how
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to preach Christ without making void the law. But does not the greatest blessing
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attend those discourses wherein we particularly preach the merits and suffering of Christ. Probably
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when we preach to a congregation of mourners or of believers, these will be
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attended with the greatest blessing, because such discourses are pecuularly suited to their state.
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At least, these will usually convey the most comfort. But this is
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not always the greatest blessing. I may sometimes receive a far greater by a
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discourse that cuts me to the heart and humbles me to the dust. Neither
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should I receive that comfort. If I were to preach or to hear no
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discourses but on the sufferings of Christ, these by constant repetition, would lose
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their force and grow more and more flat and dead, till at length they
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would become a dull round of words, without any spirit or life or virtue.
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So that thus to preach Christ must, in process of time, make
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void the Gospel as well as the Law. A second way of making void
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the law through faith is the teaching that faith supersedes the necessity of holiness.
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This divides itself into a thousand smaller paths, and many there are who walk
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therein. Indeed, there are few who wholly escape it, few who are
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convinced, we are said, by faith, but are sooner or later more
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or less drawn aside into this by way. All those are drawn into this
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by way, who, if it be not settled judgment, that faith in
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Christ entirely sets aside the necessity of keeping His law. Yet suppose either sets
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aside the necessity of keeping his law, yet suppose either that holiness is less
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necessary now than it was before Christ came, or that a less degree of
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it is necessary, or that it is less necessary to believers than to others.
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Yea, and so are all those who, although their judgment be right
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in the general, yet think that they may take more liberty in particular cases
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than they could have done before they believed. Indeed, the using of the
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term liberty in such a manner for liberty from obedience or holiness shows at once
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that their judgment is perverted, that they are guilty of what they imagined to
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be far from them, namely, of making void the law through faith,
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by supposing faith to supersede holiness. The first plea of those who teach this
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expressly is that we are now under the covenant of grace, not works,
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and therefore we are no longer under the necessity of performing the works of the
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law. And whoever was under the covenant of works, none but Adam before
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the fall. He was fully improperly under the covenant, which required perfect universal
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obedience as the one condition of acceptance, and left no place for pardon.
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Upon the very last transgression. But no man else was ever under this,
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neither jew nor gentile, neither before Christ nor sense. All his sons were
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and are under the covenant of grace. The manner of their acceptance is this.
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The free grace of God through the merits of Christ, gives pardon to
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them that believe, that believe with such a faith as working by love produces
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all obedience and holiness. The case is not therefore, as you suppose that
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men were once more obliged to obey God or to work the works of His
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law than they are now. This is a supposition you cannot make good.
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But we should have been obliged, if we had been under the covenant of
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works, to have done those works antecedent to our acceptance, whereas now all
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good works, though as necessary as ever, are not antecedent to our acceptance,
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but consequent upon it. Therefore, the nature of the covenant of grace
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gives you no ground, no encouragement at all, to set aside any insistence
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or degree of obedience, any part or measure of holiness. But we are
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not justified by faith without the works of the law. Undoubtedly we are without
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the works either of the ceremonial or the moral law, and would to God
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all men were convicted of this, it would prevent innumerable evils antinomism in particular.
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For generally speaking, they are the Pharisees who make the Anonomians running into
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an extreme so palpably contrary to scripture. They occasion others to run into the
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opposite one. These seeking to be justified by works affright those from allowing any
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place for them. But the truth lies between both. We are doubtless justified
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by faith. This is the cornerstone of the whole Christian building. We are
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justified without the works of the law as any previous condition of justification, but
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they are an immediate fruit of that faith, whereby we are justified. So
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that if good works do not follow our faith, even all inward and outward
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holiness, it is plain that our faith is nothing worth. We are yet
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in our sins. Therefore, that we are justified by faith, even by
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our faith without works. Is no ground for making void the law through faith,
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or for imagining that faith is a dispensation from any kind of degree of
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holiness. Nay, but does not Paul expressly say unto him that worketh not
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but believeth on him that justifieth ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
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And does it not follow from hence that faith is to a believer in the
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room in the place of righteousness. But if faith is in the room of
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righteousness or holiness, what need is there of this too? This, it
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must be acknowledged, comes home to the point, and is indeed the main
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pillar of Antiinomianism. And yet it needs not a long or labored answer.
