God as just So that to be justified by God and to be approved of by him as just and so adjudged is all one Wisdome is justified of her children that is approved of and defended against the accusations and quarrels of her adversaries Lu. 7.29 The Publican went down to his house justified that is approved rather than the Pharisee Luk. 18.14 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified that is approved of by God as a good and righteous man as Abraham was and not by faith only Jam. 2.24 By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned By these as well as by other things persons are and will be adjudged by God to be good and righteous or wicked and ungodly men Matth. 12.37 Again Rom. 8.33 34. It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth Where Gods approbation of his people is opposed to others disapprobation of them he approves of them as good while their adversaries condemn them as bad they charge them as bad but God absolves and dischargeth them as good And in this judicial sense is the word justification generally taken throughout the Scripture By Sanctification men are constituted and made evangelically righteous but in Justification they are approved of by God as such and adjudged to be so which is the proper difference between Sanctification and Justification If then we make our estimate of evangelical Justification according to the usual signification of the word as that implies in it the Cause of the party tried the Act of God as Judge and the law and rule on which the trial proceeds and by which the cause is determined for him that is justified then Justification may be thus described It is that whereby God for the sake and upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ doth approve of a true believer as one that hath perfermed the condition on which God in the Gospel hath promised pardon of sin and eternal life and doth impute that performance to him for righteousness and accordingly adjudgeth him to be righteous in the sense and according to the tenor of the law of Grace and such an one as hath a Covenant right and title to the blessings promised in that Covenant pardon of Sin and eternal life This description of Justification as it best agrees with the use and signification of the word and phrase so it does also with the doctrine of the Gospel as we shall afterwards see Which that we may the better do I shall open the whole to you by opening it in its several parts and so shall shew 1. How the Righteousness of Christ doth operate to our Justification 2. How the Covenant of Grace doth it 3. How Faith doth it and 4. How God himself doth it And thus to open the whole nature of Justification by shewing the operation of the several causes of it is I conceive the best and most likeliest way to come to the clearest knowledge and best insight into it that we can attain unto The want of which distinctness in proceeding hath been I conceive an occasion in great part of obscuring the doctrine of Justification while the parts have been confounded and the operation proper to one cause hath been attributed to another The whole of the description which I have given of Justification is the result of the operation of the righteousness of our Blessed Saviour of the Covenant of Grace of faith and of the whole action of Gods dijudication in justifying true believers to the opening of which I shall now proceed And I shall begin with the righteousness of our Redeemer Christ Jesus and shall enquire into the nature and operation of it in reference to our justification CHAP. II. Of the nature of the righteousness of Christ and how it operates to our Justification IN shewing what influence our Saviours righteousness hath into our Justification two things will come under consideration 1. What we are to understand by the Righteousness of our Saviour 2. How it operates to our Justification First of the former what we are to understand by the righteousness of Christ Righteousness is the conformity of a person to some Law or Rule And therefore when we speak of the righteousness of Christ it supposeth some Law in his conformity whereunto this righteousness of his whereof we speak doth consist Which Law is the Law of his Mediation which he received from his Father and which he voluntarily and most willingly undertook to observe and fulfil The mutual agreement between the Father and the Son about this Law of Mediation between God and man and the Sons undertaking to fulfil it in order to our Redemption Divines are wont to call the Covenant of Redemption And as the great office of Mediator is peculiar to him alone for there is but one Mediator between God and man even the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 So the Law of this Mediation was peculiar to him And as the law and office of Mediation were peculiar to our Saviour so is his righteousness which consisteth in his conformity to that law it is a Mediatory Righteousness The benefit of it belongs to believers as I shall afterwards shew but the righteousness it self which is Mediatorial can be no more transferred to any other than his office of Mediation can for his righteousness consists in those acts of conformity to the Law of Mediation by which he doth execute his office of Mediation Now that there was such a Law of Mediation between God and man given by God the Father to Christ his Son and which he did most readily accept of execute and obey is