Rule of all Inherent Moral or Spiritual Obedience What are the Works of the Law declared from the Scripture and the Argument thereby confirmed The nature of Justifying Faith further declared Pag. 400. CHAP. XV. Of Faith alone CHAP. XVI Testimonies of Scripture confirming the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Rightesness of Christ. Jere. 23.6 Explained and vindicated Pag. 419. CHAP. XVII Testimonies out of the Evangelists considered Design of our Saviours Sermon on the Mount The purity and penalty of the Law vindicated by him Arguments from thence Luk. 18.9 10 11 12 13. The Parable of the Pharisee and Publican explained and applied to the present Argument Testimonies out of the Gospel by John Chap. 3.14 15 16 17 18 c. Pag. 425. CHAP. XVIII Testimonies out of the Epistles of Paul the Apostle His design in the Fifth Chapter to the Romans That Design explained at large and applied to the present Argument Chap. 3.24 25 26. explained and the true sense of the words vindicated The Causes of Justification enumerated Apostolical Inferences from the consideration of them Chap. 4. Design of the Disputation of the Apostle therein Analysis of his Discourse Ver. 4 5. particularly insisted on their true sense vindicated What Works excluded from the Justification of Abraham Who it is that worketh not In what sense the ungodly are justified All Men ungodly antecedently unto their Justification Faith alone the means of Justification on our part Faith it self absolutely considered not the Righteousness that is imputed unto us Proved by sundry Arguments Pag. 431. Chap. 5. Ver. 12 13 14 15 16 17 18. Boasting excluded in our selves asserted in God The design and sum of the Apostles Argument Objection of Socinus removed Comparison between the two Adams and those that derive from them Sin entered into the World What Sin intended Death what it compriseth What intended by it The sense of those words in as much or in whom all have sinned cleared and vindicated The various oppositions used by the Apostle in this Discourse Principally between Sin or the Fall and the Free Gift Between the disobedience of the one and the obedience of another Judgment on the one hand and Justification unto Life on the other The whole Context at large explained and the Argument for Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ fully confirmed P. 464. Chap. 10. V. 3 4. explained and insisted on to the same purpose Pag. 489. 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ how of God made Righteousness unto us Answer of Bellarmine unto this Testimony removed That of Socinus disproved True sense of the words evinced P. 497. 2 Cor. 5.21 In what sense Christ knew no sin Emphasis in that expression How he was made Sin for us By the Imputation of Sin unto him Mistakes of some about this expression Sense of the Antients Exception of Bellarmine unto this Testimony answered with other Reasonings of his to the same purpose P. 502. The Exceptions of others also removed Gal. 2.16 Pag. 513. Ephes. 2.8 9 10. Ephes. 2.8 9 10. Evidence of this Testemony Design of the Apostle from the beginning of the Chapter Method of the Apostle in the Declaration of the Grace of God Grace alone the cause of Deliverance from a State of Sin Things to be observed in the Assignation of the Causes of Spiritual Deliverance Grace how magnified by him Force of the Argument and evidence from thence State of the Case here proposed by the Apostle General determination of it By Grace ye are saved What it is to be saved inquired into The same as to be justified but not exclusively The causes of our Justification declared Positively and Negatively The whole secured unto the Grace of God by Christ and our Interest therein through Faith alone Works excluded What Works Not Works of the Law of Moses Not Works antecedent unto believing Works of true Believers Not only in opposition to the Grace of God but to Faith in us Argument from those words Reason whereon this exclusion of Works is founded To exclude Boasting on our part Boasting wherein it consists Inseparable from the Interest of Works in Justification Danger of it Confirmation of this Reason obviating an Objection The Objection stated If we be not justified by Works of what use are they answered Pag. 516. Phil. 3.8 9. Heads of Argument from this Testimony Design of the Context Righteousness the Foundation of Acceptance with God A twofold Righteousness considered by the Apostle Oppossite unto one another as unto the especial end inquired after Which of these he adhered unto his own Righteousness or the Righteousness of God declared by the Apostle with vehemency of speech Reasons of his earnestness herein The turning point whereon he left Judaism The opposition made unto this Doctrine by the Jews The weight of the Doctrine and unwillingness of Men to receive it His own sense of Sin and Grace Peculiar expressions used in this place for the Reasons mentioned concerning Christ. Concerning all things that are our own The choice to be made on the Case stated whether we will adhere unto our own Righteousness or that of Christs which are inconsistent as to the end of Justification Argument from this place Exceptions unto this Testimony and Argument from thence removed Our Personal Righteousness Inherent the same with respect unto the Law and Gospel External Righteousness only required by the Law an impious Imagination Works wrought before Faith only rejected The Exception removed Righteousness before Conversion not intended by the Apostle Pag. 256. CHAP. XIX Objections against the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. Nature of these Objections Difficulty in discerning aright the sense of some Men in this Argument Justification by Works the end of all declension from the Righteousness of Christ. Objections against this Doctrine derived from a supposition thereof alone First principal Objection Imputed Righteousness overthrows the necessity of an holy Life This Objection as managed by them of the Church of Rome an open calumny How insisted on by some among our selves Socinus fierceness in this charge His foul dishonesty therein False charges on Mens opinions making way for the rash condemnation of their persons Iniquity of such censures The Objection rightly stated Sufficiently answered in the previous Discourses about the nature of Faith and force of Moral Law The nature and necessity of Evangelical Holiness elswhere pleaded Particular answers unto this Objection All who profess this Doctrine do not exemplifie it in their lives The most holy Truths have been abused None by whom this Doctrine is now denied exceed them in holiness by whom it was formerly professed and the power of it attested The contrary Doctrine not successful in the Reformation of the lives of Men. The best way to determine this difference The same Objection managed against the Doctrine of the Apostle in his own days Efficacious prejudices against this Doctrine in the minds of Men. The whole Doctrine of
5.15 Eph. 2.4 8 9. 2 Tim. 1.9 Tit. 3.4 5. Being justified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so the LXX render the Hebrew particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without price without merit without cause and sometimes it is used for without end that is what is done in vain as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used by the Apostle Gal. 2.21 without price or reward Gen. 29.15 Exod. 21.22 2 Kings 24.25 without cause or merit or any means of procurement 1 Sam. 19.5 2 Sam. 24.24 Psal. 69.4 Psal. 102. In this sense it is rendred by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 15.25 The design of the word is to exclude all consideration of any thing in us that should be the cause or condition of our justification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 favour absolutely considered may have respect unto somewhat in him towards whom it is shewed so it is said that Joseph found grace or favour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the eyes of Potiphar Gen. 29.4 but he found it not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any consideration or cause for he saw that the Lord was with him and made all that he did to prosper in his hand v. 3. But no words can be found out to free our justification before God from all respect unto any thing in our selves but only what is added expresly as the means of its participation on our part through faith in his blood more emphatical than these here used by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his grace And with whom this is not admitted as exclusive of all Works or Obedience of our own of all conditions preparations and merit I shall despair of ever expressing my conceptions about it intelligibly unto them Having asserted this Righteousness of God as the cause and means of our justification before him in opposition unto all Righteousness of our own and declared the cause of the communication of it unto us on the part of God to be meer free Sovereign grace the means on our part whereby according unto the ordination of God we do receive or are really made partakers of that Righteousness of God whereon we are justified is by faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is by faith alone Nothing else is proposed nothing else required unto this end It is replied that there is no intimation that is by faith alone or that Faith is asserted to be the means of our Justification exclusively unto other Graces or Works But there is such an exclusion directly included in the description given of that faith whereby we are justified with respect unto its especial object by faith in his blood For Faith respecting the blood of Christ as that whereby propitiation was made for Sin in which respect alone the Apostle affirms that we are justified through faith admits of no association with any other Graces or Duties Neither is it any part of their nature to fix on the blood of Christ for Justification before God wherefore they are all here directly excluded And those who think otherwise may try how they can introduce them into this context without an evident corrupting of it and perverting of its sense Neither will the other evasion yield our Adversaries the least relief namely that by faith not the single grace of Faith is intended but the whole obedience required in the new Covenant Faith and Works together For as all works whatever as our works are excluded in the declaration of the causes of our Justification on the part of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely by his grace by vertue of that great Rule Rom. 11.6 If it be of grace then no more of works otherwise Grace is no more Grace so the determination of the object of faith in its act or duty whereon we are justified namely the blood of Christ is absolutely exclusive of all Works from an interest in that duty For whatever looks unto the blood of Christ for Justification is faith and nothing else And as for the calling of it a single act or duty I refer the Reader unto our preceding discourse about the nature of justifying Faith Three things the Apostle inferreth from the declaration he had made of the Nature and Causes of our Justification before God all of them further illustrating the meaning and sense of his words 1. That Boasting is excluded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 27. Apparent it is from hence and from what he affirms concerning Abraham Chap. 4. v. 2. that a great part at least of the controversie he had about Justification was whether it did admit of any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in those that were justified And it is known that the Jews placed all their Hopes in those things whereof they thought they could boast namely their Priviledges and their Righteousness But from the declaration made of the Nature and Causes of Justification the Apostle infers that all Boasting whatever is utterly shut out of doors 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Boasting in our language is the name of a vice and is never used in a good sense But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words used by the Apostle are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an indifferent signification and as they are applied may denote a Vertue as well as a Vice So they do Heb. 3.6 But alwayes and in all places they respect something that is peculiar in or unto them unto whom they are ascribed Wherever any thing is ascribed unto one and not unto another with respect unto any good end there is fundamentum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a foundation for boasting All this saith the Apostle in the matter of our Justification is utterly excluded But wherever respect is had unto any condition or qualification in one more than another especially if it be of works it giveth a ground of boasting as he affirms Chap. 4.2 And it appears from comparing that verse with this that wherever there is any influence of our own works into our Justification there is a ground of boasting but in Evangelical Justification no such boasting in any kind can be admitted Wherefore there is no place for Works in our Justification before God for if there were it is impossible but that a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in one kind or other before God or man must be admitted 2. He infers a general conclusion that a man is justified by Faith without the Works of the Law v. 28. What is meant by the Law and what by the Works of the Law in this discourse of the Apostle about our Justification hath been before declared And if we are justified freely through Faith in the Blood of Christ that Faith which hath the Propitiation of Christ for its especial Object or as it hath so can take no other Grace nor Duty into Partnership with it self therein and being so justified as that all such boasting is excluded as necessarily exults from any differencing Graces or Works in our selves wherein all the
