only by works of Righteousness which men did themselves in Obedience unto the Commands of God but also by the strict observance of many Inventions of what they called the Church with an Ascription of a strange Efficacy to the same Ends unto missatical Sacrifices Sacramentals Absolutions Pennances Pilgrimages and other the like Superstitions Hereby they observed that the Consciences of men were kept in perpetual disquietments perplexities fears and bondage exclusive of that Rest Assurance and Peace with God through the Blood of Christ which the Gospel proclaims and tenders And when the Leaders of the People in that Church had observed this that indeed the ways and means which they proposed and presented would never bring the Souls of men to Rest nor give them the least Assurance of the pardon of sins they made it a part of their Doctrine that the belief of the pardon of our own sins and Assurance of the Love of God in Christ were false and pernicious For what should they else do when they knew well enough that in their way and by their propositions they were not to be attained Hence the principal Controversie in this matter which the Reformed Divines had with those of the Church of Rome was this whether there be according unto and by the Gospel a state of Rest and assured Peace with God to be attained in this life And having all Advantages imaginable for the proof hereof from the very nature use and end of the Gospel from the Grace Love and Design of God in Christ from the Efficacy of his Mediation in his Oblation and Intercession they assigned these things to be the especial Object of Justifying Faith and that Faith it self to be a fiduciary Trust in the especial Grace and Mercy of God through the blood of Christ as proposed in the Promises of the Gospel That is they directed the Souls of men to seek for peace with God the pardon of sin and a Right unto the Heavenly Inheritance by placing their sole Trust and Confidence in the mercy of God by Christ alone But yet withall I never read any of them I know not what others have done who affirmed that every true and sincere Believer always had a full Assurance of the Especial Love of God in Christ or of the pardon of his own sins though they plead that this the Scripture requires of them in a way of Duty and that this they ought to aim at the Attainment of And these things I shall leave as I find them unto the use of the Church For I shall not contend with any about the way and manner of expressing the Truth where the substance of it is retained That which in these things is aimed at is the Advancement and Glory of the Grace of God in Christ with the conduct of the Souls of men unto Rest and Peace with him Where this is attained or aimed at and that in the way of Truth for the substance of it variety of Apprehensions and Expressions concerning the same things may tend unto the useful exercise of the Faith and Edification of the Church Wherefore neither opposing nor rejecting what hath been delivered by others as their Judgments herein I shall propose my own thoughts concerning it not without some hopes that they may tend to communicate Light in the knowledge of the thing it self enquired into and the Reconciliation of some differences about it amongst Learned and Holy men I say therefore That the Lord Jesus Christ himself as the Ordinance of God in his work of Mediation for the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners and as unto that End proposed in the Promise of the Gospel is the adequate proper Object of Justifying Faith or of saving Faith in its Work and Duty with respect unto our Justification The Reason why I thus state the Object of Justifying Faith is because it compleatly answers all that is ascribed unto it in the Scripture and all that the nature of it doth require What belongs unto it as Faith in general is here supposed and what is peculiar unto it as Justifying is fully expressed And a few things will serve for the Explication of the Thesis which shall afterwards be confirmed 1. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is asserted to be the proper Object of Justifying Faith For so it is required in all those Testimonies of Scripture where that Faith is declared to be our believing in him on his name our receiving of him or looking unto him whereunto the Promise of Justification and Eternal Life is annexed whereof afterwards See Joh. 1.12 chap. 3.16 36. chap. 6.29 47. chap. 7.38 chap. 15.25 Act. 10.41 Act. 13.38 39. Act. 16.31 Act. 26.18 c. 2. He is not proposed as the Object of our Faith unto the Justification of Life absolutely but as the Ordinance of God even the Father unto that end who therefore also is the immediate Object of Faith as Justifying in what respects we shall declare immediately So Justification is frequently ascribed unto Faith as peculiarly acted on him Joh. 5.24 He that believeth on him that sent me hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Judgment but is passed from Death into Life And herein is comprized that Grace Love and Favour of God which is the principal moving cause of our Justification Rom. 3.23 24. Add hereunto Joh. 6.29 and the Object of Faith is compleat This is the Work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent God the Father as sending and the Son as sent that is Jesus Christ in the work of his Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners is the Object of our Faith See 1 Pet. 1.21 3. That he may be the Object of our Faith whose general nature consisteth in Assent and which is the Foundation of all its other Acts He is proposed in the promises of the Gospel which I therefore place as concurring unto its compleat Object Yet do I not herein consider the Promises meerly as peculiar divine Revelations in which sense they belong unto the formal Object of Faith but as they contain propose and exhibit Christ as the Ordinance of God and the Benefits of his Mediation unto them that do believe There is an especial Assent unto the Promises of the Gospel wherein some place the nature and essence of Justifying Faith or of Faith in its Work and Duty with respect unto our Justification And so they make the Promises of the Gospel to be the proper Object of it And it cannot be but that in the Actings of Justifying Faith there is a peculiar Assent unto them Howbeit this being only an Act of the mind neither the whole nature nor the whole work of Faith can consist therein Wherefore so far as the Promises concur to the compleat Object of Faith they are considered materially also namely as they contain propose and exhibit Christ unto Believers And in that sense are they frequently affirmed in the Scripture to be the
Christ unto the Grace of God that fixeth it self on the Lord Christ and that Redemption which is in his blood as the Ordinance of God the Effect of his Wisdom Grace and Love finds rest in both and in nothing else For the proof of the Assertion I need not labour in it it being not only abundantly declared in the Scripture but that which contains in it a principal part of the Design and Substance of the Gospel I shall therefore only refer unto some of the Places wherein it is taught or the Testimonies that are given unto it The whole is expressed in that place of the Apostle wherein the Doctrine of Justification is most eminently proposed unto us Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins Whereunto we may add Ephes. 1.6 7. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood according to the Riches of his Grace That whereby we are justified is the especial Object of our Faith unto Justification But this is the Lord Christ in the Work of his Mediation For we are justified by the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ for in him we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sin Christ as a Propitiation is the Cause of our Justification and the Object of our Faith or we attain it by Faith in his Blood But this is so under this formal Consideration as he is the Ordinance of God for that End appointed given proposed set forth from and by the Grace Wisdom and Love of God God set him forth to be a Propitiation He makes us accepted in the Beloved We have Redemption in his Blood according to the Riches of his Grace whereby he makes us accepted in the Beloved And herein he abounds towards us in all wisdom Ephes. 1.8 This therefore is that which the Gospel proposeth unto us as the especial Object of our Faith unto the Justification of Life But we may also in the same manner confirm the several parts of the Assertion distinctly 1. The Lord Jesus Christ as proposed in the Promise of the Gospel is the peculiar Object of Faith unto Justification There are three sorts of Testimonies whereby this is confirmed 1. Those wherein it is positively asserted As Act. 10.41 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive the Remission of sins Christ believed in as the means and cause of the Remission of sins is that which all the Prophets give witness unto Act. 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved It is the Answer of the Apostles unto the Jaylors enquiry Sirs What must I do to be saved His Duty in Believing and the Object of it the Lord Jesus Christ is what they return thereunto Act. 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other Name under Heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved That which is proposed unto us as the only way and means of our Justification and Salvation and that in opposition unto all other ways is the Object of Faith unto our Justification But this is Christ alone exclusively unto all other things This is testified unto by Moses and the Prophets the Design of the whole Scripture being to direct the Faith of the Church unto the Lord Christ alone for Life and Salvation Luke 24.25 26 27. 2. All those wherein Justifying Faith is affirmed to be our Believing in him or Believing on his name which are multiplied Joh. 1.12 He gave power to them to become the Sons of God who believed on his name chap. 3.16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life ver 36. He that believeth on the Son hath Everlasting Life chap. 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent ver 47. He that believeth on me hath Everlasting Life chap. 7.38 He that believeth on me out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water So chap. 9.35 36 37. chap. 11.25 Act. 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith that is in me 1 Pet. 2.6 7. In all which places and many other we are not only directed to place and affix our Faith on him but the Effect of Justification is ascribed thereunto So expresly Act. 13.38 39. which is what we design to prove 3. Those which give us such a description of the Acts of Faith as make him the direct and proper Object of it Such are they wherein it is called a receiving of him Joh. 1.12 To as many as received him Col. 2.6 As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord. That which we receive by Faith is the proper Object of it And it is represented their looking unto the Brazen Serpent when it was lifted up who were stung by fiery Serpents Joh. 3.14 15. chap. 12. 32. Faith is that Act of the Soul whereby Convinced sinners ready otherwise to perish do look unto Christ as he was made a Propitiation for their sins and who so do shall not perish but have Everlasting Life He is therefore the Object of our Faith 2 ly He is so as he is the Ordinance of God unto this End which consideration is not to be separated from our Faith in him And this also is confirmed by several sorts of Testimonies 1. All Those wherein the Love and Grace of God are proposed as the only Cause of giving Jesus Christ to be the way and means of our Recovery and Salvation whence they become or God in them the supream Efficient Cause of our Justification Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Everlasting Life So Rom. 5.8 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Rom. 3.23 Ephes. 1.6 7 8. This the Lord Christ directs our Faith unto continually referring all unto him that sent him and whose Will be came to do Heb. 10.5 2. All those wherein God is said to set forth and propose Christ and to make him be for us and unto us what he is so unto the Justification of Life Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath proposed to be a Propitiation 1. Cor. 1.30 Who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 2 Cor. 5.21 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Act. 5.35 c. Wherefore in the acting of Faith in Christ unto Justification we can no otherwise consider him but as the Ordinance of God to that End he brings nothing unto us does nothing for us but what God appointed designed and made him to be
And this must diligently be considered that by our regard by Faith unto the Blood the Sacrifice the Satisfaction of Christ we take off nothing from the free Grace Favour and Love of God 3. All those wherein the Wisdom of God in the contrivance of this way of Justification and Salvation is proposed unto us Ephes. 1.7 8. In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the Riches of his Grace wherein he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Vnderstanding See chap. 3.10 11. 1 Cor. 1.24 The whole is comprized in that of the Apostle God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5.19 All that is done in our Reconciliation unto God as unto the pardon of our sins and Acceptance with him unto Life was by the presence of God in his Grace Wisdom and Power in Christ designing and effecting of it Wherefore the Lord Christ proposed in the Promise of the Gospel as the Object of our Faith unto the Justification of Life is considered as the Ordinance of God unto that End Hence the Love the Grace and the Wisdom of God in the sending and giving of him are comprised in that Object and not only the Actings of God in Christ towards us but all his Actings towards the Person of Christ himself unto the same End belong thereunto So as unto his Death God set him forth to be a Propitiation Rom. 3.24 He spared him not but delivered him up for us all Rom. 8.32 And therein laid all our sins upon him Isa. 53.6 So he was raised for our Justification Rom. 4.25 And our Faith is in God who raised him from the dead Rom. 10.9 And in his Exaltation Act. 5.31 Which things compleat the record that God hath given of his Son 1 Joh. 5.10 11 12. The whole is confirmed by the Exercise of Faith in prayer which is the Souls Application of it self unto God for the participation of the Benefits of the Mediation of Christ. And it is called our Access through him unto the Father Eph. 2.18 Our coming through him unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of need Heb. 4.15 16. and through him as both an High Priest and Sacrifice Heb. 10.19 20 21. So do we bow our Knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Ephes. 3.14 This answereth the Experience of all who know what it is to pray We come therein in the name of Christ by him through his Mediation unto God even the Father to be through his Grace Love and Mercy made partakers of what he hath designed and promised to communicate unto poor sinners by him And this represents the compleat Object of our Faith The due Consideration of these things will reconcile and reduce into a perfect Harmony whatever is spoken in the Scripture concerning the Object of Justifying Faith or what we are said to believe therewith For whereas this is affirmed of sundry things distinctly they can none of them be supposed to be the entire adequate Object of Faith But consider them all in their Relation unto Christ and they have all of them their proper place therein namely the Grace of God which is the Cause the pardon of sin which is the Effect and the Promises of the Gospel which are the Means of communicating the Lord Christ and the benefits of his Mediation unto us The Reader may be pleased to take notice that I do in this place not only neglect but despise the late Attempt of some to wrest all things of this nature spoken of the Person and Mediation of Christ unto the Doctrine of the Gospel exclusively unto them and that not only as what is noisome and impious in it self but as that also which hath not yet been endeavoured to be proved with any Appearance of Learning Argument or Sobriety CHAP. II. The Nature of Justifying Faith THat which we shall now enquire into is the Nature of Justifying Faith or of Faith in that Act and Exercise of it whereby we are justified or whereon Justification according unto Gods Ordination and Promise doth ensue And the Reader is desired to take along with him a supposition of those things which we have already ascribed unto it as it is sincere Faith in general as also of what is required previously thereunto as unto its especial Nature Work and Duty in our Justification For we do deny that ordinarily and according unto the method of Gods proceeding with us declared in the Scripture wherein the Rule of our Duty is prescribed that any one doth or can truly believe with Faith unto Justification in whom the Work of Conviction before described hath not been wrought All Descriptions or Definitions of Faith that have not a respect thereunto are but vain speculations And hence some do give us such Definitions of Faith as it is hard to conceive that they ever asked of themselves what they do in their Believing on Jesus Christ for Life and Salvation The Nature of Justifying Faith with respect unto that Exercise of it whereby we are justified consisteth in the Hearts Approbation of the way of Justification and Salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ proposed in the Gospel as proceeding from the Grace Wisdom and Love of God with its Acquiescency therein as unto its own Concernment and Condition There needs no more for the Explanation of this Declaration of the Nature of Faith than what we have before proved concerning its Object and what may seem wanting thereunto will be fully supplied in the ensuing Confirmation of it The Lord Christ and his Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the Recovery Life and Salvation of sinners is supposed as the Object of this Faith And they are all considered as an Effect of Wisdom Grace Authority and Love of God with all their actings in and towards the Lord Christ himself in his susception and discharge of his Office Hereunto he constantly refers all that he did and suffered with all the Benefits redounding unto the Church thereby Hence as we observed before sometimes the Grace or Love or especial Mercy of God sometimes his actings in or towards the Lord Christ himself in sending him giving him up unto Death and raising him from the dead are proposed as the Object of our Faith unto Justification But they are so always with respect unto his Obedience and the Atonement that he made for sin Neither are they so altogether absolutely considered but as proposed in the Promises of the Gospel Hence a sincere Assent unto the divine Veracity in those Promises is included in this Approbation What belongs unto the Confirmation of this Description of Faith shall be reduced unto these four Heads 1 The Declaration of its contrary or the nature of privative unbelief upon the proposal of the Gospel For these things do mutually illustrate one another 2 The Declaration of the Design and End of God in and
However I know not of any that say we are accounted of God in Judgment personally to have done what Christ did and it may have a sense that is false namely that God should judge us in our own persons to have done those Acts which we never did But what Christ did for us and in our stead is imputed and communicated unto us as we coalesce into one mystical person with him by Faith and thereon are we justified And this absolutely overthrows all Justification by the Law or the Works of it though the Law be established fulfilled and accomplished that we may be justified Neither can any on the supposition of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ truly stated be said to merit their own Salvation Satisfaction and Merit are Adjuncts of the Righteousness of Christ as formally inherent in his own person and as such it cannot be transfused into another Wherefore as it is imputed unto individual Believers it hath not those properties accompanying of it which belong only unto its existence in the person of the Son of God But this was spoken unto before as much also of what was necessary to be here repeated These Objections I have in this place taken notice of because the answers given unto them do tend to the farther explanation of that Truth whose confirmation by Arguments and Testimonies of Scripture I shall now proceed unto CHAP. X. Arguments for Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. The first Argument from the Nature and Vse of our own Personal Righteousness THere is a Justification of convinced sinners on their Believing Hereon are their sins pardoned their persons accepted with God and a Right is given unto them unto the Heavenly Inheritance This state they are immediately taken into upon their Faith or Believing in Jesus Christ. And a state it is of actual peace with God These things at present I take for granted and they are the Foundation of all that I shall plead in the present Argument And I do take notice of them because some seem to the best of my understanding to deny any real actual Justification of sinners on their Believing in this life For they make Justification to be only a general conditional sentence declared in the Gospel which as unto its Execution is delayed unto the day of Judgment For whilst men are in this world the whole Condition of it being not fulfilled they cannot be partakers of it or be actually and absolutely justified Hereon it follows that indeed there is no real state of assured Rest and Peace with God by Jesus Christ for any persons in this life This at present I shall not dispute about because it seems to me to overthrow the whole Gospel the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and all the comfort of Believers about which I hope we are not as yet called to contend Our Enquiry is how convinced sinners do on their Believing obtain the Remission of sins Acceptance with God and a Right unto Eternal Life And if this can no other way be done but by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto them then thereby alone are they justified in the sight of God And this Assertion proceedeth on a supposition that there is a Righteousness required unto the Justification of any person whatever For whereas God in the Justification of any person doth declare him to be acquitted from all crimes laid unto his charge and to stand as Righteous in his sight it must be on the consideration of a Righteousness whereon any man is so acquitted and declared for the Judgment of God is according unto Truth This we have sufficiently evidenced before in that juridical procedure wherein the Scripture represents unto us the Justification of a Believing sinner And if there be no other Righteousness whereby we may be thus justified but only that of Christ imputed unto us then thereby must we be justified or not at all And if there be any such other Righteousness it must be our own inherent in us and wrought out by us For these two kinds inherent and imputed Righteousness our own and Christs divide the whole nature of Righteousness as to the End enquired after And that there is no such inherent Righteousness no such Righteousness of our own whereby we may be justified before God I shall prove in the first place And I shall do it first from express Testimonies of Scripture and then from the consideration of the thing it self And two things I shall premise hereunto 1. That I shall not consider this Righteousness of our own absolutely in it self but as it may be conceived to be improved and advanced by its Relation unto the satisfaction and merit of Christ For many will grant that our inherent Righteousness is not of it self sufficient to justifie us in the sight of God But take it as it hath value and worth communicated unto it from the merit of Christ and so it is accepted unto that End and judged worthy of Eternal Life We could not merit Life and Salvation had not Christ merited that Grace for us whereby we may do so and merited also that our Works should be of such a Dignity with respect unto Reward We shall therefore allow what worth can be reasonably thought to be communicated unto this Righteousness from its respect unto the Merit of Christ. 2. Whereas persons of all sorts and parties do take various ways in the assignation of an interest in our Justification unto our own Righteousness so as that no parties are agreed about it nor many of the same mind among themselves as might easily be manifested in the Papists Socinians and others I shall so far as it is possible in the ensuing Arguments have respect unto them all For my design is to prove that it hath no such Interest in our Justification before God as that the Righteousness of Christ should not be esteemed the only Righteousness whereon we are justified And first we shall produce some of those many Testimonies which may be pleaded unto this purpose Psal. 130.3 4. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities O Lord who should stand But there is Forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared There is an Enquiry included in these words how a man how any man may be justified before God how he may stand that is in the presence of God and be accepted with him How he shall stand in Judgment as it is explained Psal. 1.5 The wicked shall not stand in the Judgment shall not be acquitted on their Trial. That which first offereth it self unto this End is his own Obedience For this the Law requires of him in the first place and this his own Conscience calls upon him for But the Psalmist plainly declares that no man can thence manage a plea for his Justification with any success And the Reason is because notwithstanding the best of the Obedience of the best of men there are Iniquities found with them against the Lord
application of them unto all that do believe which may be justly pleaded unto the same purpose with those passages of the Context which we have insisted on But if every Testimony should be pleaded which the Holy Ghost hath given unto this Truth there would be no end of writing One thing more I shall observe and put an end unto our discourse on this Chapter Vers. 6 7 8. The Apostle pursues his Argument to prove the freedom of our Justification by Faith without respect unto Works through the Imputation of Righteousness in the instance of pardon of Sin which essentially belongeth thereunto And this he doth by the Testimony of the Psalmist who placeth the blessedness of a man in the Remission of Sins His design is not thereby to declare the full nature of Justification which he had done before but only to prove the freedom of it from any respect unto Works in the instance of that essential part of it Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works which was the only thing he designed to prove by this Testimony saying Blessed are they whose Iniquities are forgiven He describes their blessedness by it not that their whole blessedness doth consist therein but this concurs unto it wherein no respect can possibly be had unto any Works whatever And he may justly from hence describe the blessedness of a man in that the Imputation of Righteousness and the Non-Tmputation of Sin both which the Apostle mentioneth distinctly wherein his whole blessedness as unto justification doth consist are inseparable And because Remission of Sin is the first part of Justification and the principal part of it and hath the Imputation of Righteousness always accompanying it the blessedness of a man may be well described thereby Yea whereas all Spiritual Blessings go together in Christ Eph. 1.3 A mans blessedness may be described by any of them But yet the Imputation of Righteousness and the Remission of Sin are not the same no more than Righteousness imputed and Sin remitted are the same Nor doth the Apostle propose them as the same but mentioneth them distinctly both being equally necessary unto our compleat Justification as hath been proved Chap. 5. Vers. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21. Wherefore as by one man Sin entred into the world and death by Sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned For until the Law Sin was in the world But Sin is not imputed when there is no Law Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression who is the figure of him that was to come But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by Grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift For the Judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto Justification For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of Grace and of the gift of Righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one Judgment came upon all men to condemnation Even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto Justification of life For as by one mans disobedience many were made Sinners So by the obedience of one shall many be made Righteous Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound But where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound That as Sin hath reigned unto death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. The Apostle Chap. 3.27 affirms That in this matter of Justification all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or boasting is excluded But here in the Verse foregoing he grants a boasting or a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And not only so but we also glory in God he excludes boasting in our selves because there is nothing in us to procure or promote our own Justification He allows it us in God because of the eminency and excellency of the way and means of our Justification which in his Grace he hath provided And the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or boasting in God here allowed us hath a peculiar respect unto what the Apostle had in prospect further to discourse of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not only so includes what he had principally treated of before concerning our Justification so far as it consists in the pardon of sin For although he doth suppose yea and mention the imputation of Righteousness also unto us yet principally he declares our Justification by the pardon of sin and our freedom from condemnation whereby all boasting in our selves is excluded But here he designs a further progress as unto that whereon our glorying in God on a right and title freely given us unto eternal life doth depend And this is the Imputation of the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ unto the Justification of life or the reign of Grace through Righteousness unto eternal Life Great complaints have been made by some concerning the obscurity of the discourse of the Apostle in this place by reason of sundry Ellipses Antapodota Hyperbata and other Figures of Speech which either are or are feigned to be therein Howbeit I cannot but think that if Men acquainted with the common principles of Christian Religion and sensible in themselves of the nature and guilt of our original apostasie from God would without prejudice read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this place of the Scripture they will grant that the design of the Apostle is to prove that as the sin of Adam was imputed unto all Men unto condemnation so the Righteousness and Obedience of Christ is imputed unto all that believe unto the Justification of life The sum of it is given by Theodoret Dial. 3. Vide quomodo quae Christi sunt cum iis quae sunt Adami conferantur cum morbo medicina cum vulnere emplastrum cum Peccato justitia cum execratione benedictio cum condemnatione remissio cum transgressione obedientia cum morte vita cum inferis regnum Christus cum Adam homo cum homine The differences that are among Interpreters about the Exposition of these words relate unto the use of some Particles Prepositions and the dependance of one passage upon another on none of which the confirmation of the truth pleaded for doth depend But the plain design of the Apostle and his express Propositions are such as if Men could but acquiesce in them might put an end unto this controversie Socinus acknowledgeth that this place of Scripture doth give as he speaks the greatest occasion unto our opinion in this matter For he cannot deny but at least a great appearance of what we
