A Practical Commentary on the Epistle of Jude

and they do not only believe that one article, that there is one God, but other articles also, Jesus thou Son of God, Art thou come to torment me before my time? was the Devil's speech; where there is an acknowledging of Christ, and him as the Son of God, and Judge of the world, and increase of their torment at the last day upon his sentence: Assent is necessary, but not sufficient; Laws are not sufficiently owned when they are believed to be the Kings Laws, there is something to be done as well as believed: In the primitive times Assent was more then it is now, and yet then an unactive assent was never allowed to pass for faith. Confident resting on Christ for salvation, if it be not a resting according to the word, will not serve the turn, there were some that leaned upon the ⟨p. 257⟩Lord, Micah 3. 11. whom he disclaimeth; 'tis a mistaken Christ they rest upon, and upon him by a mistaken Faith. 'Tis a mistaken Christ, for the true Christ is the eternal Son of God, that was born of a Virgin, and died at Jerusalem; Bearing our sins in his Body upon a Tree, that we being dead unto sin, might be alive unto righteousness, 1 Pet 2. 24. the true Christ is one that gave himself for us, that he might purify us to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works, and is now gone into heaven, there to make Intercession for us, and will come again from heaven in a glorious manner, to take an account of our works, Tit. 2. 13, 14. But now when men lie under the power and reign of their sins, and yet pretend to rest upon Christ for salvation▪ they set up another Christ then the word holdeth forth; and as the Christ is mistaken▪ so is the Faith: 'tis not an Idle trust, but such as is effectual to purge the heart; for the true faith purifieth the heart, Acts 15. 9. If besides profession, knowledge, assent, and a loose trust, they should pretend to assurance, or to a strong conceit that Christ died for them, and they shall certainly go to heaven; this will not excuse them from unbelief, this is [Greek or Hebrew], the grand mistake, that the strength of Faith lieth in a strong persuasion of the goodness of our condition, and the stronger the persuasion, the better the faith.