Chapter I. Justifying faith; the causes and object of it declared
Justification by faith generally acknowledged — The meaning of it perverted — The nature and use of faith in justification proposed to consideration — Distinctions about it waived — A twofold faith of the gospel expressed in the Scripture — Faith that is not justifying, Acts viii. 13; John ii. 23, 24; Luke viii. 13; Matt. vii. 22, 23 — Historical faith; whence it is so called, and the nature of it — Degrees of assent in it — Justification not ascribed unto any degree of it — A calumny obviated — The causes of true saving faith — Conviction of sin previous unto it — The nature of legal conviction, and its effects — Arguments to prove it antecedent unto faith — Without the consideration of it, the true nature of faith not to be understood — The order and relation of the law and gospel, Rom. i. 17 — Instance of Adam — Effects of conviction — Internal: Displicency and sorrow; fear of punishment; desire of deliverance — External: Abstinence from sin; performance of duties; reformation of life — Not conditions of justification; not formal disposition unto it; not moral preparations for it — The order of God in justification — The proper object of justifying faith — Not all divine verity equally; proved by sundry arguments — The pardon of our own sins, whether the first object of faith — The Lord Christ in the work of mediation, as the ordinance of God for the recovery of lost sinners, the proper object of justifying faith — The position explained and proved, Acts x. 43; xvi. 31; iv. 12; Luke xxiv. 25–27; John i. 12; iii. 16, 36; vi. 29, 47; vii. 38; Acts xxvi. 18; Col. ii. 6; Rom. iii. 24, 25; 1 Cor. i. 30; 2 Cor. v. 21; Eph. i. 7, 8; 2 Cor. v. 19
The means of justification on our part is faith. That we are justified by faith, is so frequently and so expressly affirmed in the Scripture, as that it cannot directly and in terms by any be denied. For whereas some begin, by an excess of partiality, which controversial engagements and provocations do incline them unto, to affirm that our justification is more frequently ascribed unto other things, graces or duties, than unto faith, it is to be passed by in silence, and not contended about. But yet, also, the explanation which some others make of this general concession, that “we are justified by faith,” does as fully overthrow what is affirmed therein as if it were in terms rejected; and it would more advantage the understandings of men if it were plainly refused upon its first proposal, than to be led about in a maze of words and distinctions unto its real exclusion, as is done both by the Romanists and Socinians. At present we may take the proposition as granted, and only inquire into the true, genuine sense and meaning of it: That which first occurs unto our consideration is faith; and that which does concern it may be reduced unto two heads:— 1. Its nature. 2. Its use in our justification.
Of the nature of faith in general, of the especial nature of justifying faith, of its characteristical distinctions from that which is called faith but is not justifying, so many discourses (divers of them the effects of sound judgment and good experience) are already extant, as it is altogether needless to engage at large into a farther discussion of them. However, something must be spoken to declare in what sense we understand these things; — what is that faith which we ascribe our justification unto, and what is its use therein.
The distinctions that are usually made concerning faith (as it is a word of various significations), I shall wholly pretermit; not only as obvious and known, but as not belonging unto our present argument. That which we are concerned in is, that in the Scripture there is mention made plainly of a twofold faith, whereby men believe the gospel. For there is a faith whereby we are justified, which he who has shall be assuredly saved; which purifies the heart and works by love. And there is a faith or believing, which does nothing of all this; which who has, and has no more, is not justified, nor can be saved. Wherefore, every faith, whereby men are said to believe, is not justifying. Thus it is said of Simon the magician, that he “believed,” Acts viii. 13, when he was in the “gall of bitterness and bond of iniquity;” and therefore did not believe with that faith which “purifieth the heart,” Acts xv. 9. And that many “believed on the name of Jesus, when they saw the miracles that he did; but Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew what was in man,” John ii. 23, 24. They did not believe on his name as those do, or with that kind of faith, who thereon “receive power to become the sons of God,” John i. 12. And some, when they “hear the word receive it with joy, believing for a while,” but “have no root,” Luke viii. 13. And faith, without a root in the heart, will not justify any; for “with the heart men believe unto righteousness,” Rom. x. 10. So is it with them who shall cry, “Lord, Lord” (at the last day), “we have prophesied in thy name,” whilst yet they were always “workers of iniquity,” Matt. vii. 22, 23.