or in Judgement Not by infusing a habit for it is evident that both the Hebrew and the Greek Verbs from whence we must fetch the true sense of the Latin and English are Judicial and Forinsical words and arc scarce ever taken throughout the Bible to Juslify by making inherently Just or Just by Infusion The natural and primitive signification of them both is to justifie Legally and Judicially to make just by Plea and in Judgement And in that original sense or in a sense relative to it and derivative from it are the words generally taken in Scripture When either God is said to Justifie man or man is said to justifie God or one man is said to justifie another or one and the same man to justifie himself for all these wayes we read of Justification in Scripture 't is still without any signification of infusing righteousness or making just that way But that which is intended by the word is to make just defensatively declaratively judicially and not qualitively To give some instance of many Rom. 2. v. 13. Not the hearers of the Law but the doers of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be justified That is pronounced and declared Just in judgment In the 11 Chap. of Job v. 2. Should a man full of talk be justified that is should he be defended and acquitted upon that account because he is full of words Shall that be a sufficient Plea for him So when we are told Pro. 17. v. 15. that To justifie the wicked is an abomination to the Lord 't is meant to justifie them by pleading for them and defending them or to justifie them in judgment while wicked For to justifie them in the other sense to make them inherently just and righteous is no abomination to the Lord but a thing he has every where declared himself to be well pleased with In the 8 of the Rom. St. Paul puts this question Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is God that justifieth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who shall condemn where by Gods justifying is meant his acquitting and clearing in judgment 'T is evident to be such a justifying as stands in opposition to charging and condemning Of the same import are the words most generally wheresoever we find them used by the Holy Ghost either in the Old or New Testament And this we have acknowledged by many of the Papists on the one hand and some of the Socinians on the other though both of them endeavour to prove that Gods justifying men is not his pronouncing them just and his declaring them so in a judicial way but his infusing of habits and making them in themselves actually and habitually righteous Justification in general may be considered as it may relate to two sorts of men First to righteous and innocent men and Secondly to Offenders Justification in both cases supposeth Charge and Accusation and stands in opposition to Condemnation A Righteous person when he is accused and found faultless that is inherently Righteous and Just he is by his righteousness made evident thereby justified that is declared and approved to be just acquitted and cleared both from accusation and condemnation David hath an expression to this purpose of God Psal the 51. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest That is be justified by being manifested to be really righteous and just So Good men are sometimes said to be justified by their works that is defended and vindicated against false accusation and charge approved and declared to be just thereby A person so qualified is justified because he appears to be in himself righteous and just not righteous and just because justified Secondly an Offender when he is accused he can be no other way justified that is defended against accusation and acquitted in judgment but by pleading ample and proportionable satisfaction made for an offence and an acceptance of that satisfaction as such and procuring a remission of the offence thereupon 'T is not possible to contrive any other way of Justification in that Case For free and absolute remission of an offence cannot well be called Justification The more freely a man is pardoned without any sort of satisfaction the less he can be properly said to be justified Such a man now is not justified because he is found to be inherently just and without fault but he becomes Just is brought into the state of a just man because he arrives at a Legal Justification and upon satisfaction made obtains an acquitment in judgment Justification in scripture as 't is an act of God relating to Men is ever spoken of in this later way 'T is never meant to excuse or justifie a Sinner from being a sinner but to justifie a sinner supposing him a sinner to the utmost All Gospel-justification being founded upon Satisfaction as the grand fundamental of it But to come more nearly to the Scripture-sense and meaning of Justification by which we are generally told that all Sinners unpardoned are under Divine Wrath and stand Condemned at Gods Bar and that such whom God is pleased in the method of his Grace judicially to pardon and receive into favour he is thereby said to justifie To be justified therefore in Scripture sensee is to be Cleared and Discharged before the Tribunal of God from the Guilt of sin resulting from the breach of his Laws and Absolved from the Punishment due from Divine Justice thereunto This without any obscuring Speculation about the nature of Justification in general is that practical account we find the Scripture to give us of it suitable to its nature as it relates to sinful offending Man for it must still be remembred that Gods justifying in Scripture is his giving sentence with the Guilty party and so we can only be righteous because justified and justified by being pardoned and according to what it Operates and effects upon the subject by which also 't is best understood and becomes most accountable to every Capacity I include not herein the Cause of Justification nor the Condition of it but speak of it in its own proper form and simply in it self considered For had I so done I would after this manner have expressed my self Justification is an act of God whereby he does for the sake of Christs Satisfaction to his Justice upon mens sincere Beliefe of the Gospel account their faith for righteousness pardon their sins and Acquit them in Judgement That this Description I have given of Justification and our being justified is that which ought to be given and the direct account we have of it in Scripture will evidently appear from these four considerations Fist Sin being a transgression of Gods Law and so an Offence accountable for to Him nothing less can justify a sinner then the Supream judgement of God Himself as the Soveraign Lord and Judge of all the Earth The Apostle tells us that in few words It is God that justifies And He does it as an
is all that he would require on our part conditionally to perform This should constitute us righteous upon the terms of the New Covenant This should legally intitle us by the Gospel to all the Advantages of Christ and to a righteous end justified state and this is so far from such a Justification by works as the Jews rested in and St. Paul disputes against that 't is a Justification that results wholly from grace and favour is the Effect of Christs purchase and of the terms of another Covenant And all merit and all reward that can be claimed out of debt is utterly excluded thereby And thus the two Apostles appear perfectly agreed in their doctrine Abraham was not justified upon terms of the Law and sinless perfection but he was justified as an ungodly person one that had sins and failings about him that needed forgiveness was justified by faith in way of the Gospel And that faith that justified Abraham then and justifies every person under the Gospel now and is by the tenour thereof accounted for righteousness is not a naked assent to the truth what God reveals but such a faith as implyes in its nature and comprizeth a suitable obedience to all he requires of us There is a wide difference as much as there is between the nature and terms of the two Covenants between such works as by an inherent vertue in themselves constitute just and so justifie from an innate perfection as to make the reward to be of debt and such works are in their own nature altogether imperfect and faulty and are accepted only thorough grace and favour and made but conditionally necessary to our Justification another way Works 't is true there are in the case both wayes but of very different natures upon very different Accounts and to very different Ends. Secondly On the other hand we must carefully avoid so to apprehend faith supposing it to comprehend all that the Gospel requires of us to believe and practice as if it had in it self any justifying vertue or were of any innate worth to acquit us before God from the guilt of sins The value of it is wholly from Gods gracious ordination as it is all the condition that is required on our part to be performed by the Law of grace And it is not of our selves neither but 't is the gift and bestowment of God We obtain the precious faith of the Gospel St. Peter tell us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Whenever