for it was so imputed unto him long before and that in such a way as the Apostle proves thereby that Righteousness is imputed without Works 2 That he was not justified by a real efficiency of an habit of Righteousness in him or by any way of making him inherently Righteous who was before unrighteous is plain also because he was Righteous in that sense long before and had abounded in the Works of Righteousness unto the praise of God It remains therefore that then and by the Work mentioned he was justified as unto the evidencing and manifestation of his Faith and Justification thereon His other instance is of Rahab concerning whom he asserts that she was justified by Works when she had received the Messengers and sent them away But she received the Spies by Faith as the Holy Ghost witnesseth Heb. 11.31 And therefore had true Faith before their coming and if so was really justified For that any one should be a true believer and yet not be justified is destructive unto the foundation of the Gospel In this condition she received the Messengers and made unto them a full Declaration of her Faith Josh. 2.10 11. After her believing and Justification thereon and after the confession she had made of her Faith she exposed her life by concealing and sending of them away Hereby did she justifie the sincerity of her Faith and Confession and in that sense alone is said to be justified by Works And in no other sense doth the Apostle James in this place make mention of Justification which he doth also only occasionally Fourthly As unto Works mentioned by both Apostles the same Works are intended and there is no disagreement in the least about them For as the Apostle James intends by Works Duties of Obedience unto God according to the Law as is evident from the whole first part of the Chapter which gives occasion unto the Discourse of Faith and Works So the same are intended by the Apostle Paul also as we have proved before And as unto the necessity of them in all believers as unto other ends so as evidences of their Faith and Justification it is no less pressed by the one than the other as hath been declared These things being in general premised we may observe some things in particular from the Discourse of the Apostle James sufficiently evidencing that there is no contradiction therein unto what is delivered by the Apostle Paul concerning our Justification by Faith and the Imputation of Righteousness without Works nor to the Doctrine which from him we have learned and declared as 1 He makes no composition or conjunction between Faith and Works in our Justification but opposeth them the one to the other asserting the one and rejecting the other in order unto our Justification 2 He makes no distinction of a first and second Justification of the beginning and continuation of Justification but speaks of one Justification only which is our first personal Justification before God Neither are we concerned in any other Justification in this cause whatever 3 That he ascribes this Justification wholly unto Works in contradistinction unto Faith as unto that sense of Justification which he intended and the Faith whereof he treated Wherefore 4 He doth not at all enquire or determine how a sinner is justified before God but how Professors of the Gospel can prove or demonstrate that they are so and that they do not deceive themselves by trusting unto a lifeless and barren Faith All these things will be further evidenced in a brief consideration of the context it self wherewith I shall close this Discourse In the beginning of the Chapter unto v. 14. He reproves those unto whom he wrote for many sins committed against the Law the rule of their sins and Obedience or at least warneth them of them and having shewed the danger they were in hereby he discovers the Root and principal occasion of it v. 14. which was no other but a vain surmise and deceiving presumption that the Faith required in the Gospel was nothing but a bare assent unto the Doctrine of it whereon they were delivered from all obligation unto moral Obedience or good Works and might without any danger unto their eternal state live in whatever sins their lusts inclined them unto Chap. 4. v. 1 2 3 4. Chap. 5. v. 1 2 3 4 5. The state of such persons which contains the whole cause which he speaks unto and which gives rule and measure unto the interpretation of all his future arguings is laid down v. 14. What doth it profit my Brethren though a man say he hath Faith and have not Works can Faith save him suppose a man any one of those who are guilty of the sins charged on them in the foregoing verses do yet say or boast of himself that he hath Faith that he makes profession of the Gospel that he hath left either Judaism or Paganism and betaken himself to the Faith of the Gospel and therefore although he be destitute of good Works and live in sin he is accepted with God and shall be saved will indeed this Faith save him this therefore is the question proposed whereas the Gospel saith plainly that he who believeth shall be saved whether that Faith which may and doth consist with an indulgence unto sin and a neglect of Duties of Obedience is that Faith whereunto the promise of life and Salvation is annexed And thereon the enquiry proceeds how any man in particular he who says he hath Faith may prove and evidence himself to have that Faith which will secure his Salvation And the Apostle denies that this is such a Faith as can consist without Works or that any man can evidence himself to have true Faith any otherwise but by Works of Obedience only And in the proof hereof doth his whole ensuing Discourse consist Not once doth he propose unto consideration the means and causes of the Justification of a convinced sinner before God nor had he any occasion so to do So that his words are openly wrested when they are applied unto any such intention That the Faith which he intends and describes is altogether useless unto the end pretended to be attainable by it namely Salvation he proves in an instance of and by comparing it with the love or charity of an alike nature v. 15.16 If a Brother or Sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto him depart in peace be ye warmed and filled notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body what doth it profit This love or charity is not that Gospel Grace which is required of us under that name For he who behaveth himself thus towards the poor the love of God dwelleth not in him 1 Joh. 3.17 whatever name it may have whatever it may pretend unto whatever it may be professed or accepted for love it is not nor hath any of the effects of love is neither useful nor profitable Hence the
3.9 2 Cor. 4.6 The nature of Faith thence declared Faith alone ascribes and gives this glory to God Order of the Acts of Faith or the method in believing Convictions previous thereunto Sincere assent unto all Divine Revelations Acts 26.27 The Proposal of the Gospel unto that end Rom. 10.11 12 13 c. 2 Cor. 3.18 State of Persons called to believe Justifying Faith doth not consist in any one single habit or act of the Mind or Will The nature of that assent which is the first Act of Faith Approbation of the Way of Salvation by Christ comprehensive of the special nature of justifying Faith What is included therein 1. A Renuntiation of all other ways Hos. 14.2 3. Jer. 3.23 Psal. 7.16 Rom. 10.3 2. Consent of the Will unto this Way Joh. 14.6 3. Acquiescency of the Heart in God 1 Pet. 1.21 Trust in God Faith described by Trust the Reason of it Nature and Object of this Trust inquired into A double consideration of special Mercy Whether Obedience be included in the nature of Faith or be of the essence of it A sincere purpose of Vniversal Obedience inseparable from Faith How Faith alone justifieth Repentance how required in and unto Justification How a condition of the New Covenant Perseverance in Obedience is so also Definitions of Faith Pag. 125. CHAP. III. Vse of Faith in Justification various Conceptions about it By whom asserted as the Instrument of it by whom denied In what sense it is affirmed so to be The expressions of the Scripture concerning the use of Faith in Justification what they are and how they are best explained By an Instrumental Cause Faith how the Instrument of God in Justification How the Instrument of them that do believe The use of Faith expressed in the Scripture by apprehending receiving declared by an Instrument Faith in what sense the condition of our Justification Signification of that Term whence to be Learned Pag. 146. CHAP. IV. The proper sense of these words Justification and to justifie considered Necessity thereof Latine derivation of Justification Some of the Antients deceived by it From Jus and Justum Justus filius who The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vse and signification of it Places where it is used examined 2 Sam. 15.4 Deut. 21.5 Prov. 17.15 Isa. 5.23 Chap. 50.8 1 King 8.31 32. 2 Chro. 6.22 23. Psal. 82.3 Exod. 23.7 Isa. 53.11 Jere. 44.16 Dan. 12.3 The constant sense of the word evinced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vse of it in other Authors to punish What it is in the New Testament Matth. 11.19 Chap. 12.37 Luk. 7.29 Chap. 10.29 Chap. 16.15 Chap. 18.14 Acts 13.38 39. Rom. 2.13 Chap. 3.4 Constantly used in a forensick sense Places seeming dubious vindicated Rom. 8.30 1 Cor. 6.11 Tit. 3.5 6 7. Revel 22.11 How often these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used in the New Testament Constant sense of this The same evinced from what is opposed unto it Isa. 50.8 Prov. 17.15 Rom. 5.16 18. Rom. 8.33 34. And the Declaration of it in Terms equivalent Rom. 4.6 7. Rom. 5.9 10. 2 Cor. 5.20 21. Matth. 1.21 Acts 13.39 Gal. 2.16 c. Justification in the Scripture proposed under a Juridical Scheam and of a forensick Title The Parts and Progress of it Instances from the whole Pag. 169. c. CHAP. V. Distinction of a First and Second Justification The whole Doctrine of the Roman Church concerning Justification grounded on this Distinction The First Justification the nature and causes of it according unto the Romanists The Second Justification what it is in their sense Solution of the seeming Difference between Paul and James falsly pretended by this Distinction The same Distinction received by the Socinians and others The latter termed by some the continuation of our Justification The Distinction disproved Justification considered either as unto its Essence or its Manifestation The Manifestation of it twofold initial and final Initial is either unto our selves or others No Second Justification hence insues Justification before God Legal and Evangelical Their distinct natures The Distinction mentioned derogatory to the Merit of Christ. More in it ascribed unto our selves then unto the Blood of Christ in our Justification The vanity of Disputations to this purpose All true Justification everthrown by this Distinction No countenance given unto this Justification in the Scripture The Second Justification not intended by the Apostle James Evil of Arbitrary Distinctions Our First Justification so described in the Scripture as to leave no room for a Second Of the Continuation of our Justification Whether it depend on Faith alone or our Personal Righteousness inquired Justification at once compleated in all Causes and Effects of it proved at large Believers upon their Justification obliged unto perfect Obedience The commanding Power of the Law constitutes the nature of Sin in them who are not obnoxious unto its curse Future Sins in what sense remitted at our First Justification The Continuation of Actual Pardon and thereby of a justified Estate on what it doth depend Continuation of Justification the act of God whereon it depends in that sense On our part it depends on Faith alone Nothing required hereunto but the Application of Righteousness imputed The Continuation of our Justification is before God That whereon the Continuation of our Justification depends pleadable before God This not our Personal Obedience proved 1. By the experience of all Believers 2. Testimonies of Scripture 3. Examples The Distinction mentioned rejected Pag. 189. CHAP. VI. Evangelical Personal Righteousness the nature and use of it Whether there be an Evangelical Justification on our Evangelical Righteousness inquired into How this is by some affirmed and applauded Evangelical Personal Righteousness asserted as the condition of our Legal Righteousness or the Pardon of Sin Opinion of the Socinians Personal Righteousness required in the Gospel Believers hence denominated Righteous Not with respect unto Righteousness habitual but actual only Inherent Righteousness the same with Sanctification or Holiness In what sense we may be said to be justified by Inherent Righteousness No Evangelical Justification on our Personal Righteousness The Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ doth not depend thereon None have this Righteousness but they are untecedently justified A charge before God in all Justification before God The Instrument of this charge the Law or the Gospel From neither of them can we be justified by this Personal Righteousness The Justification pretended needless and useless It hath not the nature of any Justification mentioned in the Scripture but is contrary to all that is so called Other Arguments to the same purpose Sentential Justification at the last day Nature of the last Judgment Who shall be then justified A Declaration of Righteousness and an Actual Admission unto Glory the whole of Justification at the last day The Argument that we are justified in this life in the same manner and on the same Grounds as we shall be judged at the last day