plainly made known to us by our Saviour himself by many of his sayings As in John 6.38 when he says I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me And again the Father which sent me he gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak John 12.49.50 Our Saviour speaking of his laying down his life for his sheep saith No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father mark that John 10.18 To fulfil this Law was the design of our Saviours coming into the world Heb. 10.7 Then said I Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me to do thy will O God And of the fulfilling of this law our Saviour spake when in his prayer to his Father he said I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do John 17.4 These with other like Scriptures acquaint us with these two things First that there was a Law given by the Father and chosen by the Son to be observed in managing the office and work of Mediator between God and man which we call the Law
appear lovely and beautiful as effects of a most wise contrivance for excellent ends Even so the Doctrine of Justification while handled and beheld only in this or that particular part of it remains comparatively obscure But when all which goes to the making up of the whole is put together in order and when it is discovered how one thing depends upon and answers another in it it will not be difficult at all to understand it And when the whole of Gods design in that way and method by which our Justification is brought about is laid open those things in it which have been apprehended by some not well to consist together but to bear hard upon one another will appear quite otherwise For then the grace of God the Righteousness of Christ and the personal Righteousness of him that is justified will appear not in opposition but in a lovely conjunction all operating in several respects to the same end The sense of these things hath I confess inclined me to offer at something of this nature in the ensuing discourse by way of essay Wherein I have endeavoured with what plainness I could to state and explain the nature and causes of our Justification and to shew how the Righteousness of Christ the Covenant of Grace Faith and God himself do both severally and joyntly operate to our Justification and how the grace of God is eminent in all And likewise to shew how that all that goes to our Justification is by the Grace of God founded on the Righteousness of Christ and immediately or remotely receives the vertue and efficacy of its operation from it in conjunction with Gods gracious ordination And particularly that out of this Righteousness of Christ and the Grace of God thereby doth arise the Covenant of Grace and from that Covenant the constitution of Faith for Righteousness and from that constitution Gods approving such for righteous which have that Faith and his adjudging them to be so For which cause our Blessed Saviour may well be said as he is to be made to us of God Righteousness These things will more fully appear in the discourse it self now before you to which I refer you for your more full satisfaction Hoping that the usefulness of what is thereby designed and endeavoured will so far appear as to stir up and engage some others to undertake the same work who may much better go through with it and compleat it than I have been able to do The Christians JUSTIFICATION STATED CHAP. I. Of the signification and use of the word Justification with a description of Justification it self THE design of the following discourse is to state the great Doctrin of Justification and so to represent it from the Holy Scriptures as that it may be adapted and fitted to the capacity of the meanest Christian that is inquisitive into a matter of that grand importance as his Justification before God is And as a guide herein I shall first enquire into the Notation and signification of the word Justification For the use of words being to convey to the mind the Idea and notion of things and the nature of them it is but reasonable to govern our selves in our notion of the nature of Justification by the signification of such words and phrases by which it is in Scripture exprest After this is done I shall enquire into the severals which operate to the producing this great effect Justification and how they do it By all which I hope any Christian of a very ordinary capacity shall be able to discern the true nature of justification what it is and in what it doth consist The word Justification in Scripture signifies either to make just or to approve as just or vindicate and adjudge as just or righteous The word is but sparingly used in Scripture as signifying to make just but another word more commonly which is Sanctification But to be made just is essentially or absolutely necessary to justification as we shall see afterward For God will not approve of or adjudge any man as just who is not so But about the more ordinary and common signification of the word I find that learned men are much of one mind and do conclude that the word generally in Scripture is used in a forensick or law sense and does imply a legal procedure in a Cause or with a person by a Judge and according to some law So the learned Dr. Hammond in his Annotations on Rom. 3.4 And so learned Mr. Tho. Gataker to name no more in the Assemblies Annotations on Isa 5.23 which I shall give you in his own words To justifie saith he is not to pardon as