that which the Apostle opposeth to that Law he speaks of in Philip. 3. 9. the righteousness or observation of which â—e disclaims in point of Justification or as that which gives any right to Christ Pardon and Life And therefore the righteousness of this Law i. e. the Law of Faith is called by the Apostle in this Verse the righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the righteousness of God by Faith this this is the righteousness which hath Christ for its Object and is appointed by God in his Covenant of Grace to be our personal justifying righteousness This was the righteousness the Apostle would have that he might be found in him i. e. united unto him Very few of our Divines but they hold we are united to Christ by Faith and this was that the Apostle valued above all union with him seeing then the Apostle opposeth that which gives interest in Christ and union with him unto his own righteousness in this Verse that which gives interest then and unites must be Faith and so he must be far from disclaiming it as dung Now if so Persons will have the righteousness of Christ meant by this righteousness through Faith and by Faith then it must be the righteousness of Christ which unites to Christ and so the same thingmust unite unto and give interest in it self But whoever said this But to proceed no further in this let us hear what they have to say for the vindication of this strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness 1. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because there will be no standing in judgment before God unless we be cloathed with a perfect righteousness and there is no such righteousness but that of Christ's I Answer if the process in judgment should be according to the terms of the Law of Innocency i. e. that Sentence must pass upon Persons according to conformity or non-conformity to this Law then the reason would be cogent But seeing it shall not there is no force in it at all That it shall not See Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Christ Jesus according to my Gospel 2 Thes 1. 7 8. And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which Scriptures with others make it manifest the Gospel shall be the rule of judgment Hence therefore as Persons in judgment shall be found such as have been obedient or disobedient to the Gospel so shall the Sentence pass to Life or Condemnation John 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting LIfe and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Though know it shall be for the sake of Christ's perfect righteousness that such as are found true penitent Believers shall be adjudged to eternal Life at that day seeing had it not been for this his meritorious righteousness there had been no Covenant of Grace and so no accepting of any to Life upon such terms as the Gospel requires so that the whole glory of Believers Salvation must redound to him I speak here of the Adult unless Persons have an interest in and a right unto a perfect righteousness and so unto the righteousness of Christ they shall not be cleared and adjudged to Life in judgment But the Question is Whether all have an interest in and a right unto his righteousness If not Who are they that have Will you say any speaking of the Adult that live under the sound of the Gospel but such as are found obedient thereunto And are not true penitent Believers the Persons which are obedient if so then they are the Persons who shall be cleared and adjudged to eternal Life in judgment But it may be said not for their Repentance and Faith I Answer still not for these as the purchasing meriting causes but upon these as the qualifying matter of right which qualifying matter of right though it be not as is acknowledged a righteousness answerable to the Law of Innocency and so can be no justifying righteousness in the account of that Law yet is a righteousness agreeable to the Gospel and so is a justifying righteousness in the judgment of that Law 2. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because all that are justified are justified by the righteousness of another and this other by whose righteousness they must be justified can be none but Christs I Answer I do not deny but affirm that those that are justified are justified by the righteousness of another and that by Christs and his only as the purchase and merit of Justification But then that this is the qualifying righteousness of mine or another's Person which gives interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life according to the Gospel this I deny For though it be for Christ we are justified yet it is by Faith in him as imputed by God we are formally justified and made righteous which Faith though it be our own and so our own righteousness by free gift and possession yet is none of our own but Christ's in point of Merit and thus we are justified by a righteousness Christ hath merited and God's in point of Efficiency as he by his Spirit is the Author of it And there is this I would ask by the way i. e. Whether Justification be not a Gospel priviledge if it be as I hope it will not be denied Then are not all Gospel priviledges purchased and merited by Christ if so then certainly Justification among the rest And if Justification give me leave further to ask Did Christ purchase and merit his own righteousness you grant he purchased and merited the priviledge of Justification and you say that Christ's righteousness is the only formal justifying righteousness of our Persons must you not then also say that he purchased and merited his own righteousness certainly yes Now pray When or how or by what did Christ this if you say that Christ did not purchase and merit his own righteousness then I ask How did he purchase and merit Justification And how is Justification then in your Sense a Gospel priviledge purchased and merited by Christ It may be you will say that Christ purchased and merited that his righteousness might be imputed by God unto us for our Justification grant this still you must say that he purchased and merited not that which you call the matter of your Justification and so what you say must come to this that Christ did not merit and purchase that which justifies you and if so then that which justifies you must not be that which is purchased and merited by Christ See then however in this if the charge of Socinianism do not fall foul upon your selves
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
promise for sinners upon their sincere repentance and faith There are promises of pardon and everlasting life to sinners that repent and believe Acts 3. 19. John 3. 16. Now for any to affirm that these promises are made and the grace promised granted to sinners who repent and believe without regard had by God unto Christ as the purchaser of them by his meritorious satisfactory righteousness is for them to affirm that God grants and gives saving grace to penitent sinners which Christ never purchased nor merited and this is for none but the Socinian to hold 2. This Law or Covenant of Grace thus purchased and granted injoins sinners faith in Christ which faith is never without repentance nor sincere obedience if the believer be continued after the gift of faith for undoubtedly if the believer live in this World after the gift of faith so long as he doth live through the grace of God he continues obedient 1 John 3. 23. Matt. 21. 30. Heb. 5. 9. 3. Christ by his righteousness hath purchased and merited the Holy Spirit to work faith in the hearts of all those sinners who thereby are brought to believe John 14. 26. John 15. 26. The Spirit is sent by the Father in Christ's name and sent by Christ from the Father Let any one now prove that what the Father gives in Christ's name and what Christ sends from the Father is not purchased and merited by him And the Spirit is called the Spirit of Faith i. e. the principal Efficient or Author of it 2 Corinth 4. 13. 4. I believe that all those who by the Grace and Spirit of Christ do sincerely believe shall for and upon the account of Christ's satisfaction and meritorious righteousness be saved but as for such as live and die in infidelity they shall be â—amned notwithstanding Christ's merits and that because they have rejected the remedy through their unbelief I speak of the Adult John 3. 16. 18. 36. 5. I do believe that as the first Covenant did require sinless perfect constant obedience Galat. 3. 10 so this obedience performed by innocent Adam would have been his justifying righteousness or that righteousness upon which this Law or Covenant would have justified him or given him a right to Life promised which is all one with Justification if confusion can but be removed and this without any regard had to the righteousness of another Rom. 10. 5. 6. I believe that as the second Covenant i. e. the Covenant of Grace doth require true Faith so where there is this true Faith which is the righteousness this Covenant calls for on the Sinner's part this Covenant doth as certainly justifie the sinner thereupon i. e. give him a right to Pardon and Life as the Covenant of works would have justified Adam and given him a right to life had he continued in the state of integrity Though observe That it is with regard had to the righteousness and satisfaction of Christ that this Faith is accepted and accounted by God in the Covenant of Grace for a sinner's personal justifying righteousness instead of that sinless perfect righteousness which the Covenant of Works injoined And is not this wonderful Grace I add it is Faith in the sense of the Gospel giveth Sinners interest in Christ and a right to all saving benefits he hath purchased and so merited which right given by the Covenant of Grace is its justifying the Soul as God's moral Instrument Though still I most firmly hold that it is for the sake of Christ alone and his righteousness that the believing sinner hath this right and that this his Faith which is the gift of God is accepted as a personal righteousness instead of sinless perfect obedience I do not say by the same Law i. e. the Law of innocency or perfect works no but by the Covenant of Grace which accepts of sincerity instead of strict legal perfection I deny then with abhorrence that Faith is any such thing as a satisfactory and meritorious righteousness in whole or in part such a righteousness being proper to our blessed Mediatour the Lord 〈◊〉 But then I do not deny but affirm that a true and living Faith is by God in the Gospel constituted that righteousness which giveth sinners right both to Christ and all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace And grant me but according to Scripture Rom. 3. 