the Apostle liable to be abused Answers of the Apostle unto this Objection He never once attempts to answer it by declaring the necessity of Personal Righteousness or good Works unto Justification before God He confines the cogency of Evangelical Motives unto Obedience only unto Believers Grounds of Evangelical Holiness asserted by him in compliance with his Doctrine of Justification 1. Divine Ordination Exceptions unto this Ground removed 2. Answer of the Apostle vindicated The Obligation of the Law unto Obedience Nature of it and consistency with Grace This Answer of the Apostle vindicated Heads of other Principles that might be pleaded to the same purpose Pag. 539. CHAP. XX. Seeming Difference no real contradiction between the Apostles Paul and James concerning Justification This granted by all Reasons of the seeming Difference The best Rule of the Interpretation of places of Scripture wherein there is an appearing repugnancy The Doctrine of Justification according unto that Rule principally to be learned from the Writings of Paul The Reasons of his fulness and accuracy in the teaching of that Doctrine The Importance of the Truth the opposition made unto it and abuse of it The design of the Apostle James Exceptions of some against the Writings of S. Paul scandalous and unreasonable Not in this matter to be interpreted by the passage in James insisted on Chap. 2. That there is no repugnancy between the Doctrine of the two Apostles demonstrated Heads and Grounds of the Demonstration Their scope design and end not the same That of Paul the only case stated and determined by him The designs of the Apostle James the case proposed by him quite of another nature The occasion of the case proposed and stated him No appearance of difference between the Apostles because of the several cases they speak unto Not the same Faith intended by them Description of the Faith spoken of by the one and the other Bellarmines Arguments to prove true justifying Faith to be intended by James answered Justification not treated of by the Apostles in the same manner nor used in the same sense nor to the same end The one treats of Justification as unto its nature and causes the other as unto its signs and evidence proved by the instances insisted on Pag. 557. How the Scripture was fulfilled that Abraham believed in God and it was counted unto him for Righteousness when he offered his Son on the Altar Works the same and of the same kind in both the Apostles Observations on the Discourse of James No Conjunction made by him between Faith and Works in our Justification but an opposition No distinction of a First and Second Justification in him Justification ascribed by him wholly unto Works in what sense Does not determine how a sinner may be justified before God but how a Professor may evidence himself so to be The Context opened from Ver. 14. to the end of the Chapter Pag. 569. Some of the Mistakes that have escaped in the Press may be thus corrected PAg. 10. Line 2. a fine read other p. 11. l. 24. none r. nothing p. 41. l. 30. r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 42. l. 22. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 53. l. 6. r. this Author l. 25. man r. men l. 26. them p. 64. l. 4. a fine that it is p. 71. l. 21. and r. add p. 72. l. 12. r. For an p. 172. l. 17. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l 28. Hithpaol p. 174. l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 175. l. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 176. l. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 4. a fine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 l. 3. a fine affects p. 180. l. 22. vocation that is intended p. 199. l. 1. which was r. whereas p. 208.23 such r. Faith p. 234. l. 2. dele 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 266. l. 8. Curcellaeus p. 283. l. 23. suffered r. offered p. 311. l. 30. of him p. 362. l. 11. r. as if we p. 392. l. 20. r. more colour p. 412. l. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 436. l. 2. a fine r. other men p. 444. l. 10. proofs r. process p. 465. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sundry other literal Mistakes and Mispointings are referred unto the candor of the Reader which I chuse rather than to trouble many with the rehearsal of what it may be few will take notice of General Considerations previously necessary unto the Explanation of the Doctrine of Justification THat we may treat of the Doctrine of Justification usefully unto its proper Ends which are the Glory of God in Christ with the peace and furtherance of the Obedience of Believers some things are previously to be considered which we must have respect unto in the whole process of our Discourse And among others that might be insisted on to the same purpose these that ensue are not to be omitted 1. The first Enquiry in this matter in a way of Duty is after the proper Relief of the Conscience of a sinner pressed and perplexed with a sense of the Guilt of sin For Justification is the way and means whereby such a person doth obtain acceptance before God with a Right and Title unto an heavenly Inheritance And nothing is pleadable in this cause but what a man would speak unto his own Conscience in that state or unto the Conscience of another when he is anxious under that Enquiry Wherefore The Person under consideration that is who is to be Justified is one who in himself is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4.5 Vngodly and thereon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 3.19 guilty before God that is obnoxious subject liable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 1.32 to the righteous sentential Judgment of God that he who committeth sin who is in any way guilty of it is worthy of Death Hereupon such a person finds himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 3.10 under the curse and the wrath of God therein abiding on him Joh. 3.18 36. In this condition he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without plea without excuse by any thing in and from himself for his own relief His mouth is stopped Rom. 3.19 For he is in the Judgment of God declared in the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 3.22 every way shut up under sin and all the consequents of it Many Evils in this condition are men subject unto which may be reduced unto those two of our first Parents wherein they were represented For first they thought foolishly to hide themselves from God and then more foolishly would have charged him as the cause of their sin And such naturally are the thoughts of men under their convictions But whoever is the subject of the Justification enquired after is by various means brought into his
but also the manner of our Participation of it or its Communication unto us from Faith to Faith the Faith of God in the Revelation and our Faith in the Acceptation of it being only here concerned is an eminent Revelation Righteousness of all things should rather seem to be from Works unto Works from the Work of Grace in us to the Works of Obedience done by us as the Papists affirm No saith the Apostle it is from Faith to Faith whereof afterwards This is the general Thesis the Apostle proposeth unto Confirmation and he seems therein to exclude from Justification every thing but the Righteousness of God and the Faith of Believers And to this purpose he considers all Persons that did or might pretend unto Righteousness or seek after it and all ways and means whereby they hoped to attain unto it or whereby it might most probably be obtained declaring the failing of all persons and the insufficiency of all means as unto them for the obtaining a Righteousness of our own before God And as unto Persons 1. He considers the Gentiles with all their notions of God their Practice in Religious Worship with their Conversation thereon And from the whole of what might be observed amongst them he concludes that they neither were nor could be justified before God but that they were all and that most deservedly obnoxious unto the sentence of Death And whatever men may discourse concerning the Justification and Salvation of any without the Revelation of the Righteousness of God by the Gospel from Faith to Faith it is expresly contradictory to his whole Discourse chap. 1. from ver 19. to the End 2. He considers the Jews who enjoyed the written Law and the Priviledges wherewith it was accompanied especially that of Circumcision which was the outward Seal of Gods Covenant And on many Considerations with many Arguments he excludes them also from any possibility of attaining Justification before God by any of the Priviledges they enjoyed or their own compliance therewithall chap. 2. And both sorts he excludes distinctly from this priviledge of Righteousness before God with this one Argument That both of them sinned openly against that which they took for the Rule of their Righteousness namely the Gentiles against the Light of Nature and the Jews against the Law whence it inevitably follows that none of them could attain unto the Righteousness of their own Rule But he proceeds farther unto that which is common to them all And 3. He proves the same against all sorts of Persons whether Jews or Gentiles from the consideration of the universal depravation of nature in them all and the horrible effects that necessarily ensue thereon in the Hearts and Lives of men chap. 3. So evidencing That as they all were so it could not fall out but that all must be shut up under sin and come short of Righteousness So from Persons he proceeds to Things or Means of Righteousness And 4. Because the Law was given of God immediately as the whole and only Rule of our Obedience unto him and the works of the Law are therefore all that is required of us these may be pleaded with some pretence as those whereby we may be justified Wherefore in particular he considers the Nature Use and End of the Law manifesting its utter insufficiency to be a means of our Justification before God chap. 3.19 20. 5. It may be yet objected That the Law and its works may be thus insufficient as it is obeyed by Vnbelievers in the state of Nature without the Aids of Grace administred in the Promise but with respect unto them who are Regenerate and do believe whose Faith and Works are accepted with God it may be otherwise To obviate this Objection he giveth an Instance in two of the most eminent Believers under the Old Testament namely Abraham and David declaring that all Works whatever were excluded in and from their Justification chap. 4. On these Principles and by this Gradation he peremptorily concludes That all and every one of the Sons of men as unto any thing that is in themselves or can be done by them or be wrought in them are guilty before God obnoxious unto Death shut up under sin and have their mouths so stopped as to be deprived of all pleas in their own excuse that they had no Righteousness wherewith to appear before God and that all the ways and means whence they expected it were insufficient unto that purpose Hereon he proceeds with his Enquiry how men may be delivered from this condition and come to be justified in the sight of God And in the Resolution hereof he makes no mention of any thing in themselves but only Faith whereby we receive the Attonement That whereby we are justified he saith is the Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Christ Jesus or that we are justified freely by Grace through the Redemption that is in him chap. 3.22 23 24 25. And not content here with this answer unto the enquiry how lost convinced sinners may come to be justified before God namely That it is by the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith by Grace by the blood of Christ as he is set forth for a Propitiation He immediately proceeds unto a positive exclusion of every thing in and of our selves that might pretend unto an Interest herein as that which is inconsistent with the Righteousness of God as revealed in the Gospel and witnessed unto by the Law and the Prophets How contrary their Scheme of Divinity is unto this Design of the Apostle and his management of it who affirm that before the Law men were justified by Obedience unto the Light of Nature and some particular Revelations made unto them in things of their own especial private concernment and that after the giving of the Law they were so by Obedience unto God according to the Directions thereof as also that the Heathen might obtain the same benefit in compliance with the Dictates of Reason cannot be contradicted by any who have not a mind to be contentious Answerable unto this Declaration of the mind of the Holy Ghost herein by the Apostle is the constant Tenour of the Scripture speaking to the same purpose The Grace of God the Promise of Mercy the free pardon of Sin the Blood of Christ his Obedience and the Righteousness of God in him rested in and received by Faith are every where asserted as the causes and means of our Justification in opposition unto any thing in our selves so expressed as it useth to express the best of our Obedience and the utmost of our personal Righteousness Wherever mention is made of the Duties Obedience and personal Righteousness of the best of men with respect unto their Justification they are all renounced by them and they betake themselves unto Soveraign Grace and Mercy alone Some places to this purpose may be recounted The Foundation of the whole is laid in the first Promise wherein the Destruction of
