hope to be Justified and Saved by Faith without works or inherent Righteousness upon the account of a speculative or notional Faith Jam. 2. Aagainst which deceitful notion St. John also warned the Christians when he said Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous 1 John 3.7 as if he should have said you will be deceived if you suffer yourselves to be persuaded to think you may be Righteous any other way without doing Righteousness Those deluded people it 's probable were willing to interpret the doctrine concerning Faith when but generally and indefinitely exprest to a sense which would indulge them in a life not truly holy as alas too many do at this day who upon a general inoperate belief of the Articles of the Christian Faith doubt not but they shall be Justified by being Pardoned or by having Christs Righteousness so imputed to them as to be Righteous with his Righteousness And although they be told that such a Faith as works by love is necessary to their Justification as a condition of it yet so long as Justification is defined by that which is esteemed intrinsically essential to Justification without such a Righteousness of Faith and so long as they apprehend there is a way of being accounted Righteous by being Pardoned they will not so easily as otherwise they would be brought to a due sense of the necessity of a personal inherent Righteousness unto Justification Whereas were they but convinced that God will account none Righteous upon any account whatsoever nor Pardon their Unrighteousness who are not Righteous indeed with a personal inherent Righteousness they would be left without all hope of being Righteous or of being accepted as Righteous any way without this inherent Righteousness And by this means they would come under a more sensible obligation of becoming inherently Righteous indeed as ever they hope to be Justified as Righteous in one respect or Pardoned as sinners in another And it is a good rule that in all controversies about points of Christian doctrine which have an influence on practice as all generally have it is still safest to adhere to that sense which most obliges men to their duty and most directly and indubitably tends to their happiness as this touching Justification by the Righteousness of Faith rather then by Remission of sin I conceive does 3. Moreover to place Justification in Pardon disagrees to the natural notion which men have both of Pardon and Justification Pardon in the natural notion of it supposeth guilt as on the contrary Justification in the natural notion of it supposeth Guiltlesness or Righteousness in reference to the matter or cause wherein a person is Justified unless when the word Justification is used in an abusive seuse to signifie the perverting of justice by Justifying the wicked To say a person is Justified when we thereby only mean that he is Pardoned gives an uncertain sound in common sense and Ministers occasion for the notion of Justification to lie uneven and to remain unfixt in the mind What I recited out of Mr. Gataker in my first Chapter may here again be remembred who saith To Justifie is not to Pardon for the word is never found so used either in the Hebrew or Greek writers sacred or prophane nor in our common speech And if so why should it be made use of to signifie Pardon contrary to the use not only of Prophane but of Sacred Authors and common speech Nor can I conceive upon supposition of the truth of Mr. Gataker's assertion but to use the word Justification to signifie Pardon or the word Pardon to signifie that thing which is Justification must needs convey the true notion of Justification to the minds of men with disadvantage as tending to obscure it if not to drown the proper notion of it 4. Furthermore to place Justification in Remission of sin is to confound things of quite a different nature for so Justification and Remission of sin I conceive are The subject matter of a mans Justification is his Righteousness but the subject matter of his Pardon is his Unrighteousness The subject matter of a mans Justification is his present conformity to the terms of the Law of Grace but the subject matter of his Pardon is his past nonconformity to that Law and what other Law of God soever he hath transgressed It also confounds Gods Justifying act and his Pardoning act as if they were both one Nay more then so it excludes that which is most properly Gods Justifying act and introduceth his Pardoning act in the room of it For it supposeth God to account or to make a man Righteous by pardoning his Unrighteousness instead of his adjudging him Righteous in that he hath performed the terms of the Gospel on condition of which he promised him Pardon 5. Lastly the notion of Justification by Remission of sin does not so far as I can see upon the most serious consideration at all agree with St. Pauls stated notion of Evangelical Justification in opposition to the Jewish notion of Justification by the Law or works of the Law For he doth not represent the difference of the notion of Justification which he asserts and that which he opposeth to lie in this that the one stands in a pretended Righteousness and the other in the Pardon of mens Unrighteousness but in the different kinds of Righteousness the one standing in the Righteousness of Faith or by Faith the other in the Righteousness of the Law or by the works of the Law The Gentiles saith he which followed not after Righteousness have attained unto Righteousness even the Righteousness which is of Faith There is the Christian Justification But Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the Law and there is the Jewish Justification Rom. 9.30 31 32. Not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but the Righteousness which is by Faith Phil. 3.9 Knowing that a man is not Justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 2.16 The formal difference we see which St. Paul makes between the two notions of Justification lies in the different kinds of Righteousness The Christian or Evangelical Righteousness consisting in a belief of and obedience to the doctrine and precepts of the Gospel but the Jewish Righteousness as they conceited in their conformity to the Law of Moses But St. Paul and the Jews both held Justification to be by a Righteousness Now to say we are Justified by being Pardoned does not at all agree with St. Pauls notion of being Justified by an Evangelical Righteousness of Faith because Pardon of sin is no such Righteousness it is neither a believing of the Gospel nor act of obedience to it but is part of the reward promised to such a Righteousness And as such it is somtime alledged indeed to
Mark 16.15 16. 2 Thes 1.10 and 2.13 And it is no marvail the same Faith should be thus diversly exprest since a believing of any one of these includes in it a belief of them all and so does a belief of the Resurrection of Christ by which this Faith is also somtimes described Rom. 10.9 For he that believes the Record of God concerning Christ cannot but believe him to be the Son of God because that is the thing which the Father Almighty hath more than once testified by a voice from Heaven Mat. 3.17 and 17.5 And he who believes Christ to be the Son of God must needs believe his doctrine which is the Gospel to be true As on the other hand whoever believes the Gospel must needs believe Christ to be the Son of God because it testifies so much of him and likewise because it sets forth those many stupendious Miracles which he wrought and how the ancient predictions of the Prophets concerning the Messias were fulfilled in him and also his Miraculous Resurrection from the dead by all which he is demonstrated to be the Son of God Now then whosoever rightly believes the doctrine of our Saviour contained in the Gospel and of his Apostles concerning him do believe that he died for our sins and rose again and that repentance or amend ment of life and obedience to the Precepts of our Saviour are indispensibly necessary to the obtaining of remission of sin and eternal Life by his Death Resurrection and Intercession And the reason hereof is because these things are declared to be so in that Gospel which is so believed And therefore whosoever does believe he shall be saved by Christs death from the wrath to come though he does not truly and sincerely make it his business to amend his life according to the Precepts of our Saviour believes not the Gospel but believes that which is a flat contradiction to it and is like those of whom the Apostle says they profess that they know God but in works they deny him Tit. 1.16 Or if any man should believe this amendment of life to be necessary to the obtaining Remission of sin and Salvation by the death of Christ Yet what would this belief avail him if he himself should not by this belief become a new man in holiness righteousness and sobriety of living It is not any mans believing the most important and concerning truth that will avail him before God further than it tends to make him better to make him a good man The Devils we find confessed Christ saying thou art Christ the Son of God Luke 4.41 the same form of words almost verbatim in which the Apostles of our Saviour made confession of their Faith John 6.69 And St. James saith the Devils believe and tremble Chap. 2.19 But what are they the better for it so long as they retain the same devilish nature which they had before Nor can we say that mens Faith will any more save them than the Devils Faith saves Devils whatever it is which is believed unless that belief makes them better men in heart and Life If a man believe aright and understands what it is he believes he can hardly be any more careless of acting according to his belief than he is careless of obtaining the pardon of his sin and the Salvation of his Soul A right saving belief of the Gospel then hath in it the spirit and seed of a good life it hath in it virtually and potentially all pious and vertuous actions And all pious and vertuous actions that proceed from Faith are as I may so say but Faith diversified in several acts and are a part of Faith as the fruit that grows upon a Tree is part of the Tree And to make this appear in some instances all those noble and generous acts of the Patriarchs and other Worthies mentioned in Hebrews the 11th Chapter did all grow out of their Faith for by Faith they did them all All the good report which they obtained upon account of their Heroick actions is attributed to their Faith by which they did atchieve them these all having obtained a good report through Faith c. Ver. 39. More particularly the Author of this Epistle to the Hebrews in Ver. 5. of this 11th Chapter proves that it was by Faith that Enoch was translated because he had this testimony that before he was translated he pleased God or walked with God as his History relates it Gen. 5. which as he shews was impossible for him to have done if he had not had Faith for saith he without Faith it is impossible to please God So that we see the same thing is attributed to the Righteousness of his life in walking with God as is to his Faith which produced that effect viz. that thereby he pleased God And so it is said of Noah Ver. 7. that by faith he being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear prepared an Ark to the saving of his house by which action of his in conjunction with his Faith he became heir of the Righteousness which is by Faith It is said of Abraham also Ver. 17. that by Faith he offered up Isaac And it is said by St. James that by this good work of his the fruit of his Faith among others he was Justified Jam. 2.21 And not only so but that therein the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for Righteousness Ver. 23. which shews that when the Scripture saith Gen. 15.6 that Abrahams believing God was counted to him for Righteousness it was meant of his Faith as it was a vital principle of sincere obedience to God in whatever he commanded him else that Scripture would not have been fulfilled in Abrahams offering up Isaac and in his being justified thereby as well as by his Faith The like is said of Rahab that by faith she perished not with them that believed not when she had received the spies in peace Heb. 11.31 And St. James saith that she was Justified by this work which was the fruit of her Faith Jam. 2.25 So that we see in the Scripture-notion of Faith to have Faith counted to us for Righteousness and to have acts of obedience proceeding from Faith to be counted for Righteousness in conjunction with the Faith it self is the same thing And to be Justified by Faith and to be Justified by those acts of obedience which are the issue of Faith in conjunction with the Faith it self is still the same thing in the sense of holy Scripture All this is to shew what and what manner of Faith it is that is the condition on the which pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised in the Gospel-Covenant and by which we are Justified and which is counted for Righteousness And for our greater confirmation in this and to shew further that no Faith can entitle us to the promises of the Covenant the promise of pardon and the promise of
eternal Life but such a practical Faith as I have described consider these following particulars 1. If none can be pardoned but such as repent nor see the Kingdom of God except they be born again as the Scripture assures us they cannot then no Faith can entitle us to Pardon and Salvation as it is a fulfilling the condition of the promises of the Covenant but such as is a penitential regenerating Faith such as works repentance and regeneration in men nor till it hath wrought these effects at least as begun I cannot imagine what can be said with any shew of reason against this argument 2. St. James argues that Faith which hath not works cannot save Ver. 12. and concludes his reasoning Ver. 24. with saying Ye see then how that by Works a man is Justified and not by Faith only 3. Faith and Obedience are so much the same or at least so inseparable when saving as that the same Greek word is indifferently translated to believe or to obey and so on the contrary the same word is translated unbelief or disobedience Instances of this nature you have in Acts 5.36 Rom. 11.30 31. Ephes 5.6 Heb. 4.11 and 11.31 in all which you have the same word translated one way in the line reading and another in the margin And belief and disobedience are likewise opposed to each other as contraries as well as faith and unbelief are and as well as obedience and disobedience are as you may see for instance in Rom. 10.16 1 Pet. 2.7 2 Thes 2.12 By all which we may reasonably judg that when Faith only is mentioned as the condition on which pardon and eternal Life are promised yet then it is to be understood of a practical obediential Faith 4. The same benefits pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised upon the condition of obedience in some Scriptures which are promised on condition of believing in others As for instance If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 Here assurance is given us of being purged from the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ in case we walk in the light as God is in the light labouring to be holy as God is holy in all manner of conversation And Christ is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Heb. 5.9 And blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter through the gates into the City Revel 22.14 Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 Now if holy obedience be made the condition of the promise of Pardon and Life as well as Faith as we see it is then none but an obediential Faith can be a performance of the condition of that promise By an obediential Faith I mean such a Faith as by which a man is moved and inclined and in some sort enabled to do what is his present duty so far as he understands it to be so And in this sense a mans Faith and his obedience are of the same date and commence together And therefore it is no marvel that the same promise of the same benefits is made to the one which is made to the other and that both are joyned in the condition 5. In Heb. 8.10 11 12. where we have the tenour of the new Covenant declared God promiseth to be a God only to such and to forgive