and if they be whether can any one I speak of the Adult have Salvation by Christ who denies these and refuse to give their assent unto them If they cannot how can they be justified without such an assent Being thus it may be said you will have many assenting acts of Faith unto Justification or in that Faith which justifies I Answer implicit I will grant explicit I deny As thus Suppose I propound the above-mentioned Articles to any in order to his assent as I read these Articles if he give credence he implicitely gives his assent to each Article as I go along But then after that I have read them I ask him whether he doth assent to the truth of the whole if he say yea 't is manifest his explicit assent is but one or one explicit act which we call assent But besides assent our consent is requisite to the constituting of true Faith and this consists best in a cordial accepting this one only God to be our God giving him the preheminence in our affections Exod. 20. 2 3. An accepting of him to be our chief or best good that God who is essentially good the fountain of all goodness Hence he is the principal object of our love desire and delight Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee And besides it implies a free consent to be disposed of by him according to his good pleasure and a being freely willing to be ruled and governed by him according to his Law and holy Commands 2. A consent to take Christ Jesus to be our only Propitiation all prevailing Intercessour and also as our head and Teacher i. e. Christ in all his Offices 3. An accepting of the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier to mortifie Sin to bring our hearts in love with holiness to assist us in duty and excite grace in the performance to alienate our Hearts from this World and fix them upon Heaven and heavenly things 4. A sincere consent to perform our Baptismal Vow or Covenant renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil resolving through God's grace for the future to be his obedient Children and faithful Servants fighting against all his and our spiritual Enemies Those who are our Opposites I would gladly know of them or rather I desire them to know of themselves whether any less than such a sincere consent as this above spoken of can bring or put them into a saving justified state or give them which is all one a saving interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life through him If they say less will let it be made appear from Scripture if not then why do they make any opposition upon this consent sincerely given follows practical trust i. e. a well grounded confidence upon God in and through the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit that God for the sake of Christ will be faithful to his promises and make them good unto such who reduce their former consent into persevering practice such who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Rom. 2. 7. Though many times under dark and afflicting providences and dispensations Thus Abraham against hope believed in hope he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform upon our first assent and consent we have an initial right to Christ and Life upon our practical trust we have this right continued which practical trust doth include sincere Obedience and when a Believer is incapacitated for the act and exercise the principle or habit is accepted The heart of Asa was perfect all his days 2 Chron. 15. 17. This practical trust is our adherence to God in Christ by the blessed Spirit in the ways of holiness notwithstanding opposition Acts 11. 23. Who when he came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Having shewed what a Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and continued Justification or what Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and and continued right to Christ and to Pardon and Life purchased by him Let us now consider what this Faith includes as it gives the initial right and so I consider it especially as consisting in consent assent being previous 1. Repentance is included for in our sincere consent to take God to be our God Christ to be our Redeemer which includes an accepting him in all his Offices and the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier there is implied a cordial confessing and forsaking of all Sin and this with self loathing self judging enmity and opposition in the Heart against it 2. Love to God and the ways of holiness is included for it cannot be that ever any should sincerely consent to be the Lord's and make choice of the ways of holiness to walk in unless there be such a sight of their excellency and amiableness as draws their Love from Sin and the World and fixeth it principally hereupon 3. This consent includes Obedience radically for there can be no real consent to be Christ's unless there be a full resolution to do and suffer whatsoever he calls us unto this consent we speak of brings Christ and Souls into the Relation of Master and Servants and there cannot be a real consent to be Christ's Servants unless there be a willingness to do the work which he commands us and a resolution through Grace to continue in it so that it is manifest that Faith which justifies or gives right to Pardon and Life it includes Repentance Love to God and radically new Obedience and though it is like upon the matter I may procure to my self the name of a Papist I must not for that be affrighted from owning a truth that bears its own evidence before it But by the way I would have such Persons who are so ready to fix such names upon others as they judge may render them odious to consider what our Divines mean when they say that where there is one Grace there is every Grace and tell me where there is the act and exercise of that Faith which unites to Christ whether there can be this without the exercise of Repentance and Love inclusive what hath been said may give sufficient light to know how to answer the Question to such as desire to learn and think not themselves wise enough already Though seeing I am upon this I shall take leave further to offer this to consideration and let it be under correction that where there is the exercise in truth of Grace the exercise of that one Grace I speak of the sensible exercise doth include the exercise of the most if not the exercise of all Grace As thus Suppose we the exercise of true Repentance there must be
and question whether he do or know for where is the Man that ever affirmed that God reckoned that we did and suffered in our own Persons what Christ did and suffered I am sure the Scripture asserts the contrary saying he trod the winepress alone and there was none with him As to that which he calleth a false charge thou mayst Reader look back unto his 12th Article and see if it be not true of himself however there saith he it is the acts works doings and obedience of this blessed Mediatour that are imputed and counted to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness so that from hence he may judge If God doth account the very acts works â—oings and obedience of Christ as Mediatour to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness how it can be avoided but he must reckon them to have in Christ performed those acts works doings and obedience of Christ the Mediatour and what are they to whom God doth reckon those acts works doings and obedience of Christ the Mediatour but their own Persons doth God account Christ's acts works doings and obedience to such as are no Persons God indeed accounts what Christ did and suffered for the good and in the place and stead of and poor lost Sinners But then doth he account them in their own Persons in the sense of any Law to have obeyed and suffered in Christ which he must do if he account the very acts works doings and obedience of Christ as Mediatour unto them as this Man saith for if God do impute the very acts works doings of another in obeying and suffering unto me and reckon them as mine in themselves then he must either account me to have performed those very acts works and doings in that others obeying and suffering or he must not If he do then the charge is true and just against himself I mean this Man who is so brisk and confident If he do not then how can they in Law sense be imputed and reckoned to me as mine in themselves I suppose the mistake of this Man is here when I speak of Persons in a Legal sense he would have me understood in a Physical sense only and whether he do this on set purpose or from ignorance I know not But â—urther having proved that that which he calls a false charge is true of himself from his own assertion I shall inform him of another and that a Person in his day of worth and learning who saith Christ stood in a double relation for us unto God First Of a Surety Seâ—ondly Of a common Person And a common Person saith he with or for another he goes for is one who represents personates and acts the part of another by the allowance and warrant of the Law so as what he doth as such a common Person anâ— in the name of the other that other whom he personates is by the Law reckoned to do and in like manner what is done to him as being in the others stead and room is reckoned as done to the other Mr. Tho. Goodwin in his Treatise of the support of Faith from Christ's Resurrection Cap. 2. Now let any judge if what he saith in this matter be not the same with that which he calls my false charge And in his Application Cap. 4. Sect. 3. saith he Christ was considered and appointed by God as a common Person both in what he did and in what was done to him so as by the same Law what he did for us is reckoned or imputed to us as if we our selves had done it and what was done to him tending to our Justification and Salvation is reckoned as done to us 22. I believe saith he that in this weighty point of Justification such an one naming me is one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers and against the châ—â—f of those counted Orthodox since the Reformation as Luther and worthy Calvin of old c. And Thomas Goodwin Dr. Owen and Mr. Chancey of later times I Question not if this Man had been acquainted as he should what I hold in this point and such as go under the names he mentions that he durst not have made this an Article of his Faith But what will not malignity say and leave all without proof as this Man doth this Article of his Creed It is like he expects his testimony should be received without any more to do and here he is saying as they did in Jeremiah's time come let us smite him with the tongue and I do expect if any thing come forth that will bear the name of a reply to this of mine it will be railing language much what of the same complexion with this though indeed if this Man had offered any likely proof for the truth of this his charge as I do where I apply any of these names I should not so have called it When therefore he hath made it good 1. That I hold Justification by an inherent Righteousness which is a conformity to the Law of sinless perfect Works or that Faith is a meritorious Righteousness or that Christ merited that we by Grace or Duty might merit Let him make it good 2. That I hold that the 〈◊〉 credere or the very act of Faith justifies i. e. as an act Or 3. That I hold that Christ did not purchase the Covenant of Grace or that I deny Christ's Merit and satisfaction and place grace or sincere duty in the room and place of Christ's Meritorious and Satisfactory Righteousness 4. And when he hath made it good that I hold I need no more to answer the Law of Innocency or to free me from the curse and condemnation of it and procure Salvation for me but what is inherent and a walking accordingly When he hath proved I say that I hold all these above mentioned things then I will confess he believes a truth concerning me But so long as he doth not and that because he cannot I must say he believes a lie until he retract and acknowledge he hath wronged me in saying I am one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers in this point of Justification Touching those he saith I am against in this his Article I have this to say whatever unwary expressions our Reformers and others that follow their Phrase may have left in their Writings with which so far as their notion did agree it was not sound yet to me it is out of doubt that as to what is the main in this point and respects especially the practick part both Luther Calvin and the rest of our Reformers as such never held that any Man or Woman ever had I speak of the Adult actual interest in Christ and right to Pardon and Life while remaining in a state of Impenitency and Unbelief and Rebellion against God And if not then wherein am I against them in this point If it be said but where will you find in their Writings that Faith is imputed or that it is our formal justifying Righteousness
