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
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
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
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
and if they be whether can any one I speak of the Adult have Salvation by Christ who denies these and refuse to give their assent unto them If they cannot how can they be justified without such an assent Being thus it may be said you will have many assenting acts of Faith unto Justification or in that Faith which justifies I Answer implicit I will grant explicit I deny As thus Suppose I propound the above-mentioned Articles to any in order to his assent as I read these Articles if he give credence he implicitely gives his assent to each Article as I go along But then after that I have read them I ask him whether he doth assent to the truth of the whole if he say yea 't is manifest his explicit assent is but one or one explicit act which we call assent But besides assent our consent is requisite to the constituting of true Faith and this consists best in a cordial accepting this one only God to be our God giving him the preheminence in our affections Exod. 20. 2 3. An accepting of him to be our chief or best good that God who is essentially good the fountain of all goodness Hence he is the principal object of our love desire and delight Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee And besides it implies a free consent to be disposed of by him according to his good pleasure and a being freely willing to be ruled and governed by him according to his Law and holy Commands 2. A consent to take Christ Jesus to be our only Propitiation all prevailing Intercessour and also as our head and Teacher i. e. Christ in all his Offices 3. An accepting of the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier to mortifie Sin to bring our hearts in love with holiness to assist us in duty and excite grace in the performance to alienate our Hearts from this World and fix them upon Heaven and heavenly things 4. A sincere consent to perform our Baptismal Vow or Covenant renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil resolving through God's grace for the future to be his obedient Children and faithful Servants fighting against all his and our spiritual Enemies Those who are our Opposites I would gladly know of them or rather I desire them to know of themselves whether any less than such a sincere consent as this above spoken of can bring or put them into a saving justified state or give them which is all one a saving interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life through him If they say less will let it be made appear from Scripture if not then why do they make any opposition upon this consent sincerely given follows practical trust i. e. a well grounded confidence upon God in and through the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit that God for the sake of Christ will be faithful to his promises and make them good unto such who reduce their former consent into persevering practice such who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Rom. 2. 7. Though many times under dark and afflicting providences and dispensations Thus Abraham against hope believed in hope he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform upon our first assent and consent we have an initial right to Christ and Life upon our practical trust we have this right continued which practical trust doth include sincere Obedience and when a Believer is incapacitated for the act and exercise the principle or habit is accepted The heart of Asa was perfect all his days 2 Chron. 15. 17. This practical trust is our adherence to God in Christ by the blessed Spirit in the ways of holiness notwithstanding opposition Acts 11. 23. Who when he came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Having shewed what a Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and continued Justification or what Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and and continued right to Christ and to Pardon and Life purchased by him Let us now consider what this Faith includes as it gives the initial right and so I consider it especially as consisting in consent assent being previous 1. Repentance is included for in our sincere consent to take God to be our God Christ to be our Redeemer which includes an accepting him in all his Offices and the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier there is implied a cordial confessing and forsaking of all Sin and this with self loathing self judging enmity and opposition in the Heart against it 2. Love to God and the ways of holiness is included for it cannot be that ever any should sincerely consent to be the Lord's and make choice of the ways of holiness to walk in unless there be such a sight of their excellency and amiableness as draws their Love from Sin and the World and fixeth it principally hereupon 3. This consent includes Obedience radically for there can be no real consent to be Christ's unless there be a full resolution to do and suffer whatsoever he calls us unto this consent we speak of brings Christ and Souls into the Relation of Master and Servants and there cannot be a real consent to be Christ's Servants unless there be a willingness to do the work which he commands us and a resolution through Grace to continue in it so that it is manifest that Faith which justifies or gives right to Pardon and Life it includes Repentance Love to God and radically new Obedience and though it is like upon the matter I may procure to my self the name of a Papist I must not for that be affrighted from owning a truth that bears its own evidence before it But by the way I would have such Persons who are so ready to fix such names upon others as they judge may render them odious to consider what our Divines mean when they say that where there is one Grace there is every Grace and tell me where there is the act and exercise of that Faith which unites to Christ whether there can be this without the exercise of Repentance and Love inclusive what hath been said may give sufficient light to know how to answer the Question to such as desire to learn and think not themselves wise enough already Though seeing I am upon this I shall take leave further to offer this to consideration and let it be under correction that where there is the exercise in truth of Grace the exercise of that one Grace I speak of the sensible exercise doth include the exercise of the most if not the exercise of all Grace As thus Suppose we the exercise of true Repentance there must be
