THE TRUE NOTION OF Imputed Righteousness AND OUR Justification thereby BEING A supply of what is lacking in the late Book of that most Learned Person Bishop Stillingfleet which is a Discourse for Reconciling the Dissenting Parties in London but dying before he had finished the two last and most desired Chapters thereof he hath left this main point therein Intended without Determination By the Reverend M. S. a Countrey Minister But now the righteousness of God without the Law is manifested being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets Even the righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all that believe for there is no difference For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3. 21 22 23 24. LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns near Mercers-Chappel in Cheapside 1700. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Courteous Reader THese Sheets were sent from an humble and modest and therefore the more considerate Minister of the Country to a Minister in London to be printed as he thought meet They came up without any Title at all to them and without any Partition and the Title therefore and the Sections are put to them by another when they came hither It is like that the Author never saw nor heard of this late Book of the Bishop seeing few that see it and read it but are displeased and they may well be so with that Person or Persons whosoever they be who were entrusted with his Papers that they should give an unfinished Discourse to the Bookseller or Printer who for their part yet cannot be faulted for accepting their profit to be published to the great disappointment of so many as expected satisfaction from such a hand The truth is they have herein dealt with the Bishop's Book as Hanun dealt with David's Servants they have sent the poor thing out with the garments as it were cut off in the middle and thereby as it needs must be greatly ashamed If for the covering this nakedness now we should have made use of any present clouts that were at hand though we had no such rich attire for it as himself would have put on it we might be excused But seeing the Cloathing we bring is for being home-spun and Countrey made the more substantial it may not only be excused but accepted as like to serve the purpose better then if it were finer in regard to such for whom intentionally the sheets were written By one who was desired to peruse the Manuscript but unknown to the Author THE AUTHOR TO THE READER Readers HAving done my Book there is one thing you are to understand or I am farther to acquaint you with that whereas my Adversaries charge me with contradicting our Reformers and being one with the Papists they cannot make good the charge and therefore 't is a slander For our Reformers what they writ upon the point was against the Papists who contended for Justification by inherent Grace and good Works as a Conformity to the violated Law i. e. the Law of Innocency and also that this Righteousness was in its own Nature Meritorious of Justification and Salvation but here or in this I do as much oppose the Papists as our Reformers and so am one with them in this respect in the point so far am I from contradicting them So that if the Persons my resolved Adversaries will have me to be one with the Papists and against our Reformers when I affirm that Faith in Christ is the qualifying though not the meriting matter of our Justification or that which is the Qualification giving right to Christ and his purchased saving benefits which follow hereupon they must prove that it is so accounted by me as it is a Conformity to that Law which requires sinless perfect Works and condemns for non-performance of the same and also to be meritorious of Life according to that Law or else all they say contradicts not me and if not then all their noise is but a beating the Air and so to no purpose seeing they are quite off from the matter in question The Papists affirm that the Law of God may be perfectly kept in this Life and that they intend the Law injoining perfect sinless Works is manifest seeing that our Protestants in opposition assert that no mortal Man is able to keep the Law of God perfectly in this Life and that it is no way possible to keep the same perfectly for if Man by Grace as the Papists say might perform the Law he might deliver himself by Grace from the Curse but now are we redeemed from the Curse only by Christ who was made a Curse for us and again say they if the Righteous Man keep the Law then he is without Sin for where there is no transgression of the Law there is no Sin but no Man is without Sin so that the opinion of the Papists upon the point is that the uniea formalis causa Justificationis est justitia Dei qua nos justos facit quam quisque in se recipit i. e. The only formal cause of our Justification is the Righteousness of God whereby we are not reputed just but are made just indeed This is the Righteousness which a Man hath within himself and is inherent in him and this justice or Righteousness it is plain they account an exact Conformity to the Law which requires perfect sinless Works for they teach that it is not only possible for Men to keep the Law of God in this Life but to do more than is prescribed or commanded in that Men of their abundance may allot unto others such works of supererogation These therefore who bring me into such worthy company as Mr. Baxter Mr. Humfrey Mr. Clerk whom they charge with Popery as they do me in the Doctrine of Justification because they affirm a practical Faith to be the qualifying matter of right to Christ and his saving purchased benefits which follow thereupon when every where they deny it to be the meriting matter asserting that to be Christ's Righteousness and his only do manifestly wrong and slander them and me for before our Adversaries can make us one with the Papists upon the matter in Question i e. in the point of Justification they have to prove that we hold these following things 1. That a Man in this Life by the Grace of God received may be perfectly conform'd to that Law which requires sinless Works 2. That Grace and good Works in their own nature considered as inherent do justifie 3. That they do so in the account of the above mentioned Law which injoins sinless Works 4. That the same Law which requires sinless Works is the Instrument of our Justification or that by which God doth judge or account Persons righteous upon their Conformity thereunto and so justifies them by it Now these things are so far from being holden
promise for sinners upon their sincere repentance and faith There are promises of pardon and everlasting life to sinners that repent and believe Acts 3. 19. John 3. 16. Now for any to affirm that these promises are made and the grace promised granted to sinners who repent and believe without regard had by God unto Christ as the purchaser of them by his meritorious satisfactory righteousness is for them to affirm that God grants and gives saving grace to penitent sinners which Christ never purchased nor merited and this is for none but the Socinian to hold 2. This Law or Covenant of Grace thus purchased and granted injoins sinners faith in Christ which faith is never without repentance nor sincere obedience if the believer be continued after the gift of faith for undoubtedly if the believer live in this World after the gift of faith so long as he doth live through the grace of God he continues obedient 1 John 3. 23. Matt. 21. 30. Heb. 5. 9. 3. Christ by his righteousness hath purchased and merited the Holy Spirit to work faith in the hearts of all those sinners who thereby are brought to believe John 14. 26. John 15. 26. The Spirit is sent by the Father in Christ's name and sent by Christ from the Father Let any one now prove that what the Father gives in Christ's name and what Christ sends from the Father is not purchased and merited by him And the Spirit is called the Spirit of Faith i. e. the principal Efficient or Author of it 2 Corinth 4. 13. 4. I believe that all those who by the Grace and Spirit of Christ do sincerely believe shall for and upon the account of Christ's satisfaction and meritorious righteousness be saved but as for such as live and die in infidelity they shall be â—amned notwithstanding Christ's merits and that because they have rejected the remedy through their unbelief I speak of the Adult John 3. 16. 18. 36. 5. I do believe that as the first Covenant did require sinless perfect constant obedience Galat. 3. 10 so this obedience performed by innocent Adam would have been his justifying righteousness or that righteousness upon which this Law or Covenant would have justified him or given him a right to Life promised which is all one with Justification if confusion can but be removed and this without any regard had to the righteousness of another Rom. 10. 5. 6. I believe that as the second Covenant i. e. the Covenant of Grace doth require true Faith so where there is this true Faith which is the righteousness this Covenant calls for on the Sinner's part this Covenant doth as certainly justifie the sinner thereupon i. e. give him a right to Pardon and Life as the Covenant of works would have justified Adam and given him a right to life had he continued in the state of integrity Though observe That it is with regard had to the righteousness and satisfaction of Christ that this Faith is accepted and accounted by God in the Covenant of Grace for a sinner's personal justifying righteousness instead of that sinless perfect righteousness which the Covenant of Works injoined And is not this wonderful Grace I add it is Faith in the sense of the Gospel giveth Sinners interest in Christ and a right to all saving benefits he hath purchased and so merited which right given by the Covenant of Grace is its justifying the Soul as God's moral Instrument Though still I most firmly hold that it is for the sake of Christ alone and his righteousness that the believing sinner hath this right and that this his Faith which is the gift of God is accepted as a personal righteousness instead of sinless perfect obedience I do not say by the same Law i. e. the Law of innocency or perfect works no but by the Covenant of Grace which accepts of sincerity instead of strict legal perfection I deny then with abhorrence that Faith is any such thing as a satisfactory and meritorious righteousness in whole or in part such a righteousness being proper to our blessed Mediatour the Lord 〈◊〉 But then I do not deny but affirm that a true and living Faith is by God in the Gospel constituted that righteousness which giveth sinners right both to Christ and all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace And grant me but according to Scripture Rom. 3. 21 22. Rom. 4. 13. Philipp 3 9. that Faith is a righteousness and such a righteousness as the Gospel calls for and that it giveth right according to the Gospel promise to Christ and his purchased benefits and see then what ground there is to deny it the place of a justifying righteousness I ask doth it give any interest in Christ and right to the blessings he hath purchased if not then an Infidel must have as great an interest in Christ and as much right to Pardon and Life as a believer If you say that Faith doth give interest in Christ and right to these blessings then you say the same with me i. e. that for the sake of Christ God by the Gospel hath constituted Faith to be our personal justifying righteousness or that which gives us interest in Christ and an actual right to the blessings purchased by and promised through him and this is the justification by Faith I intend and all that I know of in and by the Gospel Justification by all is acknowledged to be a Law term if so then the matter of Justification is jus secundum legem a right in Law and this right in Law results immediately from a conformity to that Law and the conformity to that Law is the righteousness which that Law requires And the Legislator or Law-maker justifying a person is his judging asserting or accounting by this his Law a person upon his conformity thereunto to have right to the priviledges contained in the premiant or rewarding â—art thereof If the matter stand thus then in the nature of Justification as is clear none can be justified by the Law of Innocency or that Law which injoins sinless perfect works for we can have no right in or by that Law to Pardon and Life and that because thaâ—â—â—w relates to Man considered in the state of sinless â—ntegrity who as such having no need of Pardon it makes no provision for it And 2 We cannot have right in or by that Law to Life seeing none of the fallen race of Adam can yield conformity thereunto and so cannot have that righteousness which answers this Law And if so as is plain then God the Legislator or Author of this Law doth not cannot judge assert or account that any have a right in or by this Law to Pardon and Life and so doth not nor cannot justifie us by it and if not doth not nor cannot account a perfect legal righteousnesâ— such as Christ's is to be our personal justifying righteousness for if so then we should be personally righteous in the sense of the Law of Innocency But
are we If it be said not in our selves but in Christ we are I answer if not in our selves then we are not nor cannot be personally righteous or righteous in our own persons by a perfect legal righteousness and so according to your grant the righteousness of Christ is not nor cannot be our formal personal righteousness seeing that that is a perfect legal righteousness If it be said we are personally righteous in the sense of the Law of Innocency in Christ then we must be righteous in our selves and this contradicts the former that we are not thus righteous in our selves for how can a Man be righteous in his person but he must be righteous in himself Find me who can the person of a Man without the nature of a Man and further to say we are perfectly legally righteous in another suppose by imputation or in God's account in our own Persons is to say that God accounts us to he perfectly legally righteous in our selves â— for so he must if he account us thus righteous in our own Persons and not to be perfectly legally righteous in our selves because only so in another and not in our selves and does this become the infiniâ—â— wise God of Truth Now then if Justification be a Law act or the act of God as Legislator by his Law and it is not nor cannot be the act of God by the Law of Innocency then we must either have another Law and such a righteousness as is a conformity to that Law or else we must have no Justification And look what Law it is conformity to which gives us for the sake of Christ a right to Pardon and Life that conformity must be our justifying righteousness and God by this Law doth judge assert or account which is all one with â—mpâ—tation that we have a right for Christ's Merits sake to the priviledges above mentioned what Law now can this be but the Law of Grace the Gospâ—â— called the Law of Faith because it commands Faith and threatens damnation in case of unbelief and promises â—or Christ's sake Pardon and Life upon believing Johâ— â— 16. This Faith is a practical Faith and so includes the whole of what the Gospel commands and consequently repentance and sincere obedience to 〈…〉 of the Moral Law Isa 55. 3. for I am for from thinking that a notional Faith is a 〈…〉 â—â—ne manifest it is that God by his Law 〈…〉 justifies us for the â—â—isfaction and merits of Christ upon conformity hereunto and this conformity in our personal righteousness or that which gives us right by this Law to the benefits respecting eternal Salvation which Christ hath purchased and thus it must be unless Persons will say and prove that to justifie is not to have a right in Law and then Justification must not be a Law act if it be granted it is then this right must be a righteousness and the righteousness of our persons as we through God's Grace in our own persons do yield conformity to it But some may say it must 〈◊〉 sinless perfect righteousness which must justifie us but Faith is no such righteousness This Objection speaks great Ignorance in the Objectors 1. Of the nature of the two Covenants i. e. the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace and 2. Of the nature of Justification or justifying righteousness as it is jus secundum legem a right in Law But to the Objection I Answer If you speak of Justification by the Law of Works I grant it must be such a righteousness but what do you hope to be justified by that Law if so you must not be offended if I tell you in the words of the Apostle you are fallen from grace Galat. 5. 4. But if you speak of Justification by the Gospel which is the Justification I plead for and I hope shall ever stand by then such a righteousness is not required but faith is that righteousness as hath been proved though still this faith is neither accounted nor accepted for a justifying righteousness but for the sake of a sinless perfect righteousness that is to say the righteousness of Christ God man Mediatour Rom. 3. 24 25 26. But it may be further said faith is our own righteousness and if we be justified by faith we must be justified by our own righteousness I Answer that we are justified by faith relatively or as it respects Christ as the Object the Scripture is express and full for it Rom. 3. 30. Gal. 3. 8. Rom. 3. 28. Rom. 5. 1. Galat. 2. 16. Acts 13. 39. let any Man prove that in these Scriptures faith is not intended but only its object But further for Answer if by our own righteousness be meant such a righteousness of which we are the Efficient Causes or Authors or the purchasing meritorious Cause I deny that faith is our own righteousness but if by our own righteousness be meant such a righteousness as is the gift of God and the fruit of Christ's Merits and of which we as qualified Subjects are the performers so I grant faith is our own righteousness and though we are justified by it yet we are justified freely by Grace Rom. 4. 16. Ephes 2. 8. But the Objection may be retorted when it is said Christ's righteousness in its self or in its own nature in our Justification is by God accounted our very â—ormal personal righteousness doth not God so far as he accounts it make it ours if not then we have no propriety at all in it and if not how can it then be our very formal personal justifying righteousness if he do make it ours in this imputation then it must be ours by gift and what is ours by gift must be our own So that those who are for this strict imputation of Christ's righteousness must hold also Justification by their own righteousness or by a righteousness which by God is accounted their own But again it may be said if we be justified by faith we must be justified by an inherent righteousness and we are not I Answer if God's imputing or accounting by his Law or Covenant of Grace faith for righteousness which is the form of Justification be Justification by inherent righteousness then God's imputing Christ's righteousness unto us for Justification must be justifying us also by an inherent righteousness for the form is the same in both and if it be the form that makes the justifying righteousness inherent then justifying righteousness must be inherent in the one as well as the other But the form speaks that Justification is not by Faith absolutely inhering But if it be said further that Christ is the subject of that righteousness which is our formal personal justifying righteousness but we are the subjects of Faith I Answer if the righteousness of Christ be our formal personal righteousness then whatever Christ be we must however be the subjects of this righteousness and if so it must be our inherent as well as our imputed righteousness Thus then
as they are Men and if so then they must prove the Person is justified but not the Man or the Person is formally righteous with Christ's righteousness but not the Man how this will be performed if the proof of it be undertaken I cannot tell But before I pass this I further urge if Christ's righteousness be the righteousness of our Nature which it must be if it be our formal personal righteousness then it must be a quality inhering and if it be a quality inhering then we are made the Subjects and so we must have that which is proper unto and inseparable from such a Subject i. e. Christ removed and existing seperate from its own proper Subject in this and the other Believer which cannot be the Subjects thereof no more than Christ's Body can be the Subject of the accidents of Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper Alas alas that Men should be accounting the Popish Transubstantiation such a Monster and yet cannot nor will not see what they themselves are forming And upon the matter I would desire it might be considered whether there be any such thing as a personal justifying righteousness the matter of which is not inherent But it may be further objected if Faith be our formal personal justifying righteousness is not the difference betwixt Justification and Sanctification hereby taken away and so these two great priviledge which in Scripture are spoken of as really distinct confounded and jumbled into one By what hath been said above the Objectors if they will but consider are strangely intanged in the briers of this Objection themselves asserting Christ's righteousness to be their formal personal righteousness and so the righteousness of their Natures and so make the sanctifying Grace of the Spirit of no use But however for Answer to the Objection I shall I hope make it appear that although I affirm that Faith is our personal justifying Gospel Righteousness and also own it to be a sanctifying Grace that Justification and Sanctification are yet distinct and by this Doctrine not conâ—ounded but still keep the difference assigned unto them by God in his Word Faith then as sanctifying is that which purifies the Heart Acts 15 9. it is a renewing by the Spirit of the moral Image of God consisting in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness Coloss 3. 10. Ephes 4. 24. so that the Soul which was only carnally disposed and inclined before is having Spiritual Illumination disposed and inclined principally to embrace Spiritual Objects and here we consider Faith absolutely as a change of the Nature Faith as justifying gives a right to Christ and for his Merits sake to Pardon and Life by virtue of God's gracious appointment in his Covenant of Grace in his Imputation of it to give this right and here I consider Faith relatively as a change of the state i. e. the Sinner that before was a Child of Wrath and an Heir of Hell upon a sincere Faith hath that relation changed and is accounted by God for Christ's Righteousness his Child by Adoption and an Heir of Heaven and Eternal Life John 1. 12. Galat. 3. 26. Faith as sanctifying relates to Christ as Physitian healing by his Spirit of Grace the sinful distempered Soul Faith as justifying relates to Christ as Rector and Judge who by his Law of Grace hereuâ—â—â— doth declare that Soul who was as a Criminal was condemned in Law before now to be pardoned and to have right to everlasting Life There is as much difference betwixt Faith as it Sanctifies and as it Justifies as betwixt an healing Medicine and a Title and Right in Law to Pardon and an Inheritance So that as the same Person may have divers Offices and may be distinguished according to his Offices so is the same Faith distinguished as sanctifying and justifying The same Man may be both a Physitian and a Judge Now will any Man that is right in his Head say that the administring of Physick and the dispensing and executing of Law are both one because both performed by the same Person Those who accuse me and others of confounding Justification and Sanctification when we say that Faith is our personal justifying Righteousness according to God's gracious Constitution or Law they themselves say that Faith doth not only Sanctifie but that it is the Instrument of Justification Now give me leave upon the Point to ask these Men whether they themselves do not make a difference betwixt Faith as it Sanctifies and as it is an Instrument of Justification if they say yea they do do not they then themselves according to their own notion distinguish of the same Faith as sanctifying and as justifying in their Sense and seeing they will not call this a confounding of Justification and Sanctification What reason have they to call our Notion so when we consider Faith as absolute in Sanctification and relative in Justification as hath been cleared If this be so then it may be said Sanctification must be before Justification I Answer They that make the Objection say this as much as we in case they will have Faith to be the Instrument of Justification for surely Faith must be had before it can be an Instrument unless they can prove a Man may use Hands that hath none But however since this is cast in our way we shall a little essay to cleaâ—â— If we take Sanctification then for the very first Seeds of Grace which in their own Nature have a virtue to dispose and incline the Soul to a thankful acceptance of Christ so that the real consent of the Will is gained thus Sanctification is before Justification But if we take it for a more fixed and rooted habit of Grace so it is after Justification The Heart must be first disposed and inclined to open to Christ that so he may have it for his habitation before it will actually open Hence so soon as ever the Soul upon this disposition doth give its consent to accept of the Lord Jesus to be its only Propitiation Head and Teacher the Sinner hath interest in him and by virtue of the Gospel promise hath an actual right unto the blessed benefits of Pardon and Life purchased by him 'T is said of Lydia the Lord opened her Heart and so Revel 3. 20. But it may be said are not the first Seeds of Grace saving I Answer The Seeds of Grace considered as such they have an healing or saving virtue in their own Nature but they are not actually healing or saving to me until they prevail against the corrupt sinful disposition and inclination of my Will I know in what Soul so ever God Sows the Seeds of true Grace those Seeds shall prove healing and saving through Christ they shall prevail against the sinful corrupt disposition of the Will 1 Peter 1. 23. but they are not thus healing and saving to any Soul until they do so Such a Medicine appointed for the recovering of Health it hath an healing quality but though it be taken 't
Psalmist determine Psalm 45. 13 14. The King's daughter is all glorious within her cloathing is of wrought gold She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of Needle-work the Virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee And so the Apostle Paul Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing 5. A Fifth Text is in 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 This Righteousness of God say they is the Righteousness of Christ imputed and accounted to be a Believer's formal personal Righteousness but that by the Righteousness of God in this Scripture and others cannot be meant the Righteousness of Christ is manifest 1. Because this righteousness which is called the righteousness of God is opposed unto the righteousness of the Law and is said ver 21. to be without the Law But the righteousness of Christ is not opposed to the righteousness of the Law he being conformed unto the Law both in habit and act 2. By the righteousness of God cannot be meant God's righteousness it self I hope they will grant and if not then from it they cannot gather that the righteousness of Christ in it self is imputed seeing it is a divine as well as an humane righteousness unless they will say it is the humane righteousness of Christ only which is imputed in it self and if so it could nothing avail them for though it be true the humane righteousness of Christ would have availed himself as the Law of Innocency justified him thereupon as a righteous Man Yet it would have availed us nothing at all without the conjunction of his divine righteousness seeing without this it would not have been for others satisfactory and meritorious therefore I conclude that Faith in Jesus Christ is the righteousness which is here called the righteousness of God and that because God by the Gospel hath constituted and appointed this to be that which he will accept instead of legal perfect righteousness and for the sake of Christ's satisfactory and meritorious righteousness will justifie us by his Law of Grace and thereby give right to Pardon and Life What hath been said to this Text may be sufficient to give light to understand the meaning of that Text so much urged Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith And so Rom. 1. 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just shall live by faith Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 6. The sixth Text is Rom. 4. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessâ—dness of the Man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works This righteousness say they which God in this Text is said to impute can be no other but the righteousness of Christ There hath been enough said to shew it cannot be righteousness of Christ in it self which is imputed I would gladly have Men to consider what the Apostle in this his dispute undertakes to prove can any thing be more clear than that it is Justification by Faith in opposition unto the works of the Law both of Innocency and Moses But here is the grand mistake of these Men when the Apostle is only excluding works with relation to the Law of Innocency or the Law of Moses from Justification they understand him universally as excluding also Gospel works such as Faith c. which yet nothing can be more express and plain the Apostle is pleading for Justification by Verse 9. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness And this Apostle at the fifth ver of this Chapter affirms that faith is accounted for righteousness And if so which is express then faith must be the righteousness of which the fifth Verse speaks Well but say they it is not faith that is this righteousness but the object Christ's righteousness if they mean it is not faith abstracted or seperate from its object that is this righteousness I say the same for it is no true faith which hath not Christ for its object But if they mean that it is the object it self that justifies and not faith with relation unto the object here I must leave them and that because I must believe the Apostle before them and there is nothing in all the Scripture more manifest than that though there be neither conformity to the Law of Innocency nor the Law of Moses though a Man neither can nor shall be accounted by God righteous in the sense of these Laws yet where there is a consormity to the Gospel Law we have David's testimony saith the Apostle that Man shall be blessed and this his conformity shall be by God accounted for righteousness And what wonderful grace is it that God will accept for the sake of Christ the sincere obedience of faith instead of a sinless perfect obedience But say these Men if you are justified by faith you are justified by works and so exclude the grace of God The Apostle saith the contrary Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace Verse 16. But this I suppose they cannot or will not understand but think that if it be by faith it must be by a work exclusive of grace They consider not that faith is the free gift of God through Christ and that it is by grace that God saves through faith Ephes 2. 8. For by grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God A Soul being by the Holy Spirit convinced of its own sinful and lost condition and its own inability and insufficiency to save it self out of this condition by the light of the Gospel it hath a discovery there is a sufficiency of Satisfaction Merit Power and Spirit in Christ for its Pardon and Life beside a free offer herein of this grace unto it immediately as it is really burdened with Sin and under the fears of eternal perishing and so truly willing of Christ and his Grace above all the World upon which the Soul penitentially renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil gives its actual consent to accept of Christ for its Propitiation Head and Teacher and so to be subject to God in him by the Holy Spirit Here now is the
