WHAT MEN MAY ATTAIN THAT ARE UNDER THIS COVENANT OF WORKS.
Now, if Christ doth give it, and that freely, then He doth not sell if for anything that is in the creature; but Christ doth give Himself, as also doth His Father, and that freely, not because there is anything in us, or done by us, that moves Him thereunto. If it were by doing, saith Paul, “Grace is not grace,” seeing it is obtained by works, but grace is grace, which is why it is given to men without their works. And if it is by grace, that is, if it is a free gift from God, without anything foreseen as done, or to be done, by the creature, then it is not of works, which is evident; therefore, it is grace, without the works of the law. But if you say, Nay, it is of something in the man done by him that moves God thereunto, then you must conclude that either grace is no grace, or else that works are grace and not works. Do but read with understanding (Rom 11:6).
Now before I go any further, it may be necessary to speak a word or two to some poor souls who are willing to close in with Jesus Christ and would willingly take Him upon His own terms, only they being muddy in their minds and have not yet attained the understanding of the terms and conditions of the two covenants, they are kept off from closing with Christ; and all is, because they see they can do nothing [to merit His favor]. For example, come to some souls and ask how they do; they will tell you that they are so bad that it is not to be expressed. If you bid them believe in Jesus Christ, they will answer that they cannot believe; if you ask them why they cannot believe, they will answer because their hearts are so hard, so dead, so dull, so backward to suitable duties; and if their hearts were but better, if they were more earnest if they could pray better, and keep their hearts more from running after sin, then they could believe; but should they believe with such vile hearts, and presume to believe in Christ, and be so filthy? Now, all this is because the spirit of the law still rules in such souls and blinds them so they cannot see the terms of the Gospel. To clear this, take the substance or the drift of these poor souls: “If I were better, then I think I could believe; but being so bad as I am, that is the reason that I cannot.” This is just to do something that I may believe, to work that I may have Christ, to do the law that I may have the Gospel; or thus, to be righteous that I may come to Christ. O man! Thou must go quite back again, thou art out of the way, thou must believe. Thou canst not pray, because thou canst not do; thou must believe, because there is nothing in thee naturally that is good, or desireth after good, or else thou wilt never come to Christ as a sinner; and if so, then Christ will not receive thee; and if so, then thou mayest see that to keep off from Christ because thou canst not do, is to be kept from Christ by the law, and to stand off from Him because thou canst not buy Him. Thus, having spoken something by the way for the direction of those souls that would come to Christ, I shall return to the former discourse, wherein ariseth this objection—
Object. But you did but even now put souls upon fulfilling the first condition of the Gospel, even to believe in Christ, and so be saved; but now you say it is alone by grace, without condition; and therefore by these words, there is first a contradiction to your former sayings, and also that men may be saved without the condition of faith, which to me seems a very strange thing. I desire, therefore, that you would clear out what you have said, to my satisfaction.
Answer, 1. Though there be a condition commanded in the Gospel, yet He that commands the condition doth not leave His children to their own natural abilities, that in their own strength they should fulfill them, as the law doth; but the same God that doth command that the condition be fulfilled, even He doth help His children by His Holy Spirit to fulfill the same condition; “For it is God which worketh in you,”—mark “in you,” believers, “both to will and to do of His own good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). “Thou also hast wrought all our works in us, and for us” (Isa 26:12). So that, if the condition be fulfilled, it is not done by the ability of the creature. But,
2. Faith, as it is a gift of God or an act of ours, take it which way you will, if we speak correctly of salvation, it is not the first nor the second cause of our salvation, but the third and that but instrumentally neither—that is, it only layeth hold of and applieth to us that which saveth us, which is the love of God, through the merits of Christ, which are the two leading causes of our salvation, without which all other things are nothing, whether it be faith, hope, love, or whatever can be done by us. And to this, the great Apostle of the Gentiles speaks entirely, for, saith he, “God, who is rich in mercy, loved us, even when we were dead in sins” (Eph 2:4,5). That is when we were without faith, and that was the cause why we believed, for He thereby hath quickened us together, through the meritorious cause, which is Christ, and so hath saved us by grace—that is, of His own voluntary love and goodwill; the effect of which was this, He gave us faith to believe in Christ. Read soberly Ephesians 2:4-8. Faith, as the gift of God, is not the Saviour, as our act doth merit nothing; faith was not the cause that God gave Christ as the first, neither is it the cause why God converts men to Christ; but faith is a gift bestowed upon us by the gracious God, the nature of which is to lay hold on Christ, that God afore did give for a ransom to redeem sinners; this faith hath its nourishment and supplies from the same God that at first did give it, and is the only instrument, through the Spirit, that doth keep the soul in a comfortable frame, both to do and suffer for Christ; helps the soul to receive comfort from Christ when it can get none from itself, beareth up the soul in its progress heavenwards. But that it is the first cause of salvation, that I deny, or that it is the second, I deny; but it is only the instrument, or hand, that receiveth the benefits, that God hath prepared for thee before thou hadst any faith; so that we do nothing for salvation as we are men. But if we speak correctly, it was God’s grace that moved Him to give Christ a ransom for sinners, and the same God, with the same grace, that doth give to the soul faith to believe, and so, by thinking, to close in with Him whom God out of His love and pity did send into the world to save sinners, so that all the works of the creature are shut out as to justification and life, and men are saved freely by grace. I shall speak no more here, but in my discourse upon the second covenant, I shall answer a Hell-bred objection or two to forewarn sinners how they turn the grace of God into wantonness.