the Righteousness of Christ is so far imputed unto us that on the account thereof God gives unto us Justifying Grace and thereby the Remission of Sin in their sense whence they allow it the meritorious cause of our Justification But on a supposition thereof or the reception of that Grace we are continued to be justified before God by the works we perform by vertue of that Grace received And though some of them rise so high as to affirm that this Grace and the works of it need no farther respect unto the Righteousness of Christ to deserve our second Justification and life eternal as doth Vasquez expresly in 1.2 q. 114. Disp. 222. cap. 3. Yet many of them affirm that it is still from the consideration of the merit of Christ that they are so meritorious And the same for the substance of it is the Judgment of some of them who affirm the continuation of our Justification to depend on our own works setting aside that ambiguous term of merit For it is on the account of the Righteousness of Christ they say that our own works or imperfect obedience is so accepted with God as that the continuation of our Justification depends thereon But the Apostle gives us another account hereof Rom. 5.1 2 3. For he distinguisheth three things our Access into the Grace of God 2 Our standing in that Grace 3 Our Glorying in that station against all opposition By the first he expresseth our absolute Justification By the second our continuation in the state whereinto we are admitted thereby and by the third the assurance of that continuation notwithstanding all the oppositions we meet withal And all these he ascribeth equally unto Faith without the intermixture of any other cause or condition And other places express to the same purpose might be pleaded 3. The examples of them that did believe and were justified which are recorded in the Scripture do all bear witness unto the same Truth The continuation of the Justification of Abraham before God is declared to have been by Faith only Rom. 4.3 For the instance of his Justification given by the Apostle from Gen. 15.6 was long after he was justified absolutely And if our first Justification and the continuation of it did not depend absolutely on the same cause the instance of the one could not be produced for a proof of the way and means of the other as here they are And David when a justified Believer not only placeth the Blessedness of man in the free Remission of sins in opposition unto his own works in general Rom. 4.6 7. but in his own particular case ascribeth the continuation of his Justification and acceptation before God unto Grace Mercy and forgiveness alone which are no otherwise received but by Faith Psal. 130.3 4 5. Psal. 143.2 All other works and duties of obedience do accompany Faith in the continuation of our justified estate as necessary effects and fruits of it but not as causes means or conditions whereon that effect is suspended It is patient waiting by Faith that brings in the full accomplishment of the Promises Heb. 6.12 16. Wherefore there is but one Justification and that of one kind only wherein we are concerned in this Disputation The Scripture makes mention of no more and that is the Justification of an ungodly person by Faith Nor shall we admit of the consideration of any other For if there be a second Justification it must be of the same kind with the first or of another if it be of the same kind then the same person is often justified with the same kind of Justification or at least more than once and so on just reason ought to be often Baptized If it be not of the same kind then the same person is justified before God with two sorts of Justification of both which the Scripture is utterly silent And the continuation of our Justification depends solely on the same causes with our Justification it self CHAP. VI. Evangelical Personal Righteousness the Nature and Vse of it Final Judgment and its respect unto Justification THe things which we have discoursed concerning the first and second Justification and concerning the continuation of Justification have no other Design but only to clear the principal subject whereof we treat from what doth not necessarily belong unto it For until all things that are either really heterogeneous or otherwise superfluous are separated from it we cannot understand aright the true state of the Question about the nature and causes of our Justification before God For we intend one only Justification namely that whereby God at once freely by his Grace justifieth a convinced sinner through Faith in the Blood of Christ. Whatever else any will be pleased to call Justification we are not concerned in it nor are the Consciences of them that believe To the same purpose we must therefore briefly also consider what is usually disputed about our own personal Righteousness with a Justification thereon as also what is called sentential Justification at the day of Judgment And I shall treat no farther of them in this place but only as it is necessary to free the principal subject under consideration from being intermixed with them as really it is not concerned in them For what Influence our own personal Righteousness hath into our Justification before God will be afterwards particularly examined Here we shall only consider such a notion of it as seems to enterfere with it and disturb the right understanding of it But yet I say concerning this also that it rather belongs unto the Difference that will be among us in the Expression of our conceptions about spiritual things whilst we know but in part than unto the substance of the Doctrine it self And on such differences no breach of Charity can ensue whilst there is a mutual Grant of that liberty of mind without which it will not be preserved one moment It is therefore by some apprehended that there is an Evangelical Justification upon our Evangelical Personal Righteousness This they distinguish from that Justification which is by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ in the sense wherein they do allow it For the Righteousness of Christ is our Legal Righteousness whereby we have pardon of sin and acquitment from the sentence of the Law on the account of his satisfaction and merit But moreover they say that as there is a Personal inherent Righteousness required of us so there is a Justification by the Gospel thereon For by our Faith and the plea of it we are justified from the charge of Unbelief by our sincerity and the plea of it we are justified from the charge of Hypocrisie and so by all other Graces and Duties from the charge of the contrary sins in Commission or Omission so far as such sins are inconsistent with the Terms of the Covenant of Grace How this differeth from the second Justification before God which some say we have by works on the supposition
Hereby it was plainly and fully declared that there must be such a Righteousness provided for our Justification before Men as would answer and remove that curse 4. In the Prefiguration and Representation of that only way and means whereby this Righteousness of God was to be wrought This it did in all its Sacrifices especially in the great Anniversary Sacrifice on the Day of Expiation wherein all the sins of the Church were laid on the Head of the Sacrifice and so carried away 3. He describes it by the only way of our participation of it the only means on our part of the communication of it unto us And this is by Faith alone The Righteousness of God which is by the Faith of Christ Jesus unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference Ver. 22. Faith in Christ Jesus is so the only way and means whereby this Righteousness of God comes upon us or is communicated unto us that it is so unto all that have this Faith and only unto them and that without difference on the consideration of any thing else besides And although Faith taken absolutely may be used in various senses yet as thus specified and limited the Faith of Christ Jesus or as he calls it the Faith that is in me Acts 26.18 It can intend nothing but the reception of him and trust in him as the Ordinance of God for Righteousness and Salvation This description of The Righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel which the Apostle asserts as the only means and cause of our Justification before God with the only way of its participation and communication unto us by the Faith of Christ Jesus fully confirms the truth we plead for For if the Righteousness wherewith we must be justified before God be not our own but the Righteousness of God as these things are directly opposed Phil. 3.9 And the only way whereby it comes upon us or we are made partakers of it is by the Faith of Jesus Christ then our own personal inherent Righteousness or Obedience hath no interest in our Justification before God which Argument is insoluble nor is the force of it to be waved by any distinctions whatever if we keep our hearts unto a due reverence of the Authority of God in his Word Having fully proved That no Men living have any Righteousness of their own whereby they may be justified but are all shut up under the guilt of sin and having declared That there is a Righteousness of God now fully revealed in the Gospel whereby alone we may be so leaving all Men in themselves unto their own lot In as much as all have sinned and come short of the glory of God he proceeds to declare the nature of our Justification before God in all the causes of it Ver. 24 25 26. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the Justifier of them that believe in Jesus Here it is that we may and ought if any where to expect the interest of our personal obedience under some qualification or other in our Justification to be declared For if it should be supposed which yet it cannot with any pretence of Reason that in the foregoing discourse the Apostle had excluded only the Works of the Law as absolutely perfect or as wrought in our own strength without the aid of Grace or as meritorious yet having generally excluded all Works from our Justification Ver. 20. Without distinction or limitation it might well be expected and ought to have been so that upon the full Declaration which he gives us of the nature and way of our Justification in all the causes of it he should have assigned the place and consideration which our own personal Righteousness had in our Justification before God the first or second or continuation of it somewhat or other or at least made some mention of it under the qualification of gracious sincere or Evangelical that it might not seem to be absolutely excluded It is plain the Apostle thought of no such thing nor was at all solicitous about any reflection that might be made on his Doctrine as though it overthrew the necessity of our own obedience Take in the consideration of the Apostles design with the circumstances of the context and the Argument from his utter silence about our own personal Righteousness in our Justification before God is unanswerable But this is not all we shall find in our progress that it is expresly and directly excluded by him All unprejudiced persons must needs think that no words could be used more express and emphatical to secure the whole of our Justification unto the Freegrace of God through the Blood or Mediation of Christ wherein it is Faith alone that gives us an interest than these used here by the Apostle And for my part I shall only say that I know not how to express my self in this matter in words and terms more express or significant of the conception of my mind And if we could all but subscribe the answer here given by the Apostle how by what means on what grounds or by what causes are we justified before God namely that we are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood c. There might be an end of this Controversie But the principal passages of this Testimony must be distinctly considered 1. The principal efficient cause is first expressed with a peculiar emphasis or the causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being justified freely by his Grace God is the principal efficient cause of our Justification and his Grace is the only moving cause thereof I shall not stay upon the exception of those of the Roman Church namely that by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which their Translation renders per gratiam Dei the internal inherent Grace of God which they make the formal cause of Justification is intended For they have nothing to prove it but that which overthrows it namely that it is added unto 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 freely which were needless if it signifie the Free-grace or Favor of God For both these expressions gratis per gratiam freely by Grace are put together to give the greater emphasis unto this assertion wherein the whole of our Justification is vendicated unto the Free-grace of God So far as they are distinguishable the one denotes the principle from whence our Justification proceeds namely Grace and the other the manner of its operation it works freely Besides the Grace of God in this subject doth every where constantly signifie his goodness love and favor as hath been undeniably proved by many See Rom.