Innocency that is a righteousness but faith is no such righteousness Conformity to the Gospel or Law of Grace that is a righteousness and faith is this righteousness it is a conformity unto the Gospel command John 3. 23. And this is his commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave commandment And it is expresly said to be counted for righteousness in the 4th of the Romans Therefore if there be no righteousness but what is a conformity to the Law of Innocency so indeed faith is no righteousness seeing it is not a conformity to that Law and thus the Antecedent would be true but know there is a righteousness which is a conformity to the Gospel Law and faith is this righteousness seeing it is a conformity to this Law And thus the Antecedent appears to be false and so the Consequent 2. Say they Faith is not our personal justifying righteousness because it is a work I Answer This Argument supposeth that there is no Justification by a personal righteousness and if no Justification by a personal righteousness then there must be no such thing as a Justification of any Person at all for if there be a Justification by a personal righteousness then there must be Justification by a work for to tell of Justification by a personal righteousness and yet also to tell that there is no such thing as Justification by any work is to say that there is a Justification by a personal righteousness and there is not a Justification by a personal righteousness because no Justification by any work than which nothing can be more absurd But it may be said there is no such thing as Justification by a personal righteousness of our own I Answer To tell of a personal righteousness and yet say it is not mine after any sort is as much as to say a personal righteousness and not a personal righteousness which still is a manifest contradiction for how can I be personally righteous with a righteousness that is not mine after some sort Yes it may be it will be said Christ's righteousness whereby we are justified is our own by Imputation If so then God accounts it to be the righteousness of your Persons or how can your Persons be justified by it And if God account it to be the righteousness of your Persons then he must account you in your own Persons to be conformed to some Law hereby or else how should Justification as all that call themselves Protestants confess be a juridical or Law act And can you be conformed in your own Persons to a Law without a work We are you may say conformed to the Law in our own Persons by the work and obedience of another i. e. Christ to that Law This now is as much as to say that you are conformed to the Law in your own Persons without any personal conformity still contradiction Well but Christ's personal conformity to the Law is reckoned by God in our Justification to be our personal conformity if so then God must account you to be perfect fulfillers of the Law and if God do this he must account you also to be performers of the obedience that Law calls for or he cannot account you fulfillers After all this now here is the mistery still you will deny that you are justified by a Covenant of Works or by any work accounted by God to be your own Here is the Riddle look who can unfold it so that plain it is some Persons will not have Faith to be a justifying righteousness because it is a work and yet they themselves according to their own notion must and do hold Justification by perfect legal works which are excluded from Justification by the Holy Scripture while it speaks expresly of Justification by Faith as hath been shewn above Well but we are not justified by any works subjectively in us or done by us I Answer you say they are yours by Imputation and if so God must account them not only to be done by you but to be subjectively in you for if God do account me to have personally done this or the other which he must do if he impute what Christ hath done to me and so account his obedience to be my formal personal righteousness he must account me to be or to have been the subject of that work Actiones sunt suppositorum but this I have cleared above But why will they not admit of Faith as justifying righteousness because it is a work I suppose they think it would occasion boasting now the Scripture speaks far otherwise The Holy Spirit in it saith where all is received of free gift there is no ground for boasting and sure I am nothing is more express than Faith to be freely given And the Apostle is express that boasting is excluded by the Law of Faith or that Law which commands Faith in Christ and if by the Law of Faith then by Faith it self where it is for true Faith where it is 't is of that nature as to set the Crown wholly upon Christ's Head and keep the Soul that hath it low and humble But now as to the other Law i. e. the Law of perfect sinless works such works as have no Sin attends them if we seek for Justification by a righteousness which is a conformity thereunto here is a foundation for boasting and that because if I be justified by it I must merit and deserve in my own Person Life by my conformity thereunto and so the merit of another must be wholly excluded this is that now which some Persons do not take heed unto when they say that Gospel works such as Faith in the matter of Justification I mean the qualifying matter lays a foundation for boasting they should prove before they can have ground for their Assertion that Faith hath a purchasing meritorious efficacy but this they do not nor cannot For though Adam had what he had both of Moral and Natural integrity by the grace of Creation yet had he continued to have yielded conformity to the Law of Innocency he might have boasted in this and depended upon it as a righteousness which would have merited and deserved the continuance of Life for him Persons may be high pretenders to exalt Christ and his righteousness but if they will have a righteousness which is a conformity to the Law of Innocency to be their personal justifying righteousness they must have a personal meritorious righteousness and these must open a wide door for boasting But if Persons will have Justification by Faith as a personal Gospel righteousness to give them right which is for this constituted by God for Christ's Merits this wholly excludes all boasting as to the having a personal righteousness that is in it self or in its own nature satisfying and meriting and thus Christ and the grace of God in him in a Sinner's Justification and Salvation is exalted This Law of Faith is
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
as to the material part of your Justification Whereas the Scripture saith we are justified by his blood i. e. his Blood must purchase and merit that which justifies as well as God's Imputation of it but will you say that Christ's Blood purchased and merited Christ's righteousness which you say is the very matter of Justification 3. Christ's righteousness only say they must be our justifying righteousness because Believers have union and communion with him This is no Argument we grant that all true Believers have union and communion with Christ but then it is affirmed generally this union is by Faith and communion of his part not by the communication of his righteousness which is proper to himself as Mediatour but by the communication of his Grace the fruit of his purchase by virtue of his righteousness the merit hereof 4. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because this was the end of his fulfilling the Law I Answer if they speak of Christ's Obedience to the Law of Innocency I grant he yielded perfect conformity to that Law both in habit and act But then that this was the end that his righteousness should be imputed unto us as our very formal personal righteousness remains to be proved for if they speak of Christ's active Obedience here it was an ingredient into the meritorious cause of our Redemption Reconciliation and Acceptation Galat. 4. 4 5. For when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons Heb. 7. 26. For such an High Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled seperate from sinners and made higher than the heavens And as such it cannot be imputed unto us as our personal righteousness as is manifest And there is this upon the matter I would have considered i. e. in God's justifying you doth he account the righteousness which you say is the very matter of yâ—â—r Justification to be Christs and his only or does he account it to be the righteousness of another if he account it to be his only then how doth he account it to be your personal righteousness If he account it to be the personal righteousness of another suppose of a Believer then how doth he account it to be Christs and his only That which is Christs and his only cannot be mine in it self that which is mine and the very formal righteousness of my Person cannot be Christs and his only because God must account it to be mine as well as Christs True indeed Grace is Christs and his only both as the purchaser Lord Treasurer and the great mean of conveyance but then Christ's righteousness which is proper to him is nor cannot be for communication to us as grace is seeing it is for satisfaction and so respects God immediately and for merit and so the grace of Justification Adoption c. must be the blessed fruits hereof We have upon Repentance and Faith Reconciliation and Peace with God for the satisfaction given to God but we have not that which made satisfaction we have likewise Justification Pardon and Life for his Merits if true penitent Believers but we have not that in it self which merited this Grace It is very strange that Persons should so much as think that that which was the satisfaction and merit should be given to them in it self and that God should account them such as satisfied God's Justice in Christ and merited Pardon and Life in Christ These Men they condemn the Papists for saying Christ merited that we might merit and yet cannot nor will not see that they are holding the same themselves in the strictest Sense True it is for Christ's satisfaction we have Peace and for his Merits we have Spirit and Grace But then to tell of our satisfying in Christ and meriting in Christ as though we might have Peace for our satisfying in him and Grace for our meriting in him 't is mighty gross I know here they will say they hold no such thing I Answer If â—en will hold that they either do not or will not understand what or who can help them But it would do well if they would consider that so long as they hold Christ and themselves to be one legal Person 't is not possible whatever their practice be they should hold any less in the notion 5. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because we are debtors to the Law both to perform perfect obedience and also to suffer punishment for the violation of it Now seeing say they we can do neither so as to make satisfaction and have Justification the righteousness of Christ in it self must be our personal justifying righteousness and so accounted by God I Answer Though we can neither by our Obedience nor suffering make Satisfaction and have Justification by the Law yet for Christ's Satisfaction and Obedience whereby the Justice of God is answered and the repute and credit of God's violated Law is kept up and the ends of God's governing Justice secured there is no obligation lying upon any Believer seeing a new Covenant is purchased to perform perfect Obedience nor can any true Believer be under obligation to suffer the punishment threatned by the violated Law seeing that such an one is actually delivered from the execution of the Curse by Christ's satisfactory righteousness Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit true soul uniting Faith to Christ giving him a right hereunto for Christ's sake and this God imputes unto them for righteousness according to the Law of Grace 6. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because Do this i. e. perfectly obey the Law and live is a fixed Rule but no Man can perfectly fulfill the Law of Innocency therefore Christ's righteousness must be so imputed by God that so in his account believers may be said to have done this i. e. perfectly fulfilled the Law that they may live It is manifest by this Argument the Objectors will have Justification by that Law which requires perfect sinless works But let them know do this according to that Law and live or be justified is not a fixed stated Rule to any Man upon Earth but believe and live for the sake of Christ John 3. 26. 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 Mark 26. 26. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Acts 26. 31. And they said Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
if we are then it will either be accepted of God or it will not If it will not Then to what purpose is it performed If it will Then is it of Grace that God accepts it And if of Grace must it not be accepted in and through Christ's Satisfactory and Meritorious Righteousness If so then it must be revealed by God in his word to be his will that we should thus obey i. e. sincerely and that we shall be accepted through Christ hereupon this will of God commanding is either a Law or it is not If not then there is no Transgression if we do not obey if it be then they must grant us a Law of Grace which for the sake of Christ will accept of sincere obedience instead of perfect and also they must grant that Christ hath purchased this or else they and all Mankind upon a supposition that God had continued Man should still have been obliged to sinless obediâ—â—ce as a condition or qualification of Life and so for want of obedience of this sort we should all have been left to the execution of the Curse and been damned for ever And observe this Law of Grace of which we speak doth not destroy the Moral Law summarily contained in the Ten Commands for we say still we are under obligation to have respect unto and obey all its commands in avoiding Sins which are forbidden and performing the duties which are commanded therein But this is that we say that we cannot nor do not perfectly obey though we have a principle of Grace wrought in us by the Holy Spirit but yet we sincerely obey and have respect unto its commands this shall be pleasing and acceptable to God for the sake of our blessed Mediatour And seeing such obedience would not have been accepted of God upon a supposition that fallen Man could have performed it of himself which I am sure he could not had not the Lord Jesus Christ by his Satisfaction and Merit procured it should is not here a plain different constitution and so a new Law purchased by Christ distinct from that which Adam in the state of Innocency was under But upon the matter some say the obedience injoined Adam and the obedience commanded us now is the same specifically or in its own nature and differs only gradually and therefore the Law must be the same and there is no necessity of a new one I Answer grant we that the obedience doth only differ gradually considered materially yet the obedience injoined us formally differs from that of Innocent Adam's and therefore cannot be of the same nature with his for our obedience is to be performed by us as penitent Subjects not so innocent Adam's and also in Faith of acceptation through a Redeemer and Mediatour but not so innocent Adam's so that our obedience now formally differs from that of Adam's in Innocency and therefore differs from it specifically and not only gradually and hence there must be a new constitution or Law injoining it Or else what warrant have we for it But suppose there should be only a gradual difference when indeed there is more as is manifest yet it doth not follow that the Law commanding is the same for it is sinless obedience the Law of Innocency requires and it will accept of no less now if less be accepted we must have a new Revelation and so a new warrant for it from a command or else what foundation for it or incouragement unto it and seeing we have a new Revelation and so a new warrant from God's command of this obedience then we must have a Law to which it relates distinct from that given to Innocent Man but in the very matter of obedience we shall find that injoined us which was not commanded Adam in the Law of Innocency nor indeed did suit at all with the nature of such a Law which will make it further evident we must have a new Law as fallen Creatures distinct from that Isa 1. 16 17 18. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil Learn to do well seek judgment relieve the oppressed judge the fatherless plead for the widow Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wooll Isa 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Ezech. 18. 21 22. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die All his transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him in his righteousness that he hath done he shall live Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord c. What is required in these Texts is the revealed will of God which Sinners through his Grace are to be subject unto And is not subjection where it is yielded obedience Can this will of God then thus commanding be any other than a Law seeing that non-performance must be a manifest transgression and disobedience Let it be considered then if what we find commanded in these Texts was injoyned Adam before his fall had he needed to wash him and make him clean and put away the evil of his doings was he then wicked and called upon to forsake his wicked ways and sinful thoughts and turn unto the Lord before he was guilty of any transgression was he called upon before his fall to repent and be converted that his Sins might be blotted out before he had any Sin and to believe in a Redeemer that he might be saved or are these the commands of the Law requiring sinless works One would think those that oppose us should not affirm it and if not is not all this required of Sinners and must not that be a distinct Law by which it is required and is not God's own constitution how dare some Men then call it an humane invention It shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lord's house shall be established and many People shall go and sup come ye and let us go up to the house of God and he will mark us his ways and we will walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Law from Jerusalem SECT VI. Justification described and made good partly in this and partly in the Sections ensuing HAving proved that there is a Law of Grace distinct from that which requires sinless works and that God justifies by this Law you may take this definition or description of Justification i.
them to impunity and Life Prov. 17. 15. He that justifieth the wicked and be that condemneth the just even they both are an abomination to the Lord. Now then if both these be an abomination to the Lord he can neither do the one nor the other i. e. he will neither justifie the wicked nor condemn the just but on the contrary he will justifie the just The Judge of all the Earth will do right Gen. 18. 25. He will undoubtedly act according to his Prescription Deut. 25. 1. The Judges were to justifie the righteous and condemn the wicked so then as a Man must be wicked before God condemn him and just before God justifie him then he that is wicked must be so accounted from his disobedience to some Law to say a Man is wicked and yet he is not disobedient to some Law is to say there is no transgression where there is no Law and seeing those are only wicked who go on in the practice of Sin unrepented of and will not believe nor give their consent to be subject to God in Christ then such must be accounted wicked from their rebellion and disobedience to the Law of Grace seeing it is this Law only that requires Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ But then on the contrary a Man must be accounted just also by his Conformity to some Law to say a Man is just and righteous and say he is not in Heart and Life conformed to some Law is to frame a righteousness without relation to a Rule which cannot be Now seeing those are righteous who are penitent Sinners obedient Believers they must be accounted such by the Law of Grace seeing this is the righteousness which it doth require and whoever they are that have this righteousness the Law of Grace will for the sake of Christ justifie them hereupon i. e. they have a right hereupon to Impunity and Life both which are promised by the Covenant of Grace to all Penitent and believing Sinners And further both Justification and Condemnation are accounted to be acts of a Judge and a Judge he both justifies and condemns according to Law so that in Law a Person is either justified or condemned before the Judge by publick Sentence do justifie or condemn Thus then as God hath constituted a Law according to which he will both justifie and condemn it is manifest that this Law of God which is his Instrument doth it self condemn or justifie before God's publick Sentence as Judge either of Condemnation or Justification hence it is ordinary for Persons to say they think such an one is guilty in Law or clear in Law before they come upon their Trial before the Judge or he pronounce them either clear or guilty Seeing then that Christ is the great Legislator Law-giver and Judge Isa 33. 22. For the Lord is our Judge the Lord is our Lawgiver the Lord is our King he will save us Then he must have Laws from whence he hath this Title and Office and if he have Laws he must rule by Law and so by Law he must justifie and condemn so that manifest it is before Christ do pass the Sentence either of Justification or Condemnation Persons are justified or condemned by that Law which he hath appointed to be the Rule of Judgment and this Law is no other but the Law of Grace called the Gospel Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel As the Gospel or Law of Grace is the Instrument whereby Christ doth justifie or condemn Sinners now so it is the Rule according to which he as the righteous Judge will pass Sentence at the great day to everlasting Happiness or eternal Damnation To illustrate the matter suppose a Person hath committed a capital Crime i. e. a Crime for which he is to die the King draws up and sends unto him a conditional Act of Grace in which he offers Pardon and not only so but his favour and great advancement in case he will perform such or such conditions expressed in that Act if the Criminal consent he is pardoned ipso facto immediately by virtue of the Act and also hath right unto the favour and advancement promised and this before the Judges acquitment according to the Act and this right thus to be acquitted did result from his consent this is just the case with us we all deserve Death and that Eternal now the great King of Heaven as it were hath drawn up and sent unto us a conditional Grant or Act of Grace in which he offers Pardon and not only so but his favour and the greatest advancement in case he will perform those conditions offering us his Grace that we may now if we perform then we immediately for Christ's sake have right to his favour and this high advancement before the Judges publick Sentence Seeing further that there is the Preceptive and Retributive part of the Law of Grace i. e. that part which commands duty and that part in which God doth distribute rewards or punishments The Question will be what part it is whereby God doth justifie I Answer The command it self when obeyed doth implicitely justifie sincere obedience to the commands of the Gospel implies our right in that we cannot hereupon but beactually justified But then directly and actually I take it to be the Gospel promise which doth justifie for obedience to the command which is the performance of the condition hath resulting from it a right to the promise both of Pardon and everlasting Life and it is by the promise that God doth assert us to have this right which is his justifying of us and will maintain this our right if called into question A little for the proof of this He that confesseth and forsakes shall find mercy confessing and forsaking of Sin is that which God commands now this being obeved i. e. if there be an unfeigned confessing and forsaking of Sin then saving mercy is by God through Christ conveyed in the promise and this same promise asserts and vindicates in this conveyance the Souls right which is its justifying act That also Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and turn unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon Now upon the wickeds forsaking his ways and the unrighteous Man his thoughts the promise annexed makes over his right which consists in his obedience to the preceding command to the Pardon and Mercy promised and will maintain and vindicate this his right in case it be called into question Now those Persons that will not admit of a Justification of this sort they will urge that if we be Penitent returners to flee to the Promise and plead the promise and will tell us that we have right unto the good promised forasmuch as God by his Spirit hath wrought the qualifications which gives right and if we
must flee to the Promise and plead the Promise as having a right through Christ upon such qualifications which are of Grace Doth not this speak that the Promise doth both assert our right and also will maintain our right to Pardon and Life And what is it but justifying Saith a Reverend Divine you shall hear a Protestant in his Prayer appealing from the Tribunal of God's Justice to the Throne of his Grace and yet in his Sermon be telling the People that it is nothing else but the perfect Obedience and Satisfaction of Christ imputed to them you must know to be accounted by God as their personal righteousness that saves them which is to bring them back from the Throne of his Grace to the Bar of his Justice to be judged 6. When I say that Justification is God's asserting act by his Promise of Grace our right to Pardon and Life for the sake of Christ upon our believing I do not think that Pardon is any part constituting our Justification but a benefit which doth immediately follow thereupon For consider we Justification first Actively so it consists in God's giving us a right through Christ by his Promise upon our obedience to the preceptive part of the Law of Grace or if you will upon our performance through his Grace of the conditions of the new Covenant I mean such upon which we have a right at the first or at the first an interest or our first acceptance into favour through Christ Ephes 1. 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Or 2ly Consider we Justification passively so it is our having this right Now observe Pardon is that which God gives right to by his promise and which we have right to considered as subjects qualified i. e. as true penitent Believers and so must be a precious benefit devolved upon us as Persons who have right But seeing that many worthy Divines have affirmed and undertaken taken to prove that our very justifying righteousness consists in Pardon of Sin I shall here give my thoughts and the grounds of them upon the point and shall not impose upon any but leave Persons to take or leave as they shall have light and evidence SECT VII Wherein Pardon and Justification agree and wherein they disagree I Shall then first shew wherein Justification and Pardon agree 1. They agree in the principal Efficient which is God 't is God that Justifies and 't is God that Pardons Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth Ephes 4. 32. And be ye kind to one another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you 1 John 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 2. They agree in the Meritorious Cause Christ hath purchased the one and the other it is for his Merits we are Justified and for his Merits we are Pardoned Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 9. Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Matth. 26. 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Acts 13. 38. Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins 3. They agree in the Subject both Justification and Forgiveness relates to a Penitent Believer and such an one only I speak of the Adult that is Justified and 't is a Penitent Believer and such an one that is Pardoned Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. 4. They agree in the Instrumental Cause and that is the Covenant of Grace or God's gracious Promise for this is God's Instrument whereby he doth convey a right to Pardon not only Pardon but a right unto it Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Isa 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins return unto me for I have redeemed thee 5. They agree in time when a Person is Justified he is Pardoned there is no time wherein a Person is Justified but he is Pardoned nor wherein he is Pardoned but he is Justified I proceed Secondly To shew wherein they differ 1. And First They differ as Justification hath the priority of Nature i. e. Justification is in order of Nature before Pardon a Man must in order of Nature have a right to Pardon before he have it he must Repent and Believe and so be conformed to the Gospel Law before he be righteous in the Sense of that Law and so have right to Pardon 2. They differ in their habitude or relation Justification properly relates to a false Accusation Pardon of Sin to a true and just one he that is accused falsly when his Innocency is cleared as to the Crime of which he is accused may be said to be justified Deut. 25. 1. If there be a controversie between Men and they come unto judgment that the judges may judge them then they shall justifie the righteous and condemn the wicked But now he that is truly and justly accused he may have Pardon of the Crime committed but he cannot by that Law whereby he was Convict be justified or accounted as righteous with respect to the Crime of which he hath been truly and justly accused He that is accused of Impenitency and Unbelief if the Accusation be false the Law of Grace accounts him righteous and so justifies him against that Accusation But if a Person accused of Impenitency and Unbelief and the Accusation be true and just this Law will Pardon upon Repentance and Faith through Christ but it will not justifie upon Repentance and Faith as a Person that hath been falsly accused for he was truly and justly accused before he did Repent and Believe though not when he believed 3. They differ in their Essence or Nature that which constitutes Justification is our Conformity to the Law of Grace upon which God in his gracious Promise through Christ accounts us righteous but that which constitutes Pardon is not a Conformity or Obedience of this sort but our acquittance and discharge from obligation to Punishment due true it is upon this Gospel Righteousness for Christ's Satisfaction and Merits we are pardoned but yet Pardon is not nor cannot be that Righteousness which the Gospel calls for to our Justification for if so we should first have forgiveness and then forgiveness upon