the iniquities only of such as have his Law put into their minds and written in their hearts Where Faith is not at all mentioned as the condition of receiving those benefits but the having the Law written in the heart Though the having the Law written in the heart supposeth Faith I grant as a productive cause of it yet we see it is not the condition of the promised benefits otherwise than as it produceth such an effect which effect is only here mentioned and not Faith which is the cause 6. When saving Faith is described by the nature of its operation upon a man himself and not only as it acteth upon its object without him then we are told it purifieth the heart Act. 15.9 worketh by love Gal. 5.6 overcometh the world 1 John 5.4 and sanctifieth the whole man Acts 26.18 And therefore we have no good reason to think Faith is a fulfilling the condition of the promise only as it acteth upon its object by way of credence or assent or affiance either without its transforming operation upon the Soul 3. The next thing to be enquired into is the reason why Faith is made the condition of the promises of the Gospel-Covenant And the reasons hereof seem to be such as these 1. Faith is made the condition of the promise that it might appear to be of grace that such promise is made and made upon such a condition as faith is St. Paul having spoken of the promise being made through the Righteousness of Faith and not through the Righteousness of the Law Rom. 4.13 He gives the reason of it Verse 16. when he says It is therefore of Faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the Faith of Abraham In which words we have a general reason why Faith is made the condition of the Promise and that is that it might be by Grace And another is given in a particular instance viz. that the promise might be sure to all the seed There is a double reason why it must needs be of Grace that the great Promises of the Gospel are made to mens believing the Gospel The one is taken from the nature of the thing that is of Faith it self in reference and relation to its object For he that believes the Gospel believes that the great blessings and benefits promised therein are promised not for any merit of his to whom they are promised but for the sake of another to wit Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth for a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 And he that believes the Gospel according to what it reveals believes also that it was of Grace that he was thus made a propitiation for it was by the Grace of God that he tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us Tit. 3.5 And whoever believes all this exalts the grace of God in so believing St. Paul who believed and taught this in opposition to the misbelieving Jews who thought to be justified by the works of the Law without the death of the Messias to obtain that and all other benefits said I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come
receive their strength from Faith in one respect as they do from the goodness of the nature of God and his veracity in another I have intimated before that it is from an apprehension which men have of Gods willingness to be reconciled to them that inclines them to be reconciled to him While men look upon God as a resolved irreconcileable enemy to them well they may dread him as the Devils do but cannot love him nor be reconciled to him no more perhaps than the Devils can All the good thoughts of God as of one that delights not in our destruction but concerns himself for our salvation and which any way incline us to be reconciled to him take their rise from those declarations which God hath made to us of his willingness and desire to be reconciled to us upon supposition of our willingness to be reconciled to him Hence it is that we are said to love God because he first loved us 1 John 4.19 and to be reconciled to God by the death of his Son because God thereby commended his love to us while we were yet sinners and gave us an ample and full proof of his willingness to be reconciled to us as making way thereby for it Rom. 5.8 9 10. And thus God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself by assuring us of a readiness in him to be reconciled to us and not to impute to us our trespasses supposing still that we refuse not to be reconciled to him 2 Cor. 5.19 By this declared willingness in God to be reconciled to us and by his declared resolution not only to pardon us but also to exalt us in immortal glory provided we refuse not to be reconciled to him but to punish us as obstinate rebels and irreconcileable enemies if we do I say it is by these motives that men are persuaded and prevailed withal to be reconciled to God or to his nature as when they become pleased with the same things which please him and displeased with what is displeasing to him and to his Law and Government as when they consent to the wisdom and goodness thereof and accordingly submit to it as best But then it is by means of Faith that these motives do affect us and operate to our reconciliation to God There is no other way to affect the soul with all the great things which God and Christ have done for us and conditionally promised to us but by means of this Faith For we do not know that Christ is the Son of God or for what end he died nor that God will both pardon and give eternal Life to sinners upon condition of their being reconciled to him but by Divine Revelation which Divine Revelation doth not affect us or operate upon us further than it is believed These motives not being sensible objects have no being in the soul and so no operation till Faith give them a being there by giving credit to that doctrine by which they are Revealed For Faith is the substance or confidence of things hoped for and the evidence or conviction of things not seen Heb. 11.1 We know and believe the love that God hath to us 1 John 4.16 Faith it is the great instrument of reconciling us to God both as it acts upon its object and as it acts upon its subject Divine Revelation is its object and by crediting that the foresaid motives are received into the soul as real things And then Faith acts upon its subject the soul it self in which Faith dwells by fixing the foresaid motives in the mind and working them into the will by which the work of reconciliation and conversion unto God is wrought and brought about In this way or in this respect love to God obedience to his Precepts and all divine virtues and holiness of Life flow from Faith And therefore it 's no marvel that Faith is mentioned in Scripture as the summary condition on which the Promises of the Gospel are made Hence we may see the reason why sanctification is attributed to Faith as it is Acts 26.18 and more particularly the purity of the heart love to God and men and victory over the world Acts 15.9 Gal. 5.6 1 John 5.4 Yea the whole of Evangelical Righteousness of Godly sincerity both in heart and life so often stiled the Righteousness of God is said to be by Faith as the next and immediate productive cause of it under the operation of the Spirit of God Phil. 3.9 Rom. 3.22 This Faith therefore having such an aptitude in it as I have shewed to reconcile us unto God by renewing our nature and conforming us to him without which Faith we could not by the great and precious promises themselves be made partakers of a divine nature we may see reason enough why it is made the condition of the promises of the Gospel 3. By affiance in God and in our Lord Jesus Christ which is one special act of Faith we give and ascribe unto God as much as in us lies the glory of his attributes and the perfections of his nature his truth and faithfulness power wisdom and goodness which may be another reason why this honour is by God put upon Faith so as to be accounted to us for Righteousness and to be made the condition of Gods making good to us the great promises of the Gospel forgiveness of sin and eternal Life By this affiance we venture our selves soul and body and our whole concern for all eternity upon the truth of Gods word and promise upon his faithfulness and power to perform it and upon the all-sufficiency of Christ Jesus to be our Saviour and Redeemer when we commit our selves and the conduct of our lives wholly to his Rule and Government out of a confident expectation of having Gods promise made good to us and of the sufficiency and prevalency of our Saviours performance for us This trust and confidence God is pleased to take as such a piece of honour done to him as that the Scripture calls our receiving Gods testimony a setting to our seal that God is true John 3.33 a justifying of God against the jealousies and suspitions of men and the reproach which their unbelief casts upon God Luke 7.29 For he that believeth not the record which God hath given of his Son hath made him a lier 1 John 5.10 Thus Abraham gave glory to God when he staggered not at his promise through unbelief but was fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform Rom. 4.20 21. And in that he did thus give glory to God in believing this in the next words is given as the reason why his Faith was imputed to him for Righteousness Therefore saith he it was imputed to him for Righteousness Ver. 22. And thus we see that God is pleased to honour that most in men to wit their Faith by which they most honour him 4. In what capacity those under the Gospel are to perform the condition of the promise by
believing For Faith is mans act what ever the assistances are by which he is enabled to perform it With the heart man believeth unto Righteousness saith St. Paul Rom. 10.10 For our better understanding in what capacity men are of believing it will be necessary to consider 1. What God hath done towards the working of Faith in men antedecent to the act of believing 2. What man himself can do through the antecedent Grace of God towards his believing 3. What subsequent Grace God does and will vouchsafe for the perfecting the work of Faith and carrying it quite through unto such as do not grosly neglect to do what they may and well can do towards their own believing by using and improving the antecedent Grace of God 1. That which God hath done towards the raising of Faith in men antecedent to any act of Faith in them or of any endeavours of theirs towards such a thing is his vouchsafing unto them the Gospel and the evidence of its Divinity and by it to reveal to them the things which are to be believed And this we call the objective Grace of God as well as the antecedent and is that also which we call preventive Grace And in these respects the Gospel is sometimes stiled the Grace of God and somtimes the Faith for it is both the object of Faith and a means to raise it in men For Faith comes by hearing it Rom. 10.17 In respect of this preventive antecedent Grace God is said to have offered Faith to all men so it is in the margent in that he hath raised Christ from the dead that is to all to whom this is revealed by the Gospel Acts 17.31 By this Revelation God hath vouchsafed unto all such as to whom it comes means by which they may come to believe if they be not greatly wanting to themselves 2. Consider we next what men themselves can do towards the raising of this Faith in them by means of this antecedent objective Grace of God 1. They can hear this Gospel as well as any other subject of discourse which is offered to their consideration and this is one step towards their believing of it for Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10.17 2. They can consider the things they hear from it and that 's another step towards believing Thus the Bereans by considering of and searching into the things they heard came to believe Acts 17.11 12. They can consider whether they have not immortal souls to take care of as well as mortal bodies and whether there be not a future state after this life for of such things as these the Gospel treats They can consider of such reasons when they hear them as tend to satisfie the mind and reason of man that there is such a future state For Heathens by the Light of Nature without the Revelation of the Gospel came so far as to be persuaded of such a thing And when by considering they come to be persuaded either that there is such a future state or that it 's far more probable that there is than that there is not then they can hardly forbear to consider and think more or less what is like to become of them in that future state And upon supposition that they are persuaded in their own minds that there is such a future state they can no more put off a desire of being happy in it than they can put off nature it self and cease to be men They can discern a difference between moral good and evil in very many things and the different tendency of them to their happiness or misery in the future state They cannot though they would think that evil tends to the happiness and good to the misery of that future state but the contrary They can consider and think on such things as by which the Holy Scripture directs to this happiness as well as they can the Contents of other Books Before men have debauched their natures by a custom of sinning there is hardly any but have some such thoughts as these spring up more or less in their minds And to what degree they do so they have a tendency to bring men to a belief of the Gospel and a good life as I shall further shew afterwards 3. The subsequent Grace of God and work of the Holy Spirit is that by which the former considerations which had some tendency to Faith are heightned improved and carried on until such a Faith is produced in the soul as is a believing unto Righteousness And this seems to be done chiefly in some such way as this First by presenting the objective Grace of God the Gospel more frequently to their consideration and by holding their thoughts more intently upon the great and concerning matters contained therein Secondly by assisting the intellective faculties of the soul by more frequent and repeated considerations to understand and discern the nature and import of the great doctrines of the Gospel as containing Gods design of wisdom and goodness for the recovery of lost men from sin and destruction for sin by Jesus Christ And by this means a greater light breaks into the soul by which the evidence of the truth of what the Gospel reports is better discerned than it was before and so are a mans own great concerns for eternity which are therein laid open And thereby also is the mind prevailed upon to assent to the truth of our Saviours doctrine in the Gospel and the will to consent to act according to the great concerns of a mans soul And therefore mens conversion is in Scripture described by their being turned from darkness to light by their being enlightned and having the eyes of their understanding opened and the like And somtimes this work of Faith or Grace in the soul is ascribed to the former work of God upon the mind viz. the holding the mind and thoughts unto a more close serious and intent consideration of the great things of the Gospel and a mans own great concerns therein Thus in Jam. 1.25 Whoso looketh into the perfect Law of liberty and continues therein i.e. continues looking into it he being not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work this man shall be blessed in his deed Here we see one that continues his looking into the doctrine of the Gospel which is meant by the Law of Liberty and a forgetful hearer are opposed to each other and so is a forgetful hearer and a doer of the work By which it plainly appears that the reason why the ones hearing ends in the doing of the work and in being blessed in his deed and the other does not is for that the one considers and continues from time to time seriously to consider the weight and importance of what he hears and of his own great concern in it but the other does not but is a forgetful hearer as little minds it as if he were not concerned in it The same thing is doubtless meant by another Metaphor which
