Page:The rock of wisdom.djvu/112

 from the passage, that men of all religions may be pleasing to God, for since none hut the true religion can be from God, all other religions must be from the father of lies, and therefore, highly displeasing to the God of truth. But Christ, as a man, was predestinated to be the son of God and declared to be so, as the aspostle Paul here signifies, first, by power, that is by his working stupendous miracles; secondly, by the spirit of sanctification, that is, by his sanctify or holiness; thirdly, by his resurrection, or raising himself from the dead. God only, is essentially true, all men, in their own capacity are liable to lies and error; nevertheless, God, who is the truth, will make good his promise of keeping his church in all truth. There is not any man just by virtue, or, cither of the law of nature or of the law of Moses, but only by faith and grace. The faith to which the apostle here attributes man's justification, is not presumptions assurance of our being justified, but a firm and lively belief of all that God has revealed or promised. Heb. 11. "Faith working through charity in Jesus Christ." In short, faith which embraces hope, and repentance, and the use of the sacrament, and the works which he here excludes, are only the works of the law, that is, such as are done by the law of nature, or that of Moses, antecedent to the faith of Christ, but by no means such as follow truth and proceed from it, by the inward motion of divine love mi the peace of conscience, which the children of God experience; they have a true testimony of God's favor, by which they are much strengthened in their hope of their justification and salvation, but yet not so as to pretend to an absolute assurance, which is not usually granted in this mortal life, during which we are taufht to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. Phil. 2: 12. "And wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall." Rom. 11: 20,21, 22. "Not all who are carnal seed of Israel, are true Israelites in God's accounts, who has by his free grace heretofore preferred Isaac before Ishmael and Jacob before Esau; so he could and did, by the like free grace, election and mercy, raise up spiritual children by faith, to Abraham and Israel, from among the Gentiles, and prefer them before the carnal Jews, for these two sons, namely, Esau and Jacob. By this example of these two, and the