THE Middle-Way In One Paper of JUSTIFICATION With indifferency between PROTESTANT PAPIST By. J. H. Doing nothing by Partiality LONDON Printed for T. Parkhurst at the Three Bibles in Cheap-side 1672. Of Justification IT is a trouble to to me often in reading Polemical Divinity to see how men that walk in a vain shew to others and disquiet themselves in vain are governed by Prejudice and Party it is a hard thing many times and a man must be very witty and strain himself to pick a fault in his Adversary for matter of contention when a little pains only to understand him and the least candour or but a bare equality in the interpretation would bring him whether he would or no almost to reconciliation The truth is the Papists do abuse the Protestants and the Protestants abuse the Papists and that is the summe of most of our great Controversies I judge the like between Arminian and Calvinists and other Contenders If Luther hath said it or Calvin hath said it it must be Heretical and if the Council of Trent have delivered it or Bellarmine said so it must be dangerous it savours of the Harlot it is the abominable doctrine of the Church of Rome Amongst the many contests between this Church and us there are few which are carryed on with that affection and concernment as the dispute of Justification St. Paul was the first that engaged upon this point and not without some warmth against those that opposed him S. James is the next that hath spoken of this Subject The Primitive Church and the Fathers after them have accorded pretty well with both but the School-men as I take it by pressing some passages of the Fathers over-closely having obscured the grace of the Gospel our Protestant Churches have risen up as it were under the standard of St. Paul that is under his words and the Roman Church under the words of St. James and come out into a set Battel which serving only to raise up dust darkness and doubt among the most it is a conference I count between the Leaders I mean a plain understanding or adjustment only of the one united certain sense of both Apostles inspired by the same holy Spirit that will that must and does give light to the intelligent and impartial to uncloud the errors on each side and end the quarrel The word justify is from the word just and one may be said to be made or rendred just by infusion or by plea. Our Protestant Divines do all teach us that the word is a forensical term and is to be understood in opposition to condemnation for which they have good Scripture the Papists doe tell us that to justify a sinner is to make him righteous and understand by it in effect the same thing with sanctification St. Augustine it must be acknowledged hath lead them this way Gratificavit nos in dilecto gratificavit a gratia sicut justificavit a justitia De bono perseverantiae c. 6. Christus justificat impium faciendo ex impio Christianum Christ does justify the ungodly by making him of one that is wicked a holy man or a Christian Contra litteras Petiliani l. 3. c. 45. There is his book De spiritu littera where he hath the same up and from whence a man may pick out his judgment on this point rather then any where lese that I know I did expect to find more De fide operibus but I perceive it does mainly respect another matter we may see also his Book De libero arbitrio gratia The judgment then of this Father which leads the Schools in their disputes about these matters as to the main comes to this That God of his own goodness only or free will to wit according to Election does vouchsafe the holy Spirit to some Persons who does infuse his grace in their hearts which grace is that which disposes them to all righteousness and is the same according to him otherwhere with Charity which fulfils the law and so justifies us And in this sense does he tell us that Bona opera sequuntur justificatum non praecedunt justificandum that is Good works do follow the Person justified and do not go before justification The meaning whereof with him is that we must first have this grace infused which habitually enclines to our whole duty both unto God and to our Neighbour that is the making the ungodly a just man before he can do any thing that is good Pelagius doctrine was that grace is given according to our merits but St. Augustines doctrine is that grace is first given and good works follow When the Apostle then does tell us that we are justified by grace this Father I say understands by it this infused grace that is an habit of righteousness infused into the heart for fulfilling the law of God and so justifies Lex data est ut quaereretur gratia gratia data est ut lex impleretur The law is given that grace may be sought and grace is given that the law may be fulfilled De spir lit c. 19. In correspondence to this when the Apostle sayes we are justified by faith he tells us that it is by its impetration of this grace Impetrat orando he has it in another place Faith carries us to God when we cannot fulfill his commandements our selves and by the infusion of this habit he enables us to do it and thereby are we justified in his Opinion Quod operam lex minando imperat hoc fidei lex credendo impetrat Lege operum dicit Deus fac quod jubeo lege fidei dicitur Deo da quod jubes That which the law of works requires by threats the law of faith obtains by believing In the law of works God saies doe what I command in the law of faith we say to God give what thou commandest Ib. c. 12. Opus quod qui fecerit vivet in eo non fit nisi justificato justificatio autem ex fide impetratur The works which he that does shall live in them are not done but by the justified and justification is impetrated by faith c. 19. Lex non evacuatur sed statuitur per fidem quia fides impetrat gratiam qua lex impleatur The law is not made void but established by faith because faith fetches from God his grace whereby the law is fulfilled c. 30. Now when he accounts that this grace which makes us just or this infused grace is obtained by faith it is plain that he must account that good works do follow it Upon which there is a dfficulty might be proposed to this Father the spirit infuses this grace does faith then prhcede the spirit that infuses it or not If it doe then must our faith be of our selves when our good works are of his gift And this indeed was his judgment while he wrote this book though after he recalled it in others See particularly De gra lib. arb c.
