Love this Grace of Christ should constrain you and make you thus judge That if one dyed for all then those all have dyed namely unto sin and he dyed that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who dyed for them and rose again for their Justification and that they might rise unto newness of life 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Thus the Apostle Peter also argues pressing it upon Believers to be holy in all manner of conversation even as he who hath called you is holy And the ground upon which he inforceth it is this because they are redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ See 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16 18 19. 2. You should walk humbly also as well as holily This God doth require Mic. 6.8 for you stand accepted not in your selves nor in any Works of Righteousness that you have done but wholly in the Righteousness of Christ that is upon you through Faith Therefore when you have done all and attained to the utmost you should still be humble and say you are unprofitable servants Luke 17.10 For all your obedience and conformity to the Law avails no more to justifie you than your worst sins do and you should look on your best performances and your worst sins even with the same eye in the business of Justification Believers do own that all their best Righteousness is as to their Justification but as filthy rags Isa 64.6 and true Converts have the like and can have no worse thoughts of their worst sins Isa 30.22 Labour you should and abound in the work of the Lord not to work out a Righteousness to stand justified in before God No God forbid such a thought should ever be entertained by any Believer I do not think the Saints in Heaven would be willing to exchange and put off the Robe of Christs Righteousness to stand before God for acceptance in that perfect and spotless Holiness to which they have there attained Much less should any Believer be willing to stand and continue in a justified estate by his own imperfect defective and stained Obedience Neither indeed can I see how such a frame of Heart can be consistent with true Faith But obey you should because you have a Righteousness upon you in comparison and in competition wherewith the Righteousness of Men and Angels is to be despised Obey therefore to the utmost but look away from it when you have so done Obey not to acquire or continue to your selves an interest in this Righteousness much less to be your Righteousness before God but that you may show forth the Praises of him who hath called you into Fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ 3. You should also walk comfortably and rejoysingly as well as holily and humbly For you are made accepted in the beloved Standing in this Righteousness having it upon you through Faith you may you should rejoyse and glory not in your selves on any performances of yours or Graces inhering in you but in the Lord in whom you have both Righteousness and Strength For the Lord hath sworn that in him should all the seed of Israel be justified and glory Isa 45.23 24 25. Having by Faith received the atonement you may glory even in his presence of whom you are in Christ Jesus who is of God made unto you Wisdom Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption and you made the Righteousness of God in him that he that gloryeth should glory in the Lord. POST-SCRIPT THere are two Passages in the foregoing Sermons which have been exclaimed against publickly and privately by one that heard them not And I do believe he was angered by more than two For he is one that makes union to Christ our having this Righteousness upon us and our being justified by it to be given us in way of reward of something done by us and he is the man that makes the state of Believers to be undecided and in suspense during this Life Both which Errors are damning the former in its Nature and direct tendency the latter in its Grounds and Principles And whether he do not in truth disown the imputation of our Sins unto Christ and of his Righteousness unto us it is like if he live the VVorld will see more fully for he hath given such pregnant indications thereof as do amount to at least just cause of jealousie But touching these things he thought it best to keep silence and to fix his nails where he thought he had better advantage The one Point is pag. 7. That the Incarnation of Christ is no part of his Humiliation As to the truth of it as there laid down I shall say little more knowing it cannot be overthrown The whole stress of the matter lyes in those two words Incarnation and Humiliation how they are taken If the former be taken largely as comprising Christs taking both our Nature and the common sinless Frailties of it together with his being in the form of a servant and made under the Law I know not why it should be denyed to be a part of his Humiliation But if it be taken strictly for his dwelling in Flesh or Humane Nature comprehending under it both the act of assumption and the relation or union arising and effected thereby between the Humane Nature so assumed and the Person of the Son of God who did assume it neither the one nor the other of these neither the act of assuming nor the Union of the two Natures effected by it may be allowed to be any part of Christ's Humiliation For Humiliation is not in this argument to be taken laxly and improperly for any thing which hath Goodness or Grace in it as God's beholding things in Heaven and in Earth is said to be an humbling of himself Psal 113.6 So Christ might have been said to humble himself though he had never been Incarnate But in this subject Humiliation ought to be taken precisely for that which is proper and peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity which the Apostle calls his being in the form of a Servant or rather his being made under the Law Between which there may be conceived some difference for Christ is now in his state of Exaltation Gods Servant but he is not now under the Law as he was in the days of his Flesh and Frailty And taking these words thus it is far from being a singular conceit of mine that the Incarnation of Christ is not a part of his humiliation Mr. Bradshaw not only saith expresly Christ's assuming the Humane Nature cannot properly be said to be a part of his Humiliation but gives his reason for it of Justif ch 17. Sect. 7. and makes the Title of that Chapter to be this Christ that he might taken on him the guilt of sin was made man Whence it is evident that in his Judgment which is also the current Judgment of all Christians Christ's becoming Man was not the effect of the guilt of sin being on him but the way of his