21 22. Rom. 4. 13. Philipp 3 9. that Faith is a righteousness and such a righteousness as the Gospel calls for and that it giveth right according to the Gospel promise to Christ and his purchased benefits and see then what ground there is to deny it the place of a justifying righteousness I ask doth it give any interest in Christ and right to the blessings he hath purchased if not then an Infidel must have as great an interest in Christ and as much right to Pardon and Life as a believer If you say that Faith doth give interest in Christ and right to these blessings then you say the same with me i. e. that for the sake of Christ God by the Gospel hath constituted Faith to be our personal justifying righteousness or that which gives us interest in Christ and an actual right to the blessings purchased by and promised through him and this is the justification by Faith I intend and all that I know of in and by the Gospel Justification by all is acknowledged to be a Law term if so then the matter of Justification is jus secundum legem a right in Law and this right in Law results immediately from a conformity to that Law and the conformity to that Law is the righteousness which that Law requires And the Legislator or Law-maker justifying a person is his judging asserting or accounting by this his Law a person upon his conformity thereunto to have right to the priviledges contained in the premiant or rewarding â—art thereof If the matter stand thus then in the nature of Justification as is clear none can be justified by the Law of Innocency or that Law which injoins sinless perfect works for we can have no right in or by that Law to Pardon and Life and that because thaâ—â—â—w relates to Man considered in the state of sinless â—ntegrity who as such having no need of Pardon it makes no provision for it And 2 We cannot have right in or by that Law to Life seeing none of the fallen race of Adam can yield conformity thereunto and so cannot have that righteousness which answers this Law And if so as is plain then God the Legislator or Author of this Law doth not cannot judge assert or account that any have a right in or by this Law to Pardon and Life and so doth not nor cannot justifie us by it and if not doth not nor cannot account a perfect legal righteousnesâ— such as Christ's is to be our personal justifying righteousness for if so then we should be personally righteous in the sense of the Law of Innocency But
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
will answer that law or be accepted by that law or that that law will justifie us upon that Obedience No no for it is only the obedience of Christ that answers that law removes the Curse of it and merits Pardon for our breach of it but the meaning is that whereas God might in justice after Man's wilful fall have insisted upon the very terms of that law which was violated he was pleased in his abundant free grace and rich mercy for the sake of Christ to declare by the new Covenant that now he would accept of the sincere Obedience of poor Sinners and account them Subjects united to Christ and as such having right through him to Pardon and Life which is his justifying of them Now because not only such as profess themselves Socinians but also those that pretend to be Enemies unto them do deny the Covenant of Grace to be purchased by Christ exclaiming against me at a great rate and saying O he is wrong in the very foundation he holds Christ hath merited the Covenant of Grace when it is only the free gift of the Father I judge it a fit place under this head a little more fully to correct the Socinian Spirit in these Men who yet know not it is any such thing that they are in the least possest with and this by clear proof from Scripture that Christ hath purchased this Covenant That then which constitutes the Covenant of Grace betwixt God and Man is God's gracious promise on his part of the gift of saving benefits to Man and Man's engagement on his part through the grace of God to perform all that which may give him right unto and interest in the promised benefits Now if I prove from Scripture that there is no saving benefit which God promiseth to give unto Man nor yet any grace which is required of Man to give him right unto and interest in these benefits but Christ hath purchased them I hope I shall sufficiently have discharged my province in proving the Covenant of Grace to be purchased by Christ 1. In the first place let us consider the benefits that by God are promised or offered in the Promise to Man and as we go along prove that they are purchased by Christ 1. God promiseth Justification Isa 45. 25. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Christ hath purchased Justification Rom. 5. 8. 9. But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him 2. God promiseth reconciliation and peace Isa 27. 5. Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me Christ hath purchased this Rom. 5. 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by life Colos 1. 21 22. And you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight 3. God promiseth remission of Sin Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins And this is purchased by Christ Matth. 26. 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Ephes 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood according to the riches of his grace 4. God promiseth Redemption Psalm 34. 22. The Lord redeemeth the Soul of his servants and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate Christ hath purchased this Redemption from Sin Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good works From Hell and wrath 1 Thes 1. 10. And to wait for his Son from Heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come From the Curse and Condemnation of the violated Law Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree From the power of the Devil Heb. 2. 14. Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil 5. God promiseth Adoption 2 Corinth 6. 17 18. Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you And will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my Sons and Daughters saith the Lord Almighty And this is by Christ merited Galat. 4. 5. To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons 6. God promiseth Eternal Life John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Christ hath purchased this Ephes 1. 14. Which is the earnest of our Inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory Rom. 5. 21. That as sin hath reigned unto death even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. This I have proved that the rich benefits promised by God which are his part of the Covenant are purchased by Christ I will proceed to prove also that what Grace is required of Man to give him right to and interest in these benefits of the Covenant is purchased by Christ 1. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without Repentance for without Repentance we must perish Luke 13. 3. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Christ hath purchased this Acts 5. 31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins And for certain Christ gives nothing but what he hath purchased or the Spirit for this end to work it 2. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without Faith he that believes not the wrath of God abideth on him Now Christ hath purchased this Philip. 1. 29. For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for his sake 3. We cannot have right to nor interest in any of the above mentioned benefits without sincere Obedience which is virtually included in our first consent to be the Lord's Heb. 5. 9. And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him And this
Sin of Man if it was not accounted his own and so laid upon him I Answer can we think that Men can be ignorant this might very well be in this case and was so when many of the Servants of God were greatly afflicted for the Sins and Miseries of others as David and Jeremiah and those that were mourners in Jerusalem though they were not as Christ to suffer in their stead for them If they say they do not think that God accounted his Son in himself to be a Sinner but as he was our Surety I Answer If God did account Christ as our Surety a Sinner and so guilty pray what did he account him guilty of as our Surety there are these things in Sin the Act the Pollution and the Punshment If then God the Father did account Christ as our Surety guilty of the Act then he must account him the actual Sinner If of the Pollution then one that was morally impure in his Nature If of the Punishment so far as it includes his suffering to satisfie for our Sins and make our attonement from his own free and voluntary obligation this I grant For if this were so that God the Father did account our Lord Jesus Christ considered in relation to us as Mediatour to have been guilty of the Sins of all the Elect then as such as I have said he must have been odious to God and if so how could those acts respecting our Redemption and Reconciliation performed by him as our Surety or Mediatour have been of a sweet smelling savour to God It would be as much as to say God the Father loved superlatively his Son in himself but abhorred him considered as Man's surety and Mediatour and if so those acts which were of the greatest moment performed by him in this relation to us such as giving himself to be a Sacrifice must have been odious to God and if so where must we state our hopes of Salvation It is certainly a vain and ungrounded distinction to say that God accepted of the act of Obedience as they were acts of the Person without Sin but condemned him as standing in the relation of our Mediatour as a Sinner â—eeing that whatever acts are relative acts those also are the acts of the Person standing in that relation for actiones sunt suppositorum And besides the very typical Sacrifices which the Adversaries allow are a clear evidence of this i. e. that Christ the great Sacrifice and our Sacrifice to be offered for expâ—ation and making attonement must not be so much under that notion as reputed a Sinner much less the greatest Sinner for these were to be without blemish and without spot as hath been said and as such offered up unto God Surely they will not say here they were to be so considered in a Physical but not in a Legal sense for God did repute them so in a Legal sense seeing they were appointed by the Law for the Peoples typical expiation we find Levit. 