31 32. not without Care but without Reservation There are none as yet have wrote upon it but when Mr. Williams or some other shall those that attend this Dispute shall be the better able to judge of it For my part I have put no Life or Vigour into my Notion by my Words which are there very poor but the plain dull Sence I am perswaded does carry that Truth in it as when it comes into a more Authoritative Pen may be received This is a common thing by Experience that let a Notion be offered by an ordinary Body it is like to lie but if some Person of Credit takes it up it goes currant I never read in any before myself said it in my first Impression about 25 Years since of my Mid. Way of Just tho' many perhaps I know not might have said it it being now ordinary in Pulpit and Press that Paul by the Righteousness of his Own which he renounces Rom. 10.2 Phil. 3.9 must be understood of his Righteousness as a Jew and not of his Christian Righteousness that is His own not Another's own which if he be not found in he could not be saved But after Sir Charles Wolesley in his Book said the same I cannot but note how that grave learned holy humble worthy and the more worthy because humble Mr. Samuel Cradock in his Supplement to Knowledge and Practice upon a deeper Reflection on the Point than he seems to have had in his former most Industrious Thanks-deserving Books his Harmony of the Evangelists his Apostolick History and his History of the Old Testament all Methodized falls in with Sir Charles and acquiescently receives the same Notion from him which if he had read in me from whom I know Sir Charles took it it is ten to one but he had passed it unregarded There was Mr. Hotchkis since that Paper of mine and others that I could name with Mr. Williams have consented to that Apprehension but there is that Book before-named The Christian Justification stated Printed 1678 hath so exceeding well improved it a sober Writer but no University-Man that he hath I think carried the Bell in it But Mr. Cradock I have named more purposely because if any shall be willing to write against my Books I would have him read those three Pages p. 184 185 186. of his Book mentioned and when he shall be first seasoned with the gracious Spirit and modest Judgment of that Orthodox Author and then find there the Doctrine of Imputation so throughly corrected and an Interpretation of these Texts 2 Cor. 5.21 Phil. 3.9 Rom. 5.19 so perfectly concordant with what I have wrote it may be enough to calm him if furious if but contrary minded to satisfie him And nevertheless Mr. Cradock is out as to one thing by following Sir Charles which is in his making Justification to be all one with Remission of Sin as Mr. Hotchkis after Mr. Wotton hath done who made it I have shewn the Formal Righteousness of our Justification Mr. Bradshaw who wrote after Mr. Wotton and saw what he had wrote as I believe by his Epistle to his excellent little Treatise tells us on the contrary that Pardon and Justification are two things and so diverse in their Nature that he who hath committed a Fault if he be pardoned without making amends he cannot be justified I have therefore a Last Thing to be proposed which will take up more room and it is this Our Divines myself and all agree against the Socinian about Christ's Satisfaction that it is upon Accâ—â—â—t thereof we are justified and how then can it be by our Faith and the Imputation thereof for Righteousness as I have defined Justification Here the Business I have now left me to do is to shew the concurrence of Faith which is our Evangelical Righteousness and Christ's Satisfaction which was his but not our Legal Righteousness without any inconsistency as to both in our Justification And this I must say is no hard Matter to do seeing the true Conception lies in the Thoughts of most considerate Men only for want of a more fixt and resolved Judgment the Vacillation remains To proceed in it I must return to Mr. Bradshaw where I left He hath told us That if a Fault be charged on a Person that Man cannot be justified but by the Plea either that the thing was not done by him or if done it was no fault which is pleading Not Guilty as David was justified by Saul or by pleading that Amends is made for the Fault Now Amends may be made either by one's self or by another And by another either as one whom he hath got to do it or one that does it of his own accord Where Satisfaction is made by a Man's Self or by one he hath got to do it which we must conceive done to the same End as himself would have done it a Man is to be accounted to be restored into the same State in regard to the Party offended as he was before the Fault was committed that is to be immediately justified made righteous or clear of the Fault But it is not so where Satisfaction is neither made by a Man's self nor by any means of his Procurement only another out of Pity and Compassion to him hath agreed with the offended Party and by a valuable Consideration for the Fault hath satisfied him for here the Person for whom Satisfaction is made is not justifiable any otherwise but as the Person that made the Satisfaction for him did intend together with the offended Party who might have refused that Satisfaction so that they may agree both upon Terms to