lost and perishing and forlorne Condition And verily this is an heavy and an overwhelming guilt superadded unto all the rest You should take in Convictions of your condemned Condition and that the Wrath of God abideth on you and will do so as long as you continue in unbelief Do not flatter your selves and delude your own Consciences by saying I have mourned and I have wept bitterly for my sins and over my poor Soul and I have left them and amended and reformed my Life and I thank God I walk so and so blamelesly and exemplarily Be it so yet let me put these two Demands to thy Conscience 1. Are these things the Righteousness of Christ And 2. Are they Faith If they be not the Righteousness of Christ they can never justifie thee from any the least sin And if they be not Faith the Righteousness of Christ will never be upon thee by or thorow them The Scripture no where saith that the Righteousness of Christ is upon us through our repenting not yet through our amending and reforming no nor through any works of Righteousness and Obedience that we have done or can do No this is the Priviledge Prerogative and peculiar Office of Faith True it is these things are thy bounden Duties God will damn thee for neglecting them But yet as true and as certain it is that they neither are the Righteousness of Christ nor will they intitle thee to it and interest thee in it Know therefore that though thou couldst mourn Rivers of Tears or Seas of Bloody though thou couldst amend thy Life and reform thy way and thy heart too so as never more to sin and though for the time past of thy Life thou hadst and for all the time to come shouldst live like a Saint dropt down from Heaven and walk up and down in the World like an Angel in flesh shine and sparkle and glitter among the Sons of God yet as all this is not the Righteousness of Christ so neither would the Righteousness of Christ be upon thee through all these things for they are not Faith Thou art therefore in a state of Condemnation and the Wrath of God abides upon thee and will do so as long as thou continuest without Faith USE 3. This Doctrine speaks earnest exhortation to get Faith to believe And it speaks to you all one and other for you all stand in need of this Righteousness of Christ to be upon you the very least sinner among you all as well as the greatest As the Apostle Paul sometime said to Peter Gal. 2.15 16. We who are Jews by Nature and not sinners of the Gentiles knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the wâ—rks of the law shall no flesh be justified So I say to you that are not such grievous and atrocious sinners as some others are you as well as the greatest Sinners must believe in Jesus Christ that you may be justified And much more you whose own Consciences neither do nor can make any other judgment of you but that you are among the very chief of Sinners Sinners before the Lord exceedingly O do you get Faith See that you believe For in this way it will come to pass that the Righteousness of Christ shall be upon you and in no way by no means unless you believe You may try other courses you may gad about to change your way from foul to clean from careless and loose and prophane to strict and serious and circumspect but though you wash you with Nitre and take you much Soap yet your Iniquities will stand marked before the Lord your guilt the guilt of all your sins wilt still be upon you You may take up the practise of Duties and abound therein you may attain much light in Spiritual things and become Eminent in Gifts You may walk blamelesly in the Eye of the World you may live in the fellowship of Saints and in the observance of the Ordinances of God in the purest way of their Administration upon earth and yet be without this Righteousness of Christ upon you For these are not Faith It is therefore a preposterous course to begin with taking up of Duties without looking after Faith nay it is an errour in the Foundation and a building on the Sand All your building of Duties and Profession and Hopes will fall down and the fall thereof will be great and fearful Yet I fear it is the oversight and errour of many Professors among us at this day but it is a fatal and Soul-ruining one My advice and Exhortation to you therefore is that whatever you do in the concernments of your Souls look to it that you believe Whatever you neglect neglect not getting Faith Yea look to it in the first place Thus your Teachers should instruct and lead you This is the Apostles direction unto Titus that he should teach them that have believed to be careful to maintain or to excel in good works Tit. 3.8 not to teach and press Sinners in their unbelief to fall to doing good works first and overlook believing wholly or to postpone it after them And thus you should practise else you labour in the fire and weary your selves in very vanity for all your pain and toil and doing will not bring it about that the Righteousness of Christ shall be upon you for they are not Faith But through Faith that Righteousness will be upon you and being upon you it will produce good works and both your Works and your Persons be accepted your Persons first and then your Works And if you believe this Righteousness shall certainly be upon you and you shall be accepted and made Righteous in it how many or how heinous soever your sins have been or how great soever and amazing to your Consciences your guilt be For it is through Faith and net through works of Obedience that it is unto all and upon all without difference who do believe Therefore look to it that you do indeed believe look to it that your Faith be the Faith of God's Elect. Vse 4. This Doctrine speaks to Believers and to you it shows how you should live and walk before God so as to please injoy and glorifie him I will instance in three things 1. You should walk holily in all new Obedience If you be redeemed and delivered from Condemnation and Death as verily you are if this Righteousness be upon you it is that you might serve the Lord without fear slavish legal fear in holiness and righteousness in all the Duties required both in the First and Second Table of the Law and that before him in sincerity and uprightness of Heart as in his sight and all this not in a fit only or for a while but all the days of your lives Luke 1.74 75. This