6. 25. the Sin-offering by God is called most Holy or as the words in the Original are Holiness of Holiness â—â—NRâ—â— and the LXX â—â—NRâ—â— now how dare any Man contradict the word and say these were by God accounted legally unclean what reputed by God Holiness of Holiness legally most holy and yet also uncleanness of uncleanness legally most unclean Let them reconcile this that can And if so be those typical Sacrifices were accounted by the Lord legally most Holy then undoubtedly the Antitype the great Sacrifice for expiation i. e. our blessed Lord Jesus must be so accounted in the offering up of himself As Christ's Righteousness say some is imputed to us so our Sins are imputed to Christ They that affirm this some of them say that it is not only passive but the habitual and active Righteousness of Christ which is imputed Pol. Syntagma p. 457. If therefore our Sins be imputed to Christ as Christ's Righteousness in his sense is imputed to us then from this Doctrine it must follow that our habitual and actual Sins must be imputed to Christ i. e. both the corruption of our nature and all our actual transgressions seeing then that to impute signifies to judge account or reckon the sense of these Persons must be that God did account and reckon the Lord Jesus Christ as our Surety or Mediatour to be both an habitual and actual Sinner and was Christ so in God's account Christ is said to be made a Curse for us as Mr. B. saith by suffering as a Sacrifice for us a cursed death not that he was under either in himself or as our Mediatour a Spiritual or Eternal Curse or as some may mean cursed by the Law as a Sinner which is all one for the Law of Innocency justified him 11. I believe saith he that Christ by his obedience active and passive in his holy life and bitter death of the Cross hath compleatly fulfilled the Law and perfectly satisfied the offended justice of God for all the Elect. I Answer Christ did both obey and suffer he yielded conformity to the Law and suffered and satisfied the offended justice of God for Sinners and this in their place and stead The sufferings of Christ were a full satisfaction to an offended God and the principal way and means for the securing the Glory of his Justice and Holiness and for the manifestation of the Glory of his Wisdom and Mercy in the Salvation of Sinners But then that Christ did properly fulfil by his sufferings the threat of the Law of Innocency which we had violaâ—ed this I deny for if so then he should have suffered the same Spiritual and Eternal as well as Corporal punishment in kind which was due unto transgressions and if so where had our Redemption been our Divines generally have said Christ did not suffer the Idem or the same that we should have suffered but the Tantundem what did avail yea infinitely avail to make satisfaction for our offences for any Man to say the Laws threat was properly and perfectly fulfilled in Christ's suffering it includes a contradiction for eternal sufferings were included in the Laws threat but seeing Christ's sufferings were long since finished they cannot be said to be eternal Now for any Man to affirm that Christ properly and perfectly fulfilled the Laws threat without suffering such a death as the Law threatned if it be not a contradiction it looks as like one as ever Man saw But of this I shall say no more having spoken of it above Only there is this which seems intimated further in this Article of his Faith i. e. that what Christ did and suffered was only for the Elect and that others have no benefit thereby which if intended by him I must make bold to tell him it is a great mistake as I have also shewn above for I do not think that any in the World enjoy any Mercy but upon the account of Christ's undertaking upon which he is said to be the Saviour of
by the obedience of one i. e. the Obedience of Christ many shall be made righteous but this not by accounting the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ to be the formal Righteousness of their Persons for this is proper to him as Mediatour and cannot be appropriated to them But by this i. e. for the sake of this Righteousness of Christ all those that by Faith accept him shall by the Covenant of Grace be accounted Righteous or their Faith shall be accepted for Righteousness Rom. 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness And whereas he adds in this Article for it is by the Obedience of one and not by the Faith and Obedience of many that many are justified that is a meer jumble for who saith that it is by the Faith and Obedience of many that others are justified And who saith that any are justified without the Obedience of that one i. e. Christ giving that its proper place and office which is to be a meritorious Righteousness And whereas they themselves make Christ's Righteousness to be the meritorious cause of our Justification and yet after that make it the material cause or that with which we are personally righteous they themselves affirm hereby that justified Persons are righteous in the sense of the Law and in God's account with the meritorious Righteousness of Christ and how Persons can in God's account have a meritorious Righteousness with which they themselves are in Law-sense righteous and yet be wholly stripped of that in their own Persons that will merit is a great Paradox for Christ's Righteousness is denominated meritorious from its inseperable property merit as he is our Mediatour 14. I believe saith he that this Obedience and Righteousness of Christ imputed is as able powerful and certain for the Justification of the Elect as the Disobedience and Sin of Adam was for the condemnation of him and his posterity It may be doubted whether this Man do believe that those he calls the Elect were of Adam's posterity seeing that he opposeth them in this Article and touching Adam's Disobedience and Sin which he calls his ability and power implicit for the condemnation of him and his posterity alas it was his moral impotency if he had said it was that which merited procured the condemnation of him and his posterity as they derived a guilty and corrupt nature from him it had been more like and near the truth And thus I grant that Christ's Righteousness had infinitely more merit in it to procure Justification for Sinners upon their believing than Adam's Sin had merit to procure his own or his posterities condemnation 15. I believe saith he that Jesus Christ by his Death Blood Merits Righteousness and obedience hath purchased bought and redeemed his Elect Church and People but that he obeyed and died to procure and purchase a new Law or Covenant with terms and conditions to be performed by them to give them a right and title to Justification I see no ground as yet to believe Indeed I believe him such a stranger belike is he to the blessed Covenant of Grace and yet for sure he looks upon himself to be a Gospel Preacher if there be one in the World In this Article further he wants my proof that there is a Law or Covenant of Grace with terms and Conditions to be performed by Souls to give them a right and title to Justification and this purchased by Christ That I have already done as he may find above and if it would do him any good I should be glad of it 16. I believe saith he that the satisfaction made by Christ to the Law and Justice of God gives the Elect a right to Justification and Life in way of title and that the Adult by Faith receive and enjoy that right That Christ gave full-satisfaction to an offended God I grant but then that that satisfaction consisted in Christ's suffering the same in kind which was due to us transgressors by the Laws threat which I suppose is that which he aims at this I deny and have shewed above it cannot be I believe that Christ hath undoubtedly purchased a right to Pardon and Life which is Justification by his satisfaction and merit for all those the Father hath given him But then that any of these I speak of the Adult have an actual interest in him or right and title to Pardon and Life so long as impenitent unbelievers this I deny seeing so long as they remain such they are in a perishing condemned state Luke 13. 3. I tell you Nay but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish John 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God And is it like Persons should have an actual interest in Christ and an actual right and title to Pardon and Life by the Gospel so long as they are in a perishing condemned state in the account of the Gospel And then further saith he the Adult by Faith receive and enjoy this right I say the Adult receive Christ which receiving is not Physical but Moral which consists in a sincere consent to take Christ to be their Propitiation Head and Teacher and by this consent which is Faith they are united to Christ and have an actual right hereupon to the great priviledge of Adoption which includes Pardon and Life John 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power or the right of priviledge or the priviledge of right to become the Sons of God and this right is continued by our yielding that subjection through Grace to Christ which we promised in our first consent or when we first did consent to be his Servants Revel 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City 17. I believe saith he that all those thus elected and chosen and by the Father given to Christ redeemed c. are in God's appointed time the day of his power effectually called from a state of nature sin and death to a state of Faith Grace Justification and life and that all those who live and die in infidelity being Adult shall as certainly be damned as though they were in Hell already Mark Reader how he hath confirmed by thus much what I have said above But then saith he that any of the Elect being Adult shall live and die Infidels such an one speaking of me quoth he hath not yet proved That many of the Elect do live many years in Infidelity is out of doubt with me But that any of them shall die Infidels this I never said nor thought for saith Christ John 6. 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will no wise