e. that the Law of Innocency approves and accepts of Christ's Righteousness Grant I must that Christ as Man was conformed to the Law of Innocency both in Nature and Life and that his Sufferings were in the place and stead of those Sufferings which were due unto us in Law for our Violation thereof and that both his active and passive Obedience was for us in a way of Mediation and Redemption But then that either the active Obedience of Christ considered as our Mediatour was approved and accepted by this Law for that Obedience which was due unto it from us in our own Persons or his passive Obedience for those sufferings which were due unto us by this Law threat this I deny for this Law knows nothing of a Mediatour for us for if so provision should have been made for such an one â—y it and in it but who will say this It is then the great Lawgiver that approves and accepts of the Righteousness of Christ for us as satisfactory and meritorious having left himself a liberty to dispence with his own Law as to the strict exaction and execution of it upon valuable consideration given by a Mediatour whose Obedience should be of infinite worth For if the Law of Innocency violated by Man's Sin should approve and accept Christ's Righteousness for Sinners as their Surety and Mediatour instead of that Obedience they were bound to perform then it must account them righteous in Christ's performance and if it account them righteous then it must justifie them and if it justifie them it must account them such as are sinless and perfectly Holy in Nature and Life for it will justifie none else Let me not be mistaken here I deny not but affirm that the Law of Innocency did both approve and accept of the Obedience of Christ or else he had not been justified by it But then that this Law did approve and accept of this Obedience of Christ as our Surety and Mediatour as to account it was so for us as that we obeyed in him this I deny For if so it cannot chuse but discharge us and we must need no Pardon for he cannot be said to have a Pardon that in the Laws own sense and acceptation pays the whole of what it requires either by himself or by another the Law allowing And he adds that the exact justice and free Grace of God do not only agree and kiss each other but that they are both exalted and glorified in the Justification of a Sinner I grant him the whole of this for it is of Faith that it might be by Grace and it is by Faith in such a way as justice hath full satisfaction yea and all the glorious perfections of God shine forth and must do for ever Further saith he how any Man can find his consequence I suppose he either would or should have said his conscience free from the accusation of the Law without such a â—â—ghteousness I cannot yet see To this I shall say we have all transgressed the Law it has concluded us all under Sin and as such condemns us and if we be convinced our Consciences do and must accuse us as guilty and bear witness for the Laws equity in this its process so that there is no stopping the execution of the Laws sentence by the procuring of Pardon or an act of Grace by any thing but by the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ and this Righteousness shall not actually avail any for the purpose above but the penitent Believer for he that believeth not remains condemned and he that repents not continues unforgiven as to special Pardon as the Scripture is plain for the purpose Our Consciences then accusing us as Sinners for non-conformity unto and violation of this Holy Law of God which we must acknowledge so long as we live we are justly accused of or else we must deny our selves to be Sinners and affirm we are counted by this Law to be sinless and perfectly righteous that which must quiet our Consciences here and free us from fear and terror of having the Laws curse inflicted as to its full and eternal extent must be only the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ by which we are delivered from the execution of its curse But if our Consciences accuse us of Impenitency and Infidelity and so to be such as have no actual interest in or right to Christ and his Righteousness for the purpose above spoken of there is nothing can quiet our Consciences here or remove our fear but our having of true Repentance and Faith found in us But again faith he nor can I see without such a Righteousness how the Doctrine of Faith establisheth the Law I grant him that without the Righteousness of Christ the Doctrine of Faith neither doth nor can establish the Law But then how wants explication I say then upon this Although the Doctrine of Faith or the Doctrine of Justification by Faith doth make void the Law suppose we the Law injoining perfect sinless works as a Covenant of Life and so as an instrument of our Justification not from any default in it self but from our moral infirmity or weakness yet the Doctrine of Faith doth not make it void as a Rule of Obedience seeing the Gospel which is the Law of Faith besides its own proper precepts hath also this proper unto it self to injoin us sincere Obedience to the Moral Law which shall for Christ be accepted instead of strict Legal perfection and thus the Law is established by Faith But if this may not content I shall shew him and others another way of Faiths establishing the Law and that is thus God accepting now the Obedience of Faith according to the Gospel Law which includes sincere Obedience to the precepts of that which is ordinarily called Moral as we consider Faith practical and this for the alone satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ hath hereby manifested that he could not so dispence with this his righteous and Holy Law as to pardon the violation or transgression of it without full satisfaction given to his governing Justice which satisfaction he hath had so that now in his justifying of a Sinner through Christ by Faith he keeps up the repute and credit of this his Law and so hath established it as a righteous and holy Law according to the Scripture Isa 42 21. The Lord is well pleased for his Righteousness sake he will magnifie the Law and make it honourable Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus He concludes this Article thus yet are we not justified by the Law though in a way of Law and Justice but freely by grace through the Redemption that is
God administers Grace in a way of Justice as he is faithful to his promise he hath made of Pardon and Life through Jesus Christ upon our obedience to the Gospel And if he would know what he justifies from and for what and upon what God tells him Acts 13. 38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And if he would know further how he is just in justifying him that believeth in Jesus I Answer Christ having yielded such a conformity as I have spoken of to the Law of Innocency for us in the account of the Lawgiver and satisfied the justice of God his glorious attributes are so much honoured and advanced and the repute of his violated Law kept up as that God can for and upon this meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness of Christ without any wrong to his Justice or any other his Attributes or injury to his Holy Law justifie the Sinner upon Faith in Christ or give him an actual right according to the Law of Grace to Pardon and Life And from what hath been said it is manifest he is faithful and just in forgiving of Sin when and where he doth forgive it and what God doth herein according to the explication I have given neither interferes with Law nor Justice Q. 3. What is the Rule of this righteousness of Faith which is the formal cause of our Justification he should have added by God's imputation for if it be a justifying righteousness it must be by some Rule not the Law of Innocency for it requires a perfect righteousness but faith is an imperfect one Then it is the new Law or Covenant that Christ hath purchased that must be the Rule well then I ask is an imperfect Rule the Rule of our justifying righteousness or doth the same justifie by that which is imperfect or doth this New Law justifie us with the allowed breaâ— of the Old how then is it a better Covenant or how is the Law given honoured thereby In this his 5th which he calls a Question he inquires first what is the Rule of this Righteousness of Faith which is the formal cause of our Justification I Answer the Gospel in which this Faith is commanded John 20. 31. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name 1 John 3. 23. And this is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment And Obedience to the Gospel is this Righteousness of Faith But saith he this Faith is an imperfect Righteousness so it is if the Law of Innocency which injoins sinless perfect works be made the measure of it but not so if we bring it to the Gospel where it is commanded that accepts of sincere Obedience and such is the Obedience of Faith in all God's People for in them strict legal perfection cannot be found But to pass on this Man accounts the Gospel an imperfect Rule If compared with the Law of Innocent nature and what it requires I grant it but that it is so absolutely or in its own nature I deny seeing it contains the whole of that which God wills and requires to give us interest in Christ and a right to Eternal Salvation by way of direction or instruction Let him prove the Gospel to be insufficient here and then let him scoff at it as the Papists calling it an imperfect Rule If he judge that what God commands in order to Salvation be imperfect he must tell us what is wanting and so see if his wisdom can make up the defect In the mean time I shall hold that the Righteousness of Faith is perfect with relation to the Rule i. e. the Gospel which it is a conformity unto our Divines have ever distinguished of a Legal and Evangelical perfection but of this I have spoken more above And whereas he adds in scorn doth this New Law which I call the Gospel justifie us with an allowed breach of the Old I Answer God doth not allow of Sin so as to approve of it in any he being an infinite Holy God and Sin being so opposite to this his nature But I would have him know Christ having made satisfaction to justice God is pleased for the sake of this Blessed Redeemer and Mediatour in his abundant Grace and Mercy to Pardon the Sins of all sincere returners and accept of their sincere Obedience of Faith to the Gospel instead of strict Legal perfection God justifies not pardons not upon sincere Repentance and Faith without a satisfaction given to him as Lawgiver and when God insists upon satisfaction for the violation of his Holy Law and will not pardon any Sinner though a penitent Believer without this when then satisfaction is given and accepted if God hereupon according to the Gospel justifie and pardon a penitent and believing Sinner as such doth he by this justifie and pardon with the allowed breach of his Law If so this is as much as to say God allows of Sin when for the sake of Christ he justifies and pardons any Sinner upon sincere Faith and Repentance How the Lawgiver is honoured though he justifie by â—he Covenant or Law of Grace upon a true Faith I have elswhere shewed Q 6. Seeing Faith must be our formal justifying Righteousness then I ask saith he what degree or how many acts of Faith are required to constitute this Righteousness that justifies us Is it the faith of adherence or the faith of assurance Is it our first act of faith that justifies or our whole life of faith which consists of many acts If by our first act then all after acts are insignificant as as to Justification Mark here Reader this Man by this last branch grants that not only the first act but all after acts of Faith are significant as to Justification for he saith if we are justified by the first act of Faith then all after acts are insignificant as to our Justification which plainly implies that he accounts not only the first act but all after acts of Faith to be requisite to Justification or else he understands not well what he hath writ And thus he runs himself upon that which follows this with a design to insnare Men i. e. If by our whole Life of Faith Mark it is like the Life of Faith consists only in act according to this Man so that there must be no Life of Faith in a Soul but so long as it is in exercise which consists of many acts of Faith then our Justification is suspended till our lives be finished then saith he where is the Man that is justified or sure that he shall be I never and I question whether any beside this
is not actually healing to the Sick until it prevail against the Distemper and it is so with Grace And thus it may be known in what Sense Sanctification is before Justification Touching the gift of the first Grace know there is much good purchased by Christ and given without respect to any condition on Man's part and thus the gift of the first Grace God ordinarily by his Word 〈◊〉 Spirit concurring doth convince humble and incline the Sinner to accept of Christ in all his Offices i. e. to be Propitiation Head and Teacher and when the consent is gained then hath the Soul an actual interest in and right unto the Lord Jesus to be his Propitiation c. to the sanctifying Spirit to Reconciliation Adoption and Glorification The former work was to prevail with the Soul for its consent but when prevailed with then hath it an actual interest in and right unto Christ and the saving blessings of the Covenant promised upon consent A Man that Courts a Woman for her Consent to be his Wife untill this be given by her and she actually give up her self unto him to be his Wife she hath no interest in him as her Husband nor interest in nor right unto any of his Goods as one in that relation and thus it is in the Case before us If any Man saith Christ hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me Revel 3. 20. SECT II. How the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is to be held and how not AFter these things cleared I proceed to tell the World how I do and how I do not ◠〈◊〉 â— the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness I do not deny but affirm God's Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in these following Senses 1. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it was for our Redemption and Salvation Rom. 3. 24 25. 2. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it to be the sole or only Merit and Purchase of the New Covenant and the benefits thereof Heb. 7. 19. 2 Tim. 1. 10. 3. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it to Merit the Blessed Spirit for us to work Grace in our Hearts John 1. 16. Ephes 1. 3. 4. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it is for this that all the Grace and Duties of his People are accepted Ephes 1. 6. 5. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it is for this he pardons us and receives us into his favour and justifies us by his Covenant of Grace upon believing and so accepts our Faith for Righteousness it is not without Christ but for him Acts 13. 38 39. Golos 1. 21 22 23. 6. I do believe that what Christ did and suffered he did and suffered for us in the Person of a Mediatour and God doth account what he did and suffered as Mediatour doth and shall avail as much for the obtaining of Pardon and Life for us upon Faith as though we had been able to have done and suffered the same in our own Persons 1 Peâ—â—r 3. 18. Heb. 9. 15. 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Rom. 4. 23 24 25. John 3. 16. Now I desire to know in what any Christian in his Practice can make further use of the Lord Jesus than in those particulars forementioned and if he cannot make any use of Christ by Faith but what may be reduced to some of those particulars Can it be thought that God doth make over Christ unto him after some sort wherein he shall be of no use If not then â— desire to know what needs any further or any Imputation of Christ's Righteousness of another sort than hath been expressed I desire it may be taken notice of that whereas I have been accused by some as an Adversary to all Imputation of Christ's Righteousness they have misrepresented me and so have wronged me And I challenge any Man to shew in this Profession wherein I have detracted from the Grace of God or Merits of Christ But now having shewn in what Sense I hold the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness I must plainly tell the World that God doth not so impute the Righteousness of Christ unto us as that he accounts it in it self to be our very formal Personal Righteousness reckoning that what Christ did and suffered as our Mediatour we did and suffered in our own Persons i. e. obeyed in him and suffered in him in the Sense of the violated Law of Innocency This is that I profess I dare not believe and the reason is the many gross and to be dreaded consequences with which such a Doctrine as this is loaded 1. It chargeth God with an untruth for God judgeth of things as they are and not as they are not if we then affirm that God accounts that what Christ did and suffered for us we did and suffered in our own Persons in the Sense of his violated Law which he must do if he account the very Righteousness of Christ to be ours in it self then he must account us to have done and suffered that in our own Persons which he knows we neither did nor suffered and if so then let it be considered what must follow 2. If Christ's Righteousness be imputed in it self then the Law of perfect sinless Works must justifie us for if God in our Justification do account the Righteousness of Christ in it self to be our formal personal justifying Righteousness then he must account us to be such as have a sinless perfect habitual and active Righteousness for such was the Righteousness of Christ and if God do account us to have such a righteousness as this in our own Persons then it must follow that the Law of Innocency must justifie us as well as it did Christ for what should hinder if we have the very same righteousness which is Christs to be our formal personal righteousness and have it we must if God do impute it unto us in it self and account it in that Imputation to be such a righteousness as formal and personal And from hence we must implicitly hold that God in our Justification doth account us to be as righteous as Christ which some have had the Confidence to affirm and all from this Doctrine for I hope People are not to learn that Christ's righteousness habitual and active was a perfect conformity to the Law of Innocency and if we be such in the Sense of that it accounting that what Christ was and did we were and did in him in point of conformity then in this very account it justifies us 3. God must account us such as are habitually and actively sinless and Holy such as have neither Sin in our Nature and Life for Christ was such and if we have the very same righteousness personally which he had which we must have if God account us as they say to have it then how can we chuse but be such as have neither Sin in Nature nor Life 4. That follows which
Heart quickning influences of the blessed Spirit But then if I be a Believer that I have it in it self and that it is of all these uses to me as it is accounted by God to be my formal personal Righteousness this I must deny for if so it must not be the Righteousness which is Christs and proper to him as Mediatour for which a Believer shall be delivered from everlasting shame and secured from God's wrath but the Righteousness of Christ as it is a Christian 's formal personal Righteousness and so as a quality in himself and it must not be the Graces of the Spirit and so not God's moral Image wherewith the Soul of a true Christian is adorned nor the Holy Spirits influences whereby it is quickned but only the Righteousness of Christ imputed in it self and so accounted to be his formal personal Righteousness And if it be thus then the Righteousness of Christ as Mediatour and the quâ—ckning and sanctifying operations of the Holy Spirit must be needless For whatever is a Believer's formal personal Righteousness it must not only be imputed unto him but be a quality in him as I have cleared above that whatever is the formal Righteousness of the Person must be the Righteousness of the Nature if therefore the Righteousness of Christ as they say be the formal Righteousness of the Person then that Person who is formally righteous by it must be perfectly righteous seeing Christ's Righteousness in it self which they say they have to be their personal Righteousness is such And if so what need of the Righteousness of a Mediatour or the graces and influences of the Holy Spirit for a Christian he being perfectly righteous in his very Nature with Christ's Righteousness Now they will say this they will not own and if not then why do they own and stick by such a Doctrine which hath such natural and unavoidable consequences as these I would gladly have these Persons consider whether they dare trust to this Righteousness of Christ for their Justification and Acceptation as it is their formal personal Righteousness without any further regard had to Christ as Mediatour without them if so then what need of Christ's Mediation without them if not then they must have Christ's Mediation without them for the acceptation of Christ's Righteousness upon them and doth Christ's own Righteousness stand in need of Christ's Mediation for its Acceptation I know not how they can come off here without either denying that a Person considered as justified needs Christ's Mediation or accounting the Righteousness of Christ upon them in the Sense of the Law of Innocency to be imperfect Take the former and they exclude Christ from being a Mediatour for a justified Person as such take the later and they destroy their own Assertion that there is no Justification but by a perfect legal Righteousness but I shall leave them in their own snaâ—e and pass on and I am like for they will not suffer me or any Man to help them 2. Another Text alledged to prove that Christ's Righteousness is imputed to Believers in it self and so is their formal personal Righteousness and so accounted by God is Jer. 23. 6. And this is his Name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousness That Christ is the Lord our Righteousness I grant but where is it said in this Scripture that his Righteousness is accounted ours as to be the formal Righteousness of our Persons And if it be said Although it be not expressed yet it is intended I Answer it cannot be for Christ's Righteousness being a satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness it must be proper â—o him as Mediatour and what is proper to him as Mediatour cannot be in it self the formal personal Righteousness of another nor so accounted by God for God doth not look upon any Believer to have a satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness which he must have if he have the Righteousness of Christ to be his personal Righteousness for his personal formal Righteousness But God doth account every true Believer to have that Righteousness or to be so personally Righteous by the Righteousness of Faith as that he hath right by virtue of the promise of grace to those blessed and glorious benefits purchased by Christ by whose satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness this his Faith is accepted for Righteousness upon which Christ is the Lord of this Righteousness this Gospel Righteousness as the Purchaser Lord-Treasurer and dispenser of all Grace and may well then be called the Lord our Righteousness but then it doth not follow that the Righteousness of Christ which is proper to him as Mediatour and so for us is ours in it self and our very formal personal Righteousness 3. Another Text is in Isa 45. 24. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength We may from this Scripture groundedly conclude that a satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness is to be found only in Christ and that this is sufficient to satisfie offended Justice and merit all good for us but what is this to prove that God accounts this his righteousness to be our personal formal Righteousness The Text saith no such thing and if it mean Christ's Righteousness as Mediatour the Text saith expresly it is in him and the Believer doth acknowledge it so to be and therefore not in himself which yet it must be if it be the Righteousness of his Person as hath been already shewn 4. A fourth Text is in Isa 61. 10. I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my Soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the Garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the Robe of Righteousness as a Bride groom decketh himself with Ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels That this Text cannot be meant of a Believer's being clothed with Christ's Righteousness as a Robe in a proper Sense hath been made manifest and if it be so improperly i. e. a Robe then only in a comparative Sense as to its use and that it may fitly be compared unto a Garment or Robe as to its use as satisfactory and meritorious with respect unto a Believer I grant but that it hath the use of a Garment so as to be any Person 's formal Righteousness this I deny and that upon the Reasons above given which Reasons are sufficient to manifest that whatever Text of Scripture be brought for proof that Christ's Righteousness is a Robe in their Sense is mistaken by them And whereas they alledge among the rest that in Revel 19. 8. speaking of the Church And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness of Saints 'T is not said this fine linnen is the Righteousness of Christ though the Righteousness of Christ we acknowledge did purchase and merit it But the Righteousness of the Saints i. e. the purity and holiness of the Saints and that it is so let the
union of the Soul with Christ by Faith and so its actual right hereupon through Christ to Pardon and Life and this â—aith as it is the matter of right is the Souls personal justifying Righteousness and the Gospels afferting such a Soul i. e. a Believer to have this right is God's mediate justifying act Consider still 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 See then upon the matter if it be not of Faith that it might be by Grace and pretend not to exclude Faith for fear you should exclude Grace but fear to exclude Faith seeing that if you do you most certainly exclude Grace for the more of the Obedience of Faith and the more is the creature depressed and God in Christ exalted Rom. 4. 20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God 7. A Seventh Text they would have speak for them is Rom. 5. 19. For as by one Man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If they mean by what this Scripture saith that God did account Adam's act of his disobedience in violating the Laws to be ours so he accounts Christ's obedience in fulfilling the Law to be ours in it self and that we fullfiled the Law in him I Answer God did not account Adam's act in eating the forbidden Fruit so to be ours as though we had eaten our selves for God knows we neither took received nor did eat of the Fruit in our own Persons our Persons then having no Existence or actual Being And God is true and will not account that to be done by us which he knows we did not Indeed we partake of the sad Fruits of that disobedience having derived from Adam originally by natural Generation a nature sadly corrupted and violated and so are guilty before God and are accounted both by him and his Law really to be so And so God doth not account the Obedience of Christ in his fulfâ—ing the Law to be ours as though we had performed it in our own Persons for he knows and we may know our selves we did not But this God doth for and upon the account of Christ's sinless perfect meritorious righteousness constitute us righteous by his Gospel Law upon true Faith and accounts us as we are Believers for Christ to have an actual right to Pardon and Life 8. Another Text is Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit I take the meaning of this Text to be this i. e. Christ Jesus having answered the ends of the violated Law by his perfect Obedience and Suffering hath obtained hereby that a Christian's sincere Obedience which consists in conformity to the Law of Grace shall be accepted for Christ's sake as really by God as though he had fulfilled or perfectly obeyed the Law of Innocency in his own Person which now as a fallen Creature he is incapable of doing The ground of this my apprehension are the words that follow who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Now though every true Christian as to the bent of his Heart and Life doth walk after the Spirit and not according to the Flesh or corrupt Nature yet it cannot be that by this the Law of Innocency is fulfilled in him seeing that it must be a sinless conformity that must be a fulfilling of that Law now mark the Text speaks of a personal fulfilling and this by a walking according to the Spirit therefore this Law which is fulfilled in them or by them must be the Law of Grace and not the Law of Innocency And let not Man say still that God accounts that a true Believer doth fulfil the Law of Innocency in Christ for if so that Law must justifie and the Covenant of Grace be made void Christ fulfilled that Law for us but we did not fulfill it in our own Persons in his fulfilling of it 9. The Ninth Text is in Psalm 71. 16. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only What is there in this Text to prove that God accounts the righteousness of Christ to be the formal personal righteousness of every Believer Plain it is the Text speaks of God's righteousness in keeping and fulfilling his gracious Promises which righteousness is no other but his truth and faithfulness But suppose we this Scripture to speak of the righteousness of Christ as Men would have it what will it still be to their purpose all that they can gather from it upon any likely ground upon this supposition is only that David would make mention of Christ's righteousness as the merit of all the good which he both had and did expect and the ground of his acceptance which is a great truth in it self but I do not say it is that which by the Holy Spirit is intended chiefly in the Text. 10. Another Text is in Ezech. 16. 14. And thy renown went forth among the Heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my comliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God This comliness say they which God put upon this People and from whence they had their beauty was the righteousness of Christ imputed in it self Now if the People would but a little consider what follows they might see this comliness God put upon them spoken of here was a civil comliness i. e. the Peace Plenty fulnses of all temporal good things the Honour Greatness Dignity c. that God had advanced them unto especially in David's and Solomon's times above their Neighbours But come on if so be they will have the righteousness of Christ meant then belike it must follow 1. Believers how mean or contemptible soever they be in this World must be renowned and very famous among the very Heathen for Christ's imputed righteousness And yet alas the poor Heathen are meer strangers to it knowing nothing of it and here is the wonder indeed 2. Believers they may trust too much to Christ's righteousness now I ever thought these Men that are for this strict Imputation had been of a mind that a Person could not trust too much to Christ's righteousness but its like Persons may if by this comliness be meant Christ's righteousness as they will see ver 15. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty and playedst the harlot because of thy renown and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by his it was 3. Persons valuing Christ's righteousness too much and trusting too much unto it may thereby be drawn to commit Spiritual Whoredom to break their Covenant with God and become Apostates from God by falling into Idolatry c. If they will have the righteousness of Christ meant by this comliness and the beauty that was upon this People then they must have these