God administers Grace in a way of Justice as he is faithful to his promise he hath made of Pardon and Life through Jesus Christ upon our obedience to the Gospel And if he would know what he justifies from and for what and upon what God tells him Acts 13. 38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And if he would know further how he is just in justifying him that believeth in Jesus I Answer Christ having yielded such a conformity as I have spoken of to the Law of Innocency for us in the account of the Lawgiver and satisfied the justice of God his glorious attributes are so much honoured and advanced and the repute of his violated Law kept up as that God can for and upon this meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness of Christ without any wrong to his Justice or any other his Attributes or injury to his Holy Law justifie the Sinner upon Faith in Christ or give him an actual right according to the Law of Grace to Pardon and Life And from what hath been said it is manifest he is faithful and just in forgiving of Sin when and where he doth forgive it and what God doth herein according to the explication I have given neither interferes with Law nor Justice Q. 3. What is the Rule of this righteousness of Faith which is the formal cause of our Justification he should have added by God's imputation for if it be a justifying righteousness it must be by some Rule not the Law of Innocency for it requires a perfect righteousness but faith is an imperfect one Then it is the new Law or Covenant that Christ hath purchased that must be the Rule well then I ask is an imperfect Rule the Rule of our justifying righteousness or doth the same justifie by that which is imperfect or doth this New Law justifie us with the allowed breaâ— of the Old how then is it a better Covenant or how is the Law given honoured thereby In this his 5th which he calls a Question he inquires first what is the Rule of this Righteousness of Faith which is the formal cause of our Justification I Answer the Gospel in which this Faith is commanded John 20. 31. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name 1 John 3. 23. And this is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment And Obedience to the Gospel is this Righteousness of Faith But saith he this Faith is an imperfect Righteousness so it is if the Law of Innocency which injoins sinless perfect works be made the measure of it but not so if we bring it to the Gospel where it is commanded that accepts of sincere Obedience and such is the Obedience of Faith in all God's People for in them strict legal perfection cannot be found But to pass on this Man accounts the Gospel an imperfect Rule If compared with the Law of Innocent nature and what it requires I grant it but that it is so absolutely or in its own nature I deny seeing it contains the whole of that which God wills and requires to give us interest in Christ and a right to Eternal Salvation by way of direction or instruction Let him prove the Gospel to be insufficient here and then let him scoff at it as the Papists calling it an imperfect Rule If he judge that what God commands in order to Salvation be imperfect he must tell us what is wanting and so see if his wisdom can make up the defect In the mean time I shall hold that the Righteousness of Faith is perfect with relation to the Rule i. e. the Gospel which it is a conformity unto our Divines have ever distinguished of a Legal and Evangelical perfection but of this I have spoken more above And whereas he adds in scorn doth this New Law which I call the Gospel justifie us with an allowed breach of the Old I Answer God doth not allow of Sin so as to approve of it in any he being an infinite Holy God and Sin being so opposite to this his nature But I would have him know Christ having made satisfaction to justice God is pleased for the sake of this Blessed Redeemer and Mediatour in his abundant Grace and Mercy to Pardon the Sins of all sincere returners and accept of their sincere Obedience of Faith to the Gospel instead of strict Legal perfection God justifies not pardons not upon sincere Repentance and Faith without a satisfaction given to him as Lawgiver and when God insists upon satisfaction for the violation of his Holy Law and will not pardon any Sinner though a penitent Believer without this when then satisfaction is given and accepted if God hereupon according to the Gospel justifie and pardon a penitent and believing Sinner as such doth he by this justifie and pardon with the allowed breach of his Law If so this is as much as to say God allows of Sin when for the sake of Christ he justifies and pardons any Sinner upon sincere Faith and Repentance How the Lawgiver is honoured though he justifie by â—he Covenant or Law of Grace upon a true Faith I have elswhere shewed Q 6. Seeing Faith must be our formal justifying Righteousness then I ask saith he what degree or how many acts of Faith are required to constitute this Righteousness that justifies us Is it the faith of adherence or the faith of assurance Is it our first act of faith that justifies or our whole life of faith which consists of many acts If by our first act then all after acts are insignificant as as to Justification Mark here Reader this Man by this last branch grants that not only the first act but all after acts of Faith are significant as to Justification for he saith if we are justified by the first act of Faith then all after acts are insignificant as to our Justification which plainly implies that he accounts not only the first act but all after acts of Faith to be requisite to Justification or else he understands not well what he hath writ And thus he runs himself upon that which follows this with a design to insnare Men i. e. If by our whole Life of Faith Mark it is like the Life of Faith consists only in act according to this Man so that there must be no Life of Faith in a Soul but so long as it is in exercise which consists of many acts of Faith then our Justification is suspended till our lives be finished then saith he where is the Man that is justified or sure that he shall be I never and I question whether any beside this
Man and such as are of his party did before see such long winded complicated and confused Questions What a Faith it is which justifies I have at large shewn above And shall further give him to understand again that Faith as it is the Souls consent inclusive of assent to accept the Lord Jesus as offered in the Gospel gives the Soul interest in Christ and an actual right to Pardon and Life so perseverance in sincere Obedience which is consent in practice inclusive of affiance and reliance is that which continues the interest and right And so Justification is not a simulaneous act but a continued act of God by his Law of Grace Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immorality eternal life He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a crown of life And that it must not be a simultaneous but a continued act most of our Divines mâ—st grant who assert Pardon to be a constitutive part of Justification and yet say that future sins are not pardoned before they be committed But it may be said when a believer falls into Sin and continues for some time as in the case of David without Repentance may he then be said to persevere If not then his justified state ceaseth I Answer as to the act and exercise of Grace he doth not persevere but as to the habit of Grace he doth which habitual Grace as the first Grace gave him right continues his right to the further exciting and quickening of the Spirit whereby he shall actually repent and thus he persevereth and falls not totally and finally away neither doth he cease to be in a justified stateâ— Psalm 37. 24. Though he fall he shall not be utterly cast down for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand Jerem. 8. 4. Moreover thou shalt say unto them Thus saith the Lord Shall they fall and not arise Shall he turn away and not return So that I affirm Justification is perfect as it is a right at the first but not so as to the full possession of that right if so be the Person justified live for some time after he hath given his first sincere consent for if a Person should die immediately upon his first sincere consent given he most certainly should be saved but then if he live for some time after that there is more required to continue his right to the the gift of further grace and also of glory and that is the performance of that which was included in his first consent as it gives him a right for Christ to other Covenant of priviledges so also to this i. e. the gift of persevering Grace And though this may not as it seldom is be without some actual failure yet it never doth nor never shall habitually fail And the proof of this may be drawn first from the nature of true and saving grace 1 Peter 1. 23. Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever 2dly From the perpetuity of the Covenant of grace which all are taken into I speak of the Adult who give a free and sincere consent Jerem. 32. 40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good but I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me 3dly From Christ's constant and all prevailing intercession Hebr. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them Luke 22. 31 32. And the Lord said Simon Simon behold Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as Wheat But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and when thou art converted strengthen thy brethren Let not Persons from hence gather that such may then take liberty to Sin for this cannot be seeing that such a liberty would be inconsistent with true and saving Grace and so with a sincere consent Q. 7. Seeing it is written the just shall live by Faith what are they to trust and live by Faith in but that which is their justifying Righteousness then not in Christ for he is none such Righteousness He intends that Christ is none such Righteousness in my account and herein he is a false accuser for when or where did I assert that any Person is justified without the Righteousness of Christ Have not I said the contrary in affirming that Faith is accepted for our Gospel Righteousness for the alone meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness of Christ And by the way Reader I would have thee take notice that the strongest Arguments the Men of this stamp have for what they hold are either first an implicit Faith or secondly Accusing of those that oppose them as deniers of that which yet they affirm â—or this Man would insâ—nuate in what he faith that I wholly exclude the Righteousness of Christ from the Justification of a Sinnâ—r than which I abhor nothing more But it may be â—aid do not you exclude it from the matter of Justification I Answer from being the qualifying matter I do but not from being the meriting matter for it cannot be that the Righteousness of Christ should be communicated to me in it self so as to become the qualification of my Person or that which in it self must qualifie me as a subject of right or one that hath right hereby to Christ and his benefits But now whereas this Man saith what are they to trust and live by Faith in but that which is their justifying Righteousness he by this must make our justifying righteousness very extensive i. e. God and all his glorious perfections his promises c. for these we are to trust and live by Faith in and if we are to trust and live by Faith in nothing but that which is the matter of our justifying Righteousness then these must be the matter according to him of our justification as well as Christ's Righteousness true we are to trust and live by Faith in God's glorious perfections and his faithful promises through Christ but though it be so yet these are not the Righteousness of Christ which he accounts justifies us as our formal Righteousness nor any part of it The just then so live by Faith as that they trust and depend upon God's glorious attributes and his gracious promises through Christ for strength support and comfort in their faithful Obedience to his commands hoping only for their acceptation for Christ's all prevailing merits and satisfaction Q. 8. If Faith as it is our act be our justifying Righteousness what then mean those many places of Scripture that speak of Justification and Pardon by Christ his Righteousness knowledge grace freely by grace through the Redemâ—â—ion that 〈◊〉 in him This Question is built upon a false