right to this Pardon and Life without Faith previous thereunto in order of nature and whoever they are that will deny this they must deny the plainest part of Scripture But it may be said do not you affirm that the performance of the condition is required of us I Answer true and the Scripture is express we are injoined to repent believe and obey and not Christ for us doth not this suppose us then it may be said to have a moral power in our selves to repent believe and obey antecedent to the disposing and assisting grace of the Spirit I Answer no God indeed by his command makes it our duty to repent believe and obey his infinite wisdom having ordered this as the best way or means to our having Pardon and Life through Christ and therefore for this purpose will have the commands of the Gospel pressed upon Sinners But then his promise of the gift of this grace through and for Christ to enable us hereunto supposeth our want of moral power and so our insufficiency and inability in our selves to perform which the Spirit convinceth of so that God's commanding us that which we have not in or from our selves to perform without the renewing and assisting grace of his Spirit doth not suppose us to have the moral power of our selves but it only speaks God's order of acting in his dispensations towards Man whom he works upon as a rational Creature who after he is convinced of his Sin and Misery must be acquainted with what is his duty in this case and for this God gives his command as in the case of those at Peter's Sermon and the Jaylor c. But then after acquaintance with his duty and conviction of his own inability to perform God by his promise conveys the grace of his Holy Spirit to give him that ability so that now Man repenting and giving his sincere consent to be obedient to God in Christ the blessings of Pardon and Life according to the tenor of the Covenant of grace devolve upon him for Christ as the subject of the right i. e. as a penitent Believer So that in what I have said it is manifest the terms and conditions of the Covenant performed by Man through assisting grace are no other but terms and conditions of connection and order as hath been explained And here observe this is so far from destroying as that it doth establish the Doctrine of Justification by Faith or that Doctrine which teacheth Faith to be our formal personal Righteousness or that upon which God doth account us by the Covenant of grace subjects that have right through Christ to Pardon and Life seeing that God hath so connected true Faith and these saving benefits as that it is his fixed order by this his Covenant to dispense the latter to such and such only I speak of the Adult as are qualified with the former And if so then such must have a legal right i. e. a right in Law and what is a right in Law but a Righteousness in the sense of that Law and seeing we cannot have a right in the account of the Law of Innocency we cannot have a Righteousness in the account of that Law And if not then we must have another Law and this can be no other if a Remedy as we are fallen Creatures be but a Law of Grace and Mercy and if this must not be then we must have no legal right at all and if no legal right then no Justification there must be no such thing and if there be no such thing then let Persons contend no more about it And though it be true these conditions which are conditions of connection and order have not the Causality of the Efficient or meritorious cause yet they have the place of the matter disposing and qualifying together with the form which is God's accounting them as qualifying matter they constitute the Sinner a Subject that hath right according to the tenor of the Gospel to Pardon and Life through and for Christ and this is the nature of Justification But though this Man in his 24th Question hath granted Faith to be a condition of connection and order which is all that I intend as I have explained my self when I speak of the condition of the Covenant and so granted hereby a Covenant of grace made betwixt God and believers as I have shewn yet his 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th and 19th Questions they all respect the same thing i. e. his denial of the conditionality of the Covenant so consistent is this Man with himself but if he had not granted what he hath yet what I have said upon the former Question i. e. his 13th may be a sufficient solution to these I have mentioned and therefore I shall not take up time nor fill up Paper nor trouble the Reader with them only seeing I have answered him so many Questions I will request the same favour from him that he will answer me these few upon the matter 1. Whether he do Baptize as he calls it Persons Adult considered as so and so qualified or hath he no regard to any qualification but administers the Oâ—dinance to any that offer themselves suppose they be Turks 2. Whether there be any such a thing as any Persons being in Covenant with God If there be thenâ— 3. Whether are they taken into Covenant as Infidels or as Believers If there be not then 4. What is that which Baptism is a sign and Seal of And 5. Who have right to this Seal and that whereof it is a Seal It is only these few I shall propound I desire weight let him glory in number Q. 20. I pass on to his 29th Question If there be no right to Justification and life but by Faith how then or by what are dying Infants saved or by virtue of what Covenant have Infants right to Baptism I Answer By the Covenant of Grace upon the Faith of their Parents He needed not but it is like he would have had the number to have sought the solution of such a Question as this seeing I have at large before answered it in a Manuscript sent to one of his fellow Labourers which it is strange if he have not seen but however to this I remit him and pass on to his Q. 21. Doth not such an one naming me herein render the Doctrine of the most of those accounted Orthodox both Ancient and Modern to be false the prayers of the most sincere impertinent made in Sin and Ignorance and the sufferings of the Martyrs to be foolishness The greatest part of this I have answered already in what I have said to the 22d Article of his Faith only as to that wherein he chargeth me as one that renders the Prayers of the most sincere impertinent made in Sin and Ignorance My Answer is I do most firmly hold that a sincere Prayer though much Sin and Ignorance do and will remain in the Person who put up such a Prayer so long
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
is not actually healing to the Sick until it prevail against the Distemper and it is so with Grace And thus it may be known in what Sense Sanctification is before Justification Touching the gift of the first Grace know there is much good purchased by Christ and given without respect to any condition on Man's part and thus the gift of the first Grace God ordinarily by his Word 〈◊〉 Spirit concurring doth convince humble and incline the Sinner to accept of Christ in all his Offices i. e. to be Propitiation Head and Teacher and when the consent is gained then hath the Soul an actual interest in and right unto the Lord Jesus to be his Propitiation c. to the sanctifying Spirit to Reconciliation Adoption and Glorification The former work was to prevail with the Soul for its consent but when prevailed with then hath it an actual interest in and right unto Christ and the saving blessings of the Covenant promised upon consent A Man that Courts a Woman for her Consent to be his Wife untill this be given by her and she actually give up her self unto him to be his Wife she hath no interest in him as her Husband nor interest in nor right unto any of his Goods as one in that relation and thus it is in the Case before us If any Man saith Christ hear my voice and open the door I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me Revel 3. 20. SECT II. How the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is to be held and how not AFter these things cleared I proceed to tell the World how I do and how I do not ◠〈◊〉 â— the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness I do not deny but affirm God's Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in these following Senses 1. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it was for our Redemption and Salvation Rom. 3. 24 25. 2. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it to be the sole or only Merit and Purchase of the New Covenant and the benefits thereof Heb. 7. 19. 2 Tim. 1. 10. 3. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it to Merit the Blessed Spirit for us to work Grace in our Hearts John 1. 16. Ephes 1. 3. 4. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it is for this that all the Grace and Duties of his People are accepted Ephes 1. 6. 5. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it is for this he pardons us and receives us into his favour and justifies us by his Covenant of Grace upon believing and so accepts our Faith for Righteousness it is not without Christ but for him Acts 13. 