for our believing saith he not by way of Merit not of Debt yet in way of reward Another who speaks clearly and less covertly saith expresly that God justifies and saves none but for their believing And another who searched and saw as far as either of them and speaks out saith plainly that we are Pardon'd Justified and Adopted to Eternal Life as a reward to Believers for their Faith and Obedience And withal tells us in the same Book that Reward and Merit are Relatives so as that wherever there is Reward following there Merit went before and that there is no Reward but it is a Reward of Merit 'T is true indeed he will have the Merit of our repenting and believing but a subordinate Merit and Christ's the principal But what is this better than the old Popish Notion that Christ Merited that we might Merit and we Merit in the virtue of his Blood and by Gods Grace And indeed he expresly owns this Tenet of theirs But surely this is another Gospel that we are pardoned justified adopted and vested in the Priviledges of the New Covenant Estate as a reward of or for our believing repenting or new obedience and a Doctrine grosser than many Learned Papists hold as great Merit-mongers as they are For they insist upon it as one condition requisite unto Merit that the Person Meriting the Reward must first be in a State of Grace and Favour with God and therefore Justification and Adoption cannot be Merited by us nor are conferred upon us as a reward of any thing that we do Yea methinks it is a very pernicious and Soul-destroying Error if there be or ever have been any such in the World For if a Mans Heart be influenced by it and moulded according to it in all his treating with God and applications to him for pardon of Sin and Justification and adoption he is wholly led aside quite off from the way of the Gospel and it is utterly impossible he should ever truely believe For Faith receives and looks for Union to Christ interest in this righteousness of his pardon of Sin Justification and Adoption not as a reward for or of any thing that we do but meerly of Free Grace and wholly for the sake of Christ and his righteousness I conclude therefore that though this Word Condition may be used and is so by some in a sound sense and with a good meaning concerning Faith and its reference to the righteousness of Christ being upon us yet it is neither convenient nor safe For it may occasion an unhappy stumbling and a Soul-ruining mistake And therefore I cannot but joyn with that great Divine Dr. Tho. Goodwin on Eph. 2. Serm. 22. p. 301. who wisheth it were laid aside and wholly disused because there is danger in it or at least if men be impotently fond of the word that it were both more soundly meant and better explained than it is by our present Contenders for it 3. The generality of all those that own the righteousness of Christ being upon us as that wherein we stand justified have used to express the influence of Faith thereunto by that word Instrument So the Westminster Assembly do both in their Confession and in their Catechism Nor have I seen any thing alledged against expressing it by that word that amounts to any more but that the word is not strictly and precisely proper in the same sense wherein it is used in other cases which for my part I will easily grant But what then Ars posterior prioris utitur operâ Artes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 concrescunt We must of necessity and are warranted by the practise of the Holy Ghost to use Figures and Tropes in speaking of and declaring the Truths of God It is al 's readily granted that the word instrument is not found in Scripture used matter But yet for all that it may be a word of the Holy Ghosts Teaching for it is suited and apt to declare and let in into our Minds the true Notion and conception of what the Scripture declares to be the reference of Faith unto our Justification The Scripture saith it is by and through and of Faith yea it saith that God justifies us by Faith and through Faith I know no word that doth so well express the work and use of Faith in this matter which the Holy Ghost sets forth by receiving Joh. 1.11 12. Rom. 5.11 17. where we are said to receive Christ and to receive his Righteousness and the Atonement made thereby An expression that speaks both our having it or being possessed of it and the means or way on our part wherein it is effected or brought about viz. that it is by and in such a like acting of our Hearts towards Christ and his Righteousness as answers the work of the Hand in taking and receiving a corporeal thing offer'd to us and by our taking it made ours For my part as on the one hand I would not be needlesly tenacious of a word where we can as well retain and express the Truth without it so on the other hand I cannot but observe that all those even to a Man not one as far as I remember to be excepted who quarrel with that word instrument and wrangle to bring in the word condition in this business of our Justification and Christs Righteousness being upon us do labour under that Covert to bring in withal a very weighty and momentous alteration in the substance of the Doctrine of the Gospel For they would also bring in other things viz. Repentance and Love and new Obedience as Conditions of our Justification as well as Faith and as the Righteousness which is imputed to us and wherein we stand And they are generally for a conditional Redemption also and many of them for a conditional Election too 4. I shall therefore waving those dissatisfying words set before you what I conceive to be the Truth of God in this matter briefly in