armed with authority from Heaven as by that means it does and when the Laws and Statutes of that Kingdom shall be produced laid open and urged to make it good and enforce it The Scriptures themselves will be found of more authority in the Consciences of men than the best words men can speak though never so rational and true In a word as Apollos was a man mighty in the Scriptures so he mightily convinced his hearers by the Scriptures Acts 18.24 28. I need not mention unto you how much it was St. Paul's manner to reason out of the Scriptures of the old Testament before those of the New were in being when he had to do with those that owned them Acts 17.2 and 28.23 Nor how our Lord Christ himself collected and brought together the things concerning himself which were scattered up and down in Moses and the Prophets and expounded them to his Disciples and thereby opened their understandings and caused their hearts to burn within them and that I think is not unlike the operation of the Motives of the Gospel I have been speaking of Luke 24.27 32 45 46. There is one thing more which I must add to obviate an objection and another to explain and confirm something I have asserted I know some and perhaps your self will be ready to object That the tenour of my reasoning touching God's imputing Faith it self and other inherent Grace for Righteousness in justifying men tends to confound Justification and Sanctification and to make them all one But that follows not at all For Sanctification is the constituting or making men Evangelically righteous or holy by the joint operation of God's Holy Spirit and the Evangelical Doctrine but Justification is God's pronouncing or declaring them as he doth in the Gospel to be righteous according to the terms of the Gospel as having performed the condition upon which forgiveness of Sin and eternal Life are therein promised Justification is a Juridical act of God as Judge which doth not make a man righteous as sanctification doth but upon tryal pronounceth him to be so and by it the person tried is acquited and discharged from the accusation of unbelief impenitency and wilful disobedience to the Gospel and so also from Condemnation it self So that Justification is not Sanctification but supposeth it as antecedent thereunto at least in order of nature Whom he called them he also justified saith St. Paul and whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 He doth not say whom he justified them he also sanctified but them also he glorified Sanctification is not brought in between Justification and Glorification in that golden Chain but is placed in order as going before both in effectual calling The other thing I would add for explanation and confirmation is this Whereas I have said that the Faith which is imputed for Righteousness is comprehensive of Repentance and Obedience to the Gospel Now least you should not be satisfied therewith I shall give you this plain account why we cannot reasonably understand otherwise For the Scripture doth exclude such from sharing in the saving benefits of the Covenant as are impenitent unregenerate and disobedient to the Gospel Luke 13.3 Joh. 3.3 Rom. 2.8 And if so then no man can share in those saving benefits whereof Justification is one until his Faith doth produce Repentance Regeneration and Obedience unless you will suppose that which no man does that these are no efffects of Faith For he that believes is born of God is to a degree renewed to his likeness 1 John 5.1 And when I say thus I am not of opinion that men cannot be justified until they have fulfilled some time in a course of holy living and new obedience internal and external But when a man so believes as that such a real change is thereby wrought in the heart as is the beginning of a new life for the present and the foundation of a holy life for the future then undoubtedly he passeth out of an unjustified into a justified state This change in the mind and will by means of Faith doth first constitute a man a good man and when this change first takes place then God's Laws are first put into the mind and written in the heart upon which God promiseth in the New Covenant to be our God and that we shall be his People and that he will be merciful to our unrighteousness and our sins and iniquities to remember no more Hebr. 8.10 12. and 10.16 17. And it is observable that the qualification upon which God in the New Covenant here mentioned promiseth to be our God and to forgive our sins is not mentioned under the Name or Notion of Faith or Believing but of having the Divine Laws put into the mind and written in the heart Which would be somewhat strange if this writing the Law in the heart were no part of the Condition without which God will not vouchsafe unto any man that great benefit of the Covenant Justification There is no doubt indeed but that though Faith be not here mentioned yet it is supposed and implyed in as much as without it the Law cannot be written in the heart in the sense we speak of it now But then when at other times Faith only is mentioned as that which qualifies men for Justification and as the Condition of the promise of Pardon and Salvation yet then this writing of the Law in the heart is also to be understood For it is not to be imagined that the putting of the Law into the mind and writing it in the heart would be mentioned in a description of the tenour of the New Covenant as that qualification upon which God will be our God take us for his people and forgive our sins which imply Justification if any Faith or Faith in any respect short of producing this effect would be available and sufficient unto Justification It 's true the Scripture in some places tells us that Faith is imputed for Righteousness without telling us what or what manner of Faith this is But then in other places it is plainly described to us by the nature of its operation as that it purifieth the heart Acts 15.9 worketh by love Gal. 5.6 overcometh the world 1 John 5.4 and sanctifieth the whole man Acts 26.18 We see then that the inseparable effects of Faith as here the writing of the Law in the heart are sometimes mentioned as those things which qualifie us for the blessing of the Covenant and sometimes Faith it self only But if we will take the whole testimony of the Scriptures together we shall find that both are intended And why then should we contend as some do about dividing these in qualifying us for Justification as parts of that Evangelical Righteousness which will be imputed to us for Righteousness After all this let me tell you Sir That there is a sense in which it is not disagreeable to the Scripture to say that a man is justified by such acts of
