N00347:172
A brief discourse of justification. Wherein this doctrine is plainly laid down according to…
A brief discourse of justification. Wherein this doctrine is plainly laid down according to the Scriptures. : As it was delivered in several sermons on this subject. / By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. ; [Ten lines of quotations]
Boston: printed by S for Samuel Phillips, 1686
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
3. And from the premises it follows, that Faith doth not justify as it is a work; for if it did so, then it would either have merit, or at least virtue in it to justify, but we see that it hath neither. Faith is, in large sense ⟨p. 97⟩a work; it is an act of Obedience to God, it is an answering to the Gospel command; it is in it self, as it is habitually rooted in the soul, one of the graces of sanctification, and as it exerts it self in the acts of believing, it is an exercise of holiness: God requires Faith of all that hear the Gospel, that is his command that they believe in the name of the Son Jesus Christ, 1 John 3. 23. but in this sense it cannot justify: for then we must not only be justified by believing, but this privilege must be bestowed upon us for believing; for if it answer faith as a work, then it comes as wages; but justifying Faith excludes all works, and therefore cannot it self justify as a work; Rom. 3. 28. we conclude that a man is justified by Faith, without the deeds of the Law: faith is the condition of the New Covenant, and a Covenant receives its denomination from the quality of its condition, if then faith should justify as a work, it were but a New Covenant of works, whereas it is in truth a Covenant of Grace.
3. And from the premises it follows, that Faith doth not justifie as it is a work; for if it did so, then it would either have merit, or at least vertue in it to justifie, but we see that it hath neither. Faith is, in large sense ⟨p. 97⟩a work; it is an act of Obedience to God, it is an answering to the Gospel command; it is in it self, as it is habitually rooted in the soul, one of the graces of sanctification, and as it exerts it self in the acts of believing, it is an exercise of holiness: God requires Faith of all that hear the Gospel, that is his command that they believe in the name of the Son Jesus Christ, 1 John 3. 23. but in this sense it cannot justifie: for then we must not only be justified by believing, but this priviledge must be bestowed upon us for believing; for if it answer faith as a work, then it comes as wages; but justifying Faith excludes all works, and therefore cannot it self justifie as a work;