Object of our Faith unto the Justification of Life Act. 2.39 Act. 26.6 Rom. 4.16 20. chap. 15.8 Gal. 3.16 18. Heb. 4.1 chap. 6.13 chap. 8.6 chap. 10.36 4. The End for which the Lord Christ in the Work of his Mediation is the Ordinance of God and as such proposed in the Promises of the Gospel namely the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners belongs unto the Object of Faith as Justifying Hence the forgiveness of sin and Eternal Life are proposed in the Scripture as things that are to be believed unto Justification or as the Object of our Faith Math. 9.2 Act. 2.38 39. chap. 5.31 chap. 26.18 Rom. 3.25 chap. 4.7 8. Col. 2.13 Tit. 1.2 c. And whereas the Just is to live by his Faith and every one is to believe for himself or make an Application of the things believed unto his own behoof some from hence have affirmed the pardon of our own sins and our own Salvation to be the proper Object of Faith and indeed it doth belong thereunto when in the way and order of God and the Gospel we can attain unto it 1. Cor. 15.3 4. Gal. 2.20 Ephes. 1.6 7. Wherefore asserting the Lord Jesus Christ in the Work of his Mediation to be the Object of Faith unto Justification I include therein the Grace of God which is the Cause the pardon of sin which is the Effect and the Promises of the Gospel which are the means of communicating Christ and the benefit of his Mediation unto us And all these things are so united so intermixed in their mutual Relations and Respects so concatenated in the purpose of God and the Declaration made of his Will in the Gospel as that the Believing of any one of them doth virtually include the belief of the rest And by whom any one of them is disbelieved they frustrate and make void all the rest and so Faith it self The due Consideration of these things solveth all the Difficulties that arise about the nature of Faith either from the Scripture or from the Experience of them that believe with respect unto its Object Many things in the Scripture are we said to believe with it and by it and that unto Justification But two things are hence evident 1 That no one of them can be asserted to be the compleat adequate Object of our Faith 2 That none of them are so absolutely but as they relate unto the Lord Christ as the Ordinance of God for our Justification and Salvation And this answereth the Experience of all that do truly believe For these things being united and made inseparable in the constitution of God all of them are virtually included in every one of them 1 Some fix their Faith and Trust principally on the Grace Love and Mercy of God especially they did so under the Old Testament before the clear Revelation of Christ and his Mediation So did the Psalmist Psal. 130.34 Psal. 33.18 19. And the Publican Luke 18.13 And these are in places of the Scripture innumerable proposed as the Causes of our Justification See Rom. 3.24 Ephes. 2.4 5 6 7 8. Tit. 3.5 6 7. But this they do not absolutely but with respect unto the Redemption that is in the Blood of Christ Dan. 9.17 Nor doth the Scripture any where propose them unto us but under that consideration See Rom. 3.24 25. Ephes. 1.6 7 8. For this is the cause way and means of the communication of that Grace Love and Mercy unto us 2 Some place and fix them principally on the Lord Christ his Mediation and the Benefits thereof This the Apostle Paul proposeth frequently unto us in his own Example See Gal. 2.20 Phil. 3.8 9 10. But this they do not absolutely but with respect unto the Grace and Love of God whence it is that they are given and communicated unto us Rom. 8.32 Joh. 3.16 Ephes. 1.6 7 8. Nor are they otherwise any where proposed unto us in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith unto Justification 3 Some in a peculiar manner fix their Souls in Believing on the Promises And this is exemplified in the Instance of Abraham Gen. 15.16 Rom. 4.20 And so are they proposed in the Scripture as the Object of our Faith Act. 2.39 Rom. 4.16 Heb. 4.1 2. chap. 6.12 13. But this they do not meerly as they are Divine Revelations but as they contain and propose unto us the Lord Christ and the Benefits of his Mediation from the Grace Love and Mercy of God Hence the Apostle disputes at large in his Epistle unto the Galatians That if Justification be any way but by the Promise both the Grace of God and the death of Christ are evacuated and made of none effect And the Reason is because the Promise is nothing but the way and means of the Communication of them unto us 4 Some fix their Faith on the things themselves which they aim at namely the pardon of sin and Eternal Life And these also in the Scripture are proposed unto us as the Object of our Faith or that which we are to believe unto Justification Psal. 130.4 Act. 26.18 Tit. 1.2 But this is to be done in its proper order especially as unto the Application of them unto our own Souls For we are no where required to believe them or our own Interest in them but as they are effects of Grace and Love of God through Christ and his Mediation proposed in the Promises of the Gospel Wherefore the Belief of them is included in the Belief of these and is in order of nature antecedent thereunto And the Belief of the forgiveness of sins and Eternal Life without the due Exercise of Faith in those Causes of them is but Presumption I have therefore given the entire Object of Faith as Justifying or in its Work and Duty with respect unto our Justification in compliance with the Testimonies of the Scripture and the Experience of them that believe Allowing therefore their proper place unto the Promises and unto the Effect of all in the pardon of sins and Eternal Life that which I shall farther confirm is That the Lord Christ in the Work of his Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners is the proper adequate Object of Justifying Faith And the true nature of Evangelical Faith consisteth in the Respect of the Heart which we shall immediately describe unto the Love Grace and Wisdom of God with the Mediation of Christ in his Obedience with the Sacrifice Satisfaction and Attonement for sin which he made by his Blood These things are impiously opposed by some as inconsistent For the second Head of the Socinian Impiety is That the Grace of God and Satisfaction of Christ are opposite and inconsistent so as that if we allow of the one we must deny the other But as these things are so proposed in the Scripture as that without granting them both neither can be believed so Faith which respects them as subordinate namely the Mediation of
that which might be more safely trusted unto as more according unto the mind of God and unto his Glory So did the Jews generally the frame of whose minds the Apostle represents Rom. 10.3 4. And many of them assented unto the Doctrine of the Gospel in general as true howbeit they liked it not in their Hearts as the best way of Justification and Salvation but sought for them by the works of the Law Wherefore Vnbelief in its formal nature consists in the want of a spiritual discerning and Approbation of the way of salvation by Jesus Christ as an Effect of the infinite Wisdom Goodness and Love of God For where these are the Soul of a convinced sinner cannot but embrace it and adhere unto it Hence also all Acquiescency in this Way and Trust and Confidence in committing the Soul unto it or unto God in it and by it without which whatever is pretended of Believing is but a shadow of Faith is impossible unto such persons For they want the foundation whereon alone they can be built And the consideration hereof doth sufficiently manifest wherein the nature of true Evangelical Faith doth consist 2. The Design of God in and by the Gospel with the Work and Office of Faith with respect thereunto farther confirms the Description given of it That which God designeth herein in the first place is not the Justification and Salvation of sinners His utmost compleat End in all his Counsels is his own Glory he doth all things for himself nor can he who is infinite do otherwise But in an especial manner he expresseth this concerning this way of Salvation by Jesus Christ. Particularly He designed herein the Glory of his Righteousness To declare his Righteousness Rom. 3.25 Of his Love God so loved the world Joh. 3.16 Herein we perceive the Love of God that he laid down his life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Of his Grace accepted to the praise of the Glory of his Grace Ephes. 1.5 6. Of his Wisdom Christ Crucified the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Ephes. 3.10 Of his Power It is the Power of God unto Salvation Rom. 1.16 Of his Faithfulness Rom. 4.16 For God designed herein not only the Reparation of all that Glory whose Declaration was impeached and obscured by the Entrance of sin but also a farther Exaltation and more eminent Manifestation of it as unto the Degrees of its Exaltation and some especial Instances before concealed Ephes. 3.9 And all this is called the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ whereof Faith is the beholding 2 Cor. 4.6 3. This being the principal Design of God in the way of Justification and Salvation by Christ proposed in the Gospel that which on our part is required unto a participation of the Benefits of it is the Ascription of that Glory unto God which he designs so to Exalt The Acknowledgment of all these glorious properties of the Divine Nature as manifested in the provision and proposition of this way of life Righteousness and Salvation with an Approbation of the way it self as an effect of them and that which is safely to be trusted unto is that which is required of us and this is Faith or Believing Being strong in Faith he gave Glory to God Rom. 4.22 And this is in the nature of the weakest degree of sincere Faith And no other Grace Work or Duty is suited hereunto or firstly and directly of that tendency but only consequentially and in the way of Gratitude And although I cannot wholly Assent unto him who affirms that Faith in the Epistles of Paul is nothing but Existimatio magnifice sentiens de Dei Potentia Justitia Bonitate si quid promiserit in eo praestando constantia because it is too general and not limited unto the way of Salvation by Christ his Elect in whom he will be glorified yet hath it much of the Nature of Faith in it Wherefore I say that hence we may both learn the Nature of Faith and whence it is that Faith alone is required unto our Justification The Reason of it is because this is that Grace or Duty alone whereby we do or can give unto God that Glory which he designeth to manifest and exalt in and by Jesus Christ. This only Faith is suited unto and this it is to believe Faith in the sense we enquire after is the Hearts Approbation of and consent unto the way of Life and Salvation of sinners by Jesus Christ as that wherein the Glory of the Righteousness Wisdom Grace Love and Mercy of God is exalted the praise whereof it ascribes unto him and resteth in it as unto the Ends of it namely Justification Life and Salvation It is to give Glory to God Rom. 4.20 to behold his Glory as in a Glass or the Gospel wherein it is represented unto us 2 Cor. 3.18 To have in our Hearts the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 4.6 The contrary whereunto makes God a liar and thereby despoileth him of the Glory of all those holy properties which he this way designed to manifest 1 Joh. 5.10 And if I mistake not this is that which the Experience of them that truly believe when they are out of the Heats of Disputation will give Testimony unto 4. To understand the Nature of Justifying Faith aright on the Act and Exercise of saving Faith in order unto our Justification which are properly enquired after we must consider the order of it first the things which are necessarily previous thereunto and then what it is to believe with respect unto them As 1. The state of a Convinced sinner who is the only Subjectum capax Justificationis This hath been spoken unto already and the necessity of its precedency unto the orderly proposal and receiving of Evangelical Righteousness unto Justification demonstrated If we lose a respect hereunto we lose our best Guide towards the Discovery of the Nature of Faith Let no man think to understand the Gospel who knoweth nothing of the Law Gods constitution and the nature of the things themselves have given the Law the precedency with respect unto sinners for by the Law is the knowledge of sin And Gospel Faith is the Souls acting according to the mind of God for deliverance from that state and condition which it is cast under by the Law And all those Descriptions of Faith which abound in the Writings of Learned men which do not at least include in them a virtual respect unto this state and condition or the Work of the Law on the Consciences of sinners are all of them vain speculations There is nothing in this whole Doctrine that I will more firmly adhere unto than the necessity of the Convictions mentioned previous unto true Believing without which not one line of it can be understood aright and men do but beat the Air in their contentions about it See Rom. 3.21 22
23 24. 2. We suppose herein a sincere Assent unto all Divine Revelations whereof the Promises of Grace and Mercy by Christ are an especial part This Paul supposed in Agrippa when he would have won him over unto Faith in Christ Jesus King Agrippa believest thou the Prophets I know that thou believest Act. 26.27 And this Assent which respects the Promises of the Gospel not as they contain propose and exhibit the Lord Christ and the Benefits of his Mediation unto us but as Divine Revelations of infallible Truth is true and sincere in its kind as we described it before under the notion of Temporary Faith But as it proceeds no farther as it includes no Act of the Will or Heart it is not that Faiâ—h whereby we are Justified However it is required thereunto and is included therein 3. The proposal of the Gospel according unto the Mind of God is hereunto supposed That is that it be preached according unto Gods Appointment For not only the Gospel it self but the Dispensation or Preaching of it in the Ministry of the Church is ordinarily required unto Believing This the Apostle asserts and proves the necessity of it at large Rom. 10.11 12 13 14 15 16 17. Herein the Lord Christ and his Mediation with God the only way and means for the Justification and Salvation of lost convinced sinners as the product and effect of Divine Wisdom Love Grace and Righteousness is revealed declared proposed and offered unto such sinners For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith unto Faith Rom. 1.17 The Glory of God is represented as in a Glass 2 Cor. 3.18 and Life and Immortality are brought to Light through the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 Heb. 2.3 Wherefore 4. The Persons who are required to believe and whose immediate Duty it is so to do are such who really in their own Consciences are brought unto and do make the Enquiries mentioned in the Scripture What shall we do What shall we do to be saved How shall we fly from the wrath to come Wherewithall shall we appear before God How shall we answer what is laid unto our Charge Or such as being sensible of the Guilt of sin do seek for a Righteousness in the sight of God Act. 2.38 Act. 16.30 31. Micah 6.6 7. Isa. 35.4 Heb. 6.18 On these suppositions the Command and Direction given unto men being Believe and you shall be saved the Enquiry is what is that Act or Work of Faith whereby the may obtain a real interest or propriety in the Promises of the Gospel and the things declared in them unto their Justification before God And 1. It is evident from what hath been discoursed that it doth not consist in that it is not to be fully expressed by any one single habit or Act of the Mind or Will distinctly whatever For there are such Descriptions given of it in the Scripture such things are proposed as the Object of it and such is the Experience of all that sincerely believe as no one single Act either of the Mind or Will can answer unto Nor can an exact method of those Acts of the Soul which are concurrent therein be prescribed Only what is Essential unto it is manifest 2. That which in order of Nature seems to have the precedency is the Assent of the Mind unto that which the Psalmist betakes himself unto in the first place for relief under a sense of sin and trouble Psal. 130.3 4. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquity O Lord who shall stand The Sentence of the Law and Judgment of Conscience lye against him as unto any Acceptation with God Therefore he despairs in himself of standing in Judgment or being acquitted before him In this state that which the Soul first fixeth on as unto its relief is that there is forgiveness with God This as declared in the Gospel is that God in his Love and Grace will pardon and justifie guilty sinners through the blood and Mediation of Christ So it is proposed Rom. 3.23 24. The Assent of the Mind hereunto as proposed in the Promise of the Gospel is the root of Faith the foundation of all that the Soul doth in believing Nor is there any Evangelical Faith without it But yet consider it abstractedly as a meer Act of the Mind the Essence and Nature of Justifying Faith doth not consist solely therein though it cannot be without it But 2. This is accompanied in sincere Believing with an Approbation of the way of Deliverance and Salvation proposed as an effect of Divine Grace Wisdom and Love whereon the Heart doth rest in it and apply it self unto it according to the Mind of God This is that Faith whereby we are justified which I shall farther evince by shewing what is included in it and inseparable from it 1. It includeth in it a sincere Renunciation of all other ways and means for the attaining of Righteousness Life and Salvation This is Essential unto Faith Act. 4.12 Hos. 14.2 3. Jerem. 3.23 Psal. 71.16 I will make mention of thy Righteousness of thine only When a person is in the condition before described and such alone are called immediately to believe Math. 9.13 chap. 11.28 1 Tim. 1.15 many things will present themselves unto him for his relief particularly his own Righteousness Rom. 10.3 A Renunciation of them all as unto any hope or expectation of Relief from them belongs unto sincere Believing Isa. 50.10 11. 2. There is in it the Wills consent whereby the Soul betakes it self cordially and sincerely as unto all its expectation of pardon of sin and Righteousness before God unto the way of Salvation proposed in the Gospel This is that which is called coming unto Christ and receiving of him whereby true Justifying Faith is so often expressed in the Scripture or as it is peculiarly called believing in him or believing on his name The whole is expressed Joh. 14.6 Jesus saith unto him I am the Way the Truth and the Life no Man cometh unto the Father but by me 3. An Acquiescency of the Heart in God as the Author and principal Cause of the way of Salvation prepared as acting in a way of Soveraign Grace and Mercy towards sinners Who by him do believe in God who raised him up from the dead and gave him Glory that your faith and hope might be in God 1 Pet. 1.21 The Heart of a sinner doth herein give unto God the Glory of all those holy properties of his Nature which he designed to manifest in and by Jesus Christ. See Isa. 42.1 chap. 49.3 And this Acquiescency of the Heart in God is that which is the immediate root of that waiting patience long-suffering and hope which are the proper Acts and Effects of Justifying Faith Heb. 6.12 15 18 19. 4. Trust in God or the Grace and Mercy of God in and through the Lord Christ as set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood doth belong hereunto or necessarily ensue hereon For the person called
is allowed unless we grant it self to be imputed nor can we have any Participation of the effects of it but on the supposition and foundation of that Imputation The impertinent Cavils that some of late have collected from the Papists and Socinians that if it be so then are we as Righteous as Christ himself that we have redeemed the World and satisfied for the sins of others that the pardon of sin is impossible and Personal Righteousness needless shall afterwards be spoken unto so far as they deserve All that we now aim to demonstrate is only that either the Righteousness of Christ it self is imputed unto us or there is no Imputation in the matter of our Justification which whether there be or no is another Question afterwards to be spoken unto For as was said the effects of the Righteousness of Christ cannot be said properly to be imputed unto us For Instance Pardon of sin is a great effect of the Righteousness of Christ. Our sins are pardoned on the account thereof God for Christs sake forgiveth us all our sins But the pardon of sin cannot be said to be imputed unto us nor is so Adoption Justification Peace with God all Grace and Glory are effects of the Righteousness of Christ. But that these things are not imputed unto us nor can be so is evident from their Nature But we are made Partakers of them all upon the account of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us and no otherwise Thus much may suffice to be spoken of the Nature of Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ the Grounds Reasons and Causes whereof we shall in the next place enquire into And I doubt not but we shall find in our Enquiry that it is no such figment as some Ignorant of these things do imagine but on the contrary an Important Truth immixed with the most fundamental Principles of the mystery of the Gospel and inseparable from the Grace of God in Christ Jesus CHAP. VIII Imputation of the sins of the Church unto Christ. Grounds of it The Nature of his Suretyship Causes of the New Covenant Christ and the Church one mystical Person Consequents thereof THose who believe the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto Believers for the Justification of Life do also unanimously profess that the sins of all Believers were imputed unto Christ. And this they do on many Testimonies of the Scripture directly witnessing thereunto some whereof shall be pleaded and vindicated afterwards At present we are only on the consideration of the general notion of these things and the Declaration of the nature of what shall be proved afterwards And in the first place we shall enquire into the foundation of this Dispensation of God and the Equity of it or the Grounds whereinto it is resolved without an understanding whereof the thing it self cannot be well apprehended The principal Foundation hereof is that Christ and the Church in this Design were one mystical Person which state they do actually coalesce in through the uniting Efficacy of the Holy Spirit He is the Head and Believers are the members of that one Person as the Apostle declares 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Hence as what he did is imputed unto them as if done by them so what they deserved on the Account of sin was charged upon him So is it expressed by a Learned Prelate Nostram causam sustinebat qui nostram sibi Carnem aduniverat ita nobis arctissimo vinculo conjunctus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae erant nostra fecit sua And again Quid mirum si in nostra persona constitutus nostram carnem indutus c. Môntacut Origin Ecclesiast The Antients speak to the same purpose Leo. Serm. 17. Ideo se humanae infirmitati virtus divina conseruit ut dum Deus sua facit esse quae nostra sunt nostra faceret esse quae sua sunt And also Sermo 16. Caput nostrum Dominus Jesus Christus omnia in se corporis sui membra transformans quod olim in Psalmo eructaverat id in supplicio crucis sub Redemptorum suorum voce clamavit And so speaks Augustine to the same purpose Epist. 120. ad Honoratum Audimus vocem corporis ex ore capitis Ecclesia in illo patiebatur quando pro Ecclesia patiebatur c. We hear the voice of the Body from the mouth of the Head The Church suffered in him when he suffered for the Church as he suffers in the Church when the Church suffereth for him For as we have heard the voice of the Church in Christ-suffering my God my Lord why hast thou forsaken me look upon me so we have heard the voice of Christ in the Church-suffering Saul Saul why persecutest thou me But we may yet look a little backward and farther into the sense of the antient Church herein Christus saith Irenaeus omnes Gentes exinde ab Adam disper sas Generationem hominum in semet ipso recapitulatus est unde a Paulo Typus futuri dictus est ipse Adam lib. 3. cap. 33. And again Recapitulans universum hominum genus in se ab initio usque ad finem recapitulatus est mortem ejus In this of Recapitulation there is no doubt but he had respect unto the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned Ephes. 1.10 And it may be this was that which Origen intended aenigmatically by saying the Soul of the first Adam was the Soul of Christ as it is charged on him And Cyprian Epist. 63. on bearing about the Administration of the Sacrament of the Eucharist nos omnes portabat Christus qui peccata nostra portabat He bare us or suffered in our person when he bare our sins Whence Athanasius affirms of the voice he used on the Cross 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We suffered in him Eusebius speaks many things to this purpose Demonstrat Evangel lib. 10. cap. 1. Expounding those words of the Psalmist Heal my Soul for or as he would read them if I have sinned against thee and applying them unto our Saviour in his sufferings He saith thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he took of our sins to himself communicated our sins to himself making them his own For so he adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 making our sins his own And because in his following words he fully expresseth what I design to prove I shall transcribe them at large 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have transcribed this passage at large because as I said what I intend to prove in the present discourse is declared fully therein Thus therefore he speaks How then did he make our sins to be his own and how did he bear our Iniquities Is it not from thence that we are said to be his Body as the Apostle speaks You are the Body of Christ and members for your part or of one another and as when one member suffers all the members do suffer so the many members sinning and suffering He according unto the Laws of
Justification Rom. 8.33 Isa. 43.25.45.23 Psal. 145.2 Rom. 3.20 What thoughts will be ingenerated hereby in the minds of Men. Isai. 33.14 Mic. 6.7 Isa. 6.5 The Plea of Job against his friends and before God not the same Job 40.3 4 5. Chap. 42.4 5 6. Directions for visiting the sick given of old Testimonies of Jerome and Ambrose Sense of Men in their Prayers Dan. 9.7 18. Psal. 143.2.130.3 4. Paraphrase of Austine on that place Prayer of Pelagius Publick Liturgies Pag. 8. § 3. A due sense of our Apostasie from God the Depravation of our Nature thereby with the power and guilt of Sin the holiness of Law necessary unto a right understanding of the Doctrine of Justification Method of the Apostle to this purpose Romans 1 2 3 4. Chap. Grounds of the antient and present Pelagianism in the denial of these things Instances thereof Boasting of Perfection from the same Ground Knowledge of Sin and Grace mutually promote each other Pag. 18. § 4. Opposition between Works and Grace as unto Justification Method of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans to manifest this opposition A Scheam of others contrary thereunto Testimonies witnessing this opposition Judgment to be made on them Distinctions whereby they are evaded The uselessness of them Resolution of the case in hand by Bellarmine Luk. 17.10 Dan. 9.18 Pag. 24. § 5. A Commutation as unto Sin and Righteousness by Imputation between Christ and Believers represented in the Scripture The Ordinance of the Scape Goat Levit. 16.21 22. The nature of Expiatory Sacrifices Levit. 4.29 Expiation of an uncertain Murther Deut. 21.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. The Commutation intended proved and vindicated Isa. 53.5 6. 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 8.3 4. Gal. 3.13 14. 1 Pet. 1.24 Deut. 21.23 Testimonies of Justin Martyr Gregory Nissen Austine Chrysostome Bernard Taulerus Pighius to that purpose The proper actings of Faith with respect thereunto Rom. 5.11 Matth. 11.28 Psa. 38.4 Gen. 4.13 Isa. 53.11 Gal. 3.1 Isa. 45.22 Joh. 3.14 15. A bold Calumny answered Pag. 38 39. § 6. Introduction of Grace by Jesus Christ into the whole of our Relation unto God and its respect unto all the parts of our Obedience No Mystery of Grace in the Covenant of Works All Religion originally commensurate unto Reason No notions of Natural Light concerning the Introduction of the Mediation of Christ and Mystery of Grace into our Relation to God Eph. 1.17 18 19. Reason as corrupted can have no notions of Religion but what are derived from its primitive state Hence the Mysteries of the Gospel esteemed folly Reason as corrupted repugnant unto the Mystery of Gâ—â—â—e Accommodation of Spiritual Mysteries unto Corrupt Reason wherefore acceptable unto many Reasons of it Two parts of corrupted Natures repugnancy unto the Mystery of the Gospel 1. That which would reduce it unto the private Reason of Men. Thence the Trinity denied And the Incarnation of the Son of God Without which the Doctrine of Justification cannot stand Rule of the Socinians in the Interpretation of the Scripture 2. Want of a due comprehension of the Harmony that is between all the parts of the Mystery of Grace This Harmomy proved Compared with the Harmony in the Works of Nature To be studied But is learned only of them who are taught of God and in experience Evil events of the want of a due comprehension hereof Instances of them All applied unto the Doctrine of Justification Pag. 53. § 7. General prejudices against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. 1. That it is not in Terms found in the Scripture answered 2. That nothing is said of it in the writings of the Evangelists answered Joh. 20.30 31. Nature of Christs Personal Ministery Revelations by the holy Spirit immediately from Christ. Design of the writings of the Evangelists 3. Differences among Protestants themselves about this Doctrine answered Sense of the Antients herein What is of real Difference among Protestants considered Pag. 69. § 8. Influence of the Doctrine of Justification into the first Reformation Advantages unto the World by that Reformation State of the Consciences of Men under the Papacy with respect unto Justification before God Alterations made therein by the Light of this Doctrine though not received Alterations in the Pagan unbelieving World by the Introduction of Christianity Design and success of the first Reformer herein Attempts for Reconciliation with the Papists in this Doctrine and their success Remainders of the â—gnorance of the Truth in the Roman Church Vnavoidable consequences of the corruption of this Doctrine Pag. 83. CHAP. I. JVstification by Faith generally acknowledged The meaning of it perverted The nature and use of Faith in Justification proposed to consideration Distinctions about it waved A twofold Faith of the Gospel expressed in the Scripture Faith that is not justifying Acts 8.13 Joh. 2.23 24. Luk. 8.13 Matth. 22.28 Historical Faith whence it is so called and the nature of it Degrees of Assent in it Justification not ascribed unto any Degree of it A Calumny obviated The causes of true saving Faith Conviction of Sin previous unto it The nature of legal Conviction and its Effects Arguments to prove it antecedent unto Faith Without the consideration of it the true nature of Faith not to be understood The Order and Relation of the Law and Gospel Rom. 1.17 Instance of Adam Effects of Conviction internal Displicency and sorrow Fear of punishment Desire of Deliverance External Abstinence from Sin Performance of Duties Reformation of Life Not conditions of Justification not Formal Dispositions unto it not Moral Preparations for it The Order of God in Justification The proper object of justifying Faith Not all Divine Verity equally proved by sundry Arguments The pardon of our own sins whether the first object of Faith The Lord Christ in the Work of Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the Recovery of lost Sinners the proper object of justifying Faith The Position explained and proved Rom. 3.24 25. Ephes. 1.6 7 8. Acts 10.41 Chap. 16.13 Chap. 4.12 Luk. 24.25 26 27. Joh. 1.12.3.16 36.6.29.7.38 c. Col. 2.12 1 Cor. 2.1 31. 2 Cor. 5.19 20 21. Pag. 92 93 c. CHAP. II. The nature of justifying Faith in particular or of Faith in that exercise of it whereby we are justified The Hearts approbation of the way of the Justification and Salvation of Sinners by Christ with its acquiescency therein The description given explained and confirmed 1. From the nature of the Gospel 2. Exemplified in its contrary or the nature of unbelief Prov. 1.30 Heb. 2.3 1 Pet. 2.7 1 Cor. 1.23 24. 2 Cor. 4.3 4. What it is and wherein it doth consist 3. The Design of God in and by the Gospel His own Glory his utmost End in all things The Glory of his Righteousness Grace Love Wisdom c. The end of God in the Way of the Salvation of Sinners by Christ. Rom. 3.25 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 3.16 Eph. 1.5 6. 1 Cor. 1.24 Ephes. 3.10 Rom. 1.16.4.16 Ephes.