are sustained and assisted to operate according to what is proper to the nature of them So that if any man who enjoys the Gospel perish it is through his own neglect to do what he was able to have done towards his own believing It is indeed for his not believing but then the reason of his not believing and the fault of it is imputable only unto him and lies wholly at his door Because he might have believed and would certainly have been enabled to believe if he had not grosly neglected to do what he could and might have done towards it If this were not so that men might as certainly believe repent and make themselves new hearts if they can but be persuaded to do what they can do towards it as if they had all the power requisite thereto in their own hands then to what purpose are they required by God in Scripture as they are to believe to make themselves new hearts and to repent and turn themselves from all their transgressions to circumcise their hearts to wash their hearts from wickedness to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and Spirit or why and in what respect else can men be said to save themselves Which yet they are 1 John 3.23 Ezek. 18.30 31 32. and 14.6 Deut. 10.16 Jer. 4.14 2 Cor. 7.1 1 Tim. 4.16 It is from the certainty of Gods cooperating with mens endeavours to the producing of these effects if men fail not to do what they well may do that these effects are ascribed to men as well as unto God though God be indeed the principal Agent beyond all comparison and men but in a very inferior degree the subordinate Though salvation be of the Lord and that besides him there is no Saviour in a sense proper to him yet in a sense proper to mens endeavours St. Paul disdained not to assure Timothy that if he took heed to himself and to his doctrine and continued therein that then in so doing he should both save himself and those that heard him 1 Tim. 4.16 It is a common thing in Scripture where several free Agents concur to the producing of the same effect to attribute the effect to both though the Agency of the one of them be never so inferiour to the other Thus though God is said to give a new heart and a new spirit and to circumcise the heart Ezek. 36.26 Deut. 30.6 yet men are still supposed to be in some capacity to make themselves new hearts and to circumcise their own hearts in as much as they are required to do it as I have shewed That is they are supposed to be in a capacity to do somthing towards it though very little in comparison of what is done by God therein when it is done indeed Thus again men are required to work out their own salvation when yet it is God that worketh in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.12 13. Which is not so to be understood as if God did work in them to will and to do exclusive of all endeavours of theirs for if that had been his meaning he would thereby have rendred his own exhortation and the reason of it useless in persuading them to work out their own salvation for that reason because it is God which worketh in them both to will and to do of his good pleasure Nor yet is it so to be understood on the other hand as if men could do all of themselves which is necessary for the working out or carrying the business of their salvation quite through without supernatural assistance But his meaning then seems to be that it is the good will and pleasure of God to work in such men both to will and to do to the saving of their souls who do endeavour through the preventive and concomitant Grace of God to do what they can do towards it When the work of Grace in man is ascribed to God and Christ it is not to be understood exclusively of all endeavours of men When our Saviour speaking of his Disciples bringing forth fruit saith without me ye can do nothing he does not say nor mean that with him they could do nothing When it was said to the Israelites Deut. 8. it is God that giveth you power to get wealth their own endeavours in that acquisition were not excluded but the meaning was I suppose that the means the opportunities and advantages on that behalf were of God and the ordering of his good providence towards them Though Solomon says in one place The blessing of the Lord maketh rich yet he saith in another The diligent hand maketh rich Though it be but very little which man doth towards his believing in comparison of what God doth yet the effect of that doing the act of believing is still from place to place ascribed unto men for it is they are ascribed unto men for it is they that are said to believe How much soever God doth in producing Faith in men yet therein still mans faculties are preserved in such a free use and exercise as is proper to such a creature as God hath made man to be and from thence it is denominated his act as I have said Now then if this were not so that God hath by advantage of the Gospel where it comes given so much power unto men of acting towards their own believing and so much assurance of his further assistance to enable them to believe unto Righteousness if they grosly neglect not to do what they can do towards it I say if this were not so how can it possibly stand with the infinite goodness of the nature of God for him to damn men for not believing or with the sincerity of such sayings of his in which he hath declared That he is not willing that any man should perish and that he would have all men to be saved 2 Pet. 3.9 1 Tim. 2.4 How will God be justified in this in the sight of Angels and men and in the consciences of condemned sinners themselves if their unbelief and perishing for it were not through their own neglect And how else could mens destruction be said as it is to be of themselves Hos 13.9 We see then from the nature of the thing and the honor of God as concerned in it as well as from the evidence of Scripture what reason we have to hold that all men under the Gospel are in such a capacity of performing the condition of the promise of Pardon and Life by believing as that if they do it not it is through their own gross and wilful neglect to do what they might have done towards it And for any to make God so the Author of mens destruction as to affirm that he never put them into a capacity of preventing it by believing is a daring undertaking whoever ventures upon it and tends to tempt men to think dishonorably of the goodness of God and of the truth and sincerity of his declarations
I might further shew how that our title to the heavenly inheritance ariseth out of our adoption to it as joint-heirs with Christ and from Gods free and bounteous donation as eternal Life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and from our performance of the condition on which it is promised Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life From all which Remission of sin differs and is another thing 5. Our right and title to Remission of sin it self depends upon the same terms as our right to glory does and yet that depends upon our Justification For God first Justifies whom he after glorifies Rom. 8.30 And if our right to Remission of sin depends upon the same terms as right to glory does then Remission of sin can be no more the same thing with Justification than glorification is but depends upon it as an effect upon a cause without which none can receive it Our right to Remission of sin depends upon our believing as the condition on which God hath promised it as well as our right to glory does To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believes in him shall receive Remission of sins Acts 10.43 And this right to Remission of sins depends as much also upon Gods adjudging us to have performed the condition on which he hath promised Pardon as our right to glory does For God does no more actually Pardon any then he glorifies them until he first adjudgeth them to have performed the condition on which he promised Pardon which dijudication of his is his Justifying of them And therefore Remission of sin does as really differ from Justification as Glorification does and is as certainly subsequent to it as Glorification is and therefore cannot be the same thing properly and strictly considered 6. God does not forgive all a mans sins at once nor before they are committed and repented of but multiplies Pardons as his servants multiply sins of infirmity and their repentances and petitions for Pardon And if so and if God do not multiply as many Justifications as he does Pardons to the same person then here is another difference between Justification and Remission of sin 7. Justification is Gods imputing Righteousness to us or our Faith for Righteousness But Pardon of sin is his non-imputation of sin to us God by not imputing sin to us does not reckon us not to have sinned nor not to have deserved eternal destruction but he then does not impute sin when he does not inflict the punishment deserved by and due for sin But when he imputes Righteousness or Faith for Righteousness to us he adjudgeth us to have answered the terms of his new Law of Grace by believing by which Law that Faith becomes our Righteousness Now there is a great difference between Gods adjudging us to have answered the terms of his new Law and his not inflicting the deserved penalty of the Old between his awarding us a recompence of our sincere conformity to the one and his not exacting of us what we had deserved to suffer for transgressing the other And yet so much difference there is between Justification and Remission of sin As for those who place Justification in Gods pardoning of sin they may please to consider that the benefit of Remission of sin does not signifie the less by being called only by its proper name Pardon or Forgiveness and not Justification if by Justification be meant only Remission of sin as they hold it is who limit Justification only to that And if Remission of sin signifie no more when we call it Justification then it does when we call it Pardon or Forgiveness I see little reason why two or three or some small number of Texts of Scripture which speak of Justification fomwhat obscurely should be so much strained as they are to make them seem to mean only Remission of sin when they may be fairly understood in another sense and that too perhaps with more congruity to the signification of the word Justification and to the nature of the thing and to the Scriptures themselves elsewhere Nor can I discern what would be gained by it if it should be granted that Remission of sin were Justification and Justification Remission of sin For yet then the same thing the same benefit would signifie no more when we call it Justification than it does when we call it only Remission of sins as we all agree the Scriptures doe Nor does the placing of Justification in Gods Judicial act in approving and adjudging men to be Righteous in a Gospel sense who have performed the condition on which Pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised make the priviledg of having our sins forgiven the less beneficial to us or the less of Grace from God and our Lord Jesus Christ For Gods approving us to be Righteous in a Gospel sence does not suppose or imply that we stand in no need of Pardon nor of that mercy of God and merit of Christ from which Pardon flows it only supposeth us to be Righteous with such a Righteousness of Faith on condition of which the promise of Pardon of all our sins is made through the blood of Christ But Gods Justifying of us or his approving of us to be Righteous in such a sence does not make our sins to become no sins nor is it I conceive Gods Pardoning act but yet it is that which doth judicially qualifie us for Pardon and which as it were opens the door and lets us into the possession of it For Pardon is the next and immediate act that in order follows Gods adjudging us to have performed the condition on which he promised us Pardon Having said this much of the difference between judicial Justification and Remission of sin it seems requisite to make some enquiry into the sense and meaning of those Scriptures on which some ground an assertion limiting Justification to Remission of sin only And those Scriptures which above all others seem most to countenance such an assertion and which are most relyed on by those of that persuasion are Acts 13.39 Rom. 5.16 and 4.6 7. To an enquiry into the meaning of which I will only premise this That if we should find cause to think that it may be proved from these or any other Scriptures That we are pardoned by being Justified yet we can have no good reason thence to conclude that we are Justified only by being Pardoned no nor yet in the properest sense neither when we consider how express the Scriptures are elsewhere for a judicial Justification to wit Gods Justifying us by Faith and by accounting or adjudging Faith to us for Righteousness or for a performance of the terms of the Gospel our conformity whereto is as truly our Evangelical Righteousness as our conformity to the terms of the Law would have been a legal Righteousness if it had been found in us To begin now with Acts 13.39
God as just So that to be justified by God and to be approved of by him as just and so adjudged is all one Wisdome is justified of her children that is approved of and defended against the accusations and quarrels of her adversaries Lu. 7.29 The Publican went down to his house justified that is approved rather than the Pharisee Luk. 18.14 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified that is approved of by God as a good and righteous man as Abraham was and not by faith only Jam. 2.24 By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned By these as well as by other things persons are and will be adjudged by God to be good and righteous or wicked and ungodly men Matth. 12.37 Again Rom. 8.33 34. It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth Where Gods approbation of his people is opposed to others disapprobation of them he approves of them as good while their adversaries condemn them as bad they charge them as bad but God absolves and dischargeth them as good And in this judicial sense is the word justification generally taken throughout the Scripture By Sanctification men are constituted and made evangelically righteous but in Justification they are approved of by God as such and adjudged to be so which is the proper difference between Sanctification and Justification If then we make our estimate of evangelical Justification according to the usual signification of the word as that implies in it the Cause of the party tried the Act of God as Judge and the law and rule on which the trial proceeds and by which the cause is determined for him that is justified then Justification may be thus described It is that whereby God for the sake and upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ doth approve of a true believer as one that hath perfermed the condition on which God in the Gospel hath promised pardon of sin and eternal life and doth impute that performance to him for righteousness and accordingly adjudgeth him to be righteous in the sense and according to the tenor of the law of Grace and such an one as hath a Covenant right and title to the blessings promised in that Covenant pardon of Sin and eternal life This description of Justification as it best agrees with the use and signification of the word and phrase so it does also with the doctrine of the Gospel as we shall afterwards see Which that we may the better do I shall open the whole to you by opening it in its several parts and so shall shew 1. How the Righteousness of Christ doth operate to our Justification 2. How the Covenant of Grace doth it 3. How Faith doth it and 4. How God himself doth it And thus to open the whole nature of Justification by shewing the operation of the several causes of it is I conceive the best and most likeliest way to come to the clearest knowledge and best insight into it that we can attain unto The want of which distinctness in proceeding hath been I conceive an occasion in great part of obscuring the doctrine of Justification while the parts have been confounded and the operation proper to one cause hath been attributed to another The whole of the description which I have given of Justification is the result of the operation of the righteousness of our Blessed Saviour of the Covenant of Grace of faith and of the whole action of Gods dijudication in justifying true believers to the opening of which I shall now proceed And I shall begin with the righteousness of our Redeemer Christ Jesus and shall enquire