those visible lower Heavens Heb. 4.14 and ascended far above them all Eph. 4.10 and this he did as a Priest though not only as a Priest for it was prefigured and foretold by the Priests going daily from the Altar of Brass which stood without the Temple up unto the Altar of Gold for Incense which stood within the Sanctuary before the Vayl and by the High Priests going once a year in the great day of Atonement up from the Brazen Altar before the door with the Blood of his Sacrifice and with Incense also into the Holy of Holies unto the Mercy-Seat But Christ Ascension or going to Heaven is not a part of this righteousness nor upon us through Faith as this righteousness is Again to give another instance Christ doth intercede and in his so doing he fulfils the Law of his Priestly Office For it was Typified by the Priests offering up Incense and by his bearing the Names of the Twelve Tribes on his Shoulders and on his Breast-plate But the Intercession of Christ cannot be said to be any part of this righteousness which is here said to be upon us Though it be of precious and effectual avail for us and doth procure all our saying Mercies yet it is not imputed to us it is no part of his Suretiship-Righteousness which he hath brought in for us before God Proposition V. This Suretiship-Righteousness of Christ which is through Faith upon Believers is his perfect Conformity to the Moral Law in all that which the Justice of God did by virtue thereof demand in behalf of the Elect from Christ as their Surety that they might not onely in a way of Grace but in a way of Justice be brought to that Eternal Blessedness and Glory whereto God in his infinite love had appointed them The ground of Christs bringing in this righteousness is his being our Surety So he is made by God the Father and by his own undertaking in that Covenant between God and him was he constituted a Surety So he is called expresly Heb. 7.22 and the thing wherein Suretiship doth consist is abundantly affirmed of him in the Scripture Some indeed who would not be accounted Socinians wrangle against and reject this Counsel of God against themselves and thence would have it understood either metaphorically So Trum. gr propit pag. 88 100. or of his being Gods Surety to us to assure to us his performance of his Promises See Mr. B. Script Gosp def p. 76 78. But the thing is plain He who is obliged to pay anothers Debt or any part of it is properly and in strictness his Surety Now so it is between Christ and us he was obliged to pay our Debt and hath done it accordingly His name was put in into the original bond in which we by the Law and Covenant of our creation were bound Herein as God hath in his Infinite Love and Grace consulted well for us so he hath acted according to his own blessed Supremacy and adorable Wisdom without any the least impeachment of his Justice or his Truth in his Law For though the Law name onely us and do directly firstly and immediately bind us as the principal Debtors yet God in substituting his Son to be our Surety doth not in the least recede from his own Truth or from the equity and justice of the Law For as in Contracts between man and man the end and intendment is that the debt be paid whether by the original Debtor himself who contracted it or by another for him it is all one as to the rights of the Creditor they are justly preserved and provided for either way So it is here The highest end and main intendment of the Law is the preserving and securing unto God the honour of his Supremacy Wisdom Holiness and Justice And this is not departed from but provided for and pursued and that with much advantage unto Gods glory as well as our good in his constituting Christ our Surety And therefore in Gods calling Christ unto the work of bringing in this righteousness for us he doth neither revoke nor make void the Law nor recede from his own immutable Truth and Holiness shining in it but establisheth it as the Apostle declares Rom. 3.25 26 31. The rule of this righteousness by which it is measured is the Moral Law and the demands of the Justice of God in our behalf according to it Hence God by this righteousness of Christ doth magnifie his Law and make it Honourable as Isa 42.21 When I say the Moral Law is the rule of this righteousness of Christ I would not be understood as excluding his observing the Ceremonial Ordinances from being a part of his Righteousness It is of Moral Obligation that the positive Ordinances of God should be observed and Christ himself speaks of his observing that positive Ordinance of Baptism as a thing that was incumbent on him that he might fulfill all righteousness Matth. 