38 39. Golos 1. 21 22 23. 6. I do believe that what Christ did and suffered he did and suffered for us in the Person of a Mediatour and God doth account what he did and suffered as Mediatour doth and shall avail as much for the obtaining of Pardon and Life for us upon Faith as though we had been able to have done and suffered the same in our own Persons 1 Peâ—â—r 3. 18. Heb. 9. 15. 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. Rom. 4. 23 24 25. John 3. 16. Now I desire to know in what any Christian in his Practice can make further use of the Lord Jesus than in those particulars forementioned and if he cannot make any use of Christ by Faith but what may be reduced to some of those particulars Can it be thought that God doth make over Christ unto him after some sort wherein he shall be of no use If not then â— desire to know what needs any further or any Imputation of Christ's Righteousness of another sort than hath been expressed I desire it may be taken notice of that whereas I have been accused by some as an Adversary to all Imputation of Christ's Righteousness they have misrepresented me and so have wronged me And I challenge any Man to shew in this Profession wherein I have detracted from the Grace of God or Merits of Christ But now having shewn in what Sense I hold the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness I must plainly tell the World that God doth not so impute the Righteousness of Christ unto us as that he accounts it in it self to be our very formal Personal Righteousness reckoning that what Christ did and suffered as our Mediatour we did and suffered in our own Persons i. e. obeyed in him and suffered in him in the Sense of the violated Law of Innocency This is that I profess I dare not believe and the reason is the many gross and to be dreaded consequences with which such a Doctrine as this is loaded 1. It chargeth God with an untruth for God judgeth of things as they are and not as they are not if we then affirm that God accounts that what Christ did and suffered for us we did and suffered in our own Persons in the Sense of his violated Law which he must do if he account the very Righteousness of Christ to be ours in it self then he must account us to have done and suffered that in our own Persons which he knows we neither did nor suffered and if so then let it be considered what must follow 2. If Christ's Righteousness be imputed in it self then the Law of perfect sinless Works must justifie us for if God in our Justification do account the Righteousness of Christ in it self to be our formal personal justifying Righteousness then he must account us to be such as have a sinless perfect habitual and active Righteousness for such was the Righteousness of Christ and if God do account us to have such a righteousness as this in our own Persons then it must follow that the Law of Innocency must justifie us as well as it did Christ for what should hinder if we have the very same righteousness which is Christs to be our formal personal righteousness and have it we must if God do impute it unto us in it self and account it in that Imputation to be such a righteousness as formal and personal And from hence we must implicitly hold that God in our Justification doth account us to be as righteous as Christ which some have had the Confidence to affirm and all from this Doctrine for I hope People are not to learn that Christ's righteousness habitual and active was a perfect conformity to the Law of Innocency and if we be such in the Sense of that it accounting that what Christ was and did we were and did in him in point of conformity then in this very account it justifies us 3. God must account us such as are habitually and actively sinless and Holy such as have neither Sin in our Nature and Life for Christ was such and if we have the very same righteousness personally which he had which we must have if God account us as they say to have it then how can we chuse but be such as have neither Sin in Nature nor Life 4. That follows which
hath been asserted and is yet asserted by some God neither seeth nor can see Sin in his People and indeed how should it be if he account them habitually and actively sinless and Holy for where it is thus there can be no Sin in their Natures and if so then no Sin of Omission or Commission in the Life and if no Sin neither in Nature nor Life how should God see any 5. If we be such as God accounts in our Justification to be both habitually and actively Holy and sinless then we need no Pardon for there needs no Pardon where there is no Sin nor Fault and if we who are justified have no Sin to Pardon then there needs no Confession of Sin nor Repentance nor Faith in Christ for Pardon and so no Gospel Obedience seeing we have the same legal Righteousness as they say in God's account which Christ had and so we must be justified by the Law of Works as he was and thus the Gospel and Covenant of Grace which offers Pardon to Sinners upon Confession Repentance and Faith becomes a meer nothing and the whole frame of Christianity is taken down Well but they may say we are not inherently righteous by Christ's Righteousness I Answer if they be personally righteous with Christ's righteousness they must be inherently righteous with the same as I have before manifested 6. If God impute the righteousness of Christ unto us in it self and so in the Sense of the violated Law of Innocency reckon us to have done what Christ did and to have suffered what Christ suffered in our own Persons then he must reckon us such as have performed the very acts of Mediation and Redemption for wherein did Christ's Mediation and Redemption consist but in his Obedience and Sufferings I speak of this his work upon Earth which constituted his Active and Passive Righteousness And if so be that God in justifying of us do account us to have the very same righteousness which Christ had for our formal personal righteousness then he must account us to have that which is and was a mediating and redeeming righteousness and so to have that of our own by his gift as our very personal righteousness whereby we may be Mediatours and Redeemers for our selves and others 7. If God impute the righteousness of Christ in it self and account it our formal personal righteousness then it is only the righteousness of Christ he imputes as Man or the righteousness of Christ as God man If the former then they must hold that the righteousness of Christ as Man only is efficacious and he needed not be God if the righteousness of Christ as God-man then God must account them such as have a Divine righteousness as well as an Humane to be their formal personal righteousness and if so then that opinion hereby is established of being Godded with God and Christed with Christ and what I dread to say they must implicitly affirm themselves to be partakers of the very Essence of God and so God's Essence must be divided into so many parts as there are justified Believers and these Believers must be made partakers of the incommunicable Attributes of God Now upon the matter to hint it again when I say that Faith is our Gospel Righteousness and that God by the Gospel doth account it our personal justifying Righteousness it is manifest from what I have already said I do not intend only the â—â—NRâ—â— credere or the very act of Faith without relation to its Object Christ and his righteousness though some for all I have said have been bold to affirm I do for that would be no true Faith at all and far then from justifying for Faith justifies as it unites unto and gives the Soul interest in Christ and this it doth as it is the Souls free consent to take Christ as it is to be said in all his Offices upon which the Soul hath an actual right unto him and the benefits of the Covenant purchased by him and this is plain Gospel Justification as for instance Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 31. When therefore any Soul believes this his Faith is his Obedience and Conformity unto the Gospel command and so his Gospel Righteousness and as such his actual right through and for Christ to the Salvation promised Would the Jaylor have had a right unto the promised Salvation had he not believed I mean an actual right must it not be said no Upon his Faith then he had a right and this his Faith was his obedience to the Gospel command therefore it was his obedience to the command which was his Gospel Righteousness and so his right by Christ according to God's own fixed Law of Grace unto Salvation Hath any Man an actual right to Heaven but a Believer if he have let it be proved from Scripture if none have but such an one then the Believer only I speak of the Adult hath the actual right and is it not plain then 't is his Faith that gives him this right To illustrate this such a Man makes a Purchase of an Inheritance After Purchase bequeaths it by Testament or Will to this or the other Person upon the performance of such or such conditions specified in the Testament or Will if the conditions be performed according to the Testament of the Donor then he hath an actual right in Law unto the Inheritance if not he hath no right of claim if he perform the conditions the Law will vindicate his right and the Judge by Law if he do Justice if he do not perform the conditions the Law cannot nor will not give him a right to the Inheritance nor the Judge by Law 't is just thus in the matter before us and the application is easie SECT III. Scripture to prove the Imputation of Faith and an Answer to such Texts as are alledged for Imputation of Christ's Righteousness IF I should pass on further to prove from Scripture that not Christ's Righteousness in it self but Faith as it accepts of Christ as offered in the Gospel is now a Sinners formal justifying Righteousness before God I should have a large Field and might multiply express Scripture Texts for the Imputation of such a Faith but not one express Text in all the Bible can be found for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self nay nor implicit Let us consider a few Texts among many Rom. 4. 3. Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness What was accounted unto him for Righteousness Well say they not Faith but its Object i. e. the Righteousness of Christ But pray where have we any such word in the Text and besides here is the object of his faith express and that is God Abraham believed God now if they will have not Faith but its Object to be counted for Righteousness then the words must be read thus Abraham believed God and God was counted unto him for Righteousness and if they