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
some further the word translated Sinâ— offering we find to be â—â—NRâ—â— which signifies the Sin I grant this word in Scripture is translated Sin where it can admit of no other acceptation But then when it is applied to that which was to be Sacrifice for Sin if these our Adversaries must needs have it read in the abstract in this acceptation Sin I would have them to consider it may be more fitly translated expiation than Sin and the reason for this is because as Buxtorfius observes the Verb from whence this Noun comes in the same Conjugation Pihel signifies mundare purgare à peccato expiare i. e. to cleanse purge from Sin and expiate or make expiation And so we find the word used Levit. 14. 52. And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird c The word for he shall cleanse is â—â—NRâ—â— which I hope none that understand themselves will read he shall Sin the House with the Blood of the Bird. And we find the same word translated to bear loss Gen. 31. 39. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto thee I bear the loss of it â—â—NRâ—â— which Buxt orfius renders thus Ego expiabam illud id est luebam pro illo I did expiate that i. e. I suffered for it I paid for it or made satisfaction Now I would gladly know of them we have to deal with how did Jacob make expiation or satisfaction what by taking upon him the form of the Beast that tare it or by sustaining the Person of the Thief that stole it or was this at all requisite would this have given any satisfaction to Laban let Men consider We have indeed torn as it were the Law of God by our disobedience and offended the justice of God now our Lord Jesus Christ did not expiate or make satisfaction in our stead by sustaining our Persons as Rebellious and disobedient and as an offender of justice but as Jacob suffering for us and making full recompence These observations have been occasioned to be taken by me on another account but do well serve my turn here Touching that Text by the Man I have to deal with alledged i. e. 2 Corinth 5. I have above spoken somewhat unto it This Assertion that Christ took our Sins upon him is grounded upon a false supposition which is that Christ did not only take our nature upon him but also our legal Person i. e. our Persons in a Law sense Now if Christ was the same Person in the sense of the Law with Sinners then there could be no such thing as hath commonly been affirmed i. e. Christ's active perfect obedience to the Law for the Law of Innocency accounts us all as transgressors and if it account Christ also a transgressor which it must do if he be the same Person with us in Law sense where then shall we find his active perfect obedience thereunto He that is looked upon to be of the same Person legally with him that breaks the Law cannot be looked upon as a perfect obeyer and fulfiller of the Law what can be more plain Touching the passive obedience of Christ i. e. his sufferings if Christ be accounted the same Person with Sinners in the sense of the Law then his sufferings could not be a satisfaction and if not then not accepted by God for that purpose And the reason is if they had been the sufferings of a Person accounted by God as our Mediatour a Sinner they would have been the sufferings of a Sinner for God judgeth always according to truth for the Law doth and ever did since the fall account us Sinners and if Christ be the same Person with us in the sense of the Law then by the Law he must be looked upon as a Sinner and if as a Sinner then his sufferings must be accounted by God the sufferings of one that was a Sinner and if so how could they be a full satisfaction to Justice But that Christ's sufferings were not the sufferings of one accounted by God a Sinner 't is plain from Ephess 5. 2. And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour And Hebr. 9. 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God But suppose I should grant these Men what they would have i. e. That the Lord Jesus Christ did perfectly obey suffer and satisfie in our legal Person which I have proved could not be I hope they will give me leave to shew them what will follow upon it and after this I shall leave them to determine whether this notion can be right or no if they will but follow the conduct of Scripture If therefore the Lord Jesus Christ did perfectly obey suffer and satisfie in our legal Person that is the Law accounting him the same Person with us then it must follow that even the Elect themselves in the sense of the Law did perfectly obey suffer and satisfie And if they Christ obeying and suffering in the sense of the Law did obey suffer and satisfie in him in their own Persons then these things must follow according to the Law 1. It must discharge them from all Sin as it accounts them perfect fulfillers of it in their legal Person 2. It must discharge them from all obligation to punishment as it accounts them to have suffered and satisfied in their legal Person 3. In the sense of the Law of Innocency according to these Men it must be injustice in God to charge any Elect Soul either before or after conversion with Sin and he cannot now afflict them for Sin but must be bound in the sense of these Persons to give Eternal Life to the Elect for perfect legal obedience performed in the account of the Law in their own Persons as Christ and they say these Men are one legal Person But it may be said was not Christ our Surety Yes Did he not undertake as our Surety to satisfie for our Sins Yes And was not Sin debt No. It was that which brought us under the obligation of suffering but it was not our debt that is a Man's debt which he is under obligation to pay but were either we or Christ bound to pay Sin I trow not Doth not Christ cry out upon the Cross because of the Father's forsaking him I Answer though he did this was no total withdrawment of Divine favour and love for God loved Christ as our Mediatour while upon the Cross but a withdrawment of his sensible comforting presence and as a Reverend Divine saith letting â—ut upon his Soul a deep afflicting sense of his displeasure against Man for Sin which was his penalty as he was our Surety and suffered in our stead a Sacrifice for Sin But again say they could Christ be afflicted in his Soul for the