3.15 The end of this Suretiship-righteousness of Christ is with reference to us that we might and its attainment is that we must and shall be brought in a way wherein Justice as well as Grace is glorified unto that blessedness to which God in his Infinite Love hath fore-appointed us Hence it appears that Electing Love is not the effect or fruit of this righteousness but is indeed the cause and spring of it Election is not procured by it but the bringing in of this righteousness for us is ordained by the Electing Love of God to us So the Scripture speaks Joh. 3.16 and 1 Joh. 4.9 10. God in his Electing us appointed us unto an higher bliss and glory than was proposed to the first Adam in his Covenant or than he could ever have brought his Seed unto He was of the Earth Earthly Christ is the Lord from Heaven 1 Cor. 15. and the Elect are appointed to be married to the Son of God made members of him and co-heirs with him and to be Sons of God as in Christ their Head to whom they are predestinated to be conformed in their Dignities and Priviledges as well as in their qualities spiritual Principles and the frame of their Hearts Rom. 8.29 They are to judge the World yea to judge Angels at the great day 1 Cor. 6.2 3. and in the mean time while they are here they are to be served and ministred unto by them Heb. 1.14 And at last there will be a day when the love wherewith the Father hath loved Christ shall appear to be in them and Christ in them and the World shall know that the Father hath loved them as he hath loved Christ Joh. 17.23 26. These are things higher than Adam or his Covenant would have brought them unto Yet unto these things must they be brought in a way wherein not onely Grace but Justice also shall shine forth and be glorified And therefore God in setting a Crown of Glory on their heads exerts his Justice as well as his Grace his righteousness as well as
〈◊〉 Gal. 2.16 and Faith is called a coming to him a phrase which implyes and holds forth not onely that while we continue in Unbelief we are at a distance from Christ and that Christ is the Object of Faith but also that by believing Christ and the Believer are brought together if I may so express it As Believers dwell in Christ and Christ in them so this is by their eating his flesh and drinking his blood or eating him Joh. 6.47 with ver 54 56. In eating and drinking the Food and the drink are incorporated and made one with the Body By eating and drinking Christs Flesh and Blood he there means believing on him The Metaphor is taken from their eating the Manna and drinking of the Rook in the Wilderness or from their eating and drinking of their Sacrifices as you know they were by a positive Ordinance to do of some of them Christ indeed first lays hold on us and joyns himself to us and we being laid hold on and drawn by him do close with him and so come to co-alesce into one mystical Person with Christ This our vital Union with him is indeed begun on his part in his laying hold on us in a preventing way but it is compleated and accomplished and becomes mutual by our believing Now being thus made one with Christ his righteousness comes to be upon us unto the Justification of Life by the Ordinance Constitution and Donation of God It is as we are thus in him and made Members of him that his righteousness is upon us As a base-born Beggar and Criminal comes to have the Honour of a Princess upon her by being Married and becoming one Flesh with an high born Prince Propos 6. Nevertheless this Righteousness of Christ hath some operation on us as well as for us antecedently to our believing It hath an operation for us For it did make Atonement procure our Peace and accomplish our Reconciliation unto God These things were done and finished they were perfected by Christ in his bringing in this righteousness It hath also an operation upon us before our believing To say nothing of Gods forbearing us and showing forth all long suffering toward us during all the days of our vanity and madness of heart nor of any other excellent Mercies given to us then which when Grace comes to be grafted on them become very serviceable for the furtherance of our Salvation because it is not altogether so clear that these things which are not of a saving Nature and which are injoyed by us while we are not under the bond of the Covenant nor living Members of Christ are procured for us by his righteousness This is certain and plain that the Spirit and Faith it self are procured for us by and given to us for this righteousness which is unto Justification upon us through Faith Phil. 1.29 Faith is purchased for us by it and our justification is purchased by it and both of them absolutely obtained And it may also be said that because Justification is absolutely procured by this righteousness therefore also Faith being procured for us by the same righteousness is for the sake of it given to us that being the way ordained of God for our being justified and it being a Mercy peculiar to the Elect and a Mercy that hath Salvation accompanying it and a leading part of the application of Christ This possibly may be one thing that hath occasioned some to say that our Justification is rather the condition of our having Faith given us than our Faith the condition of our Justification I conceive they mean that if Justification had not been absolutely procured and obtained for the Elect Faith would never have been either given them or obtained for them However most certain and undeniable it is that this Righteousness operates on us antecedently unto our believing because that preventing Grace and work of the Spirit whereby Faith is wrought in us are the effects of this Righteousness as being procured by it From what hath been said Two Things follow