will have Christ's Righteousness brought in here then we must read the words thus Abraham believed God and God was counted unto him Christ's Righteousness for Righteousness I would desire them to tell us what Sense they can make of either reading So Verse 5th But to him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness And Verse 9th For we say that Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness The Scripture saith expresly Faith was counted and Faith was reckoned for Righteousness they say nay but by Faith is meant Christ's Righteousness now let any Man judge whether we are to believe the Scripture or them Though let it ever be marked when I according to Scripture say Faith is counted imputed or reckoned for Righteousness I do not as I have said exclude the object Christ or God in Christ but say it is not Christ's Righteousness in it self that is accounted by God to be my formal personal Righteousness but that Faith which doth accept of the Lord Jesus as offered in the Gospel this Faith gives me interest in him and right to Pardon and Life and as such is my justifying righteousness in the Sense of the Gospel and that because God by the Gospel doth declare unto me and assure me that if I thus believe in Christ I shall both be pardoned and everlastingly saved I must still urge that Text 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 let it I pray be well considered for what can God's declaring and assuring by the Gospel be that I shall have these great benefits upon such a Faith but his justifying me thereupon or his accounting by this his express word my right to these blessings upon such a believing But it will be said do you not bring Faith into the very matter of Justification I Answer I shall distinguish of matter of right 1. There is the meriting purchasing matter of right and this is solely or only Christ's Righteousness 2. There is the qualifying matter of right and this is Evangelical Obedience included in Faith seeing that without Faith it is impossible to please God now if Persons judge when I say Evangelical obedience is the matter of right that I intend the purchasing meriting matter of right here they mistake me But if they judge when I affirm Evangelical Obedience to be the matter of right that I only intend the qualifying matter in this they bit right As thus now Persons will grant me there are such gracious benefits as these i. e. Pardon Reconciliation Adoption Acceptation of the services of a real Christian c. The purchasing and meriting Righteousness then of all these benefits is only the righteousness of Christ But now consider me or any other Person as an Impenitent Infidel the Question will be whether as such an one I have an actual personal right unto or interest in these blessings I think it will not be said as such an one I have for then I should be in a saving state while in a state of Impenitency and Infideliâ—y which is manifestly repugnant to the Scripture If not then I must be a Person or Subject qualified with something that according to God's appointment must give me interest in and right unto I mean an actual right unto these benefits which I had not while an Impenitent Infidel And what must this be not the Righteousness of Christ for that cannot be a qualification in me and if not then Faith and Repentance by which of an impenitent Infidel I come to be a penitent Believer And this I would have observed that those which are against my notion yet if they be true practical Christians their practice must and doth agree with my notion To instance in one thing I offer up Prayer and Supplication to God they do the same I know my Prayers will not be accepted in themselves without a Mediatour they know the same I say here I must have right to Christ as my Mediatour by accepting of him and trusting unto him as such and pleading the promises of grace in his Name they say the same I say further I may hope for acceptation of my Prayers for his meritorious intercession if I have the qualification requisite and that is Faith Whatsoever saith Christ you shall ask in my name believing ye shall receive so that this Faith is not the merit of my acceptation but the gracious qualification of my Person without which I cannot have an interest in or right unto in this particular Christ's intercession seeing that is offered up with the Prayers of Saints and these most certainly must be Believers Now are not they of the same mind see then if their practice do not agree with my notion more than their own And it look's odd on 't that Men should contend against that which must be found in their own Practice if they be true Believers Having proceeded thus far my next undertaking shall be to examine a little their gloss upon some of the main Texts they bring for the proof of this their rigid Imputation of Christ's Righteousness 1. One is Psalm 37. 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Here is the Pardon of Sin express but not a word of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self it is said indeed whose sin is covered But what can the meaning be but that God for the sake of Christ's Merits and Satisfaction so pardons Sin to a Penitent Believer as that it shall never be brought in against him or laid to his charge in judgment to his condemnation and everlasting shame and thus it is said to be covered and thus covered for Christ's Righteousness But seeing that Christ's Righteousness is the cover How is it so in their Sense well they say as a Garment or Robe if it cover then as a Garment or Robe Will they say that properly or that it is really and in it self a Garment or Robe i. e. Physically so surely no for this would be gross to conceive it to be a Coat or Gown c. if not properly a Garment or Robe then improperly they must say it is so and so comparatively in respect of it's use A Robe or Garment then it may have these uses to cover our nakedness to defend from cold and storms to keep our bodies warm and to adorn We will grant then that Christ's Righteousness may be compared to a Robe or Garment in regard of these uses considered as satisfactory and meritorious It is for this that a true penitent Believer having his Sins pardoned shall be delivered from everlasting shame it is for this he shall be secured from the storm of God's eternal wrath and displeasure it is for this he is adorned and beautified with the Graces and Gifts of the most Holy Spirit it is for this that he hath all the
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
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
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
sinless Righteousness even the Righteousness of Christ that must justifie because no other Righteousness can be adaequate to the Law and we say the same with them that if we are justified by the Law of Innocency no less than a perfect sinless Righteousness would avail us here but we are not as hath been made appear but by the Gospel and though I affirm that Faith is our personal justifying Righteousness according to the Gospel Law yet it doth not follow from hence that Believers shall stand upon their points with God in judgment according to his strict Justice no they must say with David Psalm 143. 2. And enter not into judgment with thy servant for in thy sight shall no Man living be justified But I say upon conformity to the Law of Grace they have interest in Christ the Mediatour and a right to his Righteousness upon which they do depend and trust for the satisfaction of God's offended Justice and the answering the violated Law for the procuring of their acceptation with God and a grant of all saving promised good so that as to process in judgment my thoughts are that Believers shall not personally plead at all but Christ as their blessed Advocate for them But then this he will do for them as such who have been and are found recti in curia Evangelica right in the Gospel Law which still I say is and shall be the Rule of Judgment Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Jesus Christ according to my Gospel and so justified by this his fixed constitution The ground I have is Matth. 25. from Verse 34 to 41. Whereas some that they may hold their ungrounded and unscriptural notions do confidently affirm that our Faith Repentance and sincere Obedience hath only the place of an Evidence I do not deny the Obedience of Faith to be an Evidence but then I must not confound but distinguish of its primary and secondary use and office and the result of both Christ saith John 15. 14. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you Dare any Man say they were friends actually before any subjection to Christ if not was not this their subjection a conformity to the Gospel so far as revealed And is there any conformity to the Gospel without Obedience to its commands And is there any Obedience to the commands of the Gospel in truth which is not the obedience of faith Those who will contradict let them prove and then take the cause If they cannot then they must give us leave and if they will not we must make bold to take it it being allowed by one that is greater than they to distinguish of the Obedience of Faith as it constitutes us friends through Christ's Mediation continues us friends and as it is an evidence resulting from both where God is pleased to give the light Say some Job when accused by his friends for being an hypocrite pleads his own Righteousness as much as any But as to Justification thereby before God he speaks otherwise Job 9. 