in it self to be theirs or accounting them righteous in their persons with Christ's righteousness I Answer This Argument supposeth that Persons may be formally personally righteous with a sinless perfect righteousness for such is Christ's and so accounted by God and so sinless and perfectly righteous in their nature as hath been shewn before and yet for all this are and remain Sinners which is a contradiction Now I grant that all Men that are justified are and do remain Sinners in the account of the Law of Innocency but as justified they are accounted though not sinless yet righteous by the Law of Grace being true penitent Believers for Repentance and Faith c. are a Conformity to what it commands upon which Conformity it asserts and maintains their interest in Christ and right to Pardon and Life There is no satisfaction for a Sinner nor merit to procure him any good but in and by a sinless perfect righteousness which is Christs but then that God accounts the sinner whom he justifies to have such a righteousness to be the very righteousness of his Person so as to be formally righteous by it this I deny 12. Believers say they are righteous with Christ's righteousness seeing they are members of that mistical body of which he is the head I Answer I do not deny but Believers are members of that mistical body of which Christ is the head but though it be so yet it doth not follow that they are righteous with his righteousness and have it to be their formal personal righteousness indeed they are righteous for it but not with it for though Christ be the head of his Church and his Church and each member hath benefit from him as such yet I hope none will say that each member of Christ's mistical body is accounted by God to perform the very function and office of Christ as head which they must say and prove too or else this they bring for an Argument bears no proportion and so is of no force Christ is a governing head Will they say that God accounts each of his members to be so He as head communicates spiritual Life Sense and Motion to his members Will they say God accounts each member to do so 13. Say they Believers are married to Christ now as a Woman's debts in Law account when married are her Husbands and all that he is possest of is hers so it is betwixt Christ and those that are united unto him by a spiritual Marriage Covenant he hath in Law sense their debts and they have his righteousness I Answer Similitudes illustrate but they are no proof neither do the things compared in all points bear an equal proportion We grant then that Christ and true Believers are really though mistically united in a Marriage Covenant and that as Believers they have forgiveness of Sin for the sake of his meritorious and satisfactory righteousness and all that he hath done and suffered and hereby purchased is for them in special and their benefit but then it doth not follow hereupon that the Law of God violated by them doth account that they have fulfilled it in Christ and suffered the penalty for their violation in him for if so the Law should adjudge them first to be perfectly righteous and then after that apply forgiveness unto them as Sinners which is a manifest contradiction for he that the Law doth account to be perfectly righteous I speak of the Law of Innocency cannot be a Sinner and if so must need no forgiveness If it be said the Law first acquits from guilt and so forgives this is no other but to make it a Covenant of Mercy and Life and if it account a Person after the first forgiveness perfectly righteous in Christ then he must not after that be a Sinner and so need no Pardon Christ cannot in a sound Sense be said to have taken our debts upon him any otherwise than he voluntarily and freely undertook to satisfie for our offences as Mediatour neither was he under obligation hereunto by any Law but that of mediation And further as to Believers having his righteousness this can be no further than it may be of use and benefit unto them and the use and benefit Christ's righteousness is of unto Believers What is it sure 't is for the satisfaction of an infinite God offended and what doth God account it to be their personal righteousness as to this use If so then God must account he hath satisfaction from them in their own Persons And as to its further use and benefit unto Believers What is it certainly to merit all the good of Grace and Glory And what now doth God account it to be their personal righteousness as to this use If so then God must account them to be righteous in their Persons with such a righteousness as merits all the good of Grace and Glory Now true it is Believers have Christ's righteousness or interest in it or right unto it as that for which God is reconciled unto them and for which they shall have Grace and Glory but they have it not so nor are interested in it so as to be personally righteous with it neither doth God account them so to have it If they say God doth not account it the righteousness of their Persons or that their Persons are righteous with it as it is satisfactory and meritorious it cannot be the righteousness of their Persons under that formality If they grant this then I say they cannot have it all so as to be personally righteous with it for a righteousness divested and stripped of satisfaction and merit can be none of Christ's for it is essential to his righteousness as Mediatour to be satisfactory and meritorious and if it be none of Christ's which is accounted by God to be their personal righteousness or the righteousness their Persons are righteous withal for Justification pray What or whose can this righteousness be which they say is accounted by God to be their personal justifying righteousness beside that of the righteousness of Faith let them exclude Faith and tell us 14. Say they the Gospel is nothing but a Revelation or Declaration of what Christ hath done and suffered and that by his obedience and suffering he hath fulfilled the Law and satisfied God's justice So that Christ having thus answered for us upon believing neither the Law nor Justice of God hath any thing against us because the righteousness of Christ whereby he hath fulfilled the Law and satisfied Justice is made over to us by God's Imputation as though we had wrought it out in our own Persons I Answer it is granted the Gospel doth repeat what Christ hath done and suffered c. But then that it is nothing but a revelation of this sort this I deny for besides this it injoins us Repentance towards God and Faith in Jesus Christ Acts 20. 21. Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks Repentance toward God and Faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ and it threatens the Impenitent Unbelievers with God's eternal wrath Mark 16. 16. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Luke 13. 3. I tell you nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Now to say that Christ having satisfied Justice and fulfilled the Law neither the Law nor Justice hath any thing against us what is it but to say the Law accounts us righteous and so indeed the Justice of God can find no fault in us and if so then we must have no Sin and if no Sin then no need of forgiveness and if no Sin and so no need of forgiveness then no place for Repentance and Faith I have granted and do grant that Christ hath satisfied the Justice of God and fulfilled the Law for us that we for and through this his righteousness might have Pardon and Life upon our Conformity to the commands of the Gospel but then if he have satisfied and fulfilled the Law for this end that neither the Law nor God's infinite strict Justice may have any thing against us how comes David to pray Psalm 143. 2. Enter not into judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified And how come the best of God's People many times to be under desertion and temporal Afflictions If it be said it is not for Sin I Answer let the Scripture determine Psalm 51. 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit Psalm 89. 30 31 32. If his Children forsake my Law and walk not in my judgments If they break my statutes and keep not my commandments Then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes If it be said to this it is not in pure Justice God Afflicts grant this yet I hope they will not deny but that Afflictions are from God and he is just in what he doth They are castigatory yet none of them are satisfactory nor are they exercised with them for that end But there is this I would take notice of whereas they say the Gospel reveals what Christ hath done and suffered they destroy this by another assertion and so confound Law and Gospel in making the very threatning of the Law of Iâ—nocency to reveal Christ and Salvation by him In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die i. e. say they either thou or thy surety so that here they make the very penal sanction of the Law to be their Gospel And as a learned Person observes If this was the meaning of the penal sanction or threat then it must follow that a Mediatour was promised before the fall for this Covenant i. e. of Works was struck with Man in Innocency And that either Adam understood not his Covenant that was made with him or else knew of a Surety and Redeemer before his fall at least being in a readiness for him in case he should fall And I add if this be the meaning of the threatning that either thou or thy surety shall die then upon the sureties undertaking and suffering Sinners must be immediately cleared seeing the penal sanction or threat had all that which it required and so there can be no punishment due unto them at all in the Sense of that Law neither must they be under the curse of it nor in danger at all of condemnation by it and so however the Elect cannot be Children of wrath by nature though the Scripture saith they are Ephes 2. 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in time past in the lusts of our flâ—sh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the Children of wrath even as others 15. Christ's righteousness say they must be accounted a Believer's personal justifying righteousness because it cannot be consistent with the Justice of God to justifie without such a righteousness I grant according to the Revelation of God's pleasure it cannot be consistent with the Justice of God to justifie without such a righteousness as Christs but it doth not follow that therefore he must account it a Believer's personal formal righteousness indeed if there had not been satisfaction given to the justice of God for the securing the honour hereof there had been no such thing as the Justification of a Sinner but now God having received satisfaction from Christ it is very consistent with his Justice and Honour thereof to justifie a penitent Believer for the sake of his satisfactory righteousness by virtue of his Gospel constiâ—ution Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus The Reason above alledged for the strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness supposeth that Christ's righteousness is not satisfactory for any Sinner until it be made over by God to be the Sinner's personal formal righteousness but so soon as it is the Sinner's personal righteousness then it hath the actual virtue or is actually Efficacious to be satisfactory for that Sinner but not before and thus it is further evident from this their Doctrine that a justified Soul hath a righteousness to be its formal righteousness which is satisfactory to God's infinite strict Justice and so as hath been said before God must immediately receive satisfaction from the Soul accounted by him to be personally righteous with the very righteousness of Christ and thus God must not look upon the Soul in and through Christ and accept it immediately for him but through the righteousness of Christ as it is upon it self and as according to them the Soul is cloathed with it But here I shall take notice of an Exception made Although say they we affirm Christ's righteousness and obedience unto the Law is made ours and so in him as our Surety we fulfill the Law yet doth it not follow that we are justified by the Law and that because it is not the righteousness which we in Person have wrought I Answer This Reason will not invalidate the consequence for if so be that Christ's righteousness and obedience unto the Law be so made ours as that we are counted by God to have fulfilled the Law in him as our Surety then God must account us to have obeyed the Law in his obeying of it for how can he otherwise account us to have fulfilled it in him and â—â— God do account us to have performed in Christ that obedience the Law requires then certainly he must account us to be righteous in the Sense of that Law and if so How then can that Law chuse but justifie us Can any Man account me in truth to have obeyed such a Law in anothers obeying of it and yet at the same time
account me a Transgressor of it so that plain it is if God do account us to be the fulfillers of the Law in Christ he must account us as such to be righteous according to that Law and if righteous then justified by it SECT V. The Nature of Gospel Justification farther opened HAving briefly dispatched the Objections which are most material I shall proceed a little further to open the Nature of Gospel Justification 1. God endued Man at the first not only with Natural but Moral perfection having adorned him with his own Image Gen. 1. 26 27. So God created Man in his own Image Male and Female created he them and this Image of God which we call Moral consisted in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness Coloss 3. 10. And have put on the new Man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Ephes 4. 24. And that ye put on the new Man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness He had Light for his Understanding Holy Love for his Will Righteousness for his Life and Conversation 2. Man being such a Creature must be capable of Moral Government i. e. of being ruled by Law for that Creature which is capable of knowing loving and obeying God must also be capable of being ruled by the Law of a Wise Holy and Righteous God 3. God therefore from the first put Man under a Law To say that God did not is to affirm That the capacity which Man had of knowing loving and obeying God resulting from his Moral perfections was in vain but God gave Man nothing in vain And it would be to affirm that God did not stand in relation to Man as his Rector and Governour nor Man in â—elation to God as his Subject by right 4. God ever suited his legal Constitutions or Laws to the state and condition of Man in the state of integrity God suited that his state with a Law requiring personal perfect Obedience Man considered as fallen from that integrity into a state of Sin and Misery God suited this his state with a Law injoining sincere Obedience and this not only initial or upon his first subjection but continued and constant to the end of his Life the one for giving him right through Christ to Pardon and Life the other for continuing that right 5. Both these Laws i. e. that of Innocency and that of Grace have their sanction both premiant and penal i. e. a promise of reward in case of Obedience and the threatning of punishment in case of Disobedience 6. These things being so I put the Question whether Innocent Adam's Obedience to the first Law would not have given him right unto the Life promised And whether this same Law of Innocency would not have maintained this his right The first we must grant or else say that the promise gives no right to the benefits promised though the condition be performed which to say is against the rule of common equity we must grant the latter also or else say that the very Instrument God hath appointed for the conveying of right to Life to Innocent Adam should not be regarded by him in point of claim for all Adam's perfect Obedience suppose his right should have been called into Question which to say must needs be to charge God with unfaithfulness and injustice Now if so be as is clear Adam's Obedience to the Law of Innocency would have given him right to the Life promised and also maintained this his right then will not our Obedience to the second Law i. e. to the Law of Grace give us right unto the reward promised and secure us through Christ from the punishment threatned And secondly Will not this same Law of Grace also maintain our right It must or else we must say that the promise gives no right unto the benefits promised though the condition required be performed by the Grace of God also that the very instrument God hath appointed for the conveying of right unto us should by him not be regarded or not be at all of any benefit unto us notwithstanding our performance of the condition if our right should be called into question To illustrate what I have said suppose that we should have a deed of gift of such an inheritance upon the due performance of such or such conditions therein expressed Will not the performance of these conditions give us right according to the deed unto the inheritance and if so be our right be called into question what must vindicate our right but the deed whereby it was given and granted unto us upon the performance of the conditions expressed If then these things be so as is evident then I gather from hence that which I intended i. e. that there must be such a thing as Justification by constitution or Law and seeing there can be no Justification by the Law of Innocency or Covenant of Works then there must be another Law which we must have Justification by and what can this be but a Law of Grace and Mercy which is the same with that we call the Gospel now if Persons will not grant such a Law then Justification must either be by the Law of perfect Works i. e. by the Covenant of Works or that Justification we now have must be no Law act and if so they who contend against us to destroy their own declared Opinion asserting that Justification is a juridical or Law term those therefore that deny the Gospel to be a Law they must either deny Justification by it and so account we are justified by the Law of Works or else they must contradict themselves in affirming Justification not to be by Law But because some Persons do not only deny but ridicule such a thing as a Law of Grace calling it an humane invention it will not be amiss a little to clear this that there is a Law of Grace distinct from that of Works Observe then I hope those that oppose us will grant that God required of Man while in the state of integrity a sinless Obedience Now the Question will be seeing Man is a fallen Creature whether God doth require any Obedience of him If not then Man must be at his own will to do what he listeth and is he so If God doth require Obedience what is it Is it sinless Obedience If so then all Mankind must be lost for none of the fallen race of Adam can perform it If they say that Obedience is performed by Christ for us I ask Hath Christ performed this Obedience that we might be exempted and obey none at all If so then he obeyed to set us free from all subjection to God if not then it remains for all Christ perfectly obeyed that yet still we are under obligation to obey in our own Persons Seeing then we cannot yield sinless Obedience or Obedience without Sin attending it Are not we through the assisting Grace of God to perform sincere Obedience If not then none at all
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
the account of that forgiveness and so Pardon of Sin should be a condition of it self and be in order of Nature before it self which I know not how to free from a contradiction 4. They differ in the different formality of the Subject to which they do relate for the Law of Grace in justifying considers Persons as conformed to its commands and upon that accounts them through and for Christ righteous but in pardoning it considers them previously as transgressors though yet as those who have right to Pardon by reason of their Conformity through Grace unto its Precepts and therefore for Christ's sake assures them of Pardon hereupon for upon Confession and forsaking of Sin and turning unto the Lord God by his gracious Promise assures us of Pardon And that the Gospel Law in pardoning doth previously consider the Person as a transgressor appears for asmuch as it Pardons not only such as have right to Pardon but those who have need of it and who have need but such as before Pardon are altogether in a special sort unpardoned transgressors 5. There is a difference betwixt Justification and Pardon as touching the Moral Efficiency of the Law of Grace justifying and pardoning for in the one it asserts a Person 's right but in the other it conveys that which it asserted his right unto These things being laid together and duly considered to me 't is evident that Justification and Pardon cannot be the same nor yet that Pardon can be our justifying Righteousness but a special benefit immediately following our Justification But it may be said Condemnation and Justification are opposed and therefore as Condemnation consists in the Laws Sentence of a Sinner to punishment so Justification must consist in acquitting the Sinner by Law Sentence from punishment and if so Is not here Pardon and if Pardon Then must not Justifi-fication consist in Pardon 1. I Answer First Justification and Condemnation are opposed materially for as the matter of Justification must be a Righteousness so the merit of Condemnation must be Unrighteousness or thus the matter of Justification must be Conformity to a Law the merit of Condemnation must be the violation of that Law 2. They are opposed in the different account of the Law for whom the Law Condemns them it accounts Guilty But whom it Justifies those it accounts Righteous But now though Justification and Condemnation be thus opposed yet it doth not follow that what is the form of the one the contrary to that is the form of the other or it doth not follow that as Condemnation consists in bearing the Laws Sentence to Punishment so Justification in acquitting from Punishment Indeed all justified Persons are most certainly acquitted but Justification in its own nature is not an acquitment Pardon and Condemnation are thus formally opposed but not Justification and Condemnation But it may be said further must he not be innocent who is acquitted and is not every innocent Person righteous I Answer an acquitment implies the Person who is now acquitted was once guilty of that from which he is now acquitted and so by Innocent here can only be meant one that is discharged from deserved punishment and such an one is clear indeed but then this his clearing doth imply a right by some pardoning act or act of Grace Every justified person is discharged from the Condemnation of the Law or the Execution of the Law 's Sentence but then this discharge implies a previous Righteousness not for which but upon which he is accounted to have right to that discharge and without which he might not have it for he that believes not is condemned and the wrath of God abides upon him so then a Person is righteous formally by this previous Righteousness and not by his discharge for that is only as is plain the immediate fruit of his Righteousness SECT VIII How our right to Pardon and Life is through Christ and how he is our Surety and hath procured the New Covenant for us I Come now to shew that it is through Christ that Sinners have right to Pardon and Life upon believing and it is through Christ in a double regard In regard to a Ransom paid and Covenant obtained It is through Christ in the first place as having paid the Ransom for Sinners Redemption Matth. 20. 28. Even as the Son of Man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus Who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time We are all by Nature Sin 's Slaves Satan's Captives loving the World and the things of the World cursed and condemned by the Law being Transgressors liable to the intollerable wrath of an Almighty God Christ paid a sufficient Ransom by his Obedience and Sufferings From the power and dominion of Sin Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works From the thraldom of Satan Coloss 2. 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Heb. 2. 14. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil From this present evil World Galat. 1. 4. Who gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father From the Curse of the violated Law Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree From the wrath of an offended God This ransom paid by Christ gave such satisfaction to an offended God as that he deals with none of the Sons and Daughters of Men now upon terms of the violated Law of works but is so far through this satisfaction given reconciled as that he grants them a reprieve from Hell and much riches of goodness and mercy to lead them to repentance yea and reveals himself further willing in a saving manner to be at peace with and reconciled unto Sinners upon their subjection to the Gospel Law who have the explicit offer And this satisfaction given by Christ's sufferings was no strict fulfilling of the Law threat but a fulfilling the Law of Mediation or Redemption for the Soul that sinned was to die though for the satisfaction given by Christ a stop was put to the execution of the Law threat When Persons say that the satisfaction Christ gave by his sufferings was a fulfilling of the threatning part of the Law of Innocency which Man had broken 't is a great mistake for in what was threatned by the Law was included corporal distempers and