be imposed on the Party offending for reaping the benefit of that Satisfaction This is the Case between God Christ and Us. We finned Our selves could make no Amends nor did any thing to procure Christ to do it Christ hath done it voluntarily but with the Intent and by his Father's Agreement that we shall repent and believe and be judged true penitent Believers which is justifying us before we are Partakers of the Benefit intended We are not to conceive of this Matter any otherwise for this is the Tenour of the New Covenant procured by our Redeemer hereby On our part Faith Repentance is required as the Condition On God's part the Benefits of Christ's Satisfaction are promised Upon our sincere believing God judges us Performers That Performance he imputes to us for Righteousness Upon the Account of Christ's Merits it is done and the Benefits are conferred which are freedom from Punishment and Eternal Salvation As for the Imputation now of Christ's Satisfaction to the Believer which must be allowed so far as our being justifiable thereupon does import we are to understand farther that it is not necessary that what is imputed to the Justification of another should be reputed as done by him that is justified tho' what is imputed is accepted for that he should have done that is accepted in the room or place
which is rather the Consequence of this Acceptance with God Rom. 3.28 Therefore we conclude that a Man is justified by Faith without the Deeds of the Law i. e. A man is received into the Favour of God not by his own Works but according to the Grace of the Gospel and the Terms contained therein And this I take to be St. Paul's meaning 3. The Righteousness of Christ may be said to be imputed two ways 1. So as it becomes our Personal Righteousness which is called Formal Imputation 2. So as the Benefit of Christ's Righteousness and Satisfaction redounds to our Advantage If the former Sense be allowed these Consequences follow 1. That we must be as Righteous as Christ was for if Personal Righteousness can be transferred the Person on whom it is transferred must have that very Righteousness which was in Christ himself and so must be as Holy and Innocent as he was which I hardly think any will pretend to 2. That there can be no Remission of Sin as to such who have this perfect Righteousness no more than there could be to Christ himself Imputation for Remission of Sin and of Personal Righteousness are inconsistent For the one must suppose Guilt and the other cannot when the Personal Righteousness is actually imputed There may be antecedent Guilt before the Imputation but where there is perfect Righteousness actually imputed there can be no personal Guilt for if there be it can be no perfect Righteousness as to him 3. That there can be no Conditions required where a perfect Righteousness is imputed For a Condition is in order to something to be obtained but here the full Benefit is already received by the Imputation of a perfect Righteousness and it is absurd to suppose Conditions for the obtaining of what is past It cannot then be denied that those speak consonantly enough to this Hypothesis who exclude all Conditions from the new Covenant but very dangerously as to the Design of Charity since our Saviour himself bids us to pray to God to forgive our Trespasses as we forgive others which I think supposes a Condition on our Parts in order to Remission But if no more be meant by Imputation of Christ's Righteousness but that the Sufferings of Christ were in our stead and for our Advantage as to Remission and Justification I do most heartily and freely own it 4. The Apostles Argument against Merit and Boasting do by no means hold against such an Evangelical Righteousness as comes from the Grace of God and tends wholly to the Honour of it which is so clear that I need not to prove it This is a short Account of my Thoughts in this Matter and I think we do not differ in the Substance however we may in the manner of Explication I am Your Friend and Servant ED. WIGORN Mr. Humfrey Chester Apr. 12. 1997. I Receiv'd by Piece-meal as it came from the Press all your Book entituled Of the Righteousness of God in the Matter of Justification except the Title Page and the Epistle which I read over as it came to my Hands with Pleasure and Profit The great Doctrine of Justification is by you stated more agreeably to the Scriptures than I have met with it in any other Author You do I confess in some Places express your Sense obscurely so that it may perhaps be mistaken by unwary Readers but if in those Places I rightly apprehend your Meaning I do not at present remember any thing I have to object against it However I intend the next Week to read over the whole together and if any Objections shall then occur to my Thoughts you shall hear further from me It will I doubt not be a good Antidote against the Antinomian Doctrines which some Persons who decry do implicitly and by necessary Consequence assert by the false Notion they have entertain'd of Christ's imputed Righteousness I am SIR Your Affectionate Brother N. CESTRIENS An ADVERTISEMENT from the Author READER TO make a stay to camulate more Testimony to this Book though of the like Right Reverend Persons to no other end but to signify their Consent or