some would expound it in the doctrine of the Gospel for the word is never found so used either in the Hebrew or Greekwriters Sacred or prophane nor in our common speech Nor as it is a law-term doth it ever signifie to make just But to justifie in a legal way doth always signifie to defend or to deem as just and guiltless free from the offence wherewith the party called in question is charged To defend as just and so it is the office of an Advocate to deem as just and consequently assoil from guilt and so it is the part of a Judge As also in private carriages men are said to justifie others when they plead for them and avow their integrity and honesty against those that question it According to this usual sense and notion of the word when applied to God as Judge in justifying of men it signifies his approbation of such as are just in their Cause that is before him to be so his adjudging them to be righteous in the sense of that Lawby which they are tried Thus for instance we have it in King 8.31 32. If any man trespass against his neighbour and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear and the oath come before the altar in this house then hear thou in heaven and do and judge thy servants concerning the wicked to bring his way upon his head and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness Where to justifie the righteous does not signifie to make them righteous but to appear for them in Judgment as those that are so and to determine for them accordingly To justifie the wicked in Scripture-phrase does not signifie to make them just but to approve of them and appear for them as if they were just Prov. 17.15 Exod. 23.7 Isa 5.23 And thus again to give some instances in the New Testament S. Paul saith I know nothing by my self yet am I not hereby justified but he that judgeth me is the Lord 1 Cor. 4.4 Where to be justified and to have God to judge for him signifies the same So likewise Rom. 2.13 Not the hearers of the law are just before God but the doers of the law shall be justified The meaning whereof is that not the hearers but the doers of the law shall be approved of by
in their willingness to be reconciled to him This is the first of the three things I mentioned which have a great aptness in them to persuade men to be reconciled to God for which end our Saviour does by the Gospel as he is Mediator of the New Testament not only reveal this but labours to possess men with a strong belief of it without which it will not operate on them at all towards such an end as the reconciling them to God is 2. Another of those motives by which our Saviour by setting the Gospel on foot seeks to reconcile men to God is by giving them great assurance that God is so far from desiring to revenge himself on them notwithstanding all their provocations if they were but as willing as he is to be reconciled as that in case they will be but persuaded to be reconciled to God by repentance for their former rebellion and by becoming really obedient to their power for the future as that then he will bestow upon them everlasting life advance them to such a state of happiness as that greater than which the heart of man cannot wish for or desire And surely this if it be throughly believed will if any thing will persuade men to be reconciled to God To this end our Saviour hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 And by this motive he doth almost every where in the Gospel persuade to Faith Love Repentance Obedience and Holiness which is the same with persuading men to be reconciled to God for in such things as these doth our reconciliation to God consist St. John speaks of this in a magnifying way as the great motive to man to entertain and obey the Gospel This saith he is the promise which he hath promised us even eternal life 1 John 2.25 And indeed it was this that did invite men to receive the Gospel to profess the Christian Religion at first and which did animate them to suffer any thing rather than to renounce and forsake it and the hope of eternal life which they had received by it They took joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance Heb. 10.34 3. There is a great aptitude in our Saviours setting the Gospel on foot to reconcile men to God because he thereby convinceth them that if after God's gracious offer of being reconciled to them in case they will be reconciled to him and if after all that hath been done by God and suffered by his Son to prepare the way for a mutual reconciliation between them they shall yet obstinately refuse to be reconciled to God and persist still in their rebellion and disobedience That then God will be so far from being reconciled to them and from pardoning them notwithstanding all the willingness he hath declared to be reconciled to them upon condition of their reconciliation to him and notwithstanding all that Christ hath done and suffered to bring this about as that this offer of God and undertaking of Christ shall turn but to their heavier doom and greater condemnation in the next world This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men loved darkness more than light John 3.19 How shall we escpe if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord himself and was confirmed to us by them that heard him Heb. 2.3 It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah and for Tyre and Sydon in the day of Judgment than for them that have refused to be reconciled