a few Propositions concerning the reference that Faith hath unto the Righteousness of Christ being upon us Onely premising two things First That I am speaking of possession or actual injoyment of this righteousness of Christ not of right or title to it Right and Possession are different things and therefore things of a different Nature and may be one without the other Rutherf of the Covenants p. 231 232. Faith hath no influence no not so much as in a way of instrumentality to confer upon us a right and title to Christs Righteousness all the influence that Faith hath in this matter is onely unto our actual Possession of it which the Holy Ghost calls our having it Phil. 3.9 and here in the Text its being upon us Secondly This Possession or having this Righteousness of Christ the reference of Faith whereunto I am speaking of is that having it which is unto Justification of Life and that as the next and immediate effect of this Righteousness being thus upon us It is having
the transaction between God and Christ concerning us without any thing done on us or in us or by us which cannot be said of the other for in it and indeed in order to the effecting it Christ lays hold on us Moreover the one I mean that which I call Vital Vnion is reciprocal or mutual in it not only we are in Christ but he is also in us Joh. 14.20 and 15.4 and 17.23 Colos 2.7 In this Union there is a mutual in-being between Christ and Believers But that other Union which I called Vnion in Law is not in like manner mutual for though we are said to be in Christ because of that publick capacity and common relation to us all that he stands in yet till the Vital Vnion between Christ and us is effected it cannot be said that he is in us And lastly these two Unions stand affected one to another as cause and effect The former namely that which I call Vnion in Law between Christ and us is the cause of the latter namely of our being brought into that Vital Vnion to him And hence the former is the rule and measure of the latter the latter is extended to all those and to those only who are comprised within the former and it is in the vertue and causal efficacy of the former that the latter is brought about and accomplished 6. Of this latter viz. Vital Vnion between Christ and us Faith is the means on our side Hence appears a further reason why it may well be called a Vital Union Both because in its effecting there is a vital touch as I may say between Christ and us and a clasping each on other and also because by and in this Union unto Christ we are brought immediately into a state of Spiritual Life first relative in Justification and Adoption and then and thereupon qualitative or transformative in Sanctification and Comfort which are Glory begun and shall be perfected hereafter Hence it is that some Divines and those no mean ones for Spiritual Light and Judgment make Faith to be actus medii ut simus in vivis rather than actus vitae quâ in vivis jam constituti vivimu the means and way of our being made Spiritually alive rather than our acting Life as being already brought into a state of Life As the Bodies closing with and clasping hold on the Soul by the animal Spirits which are corporeal things is rather the means of Natural Life than an Act of Life it self And the Notion seems to be countenanced by the Scripture which makes believing one thing and Life another and Faith the means of Life See Joh. 5.40 and 6.53 54 57. and 20.31 and Rom. 1.17 However this is plain and certain that he who hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life 1 Joh. 5.12 and that we in our believing do receive Christ Joh. 1.12 Faith being our closing with him in that conjugal Covenant and Relation in which we are and stand vitally united to him 7. It being the proper use of Faith to be the means of Vniting us thus unto Christ and its proper Nature to rest upon Christ for all and to receive all from Christ the Crown of all is hereby set upon the head of Christ and to flourish there for ever And thus you see how the grand original design of God to bring in a Revenue of singular Honour and Praise and Glory unto his Son Christ is in this way brought about accomplished and fulfilled For this Righteousness of Christ being upon us through Faith it glorifies Christ in that he is made all unto us in our acceptance with God as righteous to Eternal Life And indeed Faith is such a Grace as that there is in its Nature a singular aptitude and fitness to give Glory unto Christ This will be made apparent by considering these two things 1. Faith is a going out of our selves unto Christ for all It is a going out of our selves as Indigent miserable and perishing And to whom do we in believing go but unto Christ Faith therefore gives him the Glory of having in him a fulness of suitable sufficiency for Sinners in our guilty ruined Condition And what do we go to him for It is for all that we need Being guilty and under Condemnation we go to him for Righteousness unto Justification of Life and thence Faith is said to be in his Blood Rom. 3.25 Being utterly without strength and dead in sins we go to him for strength Isa 45.24 Being frail and mutable as Creatures and having unsteadfast treacherous hearts as Sinners we go to him for Everlasting Righteousness and for establishment in himself by an unchangeable Ordinance and constant never-failing influences that is in one word for Eternal Life Thus as the Son of God is in himself a Person of infinitely higher Excellency than the first Adam and a better Head unto all his Seed than the first Adam was So Faith acknowledgeth him to be an Head far better