Happiness upon condition of personal perfect and perpetual obedience and threatned Man with everlasting death upon his disobedience Now this Law first did not only bind us to obey God our Creator and Rector but Christ also as Man for Christ considered as God Creator and Rector he cannot be under a law given to his Creatures but then as Man partaking of the same Nature with us he must be under this law as binding him to obedience I mean as to the preceptive part But then Secondly This Law transgressed by us doth only bind us to suffer punishment not Christ and the reason is because the Law doth not bind any to suffer the penalty it threatens before it by them be violated and broken now we have violated and broken the Law and it binds us over immediately to suffer the punishment threatned but not Christ and that because Christ considered as Man was ever Innocent and never in the least violated or broke the Law of Works and therefore could not be bound by this Law to suffer the penalty not for himself it may be said but yet for us as our Surety I Answer No he was not bound for us by the Law of Works to suffer as our Surety and that because the Law of Works reveals nothing of nor makes any provision for a Surety 2. There is a Covenant or Law of Grace and by this Christ was neither bound to Obedience nor suffering for the Covenant or Law of Grace it commands Faith and Repentance and threatens damnation to the unbelieving and impenitent But Christ is not by this Law or Covenant to believe or repent indeed he hath bound himself in the promissory part of this Covenant to give the saving blessings thereof to all believing and penitent Sinners but he is not bound by the preceptive part to repent and believe or by the threatning part to suffer in case he do not 3. There is the Law of Mediation that which Divines call the Covenant of Redemption in which he freely engaged to purchase our Redemption and this is the Law by which Christ was bound to suffer for us to satisfie and make atonement and this both by his Father's appointment and his own free consent John 10. 17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again No Man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again This commandment have I received of my Father It is plain from this Scripture that Christ was obliged by no Law but his Father's command and his own consent and in what Law shall we find the Father's command to Christ to lay down his Life and Christ's free consent thereunto but in the Law of Mediation As thus such a Man hath committed a capital Crime i. e. a Crime that deserves Death another freely consents and engageth to suffer in his stead now this Man that thus freely consents and engageth himself no Law previous to his own consent and engagement doth bind him thus to suffer for the other seeing he is Innocent as to the Crime and so cannot be charged with the Crime the other is guilty of and this was the case in Christ's suffering for us so that from what hath been said it is granted that Christ as our Surety hath suffered in our place and stead but that this was according to the intention or direction of the Covenant of Works this I deny I will grant that if the Covenant of Works had not been broken Christ had not been our Surety nor suffered to satisfie Justice and make our atonement but then that eventually Christ actually became our Surety was from the purpose of an all-wise just holy and merciful God above and besides either the intention or direction of the Law of Works Him hath God set forth to be a Propitiation for Sin Rom. 3. 25. As it is said before he became actually Surety by his own free offer to make satisfaction to the justice of God by his Death for Man's breach of the Law of Works and God he accepted the offer and this not according to any thing intended of this nature in the Law of Works but of his meer grace and good pleasure towards us and yet with a design both to secure the glory of his own justice and holiness and to declare the glory of his own Wisdom and Mercy and to keep up the repute of his Law which Man had willfully violated These things are clear from Scripture 1. That God accepted of the offer of Christ's Mediatourship or Suretiship of his meer good pleasure Having predestinated us unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will 2. That God accepted of this offer with a design to advance the glory of his Justice 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 3. That he might advance the glory of his Wisdom and Mercy Ephes 1. 6 7 8. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence 4. That he might keep up in the World the repute of his Holy Law in that he would not dispense with the breach thereof without satisfaction Isa 42. 21. The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake he will magnifie the Law and make it honourable 2. It is through Christ in the second place by his meritorious and satisfactory righteousness procuring the grant of a remedying Covenant or Law of Grace a Covenant or Law of Grace suited to Man in his lapsed or fallen state for whereas it was become naturally impossible for fallen Man to have Justification or right to Life by the Law of Innocent Nature Christ he purchaseth a new Law that should be a remedy to fallen Man notwithstanding his violation of the first Law So that now if Man do perform the conditions of the Covenant of Grace his Sin shall be pardoned and he shall have right to Life so that it is Christ who hath purchased the new Covenant and it is upon the account of Christ's Merits that God will mercifully accept the obedience which this Covenant requires instead of that Innocency which the Law of perfect Works called for I mean works without any Sin attending them or works performed by an Innocent Creature and justifie and give right to Pardon and Life thereupon When I say that God upon the account of Christ's Merits will mercifully accept the obedience which the Covenant of Grace injoins instead of that Innocency the Law of sinless perfect Works called for the meaning is not as some are prone to imagine that our Evangelical or Gospel Obedience
Christ hath purchased Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works This I have also proved that what is required on our part Christ hath also purchased and if Christ have purchased all that which constitutes the Covenant i. e. God's gracious promises and grace to enable us to perform the duties required to give us a right to and interest in the above mentioned benefits then let the Reader judge whether he be of the foundation that holds Christ hath purchased the Covenant or he that denies it It is through Christ furthermore that Souls have right to Pardon and Life upon true Faith as God upon the account of his Meritorious Righteousness and all prevailing Intercession communicates still further and further aids of Grace for Believers perseverance As Faith and Repentance are required by the Gospel to our initial Justification or right to Christ and the benefits of Pardon and Life through him so perseverance in Grace is required to our continued and final Justification He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved And Christ hath merited persevering Grace John 10. 10. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy I am come that they might have Life and that they might have it more abundantly Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Heb. 2. 19. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings From what hath been said we shall Observe That none of Mankind now can be accounted righteous and so have Justification by the Law that injoins sinless perfect Works for if so we must in the account of the Law be sinless and perfectly righteous And if so it must either be by having such a Righteousness of our own but this cannot be there being no meer Man that hath such a sinless perfect Righteousness of his own as this Law requires or Secondly It must be by having such a Righteousness of anothers but this cannot be for there is no Righteousness of another that can answer the Law of Innocent Nature but Christ's and this Law neither doth nor can account us sinless and perfectly righteous with Christ's Righteousness for if it should or could account us perfectly righteous by accounting the Righteousness of Christ in it self to be ours or accounting us perfectly to have obeyed and fulfilled it in Christ's Obedience It must account us to be thus righteous either absolutely or upon performance of some condition by it required If upon the performance of some condition it must either be the condition it required of sinless Man which is personal perfect and perpetual Obedience and if we could perform this we should not need Christ's Righteousness at all for there had been no necessity of Christ's Righteousness if Man had continued to have performed a personal perfect Righteousness or it must be upon the performance of the condition of a sincere Repentance and Faith But the Law of Innocent Nature reveals not and therefore cannot prescribe such a condition upon the performance of which it will account us perfectly righteous through or by Christ's Righteousness for if it did 't is evident there would have been no need of God's publishing the new Covenant or of promulgating the Gospel If it account us to be thus righteous absolutely without any condition at all then it either accounts all Mankind to be perfectly righteous by Christ's perfect Obedience or only some part of Mankind if it account all Mankind to be perfectly righteous through Christ's Righteousness then all must have Justification or a right to Life and none of Mankind must perish and if so then we must have universal Salvation If it account only some to be perfectly righteous with Christ's Righteousness then it must consider them either as Elect or non-elect if it do not consider them as Elect then the forementioned consequence is established If it consider them as Elect then the Law of Works must consider them as Sinners and so make provision for the Salvation of some and none for the Salvation of others that which I do not know any that will undertake to prove But if it should be granted that the Law of Innocent Nature absolutely without requiring any condition of them should account the Elect righteous upon Christ's perfect Obedience or fulfilling of it then it must follow that Christ's sufferings are a meer nullity and there is no need of them for if upon Christ's active Obedience the Law do account all the Elect sinless and perfectly righteous which it must do if it account them righteous personally with Christ's Righteousness and justifie them as such who have perfectly obeyed Christ's perfect Obedience then it cannot require suffering too seeing that it only calls for suffering in case it have not the actual Obedience it requires And it must follow further that there is no need of a Covenant of Grace nor Repentance and Faith commanded therein if the Law of sinless Works do account us perfectly righteous in Christ's perfect obeying it for us But none of these things can be as is plain if Persons will lay aside prejudice and consider And if so that cannot be sound and true which some have affirmed that Christ and we are one Legal Person or that Christ and Believers are one Person in Law Sense the Law accounting that what Christ did they did But it may be said when Persons become true Believers then the Law of Works 〈◊〉 them righteous with the Righteousness of Christ this is as much as to say the Law of Works justifies upon Persons performing of the condition of the Gospel and it knows nothing of nor doth it prescribe any such condition and so if it justifie it must justifie upon terms unknown and therefore unprescribed in it self and thus it is made a sort of a blind justifying Instrument SECT IX Faith described and explicated in order to our Justification by it HAving shewn how it is through Jesus Christ that God doth assert and will maintain our right to Pardon and Life I shall proceed to shew what Faith is which is the thing required to give us right John 3. 16. Acts 13. 39. Acts 16. 31. An acute Author gives us this Description of it 't is a believing acceptance of Christ a Saviour it is a short one but yet a full one for it implies First Assent Secondly Consent and Thirdly our resolved following of Christ in his way trusting and relying upon him whatever we meet withal First It
a perfect conformity to the Law of Innocency is as dung and so abominable to God and sure I am this looks odd on 't for is not this Grace and Holiness a work of God and is not every work of God perfect in its kind hath not a perfection of parts been all along granted and is there not an Evangelical perfection consisting in sincerity which hath been and is acknowledged by Divines was it a strict legal perfection or a perfection consisting in sincerity that David intended when he gave Solomon his Son the charge to serve God with a perfect heart and so when it is said of the People they offered with a perfect heart 1 Chron. 29. 9. Was that a strict legal perfection in Heart and Life that was so sweet to Hezekiah in the reflection after he had received the sentence of Death in himself Isa 38. 3. And said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and Hezekiah wept sore Mr. Caryl from that part of Job's description This Man was perfect saith not that he had a legal perfection such a perfection as the Papists now contend for and assert to be possibly attainable yea actually attained by many in this Life But saith he the perfection here spoken of is the perfection of sincerity and he observes from the words after his explication First It is sincerity that especially commends us to God Secondly Saith he sincere and sound hearted Persons are in God's esteem perfect Persons It is not all that you can do or all that you can say or all that you can suffer or all that you can lose that can make you perfect in the esteem of God without sincerity add sincerity but to the least and it gives you the denomination of perfect Thus far this Reverend Author which Doctrine some Men call Popish so well are they acquainted what Popish Doctrine is Some Men seperate Faith and good Works and speak of them so as though there might be good Works without Faith Now for my part I know no good Works formally in a Theological sense but such as are done in Faith and I know nothing done in Faith that leads not to Christ and God in him and therefore for Persons to speak of good Works as such seperate from Faith and to speak of Faith leading the Soul off from Christ is manifestly vain Some Men will not grant that Faith is a qualification of right to Christ and his benefits and â—et they say to justifie is to make one legally just or just in Law so say I and can a Man be legally just without a legal righteousness and is not that which is a Righteousness a quality how then can a Man be just legally and not qualitatively Find me a Man that ever was legally just and yet not personally just in the sense of that Law which accounted him just and if personally just then primarily inherently just and if personally just just in his nature As I have said above so I must here say again let it be proved that Thomas is a Person without the nature of a Man or that the nature doth not go to constitute the Person when I speak of Faith as the qualifying matter in a Gospel sense some Persons have inferred from hence that this is all I intend in Justification whereas there is the form as I have said i. e. God's imputation by his Law of Grace his accounting such a Faith as accepts of Christ as our great Propitiation Head and Teacher by this his Law for the sake of Christ's satisfaction and Merit for Righteousness and forma dat esse Hence their inference is a meer fallacy à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter Will the Gospel assert a Person 's right to Christ and his benefits before conformity thereunto and when through grace any Person yields Conformity is it not a Gospel Righteousness and is not a Gospel Righteousness jus quoad eam legem a right in that Law to Christ Pardon and Life promised and is jus ad rem a right to a thing no qualification in a legal sense if not then the consequence must be that a penitent Believer as such subjectively hath no more actual right to Christ and Life according to the Gospel promise then an impenitent Infidel I speak not of a right by merit but both by qualification unto him that hath merited and unto Pardon and Life merited by him for us Faith it self as it is the Soul's first consent to accept of Christ to be its Propitiation Head and Teacher is really Gospel Obedience Rom. 16. 26. But now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith and that because it is the Soul's conformity to the Gospel command 1 John 3. 23. And this is his commandment That we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ love one another as he gave us commandment And Faith thus considered is that which unites to Christ and the qualifying matter which first gives the right John 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name And as Faith is the Soul's consent to accept of Christ c. this consent includes the Soul 's free ingagement sincerely to be subject to what Christ commands so long as he continues it in the World in a dependance upon his power and faithfulness And this sincere obedience performed according to the Soul's first Covenant consent during its abode in this World is that whereby its right to Christ and saving blessings is continued Revel 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City And this is agreeable to the mind of a Reverend and Judicious Divine as he Illustrates it by a Marriage Covenant including constant fidelity And this Faith with him is a condition as it relates to the Covenant and a Righteousness in the sense of the Gospel as it is the performance of the condition And when he speaks of Christ's Righteousness being the cause and matter of Justification his declared sense is the meriting matter not that we might merit but have that by virtue of his merit which the Gospel requires to give us right to Pardon and Life and what is this but our sincere consent which is Faith Our Divines excluding good Works from the matter of Justification spoke of good Works with relation to the Law of Innocency and indeed Evangelical Obedience will be no qualifying matter of right in the sense of that Law and that they did so is plain forasmuch as their argument is because they are imperfect perfect therefore say they it must be a perfect
sinless Righteousness even the Righteousness of Christ that must justifie because no other Righteousness can be adaequate to the Law and we say the same with them that if we are justified by the Law of Innocency no less than a perfect sinless Righteousness would avail us here but we are not as hath been made appear but by the Gospel and though I affirm that Faith is our personal justifying Righteousness according to the Gospel Law yet it doth not follow from hence that Believers shall stand upon their points with God in judgment according to his strict Justice no they must say with David Psalm 143. 2. And enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified But I say upon conformity to the Law of Grace they have interest in Christ the Mediatour and a right to his Righteousness upon which they do depend and trust for the satisfaction of God's offended Justice and the answering the violated Law for the procuring of their acceptation with God and a grant of all saving promised good so that as to process in judgment my thoughts are that Believers shall not personally plead at all but Christ as their blessed Advocate for them But then this he will do for them as such who have been and are found recti in curia Evangelica right in the Gospel Law which still I say is and shall be the Rule of Judgment Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel and so justified by this his fixed constitution The ground I have is Matth. 25. from Verse 34 to 41. Whereas some that they may hold their ungrounded and unscriptural notions do confidently affirm that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience hath only the place of an Evidence I do not deny the Obedience of Faith to be an Evidence but then I must not confound but distinguish of its primary and secondary use and office and the result of both Christ saith John 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Dare any Man say they were friends actually before any subjection to Christ if not was not this their subjection a conformity to the Gospel so far as revealed And is there any conformity to the Gospel without Obedience to its commands And is there any Obedience to the commands of the Gospel in truth which is not the obedience of faith Those who will contradict let them prove and then take the cause If they cannot then they must give us leave and if they will not we must make bold to take it it being allowed by one that is greater than they to distinguish of the Obedience of Faith as it constitutes us friends through Christ's Mediation continues us friends and as it is an evidence resulting from both where God is pleased to give the light Say some Job when accused by his friends for being an hypocrite pleads his own Righteousness as much as any But as to Justification thereby before God he speaks otherwise Job 9. 20 21. If I justified my self mine own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Though I were perfect yet would I not know my Soul I would despise my life Now will this or the other really and in it self justifie a Person from the charge of hypocrisie before Men that will not so far justifie him from the charge or accusation in God's account when a Person is falsly accused of hypocrisie as Job must not he so far as he hath a discovery of his sincerity plead this to justifie him against that accusation and if he be sincere is he not so in God's account and so clear of that predominant hypocrisie of which he is accused and doth not God so far as he accounts a Person clear of a false accusation justifie him Let Persons who contradict prove if they can That sincerity will only justifie a Person from the charge or accusation of hypocrisie before Men while yet the accusation stand◠in full force before God and he accounts the Person who is in himself sincere to be a downright hypocrite The meaning then of the above quoted Text in Job seems to be this If I justifie my self as one unjustly afflicted by God this very Justification of my self and charge uttered against God would be sufficient to condemn me if I say I am in a strict sense legally perfect and so have no Sin for which God may correct me this very boasting would prove me perverse and sinful yea though I were perfect yet would I not know or look upon my self as such an one whom God might not deal withal as he pleased considered as absolute Lord and owner Now to argue from this Text according to this clear Exposition that Faith is no qualifying matter of right to Christ Pardon and Life is no better than to argue à bacculo ad angulum ut patet attendenti From what I have affirmed above i. e. That there is no danger of a Soul 's resting in duties where true Faith is in exercise seeing the exercise of Faith will lead that Soul to rest in Christ and God in and through him for acceptation it hath been inferred that such as have throughly imbibed this opinion are if unregenerate in the snare of Satan almost secure from conviction And if this be so then these Men who draw up such a conclusion from the Doctrine have this to prove look where they will find a proof that whoever holds that there is no danger of a Soul 's resting in duty where true Faith is in exercise c. he is in the snare of the Devil if he be unregenerate and like to be for this Doctrine will keep him there And if this Doctrine be it that will keep an unregenerate Person in the snare of the Devil how can any one be out of his snare that holds it for if it be the Devil's snare he that holds it must needs be in it If then a Person have been regenerate before yet according to this assertion if he imbibe this Doctrine it brings him back into the snare of the Devil so that he must fall from grace falling from a regenerate state and I for my part by these Men sentenced to the black Pit and in their account there is no hope for me but by the grace of God in Jesus Christ I do not dread their Sentence This intus existens prohibens alienum is very much to be lamented at this day seeing it opposeth manifest truth I suppose the consequences that I have deduced from the common Doctrine of Justification are very offensive to some and they call them absurd But I say again whosoever they be that holds Christ's Righteousness in it self to be their very personal formal justifying Righteousness the inferences are natural from the Notion and whereas they are called absurd the contradiction betwixt the abovesaid Doctrine
by the obedience of one i. e. the Obedience of Christ many shall be made righteous but this not by accounting the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ to be the formal Righteousness of their Persons for this is proper to him as Mediatour and cannot be appropriated to them But by this i. e. for the sake of this Righteousness of Christ all those that by Faith accept him shall by the Covenant of Grace be accounted Righteous or their Faith shall be accepted for Righteousness Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness And whereas he adds in this Article for it is by the Obedience of one and not by the Faith and Obedience of many that many are justified that is a meer jumble for who saith that it is by the Faith and Obedience of many that others are justified And who saith that any are justified without the Obedience of that one i. e. Christ giving that its proper place and office which is to be a meritorious Righteousness And whereas they themselves make Christ's Righteousness to be the meritorious cause of our Justification and yet after that make it the material cause or that with which we are personally righteous they themselves affirm hereby that justified Persons are righteous in the sense of the Law and in God's account with the meritorious Righteousness of Christ and how Persons can in God's account have a meritorious Righteousness with which they themselves are in Law-sense righteous and yet be wholly stripped of that in their own Persons that will merit is a great Paradox for Christ's Righteousness is denominated meritorious from its inseperable property merit as he is our Mediatour 14. I believe saith he that this Obedience and Righteousness of Christ imputed is as able powerful and certain for the Justification of the Elect as the Disobedience and Sin of Adam was for the condemnation of him and his posterity It may be doubted whether this Man do believe that those he calls the Elect were of Adam's posterity seeing that he opposeth them in this Article and touching Adam's Disobedience and Sin which he calls his ability and power implicit for the condemnation of him and his posterity alas it was his moral impotency if he had said it was that which merited procured the condemnation of him and his posterity as they derived a guilty and corrupt nature from him it had been more like and near the truth And thus I grant that Christ's Righteousness had infinitely more merit in it to procure Justification for Sinners upon their believing than Adam's Sin had merit to procure his own or his posterities condemnation 15. I believe saith he that Jesus Christ by his Death Blood Merits Righteousness and obedience hath purchased bought and redeemed his Elect Church and People but that he obeyed and died to procure and purchase a new Law or Covenant with terms and conditions to be performed by them to give them a right and title to Justification I see no ground as yet to believe Indeed I believe him such a stranger belike is he to the blessed Covenant of Grace and yet for sure he looks upon himself to be a Gospel Preacher if there be one in the World In this Article further he wants my proof that there is a Law or Covenant of Grace with terms and Conditions to be performed by Souls to give them a right and title to Justification and this purchased by Christ That I have already done as he may find above and if it would do him any good I should be glad of it 16. I believe saith he that the satisfaction made by Christ to the Law and Justice of God gives the Elect a right to Justification and Life in way of title and that the Adult by Faith receive and enjoy that right That Christ gave full-satisfaction to an offended God I grant but then that that satisfaction consisted in Christ's suffering the same in kind which was due to us transgressors by the Laws threat which I suppose is that which he aims at this I deny and have shewed above it cannot be I believe that Christ hath undoubtedly purchased a right to Pardon and Life which is Justification by his satisfaction and merit for all those the Father hath given him But then that any of these I speak of the Adult have an actual interest in him or right and title to Pardon and Life so long as impenitent unbelievers this I deny seeing so long as they remain such they are in a perishing condemned state Luke 13. 3. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish 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 And is it like Persons should have an actual interest in Christ and an actual right and title to Pardon and Life by the Gospel so long as they are in a perishing condemned state in the account of the Gospel And then further saith he the Adult by Faith receive and enjoy this right I say the Adult receive Christ which receiving is not Physical but Moral which consists in a sincere consent to take Christ to be their Propitiation Head and Teacher and by this consent which is Faith they are united to Christ and have an actual right hereupon to the great priviledge of Adoption which includes Pardon and Life John 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power or the right of priviledge or the priviledge of right to become the Sons of God and this right is continued by our yielding that subjection through Grace to Christ which we promised in our first consent or when we first did consent to be his Servants Revel 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City 17. I believe saith he that all those thus elected and chosen and by the Father given to Christ redeemed c. are in God's appointed time the day of his power effectually called from a state of nature sin and death to a state of Faith Grace Justification and life and that all those who live and die in infidelity being Adult shall as certainly be damned as though they were in Hell already Mark Reader how he hath confirmed by thus much what I have said above But then saith he that any of the Elect being Adult shall live and die Infidels such an one speaking of me quoth he hath not yet proved That many of the Elect do live many years in Infidelity is out of doubt with me But that any of them shall die Infidels this I never said nor thought for saith Christ John 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will no wise