into the nature and operation of it in reference to our justification CHAP. II. Of the nature of the righteousness of Christ and how it operates to our Justification IN shewing what influence our Saviours righteousness hath into our Justification two things will come under consideration 1. What we are to understand by the Righteousness of our Saviour 2. How it operates to our Justification First of the former what we are to understand by the righteousness of Christ Righteousness is the conformity of a person to some Law or Rule And therefore when we speak of the righteousness of Christ it supposeth some Law in his conformity whereunto this righteousness of his whereof we speak doth consist Which Law is the Law of his Mediation which he received from his Father and which he voluntarily and most willingly undertook to observe and fulfil The mutual agreement between the Father and the Son about this Law of Mediation between God and man and the Sons undertaking to fulfil it in order to our Redemption Divines are wont to call the Covenant of Redemption And as the great office of Mediator is peculiar to him alone for there is but one Mediator between God and man even the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 So the Law of this Mediation was peculiar to him And as the law and office of Mediation were peculiar to our Saviour so is his righteousness which consisteth in his conformity to that law it is a Mediatory Righteousness The benefit of it belongs to believers as I shall afterwards shew but the righteousness it self which is Mediatorial can be no more transferred to any other than his office of Mediation can for his righteousness consists in those acts of conformity to the Law of Mediation by which he doth execute his office of Mediation Now that there was such a Law of Mediation between God and man given by God the Father to Christ his Son and which he did most readily accept of execute and obey is plainly made known to us by our Saviour himself by many of his sayings As in John 6.38 when he says I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me And again the Father which sent me he gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak John 12.49.50 Our Saviour speaking of his laying down his life for his sheep saith No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father mark that John 10.18 To fulfil this Law was the design of our Saviours coming into the world Heb. 10.7 Then said I Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me to do thy will O God And of the fulfilling of this law our Saviour spake when in his prayer to his Father he said I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do John 17.4 These with other like Scriptures acquaint us with these two things First that there was a Law given by the Father and chosen by the Son to be observed in managing the office and work of Mediator between God and man which we call the Law
a precious corner-stone a sure foundateon saith God concerning Christ All manner of spiritual blessings are in Scripture said to be conferred on us through Jesus Christ or by Christ or in Christ God reconciles us to himself by Jesus Christ preacheth peace to us by Jesus Christ The riches of his grace in his kindness towards us is through Christ Jesus we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ The promise of life is said to be in Christ Jesus And eternal life the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord The adoption of Children is by Christ Jesus with many more the like in Scripture All which betokens that Spiritual benefits of all sorts are vouchsafed us upon the account of his Mediatorial performance The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Eph. 1.3 But these things I shall more fully open in that which follows to which I shall now proceed The second thing then which I proposed to be enquired into is upon what the efficacy and operative virtue of this Mediatorial righteousness of our Saviour doth depend in reference to our Justification and indeed of all other saving benefits And it seems to me to depend partly upon Gods Ordination and appointment to the end he and our Saviour designed it for and partly upon the Aptitude of it as a means to such an end 1. It depends upon Divine Ordination and appointment For our Lord Christ is made to us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 He is made Righteousness to us by God in the effects of his righteousness God ordering and appointing that so it should be For this way of making us righteous by virtue of the righteousness of another is wholly of Divine institution and is supernatural a way which the Law natural knows nothing of nor we by it When the Apostle had said speaking in the person of Christ Lo I come to do thy will O God Heb. 10.7 he presently adds ver 10. by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all It appears to be of Divine institution that the Mediatorial righteousness of Christ should operate to our Justification and other Spiritual benefits because the effect of it in the event is limited by God unto certain conditions otherwise when Christ gave himself a Ransom for all and tasted death for every man all would have been justified and saved thereby as well as some For the price of Redemption was sufficient for all as well as for some if it had been as agreeable to the wisdom of God that all should have been justified by his blood as it is that those only shall who shall be persuaded to be reconciled to him And the obedience of Christ is in it self as sufficient to deliver those who are reconciled to God from temporal death which is the less evil as it is to deliver them from eternal death which is the greater had not the wisdom of the Divine will made the difference And we may well conceive that it is by virtue of the divine will that Abel Enoch and other good men who lived towards the beginning of the world should be justified and saved by virtue of this obedience of our Saviour to the Law of Mediation thousands of years before he actuated that obedience in the humane nature The giving of Christ for us and the appointing him to the office and work of a Mediator was an act of pure Grace And in all donations it belongs to the doner to determine and appoint how far and to what ends the benefit of them shall extend and upon what terms they shall be conferred and enjoyed It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Rom. 9.16 That is the terms on which the mercies are to be received are not of the ordering and appointment of any other but of God whose the mercy is to bestow The wisdom of God governs in all acts of his Grace For he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will Eph. 1.11 2. The Operative virtue of the Mediatorial righteousness of our Blessed Saviour in reference to our Justification depends in great part at least upon the Aptitude of it as a means to such an end There is a blessed aptitude in what our Saviour hath done and suffered to reconcile God and men and so to procure mens Justification The proper business of a Mediator is to reconcile parties at difference And the Mediatorial acts of our Saviour conformable to the Law of Mediation in which his righteousness doth consist were most apt and proper to procure Reconciliation between God offended and men offending Some of them having in them a great fitness to reconcile God to men to atone him and to take off his displeasure against sinners for what is past provided they can be prevailed withal to lay down their arms of rebellion humble themselves beg forgiveness and return to their duty And some of them have on the other hand a great aptitude in them to reconcile men to God And by such acts of our Saviours Mediatorial obedience as these two sorts consist of is the great and happy business of reconciliation between God and men brought about and mens justification and pardon obtained God never thought it fit to be reconciled to men till they could be perswaded to be reconciled to him And men will never be persuaded to be reconciled to God till they have some good assurance that God will be reconciled to them upon their repentance submission and return Now the acts of our Saviour's Mediatorial obedience serve very happily to both these ends 1. They have an excellent aptness in them to reconcile God to men upon supposition of their compliance with those reasonable and easie terms upon which he hath declared himself willing to be reconciled to them Our Saviours putting himself in our stead and being content to suffer for us to die for us that we might not die eternally and thereby to make reparation for the affront we have put upon God his law and government is called making reconciliation for the sins of the people by the Apostle Heb. 2.17 and the making reconciliation for iniquity by the Prophet Dan. 9.24 And the reason of the aptness of this act of our Saviour's obedience to reconcile God unto us upon supposition still that we be brought thereby and by other means to be reconciled to God is two-fold 1. From the value of the ransome laid down not silver and gold but the precious blood of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1.19 the Blood of one who is God as well as man the Church of God is said to be purchased with his own Blood Acts 20.28 which according to the Scripture account is a valuable consideration for that which is designed to be obtained by it Hence it is called a price a
transcendent worthiness of his person and the exceeding great interest he had in his Fathers love he did thereby sufficiently declare and manifest as well as by inflicting punishment on sinners themselves how odious a thing sin is in his sight how contrary to his nature and how irreconcilable he is to it Sin was condemned for as vile a thing as it is as well by our Saviour's suffering in the flesh for it in our stead as it would have been by our suffering for it our selves Rom. 8.3 he condemned sin in the flesh by being a Sacrifice for it 2. By the Son of God's thus suffering in the sinners stead for their transgressing the righteous Law of God the authority of this Law is as sufficiently maintained and the goodness of it as sufficiently vindicated as it would have been by punishing those sinners themselves that are now saved by his sufferings For when God would not so much as give any hopes of pardon to such as have transgress'd that law of his no not upon condition of their repentance without the suffering of such an one as his own dear Son no creature that knows this can have any occasion or place left to despise or slight that Law or the authority of the Law-giver and not to be awed by it nor to expect or hope for impunity in contemning of it 3. No creature can take any encouragement to commit sin or to continue in sin who considers how severely the Son of God himself was dealt with by his merciful and most loving Father in delivering him up to be crucified by wicked hands besides his other sufferings when he put himself in the sinners place to undergo whatever his Father would please to inflict upon him so that he might but thereby obtain a pardon for them and that too but upon condition of their reformation and reconciliation to God 4. As the end of inflicting punishment is either for the reformation of the persons themselves that suffer or of others by their example of suffering so this end of sinners suffering was much better attained by our Saviour's suffering for our sins than if we our selves that are saved by his death had suffered for them what we had deserved And the reason hereof is because those that are saved by our Saviours death are by his death first reconciled to God in their nature and life they are reformed and of rebels made loyal subjects which they never would have been if they had suffered themselves the desert of their sin And is it not much better that disloyal and disobedient subjects be made dutiful loyal obedient and useful than to be cut off for obstinacy in rebellion God had said concerning wicked men that he had much rather that they should return and live than that they should die in and for their iniquities and our Lord his Son hath answered him in the joy of his heart in that by his suffering for them in conjunction with other his performances on their behalf he hath fulfilled his Fathers wish and brought his desire to pass in reference to many such sinners And most certain it is that this is infinitely more pleasing and satisfactory to God than if all mankind had suffered the pains of eternal death for their iniquities This hath occasioned and will still cause infinitely more joy in Heaven and on Earth and more triumphant thanksgigiving unto God than there would have been if every sinner had born his own burden On this account our Saviour's giving himself for us was indeed emphatically an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God as St. Paul calls it Ephes 5.1 All these things considered and put together it appears upon a very rational account that there was a very great aptitude in this act of our Saviour's mediatorial obedience to reconcile God to men when he delivered up himself to suffer for them on the terms he did and so to operate to our Justification 2. As there is an aptitude in our Blessed Saviour's Mediatorial Righteousness to reconcile God to men in order to their Justification so there is in another respect an aptitude in it likewise to reconcile men to God in order to the same end And that act of Obedience to the law of Mediation which hath an aptitude in it this way consists at least very much in a faithful discharge of his Prophetical Office as Mediator For by a faithful discharge of this trust and in obedience to this Law he persuades men by the great arguments and motives of the Gospel to be reconciled to God To this end he published the Gospel which he brought down from Heaven Prophetically called his declaring the decree Psal 2.7 And this was done in obedience to the Law of Mediation given by his Father as I have shewed from John 12.49 I have not spoken of my self saith he but the Father which sent me he gave me a Commandment what I should say and what I should speak As the Law was given in the hand of a Mediator Moses so was the Gospel by Christ the Mediator of a better Testament And he confirmed it to be from God by many signs and wonders and mighty deeds which accompanied the publication of it by him and his Apostles having sealed it with his own Blood For after he had set it on foot himself while he was on earth and then sealed to it by his death he afterwards when he left the world and ascended up on high left behind him by way of gift to the world Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers to Minister the things of the Gospel in his name which Ministry is called the Ministry of Reconciliation and the Gospel committed to their trust the Word of Reconciliation and that which they were to do by it as his Ambassadors was to pray beseech persuade men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. This first done by our Saviour in his Ministry is continued by his Ministers in his name by persuading men to repentance and amendment of life and to become sincerely obedient unto God in which their being reconciled to him doth consist And the way and means used by our Saviour and his Embassadors to persuade men to be thus reconciled to God was by possessing them with a strong and vigorous Belief of three things especially as great parts of the Gospel our Saviour brought from Heaven with him 1. That God would certainly be reconciled to all sinners provided they would but be reconciled to him and not still persist in their rebellion that he will certainly pardon them and treat them as friends if they would desist from carrying it any longer as enemies to him He hath sent them word by his Messengers that he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 that he would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth 1 Tim. 2.4 And because guilt