supposition i. e. that I hold Faith justifies as an act whereas I deny it and therefore it is a wonder how Men daâ—e appear in writing to the world charging a Man with that which he disowns and which they cannot prove against him and whereas this Man insinuates that I hold Justification by the simple act of Faith without relation to its object He saith as much as that I hold Justification by that which is not Faith for Faith without relation â—o its object is no Faith How Faith justifies I have shewn and also how we are justified by Christ and his righteousness Q. 9. What is that wedding garment that best robe that change of raiment that garment of Salvation and robe of righteousness that fine linnen that 's white and clean Are these our acts of Faith and Obedience or Christ's Righteousness imputed He â—till sings over the old Song and if he would have an Answer if he will take pains to look back thither where I treat of these matters he may find one Q. 10. If Justification be an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our Sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by Faith alone as saith the Assemblies How then is Faith itself our justifying Righteousness seeing it doth but only receive Christ's Righteousness which God imputes This he hath puâ—me to answer before in speaking unto the 23d Article of his Faith Q. 11. Whether was it not as possible and easie nay whether was it not more easie for Adam to have obeyed the Law of Innocency being free from sin in his nature as it is for fallen Man dead in Sin to believe and keep the conditions of the new purchased Covenant If so then saith he how doth the exceeding riches of God's grace appear thereby according to such an one that â—â— me whom he names What a Man is this to bring such a thing into question Have I any where or at any time affirmed that it is as easie for a Man dead in Sin to believe and keep the conditions of the Covenant of Grace as it was for innocent Adam to have obeyed the Law of Innocency Thus it is in the practice of such Men as this in the first place falsly to charge such as they know oppose them and thus beget a prejudice in others against them and so bring them over to their own party and keep them fast to them He supposes nay takes it for granted that I hold that which yet I deny i. e. I deny that Sinners have any moral power to repent or believe without the renewing and quickening power of the Spirit of God and seeing his supposition is false his Question is ungrounded and therefore is vain and frivilons for whether he will know it or no I affirm that by grace they are saved who are saved through faith but yet not of themselves it is the gift of God Qâ— 12. Hath Christ purchased a Covenant which accepts of that which is imperfect as such an one still naming me grants Faith to be and so morally evil Is this to honour the Law of God or the death and obedience of the Son of God or to set up the golden calf the fruit of our own brains drawn out of the forge of our imagination and dance about it saying this is thy God O Israel that justifies and saves thee Though I have already said enough for the solution of this yet there is in this which he calls a Question I would have taken notice of i. e. He supposeth seeing that the sincere grace and duties of God's People do not answer the Law of Innocency nor are not a conformity in full to that Law therefore they are morally evil i. e. in plain terms they are no other but Sin for he supposeth Faith to be so and if Faith then all other graces and duties Now I grant that although Persons have true Faith and performs sincere Obedience yet the Law of Innocency in it self or as such a Law condemns them for all this though through and for Christ they are delivered from a condemned state so as that the Laws sentence shall not everlastingly be executed upon them Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And that because Faith in a Redeemer and sincere Obedience is not that conformity to this Law it calls for But then that true Faith in a Redeemer and sincere in Obedience as such are morally evil in themselves and so Sin this I deny for they are both commanded where then or in whomsoever they are found they are a conformity to the will of that God who commands them And can that which is a conformity to God's command be morally evil in it self or in its own nature and so Sin If this were so then it would be all one for Persons to continue disobedient Infidels as to be obedient Believers and this is uncouth Doctrine Indeed neither Faith in a Redeemer or Mediatour nor yet sincere Obedience under that formality only are commanded by the Law of Innocency seeing it is sinless perfect Obedience or obedience in a Subject where is no Sin that it requires seeing then that both the Faith and Obedience above spoken of are commanded they must be commanded by some Law and what Law can this be but a Law of Mercy and Grace which for Christ accepts of the sincere obedience of Faith when God might have insisted upon perfect obedience in a sinless subject Manifest it is that Man as he gathers from others confounds Law and Gospel which sets him and keeps him sadly wrong and dark in the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace through Christ And yet notwithstanding I have ground enough to think that he judgeth himself to be exceeding clear in the matter and looks upon me to be a silly deceived Creature and that there is no Salvation for me if I die an opposer of his confused notions seeing that by what he saith in this which he calls his Question he accounts me no other than a gross Idolater that forms and frames a God intending hereby the Doctrine I own out of the forge of my own brain and imagination calling it a golden calf which I dance about and call upon others to worship By such disdain as this this poor Mâ—n discovers what his Spirit is And though I could retaliate yet I do not think it my way and therefore all I shall say to this which is downright calumny for he cannot prove what he hath said is I wish there may be the like convictions and hopeful work upon his Soul which sometime since were manifest And that the Lord of his abundant Mercy in Jesus Christ if there be the truth of grace in his heart would take away all that which obstructs the exercise of spiriâ—â—al light life and love with relation to
are we If it be said not in our selves but in Christ we are I answer if not in our selves then we are not nor cannot be personally righteous or righteous in our own persons by a perfect legal righteousness and so according to your grant the righteousness of Christ is not nor cannot be our formal personal righteousness seeing that that is a perfect legal righteousness If it be said we are personally righteous in the sense of the Law of Innocency in Christ then we must be righteous in our selves and this contradicts the former that we are not thus righteous in our selves for how can a Man be righteous in his person but he must be righteous in himself Find me who can the person of a Man without the nature of a Man and further to say we are perfectly legally righteous in another suppose by imputation or in God's account in our own Persons is to say that God accounts us to he perfectly legally righteous in our selves â— for so he must if he account us thus righteous in our own Persons and not to be perfectly legally righteous in our selves because only so in another and not in our selves and does this become the infiniâ—â— wise God of Truth Now then if Justification be a Law act or the act of God as Legislator by his Law and it is not nor cannot be the act of God by the Law of Innocency then we must either have another Law and such a righteousness as is a conformity to that Law or else we must have no Justification And look what Law it is conformity to which gives us for the sake of Christ a right to Pardon and Life that conformity must be our justifying righteousness and God by this Law doth judge assert or account which is all one with â—mpâ—tation that we have a right for Christ's Merits sake to the priviledges above mentioned what Law now can this be but the Law of Grace the Gospâ—â— called the Law of Faith because it commands Faith and threatens damnation in case of unbelief and promises â—or Christ's sake Pardon and Life upon believing Johâ— â— 16. This Faith is a practical Faith and so includes the whole of what the Gospel commands and consequently repentance and sincere obedience to 〈…〉 of the Moral Law Isa 55. 3. for I am for from thinking that a notional Faith is a 〈…〉 â—â—ne manifest it is that God by his Law 〈…〉 justifies us for the â—â—isfaction and merits of Christ upon conformity hereunto and this conformity in our personal righteousness or that which gives us right by this Law to the benefits respecting eternal Salvation which Christ hath purchased and thus it must be unless Persons will say and prove that to justifie is not to have a right in Law and then Justification must not be a Law act if it be granted it is then this right must be a righteousness and the righteousness of our persons as we through God's Grace in our own persons do yield conformity to it But some may say it must 〈◊〉 sinless perfect righteousness which must justifie us but Faith is no such righteousness This Objection speaks great Ignorance in the Objectors 1. Of the nature of the two Covenants i. e. the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace and 2. Of the nature of Justification or justifying righteousness as it is jus secundum legem a right in Law But to the Objection I Answer If you speak of Justification by the Law of Works I grant it must be such a righteousness but what do you hope to be justified by that Law if so you must not be offended if I tell you in the words of the Apostle you are fallen from grace Galat. 5. 4. But if you speak of Justification by the Gospel which is the Justification I plead for and I hope shall ever stand by then such a righteousness is not required but faith is that righteousness as hath been proved though still this faith is neither accounted nor accepted for a justifying righteousness but for the sake of a sinless perfect righteousness that is to say the righteousness of Christ God man Mediatour Rom. 3. 24 25 26. But it may be further said faith is our own righteousness and if we be justified by faith we must be justified by our own righteousness I Answer that we are justified by faith relatively or as it respects Christ as the Object the Scripture is express and full for it Rom. 3. 30. Gal. 3. 8. Rom. 3. 28. Rom. 5. 1. Galat. 2. 16. Acts 13. 39. let any Man prove that in these Scriptures faith is not intended but only its object But further for Answer if by our own righteousness be meant such a righteousness of which we are the Efficient Causes or Authors or the purchasing meritorious Cause I deny that faith is our own righteousness but if by our own righteousness be meant such a righteousness as is the gift of God and the fruit of Christ's Merits and of which we as qualified Subjects are the performers so I grant faith is our own righteousness and though we are justified by it yet we are justified freely by Grace Rom. 4. 16. Ephes 2. 8. But the Objection may be retorted when it is said Christ's righteousness in its self or in its own nature in our Justification is by God accounted our very â—ormal personal righteousness doth not God so far as he accounts it make it ours if not then we have no propriety at all in it and if not how can it then be our very formal personal justifying righteousness if he do make it ours in this imputation then it must be ours by gift and what is ours by gift must be our own So that those who are for this strict imputation of Christ's righteousness must hold also Justification by their own righteousness or by a righteousness which by God is accounted their own But again it may be said if we be justified by faith we must be justified by an inherent righteousness and we are not I Answer if God's imputing or accounting by his Law or Covenant of Grace faith for righteousness which is the form of Justification be Justification by inherent righteousness then God's imputing Christ's righteousness unto us for Justification must be justifying us also by an inherent righteousness for the form is the same in both and if it be the form that makes the justifying righteousness inherent then justifying righteousness must be inherent in the one as well as the other But the form speaks that Justification is not by Faith absolutely inhering But if it be said further that Christ is the subject of that righteousness which is our formal personal justifying righteousness but we are the subjects of Faith I Answer if the righteousness of Christ be our formal personal righteousness then whatever Christ be we must however be the subjects of this righteousness and if so it must be our inherent as well as our imputed righteousness Thus then