things we may observe in the Apostles assignation of the causes of our deliverance from a state of sin and acceptance with God 1. That he assigns the whole of this work absolutely unto Grace Love and Mercy and that with an exclusion of the consideration of any thing on our part as we shall see immediately Ver. 5 8. 2. He magnifies this Grace in a marvellous manner For 1. He expresseth it by all names and titles whereby it is signified as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mercy Love Grace and Kindness For he would have us to look only unto Grace herein 2. He ascribes such Adjuncts and gives such Epithets unto that Divine Mercy and Grace which is the sole cause of our deliverance in and by Jesus Christ as render it singular and herein solely to be adored 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rich in Mercy Great Love wherewith he loved us The exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness Ver. 4 5 6 7. It cannot reasonably be denied but that the Apostle doth design deeply to affect the Mind and Heart of Believers with a sense of the Grace and Love of God in Christ as the only cause of their Justification before God I think no words can express those conceptions of the Mind which this Representation of Grace doth suggest Whether they think it any part of their duty to be like minded and comply with the Apostle in this design who scarce ever mention the Grace of God unless it be in a way of diminution from its efficacy and unto whom such Ascriptions unto it as are here made by him are a matter of contempt is not hard to judge But it will be said these are good words indeed but they are only general there is nothing of Argument in all this adoring of the Grace of God in the work of our Salvation It may be so it seems to many But yet to speak plainly there is to me more Argument in this one consideration namely of the Ascription made in this cause unto the Grace of God in this place then in an hundred Sophisms suited neither unto the expressions of the Scripture nor the experience of them that do believe He that is possessed with a due apprehension of the Grace of God as here represented and under a sense that it was therein the design of the Holy Ghost to render it glorious and alone to be trusted unto will not easily be induced to concern himself in those additional supplies unto it from our own works and obedience which some would suggest unto him But we may yet look further into the words The case which the Apostle states the inquiry which he hath in hand whereon he determineth as to the Truth wherein he instructs the Ephesians and in them the whole Church of God is How a lost condemned sinner may come to be accepted with God and thereon saved And this is the sole inquiry wherein we are or intend in this controversie to be concerned Further we will not proceed either upon the invitation or provocation of any Concerning this his position and determination is That we are saved by Grace This first he occasionally interposeth in his enumeration of the benefits we receive by Christ Ver. 5. But not content therewith he again directly asserts it Ver. 8. in the same words for he seems to have considered how slow Men would be in the admittance of this Truth which at once deprives them of all boastings in themselves What it is that he intends by our being saved must be inquired into It would not be prejudicial unto but rather advance the truth we plead for if by our being saved eternal Salvation were intended But that cannot be the sense of it in this place otherwise than as that Salvation is included in the causes of it which are effectual in this life Nor do I think that in that expression By Grace ye are saved our Justification only is intended although it be so principally Conversion unto God and Sanctification are also included therein as is evident from Ver. 5 6. And they are no less of sovereign Grace than is our Justification it self But the Apostle speaks of what the Ephesians being now Believers and by vertue of their being so were made partakers of in this life This is manifest in the whole context For having in the beginning of the Chapter described their condition what it was in common with all the Posterity of Adam by nature Ver. 1 2 3. He moreover declares their condition in particular in opposition to that of the Jews as they were Gentiles Idolaters Atheists Ver. 11 12. Their present delivery by Jesus Christ from this whole miserable state and condition that which they were under in common with all mankind and that which was a peculiar aggravation of its misery in themselves is that which he intends by their being saved That which was principally designed in the description of this state is That therein and thereby they were liable unto the wrath of God guilty before him and obnoxious unto his judgment This he expresseth in the declaration of it Ver. 3. Answerable unto that method and those grounds he every where proceeds on in declaring the Doctrine of Justification Rom. 3.19 20 21 22 23 24. Tit. 3.3 4 5. From this state they had deliverance by Faith in Christ Jesus For unto as many as received him power is given to be the sons of God Joh. 1.12 He that believeth on him is not condemned that is he is saved in the sense of the Apostle in this place Joh. 3.15 He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life is saved but he that believeth not the wrath of God abideth on him Ver. 36. And in this sense saved and Salvation are frequently used in the Scripture Besides he gives us so full a description of the Salvation which he intends from Ver. 13. unto the end of the Chapter that there can be no doubt of it It is our being made nigh by the Blood of Christ Ver. 13. Our Peace with God by his death Ver. 14 15. Our Reconciliation by the Blood of the Cross Ver. 16. Our access unto God and all Spiritual priviledges thereon depending Ver. 18 19 20 c. Wherefore the inquiry of the Apostle and his determination thereon is concerning the causes of our Justification before God This he declares and fixeth both Positively and Negatively Positively 1. In the supream moving Cause on the part of God This is that free sovereign Grace and Love of his which he illustrates by its adjuncts and properties before mentioned 2. In the meritorious procuring cause of it which is Jesus Christ in the Work of his Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the rendring this Grace effectual unto his Glory Ver. 7 13 16. 3. In the only means or instrumental cause on our part which is Faith By Grace are ye saved through Faith Ver. 8. And lest he should seem to derogate any thing from the Grace
He is utterly mistaken for the Apostle doth not ascribe Justification partly to Works and partly to Faith but he ascribes Justification in the sense by him intended wholly to Works in opposition to that Faith concerning which he treats For there is a plain Antithesis in the Words between Works and Faith as unto Justification in the sense by him intended A dead Faith a Faith without Works the Faith of Devils is excluded from having any influence into Justification Fourthly He adds that the Apostle compares this Faith without Works unto a rich man that gives nothing unto the poor ver 16. and a Body without a Spirit ver 26. wherefore as that knowledg whereby a rich man knows the wants of the poor is true and real and a dead body is a body so is Faith without Works true Faith also and as such is considered by Saint James Ans. These things do evidently destroy what they are produced in the confirmation of only the Cardinal helps them out with a little Sophistry For whereas the Apostle compares this Faith unto the charity of a man that gives nothing to the poor he suggests in the room thereof his knowledge of their poverty And his knowledge may be true and the more true and certain it is the more false and feigned is the charity which he pretends in these words Go and be fed or cloathed Such is the Faith the Apostle speaks of And although a dead body is a true body that is as unto the matter or substance of it a Carcass yet is it not an essential part of a living man A Carcass is not of the same nature or kind as is the body of a living man And we assert no other difference between the Faith spoken of by the Apostle and that which is justifying than what is between a dead breathless Carcass and a living animated body prepared and fitted for all vital acts Wherefore it is evident beyond all contradiction if we have not a mind to be contentious that what the Apostle James here derogates from Faith as unto our Justification it respects only a dead barren lifeless Faith such as is usually pretended by ungodly godly men to countenance themselves in their sins And herein the Faith asserted by Paul hath no concern The consideration of the present condition of the profession of Faith in the World will direct us unto the best exposition of this place Thirdly They speak not of Justification in the same sense nor unto the same end It is of our absolute Justification before God the Justification of our persons our acceptance with him and the grant of a right unto the Heavenly inheritance that the Apostle Paul doth treat and thereof alone This he declares in all the causes of it all that on the part of God or on our part concurreth thereunto The evidence the knowledge the sense the fruit the manifestation of it in our own Consciences in the Church unto others that profess the Faith he treats not of but speaks of them separately as they occur on other occasions The Justification he treats of is but one and at once accomplished before God changing the relative state of the person justified and is capable of being evidenced various ways unto the glory of God and the consolation of them that truly believe Hereof the Apostle James doth not treat at all for his whole enquiry is after the nature of that Faith whereby we are justified and the only way whereby it may be evidenced to be of the right kind such as a man may safely trust unto Wherefore he treats of Justification only as to the evidence and manifestation of it nor had he any occasion to do otherwise And this is apparent from both the instances whereby he confirms his purpose The first is that of Abraham ver 21.22 23. For he says that by Abrahams being justified by Works in the way and manner wherein he asserts him so to have been the Scripture was fulfilled which says that Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness And if his intention were to prove that we are justified before God by Works and not by Faith because Abraham was so the Testimony produced is contrary yea directly contradictory unto what should be proved by it and accordingly is alledged by Paul to prove that Abraham was justified by Faith without Works as the words do plainly import Nor can any man declare how the Truth of this proposition Abraham was justified by Works intending absolute Justification before God was that wherein that Scripture was fulfilled Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness especially considering the opposition that is made both here and elsewhere between Faith and Works in this matter Besides he asserts that Abraham was justified by Works then when he had offered his Son on the Altar the same we believe also but only enquire in what sense he was so justified For it was Thirty years or thereabout after it was testified concerning him that he believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness and when Righteousness was imputed unto him he was justified And twice justified in the same sense in the same way with the same kind of Justification he was not How then was he Justified by Works when he offered his Son on the Altar He that can conceive it to be any otherwise but that he was by his Work in the offering of his Son evidenced and declared in the sight of God and man to be justified apprehends what I cannot attain unto seeing that he was really justified long before as is unquestionable and confessed by all He was I say then justified in the sight of God in the way declared Gen. 22.12 And gave a signal Testimony unto the sincerity of his Faith and trust in God manifesting the truth of that Scripture he believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness And in the quotation of this Testimony the Apostle openly acknowledgeth that he was really accounted Righteous had Righteousness imputed unto him and was justified before God the reasons and causes whereof he therefore considereth not long before that Justification which he ascribes unto his Works which therefore can be nothing but the evidencing proving and manifestation of it whence also it appears of what nature that Faith is whereby we are justified the Declaration whereof is the principal design of the Apostle In brief the Scripture alledged that Abraham believed and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness was fulfilled when he was justified by Works on the offering of his Son on the Altar either by the Imputation of Righteousness unto him or by a real efficiency or working Righteousness in him or by the manifestation and evidence of his former Justification or some other way must be found out 1 That it was not by Imputation or that Righteousness unto the Justification of life was not then first imputed unto him is plain in the Text