Grace to us in that it is bestowed on us through Christ or for his sake nor the less of Grace in God because the Righteousness of Christ his obedient suffering upon account whereof this gift or grant is made us was the effect of Gods gratious design of benefit unto us It was by the grace of God that he tasted death for every man as we are told Heb. 2.9 and consequently all the good that does accrue to us by it must be of Grace That the introduction of this Evangelical Righteousness we speak of was of meer Grace and free gift appears Rom. 5.17 where this effect of Gods Grace is called the gift of Righteousness And in that Verse and in the Verse before and after it is called the gift or free gift no less than four times Not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgment was by one unto condemnation but the free gift was of many offences unto justification For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they that 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 the justification of life And in vers 21. Grace is said to reign through Righteousness to life as sin had reigned unto death In these Verses St. Paul shews that if the offence of Adam were of force to involve his whole Race in condemnation that then the Grace of God and the gift by Grace through Christ the second Adam and upon account of his Righteousness will be much more available to the justification and pardon of all men upon supposition they receive this gift of being Righteous with that Righteousness And let it be noted that the free gift here mentioned and the Righteousness of one Jesus Christ are not the same but the one the effect of the other it is by the Righteousness of one Christ Jesus that the free gift of Righteousness came upon all men unto justification of life That is as I conceive this free gift of accounting men Righteous if they receive it upon the terms of the giver is granted unto all men otherwise sinners upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ Rom. 3.24 Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Here also we see that it is of free Grace that God approves of men as Just and does adjudg them Righteous which is his Justifying of them it is freely of Grace though it be through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus or for the sake of his Mediatory obedience Tit. 3.6 Being justified by his Grace c. And when this Righteousness of Faith is said as it is to be a Righteousness imputed or a Righteousness that is accounted for such it implies nay argues that it is so in a way of grace and favour and not in stirctness of justice As on the contrary not to impute sin when sin hath been committed signifies to deal with such persons in a way of grace and favour and not according to the rigor of strict justice 2 Sam. 19.19 2 Cor. 5.19 As not to impute our trespasses to us when we repent of them and strive against them though otherwise we are not without all sin is purely an act of grace and of high favour in God even so for him to impute Righteousness to us when we sincerely endeavour to be Righteous though otherwise we be not without all sin is an act of the same grace likewise This Righteousness of Faith it is not a natural Righteousness as Adams was while he kept his integrity but it is so meerly in the account of grace and favour It is a Righteousness by Divine institution not otherwise of it self so its being so depends upon the grace and good will of God that hath appointed it so to be and to be accepted and to pass in account for such For which reason I conceive it is frequently called the Righteousness of God Rom. 1.17 and 3.21 2 Cor. 5.21 The Righteousness of God which is by Faith Rom. 3.22 Phil. 3.9 as noting it to be a Righteousness of his ordaining proceeding from his Grace in opposition to mens own Righteousness which is or is conceited to be a Righteousness Naturally and of it self as the Pharisaical Jews fancied their Righteousness of the Law to be By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 That is it is by Grace and by virtue of the donation of God that we are saved by Faith or the Righteousness of Faith and that we have such a Faith or Righteousness of Faith to be saved by 2. It is by the Gospel or Covenant of Grace that this Righteousness of Faith is revealed and conveyed to us for such and stated and settled for such as by a Law This way of accounting men that have been and are sinners to be Righteous upon their believing is not known by any Natural Light because it is not a Natural Righteousness but is purely matter of supernatural Revelation as it is in it self supernatural Grace I am not ashamed of the Gospel saith St. Paul For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith as it is written the just shall live by Faith Rom. 1.17 And again Now is the Righteousness of God manifested without the Law to wit by the Gospel Rom. 3.21 It is by this Gospel or Covenant that Faith is ordained to be our Righteousness and settled for such as by a Law which therefore is called the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 And the Gospel which conveys this Grace to us is frequently called the Grace of God the word of his Grace and the Gospel of the Grace of God Tit. 2.11 Acts 14.3 and 20.24 The Messias according to what was Prophesied hath brought in everlasting Righteousness by the everlasting Covenant the everlasting Gospel which was not in the world after the fall but by his bringing in Dan. 9.24 By all this it appears that the Covenant operates to our Justification as it gives being from God and our Lord Jesus Christ unto that Covenant Righteousness which is the matter of our Justification it is that by which God doth institute this Righteousness for it is a Righteousness by institution and not naturally such as I have shewed What it does in this kind it does it by virtue of Gods designation of it to that Office and not by its own innate virtue and intrinsick worth or merit When I say this Righteousness of Faith is not naturally and of it self such I do not mean that those fruits of the Spirit of which it doth consist have not in them the true nature of goodness and holiness for that they have but that these are not in Righteous men themselves that yet are Evangelically
more upon men when they heartily believe it by proclaiming pardon to all repentant sinners and immense rewards to such as shall with honest minds give up themselves to Christ to be his Disciples to learn of him by his Doctrine and Example how to live a sober righteous and a godly Life And by promising Divine assistance as well as vast rewards and acceptance of honest and sincere endeavours and by making allowances for such frailties and defects both in knowledg and practice as will consist with uprightness of heart towards God And thus I have shewn how the Gospel operates to our Justification as a great and effectual means of bringing us to become Evangelically Righteous without which we cannot be Justified by having that Righteousness imputed to us and by being approved of as Righteous upon the account of it CHAP. IV. Of Faith and how that operates to our Justification THat Faith doth operate to our Justification we are perfectly assured by the frequent and express notice thereof we have from the Scriptures such as Rom. 3.30 and 5.1 Gal. 2.16 and others And Faith operates to our Justification as it is the performance of that condition upon which the great and precious promises of the Gospel Covenant are made For the Covenant consists chiefly of two parts to wit the promises which God makes of bestowing benefits on us through Christ and of the condition upon which these promises are made which condition is summarily comprised in Faith or believing But before I proceed further to speak of Faith I think it not inconvenient here to premise to what is to be said about Faith as the condition of the Gospel-Covenant somwhat to shew that the promises of pardon and eternal Life are conditional The Gospel-Covenant is directly suited to that Mediatory undertaking of Christ by which the Covenant it self was obtained and on which it was founded Now I have shewed formerly that Christ died for all men indeed but yet it was but to obtain a conditional pardon for all men and other benefits consequent upon it He did not die to procure that God should be reconciled to them that should always refuse to be reconciled to him but to obtain their pardon and restauration to the favour of God upon condition of their being persuaded to be reconciled to him And truly the Covenant of Grace holds an exact proportion to the Covenant of Redemption or Law of Mediation by the fulfilling of which by Christ the Gospel Covenant as I said was obtained As our Saviour died for all to put all into a capacity of being pardoned and saved in case they should not persist finally in rebellion against God so the Covenant of Grace promiseth pardon and salvation just upon the same terms and not otherwise For the Gospel denounceth a being punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power against all those that know not God and which obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ So that when we compare the general promise and threatnings in the Gospel together we are put upon a necessity of understanding the promise in a conditional sense otherwise the promise and threatning would be inconsistent And indeed the promise of those great benefits seldom if ever are found without the condition annexed either expresly or by plain intimation The gracious declaration of the Gospel runs thus And you that were somtime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreproveable in his sight if ye continue in the Faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel Col. 1.21 22 23. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 If ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive your trespasses Mat. 6.14 15. If we walk in the light as he is in the light then have we fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 These conditional particles if plainly express the conditional nature of the promises yea and of the threatnings too The promises are not made to such or such men by name but to all men under such or such a qualification as to those that believe to those that repent to those that obey the truth Which qualification specifies the condition on which and so the persons to which such promises belong This is a thing so plain throughout the Scripture from end to end that more need not be said of it Having premised thus much I shall now proceed to shew how Faith operates to our Justification and in order to our better understanding what influence Faith hath in our Justification we will enquire into these particulars 1. How it appears that Faith is the condition of the promise of pardon and eternal Life 2. What that Faith is 3. Why it is made the condition of the promises 4. In what capacity men are to perform that condition 5. How more particularly it operates to our Justification 1. That Faith is the condition on which pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised in the Gospel is so plain that nothing more need to be said to make it evident than only to point to the express letter of the Scripture in this case For pardon of sin this is promised on condition of believing Acts 10.43 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believes in him shall receive remission of sins And so is eternal Life promised on the same terms John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlastiug Life If these promises are made to believers as such as we see they are then believing must needs be the condition on which they are made This is past contradiction Jo. 3.36 Acts 16.31 2. Consider we next then what that Faith or believing is which is the condition on which the promised benefits remission of sin and eternal Life are suspended And without all doubt it is not only a speculative but a practical belief It is a hearty assent of the mind to the truth of the Gospel and a sincere consent in the will to live according to the Laws and Precepts of it The same thing the same Faith for substance is in Scripture described by different Phrases Somtimes it is described by a believing the record of God concerning his Son Christ Jesus 1 John 5.10 11. Somtimes by a believing Jesus to be the Christ the Son of God John 20.31 1 John 5.1.5 And somtimes by a believing of the Gospel a believing of the truth a believing of the testimony of the Apostles of our Saviour
in his word To say God did give such men power in Adam will not salve the business For we cannot say that any such power was given to Adam himself before his fall much less that all his Posterity had such a power in him We cannot say that Adam had power to do more than what was necessary to continue him in that state in which God created him and consequently we cannot say that God gave him power to repent when he had no occasion for it or power to believe the Gospel when there was no Revelation of it nor occasion for such a Revelation No this power depends upon an after-work of Grace through our Blessed Redeemer Nor is this doctrine touching the power which God hath given unto men of acting towards their own believing at all contrary to that where men are said to have believed through grace Acts 18.27 or to that where Faith is said to be the gift of God For it is through the preventive and antecedent Grace of God as I have said that they are enabled to act towards their believing For though what they do towards their own believing is by a free use of their natural faculties yet it is by means of the preventive and antecedent Grace of God to wit the Gospel that those faculties act any thing towards their believing the Gospel For without such an object of Faith as the Gospel is mens faculties could act nothing towards the believing of it And then further though men do exercise their natural faculties upon the objective Grace of God and thereby act somthing towards their own believing Yet in that hereupon more power is given them to believe hâ—â—â—lie effectually and fully to Righteousness and Salvation this power is from the subsequent Grace of God So that the whole business of believing from the beginning to the end of it is of Grace first of Grace antecedent and then of Grace subsequent There is only so much of man in raising Faith in him as belongs to the free use of his natural powers and faculties The Grace of God in working Faith does not put new faculties into man nor destroy that freedom which is proper to the will as such It only rectifies and regulates the motions and operations of the will in reference to its objects So that the change is not natural but moral And this moral change in rectifying and regulating the acts and motions of the will is made partly by opening the understanding and enlightening the mind better to discern the nature of things and whereto they tend And this is done partly by holding the thoughts more frequenâ—â—y and more intently upon things that concern the soul and another life and partly by assisting and strengthening the understanding in making a right judgment of things And then the will is prevailed upon to chuse the right end and the way to it by having the great motives of the Gospel kept upon it by a more frequent and constant consideration For by that more frequent consideration and by the illumination of the mind about the great motives of the Gospel the power and force of those motives is better felt by the Will So that as a man comes to have other apprehensions of things by illumination of the mind so he comes to have other affections for them in the acts and motions of his will This change thus made in the mnid and will is called the renewing of the Holy Ghost because it is his work upon and by both Tit. 3.5 and a being renewed in the spirit of the mind Eph. 4.23 It is a restoring the natural faculties that were depraved in their operations to their right use and exercise for which they were made which was to act for the honor of their maker and for their own happiness and not contrarywise as they do when perverted by the power of sin This renovation in the natural faculties therefore tends to the perfecting of our nature For which cause perhaps men thus renewed are in Scripture stiled perfect in the favourable sense of Grace This one thing is further to be noted That whatever is done upon the natural faculties of mind and will by the Gospel or by the Spirit of God to change and renew them is also done