THE Righteousness of God THROUGH FAITH UPON All without Difference who believe In Two Sermons on Romans 3.22 By NATHANIEL MATHER Preacher of the Gospel LONDON Printed for Nathaniel Hiller at the Princes-Arms in Leaden-Hall-Street over against St. Mary Axe 1694. To the READER I Must acknowledge that when I was called to Preach in that Audience where these Sermons were delivered I had some Debates rolling in my Mind what kind of Subject I should pitch upon There were enow offered to my Thoughts wherein I might have more gratified or at least have less displeased our Neonomians as they are lately named but as truly and justly Semisocinians as the antient Church and all Posterity since hath called the off-spring of Pelagius his Heresie Semi-Pelagians But I saw with grief and detestation the Blessed Gospel of our Salvation craftily and insolently assaulted by them in the very Vitals and Fundamentals of it In publico discrimine omnis homo miles est Every Christian much more every Minister is set for the defence of the Gospel especially at such a time when the Truth labours under guileful and impetuous opposition I doubted my Quiet would be attempted and my Doctrine and Reputation would be angrily reflected on As to the last though I value it and believe I ought to do so yet I can truly say convictions that I ought to sacrifice both that and my Quiet to the service of the labouring Truth of God had their weight with me My Heart hath been long fixed in this Principle that Reputation is little to be valued save only so far as it may be of service unto Christ and if he have any use to make of it he will preserve it while I walk before him in Integrity With him I have thus left it and having so done my Heart is secure and at rest about it As to my Quiet I confess I do prize and love it as remembring Prov. 17.14 and 18.6 but to Maintain and Preach that Precious and Saving Truth which the Churches of Christ have been in possession of ever since the Reformation is not entring into contention especially when some abandon it and others indeavour to wrest it from us And there is a contending and that earnestly for the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is a Duty Besides I am not far from that place where the weary are at rest and the wicked cease from troubling the thoughts whereof I confess are sweeter to me because I have very sadning apprehensions of the portendency of that apostasie from the Truth which hath invaded so many of the rising Generation not among Conformists only but Dissenters also As to my Quiet I have this relief that it is not in the power of any mortal to interrupt or disturb my inward composedness of Spirit or to lay me under any law of unquietness within my self I know and am assured that a due exercise of Faith Meekness Self-denyedness and such like Graces will establish my Heart in a just and holy unconcernedness though such representations should still be made of me for these Sermons sake as to fill my Friends in other Lands to whom I am known with trouble and consternation I use the very words of a Letter wherein I am informed that such Reports have been sent even so far As to the Doctrine delivered in these Sermons it hath been of use to me for the direction and guidance of my Heart in transacting with God about Pardon and Acceptance to Eternal Life I hope it may be so unto others My Hope my Life my Salvation my All is therein I have not delivered any thing but what I know and am assured is according to the Eternal Truth of God and wherein I have going before me as great Lights as any that God in these latter Ages hath set up in his Church How little or rather nothing I have varied in what is Printed from what was delivered in Preaching I must leave to those that shall read and did hear them I have heard of two Passages that have been taxed Of them therefore I have in a short Postscript given a further account As to the Publishing of them in Print if the Doctrine delivered in them be the Truth of God as I believe it is I need not make any Apology Many that know me know my backwardness to appear in Print Nevertheless in thus Publishing these Sermons my Heart condemns me not knowing that I have therein only indeavoured to communicate in a more diffusive and induring way that Truth the Faith whereof I have received and wherein I have many Years lived and in which I hope and am perswaded I shall dye and which it is of concernment to have preserved and propagated The Blessing of him whose Truth it is go along therewith London this 14th of the 2d Month 1694. Nath. Mather ERRATA PAge 20. line 3. for in is read is in l. 9. a fine r. 1 John 2.1 l. 6. a fine f not p. 21. l. 7. a fine r. comprizing under them his Graces p. 25. l. 4. put the comma after is p. 26. l. 2. dele of p. 27. l. 4. a fine r. 2 Pet. 3.11 p. 31. f. namely r. only p. 36. l. 9. a fine f. John 15.19 r. John 15.9 p. 39. l. 14. their r. there l. 10. a fine f. they do not r. they who do not p. 42. l. 16. r. â— 28 p. 43. l. 7. f. might r. weight f. Psal 88.8 r. Psal 88.7 p. 59. l. 20. r. Phil. 3.12 ROM 3.22 Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference IN the first five Chapters of this Epistle the Apostle sets himself to declare and clear up the great Doctrine of Justification And he first speaks to it Negatively shewing and evincing that by the deeds of the Law there shall no Flesh be justified in the sight of God which is the conclusion and sum of all his foregoing Discourse as you may see at the 20th Verse of this Chapter Having made out that neither Jew nor Gentile can ever be justified by the Deeds of the Law he declares affirmatively in the Verse before the Text and so onward how it is then that men may be Justified and he shews that it is by the righteousness of God manifested without the Law yet witnessed to by the Law and by the prophets that is by the Books of Moses and the rest of the Old Testament But how come men to be justified by this Righteousness manifested without the Law and thus witnessed unto This the Apostle declares in the words of the Text telling us that this righteousness is through faith upon all that beleeve and that without difference There is no need in order to what I intend to say any thing for explaining of the meaning of any of the words of the Text. The Doctrine which I design to speak to from them is plain and obvious and it is