must flee to the Promise and plead the Promise as having a right through Christ upon such qualifications which are of Grace Doth not this speak that the Promise doth both assert our right and also will maintain our right to Pardon and Life And what is it but justifying Saith a Reverend Divine you shall hear a Protestant in his Prayer appealing from the Tribunal of God's Justice to the Throne of his Grace and yet in his Sermon be telling the People that it is nothing else but the perfect Obedience and Satisfaction of Christ imputed to them you must know to be accounted by God as their personal righteousness that saves them which is to bring them back from the Throne of his Grace to the Bar of his Justice to be judged 6. When I say that Justification is God's asserting act by his Promise of Grace our right to Pardon and Life for the sake of Christ upon our believing I do not think that Pardon is any part constituting our Justification but a benefit which doth immediately follow thereupon For consider we Justification first Actively so it consists in God's giving us a right through Christ by his Promise upon our obedience to the preceptive part of the Law of Grace or if you will upon our performance through his Grace of the conditions of the new Covenant I mean such upon which we have a right at the first or at the first an interest or our first acceptance into favour through Christ Ephes 1. 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Or 2ly Consider we Justification passively so it is our having this right Now observe Pardon is that which God gives right to by his promise and which we have right to considered as subjects qualified i. e. as true penitent Believers and so must be a precious benefit devolved upon us as Persons who have right But seeing that many worthy Divines have affirmed and undertaken taken to prove that our very justifying righteousness consists in Pardon of Sin I shall here give my thoughts and the grounds of them upon the point and shall not impose upon any but leave Persons to take or leave as they shall have light and evidence SECT VII Wherein Pardon and Justification agree and wherein they disagree I Shall then first shew wherein Justification and Pardon agree 1. They agree in the principal Efficient which is God 't is God that Justifies and 't is God that Pardons Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth Ephes 4. 32. And be ye kind to one another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you 1 John 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 2. They agree in the Meritorious Cause Christ hath purchased the one and the other it is for his Merits we are Justified and for his Merits we are Pardoned Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 9. Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Matth. 26. 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Acts 13. 38. Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins 3. They agree in the Subject both Justification and Forgiveness relates to a Penitent Believer and such an one only I speak of the Adult that is Justified and 't is a Penitent Believer and such an one that is Pardoned Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. 4. They agree in the Instrumental Cause and that is the Covenant of Grace or God's gracious Promise for this is God's Instrument whereby he doth convey a right to Pardon not only Pardon but a right unto it Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Isa 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins return unto me for I have redeemed thee 5. They agree in time when a Person is Justified he is Pardoned there is no time wherein a Person is Justified but he is Pardoned nor wherein he is Pardoned but he is Justified I proceed Secondly To shew wherein they differ 1. And First They differ as Justification hath the priority of Nature i. e. Justification is in order of Nature before Pardon a Man must in order of Nature have a right to Pardon before he have it he must Repent and Believe and so be conformed to the Gospel Law before he be righteous in the Sense of that Law and so have right to Pardon 2. They differ in their habitude or relation Justification properly relates to a false Accusation Pardon of Sin to a true and just one he that is accused falsly when his Innocency is cleared as to the Crime of which he is accused may be said to be justified Deut. 25. 1. If there be a controversie between Men and they come unto judgment that the judges may judge them then they shall justifie the righteous and condemn the wicked But now he that is truly and justly accused he may have Pardon of the Crime committed but he cannot by that Law whereby he was Convict be justified or accounted as righteous with respect to the Crime of which he hath been truly and justly accused He that is accused of Impenitency and Unbelief if the Accusation be false the Law of Grace accounts him righteous and so justifies him against that Accusation But if a Person accused of Impenitency and Unbelief and the Accusation be true and just this Law will Pardon upon Repentance and Faith through Christ but it will not justifie upon Repentance and Faith as a Person that hath been falsly accused for he was truly and justly accused before he did Repent and Believe though not when he believed 3. They differ in their Essence or Nature that which constitutes Justification is our Conformity to the Law of Grace upon which God in his gracious Promise through Christ accounts us righteous but that which constitutes Pardon is not a Conformity or Obedience of this sort but our acquittance and discharge from obligation to Punishment due true it is upon this Gospel Righteousness for Christ's Satisfaction and Merits we are pardoned but yet Pardon is not nor cannot be that Righteousness which the Gospel calls for to our Justification for if so we should first have forgiveness and then forgiveness upon
all Men though in a special distinguishing sort of those that believe 12. I believe saith he that the obediential righteousness of Christ is by the act of God's free grace counted imputed and reckoned to the Elect as the material formal cause of their Justification in the sight of God and yet we are not Godded with God nor Christed with Christ as such an one saith mentioning me for I believe saith he that in Christ there is four sorts of righteousness three of which cannot without blasphemy be said to be imputed unto us First there is the righteousness of his Godhead Secondly Of his Manhood They are Essential to his two natures and cannot be imputed Thirdly The righteousness of both natures united together in one Person which is the righteousness that qualifies fits and makes him meet for the Work and Office of a Mediatour and is Essential to his Office as such and thus he is God's righteous Servant Jesus Christ the righteous a faithful High Priest Fourthly There is the righteousness of his obedience in his life and death to the holy and just Law of God and this is that righteousness which is imputed to sinners for Justification Now he hath led us into the clouds to purpose here is darkness and confusion with a witness yea and such as we have his own testimony for as will be manifest 1. He intimates the Elect are justified but whether as such only while in a state of impenitency and infidelity he tells us not If he intend they are while in that state then they must be justified and condemned at the same time for he that believes not is condemned already John 3. 18. 2. He saith that Christ's Righteousness is counted imputed and reckoned to the Elect as the material formal cause of their Justification and yet saith he we are not Godded with God and Christed with Christ I grant indeed neither he nor any other whoever they be are or ever shall be Goded with God or Christed with Christ but that this must be the consequence which is the thing I say if they hold the Doctrine of being formally personally Righteous with Christ's Righteousness this I have given reason for above Touching his distribution of Christ's Righteousness into four sorts his first and second sort supposeth that the humane nature of Christ did once exist seperate from the Divine seeing he saith the third sort is the righteousness of both natures united Now if the humane nature after it did exist never did exist but in Union with the Divine what ground can there be for this distinction First The Divine Righteousness Second The Humane Third The Righteousness of both Natures united I would know when and where they were disunited after the humane nature had once an existence I deny not that Christ's Righteousness as God is distinct from his Righteousness as Man as well as humane nature is distinct from the Divine though united in one and the same Person But this is that I desire to know when or where there was a Righteousness of both these natures considered as existing disunited If not to what purpose then is that which he calls his two first sorts of Christ's Righteousness I mean the distinction of his Righteousness into Divine and Humane from the Righteousness of both natures united And how can he make three sorts go we upon his own supposition for he saith there is the Righteousness of Christ as God and his Righteousness as Man and then the Righteousness of both natures united Now if he consider the natures as divided and if again as united He hath but still the Righteousness of the Divine and the Righteousness of the Humane nature which righteousness is but twofold where now is his third sort or where will he find it His fourth sort of Christ's Righteousness as he calls it is his obedience in Life and Death and this saith he is the Righteousness which is imputed Now as he makes this a fourth sort and so specifically distinct from the other then this obedience of Christ according to him must neither be his righteousness as Man nor his righteousness as God nor his righteousness as God and Man united for it is blasphemy quoth he to say that any of these sorts of Righteousness as he calls them are imputed and if Christ's Obedience in Life and Death be none of these what or whose Righteousness must it be it cannot according to what he saith be the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus for he is both God and Man and his Righteousness then must be the Righteousness of that Person who is both God and Man And if this Obedience in Life and Death which he saith is the Righteousness imputed be neither the Obedience of the Divine nor the Obedience of the Humane nature as he supposeth in seperation nor the Obedience of the Divine and Humane nature in union then it is manifest it cannot be Christ's according to his Doctrine Hath not this Man thinkest thou Reader run divisions to a pâ—rpose in Christ's Righteousness until he hath whoâ—ly cut off and cast away from him his active and passive Righteousness besides his dividing the Righteousness of his Divine and Humane nature which are but two into three Consider consider I beseech you you that are so stiff for such an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as to be formally in your own Persons righteous with it what this Doctrine leads to shut not your Eyes against clear light The Lord make it a conviction unto you when you hear that Men will have the active and passive obedience of Christ to be that they are materially and formally righteous with and yet will not have this active and passive obedience to be either the righteousness of Christ as God or the righteousness of Christ as Man or the righteousness of Christ as God and Man and so to be none of Christ's Righteousness at all So that now according to this Man we must have a righteousness and a righteousness imputed for our Justification which is the active and passive obedience of some Person but whose I cannot tell seeing he excludes the righteousness of Christ as God Man Mediatour saying it cannot without blasphemy be said to be imputed to us and without doubt the active and passive obedience of Christ was a righteousness and the righteousness of Christ God Man Mediatour and such a righteousness as was Essential to his Office seeing he would not have been a Mediatour without it But some may say Christ's active and passive obedience was essential to the execution of his Office as Mediatour but not to the constitution I Answer yes to the constitution as an actual and perfect Mediatour so far as respected his undertaken work both upon Earth and now in Heaven Heb. 5. 8 9 Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him Heb. 9. 14. 15.
