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A23659
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The Christians justification stated shewing how the righteousness of Christ, the Gospel-Covenant, faith, and God himself, do operate to our justification / by W.A.
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Allen, William, d. 1686.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing A1057; ESTC R20597
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102,725
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303
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Rom. 5. But otherwise and in reference to such as have contracted ill habits by their own actual sin the pardon obtained by our Saviour for the whole world or which he came to obtain was but Conditional it was upon condition of their being prevailed withal to be reconciled unto God Otherwise and if this were not so all would have been saved whether they believed and repented or no. Whereas our Saviour hath said it he that believeth not shall be damned and that repenteth not shall perish Though God so loved the world as to give his only begotten Son yet he loved it but so as to promise salvation by him only to those that believe John 3.16 Now this pardon thus obtained and granted upon account of our Saviours obedience unto death but upon condition of mens being persuaded to be reconciled to God and yet certain to be conferred upon that condition is a most powerful motive and means to persuade men to be reconciled to God when it comes to be divulged and made known and when it is believed that pardon is certainly to be obtained this way and no way without it And therefore the Scripture speaks of it as the Method used by God to reconcile the world to himself 2. Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses that is provided they would not wilfully persist in them 4. Another end of the Mediatorial obedience of our Saviour subordinate to the former that last mentioned and as a means to effect it was the obtaining and founding of a new Law of Grace the new Covenant promising both pardon and eternal life upon condition and stating and declaring that condition to be published to the world as Gods great instrument of prevailing with men to be reconciled to God in order to their obtaining pardon and Salvation Upon which account the Gospel which is this new Law of Grace is said to be the power of God to Salvation to every one that believes it Rom. 1.16 Now all having sinned no flesh living could be justified but in a way of grace and mercy And therefore there was a kind of necessity of a new Law a Law of Grace by virtue of which men should be justified if justified at all But it did not seem meet to the divine wisdom to make such a Law of Grace but upon condition that some such thing should be undergone and suffered by our blessed Saviour on our bebehalf as would as well answer the end of the penalty of the original Law transgressed as if that penalty had been inflicted on the transgressors of it themselves But this being done by the sufferings of our Saviour as I shall shew afterward a fair way was thereby prepared for the Constituting a new Covenant promising pardon and eternal life upon new terms and conditions such as are not only possible but also feisable as well as reasonable in our state and condition Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through Faith that is that we might receive the blessing and benefits of a new Covenant Gal. 3.13 14. And accordingly the Scripture frequently represents to us that the new Covenant is made with mankind upon account of what Christ did and suffered for us It was not only ratified and confirmed by the Sacrifice of his death but also thereby procured This I say saith S. Paul that the Covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ c. Gal. 3.17 And all the promises of God are in him Yea and in him Amen 2 Cor. 1.20 And the New Testament is called the New Testament in his bloud Mat. 26.28 and his blood the bloud of the Everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 And when the Scriptures speak of Gods promising eternal life before the world began Tit. 1.2 and of Gods purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began 2 Tim. 1.9 they seem to refer to what God the Father promised Christ on the behalf of mankind upon his Mediatory undertaking for them even then when this was resolved on and concluded by the Father and the Son before the world began For a conclusion of this matter and to shew that the Covenant of Grace was granted upon the account of the righteousness of Christ hear what S. Peter saith 2 Pet. 1.1 To them saith he that have obtained like precious Faith with us through the Righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Whether you take Faith here for the act of believing the Gospel or the Gospel it self as the object of Faith which seems most likely or for both yet this is given through or upon account of the righteousness of him who is both God and our Saviour If you ask how the Mediatory righteousness of our Saviour in this subordination of ends doth operate to our Justification I answer Our reconciliation to God by being renewed in heart and life is the matter of our Evangelical Righteousness upon which we are justified For God justifies none that are not reconciled to him nor which are not Evangelically righteous But then our reconciliation to God and our becoming Evangelically righteous thereby and our being justified thereupon as I shall after shew we are are all owing to the Mediatory obedience or Righteousness of Christ for from that it is that they are what they are And so far as these operate to our Justification they do it in Virtue of Christs Mediatory performance And so do those two great motives the hopes of the forgiveness of sin and eternal life by which we are persuaded to be reconciled to God and to become Evangelically righteous for these also are founded in the Mediatorial obedience of our Saviour without which we could have had no such hopes and therefore Christ is well and worthily said to be our hope 1 Tim. 1.1 And then for the new Covenant as that operates to our Justification as it is a new Law constituting a new Righteousness and as it is the rule according to which we are approved as righteous and adjudged to be righteous when God justifies us so this operation receives its life and being and virtue from another operation and that is from the operation of the Mediatorial obedience and righteousness of our Saviour by which the Covenant it self was obtained Indeed all that any ways operates to our Justification and Salvation depends upon our Saviours Mediatorial performance except what God himself doth and yet what he himself doth in relation thereto is still done with reference to the undertaking and performance of his Son Jesus Christ for us Christ is the foundation which God himself hath laid which bears up the whole fabrick of our Redemption and Salvation which indeed is built upon it Isa 28.16 Behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone
transcendent worthiness of his person and the exceeding great interest he had in his Fathers love he did thereby sufficiently declare and manifest as well as by inflicting punishment on sinners themselves how odious a thing sin is in his sight how contrary to his nature and how irreconcilable he is to it Sin was condemned for as vile a thing as it is as well by our Saviour's suffering in the flesh for it in our stead as it would have been by our suffering for it our selves Rom. 8.3 he condemned sin in the flesh by being a Sacrifice for it 2. By the Son of God's thus suffering in the sinners stead for their transgressing the righteous Law of God the authority of this Law is as sufficiently maintained and the goodness of it as sufficiently vindicated as it would have been by punishing those sinners themselves that are now saved by his sufferings For when God would not so much as give any hopes of pardon to such as have transgress'd that law of his no not upon condition of their repentance without the suffering of such an one as his own dear Son no creature that knows this can have any occasion or place left to despise or slight that Law or the authority of the Law-giver and not to be awed by it nor to expect or hope for impunity in contemning of it 3. No creature can take any encouragement to commit sin or to continue in sin who considers how severely the Son of God himself was dealt with by his merciful and most loving Father in delivering him up to be crucified by wicked hands besides his other sufferings when he put himself in the sinners place to undergo whatever his Father would please to inflict upon him so that he might but thereby obtain a pardon for them and that too but upon condition of their reformation and reconciliation to God 4. As the end of inflicting punishment is either for the reformation of the persons themselves that suffer or of others by their example of suffering so this end of sinners suffering was much better attained by our Saviour's suffering for our sins than if we our selves that are saved by his death had suffered for them what we had deserved And the reason hereof is because those that are saved by our Saviours death are by his death first reconciled to God in their nature and life they are reformed and of rebels made loyal subjects which they never would have been if they had suffered themselves the desert of their sin And is it not much better that disloyal and disobedient subjects be made dutiful loyal obedient and useful than to be cut off for obstinacy in rebellion God had said concerning wicked men that he had much rather that they should return and live than that they should die in and for their iniquities and our Lord his Son hath answered him in the joy of his heart in that by his suffering for them in conjunction with other his performances on their behalf he hath fulfilled his Fathers wish and brought his desire to pass in reference to many such sinners And most certain it is that this is infinitely more pleasing and satisfactory to God than if all mankind had suffered the pains of eternal death for their iniquities This hath occasioned and will still cause infinitely more joy in Heaven and on Earth and more triumphant thanksgigiving unto God than there would have been if every sinner had born his own burden On this account our Saviour's giving himself for us was indeed emphatically an offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour unto God as St. Paul calls it Ephes 5.1 All these things considered and put together it appears upon a very rational account that there was a very great aptitude in this act of our Saviour's mediatorial obedience to reconcile God to men when he delivered up himself to suffer for them on the terms he did and so to operate to our Justification 2. As there is an aptitude in our Blessed Saviour's Mediatorial Righteousness to reconcile God to men in order to their Justification so there is in another respect an aptitude in it likewise to reconcile men to God in order to the same end And that act of Obedience to the law of Mediation which hath an aptitude in it this way consists at least very much in a faithful discharge of his Prophetical Office as Mediator For by a faithful discharge of this trust and in obedience to this Law he persuades men by the great arguments and motives of the Gospel to be reconciled to God To this end he published the Gospel which he brought down from Heaven Prophetically called his declaring the decree Psal 2.7 And this was done in obedience to the Law of Mediation given by his Father as I have shewed from John 12.49 I have not spoken of my self saith he but the Father which sent me he gave me a Commandment what I should say and what I should speak As the Law was given in the hand of a Mediator Moses so was the Gospel by Christ the Mediator of a better Testament And he confirmed it to be from God by many signs and wonders and mighty deeds which accompanied the publication of it by him and his Apostles having sealed it with his own Blood For after he had set it on foot himself while he was on earth and then sealed to it by his death he afterwards when he left the world and ascended up on high left behind him by way of gift to the world Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers to Minister the things of the Gospel in his name which Ministry is called the Ministry of Reconciliation and the Gospel committed to their trust the Word of Reconciliation and that which they were to do by it as his Ambassadors was to pray beseech persuade men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God 2 Cor. 5.18 19 20. This first done by our Saviour in his Ministry is continued by his Ministers in his name by persuading men to repentance and amendment of life and to become sincerely obedient unto God in which their being reconciled to him doth consist And the way and means used by our Saviour and his Embassadors to persuade men to be thus reconciled to God was by possessing them with a strong and vigorous Belief of three things especially as great parts of the Gospel our Saviour brought from Heaven with him 1. That God would certainly be reconciled to all sinners provided they would but be reconciled to him and not still persist in their rebellion that he will certainly pardon them and treat them as friends if they would desist from carrying it any longer as enemies to him He hath sent them word by his Messengers that he is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance 2 Pet. 3.9 that he would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledg of the truth 1 Tim. 2.4 And because guilt