holyness of life though they have bin holy men that have received it It is on the hearts I find of several Persons and sorts of Persons disagreeing otherwise in their way the providence of the Almighty who is the Authour being the Conductor of all truth to its proper use and end to shew themselves against it and to advance this tenent if I may offer the determination to the contrary That the justification of a sinner is not by the imputation of Christs righteousness made his in it self by faith as an instrument but by the righteousness of faith to wit by Christs righteousness as the meritorious cause and his faith and resolution first and sincere obedience added after as the condition of pardon and life through him or by our sincere obedience proceeding from faith which being in it self but imperfect as to the Law is imputed for righteousness to the sinner for Christs merits sake through the grace of the Gospel But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested having witness of the Law and the Prophets Si ergo nunc manifestata est etiam tunc erat sed occulia If it be now manifested t must have bin before lying hid Aug. de peccato originali cont Pel Cel. c. 25. Et tunc ergo ista gratia mediatoris erat in populo Dei sed tanquam in vellere pluvia And then was there this grace of the Mediator among Gods people as the rain in the fleece that is though unseen or not understood Ib. I observe here that the righteousness of God and the grace of the Mediator is rightly made by this Father to be one We are said to be justified by grace and not by works so by the righteousness which is of God and not of works What then is that righteousness of God which is the grace of Christ and by which we are justified By this grace and righteousness it is certain that Austine understands inherent grace which is a quality infused by the Spirit in our hearts enabling us to good works and that this way do the Papists go after him according to what also is said before Istam quippe gratiam qua justificamur id est qua Charitas Dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris De gratia Christi c. 30. that is grace whereby we are justified is no other but the love of God shed abroad in our hearts or the grace of Charity whereby faith is made perfect and so justifies as they and he agree Now this grace is opposed to works and called the righteousness which is of God and not of works according to them which hath been said before likewise because it is that which is given or infused of God and not wrought by our own strength or procured by our deserts Justitia ex lege dicitur quae fit propter legis mandatum justitia ex Deo dicitur quae datur per gratiae beneficium Ib. c. 12. That is said to be the righteousness of the law or of works which is done through the strength of our selves only upon the command that is the righteousness of God which we are helpt to do by the benefit of grace Again Non dicitur justitia nostra sed Dei quia sic sit nostrum ut nobis ex Deo It is not said our righteousness but the righteousness of God because it is ours so as to be first given of God In the same Chapter and Book The truth is this Father being possessed with his own dispute as it is incidental to the mind to fashion all things according to the impressions it hath received does frame such a meaning still in the words of the Apostle as if Paul as well as he were purposely writing against Pelagius There are three things in the soul said that learned Person Posse Velle Esse Possibilitas Voluntas Actio as Austine expresses it the Power the Will and the Deed. The grace of God he accounted was conversant only about the Power and not the Will or the Action Not that he placed all grace only in the giving the power for that must confound Grace and Nature indeed quite seeing all have the power but allowing grace to lye in divine help the power alone he held was aided by God and the will left to its self This aid now in explaining himself he confined to Doctrine God he said does reveal what he would have done in his law and in the gospel and gives us besides Christs example and then the will of it self the power alone thus helped embraces that which is good St. Augustine therefore sets himself to prove that God does not assist us only by his word but by operating on the will and giving us hearts also to do it And for as much we do nothing of our selves but by his help or by the operation of his spirit it is by grace sayes he that we are justified and not by works Quomodo est gratia si non gratis data quomodo est gratia si ex debito redditur How is it grace if it be not of free gift How is it grace if it be rendred as debt De gra Chr. c. 23. Again Non enim Dei gratia erit ullo modo nisi gratuita fuerit omni mode It cannot be the grace of God at all if it