this Doctrine There is a righteousness of God which through faith of Jesus Christ is without difference unto all and upon all who believe Here are these six things which offer themselves to be spoken unto for clearing this Doctrine and making way for the Application of it 1. What Righteousness is this and why is it called the Righteousness of God 2. How is it upon those that believe 3. What is the meaning and import here of that Expression without Difference 4. What is this Faith of Jesus Christ and why is it so called 5. What reference has Faith unto this Righteousness's being unto and upon Believers 6. How comes all this about and whence is it that there is this Righteousness provided and that it is through Faith upon all without difference which believe Quest 1. What Righteousness is this and why is it called the Righteousness of God Answ To have this matter rightly stated in our thoughts is very useful and needful both for the direction guiding and fixing of our Faith to its proper Object in its acting and exercise and also for the establishing of our Minds in the Truth of God in this Point lest darkness and mistakes herein should occasion our stumbling and the overturning of our Faith I shall therefore proceed step by step and deliver my self about it in five Propositions in which put together I shall indeavour a clear and just stating and declaration of this Matter Proposition I. This Righteousness is the Righteousness of Christ and not our own So the Apostle useth those Expressions setting our own Righteousness in Opposition to this Righteousness Phil. 3.9 though there be a sense wherein this Righteousness may be said to be ours When I say it is the Righteousness or Christ I mean it is the Righteousness whereof Christ is the original first and native Subject it is the Righteousness which he brought in as the word is Dan. 9.24 a Phrase taken from the Old Testament Ordinance wherein it was commanded that the Priest should carry the Blood of the Sacrifice which was shed at the Altar of Brass without the Tabernacle into the Holy of Holies and there present it unto God And this Righteousness of Christ is justly called the Righteousness of God both because it is a Righteousness of Gods ordaining and providing or devising as her word is speaking of this very thing 2 Sam. 14.14 and also because Christ whose it is primitively and originally is by Nature God over all blessed for ever And I think the Apostle delights to set forth this Righteousness by that Epithet that it is Gods and of God the more to commend it to our Consciences and Hearts as that which beyond all comparison is to be preferred before and rather chosen by us to stand in than that Righteousness which he calls our own The best of our own Righteousness is inherent in us or wrought out by us we are the original Subjects of it though it be in us from God and by his Grace But this Righteousness of Christ as it is called the Righteousness of God in another Sense and on another ground than our own Righteousness can be said to be Gods or of him so this Phrase is used of it for this end namely to denote such a transcendent Excellency in it it is an usual Hebraism to add the Epithet of God to set forth a surpassingness in things thus we read of the Wrestlings of God the Mountains of God the Cedars of God that in comparison of and in competition with this Righteousness the Righteousness of Men and Angels is to be despised and abhorred by us Now that this Righteousness in the Text is the Righteousness of Christ all the Circumstances of the Text do evince every thing which is here said of this Righteousness agreeing to the Righteousness of Christ which is brought in by him for us It is a Righteousness of God it is manifested without the Law for the Law that is the Covenant of Works tells us nothing of it yet it is witnessed unto by the Law and the Prophets and though it was heard of in the Old Testament times yet it was veiled under many shadows then but now in the days of the New Testament it is very clearly revealed and manifested It is a Righteousness which is unto all and upon all without difference who do believe and the way of its being on them is through Faith It is that Righteousness in which we stand justified freely of Grace it is that Righteousness which contains a price of Redemption and which hath Propitiation or Atonement in it and whereof the Blood of Christ is a part all which are true of the Righteousness of Christ and of no other and lastly it is either the Righteousness of Christ or our own the Scripture mentions no other Righteousness that is upon us but one of these But it is not our own Righteousness for our own Righteousness consisting in our Conformity to the Law that being to us the Rule of Righteousness we should then be justified by the deeds of the Law which the Apostle here tells us no Flesh shall for by the Law is the knowledge of Sin Proposition II. This Righteousness of Christ which through Faith is upon all that believe is the Mediatory Righteousness of Christ viz. That Righteousness which he as Mediator doth bring in for us and present unto God and therefore in which he acts as Mediator between God and us I mention this because I would set by and seclude the Essential Righteousness of Christ from being any part of this Righteousness which is upon us by Faith By his Essential Righteousness I mean that perfection of the Divine Nature which we commonly do also call Holiness and Justice and this belongs to Christ as he is God co-equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost being one of the blessed Perfections of the Divine Essence But this Righteousness cannot be said to be upon us through Faith For then we might be said to be justified by the Righteousness of the Father and of the Holy Ghost as we are by the Righteousness of Christ Atonement or Reconciliation with God is not made for us by this Essential Righteousness of Christ nor is it brought in before God for us nor are we said to have it nor do we stand accepted in it nor is it imputed to us all which the Scripture speaks of this Righteousness of Christ in the Text. I conclude therefore it not being the Essential Righteousness of Christ as God it is his Mediatorial Righteousness that Righteousness which Christ as Mediator and by Virtue of his being clothed with that Office doth bring in before God for us Proposition III. It is that part of Christs Mediatorial Righteousness which belongs to his Priestly Office and is brought in by him as a Priest Christ is Righteous as a Prophet and as a King and that for us that is for our good and benefit But this Righteousness of his