than Adam beyond all comparison and gives him the Glory of it accordingly 2. Faith is a prime and principal part of our being conformed to the image of the Son of God Suppose that the principle of Grace begotten and created in us in Regeneration do contain in it the habit of Faith which I will not now call in question nor determine yet this is manifest that in our acting Faith we cannot so well and congruously be said to act like God as to act like Christ For God never acted Faith but Christ did Heb. 2.13 and was so open and frequent in the profession of it that his Adversaries took notice of it Psal 22.7 8. He owned and professed that he lived by the Father as we by Faith do live by him Joh. 6.57 Though he be God by Nature and of himself yet as Mediator he lives by the Father and the Humane Nature of Christ lives and subsis Person leaning on the Eternal Deity of the Son of God it hath its subsistence in the bosom of the God head We in believing do herein imitate Christ after our manner and measure and according to that unmeasurable distance and disproportion that is between him and us We lean and live on Christ and fetch all from him and from God through him But he is the first Pattern and Original Copy of believing both because he lived a Life of Faith and because the Humane Nature of Christ leans on the Godhead in the Son and hath the Eternal Power of the Deity clasping about it and holding it in that Union After somewhat of a similitudinary way though with great dissimilitude and disparity do we by Faith lean and live upon Christ and on God in and through him the Eternal Power of the Godhead in Christ and not so much the strength of any created principle of Grace in us holding our hearts unto him and causing them for ever to liâ—e upon him USE 1. Here we may see the
cleared Nevertheless you must not so understand this as if these two parts of this Suretiship-righteousness of Christ were brought in at several times and did not co-exist together For they did concur and meet in many if not in all the passages of his Life in the Flesh during the whole course thereof For though his Incarnation be not any part of this his Suretiship-righteousness as you heard yet the form of a Servant or that abased Condition wherein he was from the first moment of his Conception and wherein he acted all along his Life is a part of his Humiliation And on the other hand there was Active Obedience in his Death and Sufferings because his own Will was in it For he offered up himself and he laid down his own Life and this in obedience to the command which he had received from his Father Joh. 10.17 18. Joh. 14.31 Eph. 5.2 Heb. 9.14 Gal. 1.4 Thus I have gone through the first thing proposed to be spoken to namely what this righteousness of God is which is through Faith upon all that believe and you have seen that 1. It is the righteousness of Christ 2. It is his Mediatorial righteousness 3. It is the righteousness which is brought in by him as a Priest 4. It is hi◠Suretiship-righteousness 5. This Suretiship righteousness of Christ is his perfect answering in behalf of the Elect as our Surety all the demands of the justice of God by vertue of the Moral Law that they might in a way of justice as well as grace be brought unto that happiness whereto they are appointed and it contains both his bearing the Penalty and his fulfilling the Precept of the Law Let us now proceed to the remaining Enquiries wherein I shall be briefer Quest 2. How is this Righteousness unto and upon those that believe Answ As to these words unto and upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is somewhat a divers account given of them Some conceive they are here used by the Apostle in a different sense as if the first referred to the designment the second to the actual Donation of this Righteousness or as if the one were used and meant of the tender and promise the other of the actual giving and transferring of this Righteousness to and on Believers Others conceive the sense and intendment of them both is much what one and the same in this Text. as it is of by and through v. 30 and consequently that the Apostle here useth both these words that he may more fully and emphatically express our Interest in and Benefit by this Righteousness of Christ And I confess I doe rather incline to this latter account of these two Prepositions the reasons whereof I need not now to insist on but shall hasten to declare how this Righteousness is unto and upon Believers and I shall express it in four words only noting first that that being upon us of this Righteousness which the Apostle here speaks of is unto Justification of Life as appears from the whole Context See ver 20. and ver 24. and ver 28. and ver 30. 1. This righteousness it self is upon Believers by the free and gracious gift and imputation of God The Holy Ghost useth both these expressions in this matter You read of the gift of Righteousness Rom. 5.17 and of the imputation of Righteousness Rom. 4.6,11 With respect to us it is wholly free and gracious for those to whom it is given and imputed do no more deserve it than those who never shall be interested in it Though with respect to Christ it is just and equal that it should be imputed to us in as much as he did bring it in for us and that under an Expectation and Assurance built upon God the Fathers Covenant with him that it should be accepted and of avail for us and given and reckoned to us By being imputed I mean that it is looked on by God as belonging to us in order to our being judicially dealt withal according to the merit thereof This is the Notion of