(1.) As to the first, I say, the work oi conviction in general, whereby the soul of man hath a practical understanding of the nature of sin, its guilt, and the punishment due unto it; and is made sensible of his own interest therein, both with respect unto sin original and actual, with his own utter disability to deliver himself out of the state and condition wherein on the account of these things he findeth him- self to be, — is that which we affirm to be antecedaneously necessary unto justifying faith; that is, in the adidt, and of whose justification the word is the external means and instrument.
A convinced sinner is only " subjectum capax justificationis," — not
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that every one that is convinced is or must necessarily be justified. There is not any such disposition or preparation of the subject by tliis conviction, its effects, and consequents, as that the form of justi- fication, as the Papists speak, or justifying grace, must necessarily ensue or be introduced thereon. Nor is there any such preparation in it, as that, by virtue of any divine compact or promise, a person so convmced shall be pardoned and justified. But as a man may believe with any kind of faith that is not justifying, such as that before mentioned, without this conviction ; so it is ordinarily previous, and necessary so to be, unto that faith which is unto the justification of life. The motive unto it is not that thereon a man shall be assuredly justified; but that without it he cannot be so.
This, I say, is required in the person to be justified, in order of nature antecedaneously unto that faith whereby we are justified; which we shall prove with the ensuing arguments : — For, [1.] Without the due consideration and supposition of it, the true nature of faith can never be understood. For, as we have showed before, justifica- tion is God's way of the deliverance of the convinced sinner, or one whose mouth is stopped, and who is guilty before God, — obnoxious to the law, and shut up under sin. A sense, therefore, of this estate, and all that belongs unto it, is required unto behoving. Hence Le Blanc, Avho hath searched with some diligence into these things, com- mends the definition of faith given byMestrezat, — that it is "the flight of a penitent sinner unto the mercy of God in Christ." And there is, indeed, more sense and truth in it than in twenty others that seem more accurate. But without a supposition of the conviction men- tioned, there is no understanding of this definition of faith. For it is that alone which puts the soul upon a flight unto the mercy of God in Christ, to be saved from the wrath to come. Heb. vi. 18, " Fled for refuge."
[2.] The order, relation, and use of the law and the gospel do uncontrollably evince the necessity of this conviction previous unto believing. For that which any man hath first to deal withal, with respect unto his eternal condition, both naturally and by God's insti- tution, is the law. This is first presented unto the soul with its terms of righteousness and life, and with its curse in case of failure. With- out this the gospel cannot be understood, nor the grace of it duly valued. For it is the revelation of God's way for the relieving the souls of men from the sentence and curse of the law, Kom. i. 1 7. That was the nature, that was the use and end of the first promise, and of the whole work of God's grace revealed in all the ensuing promises, or in the whole gospel. Wherefore, the faith which Ave treat of being evangelical, — that Avhich, in its especial nature and use, not the law but the gospel requureth, that wliich hath the gospel for its principle,
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rule, and object, — it is not required of us, cannot be acted by us, but on a supposition of the work and effect of the law in the conviction of sin, by giving the knowledge of it, a sense of its guilt, and the state of the sinner on the account thereof. And that faith which hath not respect hereunto, we absolutely deny to be that faith whereby we are justified. Gal. iii. 22-24; Rom. x. 4.
[3.] This our Saviour himself directly teacheth in the gospel. For he calls unto him only those who are weary and heavily laden ; affirms that the " whole have no need of the physician, but the sick;" and that he " came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." In all which he intends not those who were really sinners, as all men are, — for he makes a difference between them, offering the gospel unto some and not unto others, — but such as were convinced of sin, burdened with it, and sought after deliverance.
So those unto whom the apostle Peter proposed the promise of the gospel, with the pardon of sin thereby as the object of gospel faith, were " pricked to the heart " upon the conviction of their sin, and cried, " What shall we do V Acts ii. 37-39. Such, also, was the state of the jailer unto whom the apostle Paul proposed salvation by Christ, as what he was to believe for his deliverance, Acts xvi. 30, 31.