cast out And therefore he accuseth me falsly 18. I believe saith he that as one great end of the Father in electing and of the Son in redeeming was the making of the Elect holy so the blessed Spirit the third Person in the glorious Trinity which is as free in working Faith Regeneration and Sanctification as the Father in electing or the Son in redeeming doth in time make the Elect Holy Humble Heavenly righteous sincerely Obedient and fruitful in good works contained in the first and second table of the holy Law Very good thus far I deny not but grant the same only there is this I would have him reminded of i. e. How it comes about or what revelation there is for it in the word that God will now accept of sincere obedience to his commands through Christ whereas sinless perfect Obedience was once injoined Man That it is pleasing unto and accepted by God through Christ is certain I mean sincere Obedience to his commands But that it should be so without any further revelation that this is the will and command of God beside what was commanded Adam in Innocency as he insinuates when he saith in scorn he is not acquainted with my new Law this rests upon him to prove and is like to do It would be his mercy if God would convince him and humble him for his deriding of that as my Law which he must shortly know is God's Law and that which he will judge him by 19. I believe saith he the Elect the redeemed and justified by Christ are under the greatest obligation to duty both moral and positive in their own house and God's house in the Church and in the World this Man hath words enough And that those that talk of Election and Justification by free Grace and yet live eiâ—her in practical wickedness or in the wilful neglect of Christian duties in their Families or Closets or slight the appointments and Ordinances of Christ in the Church when they have opportunity are the greatest enemies that Christ hath that they have caused many to stumble at the truth and tempted some to lay out their parts Wisdom and Reason all which should be used for God in opposing the truth stadying out ways words and methods to cloud and render it odious and these abusers of grace by their Omissions and Commissions do cause the way of truth to be spoken of so they hereafter shall mâ—et with the greatest condemnation and shall have the hottest place in Hell except they repens for whose practice I never have nor shall I hope be an Advocate The most of what he here saith is truth in it self only as for his own practice he speaks of I can neither say with it nor against it being very much a stranger unto it but if he mean by truth what he hath drawn up as Aâ—ticles of his Faith I grant and accept somethings in some of them to be great truths but as for very much contained in them I do not at all question but they are great untruths as I have made appear and may yet further do though I will have this charity for the Man that he doth not think or intend them to be so though in the mean time he deceives himself and is in danger of deceiving others with false notions though I grant a contrary practice a practice that is repugnant to false notions so long as Persons do not willingly oppose clear light it alters the case very much as to Persons states and safety 20. I believe saith he those Scriptures Rom. 3. 21 22. Philip. 3. 9. Rom. 4. 13. which such an one speaking of me brings to prove that Faith it self is our Justifying Righteousness are not for his purpose the two first speak of the Righteousness of Christ God Man which Faith apprehends embraces and takes hold of and cloaths the Soul with as the best robe and whether the word Righteousness of Faith in Rom. 4. 13. ought to be understood of the object or of the act of Faith I shall leave to consideration being perswaded the Scriptures ought not to be expounded against Christ but for him of whom they testifie Mark Reader upon this Article he saith Article 12th that to say the Righteousness of Christ's Godhead or his Manhood or the Righteousness of both his natures united is imputed is blasphemy and here he saith that Faith apprehends embraces and takes hold of the Righteousness of Christ God Man and cloaths the Soul with it as the best robe and how he will free himself from the heavy charge of Blasphemy propronounced by himself he must see to it Touching the Righteousness of Faith spoken of in the forementioned Texts the Apostle either speaks of Faith or wholly excludes it if he speak of and include Faith then how can the object i. e. only the Righteousness of Christ as he saith be intended unless he think that Faith goes to the constituting of Christ's Righteousness but surely he will not say this if Faith be wholly excluded and the Righteousness of Christ and only this meant then why doth the Apostle mention Faith If he say because it takes hold upon and embraceth the Righteousness of Christ I ask then where this Faith is if the Apostle only speak of the object Christ's Righteousness in these Texts He cannot find it unless he will say that Faith it self is part of this object and if so then it follows First That Faith is a part of Christ's Righteousness 2ly That Faith taketh hold of and embraceth Faith for Christ's Righteousness and so Thirdly That one part of the object takes hold upon and embraceth another Thus Persons may see if they will not on set purpose shut their Eves what a confusion and jumble this makes i. e. the asserting the Righteousness of and by Faith to be Christ's Righteousness not Faith but the object â—nly But if this Man will take notice and labour â—o understand I will tell him again what I hold in this particular i. e. Faith as it is the Souls consent to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and thankfully to accept of Christ to be its only Saviour which includes his taking him in all his Offices and a purpose through assisting Grace of Obedience to the Death is a conformity to the Gospel which is Christ's Law of Grace and as it is a conformity hereunto by the Scripture it is called a Righteousness and this Faith justifies not nor gives any Soul interest in Christ and a right to the blessings purchased by him contained in the Covenant of Grace as a meer act but as by it the Soul renounceth all Christ's Enemies and accepts of him in all his Offices c. and so relatively so that this same Man with others do me open wrong in bearing Persons in hand that I affirm that Faith justifies or giveth right as a meer act 21. I believe saith he that such an one naming me chargeth many things upon I know not who
in Christ Jesus That we are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus and also that we are not justified by the Law of Innocency and yet in such a way wherein God keeps up the honour of his Law in receiving full satisfaction for our violation of that Law unto his governing justice from our Mediatour I firmly hold but what his meaning is I shall leave and not trouble the Reader with conjectures about it 27. I believe saith he this Righteousness whereby God graciouly justifies his Elect and which they receive by Faith without wavering or violating his Holy Law resides subjectively in the person of Christ and yet may be ours by way of gift and Imputation without being subjectively in us else how is God our God Christ our Saviour Redeemer Prophet Priest and King are these subjectively in us I suppose by being subjectively in us he intends that we are the Subjects And proved I have above that we must be the Subjects of Christ's Righteousness if God account it to be the very formal Righteousness of our Persons And whereas he puts the Question how is God our God and Christ our Saviour Redeemer Prophet Priest and King what are these subjectively ours I Answer If he will say as he seems to intimate that God and Christ as Saviour and Redeemer in all his Offices are ours after the same manner that he faith Christ's Righteousness is made ours i. e. by God's Imputation or his accounting it in its self to be the formal Righteousness of our Persons he implicitly saith this If he will say that God's infinite perfections which are his Essence and so God himself are made by his Imputation or are in his account the perfections of every Believers Person and that Christ's Offices as Prophet Priest and King are made by God's Imputation or are in God's account the Offices of every Believer's Person then he must also say that their Persons in God's account are the subjects of Divine perfections and of Christ's Offices as Mediatour which would be Blasphemy to affirm That God then is so in any Believer as to communicate unto or make his Person a partaker of his Divine perfections or give unto him his Divine perfections in themselves so as that it may be affirmed of his Person it hath Divine properties such as Omniscience Omnipotency c. to say this would be horrid Blasphemy And so that Christ as Saviour and Redeemer is so in any Believer as to communicate unto or make his Person the subject of those Offices which he himself executes as Mediatour so as it may be affirmed of the Believer he executes those Offices in his own Person is a like horrid Blasphemy But now I will tell this Man for all this that it is affirmed in Scripture that God Christ and the Holy Spirit do dwell in the Hearts of Believers 2 Corinth 6. 16. And what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols for ye are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my People Ephes 3. 17. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith 1 Corinth 3. 16. Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you Yea and is their God hereupon as it may be found in the abovesaid 2 Corinth 6. 16. But then it is not by giving unto them after any sort what is proper to God and Christ or that whereby God is God and Christ is Christ and so incommunicable But by giving them that which may be communicated i. e. the effects of God's gracious and merciful Power and the fruits of Christ's Mediation such as the quickening healing inlarging teaching sanctifying Sin mortifying Grace of his Holy Spirit which Grace is from the Father as the fountain through Christ as the Mediatour and by the Spirit as the proximate Author and worker and as this Grace is wrought in them and they after a spiritual sort are quickened healed inlarged taught sanctified and have their Sin mortified hereby they are the subjects of it Now for any to talk of Christ's Righteousness being given to them in it self to be their personal Righteousness or that Righteousness wherewith their Persons are made formally righteous for their Justification and yet say he is the only subject of it and that it is proper to him as Mediatour and cannot be communicated to any Creature is a contradiction for if it be given to any in it self to be the formal Righteousness of their Persons it must be communicated to them in it self for how should any Man's Person be formally righteous with that Righteousness which after no soâ—t in it self can be communicated to his Person In its blessed fruits and effects I grant Christ's Righteousness is communicated to every true penitent Believer but in it self not I wish it may be considered Thus I have done with his Creed consisting of 27 Articles respecting Justification PART II. BUT he hath 25 things yet behind which he calls Questions which I question not he judgeth unanswerable But I shall however since I am doing make an Essay and try what may be done by me through God's assistance in answer however to some of them though the most of them are odd and not worth a Man's while to take up time about them Quest 1. If the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ as the second Adam and with all the Elect in him as his Seed as the Assemblies Catechism saith Then how is Christ the purchaser doth he purchase a Covenant that was made with himself as the undertaker and stands fast in him I Answer Nothing will serve this Man but he will be a downright and barefaced Sociniaâ—â— he will by no means hear that Christ hath purchased the Covenant of Grace But I have already shewed that it was no Covenant of Grace which was made with Christ though it was of Grace to us as it had respect to our Redemption and Salvation And that the Assembly could intend no such thing though he alledge their Authority as I have also cleared unless he will shew us that they contradicted themselves therefore this Question is ungroundedly stated Quest 2. If Christ himself be the Covenant given by the Father as it is written Isa 42. 6 7. and 49. 8 9. How then doth he purchase the Covenant doth he purchase that which he is the subject matter of then he purchased himself Answ Reader What thinkest thou by such Questions as these Well he saith thou feest the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ Now if Christ himself personally considered as he intimates in his Question be the Covenant it self how then say Iâ— could this Covenant be made with him I must answer according to the nature of the matter before me Can a Covenant be made with it self or is the Covenant of Grace a Person consisting of two
natures or did God make a Covenant of Grace with a Covenant of Grace Christ indeed was given of the Father to reconcile God to Sinners by his Blood and Sinners to God by the Holy Spirit given Ephes 2. 13. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ Coloss 1. 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled And so he is the Efficient and meritorious cause of the Covenant of Grace and the gift of the Covenant so far as he makes over himself and the blessed fruits of his purchase thereby to his People but to talk of Christ being the Covenant it self and so to purchase himself if he purchase the Covenant of Grace who could have thought that any Man should have offered such raw conceptions for certainly the end of Christ's Death was to reconcile God and Sinners and are God and Sinners reconciled so long as Sinners continue in actual rebellion against him If not then are not Sinners to cast away their weapons their Sins whereby they have been warring against God And are they not to come in upon his Proclamation of Grace and humbly submit themselves to his sacred Majesty promising through Grace to be his loyal Subjects for the time to come And is not this an engagement on the returning Sinners part to be the Lords when he saith implicitly herein and so answers Gods call as it is said Jerm 3. 22. Return ye backâ—sliding Children and I will heal your backslidings Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God Isa 26. 13. O Lord our God other Lord besides thee have had dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy name And hath not God promised to accept receive pardon c. for Christ's sake such a Sinner and is not this God's gracious engagement on his part and is not here the form of a Covenant But was there ever such a Covenant made betwixt God and Christ True indeed it is in and through the merits of Christ that God thus condescends but plain it is this Covenant which is a Covenant of Grace to Sinners is made betwixt God and them Can these Persons understand the nature of Mercy and Grace as they should who talk of a Covenant of Mercy and Grace made with Christ Well but say they it was made with Christ for us and with us in him I Answer If they speak of the Covenant of Redemption I grant it was though made with Christ yet so for us as that it was in order to our Redemption and Salvation by him but if they speak of the Covenant of Grace such a Covenant as I have described above that this was made with Christ for us this I deny for if so then Christ must be bound to perform that duty on his part which God in the Gospel requires of Sinners and will they say this That he hath ingaged himself in the Covenant of Redemption to give Grace to all the Father hath given him I speak of the Adult to inable them to perform the duty which the Gospel injoins and if this be all they intend by the Covenant of Grace being made with Christ for Believers they do not differ from me in the thing though yet observe their notion confounds in the matter the Covenant of Redemption made with Christ making it the same with that which is made with Sinners which is strictly in its own nature and in the very matter of it a Covenant of Grace and Mercy And further when they say the Covenant of Grace as such in its own nature was made with us in Christ If they mean with us in Christ as the purchaser which this Man denies in scorn or the great mean of conveyance of the blessings hereof or with â—s in Christ as we have interest in it after a special sort upon our Union with him by Faith I am of the same mind But if they mean it was made with us in Christ as that he is the only Confederate for us who obliged himself to perform what is required of us and so to repent believe and obey the Gospel for us this I deny and so the Assembly as appears in their Answer to this Question i. e. How is the Grace of God manifested in the second Covenant A. In that he freely provideth and offereth to Sinners a Mediatour and Life and Salvation by him and requiring Faith as the condition to interest them in him promiseth and giveth his Holy Spirit to all his Elect to work in them that Faith with all other saving Graces and to enable them to all Holy Obedience as the evidiâ—nce of the truth of their Faith and thankfulness to God and as the way he hath appointed them to Salvation Q. 3. If Faith be our formal justifying Righteousness then how is Christ the Lord our Righteousness or all the Seed of Israel justified in him A. This I have fully answered above and from thence he may know by Efficiency and Merit Q. 4. If God justifie the Elect by a Righteousness which answereth not the Law of Innocency then how doth he administer grace in a way of justice or what doth he justifie them from or how is he just in justifying him that believeth in Jesus and faithful and just to forgive us our Sins seeing what he doth seems to interfere with Law and Justice A. He supposeth first That God justifieth the Elect if he mean only as such before Faith and so without Faith it is not true 2ly He supposeth that God justifieth by a Righteousness that answereth the Law of Innocency If he mean by such a Righteousness as is the Merit I grant but if he mean by such a Righteousness a Righteousness which we are personally righteous with this I deny If God saith he doth not justifie the Elect by a Righteousness which answereth the Law of Innocency How then saith he doth he administer grace in a way of justice I Answer God doth justifie by that Righteousness which answereth the Gospel or God's Law of Grace if he mean by answering a conformity to the precepts of a Law i. e. the Righteousness of Faith And in this he administers Grace in the way of Justice 1. As he accepts Faith for Righteousness and gives us an actual right thereupon to Pardon and Life for Christ's sake whose active Righteousness was a conformity to the Law of Innocency as it required sinless perfect rectitude both in Nature and Life and his Sufferings which are called his Passive Righteousness which were instead of the penalty due unto us for our violation of this Law both which are meritorious and satisfactory on our behalf and thus the Law is answered for us in the account of the Lawgiver and justice fully satisfied And thus Readers you must understand me when I speak of Christ's fulfilling the Law and in what I have spoken of that 2.
supposition i. e. that I hold Faith justifies as an act whereas I deny it and therefore it is a wonder how Men daâ—e appear in writing to the world charging a Man with that which he disowns and which they cannot prove against him and whereas this Man insinuates that I hold Justification by the simple act of Faith without relation to its object He saith as much as that I hold Justification by that which is not Faith for Faith without relation â—o its object is no Faith How Faith justifies I have shewn and also how we are justified by Christ and his righteousness Q. 9. What is that wedding garment that best robe that change of raiment that garment of Salvation and robe of righteousness that fine linnen that 's white and clean Are these our acts of Faith and Obedience or Christ's Righteousness imputed He â—till sings over the old Song and if he would have an Answer if he will take pains to look back thither where I treat of these matters he may find one Q. 10. If Justification be an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our Sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by Faith alone as saith the Assemblies How then is Faith itself our justifying Righteousness seeing it doth but only receive Christ's Righteousness which God imputes This he hath puâ—me to answer before in speaking unto the 23d Article of his Faith Q. 11. Whether was it not as possible and easie nay whether was it not more easie for Adam to have obeyed the Law of Innocency being free from sin in his nature as it is for fallen Man dead in Sin to believe and keep the conditions of the new purchased Covenant If so then saith he how doth the exceeding riches of God's grace appear thereby according to such an one that â—â— me whom he names What a Man is this to bring such a thing into question Have I any where or at any time affirmed that it is as easie for a Man dead in Sin to believe and keep the conditions of the Covenant of Grace as it was for innocent Adam to have obeyed the Law of Innocency Thus it is in the practice of such Men as this in the first place falsly to charge such as they know oppose them and thus beget a prejudice in others against them and so bring them over to their own party and keep them fast to them He supposes nay takes it for granted that I hold that which yet I deny i. e. I deny that Sinners have any moral power to repent or believe without the renewing and quickening power of the Spirit of God and seeing his supposition is false his Question is ungrounded and therefore is vain and frivilons for whether he will know it or no I affirm that by grace they are saved who are saved through faith but yet not of themselves it is the gift of God Qâ— 12. Hath Christ purchased a Covenant which accepts of that which is imperfect as such an one still naming me grants Faith to be and so morally evil Is this to honour the Law of God or the death and obedience of the Son of God or to set up the golden calf the fruit of our own brains drawn out of the forge of our imagination and dance about it saying this is thy God O Israel that justifies and saves thee Though I have already said enough for the solution of this yet there is in this which he calls a Question I would have taken notice of i. e. He supposeth seeing that the sincere grace and duties of God's People do not answer the Law of Innocency nor are not a conformity in full to that Law therefore they are morally evil i. e. in plain terms they are no other but Sin for he supposeth Faith to be so and if Faith then all other graces and duties Now I grant that although Persons have true Faith and performs sincere Obedience yet the Law of Innocency in it self or as such a Law condemns them for all this though through and for Christ they are delivered from a condemned state so as that the Laws sentence shall not everlastingly be executed upon them Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And that because Faith in a Redeemer and sincere Obedience is not that conformity to this Law it calls for But then that true Faith in a Redeemer and sincere in Obedience as such are morally evil in themselves and so Sin this I deny for they are both commanded where then or in whomsoever they are found they are a conformity to the will of that God who commands them And can that which is a conformity to God's command be morally evil in it self or in its own nature and so Sin If this were so then it would be all one for Persons to continue disobedient Infidels as to be obedient Believers and this is uncouth Doctrine Indeed neither Faith in a Redeemer or Mediatour nor yet sincere Obedience under that formality only are commanded by the Law of Innocency seeing it is sinless perfect Obedience or obedience in a Subject where is no Sin that it requires seeing then that both the Faith and Obedience above spoken of are commanded they must be commanded by some Law and what Law can this be but a Law of Mercy and Grace which for Christ accepts of the sincere obedience of Faith when God might have insisted upon perfect obedience in a sinless subject Manifest it is that Man as he gathers from others confounds Law and Gospel which sets him and keeps him sadly wrong and dark in the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace through Christ And yet notwithstanding I have ground enough to think that he judgeth himself to be exceeding clear in the matter and looks upon me to be a silly deceived Creature and that there is no Salvation for me if I die an opposer of his confused notions seeing that by what he saith in this which he calls his Question he accounts me no other than a gross Idolater that forms and frames a God intending hereby the Doctrine I own out of the forge of my own brain and imagination calling it a golden calf which I dance about and call upon others to worship By such disdain as this this poor Mâ—n discovers what his Spirit is And though I could retaliate yet I do not think it my way and therefore all I shall say to this which is downright calumny for he cannot prove what he hath said is I wish there may be the like convictions and hopeful work upon his Soul which sometime since were manifest And that the Lord of his abundant Mercy in Jesus Christ if there be the truth of grace in his heart would take away all that which obstructs the exercise of spiriâ—â—al light life and love with relation to
by us as that we oppose them more than any of our Adversaries who account themselves such great Antipapists yea and are further of from the Papists herein than they for upon the principles our Adversaries go in the point it cannot be avoided but they make that Law which injoins perfect sinless Works which as such condemns us all to be God's Instrument whereby he justifies seeing that they say the matter of their personal justifying Righteousness not only meriting but qualifying or else they oppose not us observe that must be that which is every way perfect in the sense of the violated Law of Innocency And indeed were we to be justified by that Law we must say the same with them So that let any Man who is not altogether prejudiced against the cause judge whether those Men be not much nearer the Papists in this point than such as they charge to be one with them for the Reverend Persons named above and others with them proceed in this point upon another Principle then either the Papists or such as profess to be their Adversaries holding God's Covenant or Law of Grace to be the rule of judgment and so the Instrument by which God doth justifie us or that by which God doth justifie for the sake of Christ's satisfactory and meritoriorious Righteousness when by the Grace of God we are conformed thereunto which Conformity consists in a turn from Sin and an unfeigned consent sincerely to be Obedient unto Christ and his Law to our Lives end upon which God doth account or reckon us Righteous in the sense of the Gospel and so such who have that right unto and interest in Christ which impenitent and disobedient Souls have not and this for the Righteousness sake of Christ as I have sufficiently proved And whereas Readers some Persons would bear you in hand that we give Repentance and Faith the place Office and use of Christ's Righteousness and look to be justified only by this as inherent 't is either an Ignorant or Malicious slander for we say that although the Lord Jesus hath satisfied offended Justice and merited all saving priviledges yet we can neither have peace with God nor right to Christ nor his purchased benefits nor be accepted of God through Christ until we be qualified with that Grace the Gospel requires which Grace doth not give us the right in its own Nature or as it is inherent but as God accounts and reckons it to do so that is as he imputes it for Righteousness The Papists place Justification in the Infusion We in the Imputation Whatever you hear therefore from Adversaries or read in any Books that is or shall be an indeavour to prove these forementioned Persons or others of their mind to be one with the Papists in the point of Justification you may assure your selves 't is nothing but a slander and the slanderers are nearer themselves in the point to the Papists until they have fully proved that we whom they abuse do hold the four particulars I have mentioned above which I am sure they cannot do so long as they have a Tongue to speak with and if they cannot all their attempts against us are in vain and not to be regarded for if they do not this they do nothing to invalidate our Doctrine and therefore I desire you Readers to observe this that if any Answer be made to mine that you will see whether in the pretended Answer it be proved that I hold the four things above mentioned and if you find they prove not that which they are not like you may assure your selves their Answer is none M. S. An Advertisement WHereas the Author of this Book seems warm against the Righteousness of Christ being the formal cause of our Justification and argues that if it be so then it must be the Believer's proper personal Righteousness which those Divines who say that Christ and the Believer do so coaless into one Person that his Righteousness is transferred to them upon that account must assert and if it be his personal Righteousness his Person being not seperable from his Nature which is himself then he must be the subject of Christ's Righteousness and consequently it must be inherent in him as the subject thereof the candid Reader is to observe First That he drives the Argument thus home for conviction only of his Adversaries who know that Imputed and Inherent is a Contradiction Secondly That he understands well they need no driving to a concession that his Righteousness therefore is not and cannot be the Believer's Physically but they say Legally only and by Imputation nevertheless so long as they say it is imputed so as to be his formal Righteousness the Absurdity remains Thirdly That to hold Christ's Righteousness to be the Believer's or accounted his legally or in a Law-sense so as God looks on him as having fulfilled all Righteousness in Christ as our legal Person is that Doctrine which Mr. Baxter hath set himself to oppose in all his Books as such which subverts the Gospel and he that will go about to maintain it must Answer his Arguments which I suppose cannot be done by any Lastly That if the more Judicious of his Adversaries would consider a little more of the matter and come to be content with such an Imputation of Christ's Obedience as answers the End of his performance of it which is that upon our believing Men shall enjoy the benefits then would they soon find out the right knowledge how to give a fair construction of what is said by former Divines who agreeing in this that there is indeed an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to the Believers but because it is not express in Scripture they not considering or mentioning any such distinction are misconstrued to understand an Imputation in se when there is indeed or can be no such but Quoad fructus aut Effectus only By the Hand unknown aforesaid THE TRUE NOTION OF Imputed Righteousness AND OUR Justification thereby c. SECT I. The Subject Matter proposed SEeing the apprehensions of Persons are so different about the Doctrine and Nature of Justification and so much depends upon the having a right notion hereof At the intreaty of some of my Friends for their satisfaction and for the benefit of others I shall God assisting with all possible plainness declare my Sentiments in this particular 1. I do believe that by and through the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of our Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ a Covenant of Grace hath been purchased for and granted by God unto sinners after they by their sin had violated or broken that Law which injoined perfect sinless works and thereby made themselves incapable of performing obedience to that Law which at the first it required as a condition of life and so of having Justification thereby Heb. 12. 24. Christ is called the Mediatour of the new Covenant and that because he hath purchased by his death a grant of pardon and life by
