that which the Apostle opposeth to that Law he speaks of in Philip. 3. 9. the righteousness or observation of which â—e disclaims in point of Justification or as that which gives any right to Christ Pardon and Life And therefore the righteousness of this Law i. e. the Law of Faith is called by the Apostle in this Verse the righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the righteousness of God by Faith this this is the righteousness which hath Christ for its Object and is appointed by God in his Covenant of Grace to be our personal justifying righteousness This was the righteousness the Apostle would have that he might be found in him i. e. united unto him Very few of our Divines but they hold we are united to Christ by Faith and this was that the Apostle valued above all union with him seeing then the Apostle opposeth that which gives interest in Christ and union with him unto his own righteousness in this Verse that which gives interest then and unites must be Faith and so he must be far from disclaiming it as dung Now if so Persons will have the righteousness of Christ meant by this righteousness through Faith and by Faith then it must be the righteousness of Christ which unites to Christ and so the same thingmust unite unto and give interest in it self But whoever said this But to proceed no further in this let us hear what they have to say for the vindication of this strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness 1. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because there will be no standing in judgment before God unless we be cloathed with a perfect righteousness and there is no such righteousness but that of Christ's I Answer if the process in judgment should be according to the terms of the Law of Innocency i. e. that Sentence must pass upon Persons according to conformity or non-conformity to this Law then the reason would be cogent But seeing it shall not there is no force in it at all That it shall not See Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Christ Jesus according to my Gospel 2 Thes 1. 7 8. And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which Scriptures with others make it manifest the Gospel shall be the rule of judgment Hence therefore as Persons in judgment shall be found such as have been obedient or disobedient to the Gospel so shall the Sentence pass to Life or Condemnation John 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting LIfe and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Though know it shall be for the sake of Christ's perfect righteousness that such as are found true penitent Believers shall be adjudged to eternal Life at that day seeing had it not been for this his meritorious righteousness there had been no Covenant of Grace and so no accepting of any to Life upon such terms as the Gospel requires so that the whole glory of Believers Salvation must redound to him I speak here of the Adult unless Persons have an interest in and a right unto a perfect righteousness and so unto the righteousness of Christ they shall not be cleared and adjudged to Life in judgment But the Question is Whether all have an interest in and a right unto his righteousness If not Who are they that have Will you say any speaking of the Adult that live under the sound of the Gospel but such as are found obedient thereunto And are not true penitent Believers the Persons which are obedient if so then they are the Persons who shall be cleared and adjudged to eternal Life in judgment But it may be said not for their Repentance and Faith I Answer still not for these as the purchasing meriting causes but upon these as the qualifying matter of right which qualifying matter of right though it be not as is acknowledged a righteousness answerable to the Law of Innocency and so can be no justifying righteousness in the account of that Law yet is a righteousness agreeable to the Gospel and so is a justifying righteousness in the judgment of that Law 2. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because all that are justified are justified by the righteousness of another and this other by whose righteousness they must be justified can be none but Christs I Answer I do not deny but affirm that those that are justified are justified by the righteousness of another and that by Christs and his only as the purchase and merit of Justification But then that this is the qualifying righteousness of mine or another's Person which gives interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life according to the Gospel this I deny For though it be for Christ we are justified yet it is by Faith in him as imputed by God we are formally justified and made righteous which Faith though it be our own and so our own righteousness by free gift and possession yet is none of our own but Christ's in point of Merit and thus we are justified by a righteousness Christ hath merited and God's in point of Efficiency as he by his Spirit is the Author of it And there is this I would ask by the way i. e. Whether Justification be not a Gospel priviledge if it be as I hope it will not be denied Then are not all Gospel priviledges purchased and merited by Christ if so then certainly Justification among the rest And if Justification give me leave further to ask Did Christ purchase and merit his own righteousness you grant he purchased and merited the priviledge of Justification and you say that Christ's righteousness is the only formal justifying righteousness of our Persons must you not then also say that he purchased and merited his own righteousness certainly yes Now pray When or how or by what did Christ this if you say that Christ did not purchase and merit his own righteousness then I ask How did he purchase and merit Justification And how is Justification then in your Sense a Gospel priviledge purchased and merited by Christ It may be you will say that Christ purchased and merited that his righteousness might be imputed by God unto us for our Justification grant this still you must say that he purchased and merited not that which you call the matter of your Justification and so what you say must come to this that Christ did not merit and purchase that which justifies you and if so then that which justifies you must not be that which is purchased and merited by Christ See then however in this if the charge of Socinianism do not fall foul upon your selves
