"Jefus before his difciples:" and in many other places the apoftles preached the fame doctrine, " which are not written" in these books; "But thefe are written, that you may believe that Jefus is the "Meffiah, the fon of God; and that believing you may have life "in his name."

What St. John thought neceffary and fufficient to be "believed," for the attaining eternal life, he here tells us, And this, not in the firit dawning of the gospel, when, perhaps, fome will be apt to think lefs was required to be believed, than after the doctrine of faith and myftery of falvation was more fully explained in the epiftles writ by the apoftles. For it is to be remembered, that St. John fays this not as foon as Chrift was afcended; for these words, with the rest of St. John's gofpel, were not written till many years after, not only the other gofpels, and St. Luke's hiftory of the Acts, but, in all appearance, after all the epiftles writ by the other apoftles. So that above threefcore years after our Saviour's paffion (for fo long after, both Epiphanius and St. Jerome afiure us this gofpel was written), St. John knew nothing elfe required to be believed for the attaining of life, but that " Jefus is the Meffiah, the son of God."

To this, it is likely, it will be objected by fome, that to believe only that Jefus of Nazareth is the Meffiah, is but an Hiftorical and not a Juftifying or Saving Faith.

To which I anfwer, that I allow to the makers of fyftems, and their followers, to invent and use what diftinctions they pleafe; and to call things by what names they think fit. But I cannot allow to them, or to any man, an authority to make a religion for me, or to alter that which God hath revealed. And if they please to call the believing that which our Saviour and his apoftles preached and propofed alone to be believed, an Hiftorical Faith, they have their liberty, but they must have a care how they deny it to be a Juftifying or Saving Faith, when our Saviour and his apoftles have declared it fo to be, and taught no other which men fhould receive, and whereby they should be made believers unto eternal life; unlefs they can fo far make bold with our Saviour, for the fake of their beloved fyftems, as to fay, that he forgot what he came into the world for; and that he and his apoftles did not inftruct people right in the way and myfteries of falvation: for that this is the fole doctrine preffed and required to be believed in the whole tenor of our Saviour's and his apoftles preaching, we have fhewed through the whole hiftory of the evangelifts and the Acts. And I challenge them to fhew, that there was any other doctrine, upon their affent to which, or disbelief of it, men were pronounced believers or unbelievers; and accordingly received into the church of Chrift, as members of his body, as far as mere believing could make them fo, or elfe kept out of it: this was the only gofpel-article of faith which was preached to them. And if nothing elfe was preached every where, the apostle's argument will hold against any other articles of faith to be believed under the gofpel, Rom. x. 14. "How "fhall they believe that whereof they have not heard?" For to

F 3

preach

preach any other doctrines neceflary to be believed, we do not find that any body was fent.

Perhaps, it will be further argued, that this is not a faving faith, because fuch a faith as this the devils may have, and it was plain they had; for they believed and declared Jefus to be the Meffiah. And St. James, chap. ii. 19. tell us, "The devils believe, and "tremble;" and yet they fhall not be faved. To which I answer, 1. That they could not be faved by any faith, to whom it was not proposed as a means of falvation, nor ever promised to be counted for righteousness. This was an act of grace, fhewn only to mankind. God dealt fo favourably with the pofterity of Adam, that if they would believe Jefus to be the Meffiah, the promised king and Saviour, and perform what other conditions were required of them by the covenant of grace, God would juftify them because of this belief; he would account this faith to them for righteousness, and look on it as making up the defects of their obedience; which being thus fupplied by what was taken instead of it, they were looked on as juft or righteous, and fo inherited eternal life. But this favour fhewn to mankind was never offered to the fallen angels. They had no fuch proposals made to them; and therefore whatever of this kind was proposed to men, it availed not devils whatever they performed of it. This covenant of grace was never offered to them.

2. I anfwer; that though the devils believed, yet they could not be faved by the covenant of grace; because they performed not the other condition required in it, altogether as neceflary to be performed as this believing; and that is repentance, Repentance is as abfolute a condition of the covenant of grace, as faith; and as neceflary to be performed, as that. John the Baptift, who was to prepare the way for the Meffiah," preached the baptifm of repentance "for the remiffion of fins." Mark i. 4.