hath been asserted and is yet asserted by some God neither seeth nor can see Sin in his People and indeed how should it be if he account them habitually and actively sinless and Holy for where it is thus there can be no Sin in their Natures and if so then no Sin of Omission or Commission in the Life and if no Sin neither in Nature nor Life how should God see any 5. If we be such as God accounts in our Justification to be both habitually and actively Holy and sinless then we need no Pardon for there needs no Pardon where there is no Sin nor Fault and if we who are justified have no Sin to Pardon then there needs no Confession of Sin nor Repentance nor Faith in Christ for Pardon and so no Gospel Obedience seeing we have the same legal Righteousness as they say in God's account which Christ had and so we must be justified by the Law of Works as he was and thus the Gospel and Covenant of Grace which offers Pardon to Sinners upon Confession Repentance and Faith becomes a meer nothing and the whole frame of Christianity is taken down Well but they may say we are not inherently righteous by Christ's Righteousness I Answer if they be personally righteous with Christ's righteousness they must be inherently righteous with the same as I have before manifested 6. If God impute the righteousness of Christ unto us in it self and so in the Sense of the violated Law of Innocency reckon us to have done what Christ did and to have suffered what Christ suffered in our own Persons then he must reckon us such as have performed the very acts of Mediation and Redemption for wherein did Christ's Mediation and Redemption consist but in his Obedience and Sufferings I speak of this his work upon Earth which constituted his Active and Passive Righteousness And if so be that God in justifying of us do account us to have the very same righteousness which Christ had for our formal personal righteousness then he must account us to have that which is and was a mediating and redeeming righteousness and so to have that of our own by his gift as our very personal righteousness whereby we may be Mediatours and Redeemers for our selves and others 7. If God impute the righteousness of Christ in it self and account it our formal personal righteousness then it is only the righteousness of Christ he imputes as Man or the righteousness of Christ as God man If the former then they must hold that the righteousness of Christ as Man only is efficacious and he needed not be God if the righteousness of Christ as God-man then God must account them such as have a Divine righteousness as well as an Humane to be their formal personal righteousness and if so then that opinion hereby is established of being Godded with God and Christed with Christ and what I dread to say they must implicitly affirm themselves to be partakers of the very Essence of God and so God's Essence must be divided into so many parts as there are justified Believers and these Believers must be made partakers of the incommunicable Attributes of God Now upon the matter to hint it again when I say that Faith is our Gospel Righteousness and that God by the Gospel doth account it our personal justifying Righteousness it is manifest from what I have already said I do not intend only the â—â—NRâ—â— credere or the very act of Faith without relation to its Object Christ and his righteousness though some for all I have said have been bold to affirm I do for that would be no true Faith at all and far then from justifying for Faith justifies as it unites unto and gives the Soul interest in Christ and this it doth as it is the Souls free consent to take Christ as it is to be said in all his Offices upon which the Soul hath an actual right unto him and the benefits of the Covenant purchased by him and this is plain Gospel Justification as for instance Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 31. When therefore any Soul believes this his Faith is his Obedience and Conformity unto the Gospel command and so his Gospel Righteousness and as such his actual right through and for Christ to the Salvation promised Would the Jaylor have had a right unto the promised Salvation had he not believed I mean an actual right must it not be said no Upon his Faith then he had a right and this his Faith was his obedience to the Gospel command therefore it was his obedience to the command which was his Gospel Righteousness and so his right by Christ according to God's own fixed Law of Grace unto Salvation Hath any Man an actual right to Heaven but a Believer if he have let it be proved from Scripture if none have but such an one then the Believer only I speak of the Adult hath the actual right and is it not plain then 't is his Faith that gives him this right To illustrate this such a Man makes a Purchase of an Inheritance After Purchase bequeaths it by Testament or Will to this or the other Person upon the performance of such or such conditions specified in the Testament or Will if the conditions be performed according to the Testament of the Donor then he hath an actual right in Law unto the Inheritance if not he hath no right of claim if he perform the conditions the Law will vindicate his right and the Judge by Law if he do Justice if he do not perform the conditions the Law cannot nor will not give him a right to the Inheritance nor the Judge by Law 't is just thus in the matter before us and the application is easie SECT III. Scripture to prove the Imputation of Faith and an Answer to such Texts as are alledged for Imputation of Christ's Righteousness IF I should pass on further to prove from Scripture that not Christ's Righteousness in it self but Faith as it accepts of Christ as offered in the Gospel is now a Sinners formal justifying Righteousness before God I should have a large Field and might multiply express Scripture Texts for the Imputation of such a Faith but not one express Text in all the Bible can be found for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self nay nor implicit Let us consider a few Texts among many Rom. 4. 3. Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness What was accounted unto him for Righteousness Well say they not Faith but its Object i. e. the Righteousness of Christ But pray where have we any such word in the Text and besides here is the object of his faith express and that is God Abraham believed God now if they will have not Faith but its Object to be counted for Righteousness then the words must be read thus Abraham believed God and God was counted unto him for Righteousness and if they
consequences as is plain from the 15th and 16th Verses This may be enough to convince any Person that hath not drunk in a fixed prejudice that their cause must be very weak who are put for the vindication of it so manifestly to pervert the Sense of Scripture as that a Child of an indifferent capacity who can but read may with a very little ado understand it 11. Another Text is in Matt. 22. 11 12 13. concerning the Man which had not on the wedding garment This Wedding garment say they is the righteousness of Christ I shall give here the Sense of the Reverend Dr. Manton upon this In a Sermon upon this Text he puts the Question what this Wedding garment is To find out this let me tell you saith he First That it is usual in Scripture to set forth Sin by nakedness and Grace by a garment that one place which we have in Revel 3. 17 18. sheweth both thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Therefore I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear Graces are a beautiful ornament to the Soul as garments are to the Body therefore we are said to put on the new Man which is created in holiness and righteousness Ephes 4. 24. And again to put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long suffering Coloss 3. 12. It is such a garment as becometh the solemnity of the Marriage feast of the King's Son Christ's Gospel-feast is a Royal feast and a Spiritual feast becoming the nature of God's Kingdom Therefore the â—â—NRâ—â— the Wedding garment is that new array which becometh such a solemaity As 't is a Royal feast it must be something more than ordinary excellency that is required of us at a Spiritual feast a Spiritual excellency Therefore the Wedding garment is holiness habitual and actual which is the glory of God and the beauty of God and his People Habitual holiness Revel 19. 8. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness of Saints â—â—NRâ—â— the righteousness of Saints these are those graces which constitute us Saints By the way Observe how far this Reverend Author was from thinking that which is here called the righteousness of Saints to be the righteousness of Christ as some have taken it and Mr. Hildersham among the rest And then saith he actual holiness is an holy conversation Philip. 1. 27. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ Ephes 4. 1. I therefore beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called We put on the Wedding garment to honour the Marriage Therefore those that come to the Wedding feast without a Wedding garment who take up a bare profession of the Gospel without newness of Heart and Life which may be an honour and ornament to it are a dishonour and disgrace rather unto it Thus far this Pious and Learned Author And let me add Christ and his righteousness together with the gracious priviledges of the Gospel are the feast now certainly the Wedding garment must not be the same thing with the feast 12. A Twelfth Text is in 2 Corinth 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him The meaning is God made him who was an Innocent Person to be a Sin-offering or a Sacrifice for Sin that we for his satisfactory and meritorious righteousness might be made and accounted righteous according to the Covenant of Grace by Faith in him For observe that which is the meritorious cause of a thing the thing of which it is the meritorious cause cannot be the same thing with that which merits it but the effect of it therefore plain it is the righteousness of God here spoken of must be the effect of the meritorious righteousness of Christ or the thing merited by it and so cannot be the righteousness of Christ it self but a righteousness appointed by God hereupon which he will accept as the righteousness of our Persons for the righteousness sake of Christ instead of sinless perfect righteousness and that righteousness is no other but the righteousness of Faith which is a conformity to the Gospel Law which Faith as it is the Souls free consent to accept and take the Lord Jesus not only to be its Propitiation but also its head and teacher includes a real engagement sincerely to be obedient to all his commands and so to trust only and depend upon him in faithful Obedience for the gift of all necessary and saving good he hath purchased and God for his sake hath promised Hence we read of the obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 26. Rom. 4. 20 21. 13. Another Text is in 1 Corinth 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Because say they it is said that Christ is made righteousness unto us of God therefore Christ's righteousness in it self is imputed unto us by God I Answer if so be that it will follow that Christ's righteousness in it self is imputed unto us by God because he is made righteousness unto us of God then it must also follow that the Wisdom of Christ and the Holiness of Christ in themselves must be imputed unto us because he is said to be made of God unto us Wisdom and Sanctification for after what manner he is said to be made of God righteousness unto us after the same manner is he said to be made Wisdom and Sanctification c. Now if he be not made of God unto us Wisdom and Sanctification by this strict Imputation then neither righteousness in that Sense As Christ then by God is made over to all his People to be the Purchaser and Author of their Spiritual Wisdom and Holiness so is he also made over to them to be the Meriter and Efficient cause of that Gospel righteousness i. e. a practical Faith which God for his sake accepts instead of a legal perfect righteousness which the Law of sinless works injoins SECT IV. Reasons against the Imputation of Faith and for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness answered HAving spoken something to the principal Texts urged for the strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness and shewed that they can be no proof that Christ's righteousness is our formal personal righteousness let us now hear what in reason may yet be said against the Imputation of Faith 1. Say they Faith is no Righteousness and therefore cannot be imputed for righteousness I Answer If the Antecedent can be proved in that Sense in which faith is called righteousness the Consequent must be granted But know Conformity to the Law of
be saved and thine House Therefore the Reason given is of no force for the strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness 7. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because it is that which God accepts on our behalf I Answer If they mean that God accepts the righteousness of Christ on the behalf of Believers so as to account it a sufficient satisfaction for them and the merit of all good which they partake of and that for which he accepts all their sincere duties I grant them the whole But if they mean God so accepts it on their behalf as to account it to be the very righteousness of their Persons by which their Persons are righteous according to the Law of Innocency this I deny and they can never shew any solid proof for what they affirm 8. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because Christ was a publick Person standing in the place and stead of all those that should believe in him so that all that he did and suffered are to be looked upon and are reputed by God as done and suffered by them and consequently are imputed to them I Answer That Christ did sustain the Person of a Mediatour for the making atonement and purchasing reconciliation I grant but that he sustained the Person of all those as a sinner that should after believe in him this I deny seeing then he should have been accounted the offending party and so as such had been incapable of purchasing and making peace betwixt the offending and offended For he that is accounted guilty and so an offender should have needed a Mediatour and reconciler for himself but this Christ did not therefore to tell of Christ's being a publick Person in this Sense is false and not only so but destructive of his Office as Mediatour and so also of his Satisfaction and Merit as is manifest And whereas it may be said How could he have suffered if by the Law he was not accounted guilty and an offender I Answer The Law did not account Christ as guilty or an offender nor did it ever condemn him but on the contrary it accounted him a righteous Person not considering him at all as a Mediatour or Surety and justified him as a fulfiller of it both in Nature and Life and therefore he was under no obligation at all by the Law of Innocency to Suffer but the obligation was from the Law of Redemption or Mediation by his own free and voluntary susception according to the paction betwixt him and the Father The just suffered for the unjust that he might bring us to God If just then by what Law was he just He that is just in Law by that Law that accounts him just as such he cannot be accounted guilty or an offender but Christ was just in the account of the Law of Innocency Hence therefore that which they would gather from Christ's being a publick Person must fall with its foundation for neither the Law nor God by the Law did account that Christ did so personate Sinners as to reckon what he did and suffered they did and suffered What Christ did and suffered it was accounted to be done and suffered for us but not accounted to be done and suffered by us for if so then God should accept satisfaction immediately from us and not from Christ and God must account us immediately to have merited and not Christ i. e. Christ should only be accounted by God as the means whereby we satisfied his Justice and merited Life for our selves for if all that Christ did and suffered be by God reputed as done and suffered by us then I ask for what end for that which was done and suffered by Christ was satisfactory and meritorious now if Christ obeyed and suffered for this end that God might account what he did and suffered to be done and suffered by us then Christ must have obeyed and suffered for this end that God might have satisfaction from us and that we by his means might merit a right to Life Can they prove this thinkest thou Reader 9. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because we cannot be justified by it any other way than by God's imputing it to us as such I Answer If this be so there must be no Justification of a Sinner at all for no Sinner is nor can be formally personally righteous with Christ's righteousness and therefore God doth not account him to be so as hath been proved above 10. If we may truly be said to be dead and crucified with Christ to be quickned with Christ to have risen again with Christ to sit in heavenly places in or with Christ c. then may we be said to have fulfilled the Law with Christ also and consequently the fulfilling of the Law by Christ is imputed to us and accounted ours I Answer The Scripture it is granted saith concerning true Believers that they are dead and crucified with Christ c. But what are they said to be so properly and personally Did they lay down their natural lives with Christ and aâ—ise in his rising again unto a corporal and glorified Life Or did God account them so to have done in Christ when he knows they did not If not as is plain then the meaning is by way of efficacy and likeness Christ indeed hath merited the Holy Spirit and this Spirit is given for the sake of his Merits unto his People by the power and efficacy of which Spirit sin is mortified the Heart crucified to the World and the Soul made alive to God raised from a Death in Sin to a Life of Grace and Holiness and the affections are set upon things above where Christ sits at the right hand of God from whence results a Christian assimulation or likeness to Christ in his Death Crucifixion Resurrection Ascention and Exaltation But what ground from hence to draw such an inference i. e. that we have fulfilled the Law in Christ's fulfilling of it Plain it is no ground at all but the consequence leans to that false supposition that what Christ did and suffered God accounted us to have done and suffered which beside what hath been said already if true then God must account us if Believers to have been born of a Virgin in a Stable to have been circumcised to have disputed with the Doctors in the Temple at Twelve years of Age and to have been subject to Joseph and Mary as our Parents to have been baptized by John the Baptist to have wrought Miracles c. in Christ But who will say this if none then all must hold the thing supposed formerly by many must be false and if they will let the notion go the consequences are none of theirs 11. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because all are and continue Sinners while they live and therefore cannot be personally righteous but by God's accounting Christ's righteousness
will answer that law or be accepted by that law or that that law will justifie us upon that Obedience No no for it is only the obedience of Christ that answers that law removes the Curse of it and merits Pardon for our breach of it but the meaning is that whereas God might in justice after Man's wilful fall have insisted upon the very terms of that law which was violated he was pleased in his abundant free grace and rich mercy for the sake of Christ to declare by the new Covenant that now he would accept of the sincere Obedience of poor Sinners and account them Subjects united to Christ and as such having right through him to Pardon and Life which is his justifying of them Now because not only such as profess themselves Socinians but also those that pretend to be Enemies unto them do deny the Covenant of Grace to be purchased by Christ exclaiming against me at a great rate and saying O he is wrong in the very foundation he holds Christ hath merited the Covenant of Grace when it is only the free gift of the Father I judge it a fit place under this head a little more fully to correct the Socinian Spirit in these Men who yet know not it is any such thing that they are in the least possest with and this by clear proof from Scripture that Christ hath purchased this Covenant That then which constitutes the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and Man is God's gracious promise on his part of the gift of saving benefits to Man and Man's engagement on his part through the grace of God to perform all that which may give him right unto and interest in the promised benefits Now if I prove from Scripture that there is no saving benefit which God promiseth to give unto Man nor yet any grace which is required of Man to give him right unto and interest in these benefits but Christ hath purchased them I hope I shall sufficiently have discharged my province in proving the Covenant of Grace to be purchased by Christ 1. In the first place let us consider the benefits that by God are promised or offered in the Promise to Man and as we go along prove that they are purchased by Christ 1. God promiseth Justification Isa 45. 25. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Christ hath purchased Justification Rom. 5. 8. 9. But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him 2. God promiseth reconciliation and peace Isa 27. 5. Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me Christ hath purchased this Rom. 5. 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by life Colos 1. 21 22. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight 3. God promiseth remission of Sin Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins And this is purchased by Christ Matth. 26. 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood according to the riches of his grace 4. God promiseth Redemption Psalm 34. 22. The Lord redeemeth the Soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate Christ hath purchased this Redemption from Sin Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works From Hell and wrath 1 Thes 1. 10. And to wait for his Son from Heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come From the Curse and Condemnation of the violated Law Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree From the power of the Devil Heb. 2. 14. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil 5. God promiseth Adoption 2 Corinth 6. 17 18. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty And this is by Christ merited Galat. 4. 5. To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons 6. God promiseth Eternal Life 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 Christ hath purchased this Ephes 1. 14. Which is the earnest of our Inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Rom. 5. 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I have proved that the rich benefits promised by God which are his part of the Covenant are purchased by Christ I will proceed to prove also that what Grace is required of Man to give him right to and interest in these benefits of the Covenant is purchased by Christ 1. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without Repentance for without Repentance we must perish Luke 13. 3. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Christ hath purchased this Acts 5. 31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins And for certain Christ gives nothing but what he hath purchased or the Spirit for this end to work it 2. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without Faith he that believes not the wrath of God abideth on him Now Christ hath purchased this Philip. 1. 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake 3. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without sincere Obedience which is virtually included in our first consent to be the Lord's Heb. 5. 9. And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him And this
grace in truth and the exercise of it by which the glory of Christ is exalted and he rested in as the only Saviour and Mediatour for sure I am how high soever their pretences may be without true grace and fruitfulness in it they neither do nor can do that which they themselves pretend unto What some Men have been doing and what their thoughts are as to matters of this nature I shall leave only they seem strange to me for after I have affirmed that such as have the exercise of true Faith and other graces it is not possible while it is thus for them either to rest in Grace or Duty they in opposition have asserted that such Doctrine is the high way to make formalists and hypocrites but then you must know it was without proof and it was like to be so for sure I am that such as perform duties without true Faith and the exercise of Grace they have nothing wherewith to rest upon Christ or his Mediation and so must content themselves with the work done and these are and can be no other while it is thus but formalists and hypocrites What it is to some Persons I know not but to me it is a Paradox that true grace and sincere obedience should lead off from Christ and God in him and that Men should be in danger thereby while it is prevalent to degrade Christ and set up themselves it is just as if a Man should say such a Servant as is faithful diligent in his Master's service and very obedient his Master is in danger so long as he is such to be robbed of his due honour by him while yet the Master accounts it a credit and honour unto him to have such a Servant and loves him entirely and intrusts him with those secrets that he will not intrust with the rest though know the Servant doth but what he ought to do in all this And thus the best and most faithful of God's Servants after all they have done in God's service must account themselves unprofitable to God because they make no return of any thing unto him but what they first have received from him through Christ by the Holy good Spirit though observe where there is faithfulness they shall reap the profit for God will for Christ reward his own work in them and that which is done faithfully by them He that comes to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of such as diligently seek him Eliphaz intimates Job 22. 2. that though no Man can be profitable to God yet a wise Man one that is spiritually wise saith Mr. Caryl may be profitable to himself And he hath this Observation upon the words He that is truly Wise Godly and Holy shall find fruit and benefit by it we car saith he never want fruit our selves while we are bringing forth fruit unto God all obedience i. e. which is sincere is attended with a blessing For my part with relation to what hath been said I do not think that any thing is accounted by God morally unclean and filthy but Sin and therefore must be yet to learn that sincere obedience to the commands of the Gospel is Sin if it be said as usual it is so as it is in us I Answer as it is in us so Sin attends it I grant as we are sinful and unclean in our selves and this Sin must needs be filthy and abominable but then that obedience which is the obedience of Faith and Love considered in it self as abstracted from our Sin that this I say is filthy and abominable I dare not affirm but indeed must deny for the principle must needs be the work of the Spirit and the performance must be by the Spirit 's assistance and as such then the obedience must be accepted of God Now how that which is a work of the Spirit and performed by the assistance of the Spirit and offered up to God by Christ through his intercession can be filthy and abominable in it self I shall leave under consideration whether is it rational to think that Christ will offer up to God by his intercession that which is filthy or suppose he should whether will God accept it But it will be said as before it is only filthy in point of Justification I Answer if it be not filthy in point of acceptation through Christ and for his sake it cannot be filthy in point of Justification so far as it hath its use and office there for will God accept that for the sake of Christ which he will not so far as he accepts it justifie us upon God accepts of a Soul 's sincere obedience which is the obedience of Faith through Christ as it his Spirit 's work and a Conformity to the Gospel Law now what is Gods acceptation but his being pleased with the Soul and its service through Christ which well pleasedness implies his judging that Soul to be one that hath right as it is a sincere obedient Soul still for Christ's merits to the blessings promised unto such and what is God's judging a Soul to have right but his justifying of that Soul It is very odd to hear some Persons in their confessions casting away all that is in them and all that is done by them in the special service of God though sincere as dung and yet profess they will rest and depend upon Christ's Intercession for the acceptation of that which they called and accounted dung as though Christ would offer up to God on their account by his intercession or that God would accept that which is as dung and so filthy and abominable in a moral sense And then further these very Persons in the same duty will thank God for any ground of hope he hath given of the truth of a work of Grace in their Hearts and the exercise of Grace in the Duty and the hopes they have had of the Spirits assistance and yet all this before in their confessions they cast away as dung I do believe many have meant well in all this and were for the main good Christians but plain it is matters were not so well considered as they should have been here Think of it we have all Sin to bewail which attends us in our best services and to crave pardon for through Christ but then so far as our Hearts are sound and sincere and we find the exercise of humiliation Faith and love to God in the performance of that service we have ground to believe it shall be accepted of God in Christ and therefore may depend upon his Mediation for this very thing being incouraged by God's gracious promise and if so we neither may nor ought to look upon such a service in it self to be dung and so an abomination to God Now the reason that some give for accounting our Gospel holiness dung is this i. e. because of its infirmity and imperfection This reason implies that all that Grace and Holiness which is not