to God when by the Gospel sent to them he hath offered to be reconciled to them on condition that they would be reconciled unto him And lest any should flatter themselves with vain hopes of being saved from the goodness of the nature of God and the death of Jesus Christ for sinners who yet take a liberty to live in known sin without reconciling themselves to God by leaving it off and returning to their duty as too many alas do there are two or three things revealed by Christ to take from them such vain hopes and to put them upon a necessity of chusing either to reconcile themselves to God or to be eternally miserable 1. The first is taken from the nature of God The nature of God is so pure and holy and so contrary to sin that it is as impossible for him to be reconciled to sin or to sinners while by it they are in open rebellion against him as it is for him to change his nature and cease to be God This is the message saith St. John which we have heard of him that is of Christ and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth 1 John 1.5 So that according to this message which Christ hath sent to sinners by his Messengers it is as possible to reconcile light and darkness as God and such as walk in darkness that is in wilful sin And St. Paul would make men themselves judges in the case and appeals to their own reason saying What communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial 2 Cor. 6.14 15. and plainly intimates that if light and darkness are irreconcilable and can have no communion so is Christ and Belial or a lawless man 2. He hath taken away such vain hopes from sinners by declaring by his Gospel That God without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work that is he will judg every man according to the right of his cause without favouring or dis-favouring the persons of men against the nature and right of their cause He that hath done good shall come forth to the resurrection of life and he that hath done evil unto the resurrection of damnation Even there where the Lord hath declared from heaven that he is merciful and gracious forgiving iniquity transgression and sin even there he hath declared also to the end men might not mistake that he will by no means clear the guilty no by no means not upon any account whatsoever will he clear such as are finally guilty by persisting in rebellion Exod. 34.6 7. All such persons therefore as will not be persuaded to be reconciled to God by becoming obedient to his government by his laws have no more reason to hope that they shall be saved upon the account of God's merciful nature or the merits of Christ's death than they have to hope that God for their sakes will go contrary to all his declarations in his word and contrary to the whole fixed frame of his government by which he rules and will judg the world And what sinner is there that can but give himself the liberty to consider things that is or can be so vain in his expectation as to promise himself any such thing since
Righteous without all mixture of that which deserves not the name of holiness and goodness nor they without unrighteousness antecedent to this and before they had repented and therefore is not such a compleat Righteousness as would hold measure according to the standard of the Law of innocency if we were to be tried by that to be Justified or Condemned by that In this regard the best of us have cause with the Psalmist to cry out and say If thou Lord shouldst work iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 130.3 It is indeed a growing Righteousness that is by degrees growing up towards a perfect state such in whom it is are perfecting holiness in the fear of God But before it is grown to this perfect state it is in the account of grace and by way of favour and for Christs sake accepted and approved by God for such Righteousness as unto which he hath promised the pardon of all past offences and of all such after infirmities as are consistent with this Covenant-Righteousness in its lower degree and also eternal Life it self So that in a word this thing we call everlasting Righteousness by which we are Justified owes it self its very being such a Righteousness as it is unto the Covenant of Grace or that Grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ which is put into a Covenant for us 3. The Covenant operates to our Justification as being the rule by which those are justified in judgment to be Righteous persons such as to whom the promise of pardon and eternal life is made that are justified at all Righteousness as I have formerly shewed receives its denomination as it doth its nature from its conformity to some Law And this Covenant-Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith receives its denomination from its Conformity to the Covenant of Grace as being that qualification in the person on condition of which the promises of the Covenant are made and therefore every man that is Justified is Justified by this Law to be such a person as to whom the promises are made It is by this Law that such a person is Justified in his cause if a man be not a Just and Righteous person in the sense of this Law he will not be Justified by God for he judgeth of men and their cause by this Law Jam. 