must understand this term, THE WORK OF GOD; and learn to apply it with as much force to the internal acts of the soul, (which they call elicited acts,) as they have applied it to the external acts, (which they call commanded and mediate acts,) or, (which shews their blindness to be the more awful,) which they apply to the works of the creation; which are wrought of God out of, and independent of, all men.

But as that man who omits the first precept, and yet keeps all the other works, both divine and human, does nothing at all: so, he does nothing at all, who does all that he does, or omits all that he omits, without faith in God. For, as the first precept is the measure, standard, rule, and virtue of all the other precepts; from which first precept, as from the head, all the other precepts hang, and receive life and influence: so faith, the work of the same precept, is the life, power, and virtue of all other works, and is, in the greatest truth, that universal reality, which is the one thing needful in all things so that, no work is good, unless faith be the operating spring of it: nay, unless it be wholly imbued and anointed with faith as with a new leaven.

And there can by no means be faith, unless there be a certain living and undoubting mind, whereby the man is assured, with all certainty, that he pleases God, and has him as a propitious and pardoning God in all things which he does and carries on; propitious in good things, and pardoning in evils. For what is faith if there be not this state of mind? And the Apostle proves true faith to be such as this in many examples, Hebrews xi. And Christ, in the Gospel, when he is about to display his power, generally asks them first, whether they believe that he is able and willing to do it. And therefore, it is written of him, Matt. xiii. that he could not do many works in his own country because of their unbelief. And, Matt. xvii. he says, that his disciples could not cast out devils because of their unbelief.

From this we may see whence that word of the Apostle flowed, Rom. xiv. " Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." And that of Titus i. 15, “But even their mind

and conscience is defiled." And why is this? because they are destitute of faith; and it is faith alone that purifies the heart, (Acts xv.) and fulfils all the commandments of God. Observe this, therefore, 'In every work of thine believe,'' Faith is the keeping of the commandments of God.' But is not this a new kind of thing to the theologians of our day? And that also is equally new which we have, Eccles. ix. 7, "Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart: for God now accepteth thy works;" where the Hebrew is, KIKEBAR RAZA HAELOHIM ETH MAESECHA. But this BAR may be variously rendered, thus, For thy works are like a son (or elect, or pure,) which pleaseth his father.' Or thus, Thy works are like the works of a son that pleaseth his father.' So that the meaning of the whole is, 'Be thou' always joyful and happy, knowing, that whatsoever thou doest, is, in the approbation of God, like the actions of a chosen and beloved son in the sight of his father. And in this way also it is expressed, Malachi iii. 17, "And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." And then it follows in the same passage, Eccles. ix. "Let thy garments be always white; and let thy head lack no ointment. Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labour which thou takest under the sun. Here," garments" and "oil" (though many understand them, not improperly, to signify works and joyfulness,) may, I think, be received as having a literal signification: because there was a custom of putting on white garments upon days of rejoicing, and dark or black garments or sackcloth upon days of mourning, and especially among the people of the nation in the midst of whom Solomon wrote: so that, these "garments" and "oil" signify the circumstances of joy, both with respect to the food and the clothing. And thus also Christ saith, Matt. vi. "But thou, when thou fastest, anoint

thy head and wash thy face:" that is, be of a glad and cheerful countenance.

Those, therefore, act most perniciously, who, professing themselves to be teachers illuminated by faith, deny that this faith is necessary at all times, and in every work and they hatch up and frame out to us a general kind of faith sleeping in the habit, or rather a dead faith, which for the time elicits the act of believing. But what time will they define for this act? Is it only during the time of immediate exercise? But what a great folly possesses them, if they compare faith and its work with the use and nature of all other virtues? By this they would make it to be the case, that, because we cannot at all times pray, read, visit the sick, and help the weak; nay, because we cannot do any one work perpetually and continually, therefore, (as they think,) faith must be subject to the same change as the works, sometimes working or acting, and sometimes resting or doing nothing: not understanding, that under all the change and variety of works faith remains the same, believing and being confident in every work, that it pleases God, or rather, that he is pardoning and propitious.

It is an error, therefore, to put faith and its work upon a footing with the other virtues and works. For this faith must be held as being exalted above all these things, and as being a sort of general and inaccessible influence above all works; by the moving and agency of which it is that all works which are done by man move, act, flourish, and please God. Thus Samuel, 1 Sam. x. 6, And the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. When, therefore, all these signs are come unto thee, do whatsoever cometh into thy hands; for God is with thee.' So, in faith, all works are equal, howsoever they may present themselves unto us to be done for faith alone is the work of all works. But wheresoever a difference of works is made, there either faith is wanting, or else, the difference only appears to be such in the eyes of those who are ignorant in these matters. For when a man believes in God,

whether he fasts, or prays, or serves a brother, it is all one and the same: for he knows that he serves and pleases God equally, whether his works be great or small, precious or vile, short or long. Nor does he in particular choose any one work, nor does he reprobate any one; but, as Samuel said to Saul, he does whatsoever comes into his hands to do. But where there is not this faith, there will be always found a fermenting toil of distinguishing, choosing, and rejecting works; while such, with an impious opinion, believe, that by such a work they shall please God more, and by such a work less which iniquity is full of labour, toil, and solicitude; in the Hebrew called AVEN and AMAL, as we have abundantly shewn before.

The impious folly of these men is a certain spiritual simony; they wish to buy God with works. For what they do is this: they suppose, that in doing and after doing these works, they shall have faith in God; and thus, they make God to be appeased and rendered propitious by their works: whereas, we ought to have God propitious to us first by faith, and then, in that faith to do good works: that thus, that which pleases God may be of preventing grace, and not of our own power and merits. For no one can please God because he does good works; but he does good works because he pleases God. So that, the cause of the works being good, is the faith by which a man knows that he pleases God: but works are not the cause of that faith which pleases God. And hence it is impossible, but that those must trust more in their own works than in God, though (as hypocrites always lie) they boast that they trust in God alone. And thus they always remain reprobate concerning faith, yet always pretending that they trust in God. It is past all belief how secret, deep, and great this evil of the human heart is: for it not only clothes and feeds itself with its own works with an insuperable and desperate perverseness, but boasts of the title and value of that very faith which it directly militates against, and flatters itself in the possession of it. David prayed against this, Psalm li. "Create in me a

clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. And Psalm xix. 13, "Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression."

If any one could but see how many of the most specious and showy work-mongers this iniquity destroys, he would then understand that of Eccles. viii. 10, "And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the place where they had so done." In a word, there is not an evil more natural to man nor to be rooted out with more care, than this subtle presumption, which always strives to be before-hand with God and to render him propitious by its own works. From which natural enormity have proceeded also all those impious dogmas and doctrines in the church, by which men are driven on to works and indulgences in order to appease God and to make satisfaction for their sins, entirely setting aside faith. And I believe that this radical evil and all-specious idol of the spirit, (as we have it called, Psalm xxxii.) is never extinguished, no, nor even known until a man has been exercised with those deeper temptations of death, hell, conscience, (or, faith and hope,) and predestination, and others of the same kind. other things rather increase than take away this natural evil, even though they may be the greatest of virtues or works.

All

And the same destruction attends them also who. deny that all works done without faith are sins, as we have shewn before. For if you should say by way of question, whether a good work (as they may call it) when done in the pursuit of adultery, murder, or theft, or, when done in rebellion or disobedience, would not be a sin; they would without doubt answer, that it was a sin. Why then do they ascribe so much goodness of working to the man that sins against the first commandment and does his good work in disobedience towards God, (that is, in unbelief,)-why, I say, do they ascribe so much goodness to such an one as to say that his work

VOL. IV.