we read of our Justification by faith 't is meant of our being justified in the Gospel way and that is by Christ alone meritoriously and by what he has done and suffered for the Apostle tells us that God for Christs sake hath freely forgiven us Nothing has the least meritorious interest in our forgiveness but Christ Grace and free forgiveness in Scripture is still opposed to our merit and by faith only with respect to its conditional relation to him and that Covenant which he hath purchased and proclaimed and in the method whereof we come to be actually pardoned and justified upon Believing To think otherwise is to subvert the grand design of the whole Gospel which we are often told is to declare Christs Righteousness for the remission of sins and to sot forth him as a propitiation through faith in his blood Faith is no part of the Propitiation but 't is he himself and his blood that is the Propitiation and faith but the conditional means by which we come to reap the fruit and benefit of it The whole Fabrick of the Gospel is bottom'd upon satisfaction made to the Justice of God on our behalf upon a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Savior sayes he came down to lay down his life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransome for many And St. Paul to Timothy calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a price of redemption We are every where in Scripture said to be ransom'd redeem'd purchas'd bought with a price And that must needs be by a valuable consideration pay'd and by satisfaction made And St. Peter tells us what that price of redemption is that was payed for us and by which we were purchased and ransomed 't was not corruptible things such as gold and silver or any thing we had to offer to God but 't was with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without spot No works nor performances of our own could ever have reached this purchase or so prevailed as to have been accepted for a satisfaction in this case For then a Justifying Righteousness might have subsequently resulted from the Law of Works which St. Paul denyes and tells us expressly Galat. 2.21 that it could not be that way it could not come by the Law For had there been a possibility of it he tells us it should so have been That is could men either pefectly have kept the Law or have sufficiently answered for the Breach of it ex post facto Righteousness would have been that way and Christ had not dyed for his death had been then in vain Two things still may be remembred about Faith by which we may receive some account of the use that is made by the Holy Ghost of this word in Scripture First By faith the Gospel is often denominated in opposition to the Law and the whole of it signified thereby And the Reason of this seems to be because the Gospel is in its nature a Revelation from God proposed to our belief and all that we are required by it to do flowes naturally from what we are first obliged to believe Belief is the spring of all Gospel obedience and does in its nature comprize all other Gospel-graces they being at first produced and ever after upheld and increased thereby Secondly by the tenour of the Gospel and Gods peculiar Ordination therein the whole condition required by it is at the first virtually performed by the bare act of believing as the representative of all other Graces and root of universal obedience 'T is all that at the first is made conditionally necessary to constitute a Justified state though to the after-continuance in it the exercise of every other grace is equally requisite He that sincerly believes in Christ as he is proposed is truely in a Justified state by such an Act of Faith and herein Faith hath the preference of all other Graces in point of Justification if we never live to perform any subsequent Act of Obedience And the Reasons of this may be these two First The grace of Faith has in its nature a Nearer relation to the satisfaction of Christ wherein the Essentials of our Justification consist then any other Grace whatsoever For all we can do with reference to that and the nearest approach we can make to it to receive the benefit and advantage of it is to believe it and to rely upon it Secondly A true and sincere faith and belief of the Gospel supposeth and includeth a firm resolution to
act accordingly that is to pursue the Ends of that Faith in all such acts of obedience as are subsequently required of us And this God sees virtually contained in the first Act of true Faith and the seeds of all future sincere persevering obedience therein And upon that account accepts thereof at first as the performance of the whole condition required by the Gospel legally to intitle us to the priviledge of a Justified state SECT V. ANd now the last thing proposed to be inquired after How and upon what terms we come to arrive at the benefits of a Justified state having been thus resolved that we arrive thereunto by coming up to the terms proposed by the Gospel and performing the condition therein required which is briefly comprized by our Saviour in Believing It will turn much to our account in this present Discussion to inquire with some farther particularity what is intended and comprehended therein And of that we may be much informed by the consideration of these three things First The way and method that God takes to justifie a sinner being originated in the depths of his infinite Counsels no way ever to be found out or discovered but by Revelation a great mystery hid from ages and a thing very incredible to a carnal mind and no way suited to the corrupt Reasonings of Flesh and Blood God expects in the first place that we should fully credit it and firmly give our assent to its veracity And this is in it self a very Righteous Act and so accounted of God firmly to believe him in what he reveals to us And herein the faith of the Gospel and that of Abraham in whose steps we are bid to tread do perfectly resemble each other For he believed God about diverse things in their own nature very hard to be credited He staggred not through unbelief but hoped against hope and still relyed upon Gods veracity and all-sufficiency Secondly God requires of us That he having revealed from Heaven such a glorious and extraordinary way of Justification and Salvation so far out of our own compass and span as is the sending of his Son to assume our nature and in that nature to perfect and compleat all that concern'd our present und future welfare He expects upon this that we should adore this Revelation bow before it with the greatest acknowledgments we are capable of making rely upon it acquiesce in it and be perfectly silenced to all attempts our own Wisdom can suggest to us about this matter And herein the faith of the Gospel answers punctually to that of Abraham For he wholly quitted all those methods carnal and corrupted reason would have directed him to He left his Country and his fathers house and went he knew not whither In a word he forsook the conduct of his own wisdom Believed whatever God told him Did all he bad him and Went whithersoever he called him whatever Difficulties appeared to himself and whatever Censures he lay exposed to from others in his so doing Thirdly God and the Mediator require of us that we should become Obedient to a New Recovering Law of Grace as the condition of our Pardon and Justification In a word That we should subject our selves to all the precepts of the Gospel For Christ as Mediator erects a Kingdom His exaltation is to be a Prince as well as a Saviour a Prince in being a Saviour and whosoever will be saved by him must become one of his Subjects must submit to the regiment of his Kingdom and subject himself to his Laws And herein the faith of Abraham and the faith of every Believer answer one to another as face answereth face in a glass For Abrahams Justification was upon performance of the terms and condition of the New Covenant The Apostle proves he was justified by faith which was to be justified upon the terms of another Covenant and not that of the Law For the law is not of faith nor faith of the Law there was no relation at all between faith and law the law made no promise to faith the promises of the law were to perfect obedience And as the Apostle with convincing evidence urgeth against the Jews Abraham was justified by a faith he had before he was circumcised or had any thing to do with the Law And that faith of Abraham was more then a bare fruitless assent to what God revealed to him 'T was such a faith as put him upon Action and approved its own truth by a suitable obedience And of this we are sufficiently informed by the Story it self in Genesis and by St. James his Comment upon it Some things there are to be remarked in this Disposal of God that highly exalt his Wisdom Holiness and Justice And some things that to a very stupendious degree do magnisie his Mercy First How is the Wisdom Holiness and Justice of God made very transparent by such a dispensing Pardon and Justification as this How suitable is this method to himself He forgives not as the Greatest of men often do and think it an effect of the most