which I will briefly note for the further clearing up this whole Matter and then pass on to the last Enquiry proposed 1. Our being justified is not the next or immediate effect or consequence of our believing but of Christs Righteousness being upon us For between our believing and our being justified there comes in our co-alescing into one Mystical Person with Christ by this Vital Union and our having his righteousness upon us unto the Justification of Life Which latter is the next fruit and consequent of that our union to him or being in him His righteousness is upon us as we are Members of him and do stand in him And this our union to him is brought about and accomplished upon and by our believing Union to Christ goes before Communion with him Union is the immediate consequent of Faith Our having this righteousness upon us is one of the first things in our Communion with Christ We are first in Christ and so have him made righteousness to us 1 Cor. 1.30 2. Our Faith hath no hand in working out this righteousness for us nor is it any part thereof The righteousness of Christ is a garment a robe wherewith Believers are cloathed Psal 45.13 14. Isa 61.10 Rev. 19.8 But our Faith neither is a part of it nor ever took stitch in it The Apostle here in the Text doth not say this righteousness of God is by or through Faith or that it consists either in whole or in part in Faith but that it is upon us through faith Wherein he plainly distinguisheth between this righteousness and our believing and tells us it is the former namely this righteousness of God which is upon us unto justification of life whereas the latter namely faith is within us not upon us Quest 6 How comes this about and whence is it that this righteousness is through faith unto and upon all that believe Answ This Enquiry leads me to lay open before you something of the deep Counsels of the Wisdom and Grace of God in the Plot of our Salvation I shall content my self onely to point a little at the Heads of Things telling you the Story of it from its first and highest Original in these Seven Steps 1. God the Father from Eternity begat his Son the second Person in the Trinity and loving him with an infinite Love designed a special Revenue of Glory and Honour and Praise unto him as from all his Creatures in their kind and way so more eminently from and in a certain number of Mankind Even those whom he chose in him before the Foundation of the World that they should be holy and without blame before him in love having predestinated them unto the Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will unto the praise of the Glory of his Grace Eph. 1.3 4 5 6. Prov. 8.22 23 24-30 The End and Upshot and last issue that all his
lost and perishing and forlorne Condition And verily this is an heavy and an overwhelming guilt superadded unto all the rest You should take in Convictions of your condemned Condition and that the Wrath of God abideth on you and will do so as long as you continue in unbelief Do not flatter your selves and delude your own Consciences by saying I have mourned and I have wept bitterly for my sins and over my poor Soul and I have left them and amended and reformed my Life and I thank God I walk so and so blamelesly and exemplarily Be it so yet let me put these two Demands to thy Conscience 1. Are these things the Righteousness of Christ And 2. Are they Faith If they be not the Righteousness of Christ they can never justifie thee from any the least sin And if they be not Faith the Righteousness of Christ will never be upon thee by or thorow them The Scripture no where saith that the Righteousness of Christ is upon us through our repenting not yet through our amending and reforming no nor through any works of Righteousness and Obedience that we have done or can do No this is the Priviledge Prerogative and peculiar Office of Faith True it is these things are thy bounden Duties God will damn thee for neglecting them But yet as true and as certain it is that they neither are the Righteousness of Christ nor will they intitle thee to it and interest thee in it Know therefore that though thou couldst mourn Rivers of Tears or Seas of Bloody though thou couldst amend thy Life and reform thy way and thy heart too so as never more to sin and though for the time past of thy Life thou hadst and for all the time to come shouldst live like a Saint dropt down from Heaven and walk up and down in the World like an Angel in flesh shine and sparkle and glitter among the Sons of God yet as all this is not the Righteousness of Christ so neither would the Righteousness of Christ be upon thee through all these things for they are not Faith Thou art therefore in a state of Condemnation and the Wrath of God abides upon thee and will do so as long as thou continuest without Faith USE 3. This Doctrine speaks earnest exhortation to get Faith to believe And it speaks to you all one and other for you all stand in need of this Righteousness of Christ to be upon you the very least sinner among you all as well as the greatest As the Apostle Paul sometime said to Peter Gal. 2.15 16. We who are Jews by Nature and not sinners of the Gentiles 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 