cast out And therefore he accuseth me falsly 18. I believe saith he that as one great end of the Father in electing and of the Son in redeeming was the making of the Elect holy so the blessed Spirit the third Person in the glorious Trinity which is as free in working Faith Regeneration and Sanctification as the Father in electing or the Son in redeeming doth in time make the Elect Holy Humble Heavenly righteous sincerely Obedient and fruitful in good works contained in the first and second table of the holy Law Very good thus far I deny not but grant the same only there is this I would have him reminded of i. e. How it comes about or what revelation there is for it in the word that God will now accept of sincere obedience to his commands through Christ whereas sinless perfect Obedience was once injoined Man That it is pleasing unto and accepted by God through Christ is certain I mean sincere Obedience to his commands But that it should be so without any further revelation that this is the will and command of God beside what was commanded Adam in Innocency as he insinuates when he saith in scorn he is not acquainted with my new Law this rests upon him to prove and is like to do It would be his mercy if God would convince him and humble him for his deriding of that as my Law which he must shortly know is God's Law and that which he will judge him by 19. I believe saith he the Elect the redeemed and justified by Christ are under the greatest obligation to duty both moral and positive in their own house and God's house in the Church and in the World this Man hath words enough And that those that talk of Election and Justification by free Grace and yet live eiâ—her in practical wickedness or in the wilful neglect of Christian duties in their Families or Closets or slight the appointments and Ordinances of Christ in the Church when they have opportunity are the greatest enemies that Christ hath that they have caused many to stumble at the truth and tempted some to lay out their parts Wisdom and Reason all which should be used for God in opposing the truth stadying out ways words and methods to cloud and render it odious and these abusers of grace by their Omissions and Commissions do cause the way of truth to be spoken of so they hereafter shall mâ—et with the greatest condemnation and shall have the hottest place in Hell except they repens for whose practice I never have nor shall I hope be an Advocate The most of what he here saith is truth in it self only as for his own practice he speaks of I can neither say with it nor against it being very much a stranger unto it but if he mean by truth what he hath drawn up as Aâ—ticles of his Faith I grant and accept somethings in some of them to be great truths but as for very much contained in them I do not at all question but they are great untruths as I have made appear and may yet further do though I will have this charity for the Man that he doth not think or intend them to be so though in the mean time he deceives himself and is in danger of deceiving others with false notions though I grant a contrary practice a practice that is repugnant to false notions so long as Persons do not willingly oppose clear light it alters the case very much as to Persons states and safety 20. I believe saith he those Scriptures Rom. 3. 21 22. Philip. 3. 9. Rom. 4. 13. which such an one speaking of me brings to prove that Faith it self is our Justifying Righteousness are not for his purpose the two first speak of the Righteousness of Christ God Man which Faith apprehends embraces and takes hold of and cloaths the Soul with as the best robe and whether the word Righteousness of Faith in Rom. 4. 13. ought to be understood of the object or of the act of Faith I shall leave to consideration being perswaded the Scriptures ought not to be expounded against Christ but for him of whom they testifie Mark Reader upon this Article he saith Article 12th that to say the Righteousness of Christ's Godhead or his Manhood or the Righteousness of both his natures united is imputed is blasphemy and here he saith that Faith apprehends embraces and takes hold of the Righteousness of Christ God Man and cloaths the Soul with it as the best robe and how he will free himself from the heavy charge of Blasphemy propronounced by himself he must see to it Touching the Righteousness of Faith spoken of in the forementioned Texts the Apostle either speaks of Faith or wholly excludes it if he speak of and include Faith then how can the object i. e. only the Righteousness of Christ as he saith be intended unless he think that Faith goes to the constituting of Christ's Righteousness but surely he will not say this if Faith be wholly excluded and the Righteousness of Christ and only this meant then why doth the Apostle mention Faith If he say because it takes hold upon and embraceth the Righteousness of Christ I ask then where this Faith is if the Apostle only speak of the object Christ's Righteousness in these Texts He cannot find it unless he will say that Faith it self is part of this object and if so then it follows First That Faith is a part of Christ's Righteousness 2ly That Faith taketh hold of and embraceth Faith for Christ's Righteousness and so Thirdly That one part of the object takes hold upon and embraceth another Thus Persons may see if they will not on set purpose shut their Eves what a confusion and jumble this makes i. e. the asserting the Righteousness of and by Faith to be Christ's Righteousness not Faith but the object â—nly But if this Man will take notice and labour â—o understand I will tell him again what I hold in this particular i. e. Faith as it is the Souls consent to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and thankfully to accept of Christ to be its only Saviour which includes his taking him in all his Offices and a purpose through assisting Grace of Obedience to the Death is a conformity to the Gospel which is Christ's Law of Grace and as it is a conformity hereunto by the Scripture it is called a Righteousness and this Faith justifies not nor gives any Soul interest in Christ and a right to the blessings purchased by him contained in the Covenant of Grace as a meer act but as by it the Soul renounceth all Christ's Enemies and accepts of him in all his Offices c. and so relatively so that this same Man with others do me open wrong in bearing Persons in hand that I affirm that Faith justifies or giveth right as a meer act 21. I believe saith he that such an one naming me chargeth many things upon I know not who
hath been asserted and is yet asserted by some God neither seeth nor can see Sin in his People and indeed how should it be if he account them habitually and actively sinless and Holy for where it is thus there can be no Sin in their Natures and if so then no Sin of Omission or Commission in the Life and if no Sin neither in Nature nor Life how should God see any 5. If we be such as God accounts in our Justification to be both habitually and actively Holy and sinless then we need no Pardon for there needs no Pardon where there is no Sin nor Fault and if we who are justified have no Sin to Pardon then there needs no Confession of Sin nor Repentance nor Faith in Christ for Pardon and so no Gospel Obedience seeing we have the same legal Righteousness as they say in God's account which Christ had and so we must be justified by the Law of Works as he was and thus the Gospel and Covenant of Grace which offers Pardon to Sinners upon Confession Repentance and Faith becomes a meer nothing and the whole frame of Christianity is taken down Well but they may say we are not inherently righteous by Christ's Righteousness I Answer if they be personally righteous with Christ's righteousness they must be inherently righteous with the same as I have before manifested 6. If God impute the righteousness of Christ unto us in it self and so in the Sense of the violated Law of Innocency reckon us to have done what Christ did and to have suffered what Christ suffered in our own Persons then he must reckon us such as have performed the very acts of Mediation and Redemption for wherein did Christ's Mediation and Redemption consist but in his Obedience and Sufferings I speak of this his work upon Earth which constituted his Active and Passive Righteousness And if so be that God in justifying of us do account us to have the very same righteousness which Christ had for our formal personal righteousness then he must account us to have that which is and was a mediating and redeeming righteousness and so to have that of our own by his gift as our very personal righteousness whereby we may be Mediatours and Redeemers for our selves and others 7. If God impute the righteousness of Christ in it self and account it our formal personal righteousness then it is only the righteousness of Christ he imputes as Man or the righteousness of Christ as God man If the former then they must hold that the righteousness of Christ as Man only is efficacious and he needed not be God if the righteousness of Christ as God-man then God must account them such as have a Divine righteousness as well as an Humane to be their formal personal righteousness and if so then that opinion hereby is established of being Godded with God and Christed with Christ and what I dread to say they must implicitly affirm themselves to be partakers of the very Essence of God and so God's Essence must be divided into so many parts as there are justified Believers and these Believers must be made partakers of the incommunicable Attributes of God Now upon the matter to hint it again when I say that Faith is our Gospel Righteousness and that God by the Gospel doth account it our personal justifying Righteousness it is manifest from what I have already said I do not intend only the â—â—NRâ—â— credere or the very act of Faith without relation to its Object Christ and his righteousness though some for all I have said have been bold to affirm I do for that would be no true Faith at all and far then from justifying for Faith justifies as it unites unto and gives the Soul interest in Christ and this it doth as it is the Souls free consent to take Christ as it is to be said in all his Offices upon which the Soul hath an actual right unto him and the benefits of the Covenant purchased by him and this is plain Gospel Justification as for instance Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 31. When therefore any Soul believes this his Faith is his Obedience and Conformity unto the Gospel command and so his Gospel Righteousness and as such his actual right through and for Christ to the Salvation promised Would the Jaylor have had a right unto the promised Salvation had he not believed I mean an actual right must it not be said no Upon his Faith then he had a right and this his Faith was his obedience to the Gospel command therefore it was his obedience to the command which was his Gospel Righteousness and so his right by Christ according to God's own fixed Law of Grace unto Salvation Hath any Man an actual right to Heaven but a Believer if he have let it be proved from Scripture if none have but such an one then the Believer only I speak of the Adult hath the actual right and is it not plain then 't is his Faith that gives him this right To illustrate this such a Man makes a Purchase of an Inheritance After Purchase bequeaths it by Testament or Will to this or the other Person upon the performance of such or such conditions specified in the Testament or Will if the conditions be performed according to the Testament of the Donor then he hath an actual right in Law unto the Inheritance if not he hath no right of claim if he perform the conditions the Law will vindicate his right and the Judge by Law if he do Justice if he do not perform the conditions the Law cannot nor will not give him a right to the Inheritance nor the Judge by Law 't is just thus in the matter before us and the application is easie SECT III. Scripture to prove the Imputation of Faith and an Answer to such Texts as are alledged for Imputation of Christ's Righteousness IF I should pass on further to prove from Scripture that not Christ's Righteousness in it self but Faith as it accepts of Christ as offered in the Gospel is now a Sinners formal justifying Righteousness before God I should have a large Field and might multiply express Scripture Texts for the Imputation of such a Faith but not one express Text in all the Bible can be found for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self nay nor implicit Let us consider a few Texts among many Rom. 4. 3. Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness What was accounted unto him for Righteousness Well say they not Faith but its Object i. e. the Righteousness of Christ But pray where have we any such word in the Text and besides here is the object of his faith express and that is God Abraham believed God now if they will have not Faith but its Object to be counted for Righteousness then the words must be read thus Abraham believed God and God was counted unto him for Righteousness and if they