by those faculties Men are not made to understand or believe the Gospel which they did not before otherwise than by exercising their mind and will about it By all this then it appears I hope that what is ascribed unto man in acting towards his own believing is no ways contrary to Grace unless you will say an effect cannot be of Grace if the natural faculties have any thing to do in the producing of it as they must if it be mans act I might shew how that the Gospel by the giving of which God hath been aforehand with us and prevented all endeavours of ours is of it self and in the very nature of it so apt to work upon the human faculties and to incline men to embrace it if they would but a little attend to it and consider it which one would think they might easily do if they would before their natures are debauched by a custom of sinning I say it is so apt to gain upon them that it hardly fails to do so more or less but where it meets with such as wilfully call off their natural faculties from attending to it and the things it treats of and that imploy them about objects of another nature as those did who in the Parable of our Saviour are said to be invited to the Supper which a King made for his Son when they made their several excuses This is well represented by our Saviour when he says of such that they closed their eyes lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their hearts and should be converted and I should heal them Mat. 13.15 These are words which seem to signifie more than a bare omission or neglect and denote a kind of opposition a striving with themselves not to think upon or to be affected with things of that nature as those of a spiritual concern are And such people do not only not incline their ears to hear nor give ear to hear as the Scripture speaks but they turn away their ear from hearing they reject the word of the Lord and the counsel of God against themselves We do not therefore attribute any such great matter unto men when we say that they by the advantage of the Gospel may do so much towards their own believing if they will as would through the help of Gods Holy Spirit who is always ready to assist mens honest and good endeavours issue and end in an effectual believing Nay there is so much of the Grace of God vouchsafed towards the calling of men by the very sending of the Gospel to them as will in all probability prevail upon them if they do not much oppose resist and
persons according to the tenor of the Gospel-Covenant and so qualifies them to be so adjudged by God against all accusations to the contrary by what or by whomsoever It is that which makes their cause good when they come to be tried and judged by the Law of Liberty because it is all which that Law requires to denominate them Righteous and to entitle them to the benefit of that Law This Righteousness of Faith is the essential matter or material cause of our Justification without which no such thing could be and supposing which it cannot but be so long as the Gospel-Covenant stands in force It makes those that have it the proper subjects of Justification for as God will condemn the wicked so he will most certainly Justifie the Righteous such as are made so by his own Grace without respect of persons he judgeth acocrding to every mans work and the nature of his cause In these and the like respects doth the Righteousness of Faith operate to our Justification These things stand proved in what hath been said before in opening the nature of the Covenant of Grace and the nature of Faith and the reason of its designation by God to its Office and work And may be yet further confirmed by those Scriptures where Faith is said to be counted and imputed to us for Righteousness as it was to Abraham Rom. 4.3 6 11 22 24. Gal. 3.6 Gen. 15.6 Jam. 2.23 For if God count it to us for Righteousness then it is our Righteousness for God accounts of things but as they are when they are what they are of his own making as this Righteousness of Faith is And if this Faith be our Righteousness in Gods account then they must needs be Righteous in his account that are Righteous with this Righteousness and be approved of and adjudged such by him And thus Faith operates to our Justification as it is the essential and intrinsical matter of our Justification CHAP. V. How God himself operates to our Justification I Come now in the last place to enquire in what respects Justification is attributed to God and what his operation is in producing this great effect of Justifying such as have been sinners That he doth Justifie believers by some acts proper to him is no Christians doubt It is one God which shall Justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the Vncircumcision through Faith Rom. 3.30 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 Now God may be said to Justifie in several respects some more remote and some more proximate and immediate God is the Author Spring and Fountain and principal efficient cause of all other causes that any way concur or cooperate to our Justification Christ himself which is the foundation stone in this building by virtue of whose Mediatorial Righteousness we are Justified he is made to us of God Wisdom and Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 It is also God which hath given being to the new Covenant which is the Covenant of his Grace by virtue of which also we are Justified And the Righteousness of Faith which is the matter of our Justification is of Gods working in us by his Spirit Whence it is that both our Sanctification and Justification are attributed to the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God But that which we have now principally to consider is what that last act is or those last acts are by which God Justifies us And his operation herein is judicial for he Justifies as a Judg and therein proceeds by his own Law of Grace as the rule of judging of men and their cause And Gods judicial Justification of men doth stand I conceive in these two things principally 1. God in justifying of men approves of them for such as have performed the condition on which he in the Covenant of Grace promised pardon of sin and eternal Life That is he approves of them for true believers and such as have given up themselves to obey the Gospel to live according to the doctrine of their Saviour and adjudgeth them to be such 2. Those whom God approveth of as true and sincere observers of the new Law the Gospel or Covenant of Grace those he adjudgeth to be Righteous persons and that Faith of theirs by which they have fulfilled it to be their Righteousness True believers and such as have given up themselves to obey the Gospel they are Justified by the Gospel that is they are Righteous in the sense and meaning of that Law For that practical obediential Faith of theirs is their conformity to this Law of Christ the Gospel and therefore it must needs be their Evangelical Righteousness But there is this difference between being justified by the Gospel as it is the new Law of Grace and by being justified by God The Gospel-Covenant pronounceth all true believers in General to be Righteous persons but doth not determine whether this or that person in particular be a true believer and so a Righteous man or woman But God in justifying men determineth and adjudgeth this and that man in special to be a true believer and therefore a Righteous man in the sence of the Law of Grace It is the work of a Judg to apply the Law as a general rule to the special cases of particular men and to justifie or condemn men in particular in reference to their particular cases by and according to the general rule of the Law And so doth God the Judg of all in the case before us He knows and considers every man in particular whether he be a true believer or not And those whom he finds to be so those he adjudgeth to be Righteous according to the tenor of the Gospel which is his justifying of them Now that God justifieth men this way and after this manner does I conceive plainly and fully appear by those Scriptures which tell us that God doth justifie us by Faith and that he doth impute or account Faith to us for Righteousness One vein of Scriptures acquaints us that God justifieth us by Faith and through Faith Rom. 3.28 30. and 5.1 Gal. 2.16 and 3.8 By another vein of Texts we are told that God imputes accounts and reckons Faith to us for Righteousness Gen. 15.6 Rom. 4.3 5 11 22 24. Gal. 3.6 Jam. 2.23 Now these two veins of Scripture put together the sense that results out of them is I think plainly this That God justifies us by accounting our Faith to us for Righteousness This is so plain as that I know not what can well be plainer In the one vein it 's said that God justifieth us by Faith in the other that he imputes and reckons Faith to us for Righteousness And for God to account Faith to us for Righteousness and to reckon and adjudg us to be Righteous upon the account of our Faith signifies I think the same
thing That God justifies men by approving and adjudging them to be Righteous by being true believers and therein conformable to the terms of the Gospel on which the promises of it are made will further appear if we consider Justification in a notion opposite to condemnation In condemnation or when men are condemned by God they are convicted of a double guilt First of a guiltiness of fault that they are guilty of such transgression of the Law by which they are tryed as is damnable in the sense of that Law Secondly of the guilt of penalty upon which they are adjuged and sentenced to suffer that penalty The guilt of fault of which they are convicted and for which they are condemned to suffer the penalty is final infidelity impenitence and wilful disobedience to the Gospel Now God in justifying men does as Judg vindicate and defend them against all accusations from being guilty of such unbelief impenitency and disobedience which vindication and defence is the same thing with his adjudging them to be true believers penitent and such as have delivered up themselves sincerely to obey the Laws of their Saviour which is his justifying of them And now having thus endeavoured to open and explain the doctrine the nature and notion of Justification in its several causes I shall now recapitulate or rehearse in a few words the sum and substance of what hath been more largely discoursed about it to the end the whole of it may come under our view at once The obedience of Christ to the Law of Mediation in dying for us does operate to our Justification by obtaining terms of Gods being reconciled to us and his obedience to the same Law in publishing the Gospel does operate to the same end by persuading us by it to be reconciled to God in observing those terms upon the observation of which we become justified by God as well as reconciled to him and justified because reconciled The new Covenant operates to our Justification by virtue of the death of Christ by which it was obtained as it is a new Law of Grace stating setling and setting forth the benefits therein promised pardon of sin and eternal Life and also the terms on which these benefits are to be conferred and received to wit a vigorous and operative Faith and this Covenant further operates to our Justification as by the promise of the foresaid benefits it is Gods great instrument to persuade men to observe and perform those terms or that condition in believing on which they are promised which performance is that which qualifies us for the blessing of being Justified Faith operates to our Justification as it is the performance of the condition on which the promise of the Pardon of sin and eternal Life is made through Christ and as that Faith is the new Covenant-Righteousness and so the matter of our Justification Almighty God himself operates to our Justification as he reckons imputes and counts this Faith to us for Righteousness and as he does approve each one that hath this Faith as a Righteous person according to the tenor of his own Law of Grace and as he doth adjudg him to be so Having as I conceive now competently proved that Gods judicial Justifying of us stands in his adjudging us to have performed the condition on which he hath promised Pardon of sin and eternal Life in that we have believed the Gospel and delivered up ourselves to the conduct of it and likewise in accounting this Faith to us for Righteousness and in approving of us as Righteous hereupon I shall now proceed to shew somewhat of the difference that is between Justification and Remission of Sins at least as I apprehend it CHAP. VI. Of the difference between Justification and Remission of sin THere is doubtless such a thing as a real difference between Justification and Remission of sin For when St. Paul saith that Christ is made to us of God Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 he certainly means somthing else by Redemption than he doth by Righteousness That by Righteousness in this place he means Justification I think none will deny By Redemption doubtless he means a deliverance first and last from all the evils and miseries we suffer or have deserved by reason of sin deliverance and exemption from which is properly pardon in act And indeed St. Paul in another place explains Redemption by Pardon when he says in whom we have Redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins Col. 1.14 We see then that St. Paul did reckon Justification and Remission of sins to be two distinct things benefits of a different nature I shall now name to you some of those things wherein they differ 1. Justification is Gods adjudging us to have performed the condition in believing on which he hath made promise of Pardon But Pardon it self is his conferring that benefit upon us which he conditionally had promised By the one God approves of us as having done our part and duty in keeping Covenant with him By the other he keeps Covenant with us in performing what he promised And therefore Justification and Remission of sin seem to differ as much as Gods adjudging us to have performed the condition on which he promised Pardon differs from actual Pardon it self and as much as his adjudging us to have kept Covenant with him differs from his keeping Covenant with us 2. By Justification we are acquitted and absolved from being guilty of infidelity impenitency and insincerity of obedience But we are not thereby acquitted and absolved from being guilty of all other sins but come to be discharged from them by way of Pardon whether they be sins against the Law or against the Gospel whether wilful and presumptuous sins before conversion yea former infidelity and impenitency or of human frailty and infirmity after together with all defects and imperfections of duty towards God and towards man A pardon of all these is promised on condition of that Faith with its effects by which God Justifies us and approves of us as Righteous and good men according to the tenor of the Gospel or new Covenant But then Gods pardoning these sins and his Justifying us as not guilty of present infidelity impenitency and insincerity of obedience on which he promised Pardon are things greatly different Some because they cannot understand how we can be justified by any Righteousness but such as is commensurate and adequate to the demands of the Law and because there is none to be found in any man but in our Saviour himself therefore they think we cannot be Justified any other way than by having his personal numerical Righteousness transferred to us and so made ours as that we by it may be accounted to have fulfilled the whole Law and answered all the demands of it But such should consider that we do not come off from the charge that lies against us for not answering the demands of the Law by our fulfilling it by