wâ—rks of the law shall no flesh be justified So I say to you that are not such grievous and atrocious sinners as some others are you as well as the greatest Sinners must believe in Jesus Christ that you may be justified And much more you whose own Consciences neither do nor can make any other judgment of you but that you are among the very chief of Sinners Sinners before the Lord exceedingly O do you get Faith See that you believe For in this way it will come to pass that the Righteousness of Christ shall be upon you and in no way by no means unless you believe You may try other courses you may gad about to change your way from foul to clean from careless and loose and prophane to strict and serious and circumspect but though you wash you with Nitre and take you much Soap yet your Iniquities will stand marked before the Lord your guilt the guilt of all your sins wilt still be upon you You may take up the practise of Duties and abound therein you may attain much light in Spiritual things and become Eminent in Gifts You may walk blamelesly in the Eye of the World you may live in the fellowship of Saints and in the observance of the Ordinances of God in the purest way of their Administration upon earth and yet be without this Righteousness of Christ upon you For these are not Faith It is therefore a preposterous course to begin with taking up of Duties without looking after Faith nay it is an errour in the Foundation and a building on the Sand All your building of Duties and Profession and Hopes will fall down and the fall thereof will be great and fearful Yet I fear it is the oversight and errour of many Professors among us at this day but it is a fatal and Soul-ruining one My advice and Exhortation to you therefore is that whatever you do in the concernments of your Souls look to it that you believe Whatever you neglect neglect not getting Faith Yea look to it in the first place Thus your Teachers should instruct and lead you This is the Apostles direction unto Titus that he should teach them that have believed to be careful to maintain or to excel in good works Tit. 3.8 not to teach and press Sinners in their unbelief to fall to doing good works first and overlook believing wholly or to postpone it after them And thus you should practise else you labour in the fire and weary your selves in very vanity for all your pain and toil and doing will not bring it about that the Righteousness of Christ shall be upon you for they are not Faith But through Faith that Righteousness will be upon you and being upon you it will produce good works and both your Works and your Persons be accepted your Persons first and then your Works And if you believe this Righteousness shall certainly be upon you and you shall be accepted and made Righteous in it how many or how heinous soever your sins have been or how great soever and amazing to your Consciences your guilt be For it is through Faith and net through works of Obedience that it is unto all and upon all without difference who do believe Therefore look to it that you do indeed believe look to it that your Faith be the Faith of God's Elect. Vse 4. This Doctrine speaks to Believers and to you it shows how you should live and walk before God so as to please injoy and glorifie him I will instance in three things 1. You should walk holily in all new Obedience If you be redeemed and delivered from Condemnation and Death as verily you are if this Righteousness be upon you it is that you might serve the Lord without fear slavish legal fear in holiness and righteousness in all the Duties required both in the First and Second Table of the Law and that before him in sincerity and uprightness of Heart as in his sight and all this not in a fit only or for a while but all the days of your lives Luke 1.74 75. This
Love this Grace of Christ should constrain you and make you thus judge That if one dyed for all then those all have dyed namely unto sin and he dyed that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who dyed for them and rose again for their Justification and that they might rise unto newness of life 2 Cor. 5.14 15. Thus the Apostle Peter also argues pressing it upon Believers to be holy in all manner of conversation even as he who hath called you is holy And the ground upon which he inforceth it is this because they are redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ See 1 Pet. 1.14 15 16 18 19. 