As John began his preaching with "Repent, for the kingdom of "heaven is at hand," Matt. iii. 2. fo did our Saviour begin his, Matt. iv. 17. "From that time began Jefus to preach, and to fay, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Or, as St, Mark has it in the parallel place, Mark i. 14, 15. “Now after that "John was put in prifon, Jefus came into Galilee, preaching the "gofpel of the kingdom of God, and faying; The time is fulfilled, " and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the "gofpel." This was not only the beginning of his preaching, but the fum of all that he did preach; viz, that men fhould repent, and believe the good tidings which he brought them, that the time was fulfilled for the coming of the Meffiah. And this was what his apftles preached, when he fent them out, Mark vi. 12. "And they << going out, preached that men fhould repent." Believing Jefus - to be the Meffiah, and repenting, were fo neceflary and fundamental parts of the covenant of grace, that one of them alone is often put for both. For here St. Mark mentions nothing but their preaching repentance; as St. Luke, in the parallel place, chap. ix. 6, mentions nothing but their evangelizing, or preaching the good

news

news of the kingdom of the Meffiah. And St. Paul often in his epiftles puts faith for the whole duty of a Chriftian. But yet the tenor of the gospel is what Chrift declares, Luke xii. 3. 5. "Unless

ye repent, ye fhall all likewife perifh." And in the parable of the rich man in hell, delivered by our Saviour, Luke xvi. repentance alone is the means propofed of avoiding that place of torment, ver. 30, 31. And what the tenor of the doctrine, which should be preached to the world, fhould be, he tells his apoftles after his relurrection, Luke xxiv. 27. viz. "That repentance and remiffion "of fins fhould be preached in his name," who was the Meffiah. And accordingly believing Jefus to be the Meffiah, and repenting, was what the apoftles preached. So Peter began, Acts ii. 38. "Re"pent, and be baptized." Thefe two things were required for the remiffion of fins, viz. entering themselves in the kingdom of God, and owning and profeffing themselves the fubjects of Jefus, whom they believed to be the Meffiah, and received for their Lord and king; for that was to be baptized in his name: baptifin being an initiating ceremony known to the Jews, whereby thofe, who leaving heathenisin, and profeffing a fubmiffion to the law of Mofes, were received into the commonwealth of Ifrael. And fo it was made ufe of by our Saviour, to be that folemn vifible act, whereby thofe who believed him to be the Meffiah, received him as their king, and profeffed obedience to him, were admitted as fubjects into his kingdom: which in the gofpels is called "The kingdom of "God;" and in the Acts and Epiftles often by another name, viz. "The church."

The fame St. Peter preaches again to the Jews, Acts iii. 19. "Repent, and be converted, that your fins may be blotted out." What this repentance was, which the new covenant required as one of the conditions to be performed by all those who should receive the benefits of that covenant, is plain in the fcripture, to be not only a forrow for fins paft, but (what is a natural confequence of fuch forrow, if it be real) a turning from them, into a new and contrary life. And fo they are joined together, Acts iii. 19. "Repent, and turn about ;" or, as we render it, Be converted. And Acts xxvi. "Repent and turn to God."

And fometimes turning about is put alone to fignify repentance, Matt. xiii. 15. Luke xxii. 32. Which in other words is well expreffed by newness of life. For it being certain, that he who is really forry for his fins, and abhors them, will turn from them, and forfake them; either of these acts, which have so natural a connexion one with the other, may be, and is often, put for both together. Repentance is a hearty forrow for our paft ni deeds, and a fincere refolution and endeavour, to the utmost of our power, to conform all our actions to the law of God. So that repentance does not confift in one fingle act of forrow (though that, being the firft and leading act, gives denomination to the whole), but in doing works of repentance, in a fincere obedience to the law of Chrift, the remainder of our lives. This was called for by John the Baptift,

F 4

the

the preacher of repentance, Matt. iii. 8. "Bring forth fruits meet for repentance." And by St. Paul here, Acts xxvi. 20. "Re"pent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance. There are works to follow belonging to repentance, as well as forrow for what is past.

Thefe two, faith and repentance, i. e. believing Jefus to be the Meffiah, and a good life, are the indifpenfable conditions of the new covenant to be performed by all thofe who would obtain eternal life. The reasonableness, or rather neceffity of which, that we may the better comprehend, we muft a little look back to what was faid in the beginning.

Adam being the fon of God, and fo St. Luke calls him, chap. iii. 38. had this part alfo of the "likenefs" and "image" of his father, viz. that he was immortal. But Adam tranfgreffing the command given him by his heavenly father, incurred the penalty, forfeited that state of immortality, and became mortal. After this, Adam begot children, but they were in his own likeness, after his "own image;❞ mortal like their father.