Approbation of it might give thee Occasion to censure me for a seeker of vain Glory which does little become such a one as I rather than thy Edification I will use this spare Leafe therefore to another Purpose When I reprinted my Middle way of Justification which I printed at first about 25 Years ago I thought of writing no more on that Point But afer a while there being something I conceived needful for Finishing my Work I took occasion from the Difference among our United Brethren in a single Sheet called my One Sheet to draw up a Conclusion of the whole Matter so thorowly as I could to my own Mind intending it for my last that I cannot think fit this Book being now later and like to be canvased more than the other should come abroad without it as the Substance of this as well as that Book before and that I have wrote between or any else I can write on this Subject Having therefore this little room to fill I cannot consult my Own Content and Thy Profit better than to do it with this Citation from thence as follows To understand aright St. Paul's Justification by Faith we must consider with whom it is he contends The Jews as the best skill'd in Rabbinical Learning does tell us did generally maintain the Doctrine of Freewill not doubting but every one could do as God commanded if he would himself * This is the meaning of that Jewish saying All things are in the Power and disposal of Heaven except the Fear of God for that they believed was in their own they having no Notion as Pelagius at first of Grace All that God hath spoken we will do And having receiv'd the Law from God's Mouth the Excellency whereof was their Glory they supposed in the observation of the Outside that they kept it accounting the Reward promised therein due to them thereupon from God as what in Justice they merited for their Deeds Insomuch that some thought themselves so righteous as not to sin at all or need Pardon Touching the Law blameless All these have I kept from my youth up and others that sinned being lick'd whole by Sacrifice they thought all well boasting themselves as the Only People the Only Righteous in the Earth Not to mention what we all know out of the Acts that some of them were Converts to Christianity did yet remain of the Opinion that their Law was to be kept The Apostle now sets himself against †Not that this great I 〈◊〉 was for 〈◊〉 of the Jewâ— that is a 〈◊〉 and unâ—â—…thy 〈…〉 the Life and â—â—â—â—…tion of Man 〈…〉 that Justification by Faith in Opposition to the Law must not be understood as to that of Moses only but to the whole Law of Works these Jews and lets them know that no Man neither Jew nor Gentile is righteous
co quod Christus peccatum pro nobis factus est Hoc autem ipsum est Christi Obedientia Ergo Justitia Dei non est Christi Obedientia Wotton Besides That we might be made the Righteousness of God in him is expressed by the Apostle as the End or Effect of his being made Sin for us He was made Sin for us not Formaliter but Effective in suffering for our Sins His Sufferings was his Obedience and that his Righteousness By the Righteousness of God therefore we must not understand the Righteousness of Christ because that which is the End or Effect of a Thing cannot be the very same Thing but another differing from it There is yet that Text more which will receive the like easie Interpretation on that Supposition Christ is the End of the Law for Righteousness to him that believeth the Believer being righteous In and With and not only meritory By his Righteousness according to Rom. 10.4 But the Supposition really is too gross the Notion too hard to be digested as well as dangerous in regard to the Antinomian Consequences of it If in a Law-sence we are righteous and have fulfilled the Law in Christ then in a Law-sence God sees no Sin in us we need no Pardon God cannot in Justice punish for any thing we do with the Lerna of the like Doctrines which follow upon it If in a Law-sence Christ's Righteousness is ours and we have fulfilled the Law in him then are we in a Law-sence justified by Works when by the Works of the Law the Scripture says no Flesh living shall be justified It the Notion of Faith being imputed for Righteousness which is Scripture must be so framed as by Faith we must understand its Object Christ's Righteousness so imputed but first received by Faith or made ours by Faith as the Instrument of that Reception How then shall those many Fathers and Holy Men before Luther who never had any such Notion in their Minds Nay how shall the Patriarchs and all the Holy People from Adam to Christ have been justified as we which is to be Righteous with this Righteousness when they never had the Instrument to receive it An Instrument is that the Efficient works by And when there is not the working Cause how can there be the Effect It is not credible to me that ever any one before Christ or any of his Disciples before his Death did or could believe themselves Righteous by the Satisfaction and Obedience of the Messiah in this sence that his Righteousness should or could be their Formal Righteousness when As St. John tells us He that doth Righteousness is righteous so is this Righteousness done the Formal Righteousness and Christ's Obedience and Satisfaction the Meritorious Cause and the