that Judgment being according unto Works answered and the Impertinency of it declared Pag. 211. CHAP. VII Imputation and the nature of it The first express Record of Justification determineth it to be by Imputation Gen. 15.6 Reasons of it The Doctrine of Imputation cleared by Paul the occasion of it Maligned and opposed by many Weight of the Doctrine concerning Imputation of Righteousness on all hands acknowledged Judgment of the Reformed Churches herein particularly of the Church of England By whom opposed and on what Grounds Signification of the Word Difference between reputare and imputare Imputation of two kinds 1. Of what was ours antecedently unto that Imputation whether good or evil Instances in both kinds Nature of this Imputation The thing imputed by it imputed for what it is and nothing else 2. Of what is not ours antecedently unto that Imputation but is made so by it General nature of this Imputation Not judging of others to have done what they have not done Several distinct Grounds and Reasons of this Imputation 1. Ex Justitia 1. Propter Relationem foederalem 2. Propter Relationem Naturalem 2. Ex voluntaria sponsione Instances Philem. 17. Gen. 43.9 Voluntary sponsion the Ground of the Imputation of Sin to Christ. 3. Ex injuria 1 King 1.21 4. Ex mera Gratia Rom. 4. Difference between the Imputation of any Works of ours and of the Righteousness of God Imputation of Inherent Righteousness is Ex Justitia Inconsistency of it with that which is Ex mera Gratia Rom. 11.6 Agreement of both kinds of Imputation The true nature of the Imputation of Righteousness unto Justification explained Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. The thing it self imputed not the effect of it proved against the Socinians Pag. 226. CHAP. VIII Imputation of Sin unto Christ. Testimonies of the Antients unto that purpose Christ and the Church one Mystical Person Mistakes about that State and Relation Grounds and Reasons of the Vnion that is the foundation of this Imputation Christ the Surety of the New Covenant in what sense unto what ends Heb. 7.22 opened Mistakes about the Causes and Ends of the Death of Christ. The New Covenant in what sense alone procured and purchased thereby Inquiry whether the Guilt of our sins was imputed unto Christ. The meaning of the words Guilt and Guilty The Distinction of Reatus culpae and Reatus paenae examined Act of God in the Imputation of the Guilt of our Sins unto Christ. Objections against it answered The Truth confirmed Pag. 246. CHAP. IX Principal Controversies about Justification 1. Concerning the nature of Justification stated 2. Of the Formal Cause of it 3. Of the Way whereby we are made partakers of the Benefits of the Mediation of Christ. What intended by the Formal Cause of Justification declared The Righteousness on the account whereof Believers are justified before God alone inquired after under those Terms This the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto them Occasions of Exceptions and Objections against this Doctrine General Objections examined Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ consistent with the Free Pardon of Sin with the necessity of Evangelical Repentance Method of Gods Grace in our Justification Necessity of Faith unto Justification on supposition of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. Grounds of that Necessity Other Objections arising mostly from mistakes of the Truth asserted discussed and answered Pag. 289. CHAP. X. Arguments for Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. Our own Personal Righteousness not that on the account whereof we are justified in the sight of God Disclaimed in the Scripture as to any such end The truth and reality of it granted Manifold Imperfections accompanying it rendering it unmeet to be a Righteousness unto the Justification of Life Pag. 315. CHAP. XI Nature of the Obedience or Righteousness required unto Justification Original and Causes of the Law of Creation The Substance and End of that Law The Immutability or unchangeableness of it considered absolutely and as it was the Instrument of the Covenant between God and Man Arguments to prove it unchangeable and its Obligation unto the Righteousness first required perpetually in force Therefore not abrogated not dispensed withal not derogated from but accomplished This alone by Christ and the Imputation of his Righteousness unto us Pag. 340. CHAP. XII Imputation of the Obedience of Christ no less necessary then that of his suffering on the same Ground Objections against it 1. That it is impossible Management hereof by Socinus Ground of this Objection That the Lord Christ was for himself obliged unto all the Obedience he yielded unto God and performed it for himself answered The Obedience inquired after the Obedience of the Person of Christ the Son of God In his whole Person Christ was not under the Law He designed the Obedience he performed for us not for himself This Actual Obedience not necessary as a qualification of his Person unto the discharge of his Office The Foundation of this Obedience in his being made Man and of the Posterity of Abraham not for himself but for us Right of the Humane Nature unto Glory by virtue of Vnion Obedience necessary unto the Humane Nature as Christ in it was made under the Law This Obediencs properly for us Instances of that nature among Men. Christ obeyed as a publick Person and so not for himself Humane Nature of Christ subject unto the Law as an Eternal Rule of dependance on God and subjection to him not as prescribed unto us whilest we are in this World in order unto our future Blessedness or Reward Second Objection that it is useless answered He that is pardoned all his sins is not thereon esteemed to have done all that is required of him Not to be unrighteous Negatively not the same with being righteous Positively The Law obligeth both unto punishment and obedience how and in what sense Pardon of Sin gives no title to Eternal Life The Righteousness of Christ who is one imputed unto many Arguments proving the Imputation of the Obedience of Christ unto the Justification of Life Pag. 361. CHAP. XIII The Difference between the two Covenants stated Arguments from thence Pag. 396. CHAP. XIV All Works whatever expresly excluded from any interst in our Justification before God What intended by the Works of the Law Not those of the Ceremonial Law only Not perfect Works only as required by the Law of our Creation Not the outward Works of the Law performed without a principle of Faith Not Works of the Jewish Law Not Works with a conceit of Merit Not Works only wrought before believing in the strength of our own wills Works excluded absolutely from our Justification without respect unto a Distinction of a First and Second Justification The true sense of the Law in the Apostolical Assertion that none are justified by the Works thereof What the Jews understood by the Law Distribution of the Law under the Old Testament The whole Law a perfect
Apprehensions who cryed Sirs What must I do to be saved 2. With respect unto this state and condition of men or men in this state and condition the enquiry is What that is upon the account whereof God pardoneth all their sins receiveth them into his favour declareth or pronounceth them Righteous and acquitted from all Guilt removes the Curse and turneth away all his wrath from them giving them Right and Title unto a blessed Immortality or life Eternal This is that alone wherein the Consciences of sinners in this estate are concerned Nor do they enquire after any thing but what they may have to oppose unto or answer the Justice of God in the commands and curse of the Law and what they may betake themselves unto for the obtaining of Acceptance with him unto life and salvation That the Apostle doth thus and no otherwise state this whole matter and in an Answer unto this Enquiry declare the nature of Justification and all the causes of it in the third and fourth Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans and elswhere shall be afterwards declared and proved And we shall also manifest that the Apostle James in the second Chapter of his Epistle doth not speak unto this Enquiry nor give an Answer unto it but it is of Justification in another sense and to another purpose whereof he treateth And whereas we cannot either safely or usefully treat of this Doctrine but with respect unto the same Ends for which it is declared and whereunto it is applied in the Scripture we should not by any pretences be turned aside from attending unto this Case and its Resolution in all our Discourses on this subject For it is the Direction Satisfaction and peace of the Consciences of men and not the curiosity of Notions or subtilty of Disputations which it is our Duty to design And therefore I shall as much as possibly I may avoid all those Philosophical Terms and Distinctions wherewith this Evangelical Doctrine hath been perplexed rather than illustrated For more weight is to be put on the steady Guidance of the Mind and Conscience of one Believer really exercised about the Foundation of his peace and acceptance with God then on the confutation of ten wrangling Disputers 3. Now the Enquiry on what account or for what Cause and Reason a man may be so acquitted or discharged of sin and accepted with God as before declared doth necessarily issue in this Whether it be any thing in our selves as our Faith and Repentance the Renovation of our Natures inherent habits of Grace and actual works of Righteousness which we have done or may do or whether it be the Obedience Righteousness Satisfaction and Merit of the Son of God our Mediator and Surety of the Covenant imputed unto us One of these it must be namely something that is our own which whatever may be the Influence of the Grace of God into it or causality of it because wrought in and by us is inherently our own in a proper sense or something which being not our own not inherent in us not wrought by us is yet imputed unto us for the pardon of our sins and the Acceptation of our Persons as righteous or the making of us Righteous in the sight of God Neither are these things capable of mixture or composition Rom. 11.6 Which of these it is the Duty Wisdome and safety of a convinced sinner to rely upon and trust unto in his Appearance before God is the sum of our present Enquiry 4. The way whereby sinners do or ought to betake themselves unto this Relief on supposition that it is the Righteousness of Christ and how they come to be partakers of or interested in that which is not inherently their own unto as good Benefit and as much Advantage as if it were their own is of a distinct consideration And as this also is clearly determined in the Scripture so it is acknowledged in the Experience of all them that do truly believe Neither are we in this matter much to regard the senses or arguings of men who were never throughly convinced of sin nor have ever in their own persons fled for Refuge unto the Hope set before them 5. These things I say are always to be attended unto in our whole Disquisition into the nature of Evangelical Justification For without a constant respect unto them we shall quickly wander into curious and perplexed Questions wherein the Consciences of guilty Sinners are not concerned and which therefore really belong not unto the substance or truth of this Doctrine nor are to be immixed therewith It is alone the Relief of those who are in themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 guilty before or obnoxious and liable to the Judgment of God that we enquire after That this is not any thing in or of themselves nor can so be that it is a Provision without them made in infinite Wisdom and Grace by the mediation of Christ his Obedience and Death therein is secured in the Scripture against all contradiction And it is the fundamental Principle of the Gospel Math. 11.28 6. It is confessed that many things for the Declaration of the Truth and the order of the Dispensation of Gods Grace herein are necessarily to be insisted on such are the nature of Justifying Faith the place and use of it in Justification the Causes of the new Covenant the true notion of the Mediation and Suretiship of Christ and the like which shall all of them be enquired into But beyond what tends directly unto the Guidance of the Minds and satisfaction of the Souls of Men who seek after a stable and abiding foundation of Acceptance with God we are not easily to be drawn unless we are free to lose the Benefit and Comfort of this most important Evangelical Truth in needless and unprofitable contentions And amongst many other miscarriages which men are subject unto whilst they are conversant about these things this in an especial manner is to be avoided 1. For the Doctrine of Justification is directive of Christian Practice and in no other Evangelical Truth is the whole of our Obedience more concerned For the Foundation Reasons and Motives of all our Duty towards God are contained therein Wherefore in order unto the due improvement of them ought it to be taught and not otherwise That which alone we aim or ought so to do to learn in it and by it is how we may get and maintain peace with God and so to live unto him as to be accepted with him in what we do To satisfie the Minds and Consciences of men in these things is this Doctrine to be taught Wherefore to carry it out of the understandings of ordinary Christians by speculative notions and distinctions is disserviceable unto the Faith of the Church Yea the mixing of Evangelical Revelations with Philosophical Notions hath been in sundry Ages the Poison of Religion Pretence of accuracy and artificial skill in Teaching is that which giveth countenance unto such a
Faith and that not of your selves it is the Gift of God Not of Works lest any man should boast For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto Good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Ephes. 2.8 9 10. Yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having my own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Phil. 3. 8 9. Who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our Works but according unto his own purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the World began 2 Tim. 1.9 That being justified by his Grace we should be made Heirs according to the hope of Eternal Life Tit. 3.7 He hath once appeared in the End of the World to put away sin Heb. 9.26 28. having in himself purged our sins chap. 1.3 For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified chap. 10.14 For the Blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1.7 Wherefore unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen Rev. 1.5 6. These are some of the places which at present occur to Remembrance wherein the Scripture represents unto us the Grounds Causes and Reasons of our Acceptation with God The especial import of many of them and the Evidence of Truth that is in them will be afterwards considered Here we take only a general view of them And everything in and of our selves under any consideration whatever seems to be excluded from our Justification before God Faith alone excepted whereby we receive his Grace and the Attonement And on the other side the whole of our Acceptation with Him seems to be assigned unto Grace Mercy the Obedience and Blood of Christ in opposition unto our own Worth and Righteousness or our own Works and Obedience And I cannot but suppose that the Soul of a convinced sinner if not prepossessed with prejudice will in general not judge amiss whether of these things that are set in opposition one to the other he should betake himself unto that he may be justified But it is replyed these things are not to be understood absolutely and without Limitations Sundry Distinctions are necessary that we may come to understand the mind of the Holy Ghost and sense of the Scripture in these Ascriptions unto Grace and Exclusions of the Law our own Works and Righteousness from our Justification For 1 the Law is either the moral or the ceremonial Law the latter indeed is excluded from any place in our Justification but not the former 2 Works required by the Law are either wrought before Faith without the Aid of Grace or after believing by the help of the Holy Ghost The former are excluded from our Justification but not the latter 3 Works of Obedience wrought after Grace received may be considered either as sincere only or absolutely perfect according to what was originally required in the Covenant of Works Those of the latter sort are excluded from any place in our Justification but not those of the former 4 There is a two-fold Justification before God in this life a first and a second and we must diligently consider with respect unto whether of these Justifications any thing is spoken in the Scripture 5 Justification may be considered either as to its beginning or as unto its continuation and so it hath divers causes under these divers respects 6 Works may be considered either as Meritorious ex condigno so as their merit should arise from their own intrinsick worth or ex congruo only with respect unto the Covenant and promise of God Those of the first sort are excluded at least from the first Justification the latter may have place both in the first and second 7 Moral Causes may be of many sorts preparatory dispository meritorious conditionally efficient or only sine quibus non And we must diligently enquire in what sense under the Notion of what cause or causes our Works are excluded from our Justification and under what notions they are necessary thereunto And there is no one of these Distinctions but it needs many more to explain it which accordingly are made use of by Learned men And so specious a Colour may be put on these things when warily managed by the Art of Disputation that very few are able to discern the Ground of them or what there is of substance in that which is pleaded for and fewer yet on whether side the Truth doth lye But he who is really convinced of sin and being also sensible of what it is to enter into judgement with the Holy God enquires for himself and not for others how he may come to be accepted with him will be apt upon the consideration of all these Distinctions and Sub-distinctions wherewith they are attended to say to their Authors fecistis probe incertior sum multo quam dudum My Enquiry is how I shall come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God how shall I escape the wrath to come what shall I plead in judgment before God that I may be absolved acquitted justified where shall I have a Righteousness that will endure a Trial in his presence If I should be harnessed with a thousand of these distinctions I am afraid they would prove Thorns and Briars which he would pass through and consume The Enquiry therefore is upon the consideration of the state of the Person to be justified before mentioned and described and the proposal of the Reliefs in our Justification as now expressed whether it be the wisest and safest course for such a Person seeking to be justified before God to betake himself absolutely his whole Trust and Confidence unto Soveraign Grace and the Mediation of Christ or to have some reserve for or to place some confidence in his own Graces Duties Works and Obedience In putting this great Difference unto Vmpirage that we may not be thought to fix on a partial Arbitrator we shall refer it to one of our greatest and most learned Adversaries in this cause And he positively gives us in his Determination and Resolution in those known words In this case Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae periculum inanis gloriae Tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola misericordia Dei benignitate reponere Bellar. de Justificat lib. 5. cap. 7. prop. 3. By reason of the uncertainty of our own Righteousness and the danger of vain Glory it is the safest course to repose our whole Trust in the mercy and kindness or