another but by being Pardoned by virtue of Christs atonement and by virtue of the new Law of Grace which he hath obtained by his obedience we performing the condition on which Pardon is procured and promised which performance God according to his Grace in the Gospel counts to us for Righteousness 3. That Righteousness of Faith by which we are Justified qualifies us for the positive happiness and glory of the next world but so does not Remission of sin as such That operative Faith by which God Justifies us renews our nature and makes us inherently Righteous without which we cannot suppose that God would adjudg us Righteous without which neither can we so much as see the Kingdom of God or be capable of enjoying the heavenly state But now this renovation in our nature is not made by Remission of sin That makes a change in a mans state indeed but the change which is made in our nature by which we are made capable of the heavenly glory is by that Faith and the Righteousness of it by which we are Justified And therefore there is a great difference between the Righteousness of Justification and Remission of sin in this respect also By reason of which difference I cannot understand how it can be truly said That Justification by Remission of sin as some phrase it will stand us in as much stead before the Tribunal of God as Justification upon a perfect justice would do For if it could be suppposed as it cannot upon good ground that Remission of sin might be had without any inherent Righteousness in our nature yet we could not thereby be so much as capable of being partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light for which they are made meet by that change which is made in their nature through Faith which God in Justifying of us reckons to us for Righteousness 4. Pardon of sin as it does not qualifie our nature for the heavenly glory so neither does it at all entitle men to it as the Righteousness of Justification by Faith does We that forfeited the first right which man had to happiness by our Apostacy from God can now have no right or title to it but what God of his own Grace through Christ is pleased to give us or by gift or grant to make over to us And this right which he has given us depends partly upon a conditional promise of his and partly upon Gods adjudging us to have performed that condition mentioned in that promise Now God in his new Law of Grace upon account of what our Saviour hath done and suffered to obtain it hath made promise of eternal Life to us upon condition of our believing and obeying the Gospel Which condition being performed by us our initial right to eternal Life accrues to us from this promise of God founded in our Saviours Mediatory performance But then our compleat right to it accrues to us from a judicial act of God which is his adjudging us to have performed that condition on which eternal Life is promised The one is as a right in Law the other as a right by act of judgment grounded on Law Which judicial act of God is that by which he Justifies us as that Judg to whom it belongs to judg whether the terms of his own Law of Grace be performed or no before he confers the benefit promised therein And whenever he doth adjudg us to have performed those terms that judgment and determination of his for us gives us an immediate and compleat right and title to the heavenly happiness But now Remission of sin or impunity was never made the condition of the promise of heavenly glory nor is it mans act but Gods and so not capable of being made a condition of such a thing And therefore it cannot in virtue of any promise give us that which I call our initial right to the heavenly glory which right accrues to us by virtue of Gods promise upon our performance of the condition of it Nor can this Remission give us that immediate and complete Right to the heavenly glory which flows to us from Gods adjudging us to have performed the condition on which he hath promised it because this Remission is no condition of Gods promise to us nor act of our performing Here then is a manifest difference between Remission of sin and Justification in respect of the right we have by the one which we have not by the other to the heavenly glory Some have indeed argued that Pardon of sin will stand us in as much stead as to our restauration to happiness as a perfect legal Righteousness would have done to have continued us in it Because as they reason the punishment of loss is by Pardon taken off as well as the punishment of sense and that as by Pardon we are delivered from the one so by it we are also restored to our title to the other to what we lost and so to a title to eternal Life The force of which arguing depends upon a supposition which will not be granted nor as I conceive ever be proved And that is that if Adam and so his posterity had continued in their integrity they would thereby have had a right and title to the Celestial happiness and glory of the upper world Whereas St. Paul tells us that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God and that the first man was of the earth earththy 1 Cor. 15.47 50. So that Adam himself should he have continued in that perfect state in which he was created yet would not for all that have been capable of the Celestial glory unless he had put off flesh and blood or else should have had his body transformed from natural into spiritual Which whosoever affirms that he should will doubtless be wanting in his proofs It is far more probable that the design of Christs undertaking as Mediatour was to advance the nature of man to a more glorious perfection and happiness than that which was natural to him in pure nature He was made a little lower than the Angels though he was crowned with glory and honor Psal 8.5 But they that shall be accounted worthy to that other world and the resurrection from the dead are equal to the Angels Which cannot be meant in respect of immortality only for Adam who was made lower than they would have been equal to them in that had he never sinned Luke 20.35 36. But our blessed Saviour came that we should have life and that we should have it more abundantly a life surpassing that which was lost by the fall John 10.10 And he hath taught his Disciples and followers in hope of this Celestial glory to set more light by this world than perhaps Adam would have been obliged to had he never fallen and hath given several other precepts which perhaps transcend the natural Law it self as to what Adam was obliged to by it before his fall and all to qualifie them for a higher state
Dr. Hammond renders it thus But the mercy was by occasion of many offences unto Justification Agreeable to this reading is that note of Grotius upon the place in these words Occasion being taken from many sins and so is that of Piscator and Simplicius in these words Occasion being taken not only from the sin of Adam but also from the proper sins of all believers So that the sense of the place according to this rendering of the words seems to be to this effect That from the sad condition into which men were fallen not only by the one offence of Adam but also by their own many personal offences God took occasion to manifest his own Grace and Mercy through Christ to miserable men in giving and granting them new terms by which they might attain unto Justification or a being approved of by God as Righteous their many offences notwithstanding And this in Verse 17. is called the gift of Righteousness and in Verse 18. the free gift unto Justification of life through the Righteousness of one to wit Christ And accordingly the grant which God hath made us of being saved by Faith in Jesus Christ is said to be of Grace and to be the gift of God By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 Now according to this rendering of the words by all these great men of Learning there is not the least appearance of any such thing as that Justification is by Remission of sin None of those worthy persons abovementioned do say the free gift is of many offences but all of them say it is from many offences So that if we read it thus according to the Translation I first mentioned the free gift is unto Justification from many offences the sense will be this I conceive That through the free gift we are by Justification secured from suffering the desert of our many offences and is the same in sense with the interpretation of Acts 13.39 last suggested Where was shewed that though Remission of sin is by Justification that is a benefit accruing to us thereby yet we cannot therefore say that Justification is by Remission of sin The terms are not convertible we cannot so well say that Justification is by Remission of sin as we can that Remission of sin is by Justification The other Scripture which is much insisted on to prove Remission of sin is Justification or that Justification stands in Remission of sin is Rom. 4.6 7. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth Righteousness without works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered In which words as it is argued Justification is described by Gods forgiving iniquity But then it is counter-argued that this description by David seems not to be a description of the Justification of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without works but a description of his happy state and condition in having his sins Pardoned St. Paul doth not say even as David describeth the Justification of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness but the Blessedness of the man Now the blessedness of having sin Pardoned is a benefit consequent upon a mans believing and so of his being Justified by that belief for Pardon is promised but on that condition Acts 10.43 And the promise and the condition of the promise cannot be the same Which very consideration if there were no more were enough to shew that Justification is not described by Forgiveness of sin It appears at first sight that these words of the Psalmist were brought to prove somwhat said by St. Paul a little before And if they should be brought to prove that Faith is counted to a man for Righteousness which was the thing St. Paul had asserted in the next precedent Verse then they could not be brought to prove that Forgiveness of sin is counted to him for Righteousness for Faith and Forgiveness of sin are two different things By this it appears already that these words of David were not alledged to prove Justification to be by Remission of sin as it will further appear by and by To the end then we may the better understand for what purpose these words of David are here recited by St. Paul we will consider his words in the two next precedent Verses Now to him that worketh saith he is the reward not reckoned of Grace but of Debt Verse 4. In which words St. Paul seems to have stated the opinion of the Pharisaical Jews against whom he disputed They held as it seems that the reward to wit all the benefit all the happiness they expected from God to be due to them as a debt for their observing the Law of Moses They did not expect that their obedience should be accepted or counted to them for Righteousness for the sake of another and upon the account of the Death and Sacrifice of the Messias for they held that he when he should come should never die John 12.34 and that therefore their sin was not to be expiated by the Sacrifice of his death but by their own legal Sacrifices and that the blood of Bulls and Goats did take away sin Heb. 10.4 and that those Sacrifices with their other legal observances were of themselves their Righteousness and that upon account hereof Justification and Life were due to them in the nature of a debt in opposition to Grace and that the Gentiles were ungodly and uncapable of Righteousness and Justification until they were Proselytes to their way of worship This is that St. Paul calls their own Righteousness in opposition to that which is of God by Faith of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.9 By all which they rendred the death of Christ of none effect and Justification to be of Works and not of Grace as appears by Gal. 2.21 and 5.4 In Verse 5. St. Paul asserts the contrary to wit That to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted to him for Righteousness Which assertion of St. Paul if true proves the reward to be of Grace and not of Debt whether by Reward you understand only Justification or also the benefits subsequent to it For if God count such mens Faith for Righteousness which work not which have no such works as by which to reckon the reward to be of Debt and not of Grace yea such mens Faith for Righteousness which had been ungodly then the reward must needs be of Grace and not of Debt This being a self-evident truth That after a man by sin hath once made a forfeiture of all to God whatever good he after receives from him must needs be of Grace Which made St. Paul say All have sinned and come short of the glory of God being Justified freely by his Grace and that too through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.23.24 These words of David then in Verse 6 7. seem to be
alledged by St. Paul by way of confirmation of his aforesaid doctrine and to prove out of one of the sacred Books owned by his adversaries that their worthy Ancestors such as David whom they could not deny to be Justified men acknowledged themselves sinners such as stood in need of Pardon and such as counted it their great happiness to be Pardoned and that therefore they could not be looked upon as receiving the reward of Debt but of Grace For when he says even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without Works saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven c. it thereby appears that he looked upon those words of David to be fully agreeable to his own doctrine asserted in Verse 5. in opposition to his adversaries conceit and opinion touching the rewards being reckoned of Debt and not of Grace And indeed how could St. Paul think better to convince them of their error and to shame them out of their conceit of meriting the reward by observing the Law of Moses then by shewing them that their famous Ancestors who observed the Law of Moses as well as any were yet so far from claiming the reward of their obedience as a Debt by way of Merit that they acknowledged themselves sinners and therefore undeserving and counted it their great felicity to be Pardoned through the great mercy and favour of God We will yet consider this matter a little more particularly and distinctly The thing St. Paul asserts against his misbelieving adversaries is as I have said that the reward is of Grace and not of Debt which he makes out two ways 1. From the nature of that Righteousness which is rewarded 2. From the nature of that reward it self First from the nature of the Righteousness that is rewarded and this is described by the condition or quality of the person in whom this Righteousness is found he that worketh not that is though it be one that hath not observed the Law of Moses in being Circumcised and the like And that he means such an one by him that worketh not and yet may be Righteous appears by the instance he gives in Abrahams case who was Righteous with the Righteousness of Faith before ever he was Circumcised Verse 9 10. 