Account we give of its acceptance in the Sinners Justification A Third Text and parallel Place we have in Rom. 8.3 4. What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the Flesh c. That is I suppose when through the Fall no Man could perform the Condition of the Law of Works God sent his Son as it follows to be a Sacrifice for Sin to procure a Law of Grace That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit How is that when none can fulfil the Law through the Weakness of the Flesh do we fulfil it Yes It is not said fulfilled in Christ but in Us and it is fulfilled by this Righteousness of God which being on our part all one with the Obedience of Faith God upon Christ's Account imputes that to us for Righteousness or reckons it instead of fulfilling it making it as good to us and rewarding us alike as if we had perfectly performed it It is an Obedience or Righteousness indeed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as I have it before according to the Rigour of the Law but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Equity of the Gospel It is not in its own Nature a Righousness falling short of the Law that would justifie us but it does it by Divine Institution and therefore called the Righteousness of God It is an Ordination of Grace through Jesus Christ and therefore is God righteous in what he does But on our part it is called the Righteousness of Faith I do observe therefore how that Religiously Learned Gentleman Sir Charles Wolesley having wrote his Book of Justification after I had wrote and he had read my Sheets on the same Subject hath these Words upon that forementioned Critical Place 2 Cor. 5.21 The meaning is this says he Christ that was without all Sin was ordained of God to be a Sacrifice for Sin that we might thereby be made righteous with the Gospel Righteousness for that is the general meaning every where of the Righteousness of God Sir C. W. p. 64. This I know I delivered as my Judgment in those Sheets and his saying the same after is as much as if he had said I have considered what you say and am convinced that this is the meaning of that Text and that you are right in your Sence of the Righteousness of God It is a walking after the Spirit not after the Flesh though not perfectly up to our Duty And the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus after which we walk in our measure does set us free from the Law of Sin and Death I will proceed to some Consequences like to be good or ill as they follow upon a right or mistaken understanding of this Righteousness If by it the Righteousness of Christ imputed be understood By the exercise of Faith in apprehending the same to be made ours so as to bring it before the Tribunal of God's Justice for our Justification thereby according to the Law of Works the very Life of that Faith or Comfort of that Life which consists in trusting resting relying on God's Mercy and Goodness for pardoning all the Failings of our Performances and accepting them even our very Desires and weakest Endeavours through the Merits of Christ unto Life so as by that Faith we have access to the Throne of Grace and are justified according to the Gospel is stopt perverted if not quite contradicted and lost Nay if the End of Christ's Obeying and Satisfying the Law was that his Satisfaction and Obedience should be made ours upon Condition for our Divines here are cautious and do generally take heed to put in that to wit upon Performance of the Terms the Gospel requires of us in order to it and not otherwise then cannot the Merits of Christ be so rationally I think applied thus as I speak to the Performance of the Condition Our Divines indeed do say that Christ hath not only procured this Imputation on Condition but Grace also for the Performance of the Condition some say General Grace for all that will some Special that makes some to will but this Condition must be performed by our Free-Will or Grace so
Appointment of his Father and his own Good Will did undertake in our behalf to do and suffer what was required of us to suffer by the Law so far that the Honour of God in regard to his Law being saved and the Ends thereof secured we that were liable to Damnation might be delivered from it in the Way or Manner the Father and Son designed which is by that Act of Grace promulgated in the Gospel that upon our believing and repenting we shall be justified and so pardoned and have Life Everlasting And what then shall we say thereupon but that the very Righteousness of Christ In se did go into or may be said imputed unto the Impetration of this great Benefit for us but the Benefit only and not his Righteousness can be ours in the Application That we should be justified by Faith was obtained by Christ's Righteousness or Performance but it is our Faith not Christ's Performance is imputed to us for Righteousness in our Justification Christ's Righteousness is that for which not by which Causa propter quam not Per quam we have this Benefit that upon on believing we are justified The Application is our Work the Impetration Christ's the Imputation of what he did to us God's And there is no such thing can be as the making that formally ours by the Application * As for the Commutation of Persons which while some Divines as