the Work of the Devil by the suffering of the seed of the woman is proposed as the only Relief for sinners and only means of the Recovery of the favour of God It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Gen. 3.15 Abraham believed in the Lord and he counted it unto him for Righteousness Gen. 15.6 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the Head of the live Goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their Transgressions in all their sins putting them on the head of the Goat and the Goat shall bear upon him all their Iniquities unto a Land not inhabited Lev. 16.21 22. I will go in the strength of the Lord God I will make mention of thy Righteousness even of thine only Psal. 71.16 If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquity O Lord who shall stand but there is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Psal. 130.3 4. Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal. 143.2 Behold he put no trust in his Servants and his Angels he charged with folly how much less on them that dwell in houses of Clay whose foundation is in the dust Job 4.18 19. Fury is not in me who would set the Briers and Thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together Or let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall make peace with me Isa. 27.4 5. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I Righteousness and strength in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and Glory Isa. 45.24 25. All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquity of us all By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their Iniquities Isa. 53.6 11. For this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 But we are all as an unclean thing and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy raggs Isa. 64.6 He shall finish the Transgression and make an End of sin and make Reconciliation for Iniquity and bring in Everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 Vnto as many as received him he gave power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe in his name Joh. 1.12 For as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life chap. 3.14 15. see ver 16 17 18. Be it known therefore unto you Men and Brethren that through this 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 Acts 13.38 39. That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith that is in me chap. 26.18 Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ 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 at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Where then is Boasting it is excluded by what Law of Works nay but by the Law of Faith Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Faith without the deeds of the Law Rom. 3.24 25 26 27 28. For if Abraham were justified by works he hath whereof to Glory but not before God For what saith the Scripture Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for Righteousness now to him that worketh is the Reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness Even as David also describeth the Blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works saying Blessed are those whose Iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute sin Rom. 4.2 3 4 5 6 7 8. But not as the offence so also is the free Gift for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the Grace of God and the Gift by Grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the Gift for the judgment was by one to Condemnation but the free Gift is of many offences unto Justification For if by one mans offence Death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men unto condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free Gift came upon all men unto Justification of life For as by one mans Disobedience many were made sinners so by the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous chap 5. 15 16 17 18 19. There is therefore no condemnation unto them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit For the Law of the spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death and what the Law could not do in that it 's weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us chap. 8. 1 2 3 4. For Christ is the End of the Law for Righteousness unto every one that believeth chap. 10.4 And if by Grace then it is no more of Works otherwise Grace is no more Grace but if it be of Works then it is no more Grace otherwise Works is no more Works chap. 11.6 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 Knowing that a man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law for by the Works of the Law shall no flesh be justified Gal. 2.16 But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident For the just shall live by Faith and the Law is not of Faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us chap. 3.11 12 13. For by Grace ye are saved through
it is only spiritually discerned But yet is it by the most despised Some seem to think that there is no great wisdom in it and some that no great wisdom is required unto the comprehension of it Few think it worth the while to spend half that time in prayer in meditation in the exercise of self denial Mortification and Holy Obedience doing the will of Christ that they may know of his word to the attaining of a due comprehension of the mystery of Godliness as some do of diligence study and trial of Experiments who design to excell in natural or mathematical Sciences Wherefore there are three things evident herein 1. That such an Harmony there is in all the parts of the mystery of God wherein all the blessed properties of the divine nature are glorified our Duty in all Instances is directed and engaged our Salvation in the way of Obedience secured and Christ as the End of all exalted Wherefore we are not only to consider and know the several parts of the Doctrine of spiritual Truth but their Relation also one unto another their consistency one with another in practice and their mutual furtherance of one another unto their common End And a disorder in our Apprehensions about any part of that whose Beauty and Use ariseth from its Harmony gives some confusion of mind with respect unto the whole 2. That unto a comprehension of this Harmony in a due measure it is necessary that we be taught of God without which we can never be wise in the knowledge of the mystery of his Grace And herein ought we to place the principal part of our diligence in our Enquiries into the Truths of the Gospel 3. All those who are taught of God to know his Will unless it be when their minds are disordered by prejudices false opinions or temptations have an experience in themselves and their own practical Obedience of the consistency of all parts of the mystery of Gods Grace and Truth in Christ among themselves of their spiritual Harmony and cogent tendency unto the same End The Introduction of the Grace of Christ into our Relation unto God makes no confusion or disorder in their minds by the conflict of the principles of natural Reason with respect unto our first Relation unto God and those of Grace with respect unto that whereunto we are renewed From the want of a due comprehension of this divine Harmony it is that the minds of men are filled with Imaginations of an Inconsistency between the most important parts of the mystery of the Gospel from whence the confusions that are at this day in Christian Religion do proceed Thus the Socinians can see no consistency between the Grace or Love of God and the satisfaction of Christ but imagine if the one of them be admitted the other must be excluded out of our Religion Wherefore they principally oppose the latter under a pretence of asserting and vindicating the former And where these things are expresly conjoined in the same proposition of Faith as where it is said that we are justified freely by the Grace of God through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood as Rom. 3.24 25. they will offer violence unto common sense and Reason rather then not disturb that Harmony which they cannot understand For although it be plainly affirmed to be a Redemption by his Blood as he is a propitiation as his Blood was a Ransome or price of Redemption yet they will contend there it is only metaphorical a meer deliverance by power like that of the Israelites by Moses But these things are clearly stated in the Gospel and therefore not only consistent but such as that the one cannot subsist without the other Nor is there any mention of any especial Love or Grace of God unto sinners but with respect unto the satisfaction of Christ as the means of the communication of all their effects unto them See Joh. 3.16 Rom. 3.23 24 25. chap. 8.30 31 32 33. 2 Cor. 5.19 20 21. Ephes. 1.7 c. In like manner they can see no consistency between the satisfaction of Christ and the necessity of Holiness or Obedience in them that do believe Hence they continually clamour that by our Doctrine of the Mediation of Christ we overthrow all Obligations unto an Holy Life And by their Sophistical Reasonings unto this purpose they prevail with many to embrace their delusions who have not a spiritual experience to confront their Sophistry withall But as the Testimony of the Scripture lyeth expresly against them so those who truly believe and have real experience of the influence of that Truth into the life of God and how impossible it is to yield any acceptable Obedience herein without respect thereunto are secured from their snares These and the like Imaginations arise from the unwillingness of men to admit of the Introduction of the mystery of Grace into our Relation unto God For suppose us to stand before God on the old constitution of the Covenant of Creation which alone natural Reason likes and is comprehensive of and we do acknowledge these things to be inconsistent But the mystery of the Wisdom and Grace of God in Christ cannot stand without them both So likewise Gods Efficacious Grace in the conversion of sinners and the exercise of the Faculties of their Minds in a way of Duty are asserted as contradictory and inconsistent And although they seem both to be positively and frequently declared in the Scripture yet say these men their Consistency being repugnant to their Reason let the Scripture say what it will yet is it to be said by us that the Scripture doth not assert one of them And this is from the same cause men cannot in their Wisdom see it possible that the mystery of Gods Grace should be introduced into our Relation and Obedience unto God Hence have many Ages of the Church especially the last of them been filled with Endless Disputes in Opposition to the Grace of God or to accommodate the conceptions of it unto the Interests of corrupted Reason But there is no Instance more pregnant unto this purpose then that under our present consideration Free Justification through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ is cried out against as inconsistent with a necessity of personal Holiness and Obedience and because the Socinians insist principally on this pretence it shall be fully and diligently considered apart and that Holiness which without it they and others deriving from them do pretend unto shall be tried by the unerring Rule Wherefore I desire it may be observed that in pleading for this Doctrine we do it as a principal part of the Introduction of Grace into our whole Relation unto God Hence we grant 1. That it is unsuited yea foolish and as some speak Childish unto the principles of unenlightened and unsanctified Reason or Understandings of men And this we conceive to be
the principal cause of all the Oppositions that are made unto it and all the Depravations of it that the Church is pestered withall Hence are the wits of men so fertile in Sophistical Cavils against it so ready to load it with seeming absurdities and I know not what unsuitableness unto their wonderous rational conceptions And no Objection can be made against it be it never so trivial but it is highly applauded by those who look on that Introduction of the mystery of Grace which is above their natural conceptions as unintelligible folly 2. That the necessary Relation of these things one unto the other namely of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ and the necessity of our Personal Obedience will not be clearly understood nor duely improved but by and in the exercise of the Wisdom of Faith This we grant also and let who will make what advantage they can of this concession True Faith hath that spiritual Light in it or accompanying of it as that it is able to receive it and to conduct the Soul unto Obedience by it Wherefore reserving the particular consideration hereof unto its proper place I say in general 1. That this Relation is evident unto that spiritual Wisdom whereby we are enabled doctrinally and practically to comprehend the Harmony of the mystery of God and the consistency of all the parts of it one with another 2. That it is made evident by the Scripture wherein both these things Justification through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ and the Necessity of our Personal Obedience are plainly asserted and declared And we defie that Rule of the Socinians that seeing these things are inconsistent in their apprehension or unto their Reason therefore we must say that one of them is not taught in the Scripture For whatever it may appear unto their Reason it doth not so to ours and we have at least as Good Reason to trust unto our own Reason as unto theirs Yet we absolutely acquiesce in neither but in the Authority of God in the Scripture rejoycing only in this that we can set our seal unto his Revelations by our own Experience For 3. It is fully evident in the gracious conduct which the minds of them that believe are under even that of the Spirit of Truth and Grace and the Inclinations of that new Principle of the Divine Life whereby they are acted For although from the Remainders of Sin and Darkness that are in them Temptations may arise unto a continuation in sin because Grace hath abounded yet are their minds so formed and framed by the Doctrine of this Grace and the Grace of this Doctrine that the abounding of Grace herein is the principal motive unto their abounding in Holiness as we shall see afterwards And this we aver to be the spring of all those Objections which the Adversaries of this Doctrine do continually endeavour to entangle it withall As 1 If the Passive Righteousness as it is commonly called that is his Death and Suffering be imputed unto us there is no need nor can it be that his Active Righteousness or the Obedience of his Life should be imputed unto us and so on the contrary for both together are inconsistent 2 That if all sin be pardoned there is no need of the Righteousness and so on the contrary if the Righteousness of Christ be imputed unto us there is no room for or need of the pardon of sin 3 If we believe the pardon of our sins then are our sins pardoned before we believe or we are bound to believe that which is not so 4 If the Righteousness of Christ be imputed unto us then are we esteemed to have done and suffered what indeed we never did nor suffered and it is true that if we are esteemed our selves to have done it Imputation is overthrown 5 If Christs Righteousness be imputed unto us then are we as Righteous as was Christ himself 6 If our sins were imputed unto Christ then was he thought to have sinned and was a sinner subjectively 7 If Good Works be excluded from any interest in our Justification before God then are they of no use unto our Salvation 8 That it is ridiculous to think that where there is no sin there is not all the Righteousness that can be required 9 That Righteousness imputed is only a putative or imaginary Righteousness c. Now although all these and the like Objections however subtilly managed as Socinus boasts that he had used more then ordinary subtilty in this cause in quo si subtilius aliquanto quanto opus esse videretur quaedam a nobis disputata sunt De servat par 4. cap. 4. are capable of plain and clear solutions and we shall avoid the examination of none of them yet at present I shall only say that all the shades which they cast on the minds of men do vanish and disappear before the Light of express Scripture Testimonies and the Experience of them that do believe where there is a due comprehension of the mystery of Grace in any tolerable measure Seventhly There are some common prejudices that are usually pleaded against the Doctrine of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ which because they will not orderly fall under a particular consideration in our progress may be briefly examined in these general previous considerations 1. It is usually urged against it that this Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ is no where mentioned expresly in the Scripture This is the first Objection of Bellarmine against it Hactenus saith he nullum omnino locum invenire potuerunt ubi legeretur Christi Justitiam nobis imputari ad justitiam vel nos justos esse per Christi Justitiam nobis imputatam De Justificat lib. 2. cap. 7. An Objection doubtless unreasonably and immodestly urged by men of his perswasion For not only do they make profession of their whole Faith or their belief of all things in matters of Religion in Terms and Expressions no where used in the Scripture but believe many things also as they say with Faith divine not at all revealed or contained in the Scripture but drained by them out of the Traditions of the Church I do not therefore understand how such persons can modestly manage this as an Objection against any Doctrine that the Terms wherein some do express it are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 found in the Scripture just in that order of one word after another as by them they are used For this Rule may be much enlarged and yet be kept strait enough to exclude the principal concerns of their Church out of the confines of Christianity nor can I apprehend much more Equity in others who reflect with severity on this expression of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ as unscriptural as if those who make use thereof were criminal in no small degree when themselves immediately in the Declaration of their own judgment make use of such Terms Distinctions
Righteousness of God communicated unto us by Jesus Christ. And whereas he was opposed herein with some severity by the most learned persons of those days to countenance himself in his singularity he pretended that there were twenty different Opinions amongst the Protestants themselves about the formal cause of our Justification before God This was quickly laid hold on by them of the Roman Church and is urged as a prejudice against the whole Doctrine by Bellarmine Vasquez and others But the vanity of this pretence of his hath been sufficiently discovered and Bellarmine himself could fancy but four Opinions among them that seemed to be different from one another reckoning that of Osiander for one De Justificat lib. 2. cap. 1. But whereas he knew that the Imagination of Osiander was exploded by them all the other three that he mentions are indeed but distinct parts of the same entire Doctrine Wherefore until of late it might be truly said that the Faith and Doctrine of all Protestants was in this Article entirely the same For however they differed in the way manner and methods of its Declaration and too many private men were addicted unto Definitions and Descriptions of their own under pretence of Logical accuracy in Teaching which gave an appearance of some contradiction among them yet in this they generally agreed that it is the Righteousness of Christ and not our own on the account whereof we receive the pardon of sin acceptance with God are declared Righteous by the Gospel and have a Right and Title unto the Heavenly Inheritance Hereon I say they were generally agreed first against the Papists and afterwards against the Socinians and where this is granted I will not contend with any man about his way of declaring the Doctrine of it And that I may add it by the way we have herein the concurrence of the Fathers of the Primitive Church For although by Justification following the Etymology of the Latine word they understood the making us Righteous with internal personal Righteousness at least some of them did so as Austin in particular yet that we are pardoned and accepted with God on any other account but that of the Righteousness of Christ they believed not And whereas especially in their Controversie with the Pelagians after the rising of that Heresie they plead vehemently that we are made Righteous by the Grace of God changing our Hearts and Natures and creating in us a principle of spiritual Life and Holiness and not by the endeavours of our own free will or works performed in the strength thereof their words and expressions have been abused contrary to their Intention and Design For we wholly concur with them and subscribe unto all that they dispute about the making of us personally Righteous and holy by the effectual Grace of God against all merit of works and operations of our own free Will our Sanctification being every way as much of Grace as our Justification properly so called and that in opposition unto the common Doctrine of the Roman Church about the same matter only they call this our being made inherently and personally Righteous by Grace sometimes by the name of Justification which we do not And this is laid hold on as an Advantage by those of the Roman Church who do not concur with them in the way and manner whereby we are so made Righteous But whereas by our Justification before God we intend only that Righteousness whereon our sins are pardoned wherewith we are made Righteous in his sight or for which we are accepted as Righteous before him it will be hard to find any of them assigning of it unto any other causes then the Protestants do So it is fallen out that what they design to prove we entirely comply with them in but the way and manner whereby they prove it is made use of by the Papists unto another End which they intended not But as to the way and manner of the Declaration of this Doctrine among Protestants themselves there ever was some variety and Difference in Expressions Nor will it otherwise be whilst the Abilities and Capacities of men whether in the conceiving of things of this nature or in the expression of their conceptions are so various as they are And it is acknowledged that these Differences of late have had by some as much weight laid upon them as the substance of the Doctrine generally agreed in Hence some have composed entire Books consisting almost of nothing but impertinent Cavils at other Mens Words and Expressions But these things proceed from the weakness of some men and other vitious habits of their minds and do not belong unto the cause it self And such Persons as for me shall write as they do and fight on until they are weary Neither hath the multiplication of Questions and the curious discussion of them in the handling of this Doctrine wherein nothing ought to be diligently insisted on but what is directive of our practice been of much use unto the Truth it self though it hath not been directly opposed in them That which is of real Difference among Persons who agree in the substance of the Doctrine may be reduced unto a very few Heads As 1 There is something of this kind about the nature of Faith whereby we are justified with its proper Object in Justifying and its Use in Justification And an Instance we have herein not only of the weakness of our Intellects in the Apprehension of spiritual things but also of the remainders of confusion and disorder in our minds at least how true it is that we know only in part and prophesie only in part whilst we are in this life For whereas this Faith is an Act of our minds put forth in the way of Duty to God yet many by whom it is sincerely exercised and that continually are not agreed either in the nature or proper object of it Yet is there no doubt but that some of them who differ amongst themselves about these things have delivered their minds free from the prepossession of prejudices and notions derived from other artificial Reasonings imposed on them and do really express their own conceptions as to the best and utmost of their Experience And notwithstanding this Difference they do yet all of them please God in the exercise of Faith as it is their Duty and have that respect unto its proper Object as secures both their Justification and Salvation And if we cannot on this consideration bear with and forbear one another in our different conceptions and expressions of those conceptions about these things it is a sign we have a great mind to be contentious and that our confidences are built on very weak foundations For my part I had much rather my Lot should be found among them who do really believe with the heart unto Righteousness though they are not able to give a tolerable Definition of Faith unto others then among them who can endlesly dispute about it with seeming
and unsuited unto the Genius of the present Age. For they all of them arise from or lead unto the want of a due sence of the Nature and Guilt of sin as also of the Holiness and Righteousness of God with respect thereunto And when such principles as these do once grow prevalent in the minds of men they quickly grow careless negligent secure in sinning and End for the most part in Atheism or a great Indifferency as unto all Religion and all the Duties thereof CHAP. I. Justifying Faith the Causes Object and Nature of it declared THe means of Justification on our part is Faith That we are justified by Faith is so frequently and so expresly affirmed in the Scripture as that it cannot directly and in terms by any be denied For whereas some begin by an excess of partiality which controversial Engagements and Provocations do encline them unto to affirm that our Justification is more frequently ascribed unto other things Graces or Duties than unto Faith it is to be passed by in silence and not contended about But yet also the Explanation which some others make of this general concession That we are justified by Faith doth as fully overthrow what is affirmed therein as if it were in terms rejected And it would more advantage the understandings of men if it were plainly refused upon its first proposal than to be lead about in a maze of Words and Distinctions unto its real Exclusion as is done both by the Romanists and Socinians At present we may take the Proposition as granted and only enquire into the true genuine sense and meaning of it That which first occurs unto our Consideration is Faith and that which doth concern it may be reduced unto two Heads 1 Its Nature 2 Its Vse in our Justification Of the Nature of Faith in general of the especial Nature of justifying Faith of its Characteristical Distinctions from that which is called Faith but is not justifying so many Discourses divers of them the effects of sound Judgment and good Experience are already extant as it is altogether needless to engage at large into a farther discussion of them However something must be spoken to declare in what sense we understand these things what is that Faith which we ascribe our Justification unto and what is its Vse therein The Distinctions that are usually made concerning Faith as it is a word of various significations I shall wholly pretermit not only as obvious and known but as not belonging unto our present Argument That which we are concerned in is That in the Scripture there is mention made plainly of a twofold Faith whereby men believe the Gospel For there is a Faith whereby we are justified which he who hath shall be assuredly saved which purifieth the heart and worketh by Love And there is a Faith or Believing which doth nothing of all this which who hath and hath no more is not justified nor can be saved Wherefore every Faith whereby men are said to believe is not justifying Thus it is said of Simon the Magician that he believed Act. 8.13 When he was in the Gall of Bitterness and bond of Iniquity and therefore did not believe with that Faith which purifieth the Heart Act. 15.9 And that many believed on the name of Jesus when they saw the Miracles that he did but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew what was in man Joh. 2.23 24. They did not believe on his Name as those do or with that kind of Faith who thereon receive power to become the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 And some when they hear the Word receive it with joy believing for a while but have no Root Luke 8.13 And Faith without a Root in the Heart will not justifie any For with the Heart Men believe unto Righteousness Rom. 10.10 So is it with them who shall cry Lord Lord at the last day we have prophesied in thy name whilst yet they were always workers of Iniquity Math. 7.22 23. This Faith is usually called Historical Faith But this Denomination is not taken from the Object of it as though it were only the History of the Scripture or the Historical things contained in it For it respects the whole Truth of the Word yea of the Promises of the Gospel as well as other things But it is so called from the nature of the Assent wherein it doth consist For it is such as we give unto Historical things that are credibly testified unto us And this Faith hath divers differences or degrees both in respect unto the Grounds or Reasons of it and also its Effects For as unto the first all Faith is an Assent upon Testimony and divine Faith is an Assent upon a divine Testimony According as this Testimony is received so are the Differences or Degrees of this Faith Some apprehend it on humane motives only and their credibility unto the Judgment of Reason and their Assent is a meer natural Act of their Understanding which is the lowest degree of this Historical Faith Some have their minds enabled unto it by spiritual Illumination making a discovery of the Evidences of Divine Truth whereon it is to be believed the Assent they give hereon is more firm and operative than that of the former sort Again It hath its Differences or Degrees with respect unto its Effects With some it doth no way or very little influence the Will or the Affections or work any Change in the lives of men So is it with them that profess they believe the Gospel and yet live in all manner of sins In this Degree it is called by the Apostle James a dead Faith and compared unto a dead Carkass without life or motion and is an Assent of the very same nature and kind with that which Devils are compelled to give And this Faith abounds in the World With others it hath an effectual work upon the Affections and that in many degrees also represented in the several sorts of Ground whereinto the Seed of the Word is cast and produceth many effects in their lives In the utmost improvement of it both as to the Evidence it proceeds from and the Effects it produceth it is usually called temporary Faith for it is neither permanent against all oppositions nor will bring any unto Eternal Rest. The name is taken from that Expression of our Saviour concerning him who believeth with this Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Math. 13.21 This Faith I grant to be true in its kind and not meerly to be equivocally so called it is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is so as unto the general nature of Faith but of the same special nature with justifying Faith it is not Justifying Faith is not an higher or the highest degree of this Faith but is of another kind or nature Wherefore sundry things may be observed concerning this Faith in the utmost improvement of it unto our present purpose As 1. This Faith with all the effects of it men
