the scope and design of his present discourse, which he makes manifest in the reiterated proposition of it, is the scope of the places, [and the] matter of fact, with its circumstances, which he refers unto and takes his proof from. And they were plainly these, and no other:-Abraham had been long a justified believer; for there were thirty years, or thereabout, between the testimony given thereunto, Gen. xv., and the story of sacrificing his son, related Gen. xxii. All this while he walked with God, and was upright in a course of holy, fruitful obedience; yet it pleased God to put his faith, after many others, unto a new, his greatest, his last trial. And it is the way of God, in the covenant of grace, to try the faith of them that believe, by such ways as seem meet unto him. Hereby he manifests how precious it is (the trial of faith making it appear to be "more precious than gold," 1 Pet. i. 7), and raiseth up glory unto himself; which is in the nature of faith to give unto him, Rom. iv. 20. And this is the state of the case as proposed by the apostle,-namely, how it may be tried whether the faith which men profess be genuine, precious, "more precious than gold," of the right nature with that whereunto the gospel promise of salvation is annexed. Secondly, This trial was made by works, or by one signal duty of obedience prescribed unto him for that very end and purpose; for Abraham was to be proposed as a pattern unto all that should afterward believe. And God provided a signal way for the trial of his faith,—namely, by an act of obedience, which was so far from being enjoined by the moral law, that it seemed contrary unto it. And if he be proposed unto us as a pattern of justification by works in the sight of God, it must be by such works as God hath not required in the moral law, but such as seem to be contrary thereunto. Nor can any man receive any encouragement to expect justification by works, by telling him that Abraham was justified by works, when he offered up his only son to God; for it will be easy for him to say, that as no such work was ever performed by him, so none such was ever required of him. But, Thirdly, Upon Abraham's compliance with the command of God, given him in the way of trial, God himself ȧvepalus declares the sincerity of his faith and his justification thereon, or his gracious acceptance of him. This is the whole design of the place which the apostle traduceth unto his purpose; and it contains the whole of what he was to prove, and no more. Plainly it is granted in it that we are not justified by our works before God, seeing he instances only in a work performed by a justified believer many years after he was absolutely justified before God. But this is evidently proved hereby,-namely, that "faith without works is dead;" seeing justifying faith, as is evident in the case of Abraham, is that, and that alone, which brings forth works of obedience: for on such a faith alone is a man evidenced, declared, and pronounced to be justi

fied or accepted with God. Abraham was not then first justified; he was not then said to be justified;—he was declared to be justified, and that by and upon his works: which contains the whole of what the apostle intends to prove.

There is, therefore, no appearance of the least contradiction between this apostle and Paul, who professedly asserts that Abraham was not justified before God by works; for James only declares that by the works which he performed after he was justified he was manifested and declared so to be. And that this was the whole of his design he manifests in the next verse, where he declares what he had proved by this instance, verse 22, "Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?" Two things he enforceth as proved unto the conviction of him with whom he had to do:-1. That true faith will operate by works; so did Abraham's,it was effective in obedience. 2. That it was made perfect by works; that is, evidenced so to be,-for réλeros, Teñoμai, doth nowhere in the Scripture signify the internal, formal perfecting of any thing, but only the external complement or perfection of it, or the manifestation of it. It was complete as unto its proper effect, when he was first justified; and it was now manifested so to be. See Matt. v. 48; Col. iv. 12; 2 Cor. xii. 9. "This," saith the apostle, "I have proved in the instance of Abraham,-namely, that it is works of obedience alone that can evince a man to be justified, or to have that faith whereby he may be so." He adds, in the confirmation of what he had affirmed, verse 23," And the Scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, and he was called The friend of God."

Two things the apostle affirms herein:-1. That the Scripture mentioned was fulfilled. It was so in that justification by works which he ascribes unto Abraham. But how this Scripture was herein fulfilled, either as unto the time wherein it was spoken, or as unto the thing itself, any otherwise but as that which is therein asserted was evidenced and declared, no man can explain. What the Scripture affirmed so long before of Abraham was then evidenced to be most true, by the works which his faith produced; and so that Scripture was accomplished. For otherwise, supposing the distinction made between faith and works by himself, and the opposition that he puts between them, adding thereunto the sense given of this place by the apostle Paul, with the direct importance of the words, and nothing can be more contradictory unto his design (namely, if he intended to prove our justification before God by works) than the quotation of this testimony. Wherefore, this Scripture was [not], nor can be, otherwise fulfilled by Abraham's justification by works, but only that by and upon them he was manifested so to be. 2. He adds, that