Dr. Owen do found in the Mystical Union instead of the Hypostatical between Christ and Believers they make I know not what of it I acknowledge such a one as is necessary to the Impetration of our Redemption but I understand none so as to go into the Applicacation Christ took on him our Flesh made Satisfaction in our stead and procured an Act of Grace or Pardon for all But there is no Commutation I know as to Particular Persons in the Point of Justification If Christ made an Exchange of his Righteousness with Peter for his Sins any otherwise than as to the Impetration of Pardon on Condition that concerns all alike then Christ's Righteousness must now be Peter's and James and John could never have it In Christ's uniting himself to us by his taking our Nature obeying suffering satisfying God's Justice I acknowledge a Commutation even such to wit that our Sins were so imputed to him as that he died for them and in our stead understanding the Phrases aright and his Righteousness so imputed as to be the Cause that upon our believing we enjoy the Benefit But in Christ's uniting us to him by giving his Spirit to work in us that Condition whereby we have our Right to the Benefit there is nothing done by him in Our stead nothing by us in His no new no other no farther Imputation The Fruit of his Purchase Pardon and Salvation by a Law of Grace cannot be His and if that that he communicates to us be not his how is there a Commutation Of this Sacrifice and Righteousness itself we are uncapable Of the Effects and Fruits as Pardon of Sin he is uncapable What he hath not he cannot communicate What he hath we cannot receive There is there can be no substitution of Person in our partaking the Benefits purchased as there was there must be in the purchasing them for us Pacif. p. 16. Then Pacif. p. 30 31 32. What I have said before about the Commutation of Persons that it is to be held in regard to the Impetration not Application of our Redemption I would offer over again likewise in regard to the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness I have said and said it over that this Phrase is not found in Scripture but I will acknowledge the thing in the true Sence of it which is this Christ Jesus did really obey the Law and suffer its Penalty for us in the Sence of in our place of stead To do a thing now in my stead is for another to do it so as to save me the doing it Christ's suffering and obeying was to save us that suffering and obeying In what respect I shew there And in the next Page I go on God looks not on us as if we our selves had obeyed or suffered either in his Person or he to have done it strictly in Ours but that he obeyed and suffered Loco nostro to free us from so Obeying there shewn and suffering as he himself did which is the making his Death and Obedience Ours only as to this Benefit Thus much being right and the Righteousness of Christ consisting in this Obedience and suffering thus in our room what now at last is the Imputation of it Why certainly the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is and must be nothing else but God's accounting the Matter to be thus as it is Here is the Point that what Christ hath done is look'd upon is accepted as done in our behalf or the granting it to be so that upon this obeying and suffering of his in our place as the Meritorious Cause we shall be freed from the same as the Effect of it This is the only Fundamental Truth in the Phrase and this Imputation then of Christ's Righteousness which Man hath so phrased going into this Grant on God's part or Obtaining the Grant on Christ's part which precedes the Application it cannot go into the Application itself that follows after upon Performance of the Gospel-Terms so as to make Christ's Righteousness Ours any otherwise than in this Benefit only Besides this the fancying such Acts in God as the imputing Christ's Righteousness to every single Person upon his believing any otherwise than by that one Act of Grace now promulgated in the Gospel is not becoming the Divine Being There is there can be no new Act in God He is Actus purus his Will one I must not grow too subtile here only I must say there is his Will and the Effects of his Will and in those Effects there is an Order In that Order the Righteousness of Christ precedes the Impetration of all the Benefits we have by him as the Meritorious Cause of them The Impetration precedes the Application and the Application can be therefore but of the Effects thereof Not of this Righteousness I say itself In se but of the Benefits themselves we have by it To be more short That Commutation of Persons and Imputation of Christ's Righteousness which comes both in earnest to this one thing Man's Benefit upon the Account of Christ's Satisfaction howsoever the Thoughts thereof have amused so many Good Men when you have throughly considered them and made as much of them as ever you can it must all of it every Drop of it you can make go into that Act of Grace Salvation upon Gospel-Conditions which is already procured and passed Unto the Impetration then of our Redemption Christ's Righteousness was indeed imputed In se In the Application it can be imputed only in the Effect I have delivered my Conceptions more fully in my late Book Pacif. p. 30