may have and not be justified and if they have not a Faith of another kind they cannot be justified For Justification is no where ascribed unto it yea it is affirmed by the Apostle James That none can be justified by it 2. It may produce great Effects in the Minds Affections and Lives of Men although not one of them that are peculiar unto justifying Faith Yet such they may be as that those in whom they are wrought may be and ought in the Judgment of Charity to be looked on as true Believers 3. This is that Faith which may be alone We are justified by Faith alone But we are not justified by that Faith which can be alone Alone respects its influence into our Justification not its nature and existence And we absolutely deny that we can be justified by that Faith which can be alone that is without a principle of spiritual Life and universal Obedience operative in all the works of it as Duty doth require These things I have observed only to obviate that Calumny and Reproach which some endeavour to fix on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith only through the Mediation of Christ. For those who assert it must be Solifidians Antinomians and I know not what such as oppose or deny the necessity of universal Obedience or Good Works Most of them who manage it cannot but know in their own Consciences that this Charge is false But this is the way of handling Controversies with many They can aver any thing that seems to advantage the cause they plead to the great scandal of Religion If by Solifidians they mean those who believe that Faith alone is on our part the Means Instrument or Condition of which afterwards of our Justification all the Prophets and Apostles were so and were so taught to be by Jesus Christ as shall be proved If they mean those who affirm that the Faith whereby we are justified is alone separate or separable from a principle and the fruit of Holy Obedience they must find them out themselves we know nothing of them For we allow no Faith to be of the same kind or nature with that whereby we are justified but what virtually and radically contains in it universal Obedience as the effect is in the cause the fruit in the Root and which acts it self in all particular Duties according as by Rule and Circumstances they are made so to be Yea we allow no Faith to be justifying or to be of the same kind with it which is not its self and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of Obedience and Good Works And if this be not sufficient to prevail with some not to seek for advantages by such shameful calumnies yet is it so with others to free their minds from any concernment in them For the especial nature of Justifying Faith which we enquire into the things whereby it is evidenced may be reduced unto these four Heads 1 The Causes of it on the part of God 2 What is in us previously required unto it 3 The proper Object of it 4 It s proper peculiar Acts and Effects Which shall be spoken unto so far as is necessary unto our present design 1. The Doctrine of the Causes of Faith as unto its first Original in the Divine Will and the way of its communication unto us is so large and so immixed with that of the way and manner of the operation of efficacious Grace in Conversion which I have handled elsewhere as that I shall not here insist upon it For as it cannot in a few words be spoken unto according unto its weight and worth so to engage into a full handling of it would too much divert us from our present Argument This I shall only say that from thence it may be uncontroulably evidenced That the Faith whereby we are justified is of an especial kind or nature wherein no other Faith which Justification is not inseparable from doth partake with it 2. Wherefore our first Enquiry is concerning what was proposed in the second place namely what is an our part in a way of Duty previously required thereunto or what is necessary to be found in us antecedaneously unto our Believing unto the Justification of Life And I say there is supposed in them in whom this Faith is wrought on whom it is bestowed and whose Duty it is to believe therewith the work of the Law in the Conviction of sin or Conviction of sin is a necessary Antecedent unto Justifying Faith Many have disputed what belongs hereunto and what effects it produceth in the mind that dispose the Soul unto the receiving of the Promise of the Gospel But whereas there are different Apprehensions about these effects or concomitants of Conviction in Compunction Humiliation Self-judging with sorrow for sin committed and the like as also about the Degrees of them as ordinarily pre-required unto Faith and Conversion unto God I shall speak very briefly unto them so far as they are inseparable from the Conviction asserted And I shall first consider this Conviction it self with what is essential thereunto and then the effects of it in conjunction with that temporary Faith before spoken of I shall do so not as unto their nature the knowledge whereof I take for granted but only as they have respect unto our Justification As to the first I say The work of Conviction in general whereby the Soul of man hath a practical understanding of the nature of sin its Guilt and the Punishment due unto it and is made sensible of his own interest therein both with respect unto sin original and actual with his own utter disability to deliver himself out of the state and condition wherein on the account of these things he findeth himself to be is that which we affirm to be antecedaneously necessary unto Justifying Faith that is in the Adult and of whose Justification the Word is the external means and instrument A Convinced sinner is only Subjectum capax Justificationis not that every one that is convinced is or must necessarily be justified There is not any such disposition or preparation of the subject by this Conviction its effects and consequents as that the form of Justification as the Papists speak or justifying Grace must necessarily ensue or be introduced thereon Nor is there any such preparation in it as that by virtue of any divine Compact or Promise a Person so convinced shall be pardoned and justified But as a man may believe with any kind of Faith that is not justifying such as that before mentioned without this Conviction so it is ordinarily previous and necessary so to be unto that Faith which is unto the Justification of Life The motive is not unto it that thereon a man shall be assuredly justified but that without it he cannot be so This I say is required in the Person to be justified in order of nature antecedaneously unto that Faith whereby we are justified which we shall prove with the ensuing
Arguments For 1 without the due consideration and supposition of it the true nature of Faith can never be understood For as we have shewed before Justification is Gods way of the Deliverance of the convinced sinner or one whose mouth is stopped and who is guilty before God obnoxious to the Law and shut up under Sin A sense therefore of this estate and all that belongs unto it is required unto Believing Hence Le Blanc who hath searched with some diligence into these things commends the Definition of Faith given by Mestrezat that it is the flight of a penitent sinner unto the mercy of God in Christ. And there is indeed more Sense and Truth in it than in twenty other that seem more accurate But without a supposition of the Conviction mentioned there is no understanding of this definition of Faith For it is that alone which puts the Soul upon a flight unto the mercy of God in Christ to be saved from the wrath to come Heb. 6.18 fled for Refuge 2 ly The Order Relation and use of the Law and the Gospel do uncontroulably evince the necessity of this Conviction previous unto Believing For that which any man hath first to deal withall with respect unto his Eternal Condition both naturally and by Gods Institution is the Law This is first presented unto the Soul with its Terms of Righteousness and Life and with its Curse in case of failure Without this the Gospel cannot be understood nor the Grace of it duely valued For it is the Revelation of Gods way for the relieving the Souls of men from the sentence and curse of the Law Rom. 1.17 That was the Nature that was the Use and End of the first Promise and of the whole work of Gods Grace revealed in all the ensuing Promises or in the whole Gospel Wherefore the Faith which we treat of being Evangelical that which in its especial nature and use not the Law but the Gospel requireth that which hath the Gospel for its Principle Rule and Object it is not required of us cannot be acted by us but on a supposition of the work and effect of the Law in the conviction of sin by giving the knowledge of it a sense of its Guilt and the state of the sinner on the Account thereof And that Faith which hath not respect hereunto we absolutely deny to be that Faith whereby we are justified Gal. 3.22 23 24. Rom. 10.4 3 ly This our Saviour himself directly teacheth in the Gospel For he calls unto him only those who are weary and heavy laden affirms that the whole have no need of the Physician but the sick and that he came not to call the Righteous but sinners to Repentance In all which he intends not those who were really sinners as all men are for he makes a difference between them offering the Gospel unto some and not unto others but such as were convinced of sin burdened with it and sought after deliverance So those unto whom the Apostle Peter proposed the Promise of the Gospel with the pardon of sin thereby as the Object of Gospel Faith were pricked to the Heart upon the conviction of their sin and cried what shall we do Act. 2.37 38 39. Such also was the state of the Jaylor unto whom the Apostle Paul proposed Salvation by Christ as what he was to believe for his Deliverance Act. 16.30 31. 4 ly The state of Adam and Gods dealing with him therein is the best Representation of the order and method of these things As He was after the Fall so are we by nature in the very same state and condition Really he was utterly lost by sin and convinced he was both of the nature of his sin and of the effects of it in that Act of God by the Law on his mind which is called the the opening of his Eyes For it was nothing but the communication unto his mind by his conscience of a sense of the nature guilt effects and consequents of sin which the Law could then teach him and could not do so before This fills him with shame and fear against the former whereof he provided by Figg-leaves and against the latter by hiding himself among the Trees of the Garden Nor however they may please themselves with them are any of the contrivances of men for freedom and safety from sin either wiser or more likely to have success In this condition God by an immediate Inquisition into the matter of fact sharpeneth this Conviction by the Addition of his own Testimony unto its Truth and casteth him actually under the Curse of the Law in a juridical denunciation of it In this lost forlorn hopeless condition God proposeth the Promise of Redemption by Christ unto him And this was the Object of that Faith whereby he was to be justified Although these things are not thus eminently and distinctly transacted in the minds and consciences of all who are called unto Believing by the Gospel yet for the substance of them and as to the previousness of the Conviction of sin unto Faith they are found in all that sincerely believe These things are known and for the substance of them generally agreed unto But yet are they such as being duely considered will discover the vanity and mistakes of many definitions of Faith that are obtruded on us For any definition or description of it which hath not express or at least virtual respect hereunto is but a deceit and no way answers the Experience of them that truly believe And such are all those who place it meerly in an Assent unto divine Revelation of what Nature soever that Assent be and whatever Effects are ascribed unto it For such an Assent there may be without any respect unto this work of the Law Neither do I to speak plainly at all value the most accurate Disputations of any about the Nature and Act of Justifying Faith who never had in themselves an Experience of the work of the Law in Conviction and Condemnation for sin with the Effects of it upon their Consciences or do omit the due consideration of their own Experience wherein what they truly believe is better stated than in all their Disputations That Faith whereby we are justified is in general the acting of the Soul towards God as revealing himself in the Gospel for deliverance out of this state and condition or from under the Curse of the Law applied unto the Conscience according to his mind and by the ways that he hath appointed I give not this as any definition of Faith but only express what hath a necessary influence into it whence the nature of it may be discerned 2. The Effects of this Conviction with their respect unto our Justification real or pretended may also be briefly considered And whereas this Conviction is a meer work of the Law it is not with respect unto these Effects to be considered alone but in conjunction with and under the conduct of that temporary Faith of the Gospel
there is no Relief or Deliverance to be expected from any of those ways of sorrow or duty that he hath put himself upon 3 In this condition it is a meer Act of Soveraign Grace without any respect unto these things foregoing to call the sinner unto Believing or Faith in the Promise unto the Justification of Life This is Gods order yet so as that what precedeth his call unto Faith hath no causality thereof 3. The next thing to be enquired into is the proper Object of Justifying Faith or of true Faith in its office work and duty with respect unto our Justification And herein we must first consider what we cannot so well close withall For besides other Differences that seem to be about it which indeed are but different Explanations of the same thing for the substance there are two Opinions which are looked on as Extreams the one in an Excess and the other in Defect The first is that of the Roman Church and those who comply with them therein And this is That the Object of Justifying Faith as such is all Divine Verity all Divine Revelation whether written in the Scripture or delivered by Tradition represented unto us by the Authority of the Church In the latter part of this Description we are not at present concerned That the whole Scripture and all the parts of it and all the Truths of what sort soever they be that are contained in it are equally the Object of Faith in the discharge of its Office in our Justification is that which they maintain Hence as to the nature of it they cannot allow it to consist in any thing but an Assent of the mind For supposing the whole Scripture and all contained in it Laws Precepts Promises Threatnings Stories Prophesies and the like to be the Object of it and these not as containing in them things Good or Evil unto us but under this formal consideration as divinely revealed they cannot assign or allow any other Act of the mind to be required hereunto but Assent only And so confident are they herein namely That Faith is no more then an Assent unto divine Revelation as that Bellarmin in opposition unto Calvin who placed knowledge in the description of Justifying Faith affirms that it is better defined by Ignorance than by Knowledge This Description of Justifying Faith and its Object hath been so discussed and on such evident Grounds of Scripture and Reason rejected by Protestant Writers of all sorts as that it is needless to insist much upon it again Some things I shall observe in relation unto it whereby we may discover what is of Truth in what they assert and wherein it falls short thereof Neither shall I respect only them of the Roman Church who require no more to Faith or Believing but only a bare Assent of the mind unto divine Revelations but them also who place it wholly in such a firm Assent as produceth Obedience unto all divine Commands For as it doth both these as both these are included in it so unto the especial nature of it more is required It is as justifying neither a meer Assent nor any such firm degree of it as should produce such effects 1. All Faith whatever is an Act of that power of our Souls in general whereby we are able firmly to assent unto the Truth upon Testimony in things not evident unto us by Sense or Reason It is the Evidence of things not seen And all divine Faith is in general an Assent unto the Truth that is proposed unto us upon divine Testimony And hereby as it is commonly agreed it is distinguished from Opinion and moral certainty on the one hand and Science or Demonstration on the other 2. Wherefore in Justifying Faith there is an Assent unto all divine Revelation upon the Testimony of God the Revealer By no other Act of our mind wherein this is not included or supposed can we be justified not because it is not justifying but because it is not Faith This Assent I say is included in Justifying Faith And therefore we find it often spoken of in the Scripture the Instances whereof are gathered up by Bellarmin and others with respect unto other things and not restrained unto the especial promise of Grace in Christ which is that which they oppose But besides that in most places of that kind the proper Object of Faith as Justifying is included and referred ultimately unto though diversly expressed by some of its Causes or concomitant Adjuncts it is granted that we believe all divine Truth with that very Faith whereby we are justified so as that other things may well be ascribed unto it 3. On these Concessions we yet say two things 1 That the whole nature of Justifying Faith doth not consist meerly in an Assent of the mind be it never so firm and stedfast nor whatever Effects of Obedience it may produce 2 That in its Duty and Office in Justification whence it hath that especial denomination which alone we are in the Explanation of it doth not equally respect all divine Revelation as such but hath a peculiar Object proposed unto it in the Scripture And whereas both these will be immediately evinced in our description of the proper Object and Nature of Faith I shall at present oppose some few things unto this Description of them sufficient to manifest how aliene it is from the Truth 1. This Assent is an Act of the understanding only An Act of the mind with respect unto Truth evidenced unto it be it of what nature it will So we believe the worst of things and the most grievous unto us as well as the best and the most useful But Believing is an Act of the Heart which in the Scripture comprizeth all the Faculties of the Soul as one entire principle of moral and spiritual Duties With the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness Rom. 10.10 And it is frequently described by an Act of the Will though it be not so alone But without an Act of the Will no man can believe as he ought See Joh. 5.40 Joh. 1.12 chap. 6.35 We come to Christ in an Act of the Will and let whosoever will come And to be willing is taken for to believe Psal. 110.3 and Unbelief is Disobedience Heb. 3.18 19. 2. All Divine Truth is equally the Object of this Assent It respects not the especial nature or use of any one Truth be it of what kind it will more than another nor can it do so since it regards only Divine Revelation Hence that Judas was the Traytor must have as great an influence into our Justification as that Christ died for our sins But how contrary this is unto the Scripture the Analogy of Faith and the Experience of all that believe needs neither Declaration nor Confirmation 3. This Assent unto all Divine Revelation may be true and sincere where there hath been no previous work of the Law nor any Conviction of sin No such thing is required thereunto nor are
they found in many who yet do so assent unto the Truth But as we have shewed this is necessary unto Evangelical Justifying Faith and to suppose the contrary is to overthrow the order and use of the Law and Gospel with their mutual Relation unto one another in subserviency unto the design of God in the Salvation of Sinners 4. It is not a way of seeking Relief unto a convinced sinner whose mouth is stopped in that he is become guilty before God Such alone are capable Subjects of Justification and do or can seek after it in a due manner A meer Assent unto Divine Revelation is not peculiarly suited to give such persons Relief For it is that which brings them into that condition from whence they are to be relieved For the knowledge of sin is by the Law But Faith is a peculiar acting of the Soul for Deliverance 5. It is no more then what the Devils themselves may have and have as the Apostle James affirms For that Instance of their Believing one God proves that they believe also whatever this one God who is the first Essential Truth doth reveal to be true And it may consist with all manner of wickedness and without any Obedience and so make God a liar 1 Joh. 2.4 And it is no wonder if men deny us to be justified by Faith who know no other Faith but this 6. It no way answers the Descriptions that are given of justifying Faith in the Scripture Particularly it is by Faith as it is justifying that we are said to receive Christ Joh. 1.12 Col. 2.6 To receive the Promise the Word the Grace of God the Attonement Jam. 1.21 Joh. 3.33 Act. 2.41 chap. 11.1 Rom. 5.11 Heb. 11.17 To cleave unto God Deut. 4.4 Act. 11.23 And so in the Old Testament it is generally expressed by Trust and Hope Now none of these things are contained in a meer Assent unto the Truth but they require other actings of the Soul than what are peculiar unto the understanding only 7. It answers not the Experience of them that truly believe This all our Enquiries and Arguments in this matter must have respect unto For the sum of what we aim at is only to discover what they do who really believe unto the Justification of Life It is not what notions men may have hereof nor how they express their Conceptions how defensible they are against Objections by accuracy of Expressions and subtile Distinctions but only what we our selves do if we truly believe that we enquire after And although our Differences about it do argue the great imperfection of that state wherein we are so as that those who truly believe cannot agree what they do in their so doing which should give us a mutual tenderness and forbearance towards each other yet if men would attend unto their own Experience in the Application of their Souls unto God for the pardon of Sin and Righteousness to Life more than unto the notions which on various occasions their minds are influenced by or prepossessed withall many differences and unnecessary disputations about the nature of Justifying Faith would be prevented or prescinded I deny therefore that this general Assent unto the Truth how firm soever it be or what effects in the way of Duty or Obedience soever it may produce doth answer the Experience of any one true Believer as containing the entire Actings of his Soul towards God for pardon of sin and Justification 8. That Faith alone is Justifying which hath Justification actually accompanying of it For thence alone it hath that denomination To suppose a man to have Justifying Faith and not to be justified is to suppose a Contradiction Nor do we enquire after the nature of any other Faith but that whereby a Believer is actually justified But it is not so with all them in whom this Assent is found nor will those that plead for it allow that upon it alone any are immediately justified Wherefore it is sufficiently evident that there is somewhat more required unto Justifying Faith than a real Assent unto all Divine Revelations although we do give that Assent by the Faith whereby we are justified But on the other side it is supposed that by some the Object of Justifying Faith is so much restrained and the nature of it thereby determined unto such a peculiar Acting of the mind as compriseth not the whole of what is in the Scripture ascribed unto it So some have said that it is the pardon of our sins in particular that is the Object of Justifying Faith Faith therefore they make to be a full perswasion of the forgiveness of our sins through the Mediation of Christ or that what Christ did and suffered as our Mediator he did it for us in particular And a particular Application of especial mercy unto our own Souls and Consciences is hereby made the Essence of Faith Or to believe that our own sins are forgiven seems hereby to be the first and most proper Act of Justifying Faith Hence it would follow that whosoever doth not believe or hath not a firm perswasion of the forgiveness of his own sins in particular hath no saving Faith is no true Believer which is by no means to be admitted And if any have been or are of this Opinion I fear that they were in the asserting of it neglective of their own Experience Or it may be rather that they knew not how in their Experience all the other Actings of Faith wherein its Essence doth consist were included in this perswasion which in an especial manner they aimed at whereof we shall speak afterwards And there is no doubt unto me but that this which they propose Faith is suited unto aimeth at and doth ordinarily effect in true Believers who improve it and grow in its exercise in a due manner Many great Divines at the first Reformation did as the Lutherans generally yet do thus make the mercy of God in Christ and thereby the forgiveness of our own sins to be the proper Object of Justifying Faith as such whose Essence therefore they placed in a fiducial Trust in the Grace of God by Christ declared in the Promises with a certain unwavering Application of them unto our selves And I say with some confidence that those who endeavour not to attain hereunto either understand not the nature of Believing or are very neglective both of the Grace of God and of their own Peace That which enclined those great and holy Persons so to express themselves in this matter and to place the Essence of Faith in the highest Acting of it wherein yet they always included and supposed its other Acts was the state of the Consciences of men with whom they had to do Their Contest in this Article with the Roman Church was about the way and means whereby the Consciences of convinced troubled sinners might come to rest and peace with God For at that time they were no otherwise instructed but that these things were to be obtained not
by the Gospel 3 The Nature of Faiths compliance with that Design or its Actings with respect thereunto 4 The Order Method and Way of Believing as declared in the Scripture 1. The Gospel is the Revelation or Declaration of that way of Justification and Salvation for sinners by Jesus Christ which God in infinite Wisdom Love and Grace hath prepared And upon a supposition of the Reception thereof it is accompanied with Precepts of Obedience and Promises of Rewards Therein the Righteousness of God that which he requires accepts and approves unto Salvation is revealed from Faith unto Faith Rom. 1.17 This is the Record of God therein that he hath given unto us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son 1 Joh. 5.10 So Joh. 3.14 15 16 17. The Words of this Life Act. 5.20 All the Counsel of God Act. 20.27 Wherefore in the Dispensation or Preaching of the Gospel this way of Salvation is proposed unto sinners as the great Effect of divine Wisdom and Grace Vnbelief is the Rejection Neglect Non-admission or Disapprobation of it on the Terms whereon and for the Ends for which it is so proposed The Unbelief of the Pharisees upon the preparatory Preaching of John the Baptist is called the rejecting of the Counsel of God against themselves that is unto their own Ruine Luke 7.30 They would none my Counsel is an Expression to the same purpose Prov. 1.30 so is the neglecting of this great Salvation Heb. 2.3 Not giving it that Admission which the Excellency of it doth require A disallowing of Christ The Stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.7 The Builders disapproved of as not meet for that Place and Work whereunto it was designed Act. 4.14 This is Unbelief To disapprove of Christ and the Way of Salvation by him as not answering Divine Wisdom nor suited unto the End designed So is it described by the refusing or not receiving of him all to the same purpose What is intended will be more Evident if we consider the proposal of the Gospel where it issued in Vnbelief in the first preaching of it and where it continueth still so to do 1. Most of those who rejected the Gospel by their Vnbelief did it under this notion that the way of Salvation and Blessedness proposed therein was not a way answering Divine Goodness and Power such as they might safely Confide in and Trust unto This the Apostle declares at large 1 Cor. 1. so he expresseth it ver 23 24. We Preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness But unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God That which they declared unto them in the preaching of the Gospel was That Christ died for our sins according to the Scripture chap. 15.3 Herein they proposed him as the Ordinance of God as the great effect of his Wisdom and Power for the Salvation of sinners But as unto those who continued in their Vnbelief they rejected it as any such way esteeming it both Weakness and Folly And therefore he describeth the Faith of them that are called by their Approbation of the Wisdom and Power of God herein The want of a comprehension of the Glory of God in this way of Salvation rejecting it thereon is that Unbelief which ruines the Souls of men 2 Cor. 4.3 4. So is it with all that continue Vnbelievers under the proposal of the Object of Faith in the Preaching of the Gospel They may give an Assent unto the Truth of it so far as it is a meer Act of the mind at least they find not themselves concerned to reject it Yea they may Assent unto it with that Temporary Faith which we described before and perform many Duties of Religion thereon Yet do they manifest that they are not sincere Believers that they do not believe with the Heart unto Righteousness by many things that are irreconcileable unto and inconsistent with Justifying Faith The Enquiry therefore is wherein the Vnbelief of such persons on the Account whereof they perish doth consist and what is the formal nature of it It is not as was said in the want of an Assent unto the Truths of the Doctrine of the Gospel for from such an Assent are they said in many places of the Scripture to believe as hath been proved And this Assent may be so firm and by various means so radicated in their minds as that in Testimony unto it they may give their Bodies to be burned as men also may do in the confirmation of a false perswasion Nor is it the want of an especial fiduciary Application of the Promises of the Gospel unto themselves and the belief of the pardon of their own sins in particular For this is not proposed unto them in the first preaching of the Gospel as that which they are first to believe and there may be a believing unto Righteousness where this is not attained Isa. 50.10 This will evidence Faith not to be true but it is not formal unbelief Nor is it the want of Obedience unto the precepts of the Gospel in Duties of Holiness and Righteousness For these commands as formally given in and by the Gospel belong only unto them that truly believe and are justified thereon That therefore which is required unto Evangelical Faith wherein the nature of it doth consist as it is the foundation of all future Obedience is the Hearts Approbation of the way of Life and Salvation by Jesus Christ proposed unto it as the Effect of the infinite Wisdom Love Grace and Goodness of God and as that which is suited unto all the wants and whole design of Guilty Convinced sinners This such Persons have not and in the want thereof consists the formal Nature of Vnbelief For without this no man is or can be influenced by the Gospel unto a Relinquishment of sin or encouraged unto Obedience whatever they may do on other grounds and motives that are forraign unto the Grace of it And wherever this Cordial sincere Approbation of the way of Salvation by Jesus Christ proposed in the Gospel doth prevail it will infallibly produce both Repentance and Obedience If the Mind and Heart of a Convinced sinner for of such alone we treat be able spiritually to discern the Wisdom Love and Grace of God in this way of Salvation and be under the power of that perswasion he hath the ground of Repentance and Obedience which is given by the Gospel The receiving of Christ mentioned in the Scripture and whereby the Nature of Faith in its exercise is expressed I refer unto the latter part of the Description given concerning the Souls Acquiescency in God by the way proposed Again Some there were at first and such still continue to be who rejected not this way absolutely and in the notion of it but comparatively as reduced to practice and so perished in their unbelief They judged the way of their own Righteousness to be better as