union of the Soul with Christ by Faith and so its actual right hereupon through Christ to Pardon and Life and this â—aith as it is the matter of right is the Souls personal justifying Righteousness and the Gospels afferting such a Soul i. e. a Believer to have this right is God's mediate justifying act Consider still John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life See then upon the matter if it be not of Faith that it might be by Grace and pretend not to exclude Faith for fear you should exclude Grace but fear to exclude Faith seeing that if you do you most certainly exclude Grace for the more of the Obedience of Faith and the more is the creature depressed and God in Christ exalted Rom. 4. 20. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God 7. A Seventh Text they would have speak for them is Rom. 5. 19. For as by one Man's disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous If they mean by what this Scripture saith that God did account Adam's act of his disobedience in violating the Laws to be ours so he accounts Christ's obedience in fulfilling the Law to be ours in it self and that we fullfiled the Law in him I Answer God did not account Adam's act in eating the forbidden Fruit so to be ours as though we had eaten our selves for God knows we neither took received nor did eat of the Fruit in our own Persons our Persons then having no Existence or actual Being And God is true and will not account that to be done by us which he knows we did not Indeed we partake of the sad Fruits of that disobedience having derived from Adam originally by natural Generation a nature sadly corrupted and violated and so are guilty before God and are accounted both by him and his Law really to be so And so God doth not account the Obedience of Christ in his fulfâ—ing the Law to be ours as though we had performed it in our own Persons for he knows and we may know our selves we did not But this God doth for and upon the account of Christ's sinless perfect meritorious righteousness constitute us righteous by his Gospel Law upon true Faith and accounts us as we are Believers for Christ to have an actual right to Pardon and Life 8. Another Text is Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit I take the meaning of this Text to be this i. e. Christ Jesus having answered the ends of the violated Law by his perfect Obedience and Suffering hath obtained hereby that a Christian's sincere Obedience which consists in conformity to the Law of Grace shall be accepted for Christ's sake as really by God as though he had fulfilled or perfectly obeyed the Law of Innocency in his own Person which now as a fallen Creature he is incapable of doing The ground of this my apprehension are the words that follow who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Now though every true Christian as to the bent of his Heart and Life doth walk after the Spirit and not according to the Flesh or corrupt Nature yet it cannot be that by this the Law of Innocency is fulfilled in him seeing that it must be a sinless conformity that must be a fulfilling of that Law now mark the Text speaks of a personal fulfilling and this by a walking according to the Spirit therefore this Law which is fulfilled in them or by them must be the Law of Grace and not the Law of Innocency And let not Man say still that God accounts that a true Believer doth fulfil the Law of Innocency in Christ for if so that Law must justifie and the Covenant of Grace be made void Christ fulfilled that Law for us but we did not fulfill it in our own Persons in his fulfilling of it 9. The Ninth Text is in Psalm 71. 16. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only What is there in this Text to prove that God accounts the righteousness of Christ to be the formal personal righteousness of every Believer Plain it is the Text speaks of God's righteousness in keeping and fulfilling his gracious Promises which righteousness is no other but his truth and faithfulness But suppose we this Scripture to speak of the righteousness of Christ as Men would have it what will it still be to their purpose all that they can gather from it upon any likely ground upon this supposition is only that David would make mention of Christ's righteousness as the merit of all the good which he both had and did expect and the ground of his acceptance which is a great truth in it self but I do not say it is that which by the Holy Spirit is intended chiefly in the Text. 10. Another Text is in Ezech. 16. 14. And thy renown went forth among the Heathen for thy beauty for it was perfect through my comliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God This comliness say they which God put upon this People and from whence they had their beauty was the righteousness of Christ imputed in it self Now if the People would but a little consider what follows they might see this comliness God put upon them spoken of here was a civil comliness i. e. the Peace Plenty fulnses of all temporal good things the Honour Greatness Dignity c. that God had advanced them unto especially in David's and Solomon's times above their Neighbours But come on if so be they will have the righteousness of Christ meant then belike it must follow 1. Believers how mean or contemptible soever they be in this World must be renowned and very famous among the very Heathen for Christ's imputed righteousness And yet alas the poor Heathen are meer strangers to it knowing nothing of it and here is the wonder indeed 2. Believers they may trust too much to Christ's righteousness now I ever thought these Men that are for this strict Imputation had been of a mind that a Person could not trust too much to Christ's righteousness but its like Persons may if by this comliness be meant Christ's righteousness as they will see ver 15. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty and playedst the harlot because of thy renown and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by his it was 3. Persons valuing Christ's righteousness too much and trusting too much unto it may thereby be drawn to commit Spiritual Whoredom to break their Covenant with God and become Apostates from God by falling into Idolatry c. If they will have the righteousness of Christ meant by this comliness and the beauty that was upon this People then they must have these
account me a Transgressor of it so that plain it is if God do account us to be the fulfillers of the Law in Christ he must account us as such to be righteous according to that Law and if righteous then justified by it SECT V. The Nature of Gospel Justification farther opened HAving briefly dispatched the Objections which are most material I shall proceed a little further to open the Nature of Gospel Justification 1. God endued Man at the first not only with Natural but Moral perfection having adorned him with his own Image Gen. 1. 26 27. So God created Man in his own Image Male and Female created he them and this Image of God which we call Moral consisted in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness Coloss 3. 10. And have put on the new Man which is renewed in knowledge after the Image of him that created him Ephes 4. 24. And that ye put on the new Man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness He had Light for his Understanding Holy Love for his Will Righteousness for his Life and Conversation 2. Man being such a Creature must be capable of Moral Government i. e. of being ruled by Law for that Creature which is capable of knowing loving and obeying God must also be capable of being ruled by the Law of a Wise Holy and Righteous God 3. God therefore from the first put Man under a Law To say that God did not is to affirm That the capacity which Man had of knowing loving and obeying God resulting from his Moral perfections was in vain but God gave Man nothing in vain And it would be to affirm that God did not stand in relation to Man as his Rector and Governour nor Man in â—elation to God as his Subject by right 4. God ever suited his legal Constitutions or Laws to the state and condition of Man in the state of integrity God suited that his state with a Law requiring personal perfect Obedience Man considered as fallen from that integrity into a state of Sin and Misery God suited this his state with a Law injoining sincere Obedience and this not only initial or upon his first subjection but continued and constant to the end of his Life the one for giving him right through Christ to Pardon and Life the other for continuing that right 5. Both these Laws i. e. that of Innocency and that of Grace have their sanction both premiant and penal i. e. a promise of reward in case of Obedience and the threatning of punishment in case of Disobedience 6. These things being so I put the Question whether Innocent Adam's Obedience to the first Law would not have given him right unto the Life promised And whether this same Law of Innocency would not have maintained this his right The first we must grant or else say that the promise gives no right to the benefits promised though the condition be performed which to say is against the rule of common equity we must grant the latter also or else say that the very Instrument God hath appointed for the conveying of right to Life to Innocent Adam should not be regarded by him in point of claim for all Adam's perfect Obedience suppose his right should have been called into Question which to say must needs be to charge God with unfaithfulness and injustice Now if so be as is clear Adam's Obedience to the Law of Innocency would have given him right to the Life promised and also maintained this his right then will not our Obedience to the second Law i. e. to the Law of Grace give us right unto the reward promised and secure us through Christ from the punishment threatned And secondly Will not this same Law of Grace also maintain our right It must or else we must say that the promise gives no right unto the benefits promised though the condition required be performed by the Grace of God also that the very instrument God hath appointed for the conveying of right unto us should by him not be regarded or not be at all of any benefit unto us notwithstanding our performance of the condition if our right should be called into question To illustrate what I have said suppose that we should have a deed of gift of such an inheritance upon the due performance of such or such conditions therein expressed Will not the performance of these conditions give us right according to the deed unto the inheritance and if so be our right be called into question what must vindicate our right but the deed whereby it was given and granted unto us upon the performance of the conditions expressed If then these things be so as is evident then I gather from hence that which I intended i. e. that there must be such a thing as Justification by constitution or Law and seeing there can be no Justification by the Law of Innocency or Covenant of Works then there must be another Law which we must have Justification by and what can this be but a Law of Grace and Mercy which is the same with that we call the Gospel now if Persons will not grant such a Law then Justification must either be by the Law of perfect Works i. e. by the Covenant of Works or that Justification we now have must be no Law act and if so they who contend against us to destroy their own declared Opinion asserting that Justification is a juridical or Law term those therefore that deny the Gospel to be a Law they must either deny Justification by it and so account we are justified by the Law of Works or else they must contradict themselves in affirming Justification not to be by Law But because some Persons do not only deny but ridicule such a thing as a Law of Grace calling it an humane invention it will not be amiss a little to clear this that there is a Law of Grace distinct from that of Works Observe then I hope those that oppose us will grant that God required of Man while in the state of integrity a sinless Obedience Now the Question will be seeing Man is a fallen Creature whether God doth require any Obedience of him If not then Man must be at his own will to do what he listeth and is he so If God doth require Obedience what is it Is it sinless Obedience If so then all Mankind must be lost for none of the fallen race of Adam can perform it If they say that Obedience is performed by Christ for us I ask Hath Christ performed this Obedience that we might be exempted and obey none at all If so then he obeyed to set us free from all subjection to God if not then it remains for all Christ perfectly obeyed that yet still we are under obligation to obey in our own Persons Seeing then we cannot yield sinless Obedience or Obedience without Sin attending it Are not we through the assisting Grace of God to perform sincere Obedience If not then none at all