in the Administration of these his Offices is not the Righteousness here spoken of for it is not unto and upon Believers that is it is not imputed to them nor is it upon them through Faith Christ administers his Prophetical Office righteously namely according to the Law thereof the command given him by his Father He discovers to us what he hath seen with and received of his Father for that end So he did when on Earth Joh. 1.18 and 3 32 34. and 5.19 and 8.38 and 12.49 50. And now he is in Heaven he goes by the same rule in revealing his Fathers Counsels to us Rev. 1.1 Both in Heaven and on Earth he speaks in righteousness Isa 63.1 Christ doth administer his Kingly-Office in Righteousness he gives Righteous Laws and Ordinances and Executes Righteous Judgments and Administers all the Affairs of the World and of his Church most Righteously Isa 32.1 He is a King that reigns in righteousness Psal 145.17 All his ways are holy and all his judgments just Rev. 15.3 and 16.5 7. The Judgments which he executeth on his Enemies and for his People are Holy and Just and he is True and Righteous in executing of them But this Righteousness of Christ in his Administring his Prophetical and Kingly Offices is not the Righteousness which here in the Text is said to be upon us For in his Prophetical and Kingly Administration he acts from God towards us but in bringing in this Righteousness which is upon us through Faith and wherein we stand justified he acts towards God for us which is the proper work of his Priestly-Office as the Apostle expresly declares and asserts Heb. 5.1 and Heb. 8.3 Some there are who say That the Righteousness of Christ which is upon us through Faith is his Mediatorial Righteousness but either they therein do mean the Righteousness which as a Priest he brings in before God for us or it is too wide an Expression None that I know of but Socinians or Semisocinians who do really deny the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us though they seem in words sometimes to own it do speak of the Imputation to us of any part of the Righteousness of Christ's Administring his Prophetical or Kingly Offices For the same reason for which I limit this Righteousness which is upon us through Faith to the Righteousness brought in by Christ as a Priest I conceive the Incarnation of Christ taken precisely as abstracted from the Condition that attended it all the days of his frailty is not a part of this Righteousness If any will needs call it a part of this Righteousness inasmuch as he therein did according to the Will of his Father and according to his own undertaking I would not much contend with them though the Expression be both unaccurate and insnaring But I can by no means grant it to be a part of this Righteousness For it is no part of the Humiliation of Christ or of his Satisfaction or of his Obedience to the precept of the Moral Law not of his Humiliation by his Humiliation I mean that Abased State of Christ which is contradistinguish'd and opposed to his Exaltation for his Humiliation was of the Whole Person in both Natures and the ground of it was our Sins being upon him as our Surety and ally'd in Blood to us and all the while he was in a State of Humiliation he was under the Curse But certainly Christ is not now under the Curse and yet he doth now dwell in our Nature in his State of Exaltation Nor is Christ's Incarnation a part of his Satisfaction For Satisfaction to speak properly is made to the Justice of God and the Demands thereof by Vertue of the Moral Law and not meerly to the Just and Righteous Will of God the Law-giver Satisfaction is a repaying and making amends for Wrong done and not barely a pleasing of the Will and Mind of him to whom Satisfaction is made and thence Satisfaction is the Fruit and Effect of Punishment But Christs dwelling in our Nature is no part of the Punishment of Sin for then the Divine Nature only is punished and not the Humane at all nor the Person Besides it may as justly be said to be a part of his Exaltation as of his Humiliation for the Humane Nature subsisting in Personal Union with the Divine hath an higher and better subsistence then any it could have had in subsisting by it self Nor Lastly Is it a part of his Obedience to the Precept of the Moral Law For the Law took not hold upon him he was not under it before his Incarnation and therefore could not be bound by it to become Incarnate For these and such like reasons Divines of very Subact and Accurate Judgments have denyed the Assumption of the Humane Nature to be any part of the Satisfaction or Humiliation of Christ So Bradshaw of Justif ch 17. Sect. 7. and Ames Med. Theol. l. 1. c. 20. Sect. 4. And I do the rather note it and desire it may be observ'd and taken in by you because some who have lookt upon Christ Incarnation as a part of his Humiliation have also deny'd any other manner of Imputation of his Righteousness than what agrees to and may be affirmed of his Incarnation Namely that it is for our behoof and benefit and that the Effects and Fruits of it are communicated to us but his Righteousness it self is not upon us according to them and is not imputed to us at all I will issue this point thus which also further clears it up There is a difference in the Nature of the things and distinction therefore to be made in our thoughts between the Incarnation of Christ and the Condition or Form of a Servant in which he did come and appear in our Flesh from the first moment of his assuming it until he enter'd on his estate of his Exaltation The assuming of our Nature was an Act of Love and Grace to us ward and great Condescension in the Son of God and it belongs to the Constitution of his Person as he now is and is one thing wherein consists his Fitness for that work of Mediation to which he was called and which he had undertaken But his subjection to the Law and his fulfilling it in the form of a Servant is that Righteousness brought in by him for us which is upon us through Faith Proposition IV. Among the performances of Christ as a Priest this Righteousness is his Sponsory Fide-jussory or Suretiship Righteousness viz. That Righ eousness which as our Surety he was obliged to bring in for us and did so I do thus bring down and confine this Righteousness of Christ which is upon us unto his Suretiship-righteousness which is somewhat narrower than the whole of Christs performances as a Priest because there are some things which Christ did as a Priest which yet cannot be said to be any part of this righteousness which is upon us As for instance Christ passed through all