20 21. If I justified my self mine own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Though I were perfect yet would I not know my Soul I would despise my life Now will this or the other really and in it self justifie a Person from the charge of hypocrisie before Men that will not so far justifie him from the charge or accusation in God's account when a Person is falsly accused of hypocrisie as Job must not he so far as he hath a discovery of his sincerity plead this to justifie him against that accusation and if he be sincere is he not so in God's account and so clear of that predominant hypocrisie of which he is accused and doth not God so far as he accounts a Person clear of a false accusation justifie him Let Persons who contradict prove if they can That sincerity will only justifie a Person from the charge or accusation of hypocrisie before Men while yet the accusation stand◠in full force before God and he accounts the Person who is in himself sincere to be a downright hypocrite The meaning then of the above quoted Text in Job seems to be this If I justifie my self as one unjustly afflicted by God this very Justification of my self and charge uttered against God would be sufficient to condemn me if I say I am in a strict sense legally perfect and so have no Sin for which God may correct me this very boasting would prove me perverse and sinful yea though I were perfect yet would I not know or look upon my self as such an one whom God might not deal withal as he pleased considered as absolute Lord and owner Now to argue from this Text according to this clear Exposition that Faith is no qualifying matter of right to Christ Pardon and Life is no better than to argue à bacculo ad angulum ut patet attendenti From what I have affirmed above i. e. That there is no danger of a Soul 's resting in duties where true Faith is in exercise seeing the exercise of Faith will lead that Soul to rest in Christ and God in and through him for acceptation it hath been inferred that such as have throughly imbibed this opinion are if unregenerate in the snare of Satan almost secure from conviction And if this be so then these Men who draw up such a conclusion from the Doctrine have this to prove look where they will find a proof that whoever holds that there is no danger of a Soul 's resting in duty where true Faith is in exercise c. he is in the snare of the Devil if he be unregenerate and like to be for this Doctrine will keep him there And if this Doctrine be it that will keep an unregenerate Person in the snare of the Devil how can any one be out of his snare that holds it for if it be the Devil's snare he that holds it must needs be in it If then a Person have been regenerate before yet according to this assertion if he imbibe this Doctrine it brings him back into the snare of the Devil so that he must fall from grace falling from a regenerate state and I for my part by these Men sentenced to the black Pit and in their account there is no hope for me but by the grace of God in Jesus Christ I do not dread their Sentence This intus existens prohibens alienum is very much to be lamented at this day seeing it opposeth manifest truth I suppose the consequences that I have deduced from the common Doctrine of Justification are very offensive to some and they call them absurd But I say again whosoever they be that holds Christ's Righteousness in it self to be their very personal formal justifying Righteousness the inferences are natural from the Notion and whereas they are called absurd the contradiction betwixt the abovesaid Doctrine
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
How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God to purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God And for this cause he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them But it may further be said for I shall deal fairly and let him have what advantage upon the point he can He speaks only of the righteousness of both natures united in Christ and intends this is not imputed I Answer there cannot be the imputation of the active and passive obedience of Christ in his sense without the Imputation of this for consider we his obedience in Life and Death as the obedience of one who is not God Man united and so essentially infinitely righteous as God and perfectly in his nature righteous as Man that obedience could not be the obedience of Christ but if we consider his obedience in Life and Death as the obedience of one who is God Man united in one Person and so essentially infinitely righteous as God and perfectly in his nature righteous as Man then if it be imputed in this Man's sense it must be imputed as the obedience of such an one and how can the righteousness which constituted him a â—it Mediatour not be imputed when the acts as they are the acts of such a Person a Person so and so qualified are imputed And were Christ's acts any further satisfactory and meritorious than they were the acts of such a Person as he was If not then take away that which qualified and made him meet to be a Mediatour and see then if his acts in obeying and suffering can be satisfactory and meritorious and if the Persons have satisfactory and meritorious acts imputed unto them in this Man s sense then that which makes them such they must also have imputed And if they say they have not the righteousness of Christ as satisfactory and meritorious imputed then they must not have it imputed at all and consequently deny all imputation of Christ's Righteousness in any sense which I do not for as I have said above if we could take away from Christ's Righteousness which we cannot it 's satisfaction and Merit that which remains with respect to our Justification and Salvation will be none of his But further saith he it is the acts works doings and obedience of this blessed Mediatour that are imputed and counted to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness Mark if God do impute or count the very acts works doings and obedience of the Mediatour to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness or as he saith in this his Article to be the material and formal cause of their Justification then God must account them to have that Righteousness which in its own nature is a Mediatory Righteousness for such were Christ's acts as Mediatour to be their personal justifying Righteousness Now if any Man be accounted formally righteous in his own Person with that Righteousness which in its own nature is Mediatory then he must be counted to be righteous personally with such a Righteousness as is satisfactory and meritorious after an infinite sort and if he be one that is personally righteous with a satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness and this of an infinite value for such was and is Christ's then how should he chuse but be Godded with God and Christed with Christ and be accounted to have that whereby he may be a Redeemer Saviour anâ— Mediatour both for himself and others yea to have Christ's Office wholly put into his hand now I have so much charity for this Man though he be my professed Adversary and for others that have the like notions with him as to believe that they do neither hold nor intend these consequences which are so gross but they themselves lead me by their hot opposition to shew that these are the unavoidable consequences of such a Doctrine if peradventure they may be convinced It is out of doubt with me that many good and gracious Persons have imbibed and stuck to this notion of the strict Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self who yet have abhorred the consequences that have been natural therefrom But then their practice hath ever contradicted this notion and hereby they were kept in the way of safety But then I think it somewhat dangerous when God hath set up before Persons more clear light and yet they are so hot in their opposition as that they will not take time to consider whether it be light from the word or no but almost upon the first hearing or upon a very slight trial cry out Popery Quakerism Arminianism Socinianism and what not Suppose we now that such as pass under any of these names do hold this or the truth what must it be a sufficient Argument for me to relinquish that truth because they hold it for my part I do profess to the World let Men think and say what they please that I am for Catholick truth that is truth where-ever or in whomsoever shall be owned by me so far as I can have evidence for the Devil himself believes that there is a great dreadful and terrible God and I believe the same and am certain in that I do well James 2. 19. And I must not therefore because the Devil believes this turn Atheist But after these Men have done what they can they can never make that they oppose into what they fain I am afraid would 13. I believe â—aith he that by this obediential Righteousness of Christ all the Elect of God are or shall be freely justified from all things Acts 1â— 39. for it is by the obedience of one and not by the Faith and Obedience of many that many are justified and made righteous Râ—m 5. 19. Observe the Scripture Acts 13. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that believe are justified and he saith all the Elâ—ct 〈◊〉 seems he likes not this Scripture expression his Wisdom thinks another better and therefore for all that believe he puts in all the Elect perhaps he is for Justification before Faith and so thinks Elect a term more agreeing to his purpose than believe and he thinks not far amiss if that be his notion but then it might be asked from whence he had his dispensation for such a change I believe according to that Scripture Acts 13. 39. that by Christ and his satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness all that truly believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. according to the Covenant of Grace have a right to Christ Pardon and Life purchased by him and also I believe the truth of that Text Rom. 5. 19. that
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
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.