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We allow that God justified the ungodly, him that till that hour is totally
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ungodly, full of all evil, void of all good. That He justified
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the ungodly that worketh not that till that moment worketh no good work. Neither
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can he for an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit. That he justifies
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him by faith alone, without any goodness or righteousness proceeding. And that faith
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is then counted to him for righteousness, namely for preceding righteousness. That is,
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God, through the merits of Christ, accepts him that believes, as
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if he had already fulfilled all righteousness. But what is all this? To
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your point? The apostle does not say, either here or elsewhere, that
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this faith is counted to him for subsequent righteousness. He does not teach that
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there is no righteousness before faith, but where does he teach that there is
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none after it? He does assert holiness cannot precede justification, but not that
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it need not follow it. Saint Paul therefore gives you no color of making
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void the law by teaching that faith supersedes the necessity of holiness. There is
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yet another way of making void the law through faith, which is more common
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than either of the former, And that is the doing it practically, the
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making it void in fact, though not in principle, the living. As
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if faith was designed to excuse us from holiness, how earnestly does the apostle
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guard us against this? In those well known words, what then shall we
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sin? Because we are not under the law but under grace God forbid Romans
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six fifteen, A caution which it is needful thoroughly to consider, because it
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is of the last importance. The being under the law may here mean the
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being obliged to observe the ceremonial law, the being obliged to conform to the
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whole mosaic institution, the being obliged to keep the whole moral law as a
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condition of our acceptance with God, and the being under the wrath and curse
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of God, under the sentence of eternal death, under a sense of guilt
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and condemnation, full of horror and slavish fear. Now, although a believer
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is not without law to God, but under the law of Christ, yet
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from the moment he believes he is not under law in any of the preceding
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senses. On the contrary, he is under grace under a more benign,
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gracious dispensation. As he is no longer under the ceremonial law, nor under
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the mosaic institution. He is not obliged to keep even the moral law as
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the condition of his acceptance. So he is delivered from the wrath and the
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curse of God, from all sense of guilt and condemnation, and from all
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that horror and fear of death and hell, whereby he was all his life
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before a subject to bondage. And he now performs which while under the law
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he could not do, a willing and universal obedience. He obeys not from
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the motive of slavish fear, but on a nobler principle, namely, the
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grace of God ruling his heart and causing all his works to be wrought in
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love. What, then, shall this evangelical principle of action be less powerful
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than the legal? Shall we be less obedient to God from filial love than
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we were from servile fear? It? As well? If this is not
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a common case, If this practical antinominianism, this unobserved way of making void
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the law through faith, has not infected thousands of believers, Has it not
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infected you? Examine yourself honestly and closely? Do you not do now what
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you durst not have done when you was under the law, or, as
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we calmly call it, under conviction. For instance, you durst not then
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indulge yourself in food. You took just what was needful, and that of
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the cheapest kind. Do you not allow yourself more latitude? Now? Do
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you not indulge yourself a little more than you did? Oh, beware lest
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you sin? Because you are not under the law, but under grace.
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When you are under conviction, you durst not indulge the lust of the eye
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in any degree. You would not do anything great or small merely to gratify
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your curiosity. You regarded only cleanliness and necessity, or at most very moderate
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convenience, either in furniture or apparel. Superfluity and finery of whatever kind,
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as well as fashionable elegance, were both a terror and an abomination to you?
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Are they so? Still? Is your conscience as tender now in these
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things as it was? Then? Do you still follow the same rule in
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furniture and apparel, trampling all finer, all superfluity, everything useless, everything
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merely ornamental, however fashionable underfoot? Rather, have you not resumed what you
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had once laid aside, and what you can could not then use without wounding
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your conscience? And have you not learned to say, oh, I am
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not so scrupulous now I would to God you were, then you would not
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sin thus, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
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You was once scrupulous too, of commending any to their face, and still
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more of suffering any to command you. It was a slap to your heart.
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You could not bear it. You sought the honor that cometh of God.
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Only you could not endure such conversation, nor any conversation which was not
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good to the use of edifying all idle talk, all trifling discourse. You
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abhorred, You hate it as well as feared it, being deeply sensible of
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the value of time, of every precious fleeting moment. In like manner you
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dreaded and abhorred, idle expense, valuing your money only less than your time,
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and trembling lest you should be found an unfaithful steward even of the mammon
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of unwe righteousness. Do you now look upon praise a steadily poison which you
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can neither give nor receive. But at the peril of your soul? Do
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you still dread and a phoor all conversation which does not tend to the use
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of edifying and labor to improve every moment that it may not pass without leaving
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you better than it found you? Are not you less careful as to the
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expense, both of time and money? And cannot you now lay out either
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as you could not have done once? Alas, how has that which should
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have been for your health proved to you an occasion of falling? How have
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you sinned because you are not under the law, but under grace God forbid
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you should any longer continue thus to turn the grace of God into luscervishness.
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Oh, remember, how clear and strong a conviction you once had concerning all
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these things, and at the same time you was fully satisfied from whom that
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conviction came. The world told you you was in a delusion, but you
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knew it was the voice of God in these things. You was not too
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scrupulous then, But you are not now scrupulous enough. God kept you longer
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in that painful school that you might learn those great lessons the more perfectly.
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And have you forgot them already? Oh, recollect them before it is too
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late. Have you suffered so many things in vain? I trust it is
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not yet in vain? Now use the conviction without the pain, practice the
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lesson without the rod. Let not the mercy of God weigh less with you
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now than his fiery indignation did before. Is love a less powerful motive than
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fear? If not, let it be an invariable rule. I will do
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nothing now I am under grace, which I durst not have done when under
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the law. I cannot conclude this head without exhorting you to examine yourself likewise
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touching sins of omission? Are you not as clear of these now you are
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under Gora as you was when under the law. How diligent was you then
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in hearing the word of God? Did you neglect any opportunity? Did you
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attend thereon day and night? Would a small hindrance have kept you away?
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A little business, a visitant, a slight indisposition, a soft bed,
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a dark or cold morning. Did not you then fast often or use abstinence
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to the uttermost of your power? Was not you much in prayer? Cold
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and heavy as you was while you were hanging over the mouth of hell?
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Did you not speak and not spare even for the unknown God? Did you
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not boldly plead His cause, reprove sinners and avow the truth before an adulterous
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generation? And are you now a believer in Christ? Have you the faith
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that overcometh the world? What? And are less zealous for your Master now
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than you was when you knew him? Not less diligent and fasting in prayer
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and hearing his word? In calling sinners to God? Oh repent, see
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and feel your grievous loss. Remember from whence you are fallen. Bewail your
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unfaithfulness. Now be zealous and do the first works, Lest if you continue
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to make void the law through faith, God cut you off and appoint you
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your portion with the unbelievers. End of Section thirty five,