CXLV expository sermons upon the whole 17th chapter of the Gospel according to St.…

2. The Spirit of God doth instruct us in this, That thus to believe and rest on Christ is to perform or to do that to which Justification is promised; He that believeth is passed from death to life, and still Remission of sins is said to be received by Faith, and we are justified by Faith, Rom. 5. So that when the Soul doth rest on Christ he performeth that to which Christ with all his benefits are promised, Joh. 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal Life; So that the humbled sinner having his eyes thus opened, he seeth it the greatest madness and folly that can be not to receive Christ, and to rest on him; Why thus he argueth, I cannot he justified, I cannot partake of Christ till I do believe, so that to believe is as necessary in an instrumental way, as Christ in a meritorious way; Shall the diseased Patient question whether he shall take that medicine which will certainly heal him? Shall the hungry man doubt whether he may receive that alms which will preserve his Life? Thus the humbled sinner is convinced, that as he must not murder his own body wilfully by refusing to eat meat, so he must not his own soul by a wilful rejecting of the promise.

2. The Spirit of God doth instruct us in this, That thus to beleeve and rest on Christ is to perform or to do that to which Justification is promised; He that believeth is passed from death to life, and still Remission of sins is said to be received by Faith, and we are justified by Faith, Rom. 5. So that when the Soul doth rest on Christ he performeth that to which Christ with all his benefits are promised, Joh. 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternnl Life; So that the humbled sinner having his eyes thus opened, he seeth it the greatest madnesse and folly that can be not to receive Christ, and to rest on him; Why thus he argueth, I cannot he justified, I cannot partake of Christ till I do believe, so that to believe is as necessary in an instrumental way, as Christ in a meritorious way; Shall the diseased Patient question whether he shall take that medicine which will certainly heal him? Shall the hungry man doubt whether he may receive that alms which will preserve his Life? Thus the humbled sinner is convinced, that as he must not murther his own body wilfully by refusing to eat meat, so he must not his own soul by a wilful rejecting of the promise.