Imputation in the general be the thing imputed good or evil be it originally our own or anothers And hence it appears that it is this Righteousness of Christ it self which is imputed and not only the Effects or Benefits of it which are procured by it communicated to us for this is in truth no Imputation It cannot be said in any Congruity or Truth either that Justification and Adoption are imputed to us or that the Intercession of Christ in Heaven is imputed to us Yet the former are communicated to us through the imputation of this Righteousness and of the latter we do receive the benefit None that I know of ever said that the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are imputed to us yet are we made partakers of the Effects and benefits of them To deny that Christ's Suretiship-Righteousness it self is imputed to us is to fall in with the Socinians and the very thing which they contend for And indeed the thing is plain that in our being justified either this Righteousness of Christ it self or a Righteousness of our own must be imputed to us For there cannot be Justification without the Imputation of a Righteousness any more than there can be Condemnation without the Imputation of a Crime and besides the Scripture speaks so much of Imputation in the Business of Justification that I know not any who would be called Christians that have denyed all Imputation in that matter And thence it is that those who have either out of Darkness or out of Hatred against standing in the Righteousness of Christ denyed the Imputation of that very Righteousness it self unto us have all of them substituted another Righteousness even a Righteousness of our own for us to stand in before God and be justified in 2. This gratious Imputation is valid and effectual to constitute Believers righteous So the Apostle tells us most expresly Rom. 5.19 As by one mans disobedience many were made Sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous The word which the Apostle there useth and is rendred made signifies constituted and points to Imputation as the way how we are made Righteous And besides he tells us it is in the same manner as we are constituted Sinners by Adams disobedience so in like manner we were made Righteous by Christ's Obedience But the former namely our being made Sinners is by the Imputation to us of Adam's disobedience by it Judgment was or Criminalness came upon all Men to Condemnation as ver 16. and ver 18. and therefore by the free gift and gracious Imputation of this Righteousness of the Second Adam doth Justification even Justification unto life come upon us Such a validity and efficacy there in is Gods Gift and Imputation that by this Righteousness of Christ it being imputed to them Believers have a Title and Right to pardon to the Favour of God to Adoption and to
So the Apostle declares Rom. 5.2 3 11. We rejoyce or glory in hope of the glory of God and not only so but we glory in tribulations also And he comes over with that word again ver 11. saying and not only so but we glory in God 't is the same word in the Greek in all the three Verses though differently rendred in our Translation How do they thus glory in God 'T is through Jesus Christ who hath brougâ—t in this righteousness for them and by whose Death they were when Enemies reconciled to God and by whom they have received that Atonement They do glory before God in him only in whom they are and who is of God made righteousness unto them 1 Cor. 1.30 31. and in the unchangeableness of the Love of God towards them in Christ they do triumph even while they have before their eyes their own guiltiness in themselves and how much matter for Eternal condemnation there is in them for it is upon Christ's not being spared or abated any thing but being delivered up and dying and God's justifying all which plainly speak them in themselves obnoxious to condemnation and worthy of Death upon these things it is that the Apostle bottoms that challenge and raiseth that triumphant persuasion and Song of assurance which he there uttereth in the Name of all Believers Rom. 8.32 33 34 35 38 39. Believers have given them beauty for ashes the oyl of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness and they do greatly rejoyce in the Lord even in the Lord who was angry with them and their Souls are joyful in their God whom they know they have sinned against But how comes this to pass Is it because their sins are through tract of time out of Gods thoughts and Memory No a thousand years are with him but as one day He is an Eternal God and they are as fresh and present before him as if they were just then in committing Is it because God thinks better of their sins than formerly he did when he frown'd upon them and wrote bitter things against them No their sins are as distasteful to him as much hated by him as ever they were nor will he ever to Eternity have a better thought of any of them Is it because Believers are become more vain and senseless and slightly-spirited than they were in those former days of bitterness and anguish No verily they have more of the heart of Flesh than they then had and there is in them now a deeper sense of the evil of sin and a deeper work of the Spirit of Humiliation and more thorow thawings and meltings of heart before the face of God then ever Whence is it then and how comes it to pass that Believers are made even in the view of their own endless sin and guiltiness yet to triumph and rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory It is hence God hath cloathed them with the Garments of Salvation he hath covered them with the robe