is no spot in thee The meaning is she was so in an Evangelical but not in a Legal sense sincerity or true grace was the prevailing Principle and in that respect he accounted her for his Merits all fair and without spot When Christ said concerning Nathaniel an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile he intended no more but an upright sincere Soul Christ such is his love he denominates his People from the better part If therefore his meaning be that God seeth no Sin in his People so far as they are sincerely conformed to the Gospel Law this Conformity in it self being no Sin but a Righteousness or that God seeth no Sin which he hath fully pardoned to be unpardoned or that God doth not so see Sin as everlastingly to condemn a true Believer for it in denying him Repentance Faith Pardon through the merits of Christ I am of his mind But then if he intended which I suppose he doth that God seeth no Sin in his People as they are accounted personally righteous for their Justification with Christ's Righteousness that there is any such thing as this I deny and therefore there cannot be the other upon that account or for that The rest of his Texts are not to the purpose 25. I believe saith he that such an one still naming me ought to let Men state their own judgments and give their own sense of what they say and hold and not state the same for them and draw his own absurd consequences and fight with them against he knows not who This is a pretty Article of a Man's Faith in the point of Justification but I must say something unto it Well then either this Man's judgment if he know what he holds himself doth upon the matter in question contradict what I affirm or it doth not If it do not why doth he oppose me If it do why doth he complain as though I did him wrong And when he talks of drawing absurd consequences â—tis well if he know what an absurdity is although he himself be guilty enough in this kind in what he hath writ But let him find me if he can that any of the consequences of which he speaks do contradict the Doctrine I draw them from and if he disown the Doctrine and hold the contrary I charge not the consequences upon him But then he must first retract that which he makes an Article of his Creed i. e. that Christ's acts works doings and obedience in themselves for that he must mean or elâ—â— he contradicts not me are imputed and counted to the Elect for their personal justifying Righteousness But he faith further I sight with my consequences against I do not know who If I do not it is like he doth or else why should he take himself concerned to oppose unless he hath a mind to kick before he be prick'd But he goes on and tells us he believes that I am guilty of the breach of the 9th Command in bearing false witness But let me tell him here if he were no more guilty upon the matter in Question of false Accusation against me than I am against him or others upon the point I should have been ashamed to have said thus much by him I desire him then to consider if he be not very guilty of that which he chargeth me with while he insinuaâ—es 1. That I hold that some of the Elect being Adult shall live and die Insidels 2. That I in the point of Justification am one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers 3. That I contradict the 11th 13th and 17th Articles of the Church of England 4. That my consequences are absurd with relation to the Doctrine they are dedâ—ced from 5. That I am guilty of the breach of the 9th Command in applying that Doctrine to any when plain it is it hath been held and still is by many that Christ is one Legal Person with the Elect and that Christ obeyed and suffered in the account of the violated Law not only as a Mediatour but as a common publick Person representing all the Elect and this he saith himself in what he did and suffered so as by the same Law what he did for us is reckoned or imputed to us as if we our selves had done it and what was done to him tending to our Justification and Salvation is reckoned as done to us And doth not this agree with the Doctrine I draw the consequences from 6. That I affirm Faith to justice as an act without relation to its object Christ with others I might mention none of which he can prove against me and who is it that beareth false witness now I or he But he hath more yet quoth he speaking after a scornful sort concerning me he matters not that he means the breach of the Ninth Command being now got under a new Law which will be more favourable than the old This new Law he scoffs at I have shewn is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace and have proved above that there is such a thing and that it is a Law and that Christ hath purchased it though the Socinians deny it and so he with them And therefore I must make bold to tell this Man and that not without warrant from the Holy Scriptures that he must either be brought under this new Law which he derides or he perisheth for ever for if he think to be justified and saved upon the terms of the Old Covenant he will find himself wretchedly mistaken Galat. 3. 10. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse for it it written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to â—o them 2 Theâ— 1. 7 8. And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ And let him not think that the Gospel Law or the Gospel which is a Law giveth liberty to Sin or exempts from a due and sincere Obedience to all God's Holy Commands for the contrary is plain Tâ—us 2. 11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World But if he look for no favour from God but in the way and upon the terms of the Law of Innocency he never shall have any nay he never would have had any so much as common 26. I believe saith he that that Righteousness wherewith God justifies the Elect is a Righteousness which his Holy Law approves and accepts of Though he make no distinction yet by Righteousness I take it for granted he intends the Righteousness of Christ and by Law the Law of Innocent Nature violated by Man's Sin This then is that which he must intend i.