2. It is described by the nature and property of that Faith which is the Christians Righteousness it is a believing in him that Justifieth the ungodly upon his repentance and belief in the Lord Jesus Which very belief contains in the nature of it a firm persuasion that Gods Justifying of such a person must needs be of Grace and not of Debt 3. It is described by that act of God by which such a Faith becomes a mans Righteousness and that is by way of imputation or account his Faith is counted to him for Righteousness which argues it to be of Grace and Favour because he to whom it is so imputed is otherwise a sinner ungodly and upon that account cannot merit it Now then if the Righteousness it self which is rewarded be of Grace then the reward of that Righteousness must needs be of Grace This we see is one way by which St. Paul makes out the reward to be of Grace and not of Debt Secondly the other way is from the nature of the reward of that Righteousness And this I call another way of proving the reward to be of Grace and not of Debt For when St. Paul saith Verse 6. even as David also describeth c. that word also seems to signifie an addition of proof of his assertion by another medium And this medium is taken from the nature of the reward of that Righteousness which God imputes to men in Justifying them as his former was from the nature of the Righteousness it self And the Apostles argument or proof is to this effect The reward of that Righteousness by which God Justifies men must needs be of Grace and not of Debt because in great part it consists in Remission of sins and Remission of sin is an act of Grace in the natural notion of it and in the common sense of mankind And that St. Pauls design in alledging this saying of David was not to shew that Remission of sin is the Righteousness by which men are Justified but the reward of it appears by the very tenor and purport of his words For he doth not say that David describeth the Righteousness or Justification of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness as we have cause to think he would have done if he had known or thought that Remission of sin had been mens Righteousness or Justification but he says he describes the blessedness of that man to whom God imputeth Righteousness Now what doth blessedness in Scripture import when applied to men but some happiness vouchsafed them as an effect of Gods Grace yet so as by way of reward also of the performance of their duty Thus Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and the like So here the blessedness of that man to whom God imputeth Faith for Righteousness seems to signifie the happiness that does accrue to such a man as a reward of that Faith which is imputed for Righteousness or of that Righteousness which is imputed and the happiness here specified which does accrue to such a man is the having his sins Pardoned Now to understand St. Paul here in this sense does fully agree with his scope and design in hand which was to prove the reward to be of Grace and not of Debt After he had opposed the Righteousness of Faith to the Pharisaical Jews Righteousness by works of the Law then he shews the reward of this Righteousness to be of Grace and not of Debt because it stands in Remission of sin And whereas he does not use the word reward here but the word blessedness which yet signifies the same thing it was probably but to accommodate his speech to Davids dialect whose words he recites And as the sense I have insisted on corresponds fully with the Apostles scope and design here So it does also with the tenor of the Covenant of Grace and the Scriptures elsewhere which promise Pardon of sin on condition of that Faith which is imputed for Righteousness as a reward of it and motive to it And if this sense now represented be the sense of St. Paul in these Verses or much what the same and you see what reason there is to think it is then his intent here was not to shew that we are Justified by being Pardoned he does not say it is Pardon of sin which is imputed for Righteousness but Faith Nor does he say that David describes the Righteousness of the Justified man in saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are Forgiven but the blessedness of that man or the reward of his
prove Justification by Faith to be of Grace and not of debt as I have shewed from Rom. 4. but never throughout the whole Scripture stiled Righteousness that ever I could find And if any think it is implyed in such Scriptures where the reward of Righteousness is stiled Righteousness by a Figure yet if it should be so it would no more prove Remission of sin to be Justification than it will prove Glorification to be Justification which yet in St. Pauls account is quite different from it For he says Whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 And now for these reasons I hope it will not be thought unnecessary nor unprofitable to have endeavoured to shew that there is a difference between Justification and Remission of sin however what hath been done herein is submitted to the consideration and judgment of the judicious Reader But there is another opinion which I but now mentioned of worse consequence as I apprehend it of which I have said but little And that is the opinion of those who place our Justification in the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ to us not only in its effects as we all hold but in it self as if it were so transferred to us that we were Righteous with the very same personal and numerical Righteousness wherewith he himself is Righteous and that it is so reckoned ours as if we had wrought it in our own persons yea that indeed we have wrought it in and by him The nakedness of which opinion hath been plentifully exposed by others and I shall not concern my self with it now further than what I have already done in these papers Wherein I have shewed that the Righteousness of Christ operates to our Justification in quite another way And likewise that it is the Christian Faith as operative and practical that is imputed to us for Righteousness and that by virtue of Christs Righteousness and Gods act of Grace upon the account of it But then this which yet is the plain doctrine of the Holy Scripture is quite another thing than the transferring of Christs Righteousness it self to us Indeed this opinion excludes and shoulders out the Christian Evangelical Righteousness from the office and use to which God hath designed it and is attended with several dangerous consequences and absurdities otherwise as hath been set forth at large in several Books which treat of this subject which I shall forbear to repeat For my design in these papers was not to treat of Justification in a way of controversie nor so much to detect what is to be avoided as what is to be imbraced and held fast in this matter For I reckon that if that which is the truth be received into the mind upon satisfactory grounds that which is its contrary will fall off of it self The Conclusion WE have now seen how much hath been done by the Eternal Father and his Holy Son our Blessed Saviour that we might be Justified Pardoned and Glorified all things on their part are prepared and made ready The Father hath made and the Son hath fulfilled the Law of Mediation to bring about a Reconciliation between an offended God and us Rebel-Creatures Christ hath now no more sorrows nor pains nor deaths to undergo and suffer for us There are no terms of Grace and Mercy of Pardon and Peace of deliverance from Hell and of obtaining the Glory of Heaven which are not already obtained for us and by the Gospel plainly made known and freely offered to us For it is as I have shew'd of Grace in God and obtained by the Mediatorial Righteousness of Christ that Faith or the Righteousness by Faith is made the condition of Pardon of sin and eternal Life as well as the conferring of Pardon and Life is on that condition Since then such terms of happiness are obtained for us it remains on our part that we receive not this Grace of God in vain but that we be as careful to observe those terms as we are desirous to enjoy the benefits annexed to them because we cannot enjoy the one without observing the other We cannot enjoy the benefits of the new Covenant but by becoming new creatures and by living new lives For this is the new Righteousness by Faith on condition of which the great promises of the new Covenant are made Whoever will come to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb must come in his Wedding garment or else he will be excluded And the Wedding garment in which the Bride the Lambs Wife is said to be arayed is said to be the Righteousness of Saints Revel 19.8 And now Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us we must keep the Feast on this Sacrifice not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth which is the Evangelical Righteousness I have been speaking so much of 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Old things are past away now and behold all things are become new Our old Righteousness in which man was first made is lost and a new Righteousness instituted In the room of the old terms of happiness perfect innocency now the new ones of Faith and godly Sincerity are introduced This new and living way into Heaven is now consecrated for us through the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ Nothing but a new man a new heart a new spirit and newness of life will correspond or suit with the new Covenant nor with the new Jerusalem which is above These are all of one piece there is no parting of them nor having an interest in the one without having the other And now considering that all this happiness of Pardon of sin and the Glory to come and the terms of obtaining both is brought about only by the Grace of our God and the Mediatorial Righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ what can we do less than to joyn with those Redeemed of the Lord mentioned in Rev. 5. who are said to have sung a new song to the everlasting honor of our Redeemer saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast Redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us unto our God kings and priests How much more cause have we to sound forth the praises of the Redeemer of the World than those Myriads of Holy Angels which have no such need of a Saviour as we have Who yet out of a grateful sense of it celebrate the memory of his most wonderful and worthy undertaking and performance for the Redemption of us poor miserable and lost men Saying with a loud voice worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing And well may we with those blessed spirits sing aloud of the riches wisdom and strength of the Lamb that was slain as most worthy to receive these because he useth them to so
might be grateful to our blessed Saviour that hath done so much for us if we would at once both please him and pleasure our selves with a Christ-like with a God-like pleasure then it behoves us to be loving one another and doing good to one another as he hath loved us and done good to us To conclude all then in a word as the new Covenant it self is the fruit of our Saviours love to us so the Righteousness of this Covenant on condition of which the blessings of it Pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised consisteth in such a Faith as worketh by love to God and our Saviour and in loving one another as he hath loved us and by this Righteousness of Faith through our Lord Jesus Christ shall we be sure to be Justified by God if it be found in us THE END THE CONTENTS CHAP. I. OF the signification and use of the word Justification and a description of Justification it self Page 1 The description of Justification p. 7 CHAP. II. Of the nature of the Righteousness of Christ and how it operates to our Justification p. 9 This Righteousness consists in his conformity to the Law of Mediation p. 10 The reason and end of that Law and of our Saviours conformity to it p. 15 The Operative vertue of this Righteousness in reference to our Justification depends in part upon Divine Ordination p. 27 And partly upon its aptitude to such an end p. 30 There is an aptitude in it to Reconcile God to men in order to their Justification p. 31 And so there is to Reconcile men to God in order to the same end p. 43 CHAP. III. How and in what respects the Covenant of Grace operates to our Justification p. 65 It does it by reconciling the Natural Law to penitent sinners p. 66 It does it also by instituting a new Righteousness p. 82 What that Righteousness is and wherein it doth consist p. 82 How this Righteousness comes to be such p. 94 The Covenant Operates towards our Justification as it is an instrument of making us Righteous p. 104 CHAP. IV. Of Faith and how that operates to our Justification p. 110 The Covenant promises are conditional p. 111 Faith the condition of those promises p. 115 What that Faith is which is the condition ibid. Reasons why Faith is made the condition p. 128 In what capacity men are to perform that condition p. 144 How Faith more particularly and immediately operates to our Justification p. 186 CHAP. V. How God himself operates to our Justification p. 189 Gods is said to Justifie in some respects more remote p. 190 And in some respects more immediate and appropriate p. 191 CHAP. VI. Of the difference between Justification and Remission of sin p. 199 That there is such a difference is endeavoured to be proved ibid. This difference illustrated by several instances p. 200 Enquiry made whether Justification can be proved to be by Remission of sin from Acts 13.39 p. 217 Or from Rom. 5.16 p. 223 Or from Rom. 4.6 7. p. 226 Reasons why the difference between Justification and Remission of sin is to be taken notice of and carefully observed p. 240 The Conclusion p. 255 ERRATA PAge 69. line 27. read have p. 90. l. 11. r. and. p. 102. l. 15. for work r. mark p. 163. l. 18 19 blot out for it is they are ascribed unto men p. 180. l. 26. for learn r. leave p. 221. l. 12. r. not be Imprimatur Aug. 13. 1677 Guil. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. Ã Sacris domest BOOKS Printed for and Sold by Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-yard DR More 's Reply to a late Answer to his Antidote against Idolatry with the Appendix Oct. H. Mori Opera Theologica Fol. Spenceri dissertatio de Vrim Thummim Oct. Frederici Lossii Observationes Medicae Oct. Speed's Epigrammata Juvenilia in 4 Partes divisa Encomia Seria Satyras Jocosa Oct. Dr. William Smith's Unjust Mans Doom Oct. Two Sermons at the Assizes in Suffolk Oct. Two Sermon at Norwich May 3. and May 29. 1676. Quar. Account of Familism as it is revived and propagated by the Quakers Oct. Mr. Hallywell's Discourse of the Excellency of Christianity Oct. Some Opinions of Mr. Hobbes considered in a second Dialogue between Philautus and Timothy Oct. Brerewood's Enquiries into the Diversities of Languages Oct. Mr. Lamb's Stop to the Course of Separation Oct. Sherlocks Discourse of the Knowledg of Jesus Christ Oct. Defence and Continuation of the Discourse c. Oct. Answer to a scandalous Pamphlet entituled a Dialogue between Satan and Sherlock Quar. Dr. Worthington's Great Duty of Self-resignation to the Divine Will Oct. Mr. Hotchkis Discourse of the Imputation of Christs Righteousness to Us and our Sins to Him Oct. Gage's Survey of the West Indies Oct. Dr. Goodall's Vindication of the Colledg of Physicians Oct. Smith's Pourtract of old Age. Oct. Webster's History of Metals Quar. Dr. More 's Remarques upon two late Ingenious Discourses the one an Essay of the Gravitation and Non-gravitation of fluid Bodies the other Observations touching the Torricellian experiment Oct. Sydenham's Observationes Medicae An Account of Mr. Ferguson's Common-Place-Book in two Letters between Mr. Sherlock and Mr. Glanvil Quar. Dr. Grew's Comparative Anatomy of Trunks together with an Account of their Vegetation grounded thereupon Oct. Mr. Hallywell's Sacred Method of Saving Human Souls by Jesus Christ Oct. Mr. Sharp's two Sermons before the Lord Mayor Quar. Amyraldus Discourse of Divine Dreams mention'd in Scripture With Mr. Lowd's Preface Oct. Comenii Janua Ling. Lat. Eng. with Cuts Oct. Allens Mystery of Iniquity unfoldded Oct. Animadversions on that part of Mr. Robert Fergusons Book of Justification Oct. A serious and friendly Address to the Non-Conformists beginning with the Anabaptists Oct. A Sermon Preached before the Right Honorable the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London at Guild-Hall Chappel By George Thorp B.D. Fellow of Gonvil and Caius Colledg in Cambridg and Rector of St. Antholins and St. John Baptist London Quar. A Fresh Suit against Independency or the National Church way vindicated the Independent Church way Condemned By the Author of the Stop to the Course of Separation Oct. The History of the Donatists by Thomas Long. B. D. and Prebendary of St. Peters Exon. Oct. The Character of a Separatist or sensuality the ground of Separation to which is added the Pharisees Lesson on Mat. 9.13 And an examination of Mr. Hales Treatise of Schism By Thomas Long B. D. And Prebendary of St. Peters Exon. Oct. A Course of Chymistry containing the easiest manner of performing those Operations that are in use of Physick Illustrated with many Curious Remarks and useful Discourses upon each Operation Writ in French by Monsieur Nicolas Lemery Translated by Walter Harris Doctor of Physick Oct. A Postscript containing the Authors vindication of himself and Doctrine from the imputations of Dr. John Owen In his late Book styled The Doctrine of Justification by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ By Thomas Hotchkis Rector of Stanton by Highworth in the County of Wilts THE END