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of liberty that is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace And our Saviour saith The word that I have spoken the same shall judg you in the last day John 12.48 4. The Covenant operates to our Justification as an instrument of making us to become Righteous and so capable subjects of Justification And this it doth by way of motive or persuasion The great and precious promises made to men in this Covenant of pardon of sin and eternal Life on condition of the Righteousness of Faith Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness and not otherwise they out of a desire and love to the benefits promised are persuaded to imbrace the condition without which they cannot enjoy them that is to become Righteous The Gospel ministration is called the ministration of Righteousness 2 Cor. 3.9 And it is so both as it ministers to us the knowledg that there is another Righteousness than that which is of the Law and also as it ministers to us powerful motives and assistances to follow after Righteousness by which they become Righteous and so to be Justified St. Paul saith The Gospel is the power of God to Salvation in as much as therein the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1.16 17. the terms on which God will account them Righteous and the motives to make them so these are revealed by the Gospel by which it becomes the power of God to Salvation to those that believe it The Gospel is a ministration of Righteousness and of Justification as it is the ministration of Reconciliation of reconciling us to God of reconciling our nature to the holy nature of God and to his holy Laws by making us partakers of a Divine Nature a God-like Nature in Holiness and Goodness which is done by the great and precious promises of the Gospel of pardon and eternal Life as powerful motives persuading men to become new creatures in order to the obtaining these great benefits promised and attainable only upon condition of such our reconciliation to God which puts us into a perfect capacity of Justification that is of being approved of as those who have performed the condition of the foresaid promised benefits Thus the Gospel is called the word of reconciliation which was committed to the Apostles and others and their Ministry the ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18.19 And by a practical knowledg and belief of these things revealed by the Gospel men come to be justified that is approved of as those that have known believed and obeyed the Gospel By his knowledg saith God concerning Christ shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 That is by the knowledg of him in what he is hath done and suffered revealed and taught What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh as to free us from the Law of sin and to bring us to that Righteousness which it did design but could not effect that is now done by the Law of the spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus to wit the Gospel The Law without the Gospel could not give us that assurance of Gods willingness to be reconciled to us and of pardon upon repentance which the Gospel does much less of a glorious reward of new obedience For the promise of pardon for Christs sake upon our repentance the promise of the Resurrection of the Body and of the Celestial Glory are brought to light by the Gospel being matters of supernatural Revelation Now it is the great assurance which the Gospel gives us of these things upon the account of Christs death that is the powerful motive of prevailing with men to be reconciled to God and to become Evangelically Righteous that they may be Justified And therefore the preaching of the Cross is said to be to them that are saved the power of God and for wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.18 24. That is it contains and lays open Gods most wise contrivance of reconciling sinners to himself and by that means becomes his powerful motive of drawing men to it that so they may be Justified Pardoned and Glorified The Law made nothing perfect it is the bringing in of this better hope by the Gospel that doth it Heb. 7.19 The Law which laid a burden of strict obedience upon men backt with severe threatnings in case of transgression prevailed little upon men but to keep them under a spirit of bondage to fear while they were unacquainted with the rich grace and indulgence of the Gospel by which the Yoke of Christ is rendered easie and his burden light The Gospel prevails much
persons according to the tenor of the Gospel-Covenant and so qualifies them to be so adjudged by God against all accusations to the contrary by what or by whomsoever It is that which makes their cause good when they come to be tried and judged by the Law of Liberty because it is all which that Law requires to denominate them Righteous and to entitle them to the benefit of that Law This Righteousness of Faith is the essential matter or material cause of our Justification without which no such thing could be and supposing which it cannot but be so long as the Gospel-Covenant stands in force It makes those that have it the proper subjects of Justification for as God will condemn the wicked so he will most certainly Justifie the Righteous such as are made so by his own Grace without respect of persons he judgeth acocrding to every mans work and the nature of his cause In these and the like respects doth the Righteousness of Faith operate to our Justification These things stand proved in what hath been said before in opening the nature of the Covenant of Grace and the nature