those visible lower Heavens Heb. 4.14 and ascended far above them all Eph. 4.10 and this he did as a Priest though not only as a Priest for it was prefigured and foretold by the Priests going daily from the Altar of Brass which stood without the Temple up unto the Altar of Gold for Incense which stood within the Sanctuary before the Vayl and by the High Priests going once a year in the great day of Atonement up from the Brazen Altar before the door with the Blood of his Sacrifice and with Incense also into the Holy of Holies unto the Mercy-Seat But Christ Ascension or going to Heaven is not a part of this righteousness nor upon us through Faith as this righteousness is Again to give another instance Christ doth intercede and in his so doing he fulfils the Law of his Priestly Office For it was Typified by the Priests offering up Incense and by his bearing the Names of the Twelve Tribes on his Shoulders and on his Breast-plate But the Intercession of Christ cannot be said to be any part of this righteousness which is here said to be upon us Though it be of precious and effectual avail for us and doth procure all our saying Mercies yet it is not imputed to us it is no part of his Suretiship-Righteousness which he hath brought in for us before God Proposition V. This Suretiship-Righteousness of Christ which is through Faith upon Believers is his perfect Conformity to the Moral Law in all that which the Justice of God did by virtue thereof demand in behalf of the Elect from Christ as their Surety that they might not onely in a way of Grace but in a way of Justice be brought to that Eternal Blessedness and Glory whereto God in his infinite love had appointed them The ground of Christs bringing in this righteousness is his being our Surety So he is made by God the Father and by his own undertaking in that Covenant between God and him was he constituted a Surety So he is called expresly Heb. 7.22 and the thing wherein Suretiship doth consist is abundantly affirmed of him in the Scripture Some indeed who would not be accounted Socinians wrangle against and reject this Counsel of God against themselves and thence would have it understood either metaphorically So Trum. gr propit pag. 88 100. or of his being Gods Surety to us to assure to us his performance of his Promises See Mr. B. Script Gosp def p. 76 78. But the thing is plain He who is obliged to pay anothers Debt or any part of it is properly and in strictness his Surety Now so it is between Christ and us he was obliged to pay our Debt and hath done it accordingly His name was put in into the original bond in which we by the Law and Covenant of our creation were bound Herein as God hath in his Infinite Love and Grace consulted well for us so he hath acted according to his own blessed Supremacy and adorable Wisdom without any the least impeachment of his Justice or his Truth in his Law For though the Law name onely us and do directly firstly and immediately bind us as the principal Debtors yet God in substituting his Son to be our Surety doth not in the least recede from his own Truth or from the equity and justice of the Law For as in Contracts between man and man the end and intendment is that the debt be paid whether by the original Debtor himself who contracted it or by another for him it is all one as to the rights of the Creditor they are justly preserved and provided for either way So it is here The highest end and main intendment of the Law is the preserving and securing unto God the honour of his Supremacy Wisdom Holiness and Justice And this is not departed from but provided for and pursued and that with much advantage unto Gods glory as well as our good in his constituting Christ our Surety And therefore in Gods calling Christ unto the work of bringing in this righteousness for us he doth neither revoke nor make void the Law nor recede from his own immutable Truth and Holiness shining in it but establisheth it as the Apostle declares Rom. 3.25 26 31. The rule of this righteousness by which it is measured is the Moral Law and the demands of the Justice of God in our behalf according to it Hence God by this righteousness of Christ doth magnifie his Law and make it Honourable as Isa 42.21 When I say the Moral Law is the rule of this righteousness of Christ I would not be understood as excluding his observing the Ceremonial Ordinances from being a part of his Righteousness It is of Moral Obligation that the positive Ordinances of God should be observed and Christ himself speaks of his observing that positive Ordinance of Baptism as a thing that was incumbent on him that he might fulfill all righteousness Matth. 3.15 The end of this Suretiship-righteousness of Christ is with reference to us that we might and its attainment is that we must and shall be brought in a way wherein Justice as well as Grace is glorified unto that blessedness to which God in his Infinite Love hath fore-appointed us Hence it appears that Electing Love is not the effect or fruit of this righteousness but is indeed the cause and spring of it Election is not procured by it but the bringing in of this righteousness for us is ordained by the Electing Love of God to us So the Scripture speaks Joh. 3.16 and 1 Joh. 4.9 10. God in his Electing us appointed us unto an higher bliss and glory than was proposed to the first Adam in his Covenant or than he could ever have brought his Seed unto He was of the Earth Earthly Christ is the Lord from Heaven 1 Cor. 15. and the Elect are appointed to be married to the Son of God made members of him and co-heirs with him and to be Sons of God as in Christ their Head to whom they are predestinated to be conformed in their Dignities and Priviledges as well as in their qualities spiritual Principles and the frame of their Hearts Rom. 8.29 They are to judge the World yea to judge Angels at the great day 1 Cor. 6.2 3. and in the mean time while they are here they are to be served and ministred unto by them Heb. 1.14 And at last there will be a day when the love wherewith the Father hath loved Christ shall appear to be in them and Christ in them and the World shall know that the Father hath loved them as he hath loved Christ Joh. 17.23 26. These are things higher than Adam or his Covenant would have brought them unto Yet unto these things must they be brought in a way wherein not onely Grace but Justice also shall shine forth and be glorified And therefore God in setting a Crown of Glory on their heads exerts his Justice as well as his Grace his righteousness as well as
