3. It is for the honour of Christ, as well as our own comfort and safety. Obedience maketh faith visible and sensible : 2 Thes. i. 11, 12, ' And fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power, that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him.' An holy conversation bringeth doctrines near to our senses, and thereby it is more clear and powerful to gain upon others : Christ hath the honour, we the reward : John xv. S, ' Herein is my father glorified, that ye bring forth much fruit, so
428 SERMONS UPON ACTS XXIV. 14-16.
shall ye be my disciples ; ' and Phil. i. 11, ' Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of Grod/ Uniform practice is such a fruit of grace as representeth the doctrine of life with advantage to the consciences of others ; otherwise ■we shall never do any great things for Christ in the world.
SERMON II.
Believing all things ivhicJi are loritten in the law and the prophets : and have hope towards God, which they themselves also alloiu, that there shall he a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust. And herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offence towards God and toivards man. — Acts xxiv. 14-16.
Use 1. Is disproof of the nullifidians, and solifidians ; those that cry up good life without faith, and, on the other side, that cry up empty faith without obedience and holiness.
1 . Nullifidians, who are very rife among us, who do as wisely as those that would plant a tree by the top, and not by the root ; so they cry up a morality without the faith and hope of the gospel, and that love to God which is engendered by it ; and so, out of a fondness of pagan strictness and philosophic institution, defy the religion they were bred up in. There can be no true love to God or man without the faith of the gospel. The apostle telleth us, Rom. vii. 4, ' That we are married to him who was raised from the dead, that we may bring forth fruit to God.^ As the children who are born before marriage are illegitimate, so all that justice, and temperance, and charity which is not cherished in us by the love of God, and faith in Christ, and the hopes of the other world, is but mock grace and bastard holiness, and is not acceptable to God.
I shall prove two things —
[1.] That morality is not kindly unless it be founded on the gospel, and never so thoroughly promoted as by the principles laid down there : Titus ii. 11, 12, ' The grace of God, that bringeth salvation, hath appeared to all men, teaching us, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world.' The more we believe all things contained in the writings of the prophets and apostles, the more we are taught how to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present world. There we liave the true principle of obedience, viz., love to God fed and bred in us by his love to us in Christ ; the true encouragement and motive of obedience, the hopes of the other world ; the true rule of obedience, God's mind revealed in his word, and perfecting the light of nature so far as it discovereth anything of our duty to God, neighbour, and self. Here is better furniture than we can have elsewhere, a forcible principle and a glorious hope, and an exact rule. Now they that would cry up right
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reason in defiance of these are not Christ's disciples, but would make him theirs, and teach him and his apostles how to speak and teach the way to true happiness ; and so are guilty of great unthankfulness for this blessed revelation which we have in the gospel.
[2.] That true morality and good conscience cannot be had without the faith of the gospel ; so that we are not only better provided, but indeed cannot perform such obedience as is acceptable to God without faith in Christ. And therefore I shall show you the defects that are in men's obedience till they believe in Christ.
(1.) There is a defect in their state. They are not reconciled to God till they be in Christ ; and therefore he will not accept an offer- ing at their hands who neglect his grace, and will not sue out their atonement with him in that penitent and broken-hearted way which he hath appointed in the new covenant. Let them first sue out their pardon in the name of Christ, and then begin with a new course of obedience. God is ^vst placandus, then placenchis. First his wrath is to be appeased, and then he will accept of our duties and actions ; first our persons are accepted, and then our duties and ofi"erings : Gen. iv. 4, ' The Lord had respect to Abel and to his offering ; ' Abel being a believer, and under grace, as the apostle explaineth it, Heb. xi. 4, ' By faith Abel offered unto God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he, being dead, yet speaketh ; ' that is, he was justified and accepted with God. This is such a principle of reason, that Lilius Gyraldus saith it was the custom of the heathens, Utprius iratos deos placarent, et postea invocarent propitios — First to appease their gods, and then to pray unto them. Man cometh as a sinner to God, and therefore first he must deprecate his wrath, and use all means how God may be pacified and appeased.