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
effects of Christ's passion as I suppose he doth I utterly disclaim any condition on Man's part of this sort and so cannot be one with him 2. They that will enjoy the effects of Christ's passion must fulfill the condition If he meant they must fulfill it by the assistance of God's grace as a condition of connection and order it is true but if he meant they must fulfill it so as that they may merit or deserve it from the very nature of the thing which I think he did according to the Popish Doctrine that Christ hath merited that we might merit then it is false 3. The fulfilling of the condition requireth first knowledge of the condition which knowledge we have by faith Perhaps he meant by faith a blind implicit faith that which is so much in vogue and cried up at this day even among such as account themselves the greatest Anti-papists 4. Faith cometh of God and this faith is a good gift it is good and profitable to me it is profitable to me to do well and exercise this faith So it is I must confess if he spoke of that faith which according to the Scripture is true and saving for and through the merits of Christ and not such a faith that doth deserve of itself or in its own nature the reward for I know no such faith therefore faith Gardiner further By the gift of God I may do well before I be justified In the following Article he further explains himself 5. Therefore I may do well by the gift of God before I am justified towards the attainment of my Jâ—â—ification If he meant by way of merit to procure Jâ—stification ex opere operato from the very work done it is false and I disown it 6. There is ever as much charity towards God as faith and as faith increaseth so doth charity increase If this be taken absolutely every one may judge of it as they have light 7 Towards the attainment of Justification is required Faith and Charity If he meant still as meriting procuring causes in their own nature I disown it 8. Every thing is to be called freely done whereof the righteousness is free and at liberty without any cause of provocation This is a jumble like some other things I have met with of late and therefore I shall leave it to such as this Man who account themselves much wiser than I to find out the true intent and meaning and shall not trouble the Reader with conjectures 9. Faith must be to me the assurance of the promises of God made in Christ if I fulfill the condition and love must accomplish the condition whereupon followeth the attainment of the promises according to God's truth This doth not much differ from the Doctrine of such as place the very Essence of Faith in assurance I speak as to the first branch of it and for the rest I leave it as confused 10. A Man being in deadly Sin may have grace to do the work of penance whereby he may attain to his Justification If he meant that though a Man may be bound over to eternal death by Sin and live in a state of impenitency yet God may give him the grace of repentance who can fairly deny this but then that such an one by his repentance doth merit by it in its own nature that God should justifie him this is false and I disown it It was not my province to say any thing upon these Articles but only barely to transcribe them that the Reader might compare them and mine and see whether they be all of a piece as this Man insinuates Hence mine follow Touching Christ's Righâ—ousness and the Imputation thereof I affirm 1. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it was for â—ur Redemption and Salvation 2. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it to be the sole or only merit and purchase of the new Covenant and the benefits thereof 3. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it to be the merit of the blessed Spirit to work grace 4. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it is for this that all the duties and graces of his People are accepted 5. God so far imputes it as that he accounts it for this he pardons us and receives us into favour and justifies by his Covenant of Grace upon believing and so accepts our Faith for Righteousness It is not without Christ but for him 6. I do believe that what Christ did and suffered he did and suffered for us in the Person of a Mediatour and God doth account what he did and suffered as Mediatour doth and shall avail as much for the obtaining of Pardon and Life for us upon Faith as though we had been able to have done and suffered the same in our own Persons Now Reader compare and be judge whether Winchester's Articles and mine in this point of Imputation do so agree as this Man hath the modesty to affirm and if thou be such an one as Calumniations have weight with thou mayst have enough in him But further saith he the Martyrs before named sealed the contrary Doctrine with their dearest Blood i. e. the Doctrine contrary to mine as well as that of Winchester's for this he must chiefly intend in affirming Winchester's and mine i. e. my six things before mentioned do so agree that I in them do not exceed nor ascribe more to the grace of God and the merits of Christ than Winchester doth in his Be it known then unto all Men That if this Man or any other for him can find me any one either in the Scripture or in that which hath been accounted the Church of Christ by the Reformed since the Apostles times that was reckoned a faithful Servant of God and yet sealed as such a Doctrine contradictory to what is contained in the six particulars with his 〈◊〉 her dearest Blood and I profess I will retract them if so then such an one should have holden and this agreeable to the Scriptures and the common suffrage of the Church of Christ That Christ's satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness was not nor is not accounted by God to have been for our Redemption and Salvation nor to have been the sole purchase and merit of the new Covenant and the benefits of it together with the Holy Spirit nor to be that for which God accepts of the graces and duties of his People nor to be that for which God pardons and receives penitent believing Souls into favour c. Let him prove now if he can that Barnes Hierome and Garret sealed such a Doctrine thus contradictory to mine with their dearest Blood Hierome and Garret agreed with Barnes in the Doctrine of Faith and we find Barnes affirming that good works are to be done and they that do them not shall not come into the Kingdom of God and we find him only excluding them from Justification and Salvation in point of merit making Christ and the death of
Man and such as are of his party did before see such long winded complicated and confused Questions What a Faith it is which justifies I have at large shewn above And shall further give him to understand again that Faith as it is the Souls consent inclusive of assent to accept the Lord Jesus as offered in the Gospel gives the Soul interest in Christ and an actual right to Pardon and Life so perseverance in sincere Obedience which is consent in practice inclusive of affiance and reliance is that which continues the interest and right And so Justification is not a simulaneous act but a continued act of God by his Law of Grace Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immorality eternal life He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life And that it must not be a simultaneous but a continued act most of our Divines mâ—st grant who assert Pardon to be a constitutive part of Justification and yet say that future sins are not pardoned before they be committed But it may be said when a believer falls into Sin and continues for some time as in the case of David without Repentance may he then be said to persevere If not then his justified state ceaseth I Answer as to the act and exercise of Grace he doth not persevere but as to the habit of Grace he doth which habitual Grace as the first Grace gave him right continues his right to the further exciting and quickening of the Spirit whereby he shall actually repent and thus he persevereth and falls not totally and finally away neither doth he cease to be in a justified stateâ— Psalm 37. 24. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Jerem. 8. 4. Moreover thou shalt say unto them Thus saith the Lord Shall they fall and not arise Shall he turn away and not return So that I affirm Justification is perfect as it is a right at the first but not so as to the full possession of that right if so be the Person justified live for some time after he hath given his first sincere consent for if a Person should die immediately upon his first sincere consent given he most certainly should be saved but then if he live for some time after that there is more required to continue his right to the the gift of further grace and also of glory and that is the performance of that which was included in his first consent as it gives him a right for Christ to other Covenant of priviledges so also to this i. e. the gift of persevering Grace And though this may not as it seldom is be without some actual failure yet it never doth nor never shall habitually fail And the proof of this may be drawn first from the nature of true and saving grace 1 Peter 1. 23. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 2dly From the perpetuity of the Covenant of grace which all are taken into I speak of the Adult who give a free and sincere consent Jerem. 32. 40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 3dly From Christ's constant and all prevailing intercession Hebr. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Luke 22. 31 32. And the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as Wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren Let not Persons from hence gather that such may then take liberty to Sin for this cannot be seeing that such a liberty would be inconsistent with true and saving Grace and so with a sincere consent Q. 7. Seeing it is written the just shall live by Faith what are they to trust and live by Faith in but that which is their justifying Righteousness then not in Christ for he is none such Righteousness He intends that Christ is none such Righteousness in my account and herein he is a false accuser for when or where did I assert that any Person is justified without the Righteousness of Christ Have not I said the contrary in affirming that Faith is accepted for our Gospel Righteousness for the alone meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness of Christ And by the way Reader I would have thee take notice that the strongest Arguments the Men of this stamp have for what they hold are either first an implicit Faith or secondly Accusing of those that oppose them as deniers of that which yet they affirm â—or this Man would insâ—nuate in what he faith that I wholly exclude the Righteousness of Christ from the Justification of a Sinnâ—r than which I abhor nothing more But it may be â—aid do not you exclude it from the matter of Justification I Answer from being the qualifying matter I do but not from being the meriting matter for it cannot be that the Righteousness of Christ should be communicated to me in it self so as to become the qualification of my Person or that which in it self must qualifie me as a subject of right or one that hath right hereby to Christ and his benefits But now whereas this Man saith what are they to trust and live by Faith in but that which is their justifying Righteousness he by this must make our justifying righteousness very extensive i. e. God and all his glorious perfections his promises c. for these we are to trust and live by Faith in and if we are to trust and live by Faith in nothing but that which is the matter of our justifying Righteousness then these must be the matter according to him of our justification as well as Christ's Righteousness true we are to trust and live by Faith in God's glorious perfections and his faithful promises through Christ but though it be so yet these are not the Righteousness of Christ which he accounts justifies us as our formal Righteousness nor any part of it The just then so live by Faith as that they trust and depend upon God's glorious attributes and his gracious promises through Christ for strength support and comfort in their faithful Obedience to his commands hoping only for their acceptation for Christ's all prevailing merits and satisfaction Q. 8. If Faith as it is our act be our justifying Righteousness what then mean those many places of Scripture that speak of Justification and Pardon by Christ his Righteousness knowledge grace freely by grace through the Redemâ—â—ion that 〈◊〉 in him This Question is built upon a false