e. Justification is God's asserting and maintaining act by his Law of Grace of our right to Pardon and Life for the sake of Christ upon our believing 1. It is an act and that ad extra an act which makes a relative change and the subject upon whom this relative change is made is Man a guilty and condemned Sinner one upon whom the sentence of condemnation is passed by the Law and he under obligation thereby to suffer eternal punishment this is Man's condition antecedent to God's act of justifying Rom. 3. 19. Now we know that what things soever the Law saith it saith to them who are under the Law that every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Galat. 3. 22. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe John 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God Ephes 2. 3. Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind and were by nature the Children of wrath even as others 2. In this act of justifying there is the term from which or the state from which Man a Sinner is brought upon his Justification and that is from an obligation to punishment and the omission or loss of right to Life and Happiness Every poor Soul before Faith is under an obligation to Eternal Punishment and must lose Heaven and Eternal Happiness if he leave the World in this condition How much then should it be our concern to see that we have true Faith that we have thankfully accepted of and are sincerely subject unto Christ that so we may have through him a right to Pardon and Life John 5. 24. Verily verily I say unto you He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death unto life Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after Spirit 3. In justifying there is the term to which or the state a poor Sinner is brought into and that is a right to this Pardon and Life spoken of before No sooner is a Sinner justified but Pardon and Life are his they are by Gospel or Covenant right his John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life and Verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him 4. There is the agent or he that justifies and that is God we are before Repentance and Faith guilty and condemned and until God do justifie us we remain in that guilty and condemned state therefore if ever we have a right to Pardon and Life God gives it Rom. 3. 26. To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus Rom 4. 5. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Rom. 8. 30. 33. Moreover whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth 1. Hence learn first how much we should adore and admire the riches of mercy in Christ that after we had greatly offended him and exposed our selves to his wrath and displeasure everlastingly having involved our selves in a state of guilt and condemnation having forfeited all right to Life I say that after this all this yet he should be willing to become our justifier the forgiver of our Sins and the Donor of a right to Happiness and this upon honourable terms with relation to himself and reasonable with respect to us How much doth this call for our Admiration and Adoration certainly it will be the work of Heaven 2. How great folly are poor impenitent Sinners guilty of for though God be willing to justifie ready to pardon and receive into his favour and make over unto them a sure title to Erernal Life if they will but now humbly come in upon his call and thankfully accept his Son to be their Propitiation Head and Teacher and be subject to him in Christ yet they refuse they hold fast deceit and will not return they set no value upon this great good offered they prefer their Soul damning Lusts and the Profits and Pleasures of a vain transitory World they content themselves to live unforgiven at enmity to God Heirs of Hell destitute of right to Life and Salvation O what folly How much is the condition of such to be lamented who chuse death before Life guilt before Pardon execution in Hell before the fruition of a glorious rest in Heaven God calls them to incline their ear and come unto him hear and their Souls shall live and he will make an everlasting Covenant with them even the sure mercies of David Isa 55. 3. he assures them by his promise that if they will forsake their wicked ways and sinful thoughts he will have mercy and abundantly pardon Verse 7 but alas all this moves them not they are still as unconcerned as before 3. That Justification is not from Eternity For any to affirm this is to affirm a contradiction i. e. that we were both guilty condemned and justified from Eternity for who now are justified but such as before were guilty and condemned so that first God condemns us from Eternity as guilty and then justifies us from Eternity according to these Men touching what they alledge i. e. God's purpose and decree they may as groundedly gather from it that Persons are effectually called from Eternity conformed to the Image of Christ and glorified from Eternity 5. In the description I say it is God's act by his Law of Grace it is not by an immediate but a mediate act that God justifies seeing it is God's act by this his Law and that it is will appear further if we consider that we can neither be justified by the Law of innocent Nature nor by the Law of Moses And if not then by some other Law for as condemnation is by Law so Justification As disobedience then to the Law of Grace brings upon us condemnation so obedience to the same Law gives right to Pardon and Life which is Justification If so be that Sinners remain impenitent unbelieving Rebels against Christ by this Law they are condemned but on the contrary if they through Grace become Penitent Obedient Believers then this Law intitles
Christ hath purchased Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works This I have also proved that what is required on our part Christ hath also purchased and if Christ have purchased all that which constitutes the Covenant i. e. God's gracious promises and grace to enable us to perform the duties required to give us a right to and interest in the above mentioned benefits then let the Reader judge whether he be of the foundation that holds Christ hath purchased the Covenant or he that denies it It is through Christ furthermore that Souls have right to Pardon and Life upon true Faith as God upon the account of his Meritorious Righteousness and all prevailing Intercession communicates still further and further aids of Grace for Believers perseverance As Faith and Repentance are required by the Gospel to our initial Justification or right to Christ and the benefits of Pardon and Life through him so perseverance in Grace is required to our continued and final Justification He that endureth to the end the same shall be saved And Christ hath merited persevering Grace John 10. 10. The thief cometh not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy I am come that they might have Life and that they might have it more abundantly Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish Heb. 2. 19. For it became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings From what hath been said we shall Observe That none of Mankind now can be accounted righteous and so have Justification by the Law that injoins sinless perfect Works for if so we must in the account of the Law be sinless and perfectly righteous And if so it must either be by having such a Righteousness of our own but this cannot be there being no meer Man that hath such a sinless perfect Righteousness of his own as this Law requires or Secondly It must be by having such a Righteousness of anothers but this cannot be for there is no Righteousness of another that can answer the Law of Innocent Nature but Christ's and this Law neither doth nor can account us sinless and perfectly righteous with Christ's Righteousness for if it should or could account us perfectly righteous by accounting the Righteousness of Christ in it self to be ours or accounting us perfectly to have obeyed and fulfilled it in Christ's Obedience It must account us to be thus righteous either absolutely or upon performance of some condition by it required If upon the performance of some condition it must either be the condition it required of sinless Man which is personal perfect and perpetual Obedience and if we could perform this we should not need Christ's Righteousness at all for there had been no necessity of Christ's Righteousness if Man had continued to have performed a personal perfect Righteousness or it must be upon the performance of the condition of a sincere Repentance and Faith But the Law of Innocent Nature reveals not and therefore cannot prescribe such a condition upon the performance of which it will account us perfectly righteous through or by Christ's Righteousness for if it did 't is evident there would have been no need of God's publishing the new Covenant or of promulgating the Gospel If it account us to be thus righteous absolutely without any condition at all then it either accounts all Mankind to be perfectly righteous by Christ's perfect Obedience or only some part of Mankind if it account all Mankind to be perfectly righteous through Christ's Righteousness then all must have Justification or a right to Life and none of Mankind must perish and if so then we must have universal Salvation If it account only some to be perfectly righteous with Christ's Righteousness then it must consider them either as Elect or non-elect if it do not consider them as Elect then the forementioned consequence is established If it consider them as Elect then the Law of Works must consider them as Sinners and so make provision for the Salvation of some and none for the Salvation of others that which I do not know any that will undertake to prove But if it should be granted that the Law of Innocent Nature absolutely without requiring any condition of them should account the Elect righteous upon Christ's perfect Obedience or fulfilling of it then it must follow that Christ's sufferings are a meer nullity and there is no need of them for if upon Christ's active Obedience the Law do account all the Elect sinless and perfectly righteous which it must do if it account them righteous personally with Christ's Righteousness and justifie them as such who have perfectly obeyed Christ's perfect Obedience then it cannot require suffering too seeing that it only calls for suffering in case it have not the actual Obedience it requires And it must follow further that there is no need of a Covenant of Grace nor Repentance and Faith commanded therein if the Law of sinless Works do account us perfectly righteous in Christ's perfect obeying it for us But none of these things can be as is plain if Persons will lay aside prejudice and consider And if so that cannot be sound and true which some have affirmed that Christ and we are one Legal Person or that Christ and Believers are one Person in Law Sense the Law accounting that what Christ did they did But it may be said when Persons become true Believers then the Law of Works 〈◊〉 them righteous with the Righteousness of Christ this is as much as to say the Law of Works justifies upon Persons performing of the condition of the Gospel and it knows nothing of nor doth it prescribe any such condition and so if it justifie it must justifie upon terms unknown and therefore unprescribed in it self and thus it is made a sort of a blind justifying Instrument SECT IX Faith described and explicated in order to our Justification by it HAving shewn how it is through Jesus Christ that God doth assert and will maintain our right to Pardon and Life I shall proceed to shew what Faith is which is the thing required to give us right John 3. 16. Acts 13. 39. Acts 16. 31. An acute Author gives us this Description of it 't is a believing acceptance of Christ a Saviour it is a short one but yet a full one for it implies First Assent Secondly Consent and Thirdly our resolved following of Christ in his way trusting and relying upon him whatever we meet withal First It