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
is no spot in thee The meaning is she was so in an Evangelical but not in a Legal sense sincerity or true grace was the prevailing Principle and in that respect he accounted her for his Merits all fair and without spot When Christ said concerning Nathaniel an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile he intended no more but an upright sincere Soul Christ such is his love he denominates his People from the better part If therefore his meaning be that God seeth no Sin in his People so far as they are sincerely conformed to the Gospel Law this Conformity in it self being no Sin but a Righteousness or that God seeth no Sin which he hath fully pardoned to be unpardoned or that God doth not so see Sin as everlastingly to condemn a true Believer for it in denying him Repentance Faith Pardon through the merits of Christ I am of his mind But then if he intended which I suppose he doth that God seeth no Sin in his People as they are accounted personally righteous for their Justification with Christ's Righteousness that there is any such thing as this I deny and therefore there cannot be the other upon that account or for that The rest of his Texts are not to the purpose 25. I believe saith he that such an one still naming me ought to let Men state their own judgments and give their own sense of what they say and hold and not state the same for them and draw his own absurd consequences and fight with them against he knows not who This is a pretty Article of a Man's Faith in the point of Justification but I must say something unto it Well then either this Man's judgment if he know what he holds himself doth upon the matter in question contradict what I affirm or it doth not If it do not why doth he oppose me If it do why doth he complain as though I did him wrong And when he talks of drawing absurd consequences â—tis well if he know what an absurdity is although he himself be guilty enough in this kind in what he hath writ But let him find me if he can that any of the consequences of which he speaks do contradict the Doctrine I draw them from and if he disown the Doctrine and hold the contrary I charge not the consequences upon him But then he must first retract that which he makes an Article of his Creed i. e. that Christ's acts works doings and obedience in themselves for that he must mean or elâ—â— he contradicts not me are imputed and counted to the Elect for their personal justifying Righteousness But he faith further I sight with my consequences against I do not know who If I do not it is like he doth or else why should he take himself concerned to oppose unless he hath a mind to kick before he be prick'd But he goes on and tells us he believes that I am guilty of the breach of the 9th Command in bearing false witness But let me tell him here if he were no more guilty upon the matter in Question of false Accusation against me than I am against him or others upon the point I should have been ashamed to have said thus much by him I desire him then to consider if he be not very guilty of that which he chargeth me with while he insinuaâ—es 1. That I hold that some of the Elect being Adult shall live and die Insidels 2. That I in the point of Justification am one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers 3. That I contradict the 11th 13th and 17th Articles of the Church of England 4. That my consequences are absurd with relation to the Doctrine they are dedâ—ced from 5. That I am guilty of the breach of the 9th Command in applying that Doctrine to any when plain it is it hath been held and still is by many that Christ is one Legal Person with the Elect and that Christ obeyed and suffered in the account of the violated Law not only as a Mediatour but as a common publick Person representing all the Elect and this he saith himself in what he did and suffered so as by the same Law what he did for us is reckoned or imputed to us as if we our selves had done it and what was done to him tending to our Justification and Salvation is reckoned as done to us And doth not this agree with the Doctrine I draw the consequences from 6. That I affirm Faith to justice as an act without relation to its object Christ with others I might mention none of which he can prove against me and who is it that beareth false witness now I or he But he hath more yet quoth he speaking after a scornful sort concerning me he matters not that he means the breach of the Ninth Command being now got under a new Law which will be more favourable than the old This new Law he scoffs at I have shewn is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace and have proved above that there is such a thing and that it is a Law and that Christ hath purchased it though the Socinians deny it and so he with them And therefore I must make bold to tell this Man and that not without warrant from the Holy Scriptures that he must either be brought under this new Law which he derides or he perisheth for ever for if he think to be justified and saved upon the terms of the Old Covenant he will find himself wretchedly mistaken Galat. 3. 10. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse for it it written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to â—o them 2 Theâ— 1. 7 8. And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ And let him not think that the Gospel Law or the Gospel which is a Law giveth liberty to Sin or exempts from a due and sincere Obedience to all God's Holy Commands for the contrary is plain Tâ—us 2. 11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World But if he look for no favour from God but in the way and upon the terms of the Law of Innocency he never shall have any nay he never would have had any so much as common 26. I believe saith he that that Righteousness wherewith God justifies the Elect is a Righteousness which his Holy Law approves and accepts of Though he make no distinction yet by Righteousness I take it for granted he intends the Righteousness of Christ and by Law the Law of Innocent Nature violated by Man's Sin This then is that which he must intend i.