be not free altogether De pec or c. 24. One would think this Father in such speeches as these had imbibed the Protestant notion of grace but we are mistaken for his thoughts still ran upon the Grace of God infused in our hearts that is the inherent work of the spirit which he pleads to be gratuitous because it is not at first given for our merits The works which we do of our selves without grace he accounts merits nothing but are splendid sinnes the works which we do from grace or by the spirit do justifie according to him and merit eternal salvation Quod si vocatus vocantem secutus fuerit quod est in libero arbitrio merebitur spiritum sanctum per quem bona possit operari in quo permanens quod niholominus est in libero arbitrio merebitur vitam aeternam quae nulla possit labi corrumpi But if he that is called shall follow his call which is in our free will he shall merit the holy Ghost by whose help good works may be performed wherein if he perseveres which is no less in his power he shall merit eternal life which is perfect and never fadeth away In lib. ex pos ad Romanos The Protestant meeting with this doctrine in the Papist are no wayes satisfied with such an interpretation By the Righteousness of God therefore as by the grace of God opposed to works they will by all means conceive of a righteousness without us that is the righteousness of Christ which is not ours by performance but by faith But neither the Protestants after Luther nor the Papist after Austine have bit the mind of the Apostle
Gospel The latter of these I take to be plain the former must be warily understood There is the Precept and the Retribution of the law We must take heed that we conceive not Christ to be our legal righteousness in regard to the Preceptive part of the law in the more frequent sense as if we were reputed by God to have fulfilled the same or satisfied it in him as representing our Persons which is the errour before confuted and especially by the reason last mentioned because this makes our justification to be by the law of works and not of grace which subverts the Gospel but there is a righteousness in regard to the retributive part of the law of works consisting in our discharge from its curse and penalty which is a righteousness of pardon and if any will call this our legal righteousness which is yet conferred by the Gospel and account we have it in Christ understanding nothing else by it but that his righteousness is the meritorious cause of it I know not any will oppose him It is true that pardon and righteousness without explication is a contradiction and therefore when we allow of a righteousness of pardon there is a strict and a large sense to be acknowledged of terms use in Scripture Blessed is the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works The imputation of righteousness to a person is to account him righteous and for a man to be accounted righteous without works that is without righteousness is explained in the next verse viz. to be pardoned By works he understands works of the law out of doubt for without faith and repentance or Gospel works God imputes righteousness to none Now how a man may be righteous according to the law of grace and yet need pardon in reference to the law of works the matter is plain but to make a man righteous through this pardon in regard to the retribution and guilty in regard to the precept of the same law is to speak I account Scripturali licentia by leave of the Scripture To be acquitted from the condemnation of a law by being pronounced innocent or to be adjudged to the reward by being declared to have fulfilled it is in the strict sense to be justified To be acquitted from the condemnation and be pronounced guilty is to be delivered from the law and not to be justified but in a large fence of justification Justification from a law and not by it is a catechrestical speech and I do question whether we should not using a strict speaking place the discharge of the sinner from condemnation upon the score of Christs redemption rather then on the work of our justification That God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their trespasses does import an universal conditional remission bestowed upon all so far as a delivery of the whole World over from the law of works to be judged by the law of grace and when we are at that bar there is no inquest like to be made about Christs work whether he hath done his part but whether we have done ours that is performed our condition and if we be found to have bin upright to God in the main bent of our hearts and lives notwithstanding our manifold failings he accepts of us for Christs sake and declares us righteous according to this law and so adjudges us to the reward or promise which is to have Christ and his benefits whereof one is the application of his redemption and therein our discharge from the Laws condemnation And thus methinks the Apostle speaks with more acurateness where justification and redemption are de industria distinguished and the one made the means or foundation to the other Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus Redemption is the delivery of the World in general from the law and so from its penalty on terms appointed by the Redeemer Justification is the pronouncing of particular persons accepted upon those terms and so to have a right to the purchased possession In fine there is but our own sincerity and a right to impunity and life is all the righteousness that we have or that can go in it self to the justification of a sinner The import of all is we are not to conceive a sinner to be