intended thereby but that it is the Duty on our part which God requireth that we may be justified And this the whole Scripture beareth witness unto Yet this hindereth not but that as unto its Vse it may be the Instrument whereby we apprehend or receive Christ and his Righteousness But to assert it the Condition of our Justification or that we are justified by it as the Condition of the New Covenant so as from a pre-conceived signification of that word to give it another use in Justification exclusive of that pleaded for as the Instrumental Cause thereof is not easily to be admitted because it supposeth an Alteration in the substance of the Doctrine it self The Word is no where used in the Scripture in this matter which I argue no farther but that we have no certain Rule or Standard to try and measure its signification by Wherefore it cannot first be introduced in what sense men please and then that sense turned into Argument for other Ends. For thus on a supposed concession that it is the Condition of our Justification some heighten it into a subordinate Righteousness imputed unto us antecedently as I suppose unto the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ in any sense whereof it is the Condition And some who pretend to lessen its efficiency or dignity in the use of it in our Justification say it is only causa sine qua non which leaves us at as great an uncertainty as to the nature and efficacy of this Condition as we were before Nor is the true sense of things at all illustrated but rather darkened by such notions If we may introduce Words into Religion no where used in the Scripture as we may and must if we design to bring light and communicate proper apprehensions of the things contained unto the minds of men yet are we not to take along with them arbitrary pre-conceived senses forged either among Lawyers or in the Peripatetical School The use of them in the most approved Authors of the Language whereunto they do belong and their common vulgar acceptation among our selves must determine their sense and meaning It is known what confusion in the minds of men the Introduction of words into Ecclesiastical Doctrines of whose signification there hath not been a certain determinate Rule agreed on hath produced So the word Merit was introduced by some of the Ancients as is plain from the design of their Discourses where they use it for impetration or acquisition quovis modo by any means whatever But there being no cogent Reason to confine the Word unto that precise signification it hath given occasion to as great a Corruption as hath befallen Christian Religion We must therefore make use of the best means we have to understand the meaning of this word and what is intended by it before we admit of its use in this case Conditio in the best Latine Writers is variously used answering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek That is Status Fortuna Dignitas Causa Pactum initum In which of their significations it is here to be understood is not easie to be determined In common use among us it sometimes denotes the State and Quality of men that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometimes a valuable consideration of what is to be done that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But herein it is applied unto things in great variety sometimes the principal procuring purchasing cause is so expressed As the Condition whereon a man lends another an hundred pound is that he be paid it again with Interest The Condition whereon a man conveyeth his Land unto another is that he receive so much money for it So a Condition is a valuable consideration And sometimes it signifies such things as are added to the principal cause whereon its operation is suspended As a man bequeaths an hundred pound unto another on condition that he come or go to such a place to demand it This is no valuable consideration yet is the effect of the principal cause or the Will of the Testator suspended thereon And as unto Degrees of respect unto that whereof any thing is a Condition as to purchase procurement valuable consideration necessary presence the variety is endless We therefore cannot obtain a determinate sense of this word Condition but from a particular declaration of what is intended by it wherever it is used And although this be not sufficient to exclude the Vse of it from the Declaration of the way and manner how we are justified by Faith yet is it so to exclude the imposition of any precise signification of it any other than is given it by the matter treated of Without this every thing is left ambiguous and uncertain whereunto it is applied For Instance It is commonly said that Faith and New Obedience are the Condition of the New Covenant But yet because of the ambiguous signification and various use of that term Condition we cannot certainly understand what is intended in the Assertion If no more be intended but that God in and by the New Covenant doth indispensibly require these things of us that is the Restipulation of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead in order unto his own Glory and our full enjoyment of all the Benefits of it it is unquestionably true But if it be intended that they are such a Condition of the Covenant as to be by us performed antecedently unto the participation of any Grace Mercy or Priviledge of it so as that they should be the consideration and procuring causes of them that they should be all of them as some speak the Reward of our Faith and Obedience it is most false and not only contrary to express Testimonies of Scripture but destructive of the nature of the Covenant it self If it be intended that these things though promised in the Covenant and wrought in us by the Grace of God are yet Duties required of us in order unto the participation and enjoyment of the full End of the Covenant in Glory it is the Truth which is asserted But if it be said that Faith and New Obedience that is the Works of Righteousness which we do are so the Condition of the Covenant as that whatever the one is ordained of God as a means of and in order to such or such an End as Justification that the other is likewise ordained unto the same End with the same kind of Efficacy or with the same respect unto the effect it is expresly contrary to the whole scope and express Design of the Apostle on that Subject But it will be said that a Condition in the sense intended when Faith is said to be the Condition of our Justification is no more but that it is causa sine qua non which is easie enough to be apprehended But yet neither are we so delivered out of uncertainties into a plain understanding of
places of the Scripture Wherefore there is no Reason why we should limit the Object of it unto the Person of Christ as acting in the discharge of his Sacerdotal Office with the Effects and Fruits thereof Answ. 1. Saving Faith and Justifying Faith in any Believer are one and the same and the Adjuncts of Saving and Justifying are but external Denominations from its distinct Operations and Effects But yet Saving Faith doth act in a peculiar manner and is of peculiar use in Justification such as it is not of under any other Consideration whatever Wherefore 2 Although Saving Faith as it is described in General do ever include Obedience not as its Form or Essence but as the necessary Effect is included in the cause and the Fruit in the Fruit-bearing juyce and is often mentioned as to its Being and Exercise where there is no express mention of Christ his Blood and his Righteousness but is applied unto all the Acts Duties and Ends of the Gospel yet this proves not at all but that as unto its Duty Place and acting in our Justification it hath a peculiar Object If it could be proved that where Justification is ascribed unto Faith that there it hath any other Object assigned unto it as that which it rested in for the pardon of Sin and Acceptance with God this Objection were of some force But this cannot be done 3 This is not to say that we are justified by a part of Faith and not by it as considered essentially for we are justified by the entire Grace of Faith acting in such a peculiar way and manner as others have observed But the Truth is we need not insist on the Discussion of this Enquiry For the true meaning of it is not whether any thing of Christ is to be excluded from being the Object of Justifying Faith or of Faith in our Justification but what in and of our selves under the name of receiving Christ as our Lord and King is to be admitted unto an Efficiency or Conditionality in that work As it is granted that justifying Faith is the receiving of Christ so whatever belongs unto the Person of Christ or any Office of his or any Acts in the discharge of any Office that may be reduced unto any cause of our Justification the meritorious procuring material formal or manifesting cause of it is so far as it doth so freely admitted to belong unto the Object of Justifying Faith Neither will I contend with any upon this disadvantageous stating of the Question What of Christ is to be esteemed the Object of Justifying Faith and what is not so For the thing intended is only this whether our own Obedience distinct from Faith or included in it and in like manner as Faith be the condition of our Justification before God This being that which is intended which the other question is but invented to lead unto a compliance with by a more specious pretence then in it self it is capable of under those terms it shall be examined and no otherwise CHAP. IV. Of Justification the notion and signification of the Word in the Scripture UNto the right understanding of the nature of Justification the proper sense and signification of these words themselves Justification and to justifie is to be enquired into For until that is agreed upon it is impossible that our Discourses concerning the thing it self should be freed from equivocation Take words in various senses and all may be true that is contradictorily affirmed or denied concerning what they are supposed to signifie And so it hath actually fallen out in this case as we shall see more fully afterwards Some taking these words in one sense some in another have appeared to deliver contrary Doctrines concerning the thing it self or our Justification before God who yet have fully agreed in what the proper determinate sense or sigfication of the words doth import And therefore the true meaning of them hath been declared and vindicated already by many But whereas the right stating hereof is of more moment unto the Determination of what is principally controverted about the Doctrine it self or the thing signified than most do apprehend and something at least remains to be added for the Declaration and Vindication of the import and only signification of these words in the Scripture I shall give an account of my observations concerning it with what diligence I can The Latine Derivation and Composition of the word Justificatio would seem to denote an internal change from inherent Unrighteousness unto Righteousness likewise inherent by a Physical motion and Transmutation as the Schoolmen speak For such is the signification of words of the same Composition So Sanctification Mortification Vivification and the like do all denote a real internal Work on the Subject spoken of Hereon in the whole Roman School Justification is taken for Justifaction or the making of a man to be inherently Righteous by the infusion of a principle or habit of Grace who was before inherently and habitually unjust and unrighteous Whilst this is taken to be the proper signification of the word we neither do nor can speak ad idem in our Disputations with them about the cause and nature of that Justification which the Scripture teacheth And this appearing sense of the Word possibly deceived some of the Antients as Austin in particular to declare the Doctrine of free gratuitous sanctification without respect unto any Works of our own under the name of Justification For neither he nor any of them ever thought of a Justification before God consisting in the pardon of our sins and the Acceptation of our Persons as Righteous by vertue of any inherent habit of Grace infused into us or acted by us Wherefore the subject matter must be determined by the Scriptural use and signification of these words before we can speak properly or intelligibly concerning it For if to Justifie men in the Scripture signifie to make them subjectively and inherently Righteous we must acknowledge a mistake in what we Teach concerning the nature and causes of Justification And if it signifie no such thing all their Disputations about Justification by the infusion of Grace and inherent Righteousness thereon fall to the Ground Wherefore all Protestants and the Socinians all of them comply therein do affirm that the use and signification of these words is Forensick denoting an Act of Jurisdiction Only the Socinians and some others would have it to consist in the pardon of sin only which indeed the word doth not at all signifie But the sense of the word is to Assoil to Acquit to Declare and pronounce Righteous upon a Trial which in this case the pardon of Sin doth necessarily accompany Justificatio and Justifico belong not indeed unto the Latine Tongue nor can any good Authour be produced who ever used them for the making of him inherently Righteous by any means who was not so before But whereas these words were coyned and framed to signifie such things as are