God nevertheless, out of his infinite mercy, willing to bestow eternal life on mortal men, fends Jefus Chrift into the world; who being conceived in the womb of a virgin (that had not known man) by the immediate power of God, was properly the fon of God; according to what the angel declared to his mother, Luke i. 30-35. "The Holy Ghoft fhall come upon thee, and the power "of the Higheft fhall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy "thing which fhall be born of thee, fhall be called THE SON OF "GOD." So that, being the fon of God, he was, like his father, "immortal," as he tells us, John v. 26. "As the father hath life

"in himself, fo hath he given to the fon to have life in himself.”

And that immortality is a part of that "image," wherein these (who were the immediate fons of God, fo as to have no other father) were made like their father, appears probable, not only from the places in Genefis concerning Adam, above taken notice of, but feems to me alfo to be intimated in fome expreffions concerning Jefus the fon of God. In the New Teftament, Col. i. 15, he is called "the image of the invifible God." "Invifible" feems put in, to obviate any grofs imagination, that he (as images used to do) reprefented God in any corporeal or vifible refemblance. And there is farther fubjoined, to lead us into the meaning of it, "The "first-born of every creature;" which is farther explained, ver. 18. where he is termed, "The firft-born from the dead:" thereby making out, and fhewing himself to be the "image" of the invifible God; that death hath no power over him: but being the son of God, and not having forfeited that fonfhip by any tranfgreffion, was the heir of eternal life; as Adam fhould have been, had he continued in his filial duty. In the fame fenfe the apostle feems to use the word "image" in other places, viz. Rom. viii. 29. "Whom "he did foreknow, he alfo did predeftinate to be conformed to the "image of his fon, that he might be the first-born among many "brethren,'

"brethren." This "image," to which they were conformed, feems to be," immortality" and eternal life. For it is remarkable, that in both these places St. Paul speaks of the refurrection, and that Chrift was "the firft-born among many brethren;" he being by birth the fon of God, and the others only by adoption, as we fee in this fame chapter, ver. 15-17. "Ye have received the fpirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, father; the fpirit itfelf bearing "witness with our fpirits, that we are the children of God. And "if children, then heirs; and joint-heirs with Chrift: if so be that "we fuffer with him, that we may alfo be glorified together." And hence we fee, that our Saviour vouchfafes to call thofe, who at the day of judgement are through him entering into eternal life, his "brethren;" Matt. xxv. 40. "Inafmuch as ye have done it unto ແ one of the leaft of these my brethren." May we not in this find a reafon why God fo frequently in the New Teftament, and fo feldom, if at all, in the Old, is mentioned under the fingle title of THE FATHER? and therefore our Saviour fays, Matt. xi. "No man know"eth the father fave the fon, and he to whon fover the fon will "reveal him." God has now a fon again in the world, the firstborn of many brethren, who all now, by the fpirit of adoption, can fay, "Abba," father; and we by adoption, being for his fake made his brethren, and the fons of God, come to fhare in that inheritance which was his natural right, he being by birth the fon of God: which inheritance is eternal life. And again, ver. 23. "We groan "within ourselves, waiting for the adepton, to wit, the redemption "of our body;" whereby is plainly meant the change of thefe frail mortal bodies, into the fpiritual immortal bodies at the refurrection; "When this mortal fhall have put on immortality," I Cor. xv. 54. which in that chapter, ver. 42-44, he farther expreffes thus: "So "alfo is the refurrection of the dead. It is fown in corruption, it "is raised in incorruption: it is fown in difhonour, it is raifed in glory it is fown in weaknefs, it is raifed in power: it is fown a "natural body, it is raifed a fpiritual body, &c." To which he fubjoins, ver. 49. "As we have borne the image of the carthy" (i. e. As we have been mortal, like earthy Adam our father, tron whom we are defcended, when he was turned out of paradif.), " we "thall alfo bear the image of the heavenly;" into whole fonfhip and inheritance being adopted, we shall, at the refurrection, receive that "adoption" we expect, "Even the redemption of our bodies;" and after his "image," which is the "image" of the father, become immortal. Hear what he himfelf fays, Luke xx. 35, 36. They "who fhall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the re"furrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in mar"riage. Neither can they die any n ore; for they are equal no "the angels, and are the SONS OF GOD, being the font of the << furrection." And he that thall read St. Paul's argument, nets xiii. 32, 33, will find, that the great evidence that fus was the "fon of God," was his refurrection. Then the image of Fle ther appeared in him, when he vitibly entered into the tats of immortality.