supream soveraignty so to do as if in forgiveness nothing were to be done but singly to exercise an act of soveraignty But he forgives like the Lord our Maker That eternal Jehovah who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working with whom are inherent infinite Attributes none of which in the least can be Denyed or in the least Oppose or Contradict each other He proceeds in all he does in methods chalk'd out by his infinite Wisdom wherein they are all attempered together and do after an admirable manner harmonize each with other He annexeth such conditions to his forgiveness as no way lessen the grace and bounty of it and yet at the same time record his immutable holiness and justice Secondly The greatest righteousness that ever was extant the holyest state of man that he is capable of in his lapsed condition is introduced by the gospel and the precepts thereof and the greatest homage from Earth to Heaven that can be And yet all flesh put to silence in the performance of it We stand justified at Gods Bar in a way of Gods providing and contriving and we perform the Condition required of us solely by the power of his grace freely conferred upon us The glory of all redounds to God alone No Reward can be of Debt 〈◊〉 for all the Rewards of the Gospel are but Gods gracious remunerations of his own gifts and graces Free grace and Divine bounty is the Root that bears all nor can there be any boasting against that Root The holiest man that lives upon earth has the greatest occasion as having received most to abase himself and lie lowest in the dust before God in the Sense thereof in his best performances Thirdly By this method of forgiving these two great Ends are attained First Gods solemn hatred and dislike of sin is made very evident He save no man in his sin but from his sin Whom he
then wrote And St. John tells us positively That he that Doth righteousness is only truely righteous And not he that reckons himself so without righteous Doing upon the score of believing And St. James expresly sets himself to confute this dangerous Errour and to prove these two things First That Christianity Believed and Professed will profit no man unless the Ends of it be pursued and prosecuted And secondly That that Faith that the Scripture calls a Justifying faith is an operative working faith a Faith that includes in its nature a suitable acting and obedience Speaking of Abrahams faith and his Justification which the Scripture makes to be the pattern of Gospel-faith and Justification and the one to run parallel with the other And which St. Paul had made so much use of to prove Justification by faith against the Jews Seest thou sayes he how faith wrought with his works and by works was faith made perfect and the Scripture was fulfilled which saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for Righteousness Where 't is as plainly expressed as by words it can be That that faith that was accounted to Abraham for righteousness was such a faith as contained in the bowels of it a suitable obedience and subjection to all Gods revealed will and pleasure By works saith the Apostle faith was made perfect That is faith was in order to action and a suitable acting and obedience in pursuance of it was included in it and was that which when performed did compleat and perfect it and without which faith is altogether imperfect and is not such a faith as in the Scripture is said to be accounted for righteousness And therefore it was upon Abrahams suitable obedience in prosecution of his faith by which the Scripture was fulfilled when it sayes Araham believed God and that belief was accounted for righteousness By which it is plain that Abrahams faith was counted for righteousness with reference to that obedience that was virtually compriz'd in it and not otherwise And that his faith and his works wrought joyntly together to obtain the same end And this is no way contradicted by St. Paul who tells us that Abraham was not justified by works For the works that St. Paul means are plainly such as the Law required such perfect sinless works as would in strict rules of Justice make the reward to be Debt And therefore when he opposeth faith to works 't is but in other words to oppose the Gospel to the Law St. Pauls business is to prove Justification in the way of the Gospel against the Jews by faith in opposition to Justification by the works of the Law St. James his province is to prove that the faith that does justifie us under the Gospel is not a bare naked Assent but such a faith as Abrahams was that contains in it a suitable obedience The one Apostle asserts in opposition to the Jews Evangelical Justification against Legal under the general term faith The other Apostle for the confutation of Heretical Christians explains that term and tells us it imports not only believing of God but an obedient Acting in prosecution thereof That the Apostles do very well agree with each in their Doctrine that Abraham was justified by such a faith as was accompanied with works and not by faith only according to St. James And yet that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works according to St. Paul may be this made to appear First That Abrahams faith that was counted for righteousness included his suitable obedience according to St. James and that his works did compleat and perfect his faith And that the Scripture was thereby fulfilled that tells us the Act of his Believing was counted for righteousness is plain from the story it self in Genesis which St. James quotes Had not his Believing compriz d a suitable obedience instead of being counted for Righteousness it would no doubt have been esteemed of God as it had indeed been a great piece of hypocrisy For Abrahams upright walking was the terms upon which God at first proposed to enter into a Covenant with him Secondly That Abraham was not justified by works according to St. Paul though his faith that was counted for Righteousness included his obedience is thus evident St. Pauls business is to prove against the Jews that Abraham who came first under the Law of Circumcision and from whom they derived themselves for it appears by their discourses with our Saviour when they cryed out We have Abraham to our Father that they went no higher was justified before he came under the Law of Circumcision before he was obliged to the oeconomie of the Law upon Gospel-principles and so those had the precedence of legal even in Abraham their Father upon the terms of another Covenant the Condition of which was Faith upon such terms as both Jews and Gentiles were to be justified then under the Gospel Upon which account the Scripture stiles him the common Father of all the faithful Abrahant before that faith of his that was accounted to him for Righteousness had lived for some time in Heathen Idolatry and was a great sinner and so could not pretend to be justified by a sinless perfection which the Law required and the Jews insisted on and so not by works in that sense He was one of the ungodly St. Paul speaks of in 4th to the Rom. who had not Legal perfection had not such works to plead as would make the reward in strict rules Justice to be of debt His Justification was upon the very same terms that the Gentiles then might be justified upon though they had lived in the grossest Idolatry and that was by believing the revelation of God in Christ charging their course of life and becoming obedient to what God should require of them In short Abrahams faith and obedience was not such Righteousness as in its own nature and by its own intrinsick worth would justifle any man from the guilt of all his sin and denominate him perfectly a Righteous person for had it so been in it self it needed not any favour to have been accounted for Righteousness But God was pleased out of grace so to reckon and account it Abraham having blelieved God about the promises of the Messiah that was to spring out of his family by whom himself and all the world were to be saved for the sum of all Gods converse with Abraham was to shew him Christs day and reveal to him the Salvation that was to come by him God was pleased to give the world an instance in his imputing that faith of Abraham to him for Righteousness how and upon what terms men should be saved by the Messiah when he did come in a word what should be the condition he would require of us to perform by the Gospel that is By believing the revelation of Christ and acting suitably thereunto by a sincere though imperfect obedience This God would impute and account for Righteousness This