of Jesus Christ is meant Faith upon him that Christ is the object not the subject of it Not that Christ is he that believes but he on whom we believe So is this manner of speaking used elsewhere Gal. 2.16 Knowing that a man is justified by the Faith of Jesus Christ we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Jesus Christ And so ver 20. I live by the Faith of the Son of God So in Acts 3.16 By Faith in his Name It is the same case and construction in the Greek as it is here in the Text and in the Galatians and might as well be rendred Faith of his Name You have the like Mark 11.22 Have Faith in God or as your Margins tell you Have the Faith of God It might as well be rendred here Faith in Jesus Christ as it is their Faith in God The Grammer and the meaning is the same in both places It is genitivus objecti not efficient is or subjecti It being then Faith on Christ let us next consider what this Faith is And I shall briefly touch on three things concerning it 1. The subject of Faith is the heart of a convinced broken-hearted humbled sinner Faith is seated and acted in the heart Rom. 10.10 VVith the heart man believeth unto Righteousness And it is the heart of a convinced contrite humbled Sinner Where there is not any conviction of Sin there is no Conviction of Righteousness For as the whole and well do not need so they do not see and feel themselves sick and wounded unto Death will not seek to a Physician nor commit themselves into his hands He that doth not see himself in danger of Death by the Avenger of Blood will not flee to Christ for refuge to lay hold upon him which is the work of Faith or that which the Soul doth in believing as the Apostle sets it forth Heb. 6.18 The very nature of Faith and the Acting of the Soul in it is such as doth imply and include a sight and sense of Sin and Misery and an over-powering practical lively heart-influencing Conviction of utter helplesness in a mans self and unworthiness to be helped by God In believing the Soul looks on it self as in a perishing Condition Luke 15.14 16 17 19. as a poor and needy Friendless and Fatherless Creature Hos 14.3 and betakes it self to Soveraign Grace and Mercy It believes that it may be justified Gal. 2.16 which implyes that it sees it self lyable to condemnation Yea it knows as the Apostle there speaks that men are not justified by the works of the Law that is in its believing it is under a particular and lively Conviction that by the works of the Law neither any other nor it self shall ever be justified and it is thereby influenced to seek to be justified by Christ in this way of believing Not but that after Faith and Pardon and a sense of it too there are deep humblings and meltings of God according to that promise Ezek. 16.61 63. and we see was in her Luke 7.38 Nevertheless a truth it is that Unhumbledness and Pride are inconsistent with true Faith Joh. 5.44 and so also is impenitency and hardness of Heart the Seed of the word of the Gospel will never take root and grow up in such an heart Matth. 21.32 and 13.20 21. 2. The object of Faith is Jesus Christ that is the anointed Saviour or the Name of Christ as 1 Joh. 3.23 and Joh. 1.12 that is Christ as made known and set forth and declared in the Gospel And in the Gospel he is set forth as the Ordinance and Servant of God for saving Sinners of the Sons of Men. Christ is the next and immediate object of Faith God is the ultimate Object of it For by him we come to God Heb. 7.25 and by him we do believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 3. The hearts acting towards this object in its believing is most properly in a way of trust and dependence and affiance The Holy Ghost who is the Author and worker of Faith and who best knows the Nature of it doth in Scripture set it forth by great variety of expressions some proper some metaphorical Trusting and believing in are among the proper expressions whereby the Holy Ghost declares the Nature of Faith and the acting of the Heart therein towards Christ and God by him The former is used by him Eph. 1.12 13. Isa 50.10 and 26.3 4. and often elsewhere The latter is used Gen. 15.6 Joh. 1.12 and 6.29 and 14. 1. Gal. 2.16 2 Tim. 1.12 and in many other places There are also some Metaphorical Expressions used by the Holy Ghost to the same purpose And as they are in their Nature apt and fit to let in a Light of Understanding into our Minds and to guide them in their conceivings concerning the Nature of this Faith through which the Righteousness of Christ comes to be unto all and upon all that believe So the Holy Ghosts using them warrants us to use them in speaking of and describing Faith To give some instances Believing is called looking unto Christ Isa 45.22 and it implyes a looking to him with earnest desire and expectation For that expression in the Prophet is taken from that Ordinance in Moses Numb 21.8 where you find the Israelites directed when stung by the Fiery Serpents to took to the Brazen Serpent that they might not dye but live and be healed Christ shows us that himself was shadowed and prefigured by that Brazen Serpent John 3.14 and his death by the lifting of it up John 12.32 33. and accordingly by their looking to it was believing taught as Christ plainly intimates John 3.15 And therefore as an Israetite who felt himself stung by the Fiery Serpents and dying looked with earnestness of expectation to the Brazen Serpent in like manner doth the Heart of a convinced Sinner work towards Christ in believing Again Believing is called coming to Christ Matth. 11.28 John 6.37 44 45. for in ver 35. he had explained coming to him by believing on him But what manner of coming is it Is it a dead cold careless coming No it is a coming with appetite and affection as an hungry man comes to his Meat and a thirsty man to drink which also is Christs comparison there And thence elsewhere the same Spirit who is the worker of Faith in us and under whose hand the Soul is conducted and doth act in its believing calls it a fleeing unto Christ for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us Heb. 6.18 All the expression sets forth earnestness in the Heart in its believing For they are taken from the practise of one who finding himself in danger of Death from the Avenger of Blood fled unto the City of Refuge the Ordinance for which you may see Numb 35.13 15. or from the practice of a self-convicted self-condemned Criminal among the Jewes who fled to the Tabernacle and caught hold on the Horns