e. Justification is God's asserting and maintaining act by his Law of Grace of our right to Pardon and Life for the sake of Christ upon our believing 1. It is an act and that ad extra an act which makes a relative change and the subject upon whom this relative change is made is Man a guilty and condemned Sinner one upon whom the sentence of condemnation is passed by the Law and he under obligation thereby to suffer eternal punishment this is Man's condition antecedent to God's act of justifying Rom. 3. 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Galat. 3. 22. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe John 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God Ephes 2. 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the Children of wrath even as others 2. In this act of justifying there is the term from which or the state from which Man a Sinner is brought upon his Justification and that is from an obligation to punishment and the omission or loss of right to Life and Happiness Every poor Soul before Faith is under an obligation to Eternal Punishment and must lose Heaven and Eternal Happiness if he leave the World in this condition How much then should it be our concern to see that we have true Faith that we have thankfully accepted of and are sincerely subject unto Christ that so we may have through him a right to Pardon and Life John 5. 24. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after Spirit 3. In justifying there is the term to which or the state a poor Sinner is brought into and that is a right to this Pardon and Life spoken of before No sooner is a Sinner justified but Pardon and Life are his they are by Gospel or Covenant right his John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and Verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him 4. There is the agent or he that justifies and that is God we are before Repentance and Faith guilty and condemned and until God do justifie us we remain in that guilty and condemned state therefore if ever we have a right to Pardon and Life God gives it Rom. 3. 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Rom 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Rom. 8. 30. 33. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth 1. Hence learn first how much we should adore and admire the riches of mercy in Christ that after we had greatly offended him and exposed our selves to his wrath and displeasure everlastingly having involved our selves in a state of guilt and condemnation having forfeited all right to Life I say that after this all this yet he should be willing to become our justifier the forgiver of our Sins and the Donor of a right to Happiness and this upon honourable terms with relation to himself and reasonable with respect to us How much doth this call for our Admiration and Adoration certainly it will be the work of Heaven 2. How great folly are poor impenitent Sinners guilty of for though God be willing to justifie ready to pardon and receive into his favour and make over unto them a sure title to Erernal Life if they will but now humbly come in upon his call and thankfully accept his Son to be their Propitiation Head and Teacher and be subject to him in Christ yet they refuse they hold fast deceit and will not return they set no value upon this great good offered they prefer their Soul damning Lusts and the Profits and Pleasures of a vain transitory World they content themselves to live unforgiven at enmity to God Heirs of Hell destitute of right to Life and Salvation O what folly How much is the condition of such to be lamented who chuse death before Life guilt before Pardon execution in Hell before the fruition of a glorious rest in Heaven God calls them to incline their ear and come unto him hear and their Souls shall live and he will make an everlasting Covenant with them even the sure mercies of David Isa 55. 3. he assures them by his promise that if they will forsake their wicked ways and sinful thoughts he will have mercy and abundantly pardon Verse 7 but alas all this moves them not they are still as unconcerned as before 3. That Justification is not from Eternity For any to affirm this is to affirm a contradiction i. e. that we were both guilty condemned and justified from Eternity for who now are justified but such as before were guilty and condemned so that first God condemns us from Eternity as guilty and then justifies us from Eternity according to these Men touching what they alledge i. e. God's purpose and decree they may as groundedly gather from it that Persons are effectually called from Eternity conformed to the Image of Christ and glorified from Eternity 5. In the description I say it is God's act by his Law of Grace it is not by an immediate but a mediate act that God justifies seeing it is God's act by this his Law and that it is will appear further if we consider that we can neither be justified by the Law of innocent Nature nor by the Law of Moses And if not then by some other Law for as condemnation is by Law so Justification As disobedience then to the Law of Grace brings upon us condemnation so obedience to the same Law gives right to Pardon and Life which is Justification If so be that Sinners remain impenitent unbelieving Rebels against Christ by this Law they are condemned but on the contrary if they through Grace become Penitent Obedient Believers then this Law intitles