Imprimatur H. London Justification Evangelical Or a Plain Impartial SCRIPTURE-Account OF GOD's Method in Justifying a SINNER Written by Sir CHARLES WOLSELEY Bart. Hosea 14.9 Who is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them for the ways of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressors shall fall therein LONDON Printed for Nath. Ponder at the Peacock in the Poultry near Cornhill and in Chancery-lane near Fleetstreet 1677. THE PREFACE TO THE READER WHoever Treats upon this Weighty and most Important Subject of Justification I acknowledge ought to do it with great Caution with great Humility and with great Sincerity First with great Caution for 't is a point about which not only the best Learn'd but the most Holy and most Sincerely Religious have considerably differ'd and in all such contests both Grace and Discretion will instruct a man not to rush in violently or suddenly to declare against any one side or yet easily to suppose the truth wholly appropriated to any one party But in every advance to proceed with Moderation and Circumspection Secondly with great Humility 't is not a sit Subject for Proud and Disdainfull Pens the thing in its own nature is of a stupendious and humbling Consideration and ought to be discoursed of accordingly that an Apostate creature in open Rebellion against the Great God should not only be forgiven by an Act of Soveraignty but that it should become a righteous thing with God to forgive him and that he should be Justified in his sight be brought to stand rectus in curia before his Tribunal and at the Bar of his infinite Justice and his discharge be an Act Judicial and as much the effect of Justice as Favour is that which nothing less then Divine Wisdom could have contrived or effected and when we duely reflect upon it we find no less cause for mortifying Adoration then humble Thanksgiving and Infinite for both Thirdly with great Integrity the supream interest of mankind their Eternal condition hereafter is so bound up herein and the true notion of this point so inseperably necessary to it that as men regard the souls of others or have any value for their own they ought with the utmost Sincerity when they discuss this point to design themselves intirely to the service of Truth and casting off all Byass of Interest and Party and all respect to the Pleasures of men Alone endeavour to arrive at a cleer and full Discovery of what God has revealed to us in his Word about this matter These Rules I proposed to my self when I first engaged in theste Meditations and I hope the Reader will find nothing in the following Discourse that will occasion him to think I have wilfully transgressed any of them Many Books I know there are extant upon this Subject but to deal freely with my Reader the consideration thereof has been so far from diverting the publication of this discourse that it has rather been the occasion of it 'T is apparent to all that are conversant herein how greatly this point has been obscur'd by multitude of words and I considared that many who want leasure or Inclination or happily Ability to travail far into Polemick Intricacies will yet think an hour or two not ill spent to read over a plain short Scripture account of this matter I will no farther attempt to pre-engage my Reader but only to assure him I have omitted no necessary diligence that I thought might capacitate me for this service I have carefully and Impartially perused what the Popish Doctors have urg'd in defence of their Doctrine and with what Exactness I could have considered over all the eminent Protestant Writers upon this Subject and although I highly value the Works of many of these latter both Dead and yet living and have learn't much from them yet I have purposely forborn to mention their Names for the same reason I find given by Grotius in the Preface to his Famous Annotations upon the Gospels Peperci autem plerumque recitandis nominibus quod ea videam factioso hoc saeculo magis ad oblimandum quam ad defaecandum judicium valere Should this endeavour succeed so well as to inform any that were before ignorant of this most essential part of Divinity or to unite any good men who have differently conceived hereof it will turn much to my satisfaction if any that are Judicious and Learned shall express their dislike of any part of this Discourse I shall upon all occasions endeavour by a just defence to render it more acceptable to them but if I find my self at any time attack'd by such as delight in Contention and love to turn all Polemick Discourses into impertinent Squabble I resolve not to be engaged by them nor upon any terms be brought to use the modern Expression serram reciprocare and indeed to all that sort of men that sullen answer before-hand may be proper enough and sufficient What I have Written I have Written ERRATA'S PAge 11 line 21 for By that read By Christ p. 15 l. 27 for prevailing r. Prevalency p. 29 l. 6. after were add not p. 32 l. 19. after were add in p. 48 l. 25 after saw add sit p. 51 l. 26 after that add be p. 52 l. 28 after high add what p. 54 l. 4 for require r. repaired p. 58 l. 9 after Believer add of p. 71 l. 23 for disobedience r. obedience p. 79 l. 16 after mentions add were p. 82 l. 23 after each add other p. 86 l. 22. after truth add of p. 86 l. 23 for imployes r. implyes p. 87 l. 2 after works add as p. 90 l. 28 for an r. any p. 99 l. 24 for principle r. principal p. 101 l. 12 after grace add the p. 104 l. 8 for pregnant r. regnant p. 107 l. 19 after go ad no p. 109 l. 9 for carefully r. fully p. 116 l. 26 for ake r. make p. 121 l. 10 after righteousness add imputed p. 129 l. 27 for men r. man JUSTIFICATION Evangelical IN discoursing the point of Justification these three things shall be first and chiefly considered First What is meant in Scripture by Justification Secondly What is the material procuring Cause of Justification before God Thirdly How do we come to partake of the benefits of Justification and arrive at a Justified state Not to obscure the meaning of the word Justification by nice Distinctions and hard and troublesom Terms The word Justification comes immediately from the Latine Justificare which is not a word of Ancient use amongst the best Latine Writers but is of a Later Edition has been introduced since by Divines to express the sense of the Greek Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so often used by the Septuagint in the Old Testament in rendering the Hebrew Verb Hitzdik and so often in the New Testament especially by St. Paul The meaning of it is to Justify and make Just by way of Vindication Defence
act and exercise of his Supream Justice according to that passage Rom. 3. v. 26. That God might be just and the iustifier of him that believeth in Jesus Secondly Gods justifying men stands in opposition to Accusation and Condemnation which we have plainly expressed in the forementioned 8th to the Rom. where the Apostle opposeth Gods justifying to Charging and Condemning Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth So that if you know what it is to Charge and Condemn you will know what it is to justifie it being naturally evidenced by its Contraries And as Condemnation is the result of a Law so is Justification We stand Condemned by the Law of works and are justified by the Law of faith Now what is it that Mankind is publickly accused of and charged with in Scripture 'T is Sin What is it that men stand condemned for at Gods Bar 'T is Sin And therefore their Justification must needs be a Clearing and Discharging some way or other from it And that which the Scripture every where intends by Justification is the Remission of Sin and Gods acquitting us in Judgment from the Charge Guilt Condemnaâ—ion and Punishment of it This is judiciously observed by Grotius Justificatio ut notum est passim in sacris literis sed maxime in Paulinis Epistolis Absolutionem significat quae presupposito peccatâ— consistit in peccatorum remissione ipso Paul semet clare explicante pr sâ—rtim Rom. 4. Pe Satis Chris chap. 1. pa 38. And this I shall endeavour to prove these several wayes First by producing divers Texts wherein the Foly Ghost speaks expresly of Justification and Forgiveness of sin in the Gospel way as one and the same thing Secondly by shewing that the whole Advantage of that satisfaction upon which as the Ground of it we are justified is generally issued in Scripture into the Forgiveness of sin Thirdly by shewing that whatever other expressions the Scripture at any time makes use of to signifie and Explain Justification to us by they all tend to give us this sense and signification of it and to express it to us as consisting in the forgiveness of sin And fourthly by shewing that the Grand Blessing that God still promised the world should partake of by the Covenant to his Grace and the sending of his Son from whence our Justification has its rise was the Pardon and forgiveness of sin And when I have done this there will be no need I hope to say more for the satisfaction of any under this Consideration For the first In the 4. chap. to the Rom. where St Paul treats more fully and more Critically of Justification then he does in any other place he there describes it in a Quotation out of the Psalms by the forgiveness of sin and the non imputation of iniquity But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Even as David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sin is covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also Where 't is not to be fairly denyed but that he describes the blessedness of a Justified person by the blessedness of a Pardoned person as being one and the same In the 9 ver Cometh this blessedness sayes the Apostle upon the Circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also What blessedness Why the Blessedness he is treating of the Blessedness of being justified before God which he proves descends both upon Jew and Gentile in the Gospel way of faith and believing And what is that blessedness of being justified before God Wherein lyes it Why 't is the Blessedness he tells us that David describes of having our iniquities forgiven and our sins covered the Blessedness of having God not to impute sin to us 'T is plain the Apostles whole scope and drift is to prove that Abrahams justification was his pardon upon which acccount the Gentiles though great sinners might be justified as well as he and that Justification before God is not by works and so not from the merit of any inherent righteousness of our own but by Gods gracious Imputing righteousness without works which he makes to consist in the Pardon of sin and Not imputing of iniquity and to be the same thing with it In the 13th of the Acts the 38 and 39 verses we find the Apostle again expressing himself to the same purpose Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Where he speaks of remission of sins and Justification Equivolently as terms importing the same thing In the 18th of Luke where the Publican is said to smite upon his breast and seek for pardon and forgiveness in that expression God be merciful to me a sinner our Saviour says He went home to his house Justified that is Pardoned rather then the proud Pharisee The one justified himself and asked no forgiveness the other condemned himself and sought for the pardon of his sins And by our Saviours own determination took the right method of attaining Justification thereby In the 5th of the Rom. v. 16. The Apostle treating of the difference between Adams sin and the condemnation introduced thereby and the Salvation we have by that tells us And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the judgement was by one to condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the free gift is of many offences unto justification By the free gift of many offences is meant the pardon of them and the pardon of them is unto Justification that is pardon of sin amounts to Justification and upon pardon we are actually justified We are often said in Scripture to have pardon and remission of sins by Christs blood And in the 5th of the Rom. and the 9 vers we are there said to be justified by his blood Much more now being justified by his blood shall we be saved from wrath through him By all which we are told that the scripture generally intends by justification and pardon one and the same thing Secondly The whole advantage and benefit of that satisfaction upon which we come to be justified before God is often issued into the pardon of sin and by the Scripture comprized therein If we look to the Types and Prefigurations of that satisfaction under the Law the grand end and signification of them was the removing and purging of sin This the Apostle tells us Heb. 9.22 Without shedding of blood is no remission And in the 26 ver he sayes Christ had once appeared in the end of the world
One being a voluntary act of Grace the other a necessary effect of Justice will not at all reach this case supposing it to be true For a sinners Justification results not from free and absolute Pardon nor consists in it but a sinner is pardoned and justified in a way judicial in pursuance of a Law by pleading an ample satisfaction made The greatest exercise of favour in such a case seems to lye in the acceptance of the satisfaction Now God who is the Party offended and the Judge declaring himself to be abundantly satisfied concerning the sins of the world by what Christ has suffered and done and it being perhaps highly requisite the Nature of Christs satisfaction considered in point of Justice too that he should so be the Pardon and Justification of a sinner are eminent effects of his Justice as well as of his Grace and Mercy And it becomes a Righteous thing now with God to pardon and justifie an offender so qualified in Judgement For it must be consider'd that although the Ground and Foundation of our Salvation and the whole of it in its contriving and effecting is nothing else but free and absolute grace and Divine goodness yet in such a Method and after such a Manner is Grace dispenced that in every Step that is taken toward the Salvation of a sinner God appears Righteous as well as Gracious and Justice and Mercy do kiss each other But still the Justification of such a one must exist in his Pardon by which he obtaines a Legal Discharge from all obligation to Punishment stands rectus in Curia no charge from the Law can be brought against him and he is upon even terms in the eye of the Law with those who never offended Nor can it be otherwise For no satisfaction be it never so Great can put an Offender out of need of forgiveness nor can it operate farther then to obtain forgiveness and so free him from condemnation and constitute him judicially righteous 'T is true that this is not such a Justification as an innocent person obtains in Judgment But 't is such a one as an offender is only capable of and has all in the effects and advantages that the other has and may be as truly and properly termed Justification And whoever denyes it makes the Justification of an offender utterly Impracticable and Impossible SECT II. ANd thus I have gone through the first Promise I obliged my self to which was to give an account of what is meant in Scripture by Justification We are not Justified as righteous and innocent persons by having Christs righteousness personally imputed to us as our own and we accounted in Judgment to have done what He did and acquitted as sinless thereupon Such apprehensions are vain and have no bottom in Scripture But we are Justified as in indeed and in truth we are as Sinners that is By pleading ample Satisfaction made for our sins in Christ and our own performance of that Gospel-condition which God has made necessary to our participation of the Benefits of it Upon which Plea God is graciously pleased judicially to pardon our sins to account of us as Righteous thereupon and to deal with us accordingly that is Legally to intitle us to all the grace and glory promised in the Gospel Divers Objections are raised against these Conceptions of Justification the value whereof seems to me to result rather from the Authors of them sundry Learned and Worthy men then from any weight in themselves The most Material are these three First It is Objected That when the Scripture describes Justification by Forgiveness of sin it speaks Synecdochically and expresseth the Whole by a Part. So in the 4th to the Rom. and other Texts And that Text Rom. 4. v. 25. is much insisted on to prove that Justification implyes more then Forgivenness of sin This Objection it will be acknowledged can be of no force unless it be proved that the Scripture does in other places ascribe some other distinct parts to Justification There can he but one more with any colour pretended and that is Adjudging Righteous upon the score of some righteousness Now it has been before proved That Pardoning of sin upon Christs satisfaction contains in it imputing righteousness without works and that in the Apostles sense they are all one When we are told in some Texts that we are justified by Christ in others That we obtain forgiveness of sin by Christ and in others That we are made righteous by Christ By an impartial comparing the Scripture with it selt it appears that one and the same thing is intended For whoever upon the performance of the Gospel-condition is legally Interested in Christs satisfaction and thereupon actually Pardoned is also thereby Justified and adjudged to be Righteous by the order and appointment of God in that case and in this the Scripture is every where very positive and plain That when the Scripture describes Justification by Forgiveness of sin it describes it Synecdochically expressing the whole by a part there is no good reason at all to believe but quite the contrary That it describes it comprehensively For it appears by Scripture-evidence that the whole form of Justification is compriz'd therein and the Scripture describes it most generally by pardon of sin and most fully in those places where it treats most largely and expressly of it In the forementioned 4th chap. to the Rom. 't will appear very plain to any impartial Reader That the Apostle there without any Synecdoche describes Justification in its full latitude if we consider these things First that he there fully and compleatly sets out the Justification of Abraham who in the manner of his Justification was to be the great pattern of Justification to all succeeding ages and the whole business of Gospel-Justification was compriz'd in the way and manner of his Justification Secondly he there states and determines the Grand and Deepest point about Justification whether it be by faith or works Now if he had not described it in its full extent and latitude and taken in the whole of Justification in that Quotation out of David by which he proves 't is not by works but by free forgiveness his Reasoning had not been Cogent For the Jews might well have replyed you speak but of one part of Justification and so conclude not about the whole That part indeed you prove to consist in the forgiveness of sin in the way of saith but it appears not but that there may be other parts also in Justification and they may result from works And so a man may be in part justified by free forgiveness and grace and in part by works Thirdly the Apostle very plainly makes the blessedness that David describes which in the blessedness of pardon and not imputing iniquity to be the blessedness of Justification For in the 9th ver Cometh this blessedness upon the circumcision only or upon the uncircumcision also that is the blessedness of Justification by faith which