though the publication of it was but in time and the actual conferring of the benefits as the vertues of the Covenant of Redemption and Christ's performance his actual performance of the conditions of it were but in time yet these did not hinder that Covenant from being everlasting 5. I believe saith he that as Christ was chosen and constituted the Covenant head of his People and the Covenant made with him as the person undertaking so the Elect were therein given to him by the Father to be redeemed as his People Children Seed That there is a number according to the Election of Grace I grant and that all the Elect were given by the Father to the Son in the Covenant of Mediation to be redeemed by him not because as he intimates they were in his People Children and Seedâ— by meer Election but that they might be so by Redemption and the participation of the benefits thereof Ephes 1. 4 5. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works I deny not Election but do not lay that stress upon it as to think the chosen of God are thereby constituted his People and Children as though Redemption by Christ and the work of the Spirit of grace upon Souls were not necessary Christ is the head of the Covenant of grace made betwixt God and his People in and by him as the Purchaser Efficient Author and the great mean of conveyance of all good therein I grant but then that such a Covenant as this should be made with Christ this I deny for this Covenant is a Covenant of reconciliation and it was not Christ but poor miserable Sinners that needed peace with God Whatsoever this Man thinks I am certain according to the Scripture that the Elect themselves before effectual vocation are enemies to God both in Heart and Life I speak of the Adult 1 Colos 21 22. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight and if so as is manifest they must be so wrought upon by the blessed Spirit to give their consent to be subject to God as his Children and Servants before God after a special sort be reconciled to them as his Friends and is there not implied in this their renouncing their former Masters the World the Flesh and the Devil and devoting themselves to God and his service sincerely upon which for the sake of Christ God becomes by promise their Sin pardoning God and reconciled Father and is not here a Covenant in form struck betwixt God and them of which Christ though he be the head in the sense mentioned above yet he cannot be a party 6. I believe saith he the Covenant of grace was made with Christ the second Adam and with all the Elect in him as his Children and Seed As the Assemblies Catechism saith It must be granted him the Assembly saith the Covenant of Grace was made with Christ as the second Adam and in him with all the Elect as his Seed But if it be as they say then that which they call the Grace of God manifested in the second Covenant in their Answer to the following Question must be given to Christ for with whom a Covenant is made of what nature soever the Covenant be to him must be given that which is promised in that Covenant upon his performance of the conditions so that if the Covenant of Grace be made with Christ then God must provide and offer to him as a Sinner a Mediator for this is one part of the Grace of the second Covenant and Christ must be obliged to perform the condition of this Covenant which the Assembly say is Faith to interest him in this Mediatour and this Covenant must promise and give the Holy Spirit to Christ as the Elect to work in him that Faith with all other saving Graces and to enable him unto all Holy Obedience as the evidence of the truth of his Faith and thankfulness to God and as the way which he hath appointed him to Salvation But seeing the Assembly do apply expresly this Grace of the second Covenant to Sinners of mankind the Covenant of Grace must upon a practical Faith he made with them and not with Christ unless this Man will say and prove this Reverend Assembly do contradict themselves And if so it is a wonder he should make what they say in this particular an Article of his Faith I would have this considered by the way i. e. did not Christ freely engage himself to be a Mediatour and so oblige himself to fulfil the Law of Innocency violated by Man make himself a Sacrifice for Sin to satisfie God's Justice and so merit Pardon and Life now was any of mankind in this same Covenant and bound under the same obligation with him If any say yea then they must be under obligation as well as Christ to do and suffer to satisfie and merit Christ if not then how could Christ and any of mankind with him be in the same Covenant for to be in the same Covenant must needs be to be under the same obligation If it be said Christ bound himself freely to do and suffer all this for us we deny it not but what is this to prove That Christ and we were in the same Covenant and so bound in the same bond Let it be proved that ever Christ was under a Covenant of Grace and that he was dealt with in a way of Mercy and not in a way of pure Justice and will any say that God's dispensations towards his People are in a way of justice and not in a way of Mercy 7. I believe saith he that as Adam was a publick Person and common head in whom his posterity were to stand or fall Rom. 5. so Christ as a common head and publick person is the head and Representative of all the Elect in whom their state and standing is sure and safe so that they shall never fall nor finally perish I grant all that are given by the Father to the Son shall come and that being brought over effectually they shall have persevering grace John 10. 27 28 29. My sheep hear my voice and I know them they follow me And I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand My Father which gave them me is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand And that this their standing is secured by the merits and
intercession of Christ Luke 22. 31 32. And the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sist you as wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren And that Christ is the Head of his Church which is called his Body I deny not But then that Christ was a publick Person in such a sense as that the Law of Innocency accounted what Christ did the Elect did and what he suffered they suffered I deny and have shewed the vanity of this above And though this Man speak not out plainly yet this seems to be at the bottom and the comparison betwixt Christ and Adam will afford him no such thing I grant that as all mankind were seminally in Adam as the common root so in that respect they fell in him as the prime progagator of a guilty and corrupt nature to his posterity to all that were to proceed from him by natural Generation yet that if Adam had stood and had propagated an Holy Seed that this Seed thus propagated had been secured in their standing by their Parent standing and had not any of them fallen this I want a word from God for its warrant I dare not make it an Article of my Creed Let him find me a promise in the Bible that runs thus or to this purpose either expresly or implicitely Adam if thou keep thy standing then an Holy Seed proceeding from thee by virtue of thy standing shall most certainly stand too and then I will be of the same Faith with him but until then he must excuse my dissent for this is certain to me that though Adam had stood and propagated an Holy Seed yet that Seed would have been under the same Law with their Parent and must have performed in their own Persons the same obedience that Law required of their Parent or else the Law would have condemned them notwithstanding the obedience of their Parent see then if his obedience would have secured their standing without their own personal obedience and that all mankind should have performed a personal constant obedience to the Law of Innocency suppose Adam in his own person had never fallen this we want proof for And so that Christ hath secured by what he hath done and suffered the state and standing of all the Elect without obedience to the Law of Grace I speak of the Adult i. e. though they live and die impenitent disobedient Infidels I deny for all such shall most certainly be brought to Heaven in the way of Repentance Faith and sincere Obedience and the reason is because the Lord Jesus Christ hath merited this for them but let it be proved by them that can that Adam besides his own Justification had he continued Obedient would over and above have merited assuredly grace and strength for the infallible standing of all his posterity which this Man's notion and the notion of others with him upon this point implies Men talk against and decry works of Superarogation holden by the Papists and see not how near they come to this themselves in attributing so much to a meer Man and to his Righteousness 8. I believe saith be that the Lord Jesus Christ the second Person in the blessed Trinity did when the fulness of time was come according to God's purpose and promise for the fulfilling of the conditions and bringing forth of the Grace and Life of this Covenant take upon himself the Nature Flesh and Humanity of the Elect and become God-man having both Natures in the unity of his Person the Godhead and Manhood I grant that Christ the Son of God did in time take upon him Man's Nature and united that Nature into one and the same Person with his Divine Nature but he would have done well if he had shewn first the difference betwixt Christ's Nature Flesh and Humanity considered as Man and secondly how the Nature Flesh and Humanity of the Elect differ from these in other Men. 9. I believe saith he according to the Scriptures that as Christ the Covenant head of the Elect was made under the Law so he was thus made and constituted in the room and stead of his Elect. There is nothing in this Article of his Creed but what I have spoken to before 10. I believe saith he according to Scripture he should have said so far as I understand it that the Father by way of Imputation laid all the iniquity and sin of the Elect upon Christ the Son of his love that he was made sin in a Curse for them and that he bore their sin in his own Body upon the Tree My reply is that Christ who suffered for us was an Holy Innocent Person Holy Harmless Undefiled seperate from Sinners He knew no Sin neither was guile found in his mouth The Sacrifices under the Law they were to be without blemish and without spot and as such were types of the sinless purity of Christ the great Sacrifice He by the eternal Spirit offered up himself without spot to God The Apostle Peter saith the just suffered for the unjust and we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot Therefore Christ as our Mediatour did not take our Sin upon him so as to be accounted by his Father as some say guilty of our faults and offences nor did God the Father account and reckon him as such indeed by his free and voluntary undertaking to satisfie offended justice for us he obliged himself to suffer for our Sins but he never so took our Sins upon him as to be accounted and esteemed by God one that was wicked or a Sinner for if God his Father had thus accounted him as such he must have hated him but did God hate Christ either in his own Person or as our Surety Surely no. The contrary is plain this is my beloved Son and we are said to be accepted in the beloved He was the Holy and Just one in his sufferings yea as our Mediatour for he suffered as such Whereas then it is said Isaiah 53. that God laid upon him the iniquities of us all and by the Apostle Peter that he bore our Sins in his own body upon the tree we are to understand by sin and iniquity punishment for Christ's satisfactory sufferings were a punishment tho' not inflicted upon him considered as a Sinner or transgressor of any Law but voluntarily undertaken and suffered by him in our place and stead for the making our attonement A punishment Christ's sufferings were but yet not with relation to any Sin in or upon himself as our Mediatour but with relation to our Sins which were the remote occasion and procuring cause of his suffering though not as God did account them to be his but as he voluntarily suffered for them which would not have been had we never sinned Christ was not immediately obliged by or upon our sinning to suffer whether he
Sin of Man if it was not accounted his own and so laid upon him I Answer can we think that Men can be ignorant this might very well be in this case and was so when many of the Servants of God were greatly afflicted for the Sins and Miseries of others as David and Jeremiah and those that were mourners in Jerusalem though they were not as Christ to suffer in their stead for them If they say they do not think that God accounted his Son in himself to be a Sinner but as he was our Surety I Answer If God did account Christ as our Surety a Sinner and so guilty pray what did he account him guilty of as our Surety there are these things in Sin the Act the Pollution and the Punshment If then God the Father did account Christ as our Surety guilty of the Act then he must account him the actual Sinner If of the Pollution then one that was morally impure in his Nature If of the Punishment so far as it includes his suffering to satisfie for our Sins and make our attonement from his own free and voluntary obligation this I grant For if this were so that God the Father did account our Lord Jesus Christ considered in relation to us as Mediatour to have been guilty of the Sins of all the Elect then as such as I have said he must have been odious to God and if so how could those acts respecting our Redemption and Reconciliation performed by him as our Surety or Mediatour have been of a sweet smelling savour to God It would be as much as to say God the Father loved superlatively his Son in himself but abhorred him considered as Man's surety and Mediatour and if so those acts which were of the greatest moment performed by him in this relation to us such as giving himself to be a Sacrifice must have been odious to God and if so where must we state our hopes of Salvation It is certainly a vain and ungrounded distinction to say that God accepted of the act of Obedience as they were acts of the Person without Sin but condemned him as standing in the relation of our Mediatour as a Sinner â—eeing that whatever acts are relative acts those also are the acts of the Person standing in that relation for actiones sunt suppositorum And besides the very typical Sacrifices which the Adversaries allow are a clear evidence of this i. e. that Christ the great Sacrifice and our Sacrifice to be offered for expâ—ation and making attonement must not be so much under that notion as reputed a Sinner much less the greatest Sinner for these were to be without blemish and without spot as hath been said and as such offered up unto God Surely they will not say here they were to be so considered in a Physical but not in a Legal sense for God did repute them so in a Legal sense seeing they were appointed by the Law for the Peoples typical expiation we find Levit. 6. 25. the Sin-offering by God is called most Holy or as the words in the Original are Holiness of Holiness â—â—NRâ—â— and the LXX â—â—NRâ—â— now how dare any Man contradict the word and say these were by God accounted legally unclean what reputed by God Holiness of Holiness legally most holy and yet also uncleanness of uncleanness legally most unclean Let them reconcile this that can And if so be those typical Sacrifices were accounted by the Lord legally most Holy then undoubtedly the Antitype the great Sacrifice for expiation i. e. our blessed Lord Jesus must be so accounted in the offering up of himself As Christ's Righteousness say some is imputed to us so our Sins are imputed to Christ They that affirm this some of them say that it is not only passive but the habitual and active Righteousness of Christ which is imputed Pol. Syntagma p. 457. If therefore our Sins be imputed to Christ as Christ's Righteousness in his sense is imputed to us then from this Doctrine it must follow that our habitual and actual Sins must be imputed to Christ i. e. both the corruption of our nature and all our actual transgressions seeing then that to impute signifies to judge account or reckon the sense of these Persons must be that God did account and reckon the Lord Jesus Christ as our Surety or Mediatour to be both an habitual and actual Sinner and was Christ so in God's account Christ is said to be made a Curse for us as Mr. B. saith by suffering as a Sacrifice for us a cursed death not that he was under either in himself or as our Mediatour a Spiritual or Eternal Curse or as some may mean cursed by the Law as a Sinner which is all one for the Law of Innocency justified him 11. I believe saith he that Christ by his obedience active and passive in his holy life and bitter death of the Cross hath compleatly fulfilled the Law and perfectly satisfied the offended justice of God for all the Elect. I Answer Christ did both obey and suffer he yielded conformity to the Law and suffered and satisfied the offended justice of God for Sinners and this in their place and stead The sufferings of Christ were a full satisfaction to an offended God and the principal way and means for the securing the Glory of his Justice and Holiness and for the manifestation of the Glory of his Wisdom and Mercy in the Salvation of Sinners But then that Christ did properly fulfil by his sufferings the threat of the Law of Innocency which we had violaâ—ed this I deny for if so then he should have suffered the same Spiritual and Eternal as well as Corporal punishment in kind which was due unto transgressions and if so where had our Redemption been our Divines generally have said Christ did not suffer the Idem or the same that we should have suffered but the Tantundem what did avail yea infinitely avail to make satisfaction for our offences for any Man to say the Laws threat was properly and perfectly fulfilled in Christ's suffering it includes a contradiction for eternal sufferings were included in the Laws threat but seeing Christ's sufferings were long since finished they cannot be said to be eternal Now for any Man to affirm that Christ properly and perfectly fulfilled the Laws threat without suffering such a death as the Law threatned if it be not a contradiction it looks as like one as ever Man saw But of this I shall say no more having spoken of it above Only there is this which seems intimated further in this Article of his Faith i. e. that what Christ did and suffered was only for the Elect and that others have no benefit thereby which if intended by him I must make bold to tell him it is a great mistake as I have also shewn above for I do not think that any in the World enjoy any Mercy but upon the account of Christ's undertaking upon which he is said to be the Saviour of
and question whether he do or know for where is the Man that ever affirmed that God reckoned that we did and suffered in our own Persons what Christ did and suffered I am sure the Scripture asserts the contrary saying he trod the winepress alone and there was none with him As to that which he calleth a false charge thou mayst Reader look back unto his 12th Article and see if it be not true of himself however there saith he it is the acts works doings and obedience of this blessed Mediatour that are imputed and counted to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness so that from hence he may judge If God doth account the very acts works â—oings and obedience of Christ as Mediatour to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness how it can be avoided but he must reckon them to have in Christ performed those acts works doings and obedience of Christ the Mediatour and what are they to whom God doth reckon those acts works doings and obedience of Christ the Mediatour but their own Persons doth God account Christ's acts works doings and obedience to such as are no Persons God indeed accounts what Christ did and suffered for the good and in the place and stead of and poor lost Sinners But then doth he account them in their own Persons in the sense of any Law to have obeyed and suffered in Christ which he must do if he account the very acts works doings and obedience of Christ as Mediatour unto them as this Man saith for if God do impute the very acts works doings of another in obeying and suffering unto me and reckon them as mine in themselves then he must either account me to have performed those very acts works and doings in that others obeying and suffering or he must not If he do then the charge is true and just against himself I mean this Man who is so brisk and confident If he do not then how can they in Law sense be imputed and reckoned to me as mine in themselves I suppose the mistake of this Man is here when I speak of Persons in a Legal sense he would have me understood in a Physical sense only and whether he do this on set purpose or from ignorance I know not But â—urther having proved that that which he calls a false charge is true of himself from his own assertion I shall inform him of another and that a Person in his day of worth and learning who saith Christ stood in a double relation for us unto God First Of a Surety Seâ—ondly Of a common Person And a common Person saith he with or for another he goes for is one who represents personates and acts the part of another by the allowance and warrant of the Law so as what he doth as such a common Person anâ— in the name of the other that other whom he personates is by the Law reckoned to do and in like manner what is done to him as being in the others stead and room is reckoned as done to the other Mr. Tho. Goodwin in his Treatise of the support of Faith from Christ's Resurrection Cap. 2. Now let any judge if what he saith in this matter be not the same with that which he calls my false charge And in his Application Cap. 4. Sect. 3. saith he Christ was considered and appointed by God as a common Person both in what he did and in what was done to him 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 22. I believe saith he that in this weighty point of Justification such an one naming me is one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers and against the châ—â—f of those counted Orthodox since the Reformation as Luther and worthy Calvin of old c. And Thomas Goodwin Dr. Owen and Mr. Chancey of later times I Question not if this Man had been acquainted as he should what I hold in this point and such as go under the names he mentions that he durst not have made this an Article of his Faith But what will not malignity say and leave all without proof as this Man doth this Article of his Creed It is like he expects his testimony should be received without any more to do and here he is saying as they did in Jeremiah's time come let us smite him with the tongue and I do expect if any thing come forth that will bear the name of a reply to this of mine it will be railing language much what of the same complexion with this though indeed if this Man had offered any likely proof for the truth of this his charge as I do where I apply any of these names I should not so have called it When therefore he hath made it good 1. That I hold Justification by an inherent Righteousness which is a conformity to the Law of sinless perfect Works or that Faith is a meritorious Righteousness or that Christ merited that we by Grace or Duty might merit Let him make it good 2. That I hold that the 〈◊〉 credere or the very act of Faith justifies i. e. as an act Or 3. That I hold that Christ did not purchase the Covenant of Grace or that I deny Christ's Merit and satisfaction and place grace or sincere duty in the room and place of Christ's Meritorious and Satisfactory Righteousness 4. And when he hath made it good that I hold I need no more to answer the Law of Innocency or to free me from the curse and condemnation of it and procure Salvation for me but what is inherent and a walking accordingly When he hath proved I say that I hold all these above mentioned things then I will confess he believes a truth concerning me But so long as he doth not and that because he cannot I must say he believes a lie until he retract and acknowledge he hath wronged me in saying I am one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers in this point of Justification Touching those he saith I am against in this his Article I have this to say whatever unwary expressions our Reformers and others that follow their Phrase may have left in their Writings with which so far as their notion did agree it was not sound yet to me it is out of doubt that as to what is the main in this point and respects especially the practick part both Luther Calvin and the rest of our Reformers as such never held that any Man or Woman ever had I speak of the Adult actual interest in Christ and right to Pardon and Life while remaining in a state of Impenitency and Unbelief and Rebellion against God And if not then wherein am I against them in this point If it be said but where will you find in their Writings that Faith is imputed or that it is our formal justifying Righteousness
I Answer Luther in Galat. 3. 6. saith Christian Righteousness is an affiance or faith in the Son of God which affiance is imputed unto Righteousness for Christ's sake And in the same place not long after God for Christ's sake in whom I have begun to believe accounts this my imperfect faith for perfect Righteousness And in the 2d Cap. 16. saith he For the Righteousness of the Law a Man is not pronounced righteous before God but the Righteousness of Faith God imputeth freely through Grace for Christ's sake And a little after saith he wherefore God doth accept or account us righteous only for our Faith in Christ Calvin on Rom. 4. 3. saith Wherefore Abraham by believing doth only embrace the grace tendered unto him that it might not be in vain If this be imputed unto him for Righteousness it follows that he is no otherwise righteous but as trusting or relying upon the goodness of God he hath boldness to hope for all things from him Bucer on Rom. 4. 3. saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness that is he accounted this faith or believing for Righteousness so that â—y believing he obtained this that God esteemed him a righteous Man Musculus on Galat. 3. 6. saith What did Abraham that should be imputed unto him for Righteousness but only this that he believed God But it may be said they make the Righteousness of Christ i. e. the Imputation of it the formal cause of our Justification As to this if some Men be guilty of self contradiction I am prone to think they did not intend it But now these worthy Men who say the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is the formal cause of our Justification if they mean only by God's Imputation that God doth account the Righteousness of Christ to be that and that only which hath the form of a Satisfactory and Meritorious Righteousness and so as such for which God justifies us upon believing then there is no contradiction And in the judgment of charity I think no more was intended notwithstanding their unwary expressions which many have made but a bad use of seeing that they have ever affirmed this Righteousness of Christ which they call by God's Imputation the formal cause of our Justification to answer for the violation of God's Holy Law satisfie God's Justice remove the curse of the Law due unto us Sinners purchase Pardon and Life and yet that none shall have in or an actual right unto Redemption from the curse special Reconciliation with God Pardon and Salvation but such as truly believe And therefore when they speak of being clothed with Christ's Righteousness as a robe and garment I would think they mean no more but that it is this which is the screen or sanctuary to secure all true penitent believers from the execution of the Laws curse or the wrath of God but then not this as it is the only Righteousness of their Persons but as it is the proper and only Righteousness of their Mediatour though the blessed benefits hereof as is plain redounds to their Persons And thus as it was for them to remove the great evil that was due and procure all saving good so it is as I have above expressed it the formal satisfactory Righteousness for their Persons by God's Imputation but then not the formal Righteousness of their Person 's by God's Imputation i. e. God doth for this Righteousness of Christ account them upon such a Faith as I have above described personally righteous in the sense of the Gospel and so to have interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life promised but then not personally righteous with it seeing as I have said it cannot in it self after any sort be communicated to Believers although it be in its fruits and benefits I think if this little which I have here inserted was but well considered and our old Divines thus understood the difference would not be great betwixt them and those that are called new upon the matter But the holding ungrounded notions from the manner of expression keeps us far from an accommodation And if some Men will stick by such notions the consequences we have collected from the very nature of the thing whether we will or no devolve upon them though as to such as are practical Christians their practice as I have said must contradict such notions and agree with those very same I have laid down wherein through Christ is their safety though yet holding such notions from whence such consequences flow I know from mine own experience they must be attended with confusion and act but in the dark while yet they may think they have the greatest light for whatsoever the notions of a true practical Holy Christian are yet I am certain he dares not conclude his interest in or right unto Christ Pardon and Life purchased by him any further than he hath ground of hope that he is a true penitent sincere obedient Believer And sure I am when he pleads with God for Pardon Grace and Acceptation he dares not plead as the Merit of this any Righteousness upon himself or wherewith he is formally personally righteous with Christ's Righteousness yet he dare not plead this no but only the Righteousness of the Mediatour Jesus Christ without him as the merit of Pardon Grace and acceptation and this includes the whole that can come within a Christians practice upon this matter I dare appeal to any practical Christian herein And though this be that I hold in this point yet saith this Man if this opinion prevail both Law and Gospel is overthrown truth and saving light extinguished and we lose our Crown and that which we have laboured for This as much as if he had said that which must and will be found in every true and real Christian's practice if this prevail both Law and Gospel is overthrown c. And not having done enough he adds and many Holy Men of God lose that they have laboured for and lost their lives What a Man is this did he ever know or hear or read of any of the Holy Men of God who lost their lives for the opposing such notions the practice of which as Holy Men must unavoidably be found in their own practice Let him give me an instance any where at any time of any one Holy Man of God indeed or Woman that lost their lives and so suffered Martyrdom for opposing this Doctrine i. e. That true Faith unites to Christ gives interest in him and so through and for him an actual right to Pardon and Life and that no true Christian dare conclude that he hath this union interest and right any further than he hath ground of hope that he is a true penitent sincere obedient Believer and that he dare not plead any Righteousness that is in him or upon him as the merit of Pardon Grace and Acceptation but only the Righteousness of Christ the Mediatour without him I say let
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.