one in conjunction with Faith in Christ to be sufficient to that end Now whether Mr. F. himself doth deny inherent Grace to be at all imputed for Righteousness in our Justification or whether that it only is so I confess I cannot say But certain it is that he denies it to be sufficient without the imputation of Christ's Righteousness in the sense of imputation wherein he is opposed One while he grants that in reference to the mere demands of the Gospel we may in a proper sense be said to be justified p. 416. At another turn he saith that secluding not only the righteousness of Christ's life but the satisfaction of his death as the matter and the imputation of it as the formal Cause of Justification it seems repugnant unto the immutability and essential Holiness of God to justifie us upon an imperfect obedience such as he accounts Evangelical obedience to be the Law which requireth a perfect remaining still in force and denouncing wrath in case of every failure By which he seems to hold how consistently with what I before recited do you judge that it is inconsistent with the Holiness of God to justifie us upon an Evangelical Righteousness because imperfect But whether Mr. F. joyns the imputation of Christ's Righteousness and the imputation of inherent Grace together in the business of Justification or whether he wholly denies the imputation of the latter and affirms only the imputation of the former I shall not further enquire But it 's well known that those who are wont to plead the same cause with Mr. F. touching the necessity of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto Justification and in that sense wherein he is opposed are wont also to exclude inherent Grace as being neither imputed for Righteousness in Justification nor as necessary thereunto antecedently Mr. E. Polhill a Gentleman doubtless of a good Spirit another of Mr. S's Antagonists in his answer to him saith in p. 75. In Justification no other Righteousness can take place but the active and passive one of Christ which answers the pure and righteous Law in every thing And in p. 321. he saith Obedience to God's commands is indeed the way to Heaven but it s no where made an ingredient into our Justification And p. 365. speaking of Phil. 3.9 saith that the Apostle in this place doth not only exclude external Pharisaical righteousness but even inherent Graces in the matter of Justification And the common opinion of those that have gone that way hath been That Sanctification is subsequent to Justification and not so much as in order of Nature going before it or to be any ingredient in it and consequently not essentially necessary to it Now then that which I say is this that if I can make it appear that the denying the necessity of internal righteousness unto Justification was one part of the grievous errour of the Judaising Christians it will be enough to spoil the reputation of the same opinion though found in better men than they were And whether I shall not make it evidently to appear so to be I shall leave you to judge after you have weighed what I shall now lay before you Their Crime was I conceive a partial revolt or turning unto the worst of Judaism saving their retaining a profession of Faith in Christ to think that an external righteousness without an internal was available to justification and salvation The unbelieving Jews to whom they turned in part were quite degenerated from their worthy Ancestors and all that remained faithful among them who all held the internal Grace of Love to God fear of him uprightness of heart towards him truth in the inward parts necessary to interest them in his favour and the blessing of the everlasting Covenant But the degenerate Jews thought an external Righteousness such as Paul had while a Pharisee and such as would justifie them in the sight of men according to the terms of the political Covenant by which they were externally governed by God as they were his Commonwealth would justifie them as to their eternal estate Of which grand mistake our Saviour Matth. 5. laboured to convince them by shewing that no less was required by God in order to that than an inward purity and upbraided them with their making clean the outside of the Cup and Platter when within they were full of extortion and excess of ravening and wickedness with their appearing outwardly Righteous unto men when within they were full of Hypocrisie and iniquity and told his hearers that except their Righteousness exceeded theirs they should never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that except they were born again they could not see the Kingdom of God Now it was to this monstrously corrupt part of Judaism to which the Judaising Christians did revolt or turn rather for many of them were Gentiles because without this their errour in adhering to the Law of Moses as necessary to be observed would not have been so damnable as the Scripture represents it to be calling it a perverting the Gospel of Christ a being removed to another Gospel a falling from Grace a making of Christ to become of none effect to them Gal. 1.7 and 5.2 4. which it would not have been if there had been nothing else in it than a perswasion that they were under an obligation of observing the Law of Moses as well as the Law of Christ For there were many thousands of the Jews which believed who were yet zealous of the Law of Moses and thought themselves still under the obligation of it Acts 21. who yet could never be said upon that account to be fallen from Grace or to be removed from the Gospel of Christ to another Gospel so long as they were really for an internal Righteousness as necessary to Justification and Salvation as well as an external For all the faithful Jews under the Law before the Law and after the Law yea and all the Gentiles too that had this internal Righteousness as well as an external were all justified through the Grace of God exhibited in the universal Covenant made in Christ and granted for his sake whether they had any explicite or distinct knowledge of that Covenant or not or of Christ in whom it was confirmed In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him and if the Uncircumcision did but keep the righteousness of the Law the internal Righteousness designed by it their Uncircumcision was counted for Circumcision When on the other hand he was not a Jew at any time in the sense there spoken of who was one outwardly in the flesh only but he was a Jew which was so inwardly and Circumcision was that of the heart in the Spirit of the Law and not in the Letter only whose praise or approbation was from God whether it were from men or no Rom. 2. St. Paul would never have become as a Jew to the Jews to gain the Jews as he did in observing