is Davids blessedness of pardon Now 't were absurd to imagine that the Apostle should tell us that the Blessedness of Justification which must needs relate to the whole of it does consist in imputing righteousness without works which he makes to be all one with the pardon of sin and not imputing iniquity unless Justification were fully compriz'd therein and if it were so the form of it that it did as we say dare esse to it For nothing else can properly contain the Blessedness of it If it be meant by those that thus Object That by Pardon of sin the Scripture does not express the whole Effects that accrue by Justification That will be readily granted for our Pardon and Justification is but our Title in Law to the Grace and Glory of the Gospel is not the very things themselves though they are all virtually contain'd therein and inseparably conjoyned to it by the institution of God For Whom he justifies them he sanctifies and whom he sanctifies he glorifies And the Apostle in the 26 of the Acts conjoynes as inseparable forgiveness of sin and having an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified But if the meaning be That the whole form of a sinners Justification properly taken and as we find it spoken of in Scripture be not compriz'd in the Forgiveness of sin 't will appear to be a Mistake Those that thus Object tell us our Justification consists of two distinct parts First Remission of sin Secondly Adjudging to be Righteous Each standing upon a distinct bottom the first upon Christs passive obedience and the other upon his Active though in the Scripture we read not one Syllable of any such thing These two I have proved before are in the Scripture-method conjoyned Whoever is by God upon the belief of the Gospel for the sake of Christ judicially pardoned is thereby Justified and accounted as Righteous and the satisfaction of Christ is reckoned and imputed by God to all Believers in those effects and for those ends and purposes nor can it be rationally supposed to be otherwise imputed For no other persons Righteousness performed or Satisfaction made on my behalf can come to be any other way justly accounted mine then in the effects and advantages of it It can never be a Just Judgment to adjudge me to have Personally performed my self what was actually done by another though it was done on my behalf and be reckoned to my account There is no other possible way by which any man can come to be accounted Righteous in Judgment but either by a righteousness inherent in our selves which does constitute us innocent or by the Righteousness of Christ made ours in a way of personal imputation which must make us also to be justified as innocents and not as offenders The first is affirmed by the Papists and the later by many Learned Protestants The Overthrow of both which opinions I shall hereafter endeavour in this Discourse and thereby fully return Answer to this and all other Objections of this nature That Text Rom. 4. v. 25. is much pressed and insisted on But upon great Mistake as will easily be made to appear The words are Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our Justification Which words are not to be taken as if there were two distinct ends in Christs Death and Resurrection the one to obtain pardon of sin and the other to justifie And so to divide between them two whereas in truth the Apostle makes them one and the same thing But the natural meaning and intendment of the Holy Ghost in that text is this That All that Christ did and suffered was upon our account He was delivered to death upon the account of our sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our greatest sins and utmost Apostacy for that sense is included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rose again upon the same account to justify us from the condemning power of them By being delivered for our offences and rising again for our Justification the Apostle intends the same thing which is to justifie and save us from our sins And the latter expression is exegetical of the former 'T is to instruct us that Christs Death and Resurrection the whole that he transacted had one tendency and was all in order to one and the same end For in some Texts we are said to be justified by his Death and by his Blood so that he Dyed for our justification as well as rose again for it The Scripture no where affords us the least warrant to assign one distinct end to Christs death and another to his resurrection Nay the Apostle himself upon another occasion Rom. 14. ver 9. positively conjoyns them as inseparable in their ends For this end says he Christ both dyed and rose again Whatever Christ dyed for he rose again for His Rising again did not induce any farther or other ends then were his Death but only compleat and perfect the whole Design and Intendment thereof For although Christ dyed for our sins yet if he had not Risen again we could not have reap't the Fruit and Effect of his Death His own Justification as Mediator and so ours depending upon his Resurrection as the supream and Glorious Effect of his Deity and that whereby he was declared to be the Son of God mightily from heaven Secondly 'T is Objected That Remission of sin doth only take away the guilt or ordination to punishment but doth not remove the Sin it self and therefore Justification cannot consist in it Although pardon of sin do make as if sin had never been in respect of the guilt of it yet not in respect of the denomination of the Subject Although David was pardoned yet his pardon did not make him a Just man in those acts of his Murder and Adultery He was truely a Murderer and an Adulterer notwithstanding Justification doth not denominate a man to be Just and a righteousness is requisite unto it A man is not Justified and therefore Just but must be Just and therefore Justified in the order of Justification To this I Answer in these three things First by Gods forgiving of sin in a Judicial way as much is done to obliterate and extinguish it in its proper denomination as is possible and nothing but Gods forgiveness could have done so much For he forgiveth as the Supream Soveraign and Lord of all And his forgiveness is not only the effect of his mercy but the result of all his infinite Attributes He is pleased with a redundancy of Grace to express himself in Scripture to us about this matter that we might have a strong consolation therein As first That he will turn his face from our sins Psal 51. Secondly That he will remember them no more Isa 42. Thirdly That he will not impute them Psal 32. Fourthly That he will cast them into the depths of the sea Mica 7. And fifthly that he will cast them behind his back Isa 38. Now I say
longer be under a Law of works but under a Law of grace The Law could not attain its natural end by reason of mans impotency and so 't was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ Nor did it in Christ for the Law required an unsinning righteousness from every particular person and not from Christ to satisfie for all others That depends purely upon Gods ordination To all unbelievers the Law remains still in force as it was first given and the wrath of God abides upon them thereby but to those that believe and so are within the Kingdom of the Mediator the Law is not in force as a Law of works but re-established by Him as part of the New Law and upon the same gracious terms that all other gospel-precepts are For the Apostle tells us we are not under the Law but under grace and yet tells us also the law is established by the Gospel All that discuss this point ought still to consider that our Justification is not Legal but Evangelical For we are justified with respect to the Law that is interested in Christs satisfaction upon performance of the Gospel-Condition and not otherwise 'T is not by the Law of Works any way considered that we are Actually and Personally justified The Apostle so concludes Rom. 3.38 A man is justified without the deeds of the law But 't is by the law of faith Whatever the Law of works requires God has accepted of satisfaction for our non-performance of it in our Surety and Representative and has impowered him to offer salvation upon the terms of a better covenant And the righteousness of God the Apostle tells us is now manifested without the law Our Justification is now upon the terms of a new recovering law of grace And 't is the