hereon he was called "The friend of God." So he is, Isa. xli. 8; as also, 2 Chron. xx. 7. This is of the same importance with his being justified by works: for he was not thus called merely as a justified person, but as one who had received singular privileges from God, and answered them by a holy walking before him. Wherefore, his being called "The friend of God," was God's approbation of his faith and obedience; which is the justification by works that the apostle asserts. Hereon he makes a double conclusion (for the instance of Rahab being of the same nature, and spoken unto before, I shall not insist again upon it):—1. As unto his present argument, verse 24. 2. As unto the whole of his design, verse 26. The first is, "That by works a man is justified, and not by faith only;"-"Ye see then, you whom I design to convince of the vanity of that imagination, that you are justified by a dead faith, a breathless carcase of faith, a mere assent unto the truth of the gospel, and profession of it, consistent with all manner of impiety, and wholly destitute of good fruits: you may see what faith it is that is required unto justification and salvation. For Abraham was declared to be righteous, to be justified, on that faith which wrought by works, and not at all by such a faith as you pretend unto." A man is justified by works, as Abraham was when he had offered up his son to God; that is, what he really was by faith long before, as the Scripture testifieth, was then and thereby evidenced and declared. And, therefore, let no man suppose that by the faith which they boasted of, any one is or can be justified, seeing that whereon Abraham was declared to be so, was that which evidenced itself by its fruits. 2. He lays down that great conclusion, which he had evinced by his whole disputation, and which at first he designed to confirm, verse 26, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." A breathless carcase and an unworking faith are alike, as unto all the ends of natural or spiritual life. This was that which the apostle designed from the beginning to convince vain and barren professors of; which, accordingly, he hath given sufficient reason and testimony for.

GOSPEL GROUNDS AND EVIDENCES

OF

THE FAITH OF GOD'S ELECT;

SHOWING

I.

THE NATURE OF TRUE SAVING FAITH, IN SECURING OF THE SPIRITUAL COMFORT OF BELIEVERS IN THIS LIFE, IS OF THE HIGHEST IMPORTANCE.

II.

THE WAY WHEREIN TRUE FAITH DOTH EVIDENCE ITSELF IN THE SOULS AND CONSCIENCES OF BELIEVERS, UNTO THEIR SUPPORTMENT AND COMFORT, UNDER ALL THEIR

CONFLICTS WITH SIN, IN ALL THEIR TRIALS AND TEMPTATIONS.

III.

FAITH WILL EVIDENCE ITSELF BY A DILIGENT, CONSTANT ENDEAVOUR TO KEEP ITSELF AND
ALL GRACE IN DUE EXERCISE, IN ALL ORDINANCES OF DIVINE
WORSHIP, PRIVATE AND PUBLIC.
IV.

A PECULIAR WAY WHEREBY TRUE FAITH WILL EVIDENCE ITSELF, BY BRINGING THE SOUL
INTO A STATE OF REPENTANCE.

"Examine yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates ?"-2 Cor. xiii. 5.

VOL V.

26

PREFATORY NOTE.

THIS treatise, entitled "Gospel Grounds and Evidences of the Faith of God's Elect," was given to the world in 1695. The remainder of the title is scarcely applicable as a correct designation of the leading divisions of the work, and may, perhaps, have been added by those who had the charge of publishing it. In the preface by Isaac Chauncey, the reader is assured that the treatise is the produc tion of Dr Owen. It bears internal evidence of the fact, and that he wrote it with a view to publication. When he waives the formal discussion of some topics connected with his subject, on the ground that he had attempted the discussion of them "in other writings," it seems a just inference that it had been his intention to publish the treatise, though no explanation has transpired why it was withheld from the press for a period of twelve years after his death. The circumstance is of some moment, as showing that the work, though posthumous, may be held to contain the deliberate and matured judgment of the author on the question of which it treats.

His object is not to illustrate the common evidences of genuine religion, or the grounds on which we may conclude a man to be sincere in his religious profession. It is an inquiry rather into the evidences on which the elect of God, in any process of self-scrutiny, may ascertain the reality of their own faith. Ascribing to faith all the importance which is due to it as the instrumental cause of justification, the author suspends the entire question of the genuineness of conversion upon the existence of a fourfold development or operation of that gracious principle in the hearts of all who may be anxious to discover whether they have been really quickened and born of God.

After stating the nature of saving faith, and after a brief exhibition of the gospel as the divine method for the salvation of sinners through the merits of Christ, he proceeds to "the trial of faith," as the main object of the treatise. In the first place, he shows that faith, if genuine, includes or denotes implicit approbation of "God's way of saving sinners," in opposition to all schemes of merely human invention for our spiritual deliverance. This approbation of the divine plan for our redemption, in which he holds that the very essence and life of faith consist, is founded on the conviction,-first, That the salvation revealed in the gospel is in harmony with the perfections and majesty of the divine character; secondly, That it is suited to the views, desires, and aspirations of a soul enlightened by grace; and, thirdly, That it as effectually honours the moral law as if it had been completely fulfilled in the personal obedience of the saints.

Secondly, Faith is shown to imply an approbation of the will of God in requiring of us holiness and obedience, to the full measure of the perfection and spirituality demanded of us in the moral law. He appeals, in illustration of the obedience required, to the light of nature, and to the knowledge of good and evil which men enjoy through the law; but proves that without the light of saving faith there can be no adequate conception of the holiness required by the divine will, urging an acute distinction, which might rank as a separate contribution to the doctrine of conscience, and according to which its authority in determining the moral character of an action by no means implies the love of what is good, and the hatred of what is evil. The function of conscience he views as exclusively judicial, and shows that the motive which prompts to action must spring from other considerations. Two grounds are assigned on which faith approves of the holiness required of us: the consistency of such a demand with the perfection of the divine