of Righteousness as the Prophet speaks Isa 61.10 This righteousness of Christ is upon them and thence they have the consolations of God delighting their Souls and abounding in them Lastly There are not only such great and precious things injoyed by Believers while here but there are also things high and glorious laid up and reserved for them hereafter when they shall be here no more There shall be a Glory revealed in them far beyond all compare with any of the afflictions that they meet with in this World Rom. 8.18 They are now indeed the Sons of God and that is such manner of Love and so great that Men and Angels may stand and gaze and wonder at it But though now already they be thus loved nevertheless it doth not yet appear what they shall be Only we know that when the only begotten of God the Prince of Life and Lord of Glory shall appear then shall they appear with him in Glory and they shall see him as he is and they shall be made like him even these vile Bodies shall by him be fashioned like his own Glorious Body Colos 3.4 1 Joh. 3.1 2. Phil. 3.21 And in that day the world shall see and know and they themselves shall everlastingly feel that Christ is in his Father and they in Christ and he in them Joh. 14.20 And that both Christ and the Father too have loved them as the Father hath loved Christ and that very lo e wherewith the Father hath loved Christ himself shall be in them for ever John 15.19 Joh. 17.23 26. But now if you ask as she sometimes did concerning another great work of love and wonder Luke 1.34 How can these things ever be seeing they are such sinful such guilty such vile and loathsome and hateful Creatures in themselves This Text this Doctrine answers all in this one word The righteousness of Christ is through Faith unto them all and upon them all without difference who do believe Let your hearts answer and eccho back as Maâ—ries there did ver 38 45. Behold the handmaid of the Lord be it to me according to thy word Stagger not you at these great things as incredible as impossible ever to be done for you who are so ashamed of and do so exceedingly abhor your selves and who are worthy of nothing but to be rejected and abhorred of God eternally but believe take them in by Faith and by Faith receive the gift of this righteousness and then there shall most assuredly be a performance unto you even unto you of those things that have been told you from the Lord. ROM iii. 22. Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference THE Point of Doctrine observed from these words you may remember was to this purpose Doctrine There is a Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all without difference who do believe Six things have been proposed to be spoken to for the clearing up of the Doctrine viz. 1. What is this Righteousness of God and why so called 2 How it is unto and upon all that believe 3. What is the import and meaning of that word without difference 4. What is this Faith of Jesus Christ 5. What reference hath this faith unto this Righteousness being on Believers 6. Whence is all this and how comes this about Of these particulars I have already gone through the three former and know not any need either to retract or to explain further what was then delivered so shall it go with your Souls so will God deal with every one of you as you receive or reject those Truths of his That which is now before me is those other three remaining particulars for the clearing up of the Doctrine and the further application of it And hereto I now address my self Q. 4. VVhat is this Faith of Jesus Christ Answ By Faith
〈◊〉 Gal. 2.16 and Faith is called a coming to him a phrase which implyes and holds forth not onely that while we continue in Unbelief we are at a distance from Christ and that Christ is the Object of Faith but also that by believing Christ and the Believer are brought together if I may so express it As Believers dwell in Christ and Christ in them so this is by their eating his flesh and drinking his blood or eating him Joh. 6.47 with ver 54 56. In eating and drinking the Food and the drink are incorporated and made one with the Body By eating and drinking Christs Flesh and Blood he there means believing on him The Metaphor is taken from their eating the Manna and drinking of the Rook in the Wilderness or from their eating and drinking of their Sacrifices as you know they were by a positive Ordinance to do of some of them Christ indeed first lays hold on us and joyns himself to us and we being laid hold on and drawn by him do close with him and so come to co-alesce into one mystical Person with Christ This our vital Union with him is indeed begun on his part in his laying hold on us in a preventing way but it is compleated and accomplished and becomes mutual by our believing Now being thus made one with Christ his righteousness comes to be upon us unto the Justification of Life by the Ordinance Constitution and Donation of God It is as we are thus in him and made Members of him that his righteousness is upon us As a base-born Beggar and Criminal comes to have the Honour of a Princess upon her by being Married and becoming one Flesh with an high born Prince Propos 6. Nevertheless this Righteousness of Christ hath some operation on us as well as for us antecedently to our believing It hath an operation for us For it did make Atonement procure our Peace and accomplish our Reconciliation unto God These things were done and finished they were perfected by Christ in his bringing in this righteousness It hath also an operation upon us before our believing To say nothing of Gods forbearing us