righteousness of that we are now only obliged to perform When we are impleaded at the Bar of the Law we plead satisfaction in Christ for our Non-performance when we are impleaded at the Bar of the Gospel and put to prove our personal interest and propriety in that satisfaction then we are obliged to manifest our performance of the Gospel-condition and evidence the truth of our faith by which we are intituled to it Our Plea must then lye there So that with reference to the Law we are Justified that is Judicially pardoned and acquitted in judgment upon satisfaction made with reference to the Gospel upon performance of the condition And faith looks both wayes respects both the Law and the Gospel and comprizeth all that is requisite to our Justification with reference to both All the Charge of the Law it Answers ratione Objecti in respect of its Object which is Christ And all that is required by the Gospel ratione sui as being it self the performance of the Condition annexed thereunto To suppose that every Justified person as necessarily requisite to his Justification must be actually and personally possessed of all that unsinning obedience the strict rules of the Law required is a great mistake for none was ever so but Christ himself who became a Publick Satisfaction and Ransome for the whole Should any man now be Justified under the law of faith upon a strict performance of the law of works any way considered the Law would not then be relaxed but still strictly executed Now the truth is the Law is neither executed nor abrogated but relaxed and dispenced with Executed it is not for who then could be saved And the Apostle tells us Rom. 8. There is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus And abrogated it is not For 't is in full force a dreadful consideration to the wicked unbelieving part of the world with all its rigour against all those that do not believe and obey the Gospel and under the Gospel it self though we are freed from the curse of the Law yet we are still under the government of the Law in the sense before mentioned The condemning power is only taken off the commanding power is still continued And as some say though I think such ought well to consider what the Apostle sayes 1 Cor. ch 3. v. 22. not all the condemning power neither in matters temporal for the best men are still subjected to death natural and many sorrows And besides either a man must be possessed of such Legal Righteousness inherently or imputatively Inherently he cannot for the Scripture tells us that by the works of the Law no man living can be justified Nor can he be by way of imputation personally possessed of it For Christ himself did not nor could not in person perform all those individual acts the Law requires from every person that is Justified by it For when Christ is said to fulfill all righteousness 't is meant all made necessary by the law of his Mediatorship for himself to perform and not what every individual man was bound to perform And therefore no such imputation can ever be supposed unless we will suppose God to account me to have done that in Christ which Christ never did himself and in the Nature of the thing 't was impossible he should do Or else to account me to have done in mine own person all that Christ himself did in his person and so to be righteous in the very same spotless way and to the same transcendent degree that Christ was The only difference between those that assert the form of Justification to consist in the pardon of sin and those that say 't is requisite besides forgiveness of sin farther to take in the righteousness of Christ by imputation and that we should be pronounced righteous in judgment therein is this Whether Christs righteousness shall be reckoned and imputed to us in a way of Satisfaction made for our sins and disobedience upon a sincere belief of the Gospel and we reckoned righteous upon that account or whether it shall be so imputed as to be personally reckoned our own and to be adjudged righteous by God not for but in that very righteousness In both cases our Justification is bottom'd upon Christs alone righteousness and the imputation of it to us If the first be true then 't is undenyable contrary to what is objected that our Justification is our pardon and our pardon upon satisfaction made and accepted and the condition performed is that upon which we are constituted personally righteous For satisfaction made for an offender naturally and necessarily operates that way and cannot operate any other in judgment the vertue of it must needs be issued in pardon Now that the first is much likelier to be true and has much more of rational probability in it besides Scripture-testimony where we are said to be Ransom'd Redeem'd Purchased Bought with a price which all relate to satisfaction then the Later does from hence appear by that we are Justified as Sinners upon compensation made for our sins and are brought into a Righteous state by the pardon of them which is plainly the truth
Christ did and suffered in the effects and advantages of it should accrue to us and our account because he accepted him on our behalf and in our stead and that we should reap all the fruit and benefit of his Mediatorship And in this sense God is pleased to impute his whole Mediatory transaction unto us but no otherwise The whole of Christs satisfaction is imputed to us as made For us and so he is the Lord our righteousness but not as made By us but actually made by him And what can be more desired then to reap all the benefits of Christs whole undertaking and upon the account of it and its being accepted of God on our behalf to be pardoned justified sanctified and saved and as the Apostle expresseth it to have Christ made to us of God that is as the Fundamental cause procurer and spring of them a common head from whence they are all derived to us as his body wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Those that will press the point farther and insist upon personal imputation to every believer what Christ did ought well to consider these things First If every believer be personally righteous before God in the very individual Acts of Christs righteousness one of these two things will thence ensue Either that Christ in his own person did perform all the particular acts of righteousness required as due from each saved person or else that every is saved persons righteousness before God is identically and numerically the same with Christs in his publick capacity as Mediator and so every saved person is personally righteous with a righteousness that has a stock of merit in it sufficient to save the world unless you will say Christ had some righteousness that belong'd to him as Mediator and some that did not which is absurd to affirm for 't is plain all he did he did as Mediator nor had he any any concern in the world but as Mediator and none of his actions can be seperated from his Office being all pursuant of it The first will be granted was not nor had a possibility to be and yet no man can be personally righteous with respect to the Law but by an exact performance of every tittle and iota the Law required from him And the other has two very gross absurdities in it First That we should be accounted to have done that which was done long before we were in a capacity to do any thing And secondly That we should be reckoned personally righteous with the righteousness of God-man When first There is not a possibility that Man or Angel could perform any one Action with the Circumstances or in the Manner as he did Secondly Much of what he did was in its nature unlawfull for any else to undertake And thirdly The Whole of what he did was peculiarly appropriated and appurtenant to his Office as he was Mediator and cannot be suited to any other person nor is any part of it transferrable or imputable to any creature otherwise then in its operations and effects For he neither did nor suffered the very idem that we are obliged to for then he must have particularly done all the Law required from us and have suffered to eternity But he mad such a satisfaction to God for our Non-performance and on our behalf as became him as Mediator and such as that God is pleased thereupon to suspend the strict and rigorous execution of the Law and to bring us under a better Covenant Our case is not strictly that of a Debtor but of Rebellious Subjects nor stand we in our sins related to God as a Creditor but as a Supream Soveraign and Judge Nor did Christ sustain properly the place of a Surety to pay individually and identically our Debt but of a Mediator tomake reparation to divine Justice by another way then putting the Law in execution against us Secondly If every justified person be justified in judgment by the very acts of Christs personal righteousness accounted to him as his own it will then follow beyond any good answer that every man is justified by the works of the Law For Christs personal righteousness with respect to which he was justified as Mediator and approved of God to become a sufficient Saviour was a Legal righteousness and not an Evangelical This if sincere though imperfect will be accepted from us for Christs sake but would not so have been accepted from Christ for our Justification nor can it be well affirmed that Christ believed and obey'd his own Gospel That lyes on our part to perform Now that we should be justified by the works of the law is confuted by many Texts Rom. 3.28 the Apostle sayes Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law And Galat. 