brought before two barrs that he should have need of a righteousness of perfect obedience in Christ to plead against the law for Christ hath redeemed us from coming before this barre by the ransome of his blood paid for all the World but being to stand only at one bar it is but one righteousness is sought as the condition upon which the sentence must pass and as for that Righteousness we have through Christ besides which is in regard only to the retribution not the work of the law that is to say Pardon it comes to us by way of sentence or as a part of the reward given upon the condition performed but is not part of the condition or the whole condition it self pleaded for our justification Only the redemption of Christ I count is to be first supposed with the whole righteousness of his Mediatorship as the foundation through the merits whereof this new covenant is purchased and so the reward given for his sake upon that condition And if it be for Christs sake for his merits righteousness mediation redemption sake we see also how this righteousness of his even his Mediatory righteousness which cannot be ours possibly in it self is yet imputed to us and made ours in the effects or in the end to which it was performed for salvation to Believers I will conclude all with the agreement of the two Apostles which hath been already but lightly before touched When Paul then contends that a man is not justified by the works of the law By the works of the law he means works as would justify him according to law if he had them and sayes no man is justified hereby because no man hath them as he proves at large in the first and second Chapters to the Romans as the very business and scope of both to any that will consider of the matter and so pleads a necessity of their believing that they may be justified But when St. James sayes a man is justified by works he means not works that answer the law or such as of themselves would justifie the doer which no man hath neither Abraham himself much less Rahab whom he also mentions but such works as suppose grace to their acceptance through faith in the Redeemer for the reconciling the Person and covering his imperfections And thus the two holy Penmen disagree not but while the one faith I conclude a man is justified by faith without the works of the law and the other You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only the sense of both is that though a man hath not the works of the law the works the law qua faedus requires of him which would justifie the doer if he did them as for certain he does not it being impossible for any to have these so that if he be justifyed at all he must be justified without them yet is he justified by faith provided that faith be accompanied with or is the initium and fundamentum of good works of another size to wit that will not make the reward to be of debt but of grace or that are unperfect and not able to justify him by law yet are required in sincerity of life together with his faith in the Redeemer supposing him revealed or else in the mercifulness of Gods nature unto final justification and salvation And now Reader if thou art offended at this paper I cannot help thy prejudice but I desire thee to hear reason If thou art sensible of that deadly advantage which is given to the Papists by our ill treating this point by the doctrine I mean more particularly of Christs righteousness imputed in the unsound sense especially when those that expound it worse do ordinarily lay most stress upon it If thou art sensible yet neerer home what a stumbling block hereby hath been laid in the way of a late numerous Sect among us whom to name methinks is some rudeness to them that really having our Ministers here by the lock that is the place where their only strength they have against us does lye do reject the whole Tribe as False Teachers that harbour men in their sins and make Christ serve only to be a cover for them as they bitterly traduce us with great indignation and in very earnest on this account which I must confess hath affected me so much in reading their books as to set me to write and gives me yet a good conscience in what I do though thou perhaps art angry with me for it If lastly thou art sensible of the evil and danger of Libertinisme or Antinomianisme which hath been lately so rife though now allayed in this Land what roots yet it hath alive in this notion mis-understood thou wilt be advised with me and others perhaps that see more then I that it is time that it is fit this Sluce be stopt The Presbyterians are my Friends and the Independents my Friends and Others my Friends but Truth is greatest and must overcome Deo Gloria mihi condonatio JOHN HUMFREY ERRATA PAge 9. l. 35. for justified them r. justified by them p. 10. l. 28. for that r. seeing that N.B. p. 19. l. 14. for perceptive r. preceptive An 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5. Where he is proving that our conversion and so faith it self is from God To go on when the Apostle does oppose this faith and grace unto works he is put to it for when by grace he understands nothing but infused righteousness for the fulfilling the law how does that oppose works For the making his notion hold therefore by works in opposition to grace and faith he understands Opera sine adjutorio dono Dei works without the assistance and gift of God In short our justification is not of works which are done before we have grace but of works which proceed from it Israel non pervenit ad justitiam quare quia non ex fide sed tanquam ex operibus id est tanquam eam per semet ipsos operantes