unto Believing is 1 convinced of sin and exposed unto wrath 2 Hath nothing else to trust unto for Help and Relief 3 Doth actually renounce all other things that tender themselves unto that End and therefore without some Act of Trust the Soul must lye under actual Despair which is utterly inconsistent with Faith or the Choice and Approbation of the way of Salvation before described 5. The most frequent Declaration of the Nature of Faith in the Scripture especially in the Old Testament is by this Trust and that because it is that Act of it which composeth the Soul and brings it unto all the Rest it can attain For all our Rest in this world is from Trust in God And the especial Object of this Trust so far as it belongs unto the Nature of that Faith whereby we are Justified is God in Christ reconciling the World unto himself For this is respected where his Goodness his Mercy his Grace his Name his Faithfulness his Power are expressed or any of them as that which it doth immediately rely upon For they are no way the Object of our Trust nor can be but on the account of the Covenant which is confirmed and ratified in and by the Blood of Christ alone Whether this Trust or Confidence shall be esteemed of the Essence of Faith or as that which on the first fruit and working of it we are found in the exercise of we need not positively determine I place it therefore as that which belongs unto Justifying Faith and is inseparable from it For if all we have spoken before concerning Faith may be comprised under the notion of a firm Assent and Perswasion yet it cannot be so if any such Assent be conceiveable exclusive of this Trust. This Trust is that whereof many Divines do make special mercy to be the peculiar Object and that especial mercy to be such as to include in it the pardon of our own sins This by their Adversaries is fiercely opposed and that on such Grounds as manifest that they do not believe that there is any such state attainable in this Life and that if there were it would not be of any use unto us but rather be a means of security and negligence in our Duty wherein they betray how great is the Ignorance of these things in their own Minds But Mercy may be said to be Especial two ways 1 In it self and in opposition unto common mercy 2 With respect unto him that believes In the first sense Especial mercy is the Object of Faith as Justifying For no more is intended by it but the Grace of God setting forth Christ to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood Rom. 3.23 24. And Faith in this Especial mercy is that which the Apostle calls our Receiving of the Atonement Rom. 5.11 That is our Approbation of it and Adherence unto it as the great Effect of Divine Wisdom Goodness Faithfulness Love and Grace which will therefore never fail them who put their Trust in it In the latter sense it is looked on as the pardon of our own sins in particular the especial mercy of God unto our Souls That this is the Object of Justifying Faith That a man is bound to believe this in order of Nature antecedent unto his Justification I do deny neither yet do I know of any Testimony or safe Experience whereby it may be confirmed But yet for any to deny that an undeceiving belief hereof is to be attained in this life or that it is our duty to believe the pardon of our own sins and the especial Love of God in Christ in the order and method of our duty and priviledges limited and determined in the Gospel so as to come to the full assurance of them though I will not deny but that Peace with God which is inseparable from Justification may be without them seem not to be much acquainted with the Design of God in the Gospel the Efficacy of the Sacrifice of Christ the Nature and Work of Faith or their own Duty nor the professed Experience of Believers recorded in the Scripture See Rom. 5.1 2 3 4 5. Heb. 10.2 10 21 20. Psal. 46.1 2. Psal. 138.7 8. c. Yet it is granted that all these things are rather fruits or effects of Faith as under Exercise and Improvement than of the Essence of it as it is the Instrument in our Justification And the Trust before mentioned which is either Essential to Justifying Faith or inseparable from it is excellently expressed by Bernard De Evangel Ser. 3. Tria considero in quibus tota mea spes consistit charitatem adoptionis veritatem promissionis potestatem redditionis Murmuret jam quantum voluerit insipiens cogitatio mea dicens Quis enim es tu quanta est illa gloria quibusve meritis hanc obtinere speras ego fiducialiter respondebo Scio cui credidi certus sum quia in charitate adoptavit me quia verax in promissione quia potens in exhibitione licet enim ei facere quod voluerit Hic est funiculus triplex qui difficulter rumpitur quem nobis ex patria nostra in hanc terram usque demissum firmiter obsecro teneamus ipse nos sublevet ipse nos trahat pertrahat usque ad conspectum gloriae magni Dei qui est benedictus in secula Concerning this Faith and Trust it is earnestly pleaded by many that Obedience is included in it But as to the way and manner thereof they variously express themselves Socinus and those who follow him absolutely do make Obedience to be the Essential form of Faith which is denied by Episcopius The Papists distinguish between Faith informed and Faith formed by Charity which comes to the same purpose For both are built on this supposition that there may be true Evangelical Faith that which is required as our Duty and consequently is accepted of God that may contain all in it which is comprised in the name and duty of Faith that may be without Charity or Obedience and so be useless For the Socinians do not make Obedience to be the Essence of Faith absolutely but as it justifieth And so they plead unto this purpose that Faith without works is dead But to suppose that a dead Faith or that Faith which is dead is that Faith which is required of us in the Gospel in the way of Duty is a monstrous Imagination Others plead for Obedience Charity the Love of God to be included in the Nature of Faith but plead not directly that this Obedience is the form of Faith but that which belongs unto the perfection of it as it is justifying Neither yet do they say that by this Obedience a continued course of Works and Obedience as though that were necessary unto our first Justification is required but only a sincere active purpose of Obedience and thereon as the manner of our days is load them with reproaches who are otherwise minded if they knew who they
were For how impossible it is according unto their principles who believe Justification by Faith alone that justifying Faith should be without a sincere purpose of Heart to obey God in all things I shall briefly declare For 1 They believe that Faith is not of our selves it is the Gift of God yea that it is a Grace wrought in the Hearts of men by the exceeding greatness of his Power And to suppose such a Grace dead unactive unfruitful not operative unto the Great End of the Glory of God and the transforming of the Souls of them that receive it into his Image is a Reflection on the Wisdom Goodness and Love of God himself 2 That this Grace is in them a principle of spiritual Life which in the habit of it as resident in the Heart is not really distinguished from that of all other Grace whereby we live to God So that there should be Faith habitually in the Heart I mean that Evangelical Faith we enquire after or actually exercised where there is not an habit of all other Graces is utterly impossible Neither is it possible that there should be any Exercise of this Faith unto Justification but where the mind is prepared disposed and determined unto universal Obedience And therefore 3 It is denied that any Faith Trust or Confidence which may be imagined so as to be absolutely separable from and have its whole nature consistent with the absence of all other Graces is that Faith which is the especial Gift of God and which in the Gospel is required of us in a way of Duty And whereas some have said That Men may believe and place their firm Trust in Christ for Life and Salvation and yet not be justified it is a position so destructive unto the Gospel and so full of scandal unto all pious Souls and contains such an express denial of the Record that God hath given concerning his Son Jesus Christ as I wonder that any person of Sobriety and Learning should be surprised unto it And whereas they plead the Experience of multitudes who profess this firm Faith and Confidence in Christ and yet are not justified it is true indeed but nothing unto their purpose For whatever they profess not only not one of them do so in the sight and judgment of God where this matter is to be tried but it is no difficult matter to evict them of the folly and falseness of this profession by the Light and Rule of the Gospel even in their own Consciences if they would attend unto Instruction Wherefore we say the Faith whereby we are justified is such as is not found in any but those who are made partakers of the Holy Ghost and by him united unto Christ whose Nature is renewed and in whom there is a principle of all Grace and purpose of Obedience Only we say it is not any other Grace as Charity and the like nor any Obedience that gives life and form unto this Faith but it is this Faith that gives life and efficacy unto all other Graces and form unto all Evangelical Obedience Neither doth any thing hence accrue unto our Adversaries who would have all those Graces which are in their Root and Principle at least present in all that are to be justified to have the same influence unto our Justification as Faith hath or that we are said to be justified by Faith alone and in Explication of it in answer unto the Reproaches of the Romanists do say we are justified by Faith alone but not by that Faith which is alone that we intend by Faith all other Graces and Obedience also For besides that the nature of no other Grace is capable of that Office which is assigned unto Faith in our Justification nor can be assumed into a society in operation with it namely to receive Christ and the promises of life by him and to give Glory unto God on their Account so when they can give us any Testimony of Scripture assigning our Justification unto any other Grace or all Graces together or all the Fruits of them so as it is assigned unto Faith they shall be attended unto And this in particular is to be affirmed of Repentance concerning which it is most vehemently urged that it is of the same necessity unto our Justification as Faith is For this they say is easily proved from Testimonies of Scripture innumerable which call all men to Repentance that will be saved especially those two eminent places are insisted on Act. 2.38 39. chap. 3.16 but that which they have to prove is not that it is of the same necessity with Faith unto them that are to be justified but that it is of the same use with Faith in their Justification Baptism in that place of the Apostle Act. 2.38 39. is joined with Faith no less than Repentance And in other places it is expresly put into the same condition Hence most of the Antients concluded that it was no less necessary unto Salvation than Faith or Repentance it self Yet never did any of them assign it the same use in Justification with Faith But it is pleaded whatever is a necessary condition of the new Covenant is also a necessary Condition of Justification For otherwise a man might be justified and continuing in his justified estate not be saved for want of that necessary condition For by a necessary Condition of the new Covenant they understand that without which a man cannot be saved But of this Nature is Repentance as well as Faith and so is equally a condition of our Justification The Ambiguity of the signification of the word Condition doth cast much disorder on the present enquiry in the Discourses of some men But to pass it by at present I say final perseverance is a necessary condition of the New Covenant wherefore by this Rule it is also of Justification They say some things are Conditions absolutely such as are Faith and Repentance and a purpose of Obedience some are so on some supposition only namely that a mans life be continued in this world such is a course in Obedience and Good Works and Perseverance unto the End Wherefore I say then that on supposition that a man lives in this World perseverance unto the End is a necessary Condition of his Justification And if so no man can be justified whilst he is in this World For a Condition doth suspend that whereof it is a Condition from Existence until it be accomplished It is then to no purpose to dispute any longer about Justification if indeed no man is nor can be justified in this life But how contrary this is to Scripture and Experience is known If it be said that final perseverance which is so express a Condition of Salvation in the New Covenant is not indeed the Condition of our first Justification but it is the Condition of the Continuation of our Justification then they yield up their grand position that whatever is a necessary Condition of the New Covenant is a
forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood As he is a Propitiation as he shed his Blood for us as we have Redemption thereby he is the peculiar Object of our Faith with respect unto our Justification See to the same purpose Rom. 5.9 10. Ephes. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Ephes. 2.13 14 15 16. Rom. 8.3 4. He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 That which we seek after in Justification is a Participation of the Righteousness of God to be made the Righteousness of God and that not in our selves but in another that is in Christ Jesus And that alone which is proposed unto our Faith as the means and cause of it is his being made sin for us or a Sacrifice for sin wherein all the Guilt of our sins was laid on him and he bare all our Iniquities This therefore is its peculiar Object herein And wherever in the Scripture we are directed to seek for the forgiveness of sins by the Blood of Christ receive the Atonement to be justified through the Faith of him as crucified the Object of Faith in Justification is limited and determined But it may be pleaded in Exception unto the Testimonies that no one of them doth affirm that we are justified by Faith in the Blood of Christ alone so as to exclude the consideration of the other Offices of Christ and their actings from being the Object of Faith in the same manner and unto the same ends with his Sacerdotal Office and what belongs thereunto or is derived from it Answ. This exception derives from that common Objection against the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone namely that That exclusive term alone is not found in the Scripture or in any of the Testimonies that are produced for Justification by Faith But it is replyed with sufficient evidence of Truth that although the word be not found Syllabically used unto this purpose yet there are exceptive Expressions equivalent unto it as we shall see afterwards It is so in this particular instance also For 1 whereas our Justification is expresly ascribed unto our Faith in the Blood of Christ as the Propitiation for our Sins unto our believing in him as Crucified for us and it is no where ascribed unto our receiving of him as King Lord or Prophet it is plain that the former Expressions are virtually exclusive of the later consideration 2 I do not say That the consideration of the Kingly and Prophetical Offices of Christ is excluded from our Justification as works are excluded in Opposition unto Faith and Grace For they are so excluded as that we are to exercise an act of our minds in their positive Rejection as saying Get you hence you have no Lot nor Portion in this matter But as to these Offices of Christ as to the Object of Faith as Justifying we say only that they are not included therein For so to believe to be justified by his Blood as to exercise a positive act of the mind excluding a compliance with his other Offices is an impious Imagination 3. Neither the Consideration of these Offices themselves nor of any of the peculiar Acts of them are suited to give the Souls and Consciences of convinced Sinners that Relief which they seek after in Justification We are not in this whole cause to lose out of our Eye the state of the Person who is to be justified and what it is he doth seek after and ought to seek after therein Now this is Pardon of Sin and Righteousness before God alone That therefore which is no way suited to give or tender this Relief unto him is not nor can be the Object of his Faith whereby he is justified in that exercise of it whereon his justification doth depend This Relief it will be said is to be had in Christ alone it is true but under what Consideration For the sole design of the Sinner is how he may be accepted with God be at peace with him have all his wrath turned away by a Propitiation or Attonement Now this can no otherwise be done but by the acting of some one towards God and with God on his behalf for it is about the turning away of Gods Anger and Acceptance with him that the enquiry is made It is by the Blood of Christ that we are made nigh who were far off Eph. 2.13 By the Blood of Christ are we Reconciled who were Enemies v. 16. By the Blood of Christ we have Redemption Rom. 3.24 25. Eph. 1.7 c. This therefore is the Object of Faith All the actings of the Kingly and Prophetical Offices of Christ are all of them from God that is in the Name and Authority of God towards us Not any one of them is towards God on our behalf so as that by vertue of them we should expect Acceptance with God They are all Good Blessed Holy in themselves and of an eminent tendency unto the Glory of God in our Salvation Yea they are no less necessary unto our Salvation to the praise of Gods Grace then are the Attonement for Sin and Satisfaction which he made for from them is the way of life Revealed unto us Grace communicated our Persons sanctified and the Reward bestowed Yea in the exercise of his Kingly power doth the Lord Christ doth pardon and justifie Sinners Not that he did as a King constitute the Law of Justification for it was given and established in the first Promise and he came to put it in Execution Joh. 3.16 But in the vertue of his Attonement and Righteousness imputed unto them he doth both pardon and justifie Sinners But they are the acts of his Sacerdotal Office alone that respect God on our behalf Whatever he did on Earth with God for the Church in Obedience Suffering and Offering up of himself whatever he doth in Heaven in Intercession and Appearance in the presence of God for us it all entirely belongs unto his Priestly Office And in these things alone doth the Soul of a convinced Sinner find Relief when he seeks after Deliverance from the state of Sin and Acceptance with God In these therefore alone the peculiar Object of his Faith that which will give him Rest and Peace must be comprized And this last consideration is of it self sufficient to determine this difference Sundry things are Objected against this Assertion which I shall not here at large discuss because what is material in any of them will occur on other occasions where its consideration will be more proper In general it may be pleaded that Justifying Faith is the same with saving Faith nor is it said that we are justified by this or that part of Faith but by Faith in General that is as taken essentially for the entire Grace of Faith And as unto Faith in this sense not only a respect unto Christ in all his Offices but Obedience it self also is included in it as is evident in many
1 All our sins past present and to come were at once imputed unto and laid upon Jesus Christ in what sense we shall afterwards enquire He was wounded for our Transgressions He was bruised for our Iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes are we healed All we like Sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath made to meet on Him the Iniquities of us all Isa. 53.6 7. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 The Assertions being indefinite without exception or limitation are equivalent unto Vniversals All our sins were on him he bare them All at once and therefore once died for all 2 He did therefore at once finish Transgression made an End of sin made Reconciliation for Iniquity and brought in everlasting Righteousness Dan. 9.24 At once he expiated all our sins for by himself he purged our sins and then sate down at the right hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 And we are sanctified or dedicated unto God through the offering of the Body of Christ once for all for by one Offering he hath perfected consummated compleated as unto their spiritual state them that are sanctified Heb. 10.10.14 He never will do more than he hath actually done already for the Expiation of all our sins from first to last for there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin I do not say that hereupon our Justification is compleat but only that the meritorious procuring cause of it was at once compleated and is never to be renewed or repeated any more All the enquiry is concerning the renewed Application of it unto our Souls and Consciences whether that be by Faith alone or by the works of Righteousness which we do 3 By our actual Believing with Justifying Faith believing on Christ or his Name we do receive him and thereby on our first Justification become the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 That is joynt heirs with Christ and heirs of God Rom. 8.17 Hereby we have a Right unto and an Interest in all the Benefits of his Mediation which is to be at once compleatly justified For in him we are compleat Col. 2.10 For by the Faith that is in him we do receive the forgiveness of sins and a lot or inheritance among all them that are sanctified Act. 26.18 being immediately justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the Law Act. 13.39 yea God thereon blesseth us with all spiritual Blessings in heavenly things in Christ Ephes. 1.3 All these things are absolutely inseparable from our first believing in him and therefore our Justification is at once compleat In particular 4 On our Believing all our sins are forgiven He hath quickened you together with him having forgiven you all Trespasses Col. 2.13 14 15. For in him we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins according unto the riches of his Grace Ephes. 1.7 which one place obviates all the petulant exceptions of some against the consistency of the free Grace of God in the pardon of sins and the satisfaction of Christ in the procurement thereof 5 There is hereon nothing to be laid unto the charge of them that are so justified For he that believeth hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from Death unto Life Joh. 5.24 And who shall lay any thing unto the charge of Gods Elect it is God that Justifieth it is Christ that died Rom. 8.33 34. and there is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus ver 1. For being justified by Faith we have peace with God chap. 5.1 And 6 we have that Blessedness hereon whereof in this life we are capable Rom. 4.5 6. From all which it appears that our Justification is at once compleat And 7 it must be so or no man can be justified in this world For no time can be assigned nor measure of Obedience be limited whereon it may be supposed that any one comes to be Justified before God who is not so on his first Believing For the Scripture doth no where assign any such time or measure And to say that no man is compleatly justified in the sight of God in this life is at once to overthrow all that is taught in the Scriptures concerning Justification and therewithall all peace with God and comfort of Believers But a man acquitted upon his legal trial is at once discharged of all that the Law hath against him 2. Upon this compleat Justification Believers are obliged unto universal Obedience unto God The Law is not abolished but established by Faith It is neither abrogated nor dispensed withall by such an Interpretation as should take off its obligation in any thing that it requires nor as to the degree and manner wherein it requires it Nor is it possible it should be so For it is nothing but the Rule of that Obedience which the nature of God and man make necessary from the one to the other And that is an Antinomianism of the worst sort and most derogatory unto the Law of God which affirms it to be divested of its power to oblige unto perfect Obedience so as that what it is not so shall as it were in despight of the Law be accepted as if it were so unto the End for which the Law requires it There is no medium but that either the Law is utterly abolished and so there is no sin for where there is no Law there is no Transgression or it must be allowed to require the same Obedience that it did at its first Institution and unto the same degree Neither is it in the power of any man living to keep his Conscience from judging and condemning that whatever it be wherein he is convinced that he comes short of the perfection of the Law Wherefore 3. The Commanding Power of the Law in positive precepts and prohibitions which Justified Persons are subject unto doth make and constitute all their inconformities unto it to be no less truly and properly sins in their own nature than they would be if their persons were obnoxious unto the Curse of it This they are not nor can be for to be obnoxious unto the Curse of the Law and to be justified are contradictory but to be subject to the Commands of the Law and to be justified are not so But it is a subjection to the commanding power of the Law and not an obnoxiousness unto the Curse of the Law that constitutes the nature of sin in its Transgression Wherefore that compleat Justification which is at once though it dissolve the Obligation on the sinner unto punishment by the Curse of the Law yet doth it not annihilate the commanding Authority of the Law unto them that are justified that what is sin in others should not be so in them See Rom. 8.1.33 34. Hence in the first Justification of believing sinners all future sins are remitted as unto
Topicks of the name of God his Mercy Grace Faithfulness tender Compassion Covenant and Promises all manifested and exercised in and through the Lord Christ and his mediation alone Do they not herein place their only trust and confidence for this end that their Sins may be pardoned and their persons though every way unworthy in themselves be accepted with God Doth any other thought enter into their Hearts Do they plead their own Righteousness Obedience and Duties to this purpose Do they leave the prayer of the Publican and betake themselves unto that of the Pharisee And is it not of Faith alone which is that Grace whereby they apply themselves unto the Mercy or Grace of God through the mediation of Christ It is true that Faith herein worketh and acteth it self in and by Godly sorrow Repentance Humiliation Self-judging and Abhorrency Fervency in Prayer and Supplications with an humble waiting for an Answer of Peace from God with engagements unto renewed Obedience But it is Faith alone that makes Applications unto Grace in the Blood of Christ for the continuation of our justified Estate expressing it self in those other ways and effects mentioned from none of which a Believing Soul doth expect the Mercy aimed at 2. The Scripture expresly doth declare this to be the only way of the continuation of our Justification 1 Joh. 2.1 2. These things write I unto you that you sin not And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our Sins It is required of those that are justified that they sin not it is their duty not to sin but yet it is not so required of them as that if in any thing they fail of their Duty they should immediately lose the Priviledge of their Justification Wherefore on a supposition of sin if any man sin as there is no man that liveth and sinneth not what way is prescribed for such persons to take what are they to apply themselves unto that their sin may be pardoned and their acceptance with God continued that is for the continuation of their Justification The course in this case directed unto by the Apostle is none other but the Application of our Souls by Faith unto the Lord Christ as our Advocate with the Father on the account of the Propitiation that he hath made for our Sins Under the consideration of this double Act of his Sacerdotal Office his Oblation and Intercession he is the Object of our Faith in our absolute Justification and so he is as unto the continuation of it So our whole progress in our justified Estate in all the degrees of it is ascribed unto Faith alone It is no part of our enquiry what God requireth of them that are justified There is no Grace no Duty for the substance of them nor for the manner of their performance that are required either by the Law or the Gospel but they are obliged unto them Where they are omitted we acknowledge that the Guilt of sin is contracted and that attended with such Aggravations as some will not own or allow to be confessed unto God himself Hence in particular the Faith and Grace of Believers do constantly and deeply exercise themselves in Godly sorrow Repentance Humiliation for sin and confession of it before God upon their Apprehensions of its Guilt And these Duties are so far necessary unto the continuation of our Justification as that a justified Estate cannot consist with the Sins and Vices that are opposite unto them So the Apostle affirms that if we live after the flesh we shall dye Rom. 8.13 He that doth not carefully avoid falling into the Fire or Water or other things immediately destructive of life natural cannot live But these are not the things whereon life doth depend Nor have the best of our Duties any other respect unto the continuation of our Justification but only as in them we are preserved from those things which are contrary unto it and destructive of it But the sole Question is upon what the continuation of our Justification doth depend not concerning what Duties are required of us in the way of our Obedience If this be that which is intended in this position the continuation of our Justification depends on our own Obedience and Good Works or that our own Obedience and Good Works are the Condition of the continuation of our Justification namely that God doth indispensably require Good Works and Obedience in all that are justified so that a justified estate is inconsistent with the neglect of them it is readily granted and I shall never contend with any about the way whereby they chuse to express the conceptions of their minds But if it be enquired what it is whereby we immediately concur in a way of Duty unto the continuation of our justified estate that is the pardon of our sins and acceptance with God we say it is such alone For the Just shall live by Faith Rom. 1.17 And as the Apostle applies this Divine Testimony to prove our first or absolute Justification to be by Faith alone So doth he also apply it unto the continuation of our Justification as that which is by the same means only Heb. 10.38 39. Now the Just shall live by Faith but if any man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him But we are not of them that draw back unto perdition But of them that believe unto the saving of the Soul The drawing back to perdition includes the loss of a justified Estate really so or in Profession In opposition thereunto the Apostle placeth Believing unto the saving of the Soul that is unto the continuation of Justification unto the end And herein it is that the Just live by Faith and the loss of this life can only be by unbelief So the life which we now live in the flesh is by the Faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2.20 The life which we now lead in the flesh is the continuation of our Justification a life of Righteousness and Acceptation with God in opposition unto a life by the works of the Law as the next words declare ver 21. I do not frustrate the Grace of God for if Righteousness came by the Law then is Christ dead in vain and this life is by Faith in Christ as he loved us and gave himself for us that is as he was a Propitiation for our sins This then is the only way means and cause on our part of the preservation of this life of the continuance of our Justification and herein are we kept by the power of God through Faith unto Salvation Again if the continuation of our Justification dependeth on our own works of Obedience then is the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto us only with respect unto our Justification at first or our first Justification as some speak And this indeed is the Doctrine of the Roman School They teach that