if Grace be defiled so soon as we are the subjects of it or so soon as it is given unto us or wrought in us then how comes it by this defilement it must either be from some change or it remains what it was if it be from some change that it is defiled seeing that this defilement must be moral then it must partake of the nature of Sin and if so it must cease to be Grace and if it do and become Sin as it must if it partake of moral pollution then in whom will mortifying and sanctifying Grace be found If Grace remain what it was and it was pure and good as granted as it had the Spirit as its Author then how comes it to be defiled I do not deny but there is Sin and much Sin where Grace is but then that this Sin pollutes Grace so soon as it is given and so it becomes morally defiled and partakes of the nature of Sin this I cannot reach for I think that what is morally evil must be sin and what is morally polluted must either be sin or sinful and to say sinful Grace and Holiness sounds harsh But it may be said doth not a true Christian exalt and set up his grace above Christ in a time of temptation to spiritual pride because of his grace if the temptation prevail I Answer in a time of temptation to pride if the temptation prevail a Person that is a Christian doth exalt and set up himself but he cannot be said to set up and exalt his grace above Christ hereby nor indeed doth he exalt grace at all because this exalting and high esteem of himself is a depressing of his grace and a putting a stop unto its exercise whereby he should exalt Christ so that grace cannot be the cause of this his pride for it is against its nature but the suppressing of grace or a putting a stop to its exercise by the prevalency of the contrary corruption So then you I say a Man cannot be proud of his grace I answer he cannot be proud of his grace that hath his grace in exercise because a Person is never more humble nor is God in Christ ever more exalted by him than when grace in him is most exercised for it is of the very nature of true grace to depress self lay low the Creature and exalt God and Christ so that the more of grace and the exercise of grace and the more of this But may not a Christian be proud of the exercise of grace I Answer he may be lift up in himself and proud of himself after the exercise of grace not that this exercise is the cause hereof it may be an accidental occasion but then it is the abuse both of grace and the exercise of it The truth is Christians if you would be secured from spiritual pride be kept humble labour to be much in the exercise of grace fear not that the exercise of grace should lead you to rest either in it or in your self for it is against the very nature of it the more of the exercise of grace the more doth the Soul take up its rest in God through Christ It is very strange in some Men O say they you must cast away all your graces and sincere duties and account them as dung and rest wholly upon Christ and his Righteousness just as though there was such an inconsistency and opposition betwixt Christ and the graces of his Spirit and Holy Obedience as that Christ and his Righteousness could not be relied upon and trusted to for acceptation except we laid by grace and sincere duty as useless here when for my part it is a matter quite beyond my reach to know how or with what or in what to rely upon Christ and his Righteousness for my acceptation without grace and the exercise of it in holy duties for think I if I rely upon Christ and his Righteousness I must have some way in which and something by which I must thus rely or how can I But it is like somâ— Men will have neither if both grace and sincere duty must be accounted and cast away as dung here O but say they you must beware of resting upon your grace and sincere duties for your acceptation and so of making a Christ of them I Answer for my part I do not fear this if I have but the truth and exercise of grace for God hath given grace and draws forth grace into exercise for this very end that Persons should rest upon and trust unto Christ's M diation for their acceptation and sure I am grace where it is in act will act according to its nature and this is to lead the Soul that hath it towards God in Christ as its center and rest and therefore if some Persons will amuse themselves and others unnecessarily I cannot help them but I shall pray the Lord to measure my Faith and quicken Grace and grant me the free exercise of it in every duty and then I know I shall be humble advance Christ and rest upon him as my only Mediator to obtain for me the grant of all saving good both Grace and Glory For in whose Hearts soever the Lord is pleased to suppress Pride Hypocrisie and Formality and keep them humble sincere and lively in the practice of Piety it is not possible but such should depend upon Christ both for pardon for the iniquities which attend their best duties and also for their acceptation for whose Hearts so ever are kept humble sincere and lively in grace and so in obedience such Persons cannot chuse but see and know their own sinfulness nothingness spiritual emptiness as considered morally in themselves and so on the contrary admire and adore the grace of God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit for any thing of distinguishing grace and love towards their Souls and is this some resting in themselves and in their own graces and duties The grace and love of God in Christ Jesus certainly is the most highly advanced in Heaven and what is the reaâ—on but because their grace is perfected in the Spirits of just Men hence therefore the nearer any Soul upon Earth comes towards this Heavenly perfection by the growth and exercise of grace the more humble that Soul will be and the more God in Christ will be adored and glorified in and by that Soul John 15. 8 Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit so shall ye be my disciples So that while some Persons caution others against resting in their grace I say beware of Pride Hypocrisie and formality and endeavour after the growth and exercise of grace and then no danger while grace is in its growth and exercise I wish it be not the case of many Professors that while they are pretending highly to advance the Lord Jesus and to rest in him and trust solely unto him they do not content themselves much with formality and take little care to see they have that