3.11 But that no nun is justified by the Law in the sight of God is evident for the just shall live by Faith and so in many other Texts And the whole scope of St. Paul in his discourses of Justification is to establish this point That no man is justified by an unsinning obedience perform'd to the Law and so Not by works but by believing and in the way of Gospel-faith which God is pleased out of Grace to accept and account for righteousness Nor will it be to any purpose to say it is one thing to be justified by our own obedience to the Law and another thing to be justified by Christs obedience imputed For if his obedience be so imputed as that we are accounted by God in judgment personally to have done what Christ did it is all one as to this matter and we are as much justified by the Law and do as much live in the works thereof as if we had in our own proper persons performed an unsinning obedience to it Thirdly if the rigid notion of imputation should be admitted as true then every particular person that is saved did merit his own salvation For if the very Acts of Christ be reckoned as ours and so imputed as if done by us the effects must needs be imputed so too If I am reckoned by God in my own person to have performed that righteousness that does merit my Justification I must of necessity be accounted to have merited my Justification And besides all this many the most dangerous and unsound principles of Antinomianism have their rise from this Doctrine I chuse to express it in the words of Reverend Mr. Gibbons in his Discourse of Justification I inferr says he that they are dangerously mistaken who think that a believer is righteous in the sight of God with the self-same Active and Passive righteousness wherewith Christ was righteous m though believers suffered in Christ and obeyed in Christ and were as righteous in Gods esteem as Christ himself having his personal righteousness made personally theirs by imputation This is their fundamental mistake and from hence tanquam ex equo Trojano issues out a throng of such false and corrupt
righteousness or unrighteousness do necessarily inhere and to which by virtue of his Constitution and Relation they are inseparably appertaining Just as light and darkness necessarily relate to Aire health and sickness to our bodyes And they are contraryes that expel each other and from a necessity in their own Natures succeed each other in their Existance in such Subjects Air perfectly free from all darkness must of necessity be supposed to be light If a body be free from all sort of sickness it must needs be supposed in perfect health So if a Man be freed wholly from all sort of unrighteousness he ought not nor cannot be otherwise judged of then as a Just and a Righteous person there being no third state imaginable in such cases Fourthly If Gods Pardon of all a mans sin should not ipso facto instate him in a Righteous condition and render him perfectly a Righteous person one of these two things would unavoidably insue Either that there must be some third state of a man that is neither Righteous nor Unrighteous which is in the nature of the thing utterly Impossible to be or else that God might fully pardon an unrighteous man that is a man after his pardon Continuing still so to be and that a man might remain unrighteous and so obnoxious to Punishment miserable and unhappy contrary to what the Psalmist so often sayes That he is blessed that has his sins forgiven after all his sins are Pardoned and he has reaped the whole benefit of Gods Forgiveness To imagine either of which were either extreamly Impious or Foolish or Both. Fifthly The Apostle tells us that All unrighteousness is sin the Scripture carryes us no farther and all sin is some way or other a breach and transgression of some Law Now where all sort of sin is Forgiven both of Omission and Commission a man is in the same state as if he had never offended and if so capable of no charge of sin and so of no charge of unrighteousness and so cannot by strict rules of Justice be otherwise adjudged and accounted of then as a Righteous person Freedom from all unrighteousness which Pardon of all sin necessarily includes does ipso facto constitute a man Righteous and denominate him from the Reason of the thing so to be And the truth is a person whose Fault is remitted and he judicially acquitted upon plenary satisfaction made is in point of true and legal Justification and being accounted Righteous thereupon upon even termes with him that is Accused and Justifyed by being found innocent Because the Rule of Righteousness and Justification is the Law and the Judgement resulting from thence Most especially when we are acquitted at the infallible Tribunal of God according to His righteous Laws The Apostles Question so pregnant Negative may very well be asked If God justify who shall either Charge or Condemn Secondly It appears by several Texts that whomsoever God pardons he reckons as Righteous and is in the Scripture-acceptation said to justify thereby In the 4th of the Rom. where the Apostle is proving that Righteousness and Justification is not by works and merit but by free forgiveness in the Gospel way of Believing he sayes in the 6. ver Even as David also describeth the blessdness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works Here the Apostle gives you Davids sense in his own words and then quotes Davids words saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity By which it is plain past all denyal that imputing righteousness without works and free forgiveness of sin and not imputing iniquity are the same if this be but admitted that St. Paul know how to interpret the words of David In the 2d Epist to the Corinth chap. 5th the Apostle there tells us that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses God upon not imputing sin is reconciled Now it upon Not imputing sin He did not account of us as Righteous 't were impossible he should be so Reconciled God cannot be reconciled to any man continuing unrighteous and under the notion of a Sinner In truth Throughout the Scripture all the characters of a righteous person of a Happy and Blessed person are still given to a Pardoned person As all misery was introduced by sin to manifest Gods extream hatred of it So all happiness is attained by the forgiveness of it to tell us of what value Gods forgiveness is and what an inestimable price it cost In the sense of the Gospel which is a Law Enacted that peculiarly provides for the Justification of an Offender a righteous person is a pardoned person to Calvin observes Cum veniam peccatorum fuerimus consecuti Justi habemur coram Deo Instit lib. 3. ch 17. And a pardoned person is a justifyed person and a justifyed person is blessed person Pardon Justification Righteousness Blessedness are inseparably Conjoyn'd The 4th of the Rom. and other Texts are a sufficient Proof of it Thirdly From a due consideration of that Order and Method God is pleased to use in the Pardoning of Sinners ' This truth will be farther manifest and appear to be immoveably sixed upon these two foundations First Every sinner is pardoned upon the soore of such a Satisfaction made as honour and satisfies the Law as much as if it had never been broken or as if being broken the utmost penalty had been inflicted Now such satisfaction is in it self vertually Righteousness and when accepted in judgement is Actually so Secondly Every sinner is in fact pardoned and not before upon the performance of such a Condition as God is pleased by the Covenant of his Grace to account for righteousness and so to accept And that is Believing and being possessed of Gospel-faith Which Faith we are often told is imputed for righteousness Whoever believes is Righteous in the Judgement of the Gospel Law for it is performing the condition required by it on our part to be performed and is our Covenant-Keeping Now whosoever is so Circumstanced in a judicial pardon obtained from the Great and Infallible Judge of all the Earth upon such a satisfaction made and such a Condition performed is certainly well intituled to a Righteous state and condition A Fourth consideration to make good the Definition I have given shall be this Gods Justifying a sinner is as has been said his giving Sentence with the guilty party Now God whose Judgement is ever according to Truth cannot give Sentence with a Guilty person upon the score of Innocency His Justification therefore of such a one consider it which way you will must needs be included in his Forgiveness of him He must of necessity be restored to a righteous condition in a way of pardon and cannot be so upon any other account That which some say That Justifying and bare and absolute Forgiving are in themselves considered two distinct things