Law but this Personal Righteousness is Evangelical But 1 It will be hard to prove that our Personal Righteousness is any other but our own Righteousness and our own Righteousness is expresly rejected from any Interest in our Justification in the places quoted 2 That Righteousness which is Evangelical in respect of its efficient cause its motives and some especial Ends is legal in respect of the formal Reason of it and our Obligation unto it For there is no Instance of Duty belonging unto it but in general we are obliged unto its performance by virtue of the first Commandment to take the Lord for our God Acknowledging therein his essential verity and soveraign Authority we are obliged to believe all that he shall reveal and to obey in all that he shall command 3 The Good Works rejected from any Interest in our Justification are those whereunto we are created in Christ Jesus Ephes. 2.8 9. the Works of Righteousness which we have done Tit. 3.5 wherein the Gentiles are concerned who never sought for Righteousness by the Works of the Law Rom. 9.30 But it will yet be said that these things are evident in themselves God doth require an Evangelical Righteousness in all that do believe This Christ is not nor is it the Righteousness of Christ. He may be said to be our legal Righteousness but our Evangelical Righteousness he is not And so far as we are Righteous with any Righteousness so far we are justified by it For according unto this Evangelical Righteousness we must be tried if we have it we shall be acquitted and if we have it not we shall be condemned There is therefore a Justification according unto it I answer 1 According to some Authors or Maintainers of this Opinion I see not but that the Lord Christ is as much our Evangelical Righteousness as he is our Legal For our Legal Righteousness he is not in their Judgment by a proper Imputation of his Righteousness unto us but by the Communication of the fruits of what he did and suffered unto us And so he is our Evangelical Righteousness also For our Sanctification is an effect or fruit of what he did and suffered for us Eph. 5.25 26. Tit. 2.14 2. None have this Evangelical Righteousness but those who are in order of nature at least justified before they actually have it For it is that which is required of all that do believe and are justified thereon And we need not much enquire how a man is justified after he is justified 3. God hath not appointed this Personal Righteousness in order unto our Justification before him in this life though he have appointed it to evidence our Justification before others and even in his sight as shall be declared He accepts of it approves of it upon the account of the free Justification of the person in and by whom it is wrought So he had respect unto Abel and his Offering But we are not acquitted by it from any real charge in the sight of God nor do receive Remission of sins on the account of it And those who place the whole of Justification in the Remission of sins making this personal Righteousness the condition of it as the Socinians do leave not any place for the Righteousness of Christ in our Justification 4. If we are in any sense justified hereby in the sight of God we have whereof to boast before him We may not have so absolutely and with respect unto merit yet we have so comparatively and in respect of others who cannot make the same plea for their Justification But all boasting is excluded And it will not relieve to say that this personal Righteousness is of the free Grace and Gift of God unto some and not unto others for we must plead it as our Duty and not as Gods Grace 5. Suppose a person freely Justified by the Grace of God through Faith in the Blood of Christ without respect unto any Works Obedience or Righteousness of his own we do freely grant 1 That God doth indispensably require personal Obedience of him which may be called his Evangelical Righteousness 2 That God doth approve of and accept in Christ this Righteousness so performed 3 That hereby that Faith whereby we are justified is evidenced proved manifested in the sight of God and men 4 That this Righteousness is pleadable unto an acquitment against any charge from Satan the World or our own Consciences 5 That upon it we shall be declared Righteous at the last day and without it none shall so be And if any shall think meet from hence to conclude unto an Evangelical Justification or call Gods acceptance of our Righteousness by that name I shall by no means contend with them And where-ever this enquiry is made not how a sinner guilty of death and obnoxious unto the Curse shall be pardoned acquitted and justified which is by the Righteousness of Christ alone imputed unto him but how a man that professeth Evangelical Faith or Faith in Christ shall be tried judged and whereon as such he shall be justified we grant that it is and must be by his own personal sincere Obedience And these things are spoken not with a design to contend with any or to oppose the opinions of any but only to remove from the principal question in hand those things which do not belong unto it A very few words will also free our enquiry from any concernment in that which is called sentential Justification at the day of Judgment For of what nature soever it be the person concerning whom that sentence is pronounced was 1 actually and compleatly justified before God in this World 2 made partaker of all the Benefits of that Justification even unto a blessed Resurrection in Glory it is raised in Glory 1 Cor. 15. 3 The Souls of the most will long before have enjoyed a blessed Rest with God absolutely discharged and acquitted from all their labours and all their sins There remains nothing but an actual Admission of the whole person into eternal Glory Wherefore this Judgment can be no more but declaratory unto the glory of God and the everlasting Refreshment of them that have believed And without reducing of it unto a new Justification as it is no where called in the Scripture the ends of that solemn Judgment in the manifestation of the Wisdom and Righteousness of God in appointing the way of Salvation by Christ as well as in giving of the Law the publick conviction of them by whom the Law hath been transgressed and the Gospel despised the vindication of the Righteousness power and wisdom of God in the rule of the World by his providence wherein for the most part his paths unto all in this life are in the deep and his footsteps are not known the Glory and Honour of Jesus Christ triumphing over all his Enemies then fully made his footstool and the glorious exaltation of Grace in all that do Believe with sundry other things of an alike tendency
mistake But this is an Imputation ex justitia of works and so that which is of meer Grace can have no place by the Apostles Rule So the Imputation unto us of what is in us is exclusive of Grace in the Apostles sense And on the other hand If the Righteousness of Christ be imputed unto us it must be ex mera Gratia of meer Grace For that is imputed unto us which was not ours antecedently unto that Imputation and so is communicated unto us thereby And here is no place for works nor for any pretence of them In the one way the foundation of Imputation is in our selves in the other it is in another which are irreconcileable 3. Herein both these kinds of Imputation do agree Namely in that whatever is imputed unto us it is imputed for what it is and not for what it is not If it be a perfect Righteousness that is imputed unto us so it is esteemed and judged to be and accordingly are we to be dealt withall even as those who have a perfect Righteousness And if that which is imputed as Righteousness unto us be imperfect or imperfectly so then as such must it be judged when it is imputed and we must be dealt withall as those which have such an imperfect Righteousness and no otherwise And therefore whereas our inherent Righteousness is imperfect they are to be pityed or despised not to be contended withall that are otherwise minded if that be imputed unto us we cannot be accepted on the account thereof as perfectly Righteous without an Error in Judgment 4. Hence the true Nature of that Imputation which we plead for which so many cannot or will not understand is manifest and that both negatively and positively For 1 negatively 1 It is not a judging or esteeming of them to be Righteous who truly and really are not so Such a Judgment is not reducible unto any of the Grounds of Imputation before-mentioned It hath the nature of that which is ex injuria or a false charge only it differs materially from it For that respects evil this that which is good And therefore the clamour of the Papists and others are meer effects of Ignorance or Malice wherein they cry out ad ravim that we affirm God to esteem them to be Righteous who are wicked sinful and polluted But this falls heavily on them who maintain that we are justified before God by our own inherent Righteousness For then a man is judged Righteous who indeed is not so For he who is not perfectly Righteous cannot be Righteous in the sight of God unto Justification 2 It is not a naked Pronunciation or Declaration of any one to be Righteous without a just and sufficient foundation for the Judgment of God declared therein God declares no man to be Righteous but he who is so the whole Question being how he comes so to be 3 It is not the Transmission or Transfusion of the Righteousness of another into them that are to be justified that they should become perfectly and inherently Righteous thereby For it is impossible that the Righteousness of one should be transfused into another to become his subjectively and inherently But it is a great mistake on the other hand to say that therefore the Righteousness of one can no way be made the Righteousness of another which is to deny all Imputation Wherefore 2 Positively This Imputation is an Act of God ex mera Gratia of his meer Love and Grace whereby on the consideration of the Mediation of Christ he makes an effectual Grant and Donation of a true real perfect Righteousness even that of Christ himself unto all that do believe and accounting it as theirs on his own gracious Act both absolves them from sin and granteth them Right and Title unto Eternal Life Hence 4. In this Imputation the thing it self is first imputed unto us and not any of the Effects of it but they are made ours by virtue of that Imputation To say that the Righteousness of Christ that is his Obedience and Sufferings are imputed unto us only as unto their effects is to say that we have the benefit of them and no more but Imputation it self is denied So say the Socinians but they knew well enough and ingenuously grant that they overthrow all true real Imputation thereby Nec enim ut per Christi justitiam justificemur opus est ut illius Justitia nostra fiat justitia sed sufficit ut Christi justitia sit causa nostrae Justificationis hactenus possumus tibi concedere Christi justitiam esse nostram justitiam quatenus nostrum in bonum justitiamque redundat verum tu proprie nostram id est nobis attributam ascriptamque intelligis saith Schlictingius Disp. pro Socin ad Meisner pag. 250. And it is not pleasing to see some among our selves with so great confidence take up the sense and words of these men in their Disputations against the Protestant Doctrine in this cause that is the Doctrine of the Church of England That the Righteousness of Christ is imputed unto us as unto its effects hath this sound sense in it namely that the effects of it are made ours by reason of that Imputation It is so imputed so reckoned unto us of God as that he really communicates all the effects of it unto us But to say the Righteousness of Christ is not imputed unto us only its effects are so is really to overthrow all Imputation For as we shall see the effects of the Righteousness of Christ cannot be said properly to be imputed unto us and if his Righteousness it self be not so Imputation hath no place herein nor can it be understood why the Apostle should so frequently assert it as he doth Rom. 4. And therefore the Socinians who expresly oppose the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ and plead for a Participation of its effects or benefits only do wisely deny any such kind of Righteousness of Christ namely of satisfaction and merit or that the Righteousness of Christ as wrought by him was either satisfactory or meritorious as alone may be imputed unto us For it will readily be granted that what alone they allow the Righteousness of Christ to consist in cannot be imputed unto us whatever benefit we may have by it But I do not understand how those who grant the Righteousness of Christ to consist principally in his satisfaction for us or in our stead can conceive of an Imputation of the effects thereof unto us without an Imputation of the thing it self Seeing it is for that as made ours that we partake of the Benefits of it But from the Description of Imputation and the Instances of it it appeareth that there can be no Imputation of any thing unless the thing it self be imputed nor any Participation of the Effects of any thing but what is grounded on the Imputation of the thing it self Wherefore in our particular case no Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ
God Wherefore the Covenant of Grace could not be procured by any means or cause but that which was the cause of this Covenant of the Mediator or of God the Father with the Son as undertaking the work of Mediation And as this is no where ascribed unto the Death of Christ in the Scripture so to assert it is contrary unto all spiritual Reason and Understanding Who can conceive that Christ by his death should procure the Agreement between God and him that he should dye 3. With respect unto the Declaration of it by especial Revelation This we may call Gods making or establishing of it if we please though making of the Covenant in Scripture is applied principally if not only unto its execution or actual Application unto Persons 2 Sam. 23.5 Jerem. 32.40 This Declaration of the Grace of God and the provision in the Covenant of the Mediator for the making of it effectual unto his Glory is most usually called the Covenant of Grace And this is twofold 1. In the way of a singular and absolute Promise so was it first declared unto and established with Adam and afterwards with Abraham The Promise is the Declaration of the Purpose of God before declared or the free Determination and Counsel of his Will as to his dealing with sinners on the supposition of the Fall and their forfeiture of their first Covenant state Hereof the Grace and Will of God was the only cause Heb. 8.8 And the Death of Christ could not be the means of its procurement For he himself and all that he was to do for us was the substance of that Promise And this Promise as it is declarative of the Purpose or Counsel of the Will of God for the Communication of Grace and Glory unto sinners in and by the mediation of Christ according to the Ways and on the Terms prepared and disposed in his Soveraign Wisdom and Pleasure is formally the New Covenant though something yet is to be added to compleat its Application unto us Now the substance of the first Promise wherein the whole Covenant of Grace was virtually comprized directly respected and expressed the giving of him for the Recovery of Mankind from sin and misery by his death Gen. 3.15 Wherefore if he and all the Benefits of his Mediation his Death and all the Effects of it be contained in the Promise of the Covenant that is in the Covenant it self then was not his death the procuring cause of that Covenant nor do we owe it thereunto 2. In the additional prescription of the way and means whereby it is the Will of God that we shall enter into a Covenant state with him or be interessed in the Benefits of it This being virtually comprized in the absolute Promise for every Promise of God doth tacitly require Faith and Obedience in us is expressed in other places by the way of the Condition required on our part This is not the Covenant but the Constitution of the Terms on our part whereon we are made Partakers of it Nor is the Constitution of these Terms an effect of the death of Christ or procured thereby It is a meer effect of the Soveraign Grace and Wisdom of God The things themselves as bestowed on us communicated unto us wrought in us by Grace are all of them effects of the death of Christ but the Constitution of them to be the Terms and Conditions of the Covenant is an Act of meer Soveraign Wisdom and Grace God so loved the world as to send his only begotten Son to dye not that Faith and Repentance might be the means of Salvation but that all his Elect might believe and that all that believe might not perish but have Life Everlasting But yet it is granted that the Constitution of these Terms of the Covenant doth respect the foederal Transaction between the Father and the Son wherein they were ordered to the praise of the Glory of Gods Grace and so although their constitution was not the procurement of his Death yet without respect unto it it had not been Wherefore the sole cause of Gods making the New Covenant was the same with that of giving Christ himself to be our Mediator namely the Purpose Counsel Goodness Grace and Love of God as it is every where expressed in the Scripture 4 thly The Covenant may be considered as unto the actual Application of the Grace Benefit and Priviledges of it unto any persons whereby they are made real partakers of them or are taken into Covenant with God And this alone in the Scripture is intended by Gods making a Covenant with any It is not a general Revelation or Declaration of the Terms and Nature of the Covenant which some call an universal conditional Covenant on what Grounds they know best seeing the very formal nature of making a Covenant with any includes the actual Acceptation of it and Participation of the Benefits of it by them but a Communication of the Grace of it accompanied with a prescription of Obedience that is Gods making his Covenant with any as all Instances of it in the Scripture do declare It may be therefore enquired what respect the Covenant of Grace hath unto the Death of Christ or what Influence it hath thereunto I answer supposing what is spoken of his being a surety thereof it hath a threefold respect thereunto 1. In that the Covenant as the Grace and Glory of it were prepared in the Counsel of God as the Terms of it was fixed in the Covenant of the Mediator and as it was declared in the Promise was confirmed ratified and made irrevocable thereby This our Apostle insists upon at large Heb. 9.15 16 17 18 19 20. And he compares his Blood in his Death and Sacrifice of himself unto the Sacrifices and their Blood whereby the Old Covenant was confirmed purified dedicated or established ver 18 19. Now these Sacrifices did not procure that Covenant or prevail with God to enter into it but only ratified and confirmed it and this was done in the New Covenant by the Blood of Christ. 2. He thereby underwent and performed all that which in the Righteousness and Wisdom of God was required that the Effects Fruits Benefits and Grace intended designed and prepared in the New Covenant might be effectually accomplished and communicated unto sinners Hence although he procured not the Covenant for us by his death yet he was in his Person Mediation Life and Death the only cause and means whereby the whole Grace of the Covenant is made effectual unto us For 3. All the Benefits of it were procured by him that is all the Grace Mercy Priviledges and Glory that God hath prepared in the Counsel of his Will that were fixed as unto the way of this communication in the Covenant of the Mediator and proposed in the Promises of it are purchased merited and procured by his Death and effectually communicated or applied unto all the Covenanters by virtue thereof with others of his Mediatory Acts. And this
or before thee shall no man living be justified This must be spoken absolutely or with respect unto some one way or cause of Justification If it be spoken absolutely then this work ceaseth for ever and there is indeed no such thing as Justification before God But this is contrary unto the whole Scripture and destructive of the Gospel Wherefore it is spoken with respect unto our own Obedience and works He doth not pray absolutely that he would not enter into Judgment with him for this were to forego his Government of the world but that he would not do so on the account of his own Dutys and Obedience But if so be these Dutys and Obedience did answer in any sense or way what is required of us as a Righteousness unto Justification there was no Reason why he should deprecate a Trial by them or upon them But whereas the Holy Ghost doth so positively affirm that no man living shall be justified in the sight of God by or upon his own Works or Obedience it is I confess marvellous unto me that some should so intepret the Apostle James as if he affirmed the express contrary Namely that we are justified in the sight of God by our own Works whereas indeed he says no such thing This therefore is an Eternal Rule of Truth by or upon his Obedience no man living can be justified in the sight of God It will be said that if God enter into Judgment with any on their own Obedience by and according to the Law then indeed none can be justified before him But God judging according to the Gospel and the terms of the new Covenant men may be justified upon their own Duties Works and Obedience Ans. 1 The negative Assertion is general and unlimited that no man living shall on his own Works or Obedience be justified in the sight of God And to limit it unto this or that way of Judging is not to distinguish but to contradict the Holy Ghost 2 The Judgment intended is only with respect unto Justification as is plain in the words But there is no Judgment on our Works or Obedience with respect unto Righteousness and Justification but by the proper Rule and Measure of them which is the Law If they will not endure the Trial by the Law they will endure no Trial as unto Righteousness and Justification in the sight of God 3 The Prayer and Plea of the Psalmist on this supposition are to this purpose O Lord enter not into Judgment with thy servant by or according unto the Law but enter into Judgment with me on my own Works and Obedience according to the Rule of the Gospel for which he gives this Reason because in thy sight shall no man living be justified which how remote it is from his Intention need not be declared 4 The Judgment of God unto Justification according to the Gospel doth not proceed on our Works of Obedience but upon the Righteousness of Christ and our interest therein by Faith as is too evident to be modestly denied Notwithstanding this exception therefore hence we argue If the most Holy of the servants of God in and after a course of sincere fruitful Obedience testified unto by God himself and Witnessed in their own Consciences that is whilst they have the greatest evidences of their own sincerity and that indeed they are the servants of God do renounce all thoughts of such a Righteousness thereby as whereon in any sense they may be justified before God then there is no such Righteousness in any but it is the Righteousness of Christ alone imputed unto us whereon we are so justified But that so they do and ought all of them so to do because of the general Rule here laid down that in the sight of God no man living shall be justified is plainly affirmed in this Testimony I no way doubt but that many learned men after all their Pleas for an Interest of Personal Righteousness and Works in our Justification before God do as unto their own practice betake themselves unto this method of the Psalmist and cry as the Prophet Daniel doth in the name of the Church we do not present our supplications before thee for our own Righteousness but for thy great mercies Chap. 9.18 And therefore Job as we have formerly observed after a long and earnest defence of his own Faith Integrity and Personal Righteousness wherein he justified himself against the charge of Sathan and men being called to plead his cause in the sight of God and declare on what grounds he expected to be justified before him renounceth all his former Pleas and betakes himself unto the same with the Psalmist Chap. 40.4 Chap. 42.6 It is true in particular cases and as unto some especial end in the Providence of God a man may plead his own Integrity and Obedience before God himself So did Hezekiah when he prayed for the sparing of his life Isa. 38.3 Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in Truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight This I say may be done with respect unto temporal Deliverance or any other particular end wherein the glory of God is concerned So was it greatly in sparing the life of Hezekiah at that time For whereas he had with great Zeal and Industry reformed Religion and restored the true worship of God the cutting him off in the midst of his days would have occasioned the Idolatrous multitude to have reflected on him as one dying under a token of Divine displeasure But none ever made this Plea before God for the absolute Justification of their persons So Nehemiah in that great contest which he had about the worship of God and the service of his house pleads the Remembrance of it before God in his Justification against his Adversaries but resolves his own personal acceptance with God into pardoning mercy and spare me according unto the multitude of thy mercies Chap. 13.22 Another Testimony we have unto the same purpose in the Prophet Isaiah speaking in the name of the Church Cap. 64.6 We are all as an unclean thing and all our Righteousnesses are as filthy Rags It is true the Prophet doth in this place make a deep confession of the sins of the people But yet withal he joyns himself with them and asserts the especial Interest of those concerning whom he speaks by Adoption that God was their Father and they his people Chap. 63.16 Chap. 64.8 9. And the Righteousness of all that are the Children of God are of the same kind however they may differ in Degrees and some of them may be more Righteous than others But it is all of it described to be such as that we cannot I think justly expect Justification in the sight of God upon the account of it But whereas the consideration of the nature of our inherent Righteousness belongs unto the second way of the confirmation of our present Argument I