How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God to purge your Conscience from dead works to serve the living God And for this cause he is the Mediatour of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the utmost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them But it may further be said for I shall deal fairly and let him have what advantage upon the point he can He speaks only of the righteousness of both natures united in Christ and intends this is not imputed I Answer there cannot be the imputation of the active and passive obedience of Christ in his sense without the Imputation of this for consider we his obedience in Life and Death as the obedience of one who is not God Man united and so essentially infinitely righteous as God and perfectly in his nature righteous as Man that obedience could not be the obedience of Christ but if we consider his obedience in Life and Death as the obedience of one who is God Man united in one Person and so essentially infinitely righteous as God and perfectly in his nature righteous as Man then if it be imputed in this Man's sense it must be imputed as the obedience of such an one and how can the righteousness which constituted him a â—it Mediatour not be imputed when the acts as they are the acts of such a Person a Person so and so qualified are imputed And were Christ's acts any further satisfactory and meritorious than they were the acts of such a Person as he was If not then take away that which qualified and made him meet to be a Mediatour and see then if his acts in obeying and suffering can be satisfactory and meritorious and if the Persons have satisfactory and meritorious acts imputed unto them in this Man s sense then that which makes them such they must also have imputed And if they say they have not the righteousness of Christ as satisfactory and meritorious imputed then they must not have it imputed at all and consequently deny all imputation of Christ's Righteousness in any sense which I do not for as I have said above if we could take away from Christ's Righteousness which we cannot it 's satisfaction and Merit that which remains with respect to our Justification and Salvation will be none of his But further saith he it is the acts works doings and obedience of this blessed Mediatour that are imputed and counted to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness Mark if God do impute or count the very acts works doings and obedience of the Mediatour to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness or as he saith in this his Article to be the material and formal cause of their Justification then God must account them to have that Righteousness which in its own nature is a Mediatory Righteousness for such were Christ's acts as Mediatour to be their personal justifying Righteousness Now if any Man be accounted formally righteous in his own Person with that Righteousness which in its own nature is Mediatory then he must be counted to be righteous personally with such a Righteousness as is satisfactory and meritorious after an infinite sort and if he be one that is personally righteous with a satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness and this of an infinite value for such was and is Christ's then how should he chuse but be Godded with God and Christed with Christ and be accounted to have that whereby he may be a Redeemer Saviour anâ— Mediatour both for himself and others yea to have Christ's Office wholly put into his hand now I have so much charity for this Man though he be my professed Adversary and for others that have the like notions with him as to believe that they do neither hold nor intend these consequences which are so gross but they themselves lead me by their hot opposition to shew that these are the unavoidable consequences of such a Doctrine if peradventure they may be convinced It is out of doubt with me that many good and gracious Persons have imbibed and stuck to this notion of the strict Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self who yet have abhorred the consequences that have been natural therefrom But then their practice hath ever contradicted this notion and hereby they were kept in the way of safety But then I think it somewhat dangerous when God hath set up before Persons more clear light and yet they are so hot in their opposition as that they will not take time to consider whether it be light from the word or no but almost upon the first hearing or upon a very slight trial cry out Popery Quakerism Arminianism Socinianism and what not Suppose we now that such as pass under any of these names do hold this or the truth what must it be a sufficient Argument for me to relinquish that truth because they hold it for my part I do profess to the World let Men think and say what they please that I am for Catholick truth that is truth where-ever or in whomsoever shall be owned by me so far as I can have evidence for the Devil himself believes that there is a great dreadful and terrible God and I believe the same and am certain in that I do well James 2. 19. And I must not therefore because the Devil believes this turn Atheist But after these Men have done what they can they can never make that they oppose into what they fain I am afraid would 13. I believe â—aith he that by this obediential Righteousness of Christ all the Elect of God are or shall be freely justified from all things Acts 1â— 39. for it is by the obedience of one and not by the Faith and Obedience of many that many are justified and made righteous Râ—m 5. 19. Observe the Scripture Acts 13. 39. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that believe are justified and he saith all the Elâ—ct 〈◊〉 seems he likes not this Scripture expression his Wisdom thinks another better and therefore for all that believe he puts in all the Elect perhaps he is for Justification before Faith and so thinks Elect a term more agreeing to his purpose than believe and he thinks not far amiss if that be his notion but then it might be asked from whence he had his dispensation for such a change I believe according to that Scripture Acts 13. 39. that by Christ and his satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness all that truly believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses i. e. according to the Covenant of Grace have a right to Christ Pardon and Life purchased by him and also I believe the truth of that Text Rom. 5. 19. that
is no spot in thee The meaning is she was so in an Evangelical but not in a Legal sense sincerity or true grace was the prevailing Principle and in that respect he accounted her for his Merits all fair and without spot When Christ said concerning Nathaniel an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile he intended no more but an upright sincere Soul Christ such is his love he denominates his People from the better part If therefore his meaning be that God seeth no Sin in his People so far as they are sincerely conformed to the Gospel Law this Conformity in it self being no Sin but a Righteousness or that God seeth no Sin which he hath fully pardoned to be unpardoned or that God doth not so see Sin as everlastingly to condemn a true Believer for it in denying him Repentance Faith Pardon through the merits of Christ I am of his mind But then if he intended which I suppose he doth that God seeth no Sin in his People as they are accounted personally righteous for their Justification with Christ's Righteousness that there is any such thing as this I deny and therefore there cannot be the other upon that account or for that The rest of his Texts are not to the purpose 25. I believe saith he that such an one still naming me ought to let Men state their own judgments and give their own sense of what they say and hold and not state the same for them and draw his own absurd consequences and fight with them against he knows not who This is a pretty Article of a Man's Faith in the point of Justification but I must say something unto it Well then either this Man's judgment if he know what he holds himself doth upon the matter in question contradict what I affirm or it doth not If it do not why doth he oppose me If it do why doth he complain as though I did him wrong And when he talks of drawing absurd consequences â—tis well if he know what an absurdity is although he himself be guilty enough in this kind in what he hath writ But let him find me if he can that any of the consequences of which he speaks do contradict the Doctrine I draw them from and if he disown the Doctrine and hold the contrary I charge not the consequences upon him But then he must first retract that which he makes an Article of his Creed i. e. that Christ's acts works doings and obedience in themselves for that he must mean or elâ—â— he contradicts not me are imputed and counted to the Elect for their personal justifying Righteousness But he faith further I sight with my consequences against I do not know who If I do not it is like he doth or else why should he take himself concerned to oppose unless he hath a mind to kick before he be prick'd But he goes on and tells us he believes that I am guilty of the breach of the 9th Command in bearing false witness But let me tell him here if he were no more guilty upon the matter in Question of false Accusation against me than I am against him or others upon the point I should have been ashamed to have said thus much by him I desire him then to consider if he be not very guilty of that which he chargeth me with while he insinuaâ—es 1. That I hold that some of the Elect being Adult shall live and die Insidels 2. That I in the point of Justification am one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers 3. That I contradict the 11th 13th and 17th Articles of the Church of England 4. That my consequences are absurd with relation to the Doctrine they are dedâ—ced from 5. That I am guilty of the breach of the 9th Command in applying that Doctrine to any when plain it is it hath been held and still is by many that Christ is one Legal Person with the Elect and that Christ obeyed and suffered in the account of the violated Law not only as a Mediatour but as a common publick Person representing all the Elect and this he saith himself in what he did and suffered so as by the same Law what he did for us is reckoned or imputed to us as if we our selves had done it and what was done to him tending to our Justification and Salvation is reckoned as done to us And doth not this agree with the Doctrine I draw the consequences from 6. That I affirm Faith to justice as an act without relation to its object Christ with others I might mention none of which he can prove against me and who is it that beareth false witness now I or he But he hath more yet quoth he speaking after a scornful sort concerning me he matters not that he means the breach of the Ninth Command being now got under a new Law which will be more favourable than the old This new Law he scoffs at I have shewn is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace and have proved above that there is such a thing and that it is a Law and that Christ hath purchased it though the Socinians deny it and so he with them And therefore I must make bold to tell this Man and that not without warrant from the Holy Scriptures that he must either be brought under this new Law which he derides or he perisheth for ever for if he think to be justified and saved upon the terms of the Old Covenant he will find himself wretchedly mistaken Galat. 3. 10. For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse for it it written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to â—o them 2 Theâ— 1. 7 8. And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming Fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ And let him not think that the Gospel Law or the Gospel which is a Law giveth liberty to Sin or exempts from a due and sincere Obedience to all God's Holy Commands for the contrary is plain Tâ—us 2. 11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all Men Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present World But if he look for no favour from God but in the way and upon the terms of the Law of Innocency he never shall have any nay he never would have had any so much as common 26. I believe saith he that that Righteousness wherewith God justifies the Elect is a Righteousness which his Holy Law approves and accepts of Though he make no distinction yet by Righteousness I take it for granted he intends the Righteousness of Christ and by Law the Law of Innocent Nature violated by Man's Sin This then is that which he must intend i.