of Faith and the reason of its designation by God to its Office and work And may be yet further confirmed by those Scriptures where Faith is said to be counted and imputed to us for Righteousness as it was to Abraham Rom. 4.3 6 11 22 24. Gal. 3.6 Gen. 15.6 Jam. 2.23 For if God count it to us for Righteousness then it is our Righteousness for God accounts of things but as they are when they are what they are of his own making as this Righteousness of Faith is And if this Faith be our Righteousness in Gods account then they must needs be Righteous in his account that are Righteous with this Righteousness and be approved of and adjudged such by him And thus Faith operates to our Justification as it is the essential and intrinsical matter of our Justification CHAP. V. How God himself operates to our Justification I Come now in the last place to enquire in what respects Justification is attributed to God and what his operation is in producing this great effect of Justifying such as have been sinners That he doth Justifie believers by some acts proper to him is no Christians doubt It is one God which shall Justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the Vncircumcision through Faith Rom. 3.30 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 Now God may be said to Justifie in several respects some more remote and some more proximate and immediate God is the Author Spring and Fountain and principal efficient cause of all other causes that any way concur or cooperate to our Justification Christ himself which is the foundation stone in this building by virtue of whose Mediatorial Righteousness we are Justified he is made to us of God Wisdom and Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 It is also God which hath given being to the new Covenant which is the Covenant of his Grace by virtue of which also we are Justified And the Righteousness of Faith which is the matter of our Justification is of Gods working in us by his Spirit Whence it is that both our Sanctification and Justification are attributed to the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God But that which we have now principally to consider is what that last act is or those last acts are by which God Justifies us And his operation herein is judicial for he Justifies as a Judg and therein proceeds by his own Law of Grace as the rule of judging of men and their cause And Gods judicial Justification of men doth stand I conceive in these two things principally 1. God in justifying of men approves of them for such as have performed the condition on which he in the Covenant of Grace promised pardon of sin and eternal Life That is he approves of them for true believers and such as have given up themselves to obey the Gospel to live according to the doctrine of their Saviour and adjudgeth them to be such 2. Those whom God approveth of as true and sincere observers of the new Law the Gospel or Covenant of Grace those he adjudgeth to be Righteous persons and that Faith of theirs by which they have fulfilled it to be their Righteousness True believers and such as have given up themselves to obey the Gospel they are Justified by the Gospel that is they are Righteous in the sense and meaning of that Law For that practical obediential Faith of theirs is their conformity to this Law of Christ the Gospel and therefore it must needs be their Evangelical Righteousness But there is this difference between being justified by the Gospel as it is the new Law of Grace and by being justified by God The Gospel-Covenant pronounceth all true believers in General to be Righteous persons but doth not determine whether this or that person in particular be a true believer and so a Righteous man or woman But God in justifying men determineth and adjudgeth this and that man in special to be a true believer and therefore a Righteous man in the sence of the Law of Grace It is the work of a Judg to apply the Law as a general rule to the special cases of particular men and to justifie or condemn men in particular in reference to their particular cases by and according to the general rule of the Law And so doth God the Judg of all in the case before us He knows and considers every man in particular whether he be a true believer or not And those whom he finds to be so those he adjudgeth to be Righteous according to the tenor of the Gospel which is his justifying of them Now that God justifieth men this way and after this manner does I conceive plainly and fully appear by those Scriptures which tell us that God doth justifie us by Faith and that he doth impute or account Faith to us for Righteousness One vein of Scriptures acquaints us that God justifieth us by Faith and through Faith Rom. 3.28 30. and 5.1 Gal. 2.16 and 3.8 By another vein of Texts we are told that God imputes accounts and reckons Faith to us for Righteousness Gen. 15.6 Rom. 4.3 5 11 22 24. Gal. 3.6 Jam. 2.23 Now these two veins of Scripture put together the sense that results out of them is I think plainly this That God justifies us by accounting our Faith to us for Righteousness This is so plain as that I know not what can well be plainer In the one vein it 's said that God justifieth us by Faith in the other that he imputes and reckons Faith to us for Righteousness And for God to account Faith to us for Righteousness and to reckon and adjudg us to be Righteous upon the account of our Faith signifies I think the same