and showing forth all long suffering toward us during all the days of our vanity and madness of heart nor of any other excellent Mercies given to us then which when Grace comes to be grafted on them become very serviceable for the furtherance of our Salvation because it is not altogether so clear that these things which are not of a saving Nature and which are injoyed by us while we are not under the bond of the Covenant nor living Members of Christ are procured for us by his righteousness This is certain and plain that the Spirit and Faith it self are procured for us by and given to us for this righteousness which is unto Justification upon us through Faith Phil. 1.29 Faith is purchased for us by it and our justification is purchased by it and both of them absolutely obtained And it may also be said that because Justification is absolutely procured by this righteousness therefore also Faith being procured for us by the same righteousness is for the sake of it given to us that being the way ordained of God for our being justified and it being a Mercy peculiar to the Elect and a Mercy that hath Salvation accompanying it and a leading part of the application of Christ This possibly may be one thing that hath occasioned some to say that our Justification is rather the condition of our having Faith given us than our Faith the condition of our Justification I conceive they mean that if Justification had not been absolutely procured and obtained for the Elect Faith would never have been either given them or obtained for them However most certain and undeniable it is that this Righteousness operates on us antecedently unto our believing because that preventing Grace and work of the Spirit whereby Faith is wrought in us are the effects of this Righteousness as being procured by it From what hath been said Two Things follow which I will briefly note for the further clearing up this whole Matter and then pass on to the last Enquiry proposed 1. Our being justified is not the next or immediate effect or consequence of our believing but of Christs Righteousness being upon us For between our believing and our being justified there comes in our co-alescing into one Mystical Person with Christ by this Vital Union and our having his righteousness upon us unto the Justification of Life Which latter is the next fruit and consequent of that our union to him or being in him His righteousness is upon us as we are Members of him and do stand in him And this our union to him is brought about and accomplished upon and by our believing Union to Christ goes before Communion with him Union is the immediate consequent of Faith Our having this righteousness upon us is one of the first things in our Communion with Christ We are first in Christ and so have him made righteousness to us 1 Cor. 1.30 2. Our Faith hath no hand in working out this righteousness for us nor is it any part thereof The righteousness of Christ is a garment a robe wherewith Believers are cloathed Psal 45.13 14. Isa 61.10 Rev. 19.8 But our Faith neither is a part of it nor ever took stitch in it The Apostle here in the Text doth not say this righteousness of God is by or through Faith or that it consists either in whole or in part in Faith but that it is upon us through faith Wherein he plainly distinguisheth between this righteousness and our believing and tells us it is the former namely this righteousness of God which is upon us unto justification of life whereas the latter namely faith is within us not upon us Quest 6 How comes this about and whence is it that this righteousness is through faith unto and upon all that believe Answ This Enquiry leads me to lay open before you something of the deep Counsels of the Wisdom and Grace of God in the Plot of our Salvation I shall content my self onely to point a little at the Heads of Things telling you the Story of it from its first and highest Original in these Seven Steps 1. God the Father from Eternity begat his Son the second Person in the Trinity and loving him with an infinite Love designed a special Revenue of Glory and Honour and Praise unto him as from all his Creatures in their kind and way so more eminently from and in a certain number of Mankind Even those whom he chose in him before the Foundation of the World that they should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated them unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will unto the praise of the Glory of his Grace Eph. 1.3 4 5 6. Prov. 8.22 23 24-30 The End and Upshot and last issue that all his
Love this Grace of Christ should constrain you and make you thus judge That if one dyed for all then those all have dyed namely unto sin and he dyed that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who dyed for them and rose again for their Justification and that they might rise unto newness of life 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Thus the Apostle Peter also argues pressing it upon Believers to be holy in all manner of conversation even as he who hath called you is holy And the ground upon which he inforceth it is this because they are redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ See 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16 18 19. 