e. 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
Christ only meritorious of these Wherein now do I contradict these Holy Martyrs in this And whereas he saith that these Men sealed the Doctrine contrary to Winchester's and so to mine which he would make to be of the same piece with his with their dearest Blood he insinuates the cause of their Death to have been known unto them when yet they themselves enquired after the cause and could have no account as to any particular in this matter of which this Man speaks But he hath not done yet I must have another cast of his Office before he leave this his Question and that is that really and in truth he doubts whether I hold any Imputation of Christ's Righteousness at all in a Protestant sense So that in his account he must be no Protestant that holds that God reckons the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ to have been for our Redemption and Salvation or to have been the merit of the Covenant of Grace and the promised benefits thereof to â—â—evers or to have been the merit of the acceptation â—â—eir grace and duty c. And if he be no Protestant that holds these things then those that hold things concontradictory unto them must be the only Protestants for aut hoc aut ejus contradictorium and who can these be but the Socinians So that plain it is none are Protestants with this Man but such as to this point Thus I have done with his Interrogatories The next province he hath entered upon hath been to transcribe Mr. Troughton's Theses and Antitheses to which there is enough said already in answer so that to speak to these particularly will be but actum agere to do that which is already done But for all that Mr. Troughton hath said in his Book to render the Doctrine I have been insisting upon and according to my weak ability vindicating odious Yet if I mistake not Page 121 saith he Faith is the means whereby the obedience and death of Christ is applied to us not saith he by a physical but a moral application giving us a right to all the benefits of them Benefits of what why of Christ's obedience and death So that plain it is Christ's Righteousness which he makes consist in his active and passive obedience is not made over to us quoth he by physical application i. e. not in it self or in its own nature but by a moral Faith as a moral means giving us a right to all the benefits of them i. e. of his obedience and death And what can be more fully said to our purpose or on our part than this And he adds God having promised Salvation upon the account of his Son's satisfaction to all that come to him and believe in him Page 122 he saith there being but these two ways by which Man can be saved either by fulfilling the Law of God or in case of Sin by fleeing unto and trusting in the mercy of God if so then Faith must give the interest Pag. 23. Faith is not a proper condition but a qualification capacitating the Soul to receive benefit of Christ appointed by God for that use and having the promise of success Man being a rational Creature cannot be taken into God's favour without his own consent nor can he be made partaker of any promise without accepting of it and 〈◊〉 ing in it An heir saith he further if he live not 〈◊〉 lack understanding cannot inherit the estate though never so absolutely purchased and yet life and discretion are not conditions of the purchase mark here he only denies Faith to be a meriting or purchasing condition and he doth well but qualifications of the subject necessary to enjoy it it is well if he and some do not part for this but he goes on these qualifications are not in Men's power as Faith is in Christ's power to give it very good still true he having purchased faith and perseverance for all those he died for which binders not his purchase from being full and absolute whereas to suspend it upon any condition doth not make it not full We will not differ about a term seeing he fairly grants the thing i. e. that faith is a qualification capacitating the Soul to receive benefit by Christ and is a moral means giving right to the benefits of Christ's obedience and death which is only made ours in its benefits hereby by which he must grant an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us only in its fruits and effects Towards the Conclusion saith he I mean the Man I have had to deal with you may as well seek to rend the skin from my flesh as cause me to let go Christs imputed Righteousness I may not I dare not c. If he mean in it self he will find it neither is nor can be his so neither doth God account it to us after a Physical sort and therefore he need not fear that any should robb him of this for no Man can take away that from another that he neither hath nor is ever like to have Christ's Righteousness is his own proper to him and it is for this we have the application of saving good upon repentance and faith but it is not for us to be made righteous with in our own persons If it be in it self for impetration it is not in it self or in its own nature for application i. e. to be applied unto us but only in its benefits upon Faith Here he brings in one that respect and reverence forbids me to name saying Christ's Righteousness imputed is the sweetest word in all the Scriptures yea and saith this Man again we find the Apostle expressing the same ten times in the 4th Chapter of the Romans when yet there is no such expression in all the Bible it is a wonder how Men dare say that God in his word saith such a thing expresly when yet no such expression is there to be found I have made it evident that I deny not the thing in a sound sense but so as some Men will have it this I must deny for reasons already given Thus I am brought nigh to the Conclusion of this work which I have endeavoured to perform according to the rule and line of the Holy Scripture I impose nothing herein upon any 〈◊〉 desire the Readers to lay aside prejudice and judge acâ—â—â—â—ing as matters herein contained will bear weight in 〈◊〉 ballance of the Sanctuary imploring the conduct of the Holy Spirit which leads into all that is truth And if any shall account it their concern to oppose judging me to be Heterodox I desire they will produce argument and this particular and distinct and such as may be concordant to the Sacred Text and carry in it convincing evidence that hereby I having a discovery of my mistake for I have not attained to a state of sinless unerring perfection though at the present I am satisfied touching the substance of what is mine that it is truth may learn more for