2. You should walk humbly also as well as holily This God doth require Mic. 6.8 for you stand accepted not in your selves nor in any Works of Righteousness that you have done but wholly in the Righteousness of Christ that is upon you through Faith Therefore when you have done all and attained to the utmost you should still be humble and say you are unprofitable servants Luke 17.10 For all your obedience and conformity to the Law avails no more to justifie you than your worst sins do and you should look on your best performances and your worst sins even with the same eye in the business of Justification Believers do own that all their best Righteousness is as to their Justification but as filthy rags Isa 64.6 and true Converts have the like and can have no worse thoughts of their worst sins Isa 30.22 Labour you should and abound in the work of the Lord not to work out a Righteousness to stand justified in before God No God forbid such a thought should ever be entertained by any Believer I do not think the Saints in Heaven would be willing to exchange and put off the Robe of Christs Righteousness to stand before God for acceptance in that perfect and spotless Holiness to which they have there attained Much less should any Believer be willing to stand and continue in a justified estate by his own imperfect defective and stained Obedience Neither indeed can I see how such a frame of Heart can be consistent with true Faith But obey you should because you have a Righteousness upon you in comparison and in competition wherewith the Righteousness of Men and Angels is to be despised Obey therefore to the utmost but look away from it when you have so done Obey not to acquire or continue to your selves an interest in this Righteousness much less to be your Righteousness before God but that you may show forth the Praises of him who hath called you into Fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ 3. You should also walk comfortably and rejoysingly as well as holily and humbly For you are made accepted in the beloved Standing in this Righteousness having it upon you through Faith you may you should rejoyse and glory not in your selves on any performances of yours or Graces inhering in you but in the Lord in whom you have both Righteousness and Strength For the Lord hath sworn that in him should all the seed of Israel be justified and glory Isa 45.23 24 25. Having by Faith received the atonement you may glory even in his presence of whom you are in Christ Jesus who is of God made unto you Wisdom Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption and you made the Righteousness of God in him that he that gloryeth should glory in the Lord. POST-SCRIPT THere are two Passages in the foregoing Sermons which have been exclaimed against publickly and privately by one that heard them not And I do believe he was angered by more than two For he is one that makes union to Christ our having this Righteousness upon us and our being justified by it to be given us in way of reward of something done by us and he is the man that makes the state of Believers to be undecided and in suspense during this Life Both which Errors are damning the former in its Nature and direct tendency the latter in its Grounds and Principles And whether he do not in truth disown the imputation of our Sins unto Christ and of his Righteousness unto us it is like if he live the VVorld will see more fully for he hath given such pregnant indications thereof as do amount to at least just cause of jealousie But touching these things he thought it best to keep silence and to fix his nails where he thought he had better advantage The one Point is pag. 7. That the Incarnation of Christ is no part of his Humiliation As to the truth of it as there laid down I shall say little more knowing it cannot be overthrown The whole stress of the matter lyes in those two words Incarnation and Humiliation how they are taken If the former be taken largely as comprising Christs taking both our Nature and the common sinless Frailties of it together with his being in the form of a servant and made under the Law I know not why it should be denyed to be a part of his Humiliation But if it be taken strictly for his dwelling in Flesh or Humane Nature comprehending under it both the act of assumption and the relation or union arising and effected thereby between the Humane Nature so assumed and the Person of the Son of God who did assume it neither the one nor the other of these neither the act of assuming nor the Union of the two Natures effected by it may be allowed to be any part of Christ's Humiliation For Humiliation is not in this argument to be taken laxly and improperly for any thing which hath Goodness or Grace in it as God's beholding things in Heaven and in Earth is said to be an humbling of himself Psal 113.6 So Christ might have been said to humble himself though he had never been Incarnate But in this subject Humiliation ought to be taken precisely for that which is proper and peculiar to the second Person in the Trinity which the Apostle calls his being in the form of a Servant or rather his being made under the Law Between which there may be conceived some difference for Christ is now in his state of Exaltation Gods Servant but he is not now under the Law as he was in the days of his Flesh and Frailty And taking these words thus it is far from being a singular conceit of mine that the Incarnation of Christ is not a part of his humiliation Mr. Bradshaw not only saith expresly Christ's assuming the Humane Nature cannot properly be said to be a part of his Humiliation but gives his reason for it of Justif ch 17. Sect. 7. and makes the Title of that Chapter to be this Christ that he might taken on him the guilt of sin was made man Whence it is evident that in his Judgment which is also the current Judgment of all Christians Christ's becoming Man was not the effect of the guilt of sin being on him but the way of his