〈◊〉 I Paul have written it with my own hand that he would answer for both and pay back a valuable consideration if required Hereby was he obliged in his own person to make satisfaction unto Philemon but yet he was to do it for Onesimus and not for himself Whatever Obedience therefore was due from the Lord Christ as to his Humane Nature whilest in the form of a servant either as a Man or as an Israelite seeing he was so not necessarily by the necessity of nature for himself but by voluntary condescension and stipulation for us for us it was and not for himself 5. The Lord Christ in his Obedience was not a private but a publick person He obeyed as he was the Surety of the Covenant as the Mediator between God and Man This I suppose will not be denied He can by no imagination be considered out of that capacity But what a publick person doth as a publick person that is as a Representative of others and an undertaker for them whatever may be his own concernment therein he doth it not for himself but for others And if others were not concerned therein if it were not for them what he doth would be of no use or signification Yea it implies a contradiction that any one should do any thing as a publick person and do it for himself only He who is a publick person may do that wherein he alone is concerned but he cannot do so as he is a publick person Wherefore as Socinus and those that follow him would have Christ to have offered for himself which is to make him a Mediator for himself his offering being a Mediatory act which is both foolish and impious so to affirm his Mediatory Obedience his Obedience as a publick person to have been for himself and not for others hath but little less of impiety in it 6. It is granted That the Lord Christ having an Humane Nature which was a Creature it was impossible but that it should be subject unto the Law of Creation For there is a Relation that doth necessarily arise from and depend upon the Beings of a Creator and a Creature Every rational Creature is eternally obliged from the Nature of God and its Relation thereunto to love him obey him depend upon him submit unto him and to make him its End Blessedness and Reward But the Law of Creation thus considered doth not respect the World and this life only but the future state of Heaven and Eternity also And this Law the Humane Nature of Christ is subject unto in Heaven and Glory and cannot but be so whilest it is a Creature and not God that is whilest it hath its own Being Nor do any Men fancy such a transfusion of divine properties into the Humane Nature of Christ as that it should be self-subsisting and in it self absolutely immense for this would openly destroy it Yet none will say that he is now 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Law in the sense intended by the Apostle But the Law in the sense described the Humane Nature of Christ was subject unto on its own account whilest he was in this World And this is sufficient to answer the Objection of Socinus mentioned at the entrance of this Discourse namely That if the Lord Christ were not obliged unto Obedience for himself then might he if he would neglect the whole Law or infringe it For besides that it is a foolish imagination concerning that holy thing which was hypostatically united unto the Son of God and thereby rendered incapable of any deviation from the Divine Will the eternal indispensible Law of Love Adherence and Dependance on God under which the Humane Nature of Christ was and is as a Creature gives sufficient security against such Suppositions But there is another consideration of the Law of God namely as it is imposed on Creatures by especial dispensation for some time and for some certain end with some Considerations Rules and Orders that belong not essentially unto the Law as before described This is the nature of the Written Law of God which the Lord Christ was made under not necessarily as a Creature but by especial dispensation For the Law under this consideration is presented unto us as such not absolutely and eternally but whilest we are in this World and that with this especial end that by Obedience thereunto we may obtain the reward of Eternal Life And it is evident that the Obligation of the Law under this consideration ceaseth when we come to the injoyment of that Reward It obligeth us no more formally by its command Do this and live when the life promised is injoyed In this sense the Lord Christ was not made subject unto the Law for himself nor did yield obedience unto it for himself For he was not obliged unto it by virtue of his created condition Upon the first instant of the Vnion of his natures being holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners he might notwithstanding the Law that he was made subject unto have been stated in Glory For he that was the object of all Divine Worship needed not any new Obedience to procure for him a state of Blessedness And had he naturally meerly by virtue of his being a Creature been subject unto the Law in this sense he must have been so eternally which he is not For those things which depend solely on the Natures of God and the Creature are eternal and immutable Wherefore as the Law in this sense was given unto us not absolutely but with respect unto a future state and reward so the Lord Christ did voluntarily subject himself unto it for us and his Obedience thereunto was for us and not for himself These things added unto what I have formerly written on this subject whereunto nothing hath been opposed but a few impertinent cavils are sufficient to discharge the first part of that charge laid down before concerning the impossibility of the Imputation of the Obedience of Christ unto us which indeed is equal unto the Impossibility of the Imputation of the Disobedience of Adam unto us whereby the Apostle tells us That we were all made sinners The second part of the Objection or Charge against the Imputation of the Obedience of Christ unto us is That it is useless unto the persons that are to be justified For whereas they have in their Justification the pardon of all their sins they are thereby righteous and have a right or title unto Life and Blessedness For he who is so pardoned as not to be esteemed guilty of any sin of omission or commission wants nothing that is requisite thereunto For he is supposed to have done all that he ought and to have omitted nothing required of him in a way of duty Hereby he becomes not unrighteous and to be not unrighteous is the same as to be righteous As he that is not dead is alive Neither is there nor can there be any middle state between Death and life Wherefore
when he denies that by the Works of the Law any can be justified is the entire Rule and Guide of our Obedience unto God even as unto the whole frame and spiritual Constitution of our Souls with all the Acts of Obedience or Duties that he requireth of us And 2. That the Works of this Law which he so frequently and plainly excludeth from our Justification and therein opposeth to the Grace of God and the Blood of Christ are all the Duties of Obedience Internal Supernatural External Ritual however we are or may be enabled to perform them that God requireth of us And these things excluded it is the Righteousness of Christ alone imputed unto us on the account whereof we are justified before God The Truth is so far as I can discern the real Difference that is at this Day amongst us about the Doctrine of our Justification before God is the same that was between the Apostle and the Jews and no other But Controversies in Religion make a great Appearance of being new when they are only varied and made different by the new Terms and Expressions that are introduced into the handling of them So hath it fallen out in the Controversie about Nature and Grace For as unto the true nature of it it is the same in these days as it was between the Apostle Paul and the Pharisees between Austin and Pelagius afterwards But it hath now passed through so many forms and dresses of Words as that it can scarce be known to be what it was Many at this day will condemn both Pelagius and the Doctrine that he taught in the Words wherein he taught it and yet embrace and approve of the things themselves which he intended The Introduction of every Change in Philosophical Learning gives an Appearance of a Change in the Controversies which are managed thereby But take off the covering of Philosophical Expressions Distinctions Metaphysical Notions and futilous Terms of Art which some of the Ancient Schoolmen and later Disputants have cast upon it and the Difference about Grace and Nature is amongst us all the same that it was of old and as it is allowed by the Socinians Thus the Apostle treating of our Justification before God doth it in these Terms which are both expressive of the thing it self and were well understood by them with whom he had to do such as the Holy Spirit in their Revelation had consecrated unto their proper use Thus on the one hand he expresly excludes the Law our own Works our own Righteousness from any interest therein and in opposition unto and as inconsistent with them in the matter of Justification he ascribes it wholly unto the Righteousness of God Righteousness imputed unto us the Obedience of Christ Christ made Righteousness unto us the blood of Christ as a Propitiation Faith receiving Christ and the Atonement There is no avvakened Conscience guided by the least beam of spiritual Illumination but in it self plainly understands these things and what is intended in them But through the Admission of Exotick Learning with Philosophical Terms and notions into the way of teaching Spiritual things in Religion a new face and Appearance is put on the whole matter and a Composition made between those things which the Apostle directly opposeth as contrary and inconsistent Hence are all our Discourses about Preparations Dispositions Conditions Merits de congruo condigno with such a train of Distinctions as that if some bounds be not fixed unto the inventing and coyning of them which being a facile Work grows on us every day we shall not e're long be able to look through them so as to discover the things intended or rightly to understand one another For as one said of lies so it may be said of arbitrary distinctions they must be continually new thatched over or it will rain through But the best way is to cast of all these coverings and we shall then quickly see that the real difference about the Justification of a Sinner before God is the same and no other as it was in the days of the Apostle Paul between him and the Jews And all those things which men are pleased now to plead for with respect unto a Causality in our Justification before God under the Names of Preparations Conditions Dispositions Merit with respect unto a first or second Justification are as effectually excluded by the Apostle as if he had expresly named them every one For in them all there is a management according unto our Conceptions and the Terms of the Learning passant in the present Age of the Plea for our own personal Righteousness which the Jews maintained against the Apostle And the true Understanding of what he intends by the Law the Works and Righteousness thereof would be sufficient to determine this Controversie but that men are grown very Skilful in the Art of endless Wrangling CHAP. XV. Faith alone THe Truth which we plead hath two Parts 1. That the Righteousness of God imputed to us unto the Justification of Life is the Righteousness of Christ by whose Obedience we are made Righteous 2. That it is Faith alone which on our Part is required to interest us in that Righteousness or whereby we comply with Gods Grant and Communication of it or receive it unto our Use and Benefit For although this Faith is in it self the radical Principle of all Obedience and whatever is not so which cannot which doth not on all occasions evidence prove shew or manifest it self by Works is not of the same kind with it yet as we are justified by it its act and Duty is such or of that nature as that no other Grace Duty or Work can be associated with it or be of any Consideration And both these are evidently confirmed in that Description which is given us in the Scripture of the Nature of Faith and believing unto the Justification of life I know that many Expressions used in the Declaration of the Nature and Work of Faith herein are Metaphorical at least are generally esteemed so to be But they are such as the Holy Ghost in his Infinite Wisdom thought meet to make use of for the Instruction and Edification of the Church And I cannot but say that those who understand not how effectually the light of knowledg is communicated unto the minds of them that believe by them and a sense of the things intended unto their Spiritual Experience seem not to have taken a due consideration of them Neither whatever Skill we pretend unto do we know always what expressions of Spiritual things are Metaphorical Those oftentimes may seem so to be which are most proper However it is most safe for us to adhere unto the Expressions of the Holy Spirit and not to embrace such senses of things as are inconsistent with them and opposite unto them Wherefore 1. That Faith whereby we are justified is most frequently in the New Testament expressed by receiving This notion of Faith hath been before spoken unto
in our general Enquiry into the use of it in our Justification It shall not therefore be here much again insisted on Two things we may observe concerning it 1. That it is so expressed with respect unto the whole Object of Faith or unto all that doth any way concur unto our Justification For 1. We are said to receive Christ himself Vnto as many as have received him he gave power to become the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord Col. 2.6 In Opposition hereunto Unbelief is exprest by not receiving of him Joh. 11.1 Chap. 3.11 Chap. 12.48 Chap. 14.17 And it is a receiving of Christ as he is the Lord our Righteousness as of God he is made Righteousness unto us And as no Grace no Duty can have any co-operation with Faith herein this Reception of Christ not belonging unto their Nature nor comprized in their Exercise so it excludes any other Righteousness from our Justification but that of Christ alone For we are justified by Faith Faith alone receiveth Christ and what it receives is the Cause of our Justification whereon we become the Sons of God So we receive the Atonement made by the blood of Christ Rom. 5.11 For God hath set him forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood And this receiving of the Atonement includeth the Souls Approbation of the way of Salvation by the blood of Christ and and the Appropriation of the Atonement made thereby unto our own Souls For thereby also we receive the forgiveness of Sins That they may receive the forgiveness of Sin through the Faith that is in me Acts 26.18 In receiving Christ we receive the Atonement and in the Atonement we receive the forgiveness of Sins But moreover the Grace of God and Righteousness it self as the Efficient and Material Cause of our Justification are received also even the Abundance of Grace and the Gift of Righteousness Rom. 5.17 So that Faith with the respect unto all the Causes of Justification is expressed by receiving For it also receiveth the Promise the Instrumental Cause on the Part of God thereof Acts 2.41 Heb. 9.15 2. That the Nature of Faith and its acting with respect unto all the Causes of Justification consisting in receiving that which is the Object of it must be offered tendred and given unto us as that which is not our own but is made our own by that giving and receiving This is evident in the general Nature of receiving And herein as was observed as no other Grace or Duty can concur with it so the Righteousness whereby we are justified can be none of our own antecedent unto this Reception nor at any time inherent in us Hence we argue That if the Work of Faith in our Justification be receiving of what is freely granted given communicated and imputed unto us that is of Christ of the Attonement of the Gift of Righteousness of the forgiveness of Sins than have our other Graces our Obedience Duties Works no influence into our Justification nor are any Causes or Conditions thereof For they are neither that which doth receive nor that which is received which alone concur thereunto 2. Faith is expressed by looking Look unto me and be saved Isa. 45.22 A man shall look to his Maker and his Eyes shall have respect unto the Holy One of Israel Chap. 17.1 They shall look on me whom they have pierced Zech. 12.10 See Psal. 123.2 The nature hereof is expressed Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life For so was he to be lifted up on the Cross in his Death Joh. 8.28 Chap. 12.32 The Story is recorded Numb 21.8 9. I suppose none doubt but that the Stinging of the people by fiery Serpents and the Death that ensued thereon were Types of the guilt of Sin and the Sentence of the fiery Law thereon For these things happened unto them in Types 1 Cor. 10.11 When any was so stung or bitten if he betook himself unto any other Remedies he dyed and perished Only they that looked unto the Brazen Serpent that was lifted up were healed and lived For this was the Ordinance of God this way of healing alone had he appointed And their healing was a Type of the Pardon of Sin with everlasting life So by their looking is the Nature of Faith expressed as our Saviour plainly expounds it in this P ace So must the Son of man be lifted up that he that believeth on him that is as the Israelites looked unto the Serpent in the Wilderness And although this Expression of the great Mystery of the Gospel by Christ himself hath been by some derided or as they call it exposed yet is it really as instructive of the Nature of Faith Justification and Salvation by Christ as any passage in the Scripture Now if Faith whereby we are justified and in that exercise of it wherein we are so be a looking unto Christ under a sense of the guilt of Sin and our lost Condition thereby for all for our only Help and Relief for Deliverance Righteousness and life then is it therein exclusive of all other Graces and Duties whatever for by them we neither look nor are they the things which we look after But so is the Nature and Exercise of Faith expressed by the Holy Ghost And they who do believe understand his mind For whatever may be pretended of Metaphor in the Expression Faith is that Act of the Soul whereby they who are hopeless helpless and lost in themselves do in a way of expectancy and Trust seek for all help and relief in Christ alone or there is not Truth in it And this also sufficiently evinceth the Nature of our Justification by Christ. 3. It is in like manner frequently expressed by coming unto Christ. Come unto me all ye that labour Mat. 11.28 See Joh. 6.35.37 45 65. Chap. 7.37 To come unto Christ for life and Salvation is to believe on him unto the Justification of life But no other Grace or Duty is a coming unto Christ and therefore have they no place in Justification He who hath been convinced of Sin who hath been wearied with the Burthen of it who hath really designed to fly from the Wrath to come and hath heard the Voice of Christ in the Gospel inviting him to come unto him for Help and Relief will tell you that this coming unto Christ consisteth in a mans going out of himself in a compleat Renunciation of all his own Duties and Righteousness and betaking himself with all his Trust and Confidence unto Christ alone and his Righteousness for pardon of Sin acceptation with God and a right unto the Heavenly Inheritance It may be some will say this is not believing but canting Be it so we refer the Judgment of it to the Church of God 4. It is expressed by flying for Refuge
Heb. 6.18 Who have fled for Refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us Prov. 18.10 Hence some have defined Faith to be perfugium animae the flight of the Soul unto Christ for Deliverance from Sin and Misery And much light is given unto the Understanding of the thing intended thereby For herein it is supposed that he who believeth is antecedently thereunto convinced of his lost condition and that if he abide therein he must perish eternally that he hath nothing of himself whereby he may be delivered from it that he must betake himself unto somewhat else for Relief that unto this end he considereth Christ as set before him and proposed unto him in the Promise of the Gospel that he judgeth this to be an holy a safe way for his Deliverance and Acceptance with God as that which hath the Characters of all Divine Excellencies upon it hereon he flyeth unto it for Refuge that is with diligence and speed that he perish not in his present Condition he betakes himself unto it by placing his whole Trust and Affiance thereon And the whole Nature of our Justification by Christ is better declared hereby unto the supernatural Sense and Experience of Believers than by an hundred Philosophical Disputations about it 5. The Terms and Notions by which it is expressed under the Old Testament are leaning on God Micah 3.11 or Christ Cant. 8.5 rolling or casting our selves and our burthen on the Lord Psal. 22.8 Psal. 37.5 The Wisdom of the Holy Ghost in which Expressions hath by some been prophanely derided Resting on God or in him 2 Chron. 14.11 Psal. 37.7 Cleaving unto the Lord Deut. 4.4 Acts 11.15 as also by Trusting Hoping and Waiting in Places innumerable And it may be observed that those who acted Faith as it is thus expressed do every where declare themselves to be lost hopeless helpless desolate poor Orphans whereon they place all their hope and expectation on God alone All that I would infer from these things is that the Faith whereby we believe unto the Justification of life or which is required of us in a way of Duty that we may be justified is such an Act of the whole Soul whereby convinced Sinners do wholly go out of themselves to rest upon God in Christ for Mercy Pardon Life Righteousness and Salvation with an acquiescency of Heart therein which is the whole of the Truth pleaded for CHAP. XVI The Truth pleaded farther confirmed by Testimonies of Scripture Jer. 23.6 THat which we now proceed unto is the consideration of those Express Testimonies of Scripture which are given unto the Truth pleaded for and especially of those places where the Doctrine of the Justification of Sinners is expresly and designedly handled From them it is that we must learn the Truth and into them must our Faith be resolved unto whose Authority all the arguings and Objections of men must give place By them is more light conveyed into the understandings of Believers than by the most subtle Disputations And it is a thing not without scandal to see among Protestants whole Books written about Justification wherein scarce one Testimony of Scripture is produced unless it be to find out Evasions from the force of them And in particular whereas the Apostle Paul hath most fully and expresly as he had the greatest occasion so to do declared and vindicated the Doctrine of Evangelical Justification not a few in what they write about it are so far from declaring their Thoughts and Faith concerning it out of his Writings as that they begin to reflect upon them as obscure and such as give occasion unto dangerous mistakes and unless as was said to answer and except against them upon their own corrupt Principles seldom or never make mention of them As though we were grown wiser than he or that Spirit whereby he was inspired guided acted in all that he wrote But there can be nothing more Alien from the genius of Christian Religion than for us not to endeavour humbly to learn the Mystery of the Grace of God herein in the Declaration of it made by him But the foundation of God standeth sure what course soever men shall be pleased to take into their Profession of Religion For the Testimonies which I shall produce and insist upon I desire the Reader to observe 1. That they are but some of the many that might be pleaded unto the same purpose 2. That those which have been or yet shall be alledged on particular occasions I shall wholly omit and such are most of them that are given unto this Truth in the Old Testament 3. That in the Exposition of them I shall with what diligence I can attend 1. Unto the Analogy of Faith that is the manifest scope and design of the Revelation of the Mind and will of God in the Scripture And that this is to exalt the Freedom and riches of his own Grace the Glory and Excellency of Christ and his Mediation to discover the woful lost forlorn condition of man by Sin to debase and depress every thing that is in and of our selves as to the attaining Life Righteousness and Salvation cannot be denied by any who have their senses exercised in the Scriptures 2. Unto the Experience of them that do believe with the condition of them who seek after Justification by Jesus Christ. In other things I hope the best helps and Rules of the interpretation of the Scripture shall not be neglected There is weight in this case deservedly laid on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God as promised and given unto us namely the Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 As the name Jehovah being given and ascribed unto him is a full indication of his Divine person so the addition of his being our Righteousness sufficiently declares that in and by him alone we have Righteousness or are made righteous So was he typed by Melchisedec as first the King of Righteousness then the King of Peace Heb. 7.2 For by his Righteousness alone have we Peace with God Some of the Socinians would evade this Testimony by observing that Righteousness in the Old Testament is used sometimes for Benignity Kindness and Mercy and so they suppose it may be here But the most of them avoiding the palpable absurdity of this imagination refer it to the Righteousness of God in deliverance and vindication of his people So Brennius briefly Ita vocatur quia Dominus per manum ejus judicium justitiam faciet Israeli But these are evasions of bold men who care not so they may say somewhat whether what they say be agreeable to the Analogy of Faith or the plain words of the Scripture Bellarmine who was more wary to give some appearance of Truth unto his answers first gives other reasons why he is called the Lord our Righteousness and then whether unawares or over-powered by the evidence of Truth grants that sense of the words which contains the whole of the cause we plead
justified but there is no force in this Argument For 1. The whole nature of Justification is not here declared but only what is required on our part thereunto The respect of it unto the Mediation of Christ was not yet expresly to be brought to light as was shewed before 2. Although the Publican makes his address unto God under a deep sense of the guilt of sin yet he prays not for the bare pardon of sin but for all that sovereign Mercy or Grace God provided for sinners 3. The term of Justification must have the same sense when applied unto the Pharisee as when applied unto the Publican And if the meaning of it with respect unto the Publican be That he was pardoned then hath it the same sense with respect unto the Pharisee he was not pardoned but he came on no such errand He came to be justified not pardoned nor doth he make the least mention of his sin or any sense of it Wherefore although the pardon of sin be included in Justification yet to justifie in this place hath respect unto a Righteousness whereon a Man is declared just and righteous wrapt up on the part of the Publican in the sovereign producing cause The Mercy of God Some few Testimonies may be added out of the other Evangelists in whom they abound As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his name Joh. 1.12 Faith is expressed by the receiving of Christ. For to receive him and to believe on his name are the same It receives him as set forth of God to be a propitiation for sin as the great Ordinance of God for the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners Wherefore this notion of Faith includes in it 1. A supposition of the proposal and tender of Christ unto us for some end and purpose 2. That this proposal is made unto us in the promise of the Gospel Hence as we are said to receive Christ we are said to receive the promise also 3. The end for which the Lord Christ is so proposed unto us in the promise of the Gospel and this is the same with that for which he was so proposed in the first promise namely The recovery and salvation of lost sinners 4 That in the tender of his person there is a tender made of all the Fruits of his Mediation as containing the way and means of our deliverance from sin and acceptance with God 5. There is nothing required on our part unto an interest in the end proposed but receiving of him or believing on his name 6. Hereby are we intitled unto the Heavenly inheritance we have power to become the Sons of God wherein our Adoption is asserted and Justification included What this receiving of Christ is and wherein it doth consist hath been declared before in the consideration of that Faith whereby we are justified That which hence we argue is That there is no more required unto the obtaining of a right and title unto the Heavenly Inheritance but Faith alone in the name of Christ the receiving of Christ as the Ordinance of God for Justification and Salvation This gives us I say our original right thereunto and therein our acceptance with God which is our Justification though more be required unto the actual acquisition and possession of it It is said indeed that other Graces and Works are not excluded though Faith alone be expressed But every thing which is not a receiving of Christ is excluded It is I say virtually excluded because it is not of the nature of that which is required When we speak of that whereby we see we exclude no other member from being a part of the body but we exclude all but the eye from the act of seeing And if Faith be required as it is a receiving of Christ every Grace and Duty which is not so is excluded as unto the end of Justification Chap. 3.14 15 16 17 18. And as Moses lifted up the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved 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 I shall observe only a few things from these words which in themselves convey a better light of understanding in this Mystery unto the minds of Believers then many long discourses of some Learned Men. 1. It is of the justification of Men and their right to eternal Life thereon that our Saviour discourseth This is plain in Ver. 18. He that believeth is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already 2. The means of attaining this condition or state on our part is believing only as it is three times positively asserted without any addition 3. The nature of this Faith is declared 1 By its object that is Christ himself the Son of God whosoever believeth on him which is frequently repeated 2 The especial consideration wherein he is the object of Faith unto the Justification of life and that is as he is the Ordinance of God given sent and proposed from the Love and Grace of the Father God so loved the World that he gave God sent his Son 3 The especial act yet included in the type whereby the design of God in him is illustrated For this was the looking unto the Brazen Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness by them who were stung with Fiery Serpents Hereunto our Faith in Christ unto Justification doth answer and includes a trust in him alone for deliverance and relief This is the way these are the only causes and means of the Justification of condemned sinners and are the Substance of all that we plead for It will be said that all this proves not the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us which is the thing principally inquired after But if nothing be required on our part unto Justification but Faith acted on Christ as the Ordinance of God for our recovery and salvation it is the whole of what we plead for A Justification by the remission of sins alone without a Righteousness giving acceptance with God and a right unto the Heavenly Inheritance is alien unto the Scripture and the common notion of Justification amongst Men. And what this Righteousness must be upon a supposition that Faith only on our part is required unto a participation of it is sufficiently declared in the words wherein Christ himself is so often asserted as the object of our Faith unto that purpose Not to add more particular Testimonies which are multiplied unto the same