non in se credentes operari Deum Israel attained not to righteousness why because he sought it not of faith but as it were of works that is as working it out of themselves and not believing in God to work it in them Ib. c. 19. So De gra lib. arb c. 8. Quomodo non ex operibus ne fortè quis extollatur audi intellige non ex operibus dictum tanquam tuis ex te ipso tibi existentibus sed tanquam his in quibus te Deus finxit Ipsius enim figmentum sumus creati in Christo Jesu in operibus bonis How not of works that one may not boast hear and understand it is said not of works as thy own done by thee of thy self but of those as in which thou art created by God for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Again Ignorantes Dei justitiam id est quae ex Deo est homini ut sit justus suam volentes constituere tanquam per eorum non adjutam divinitus arbitrium lex possit impleri Being ignorant of the righteousness of God that is which comes from God to man to make him righteous and being willing to establish their own that is as if by their own free-will without the divine help they were able to perform the law Contra duas Epistolas Pelagianorum l. 3 c. 1. In this doctrine of the Father there are three things wherein he is out The first is in his conception of grace When works and grace are opposed we are not to apprehend with him that grace is taken for any thing infused in the Soul which is inherent grace for works and grace in this sense have no opposition the one being the fruits of the other But by grace we must understand the grace of God without us the grace which is in God that is his favour or the condescention of God to us in this matter And thus is the opposition very plain That which is of debt is one thing and that which is of favour another Not of works that is not of debt or of what would make the reward to be due but of grace that is when it is not due but of favour The certain truth is this God Almighty gave to man a law according to his nature which he repeated to the Jews and if any man were able to keep this law according to the Covenant of Nature then should his justification be of right and due according to the law of his creation but the Apostle does most industriously prove that neither Jew nor Gentile was able to produce these works and consequently if there be any whether Jew or Gentile that are justified it must be by grace because it cannot be of right or what he may challenge by the law upon that account Grace then and mark it well is the accepting of any mans person or thing which is done when one may choose or when in justice one were not bound to do it Accordingly when God justifies us by grace it is his accepting of us as righteous or of what we doe for righteousness and rewarding it as such when according to his law it would not stand but he might condemn us for it Let any who have better words use them I regard only my sense And here may we have an answer to a question of great heat amongst our Divines The Gospel requires Faith Repentance and new Obedience and how then are we justified and saved by grace or how then is grace free when it is not vouchsafed but upon conditions This difficulty hath made some run into that extream that the Covenant of grace is without condition but I say readily the grace of God or of the Gospel is free in that he accepts of the sinners faith and repentance when he needs not or when according to the law he is not tyed to it unless mans obedience were perfect That which our Divines do offer usually is this It is free because it is not of merit mans belief and obedience cannot merit any thing at the hands of God and much less salvation as well from the disproportion of our performances or momentary sufferings to the eternal weight of glory with other the like reasons as that we do herein but our duty and he helps us also in the doing which are the cheif reasons that are urged This information does labour I think with some defect of light If man had performed the condition of the Covenant of works it might upon these reasons have been said that life and salvation had been still of grace and free as not merited while these considerations hinder merit whereas the Apostle industriously opposing the sinners being justified or saved freely by Gods grace to justification by works or the deeds of the law does account if man were justifyed by works it would be of debt Could a man I say have performed the condition of the Covenant of Nature the Apostle accounts still in his reckoning that then had the reward been of debt or merit and if a mans own Conscience could not accuse him of sin he had no need of grace but now sayes he seeing both Jew and Gentile fall short hereof and all are become guilty before God there is none is or can be justified but it must be gratis freely in opposition to that performance To lend more help against this difficulty we must distinguish of merit There is a debt or merit of commutative justice or of governing distributive justice It is impossible that any should engage the Almighty in a debt of the former sort Of the latter fort there is a debt or merit upon compact or upon strict retaliation It is true that there is nothing man does or could do in the state of innocency had he continued perfect can merit or could have merited any reward from God upon the score of a strict retaliation or returning good for good any more then upon commutative justice because there is nothing we can do to our Governour who is infinite to benefit or hurt him and so these reasons before named of our Divines and others may come in if they please Can a man