any other Grace is said to be imputed to us for Righteousness For we are told expresly that it is of Faith that it might be by Grace Rom. 4.16 That is to cut off all pretence of merit the same saving benefits are promised and on the same Condition to wit that of Faith to Heathen Idolaters Sinners of the Gentiles as was to the strictest observers of the Law of Moses The reason in the close of the verse gives that to be the meaning And accordingly Faith whether it be in one that hath been a great sinner or in one of a more inoffensive life hath God's Grace not Man's merit for its object on which it doth depend for all and accordingly attributes and ascribes all to it Gal. 2.15 16. Which is one reason we see of God's electing of it to be the Condition on which his great and precious promises are made and may well be a reason also of his imputing it to men for Righteousness when they do believe For by the account we have why Abraham's Faith was imputed to him for Righteousness we have reason to believe that our giving to God the glory of his Grace and Goodness Truth and Power by this belief and affiance and to Christ the honour of his undertaking is of such high acceptation with God as that he of his goodness is pleased to honour and reward it by imputing it to us for Righteousness For we see when Abraham's Faith in God's promise touching a numerous Issue had nothing to lean upon but the Goodness Veracity and Power of God and that these carried it with Abraham against all doubts and objections that might arise from the utmost humane and natural improbabilities of ever coming to pass so that he gave glory to God in being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform that St. Paul hath told us that therefore or for this very cause his Faith was imputed to him for righteousness Rom. 4.21 22. But the glorifying the riches of his Grace was not all that God had in design in our recovery but also the Renovation of our nature and the restoring us to happiness thereby And Faith is as necessary and useful for the accomplishing this part of God's design as it was to effect the other and therefore secondly this may be another Reason why Faith is imputed for Righteousness and why it 's said to be so rather than any other Grace Without believing we cannot comply with the terms and condition on which Pardon and Salvation are promised and without which they are not to be had and that is in being renewed in our nature For without believing those Motives that tend to perswade us to comply with and submit to the terms or condition on which God for Christ's sake hath promised to pardon us to receive us into favour and finally to save us we can never actually comply with those terms or that condition and consequently without that can never be capable of receiving the benefits promised on that condition For it is Faith as it takes in those Motives in their strength and perswasive efficacy that becomes a vigorous and operative principle of all other Graces Repentance Love Obedience and the like by which our nature becomes renewed All which depend upon our believing And therefore well may our Faith be named and put for all the rest as comprehending them in it when it rather than any other Grace is said to be imputed for Righteousness To make this evident I shall suggest two things to you 1. That they are the great Motives of the Gospel the Grace of God and Love of Christ to lost man the good hoped for and the evil feared the good promised to those that are good and the evil threatned to those that are evil that operate upon the mind and will in men to the producing that change in them by which they become new men sincerely good men If we love God it is because he loved us first 1 John 4.19 If we live to Christ that died for us it is because the love of Christ constrains us 2 Cor. 5.14 If we are made partakers of a Divine Nature it is by the great and pretious promises that we are so 2 Pet. 1.4 And 2. the operation of these Motives of the Gospel upon the mind depends upon our believing and so consequently do all those happy effects in heart and life which are produced by the operation of those Motives For until the reality of those Motives are believed they have no existence or being in the Soul and where they have no being they have no operation The Word preached did not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it Heb. 4.2 The Love Grace and Favour of God to Sinners in giving Christ for us and of his Love in giving himself for us and intending and promising us the benefit of pardon and salvation thereby only upon condition of our Repentance and Conversion unto God being all of them things invisible and not objects of sense do not affect us or perswade us to repent and in good earnest turn to God that we may be pardoned and saved until we really believe these things It is our Faith or the credit we give to the Revelation which God hath made of these things that gives them an existence or being in the Soul and upon that depends the efficacy and power of their prevailing with us to become new men Faith is the substance or subsistence of things hoped for and the evidence or conviction of things not seen Heb. 11.1 Unless men first believe that God is so good merciful and gracious to men notwithstanding they have sinned against him as to pardon and save them if they repent and become sincerely obedient for the future and not otherwise they will never deny ungodliness and worldly lusts when they are sollicited thereby to gratifie the flesh Men must first believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him indeed before they will seek his Grace and Favour by becoming such and doing that upon which and not without which he hath more or less declared his Grace and Favour is to be obtained and found Without this Faith it is impossible to please God it is impossible to leave off those things by which they have displeased him and to betake themselves to do those things that are pleasing in his sight Heb. 11.6 It was the belief that all good men had before the Law and under the Law that God would keep Covenant and mercy with those that love him and keep his Commandments and not otherwise that brought them so to love him and to keep his Commandments It was their belief that there is forgiveness with him that he might be feared as an encouragement to men to fear him that prevailed with them to fear him indeed Psal 130.4 It was the hope which even the Heathen Ninevites had from the natural