purpose in this Evangelist the sum of the Doctrine declared by him is That the Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World that is by the sacrifice of himself wherein he answered and fulfilled all the typical sacrifices of the Law That unto this end he sanctified himself that those who believe might be sanctified or perfected for ever by his own offering of himself That in the Gospel he is proposed as lifted up and crucified for us is bearing all our sins on his Body on the Tree That by Faith 〈◊〉 him we have adoption justification freedom from judgment and condemnation with a right and title unto Eternal Life That those who believe not are condemned already because they believe not on the Son of God and as he elswhere expresseth it make God a lier in that they believe not his Testimony namely That he hath given unto us Eternal Life and that this life is in his Son Nor doth he any where make mention of any other means cause or condition of Justification on our part but Faith only though he aboundeth in Precepts unto Believers for Love and keeping the commands of Christ. And this Faith is the receiving of Christ in the sense newly declared And this is the substance of the Christian Faith in this matter which oft-times we rather obscure then illustrate by debating the consideration of any thing in our Justification but the Grace and Love of God the Person and Mediation of Christ with Faith in them CHAP. XVIII The nature of Justification as declared in the Epistles of S. Paul in that unto the Romans especially Chap. 3. THat the way and manner of our Justification before God with all the Causes and Means of it are designedly declared by the Apostle in the Epistle unto the Romans Chap. 3.4 5. as also vindicated from Objections so as to render his discourse thereon the proper Seat of this Doctrine and whence it is principally to be learned cannot modestly be denied The late exceptions of some That this Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works is found only in the Writings of S. Paul and that his Writings are obscure and intricate are both false and scandalous to Christian Religion so as that in this place we shall not afford them the least consideration He wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he was moved by the Holy Ghost And as all the matter delivered by him was sacred Truth which immediately requires our Faith and Obedience so the way and manner wherein he declared it was such as the Holy Ghost judged most expedient for the edification of the Church And as he said himself with confidence That if the Gospel which he Preached and as it was Preached by him though accounted by them foolishness was hid so as that they could not understand nor comprehend the Mystery of it it was hid unto them that are lost so we may say That if what he delivereth in particular concerning our Justification before God seems obscure difficult or perplexed unto us it is from our prejudices corrupt affections or weakness of understanding at best not able to comprehend the glory of this Mystery of the Grace of God in Christ and not from any defect in his way and manner of the Revelation of it Rejecting therefore all such perverse insinuations in a due sense of our own weakness and acknowledgment that at best we know but in part we shall humbly inquire into the Blessed Revelation of this great Mystery of the Justification of a sinner before God as by him declared in those Chapters of his glorious Epistle to the Romans and I shall do it with all briefness possible so as not on this occasion to repeat what hath been already spoken or to anticipate what may be spoken in place more convenient The first thing he doth is to prove all men to be under sin and to be guilty before God This he giveth as the conclusion of his preceding discourse from Chap. 1.18 or what he had evidently evinced thereby Chap. 3. ver 19 23. Hereon an inquiry doth arise how any of them come to be justified before God And whereas Justification is a sentence upon the consideration of a Righteousness his grand inquiry is what that Righteousness is on the consideration whereof a Man may be so justified And concerning this he affirms expresly that it is not the Righteousness of the Law nor of the Works of it whereby what he doth intend hath been in part before declared and will be further manifested in the proofs of our discourse Wherefore in general he declares that the Righteousness whereby we are justified is the Righteousness of God in opposition unto any Righteousness of our own Chap. 1.17 Chap. 3.21 22. And he describes this Righteousness of God by three properties 1. That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Law Ver. 21. separated in all its concerns from the Law not attainable by it nor any works of it which they have no influence into It is neither our obedience unto the Law nor attainable thereby Nor can any expression more separate and exclude the Works of Obedience unto the Law from any concernment in it then this doth Wherefore what ever is or can be performed by our selves in obedience unto the Law is rejected from any interest in this Righteousness of God or the procurement of it to be made ours 2. That yet it is witnessed unto by the Law Ver. 21. The Law and the Prophets The Apostle by this distinction of the Books of the Old Testament into the Law and the Prophets manifests that by the Law he understands the Books of Moses and in them Testimony is given unto this Righteousness of God four ways 1. By a declaration of the causes of the necessity of it unto our Justification This is done in the account given of our Apostasie from God of the loss of his Image and the state of sin that insued thereon For hereby an end was put unto all possibility and hope of acceptance with God by our own Personal Righteousness By the entrance of sin our own Righteousness went out of the World so that there must be another Righteousness prepared and approved of God and called The Righteousness of God in opposition unto our own or all Relation of Love and Favor between God and Man must cease for ever 2. In the way of recovery from this state generally declared in the first Promise of the Blessed Seed by whom this Righteousness of God was to be wrought and introduced for he alone was to make an end of sin and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 9.24 That Righteousness of God that should be the means of the Justification of the Church in all ages and under all dispensations 3. By stopping up the way unto any other Righteousness through the Threatnings of the Law and that Curse which every transgression of it was attended withal
in as much because Only we must say that here is a reason given Why Death passed on all Men in as much as all have sinned that is in that sin whereby death entred into the World It is true Death by vertue of the original constitution of the Law is due unto every sin when ever it is committed But the present inquiry is how Death passed at once on all Men how they came liable and obnoxious unto it upon its first entrance by the actual sin of Adam which cannot be by their own actual sin Yea the Apostle in the next Verses affirms That death passed on them also who never sinned actually or as Adam did whose sin was actual And if the actual sins of Men in imitation of Adams sin were intended then should Men be made liable to Death before they had sinned For Death upon its first entrance into the World passed on all Men before any one Man had actually sinned but Adam only But that Men should be liable unto Death which is nothing but the punishment of sin when they have not sinned is an open contradiction For although God by his sovereign Power might inflict Death on an innocent Creature yet that an innocent Creature should be guilty of death is impossible For to be guilty of death is to have sinned Wherefore this expression In as much as all have sinned expressing the desert and guilt of death then when sin and death first entred into the World no sin can be intended in it but the sin of Adam and our interest therein Eramus enim omnes ille unus homo And this can be no otherwise but by the imputation of the guilt of that sin unto us For the act of Adam not being ours inherently and subjectively we cannot be concerned in its Effect but by the imputation of its guilt For the communication of that unto us which is not inherent in us is that which we intend by imputation This is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the intended collation which I have insisted the longer on because the Apostle lays in it the foundation of all that he afterwards infers and asserts in in the whole comparison And here some say there is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his discourse that is he layeth down the Proposition on the part of Adam but doth not shew what answereth to it on the contrary in Christ. And Origen gives the reason of the silence of the Apostle herein namely Lest what is to be said therein should be abused by any unto sloth and negligence For whereas he says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as which is a note of similitude By one Man sin entred into the World and Death by sin so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or reddition should be So by one Righteousness entred into the World and Life by Righteousness This he acknowledgeth to be the genuine filling up of the comparison but was not expressed by the Apostle Lest Men should abuse it unto negligence or security supposing that to be done already which should be done afterwards But as this plainly contradicts and everts most of what he further asserts in the Exposition of the place so the Apostle concealed not any Truth upon such considerations And as he plainly expresseth that which is here intimated Ver. 19. So he shews how foolish and wicked any such imaginations are as suppose that any countenance is given hereby unto any to indulge themselves in their sins Some grant therefore that the Apostle doth conceal the Expression of what is ascribed unto Christ in opposition unto what he had affirmed of Adam and his sin unto Ver. 19. But the truth is it is sufficiently included in the close of Ver. 14. where he affirms of Adam that in those things whereof he treats He was the Figure of him that was to come For the way and manner whereby he introduced Righteousness and Life and communicated them unto Men answered the way and manner whereby Adam introduced sin and death which passed on all the World Adam being the Figure of Christ look how it was with him with respect unto his Natural Posterity as unto sin and death so it is with the Lord Christ the Second Adam and his Spiritual Posterity with respect unto Righteousness and Life Hence we argue If the actual sin of Adam was so imputed unto all his posterity as to be accounted their own sin unto condemnation then is the actual obedience of Christ the Second Adam imputed unto all his Spiritual Seed that is unto all Believers unto Justification I shall not here further press this Argument because the ground of it will occur unto us afterwards The two next Verses containing an Objection and an Answer returned unto them wherein we have no immediate concernment I shall pass by Vers. 15 16. The Apostle proceeds to explain his Comparison in those things wherein there is a dissimilitude between the comparates But not as the offence so is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead much more the Grace of God and the gift by Grace by one Man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many The opposition is between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the one hand and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on the other between which a dissimilitude is asserted not as unto their opposite effects of Death and Life but only as unto the degrees of their efficacy with respect unto those effects 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the offence the fall the sin the transgression that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the disobedience of one Ver. 19. Hence the first sin of Adam is generally called the fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which is opposed hereunto is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Donum Donum gratuitum Beneficium id quod Deus gratificatur that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is immediately explained The grace of God and the free gift by grace through Jesus Christ. Wherefore although this word in the next verse doth precisely signifie the Righteousness of Christ yet here it comprehends all the causes of our Justification in opposition unto the fall of Adam and the entrance of sin thereby The consequent and effect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the offence the fall is that many be dead No more is here intended by many but only that the effects of that one offence were not confined unto one And if we inquire who or how many those many are the Apostle tells us that they are all Men universally that is all the posterity of Adam By this one offence because they all sinned therein they are all dead that is rendered obnoxious and liable unto death as the punishment due unto that one offence And hence also it appears how vain it is to wrest those words of Ver. 12. In as much as all have sinned unto any other sin but the first sin in Adam seeing it is given as the reason why death passed on them it being here plainly affirmed That they
things we may observe in the Apostles assignation of the causes of our deliverance from a state of sin and acceptance with God 1. That he assigns the whole of this work absolutely unto Grace Love and Mercy and that with an exclusion of the consideration of any thing on our part as we shall see immediately Ver. 5 8. 2. He magnifies this Grace in a marvellous manner For 1. He expresseth it by all names and titles whereby it is signified as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercy Love Grace and Kindness For he would have us to look only unto Grace herein 2. He ascribes such Adjuncts and gives such Epithets unto that Divine Mercy and Grace which is the sole cause of our deliverance in and by Jesus Christ as render it singular and herein solely to be adored 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rich in Mercy Great Love wherewith he loved us The exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness Ver. 4 5 6 7. It cannot reasonably be denied but that the Apostle doth design deeply to affect the Mind and Heart of Believers with a sense of the Grace and Love of God in Christ as the only cause of their Justification before God I think no words can express those conceptions of the Mind which this Representation of Grace doth suggest Whether they think it any part of their duty to be like minded and comply with the Apostle in this design who scarce ever mention the Grace of God unless it be in a way of diminution from its efficacy and unto whom such Ascriptions unto it as are here made by him are a matter of contempt is not hard to judge But it will be said these are good words indeed but they are only general there is nothing of Argument in all this adoring of the Grace of God in the work of our Salvation It may be so it seems to many But yet to speak plainly there is to me more Argument in this one consideration namely of the Ascription made in this cause unto the Grace of God in this place then in an hundred Sophisms suited neither unto the expressions of the Scripture nor the experience of them that do believe He that is possessed with a due apprehension of the Grace of God as here represented and under a sense that it was therein the design of the Holy Ghost to render it glorious and alone to be trusted unto will not easily be induced to concern himself in those additional supplies unto it from our own works and obedience which some would suggest unto him But we may yet look further into the words The case which the Apostle states the inquiry which he hath in hand whereon he determineth as to the Truth wherein he instructs the Ephesians and in them the whole Church of God is How a lost condemned sinner may come to be accepted with God and thereon saved And this is the sole inquiry wherein we are or intend in this controversie to be concerned Further we will not proceed either upon the invitation or provocation of any Concerning this his position and determination is That we are saved by Grace This first he occasionally interposeth in his enumeration of the benefits we receive by Christ Ver. 5. But not content therewith he again directly asserts it Ver. 8. in the same words for he seems to have considered how slow Men would be in the admittance of this Truth which at once deprives them of all boastings in themselves What it is that he intends by our being saved must be inquired into It would not be prejudicial unto but rather advance the truth we plead for if by our being saved eternal Salvation were intended But that cannot be the sense of it in this place otherwise than as that Salvation is included in the causes of it which are effectual in this life Nor do I think that in that expression By Grace ye are saved our Justification only is intended although it be so principally Conversion unto God and Sanctification are also included therein as is evident from Ver. 5 6. And they are no less of sovereign Grace than is our Justification it self But the Apostle speaks of what the Ephesians being now Believers and by vertue of their being so were made partakers of in this life This is manifest in the whole context For having in the beginning of the Chapter described their condition what it was in common with all the Posterity of Adam by nature Ver. 1 2 3. He moreover declares their condition in particular in opposition to that of the Jews as they were Gentiles Idolaters Atheists Ver. 11 12. Their present delivery by Jesus Christ from this whole miserable state and condition that which they were under in common with all mankind and that which was a peculiar aggravation of its misery in themselves is that which he intends by their being saved That which was principally designed in the description of this state is That therein and thereby they were liable unto the wrath of God guilty before him and obnoxious unto his judgment This he expresseth in the declaration of it Ver. 3. Answerable unto that method and those grounds he every where proceeds on in declaring the Doctrine of Justification Rom. 3.19 20 21 22 23 24. Tit. 3.3 4 5. From this state they had deliverance by Faith in Christ Jesus For unto as many as received him power is given to be the sons of God Joh. 1.12 He that believeth on him is not condemned that is he is saved in the sense of the Apostle in this place Joh. 3.15 He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life is saved but he that believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him Ver. 36. And in this sense saved and Salvation are frequently used in the Scripture Besides he gives us so full a description of the Salvation which he intends from Ver. 13. unto the end of the Chapter that there can be no doubt of it It is our being made nigh by the Blood of Christ Ver. 13. Our Peace with God by his death Ver. 14 15. Our Reconciliation by the Blood of the Cross Ver. 16. Our access unto God and all Spiritual priviledges thereon depending Ver. 18 19 20 c. Wherefore the inquiry of the Apostle and his determination thereon is concerning the causes of our Justification before God This he declares and fixeth both Positively and Negatively Positively 1. In the supream moving Cause on the part of God This is that free sovereign Grace and Love of his which he illustrates by its adjuncts and properties before mentioned 2. In the meritorious procuring cause of it which is Jesus Christ in the Work of his Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the rendring this Grace effectual unto his Glory Ver. 7 13 16. 3. In the only means or instrumental cause on our part which is Faith By Grace are ye saved through Faith Ver. 8. And lest he should seem to derogate any thing from the Grace
believe in answer unto the commands of the Gospel and not to be thereon in the same instant of time absolutely justified is not to dispute about any point of Religion but plainly to deny the whole truth of the Gospel But it is Faith alone that gives power and efficacy unto Gospel Commands effectually to influence the Soul unto Obedience Wherefore this Obligation is more powerfully constraining as they are given unto those that are justified then if they were given them in order unto their Justification Secondly The Apostle answers as we do also Do we then make void the Law through Faith God forbid yea we establish the Law For although the Law is principally established in and by the Obedience and Sufferings of Christ Rom. 8.3 4. Chap. 10.3 4. Yet is it not by the Doctrine of Faith and the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto the Justification of life made void as unto Believers Neither of these do exempt them from that Obligation unto universal Obedience which is prescribed in the Law They are still obliged by vertue thereof to love the Lord their God with all their Hearts and their Neighbours as themselves They are indeed freed from the Law and all its commands unto Duty as it abides in its first consideration Do this and live the opposite whereunto is Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Law to do them For he that is under the Obligation of the Law in order unto Justification and Life falls inevitably under the Curse of it upon the supposition of any one Transgression But we are made free to give Obedience unto it on Gospel motives and for Gospel ends as the Apostle declares at large Rom. 6. And the Obligation of it is such unto all Believers as that the least Transgression of it hath the nature of sin But are they hereon bound over by the Law unto everlasting punishment or as some phrase it will God damn them that Transgress the Law without which all this is nothing I ask again what they think hereof And upon a supposition that he will do so what they further think will become of themselves For my part I say no even as the Apostle saith There is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus Where then they will say is the necessity of Obedience from the Obligation of the Law if God will not damn them that Transgress it And I say it were well if some men did understand what they say in these things or would learn for a while at least to hold their peace The Law equally requires Obedience in all instances of Duty if it require any at all As unto its Obligatory power it is capable neither of Dispensation nor Relaxation so long as the essential differences of good and evil do remain If then none can be obliged unto Duty by vertue of its commands but that they must on every Transgression fall under its curse either it obligeth no one at all or no one can be saved But although we are freed from the Curse and condemning power of the Law by him who hath made an end of sin and brought in everlasting Righteousness yet whilest we are viatores in order unto the accomplishment of Gods design for the Restauration of his Image in us we are obliged to endeavour after all that Holiness and Righteousness which the Law requires of us Thirdly The Apostle answereth this Objection by discovering the necessary Relation that Faith hath unto the Death of Christ the grace of God with the nature of Sanctification excellency use and advantage of Gospel Holiness and the end of it in Gods appointment This he doth at large in the whole Sixth Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans and that with this immediate design to shew the consistency of Justification by Faith alone with the necessity of personal Righteousness and Holiness The due pleading of these things would require a just and full Exposition of that Chapter wherein the Apostle hath comprized the chief springs and reasons of Evangelical Obedience I shall only say that those unto whom the reasons of it and motives unto it therein expressed which are all of them compliant with the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ are not effectual unto their own personal Obedience and do not demonstrate an indispensible necessity of it are so unacquainted with the Gospel the nature of Faith the genius and inclination of the new Creature for let men scoff on whilest they please he that is in Christ Jesus is a new Creature the constraining efficacy of the grace of God and love of Christ of the Oeconomy of God in the disposition of the causes and means of our Salvation as I shall never trouble my self to contend with them about these things Sundry other considerations I thought to have added unto the same purpose And to have shewed 1 That to prove the necessity of inherent Righteousness and Holiness we make use of the Arguments which are suggested unto us in the Scripture 2 That we make use of all of them in the sense wherein and unto the ends for which they are urged therein in perfect compliance with what we teach concerning Justification 3 That all the pretended Arguments or motives for and unto Evangelical Holiness which are inconsistent with the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ do indeed obstruct it and evert it 4 That the Holiness which we make necessary unto the Salvation of them that believe is of a more excellent sublime and Heavenly nature in its causes essence operations and effects than what is allowed or believed by the most of those by whom the Doctrine of Justification is opposed 5 That the Holiness and Righteousness which is pleaded for by the Socinians and those that follow them doth in nothing exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees nor upon their principles can any man go beyond them But whereas this Discourse hath already much exceeded my first intention and that as I said before I have already at large treated on the Doctrine of the nature and necessity of Evangelical Holiness I shall at present omit the further handling of these things and acquiesce in the answers given by the Apostle unto this Objection CHAP. XX. The Doctrine of the Apostle James concerning Faith and Works It s agreement with that of St. Paul THe seeming difference that is between the Apostle Paul and James in what they teach concerning Faith Works and Justification requires our consideration of it For many do take advantage from some words and expressions used by the later directly to oppose the Doctrine fully and plainly declared by the former But whatever is of that nature pretended hath been so satisfactorily already answered and removed by others as that there is no great need to treat of it again And although I suppose that there will not be an end of contending and writing in these causes
for it was so imputed unto him long before and that in such a way as the Apostle proves thereby that Righteousness is imputed without Works 2 That he was not justified by a real efficiency of an habit of Righteousness in him or by any way of making him inherently Righteous who was before unrighteous is plain also because he was Righteous in that sense long before and had abounded in the Works of Righteousness unto the praise of God It remains therefore that then and by the Work mentioned he was justified as unto the evidencing and manifestation of his Faith and Justification thereon His other instance is of Rahab concerning whom he asserts that she was justified by Works when she had received the Messengers and sent them away But she received the Spies by Faith as the Holy Ghost witnesseth Heb. 11.31 And therefore had true Faith before their coming and if so was really justified For that any one should be a true believer and yet not be justified is destructive unto the foundation of the Gospel In this condition she received the Messengers and made unto them a full Declaration of her Faith Josh. 2.10 11. After her believing and Justification thereon and after the confession she had made of her Faith she exposed her life by concealing and sending of them away Hereby did she justifie the sincerity of her Faith and Confession and in that sense alone is said to be justified by Works And in no other sense doth the Apostle James in this place make mention of Justification which he doth also only occasionally Fourthly As unto Works mentioned by both Apostles the same Works are intended and there is no disagreement in the least about them For as the Apostle James intends by Works Duties of Obedience unto God according to the Law as is evident from the whole first part of the Chapter which gives occasion unto the Discourse of Faith and Works So the same are intended by the Apostle Paul also as we have proved before And as unto the necessity of them in all believers as unto other ends so as evidences of their Faith and Justification it is no less pressed by the one than the other as hath been declared These things being in general premised we may observe some things in particular from the Discourse of the Apostle James sufficiently evidencing that there is no contradiction therein unto what is delivered by the Apostle Paul concerning our Justification by Faith and the Imputation of Righteousness without Works nor to the Doctrine which from him we have learned and declared as 1 He makes no composition or conjunction between Faith and Works in our Justification but opposeth them the one to the other asserting the one and rejecting the other in order unto our Justification 2 He makes no distinction of a first and second Justification of the beginning and continuation of Justification but speaks of one Justification only which is our first personal Justification before God Neither are we concerned in any other Justification in this cause whatever 3 That he ascribes this Justification wholly unto Works in contradistinction unto Faith as unto that sense of Justification which he intended and the Faith whereof he treated Wherefore 4 He doth not at all enquire or determine how a sinner is justified before God but how Professors of the Gospel can prove or demonstrate that they are so and that they do not deceive themselves by trusting unto a lifeless and barren Faith All these things will be further evidenced in a brief consideration of the context it self wherewith I shall close this Discourse In the beginning of the Chapter unto v. 14. He reproves those unto whom he wrote for many sins committed against the Law the rule of their sins and Obedience or at least warneth them of them and having shewed the danger they were in hereby he discovers the Root and principal occasion of it v. 14. which was no other but a vain surmise and deceiving presumption that the Faith required in the Gospel was nothing but a bare assent unto the Doctrine of it whereon they were delivered from all obligation unto moral Obedience or good Works and might without any danger unto their eternal state live in whatever sins their lusts inclined them unto Chap. 4. v. 1 2 3 4. Chap. 5. v. 1 2 3 4 5. The state of such persons which contains the whole cause which he speaks unto and which gives rule and measure unto the interpretation of all his future arguings is laid down v. 14. What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works can Faith save him suppose a man any one of those who are guilty of the sins charged on them in the foregoing verses do yet say or boast of himself that he hath Faith that he makes profession of the Gospel that he hath left either Judaism or Paganism and betaken himself to the Faith of the Gospel and therefore although he be destitute of good Works and live in sin he is accepted with God and shall be saved will indeed this Faith save him this therefore is the question proposed whereas the Gospel saith plainly that he who believeth shall be saved whether that Faith which may and doth consist with an indulgence unto sin and a neglect of Duties of Obedience is that Faith whereunto the promise of life and Salvation is annexed And thereon the enquiry proceeds how any man in particular he who says he hath Faith may prove and evidence himself to have that Faith which will secure his Salvation And the Apostle denies that this is such a Faith as can consist without Works or that any man can evidence himself to have true Faith any otherwise but by Works of Obedience only And in the proof hereof doth his whole ensuing Discourse consist Not once doth he propose unto consideration the means and causes of the Justification of a convinced sinner before God nor had he any occasion so to do So that his words are openly wrested when they are applied unto any such intention That the Faith which he intends and describes is altogether useless unto the end pretended to be attainable by it namely Salvation he proves in an instance of and by comparing it with the love or charity of an alike nature v. 15.16 If a Brother or Sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto him depart in peace be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit This love or charity is not that Gospel Grace which is required of us under that name For he who behaveth himself thus towards the poor the love of God dwelleth not in him 1 Joh. 3.17 whatever name it may have whatever it may pretend unto whatever it may be professed or accepted for love it is not nor hath any of the effects of love is neither useful nor profitable Hence the