certain perpetuity of a Believers State and the ground thereof The Righteousness of Christ is upon him through Faith His Estate therefore is not cannot be undecided and in suspense They who deny or consider not that this Righteousness of Christ is through Faith upon all that believe and look only to the falseness and slipperiness of our hearts and either imagin some other way then through Faith for its being upon us or hold that we stand not in it but in our own Obedience or Faith as our Righteousness before God it is no marvel if they be for Believers falling away from Grace Their Darkness and Error in those other great Principles of the Gospel naturally leads and betrays them to this uncomfortable unevangelical and racking Error also that a Believers State is in suspense and undecided But 't is a plain case They upon whom the Righteousness of Christ is they are not in a State of suspense their State is not undecided But so it is with all that believe It is true indeed if Believers stood in their own Obedience and in their persevering therein so as to have their State depend on them it might well be uncertain and must be in suspense and undecided till their last breath But their continuance in Obedience and the not failing of their Faith is one of the Priviledges of their Estate and the Effect or Fruit of their having this Righteousness of Christ upon them and not the means or cause thereof But it may be you will ask if it be not in suspense and undecided where is it decided I answer It is not always decided in their own Consciences they may possibly be in the dark about it and wofully tossed with weary fluctuations between hope and fear concerning their own Estate Neither do I mean that it is decided before Men. The work and walk of a true Believer may possibly under the prevailing of Corruption and Temptation and under Gods Dereliction be such as to make him look in the Eyes of Men like a graceless Cast-away Nor is it so publickly and so solemnly decided before all the World of Men and Angels as it shall be at the great Day But yet decided it is and put out of suspense Where In the Court of Heaven where God sits as a Judge passing Sentence concerning the Spiritual Estate of all Men. I mean his word his written word that 's the Court of Heaven there are Men condemned and there they are justifyed in the word God sits as a Judge pronouncing and passing Sentence concerning Mens Estates There he pronounceth a Sentence of Condemnation upon all that are out of Christ and there he pronounceth a Sentence of Justification unto all and upon all that are in Christ by Faith This I mean by the Court of Heaven We should take heed in this matter of having our thoughts vanish into Airy Speculations and Imaginations of I know not what Voices and Proclamations made in Heaven in the hearing of Saints and Angels just as there is here on Earth among Men when Persons arraigned are acquitted The Scripture tells us not of any such thing though it tells us indeed there is Joy in Heaven over a Sinner that repents and though it be made known to Angels when the Estate of an Elect here below is changed yet this is not Gods justifying of him but his revealing to them his being justified Gods justifying us is in and by his word what the Word speaks God speaks and there is the Estate of every one that believes in Christ put out of suspense for ever and immutably and eternally decided For there is an Unchangeable Everlasting Constitution that the Righteousness of Christ is and shall be upon every one that believeth in him Now he with whom God is immutably and everlastingly well-pleased his State certainly is not in suspence and undecided But so is God pleased in Christ with every one that is in him by Faith for this Righteousness of Christ is unto and upon every Believer USE 2. This Doctrine speaks Conviction unto all that are in their Vnbelief You may here see you should here read that your Estate is wretched and woful for the Righteousness of Christ is not upon you it is only upon those who do believe and upon none else And it is upon them through Faith but you are without Faith and therefore have not this Righteousness of Christ upon you And if his Righteousness be not upon you the Wrath of God and the Curse of the Law even of the violated broken Law are upon you Gal. 3 10. For if this Righteousness of Christ be not upon you your Sins are upon you the guilt of them all is upon you As it is said of those Tyrants and Terrors in the Land of the Living in their day that they lay down in their Graves with their Iniquities upon their Bones Ezek. 32.27 So it must be said of you and it should be believed by you of you selves that you walk up and down among the Living with all your Iniquities upon you and if you dye in this Faithless Condition your Souls shall go down to Hell with all the uncircumcised and wicked of the World and the guilt of your Iniquities will be upon you for ever and ever And it is very fearful and overwhelming guilt that is upon you For there is the guilt of innumerable actual sins of thy own perpetration in Deed in Word in Thought and some of them are hainous and amazing Ask thy Conscience else And there is upon thee moreover the guilt of a depraved defiled Nature by that exceeding sinful sin which dwelleth in thee a sort of sin that hath a fulness of evil in it and excessive madness of heart Eccles 9.3 it hath in it Infidelity and Atheisme and Blasphemy and Contempt of God and Enmity a gainst him and also all the flagitious atrocious wickedness against the second Table that ever was committed by any of the Children of Men and moreover all that audaciousness and outrage which ever broke forth in any of the Sons of Belial in their sinning Such an one art thou in thy Heart and Nature before God and therefore in his judgment and his judgment is according to truth guilty before him concerning all these things though perhaps thou hast never felt many of them stirring in thy bosom And moreover there is upon thee the guilt of thy first Fathers sinning and disobedience when he turned Rebel against God thou wast involved in that woful deed of his and guilt and condemnation is upon the thereby Rom. 5.18 19. and from that sin of thy first Father thou canst never be discharged and justified unless this Righteousness of Christ be upon thee through Faith Isa 43.27 And lastly over and above the guilt of all these sins there is also upon thee the guilt of disobeying the Gospel in refusing and despising this Righteousness of Christ tender'd and brought near unto thee when thou art in such a