2. You should walk humbly also as well as holily This God doth require Mic. 6.8 for you stand accepted not in your selves nor in any Works of Righteousness that you have done but wholly in the Righteousness of Christ that is upon you through Faith Therefore when you have done all and attained to the utmost you should still be humble and say you are unprofitable servants Luke 17.10 For all your obedience and conformity to the Law avails no more to justifie you than your worst sins do and you should look on your best performances and your worst sins even with the same eye in the business of Justification Believers do own that all their best Righteousness is as to their Justification but as filthy rags Isa 64.6 and true Converts have the like and can have no worse thoughts of their worst sins Isa 30.22 Labour you should and abound in the work of the Lord not to work out a Righteousness to stand justified in before God No God forbid such a thought should ever be entertained by any Believer I do not think the Saints in Heaven would be willing to exchange and put off the Robe of Christs Righteousness to stand before God for acceptance in that perfect and spotless Holiness to which they have there attained Much less should any Believer be willing to stand and continue in a justified estate by his own imperfect defective and stained Obedience Neither indeed can I see how such a frame of Heart can be consistent with true Faith But obey you should because you have a Righteousness upon you in comparison and in competition wherewith the Righteousness of Men and Angels is to be despised Obey therefore to the utmost but look away from it when you have so done Obey not to acquire or continue to your selves an interest in this Righteousness much less to be your Righteousness before God but that you may show forth the Praises of him who hath called you into Fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ 3. You should also walk comfortably and rejoysingly as well as holily and humbly For you are made accepted in the beloved Standing in this Righteousness having it upon you through Faith you may you should rejoyse and glory not in your selves on any performances of yours or Graces inhering in you but in the Lord in whom you have both Righteousness and Strength For the Lord hath sworn that in him should all the seed of Israel be justified and glory Isa 45.23 24 25. Having by Faith received the atonement you may glory even in his presence of whom you are in Christ Jesus who is of God made unto you Wisdom Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption and you made the Righteousness of God in him that he that gloryeth should glory in the Lord. POST-SCRIPT THere are two Passages in the foregoing Sermons which have been exclaimed against publickly and privately by one that heard them not And I do believe he was angered by more than two For he is one that makes union to Christ our having this Righteousness upon us and our being justified by it to be given us in way of reward of something done by us and he is the man that makes the state of Believers to be undecided and in suspense during this Life Both which Errors are damning the former in its Nature and direct tendency the latter in its Grounds and Principles And whether he do not in truth disown the imputation of our Sins unto Christ and of his Righteousness unto us it is like if he live the VVorld will see more fully for he hath given such pregnant indications thereof as do amount to at least just cause of jealousie But touching these things he thought it best to keep silence and to fix his nails where he thought he had better advantage The one Point is pag. 7. That the Incarnation of Christ is no part of his Humiliation As to the truth of it as there laid down I shall say little more knowing it cannot be overthrown The whole stress of the matter lyes in those two words Incarnation and Humiliation how they are taken If the former be taken largely as comprising Christs taking both our Nature and the common sinless Frailties of it together with his being in the form of a servant and made under the Law I know not why it should be denyed to be a part of his Humiliation But if it be taken strictly for his dwelling in Flesh or Humane Nature comprehending under it both the act of assumption and the relation or union arising and effected thereby between the Humane Nature so assumed and the Person of the Son of God who did assume it neither the one nor the other of these neither the act of assuming nor the Union of the two Natures effected by it may be allowed to be any part of Christ's Humiliation For Humiliation is not in this argument to be taken laxly and improperly for any thing which hath Goodness or Grace in it as God's beholding things in Heaven and in Earth is said to be an humbling of himself Psal 113.6 So Christ might have been said to humble himself though he had never been Incarnate But in this subject Humiliation ought to be taken precisely for that which is proper and peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity which the Apostle calls his being in the form of a Servant or rather his being made under the Law Between which there may be conceived some difference for Christ is now in his state of Exaltation Gods Servant but he is not now under the Law as he was in the days of his Flesh and Frailty And taking these words thus it is far from being a singular conceit of mine that the Incarnation of Christ is not a part of his humiliation Mr. Bradshaw not only saith expresly Christ's assuming the Humane Nature cannot properly be said to be a part of his Humiliation but gives his reason for it of Justif ch 17. Sect. 7. and makes the Title of that Chapter to be this Christ that he might taken on him the guilt of sin was made man Whence it is evident that in his Judgment which is also the current Judgment of all Christians Christ's becoming Man was not the effect of the guilt of sin being on him but the way of his