account of the Righteousness imputed unto him he doth at the same instant by the power of his Grace make him inherently and subjectively Righteous or Holy which men cannot do one towards another And therefore whereas mans Justifying of the wicked is to justifie them in their wicked ways whereby they are constantly made worse and more obdurate in evil when God justifies the ungodly their change from personal unrighteousness and unholiness unto Righteousness and Holiness doth necessarily and infallibly accompany it To the same purpose is the word used Isa. 5.23 Which justifie the wicked for Reward Chap. 50.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is near that justifieth me who shall contend with me let us stand together who is my Adversary let him come near unto Behold the Lord God will help me who shall condemn me Where we have a full Declaration of the proper sense of the Word which is to acquit and pronounce Righteous on a Trial. And the same sense is fully expressed in the former Antithesis 1 Kings 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 came before thine Altar in this House then hear thou in Heaven and do and judge thy Servants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to condemn the wicked to charge his wickedness on him to bring his way on his head 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to justifie the Righteous The same words are repeated 2 Chron. 6.22 23. Psal. 82.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do justice to the Afflicted and Poor that is justifie them in their cause against Wrong and Oppression Exod. 23.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I will not justifie the wicked absolve acquit or pronounce him Righteous Job 27.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be it far from me that I should justifie you or pronounce sentence on your side as if you were Righteous Isa. 53.11 By his knowledge my Righteous servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall justifie many the reason whereof is added For he shall bear their Iniquities whereon they are absolved and justified Once it is used in Hithpael wherein a reciprocal action is denoted that whereby a man Justifieth himself Gen. 44.16 And Judah said what shall we say unto my Lord what shall we speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and how shall we justify our selves God hath found out our Iniquity they could plead nothing why they should be absolved from Guilt Once the Participle is used to denote the outward instrumental cause of the Justification of others in which place alone there is any doubt of its sense Dan. 12.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they that justify many namely in the same sense that the Preachers of the Gospel are said to save themselves and others 1 Tim. 4.16 For men may be no less the Instrumental causes of the Justification of others than of their Sanctification Wherefore although 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Kal signifies justum esse and sometimes juste agere which may relate unto inherent Righteousness yet where any action towards another is denoted this word signifies nothing but to esteem declare pronounce and adjudge any one absolved acquitted cleared justified There is therefore no other kind of Justification once mentioned in the Old Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the word used to the same purpose in the New Testament and that alone Neither is this word used in any good Author whatever to signifie the making of a man Righteous by any applications to produce internal Righteousness in him but either to absolve and acquit to judge esteem and pronounce Righteous or on the contrary to condemn So Suidas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It hath two signifiications to punish and to account Righteous And he confirms this sense of the word by Instances out of Herodotus Appianus and Josephus And again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with an Accusative case that is when it respects and effects a Subject a Person it is either to condemn and punish or to esteem and declare Righteous and of this latter sense he gives pregnant instances in the next words Hesychius mentions only the first signification 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They never thought of any sense of this word but what is Forensick And in our Language to be Justified was commonly used formerly for to be judged and sentenced as it is still among the Scots One of the Articles of Peace between the two Nations at the surrender of Leith in the days of Edward the sixth was That if any one committed a crime he should be justified by the Law upon his Trial. And in general 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Jus in judicio auferre and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is justum censere declarare pronuntiare and how in the Scriptures it is constantly opposed unto condemnare we shall see immediately But we may more distinctly consider the use of this Word in the New Testament as we have done that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Old And that which we enquire concerning is whether this word be used in the New Testament in a Forensick sense to denote an Act of Jurisdiction or in a Physical sense to express an internal change or mutation the infusion of an habit of Righteousness and the denomination of the person to be Justified thereon or whether it signifieth not pardon of sin But this we may lay aside For surely no man was ever yet so fond as to pretend that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did signifie to pardon sin yet is it the only word apply'd to express our Justification in the New Testament For if it be taken only in the former sense then that which is pleaded for by those of the Roman Church under the name of Justification whatever it be however good useful and necessary yet Justification it is not nor can be so called seeing it is a thing quite of another nature than what alone is signified by that word Matth. 11.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdom is justified of her Children not made just but approved and declared Chap. 12.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the words thou shalt be Justified not made just by them but judged according to them as is manifest in the Antithesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by thy words thou shalt be condemned Luke 7.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they justified God not surely by making him Righteous in himself but by owning avowing and declaring his Righteousness Chap. 10.29 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He willing to justifie himself to declare and maintain his own Righteousness To the same purpose Chap. 16.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are they that justifie your selves before men they did not make themselves internally Righteous but approved of their own condition as our Saviour declares in the place Chap. 18.14 The Publican went down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justified unto his House that is acquitted absolved pardoned upon the confession of his sin and supplication for Remission Act. 13.38 39. with Rom. 2.13
33.24 Psal. 32.1 2. Rom. 3.23 24 25. Chap. 8.1 33 34. 2 Cor. 5.21 Gal. 3.13 14. Of what use the Declaration of this Process in the Justification of a Sinner may be hath been in some measure before declared And if many did seriously consider that all these things do concur and are required unto the Justification of every one that shall be saved it may be they would not have such slight thoughts of sin and the way of Deliverance from the guilt of it as they seem to have From this Consideration did the Apostle learn that Terror of the Lord which made him so earnest with men to seek after Reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.10 11. I had not so long insisted on the signification of the words in the Scripture but that a right understanding of it doth not only exclude the pretences of the Romanists about the infusion of an habit of Charity from being the formal cause of our Justification before God but may also give occasion unto some to take advice into what place or consideration they can dispose their own personal inherent Righteousness in their Justification before him CHAP. V. The Distinction of a first and second Justification Examined The Continuation of Justification whereon it doth depend BEfore we enquire immediately into the nature and causes of Justification there are some things yet previously to be considered that we may prevent all Ambiguity and misunderstanding about the Subject to be treated of I say therefore that the Evangelical Justification which alone we plead about is but one and is at once compleated About any other Justification before God but one we will not contend with any Those who can find out another may as they please ascribe what they will unto it or ascribe it unto what they will Let us therefore consider what is offered of this nature Those of the Roman Church do ground their whole Doctrine of Justification upon a distinction of a double Justification which they call the first and the second The first Justification they say is the infusion or the Communication unto us of an inherent principle or habit of Grace or Charity Hereby they say Original sin is extinguished and all habits of sin are expelled This Justification they say is by Faith the Obedience and Satisfaction of Christ being the only meritorious cause thereof Only they dispute many things about preparations for it and dispositions unto it Under those terms the Council of Trent included the Doctrine of the Schoolmen about meritum de congruo as both Hosius and Andradius confess in the defence of that Council And as they are explained they come much to one however the Council warily avoided the name of merit with respect unto this their first Justification And the use of Faith herein which with them is no more but a general assent unto Divine Revelation is to bear the principal part in these preparations So that to be Justified by Faith according unto them is to have the mind prepared by this kind of believing to receive Gratiam gratum facientem an habit of Grace expelling sin and making us acceptable unto God For upon this believing with those other Duties of Contrition and Repentance which must accompany it it is meet and congruous unto Divine Wisdom Goodness and Faithfulness to give us that Grace whereby we are justified And this according unto them is that Justification whereof the Apostle Paul treats in his Epistles from the procurement whereof he excludes all the Works of the Lavv. The second Justification is an effect or consequent hereof And the proper formal cause thereof is Good Works proceeding from this Principle of Grace and Love Hence are they the Righteousness wherewith Believers are Righteous before God Whereby they merit eternal life The Righteousness of Works they call it and suppose it taught by the Apostle James This they constantly affirm to make us justos ex injustis wherein they are followed by others For this is the way that most of them take to salve the seeming repugnancy between the Apostle Paul and James Paul they say treats of the first Justification only whence he excludes all Works for it is by Faith in the manner before described But James treats of the second Justification which is by good Works So Bellar. lib. 2. cap. 16. and lib. 4. cap. 18. And it is the express Determination of those at Trent Sess. 6. cap. 10. This distinction was coyned unto no other end but to bring in Confusion into the whole Doctrine of the Gospel Justification through the free Grace of God by Faith in the Blood of Christ is evacuated by it Sanctification is turned into a Justification and corrupted by making the fruits of it meritorious The whole nature of Evangelical Justification consisting in the gratuitous pardon of Sin and the Imputation of Righteousness as the Apostle expresly affirms and the declaration of a Believing Sinner to be Righteous thereon as the Word alone signifies is utterly defeated by it Howbeit others have embraced this distinction also though not absolutely in their sense So do the Socinians Yea it must be allowed in some sense by all that hold our inherent Righteousness to be the cause of or to have any influence into our Justification before God For they do allow of a Justification which in order of nature is antecedent unto Works truly Gracious and Evangelical But consequential unto such Works there is a Justification differing at least in degree if not in nature and kind upon the difference of its formal cause which is our new Obedience from the former But they mostly say it is only the continuation of our Justification and the encrease of it as to degrees that they intend by it And if they may be allowed to turn Sanctification into Justification and to make a progress therein or an encrease thereof either in the root or fruit to be a new Justification they may make twenty Justifications as well as two for ought I know For therein the inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4.16 and Believers go from strength to strength are changed from Glory to Glory 2 Cor. 3.18 by the Addition of one Grace unto another in their exercise 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8. and increasing with the encrease of God Col. 2.19 do in all things grow up into him who is the Head Ephes. 4.15 And if their Justification consist herein they are justified anew every day I shall therefore do these two things 1 Shew that this distinction is both unscriptural and irrational 2 Declare what is the continuation of our Justification and whereon it doth depend Justification by Faith in the Blood of Christ may be considered either as to the nature and essence of it or as unto its Manifestation and Declaration The Manifestation of it is twofold 1 Initial in this life 2 Solemn and compleat at the day of Judgment whereof we shall treat afterwards The Manifestation of it in this life respects either
a Pledge or Earnest Eph. 1.14 Wherefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Sponsor Fidejussor Praes One that voluntarily takes on himself the cause or condition of another to answer undergo or pay what he is liable unto or to see it done whereon he becomes justly and legally obnoxious unto performance In this sense is the word here used by the Apostle for it hath no other In our present enquiry into the nature of this Suretiship of Christ the whole will be resolved into this one question namely whether the Lord Christ was made a Surety only on the part of God unto us to assure us that the Promise of the Covenant on his part should be accomplished or also and principally an undertaker on our part for the performance of what is required if not of us yet with respect unto us that the Promise may be accomplished The first of these is vehemently asserted by the Socinians who are followed by Grotius and Hammond in their Annotations on this place The words of Schlictingius are Sponsor foederis appellatur Jesus quod nomine Dei nobis spoponderit id est fidem fecerit Deum foederis promissiones servaturum Non vero quasi pro nobis spoponderit Deo nostrorumve debitorum solutionem in se receperit Nec enim nos misimus Christum sed Deus cujus nomine Christus ad nos venit foedus nobiscum panxit ejusque promissiones ratas fore spopondit in se recepit ideoque nec sponsor simpliciter sed foederis sponsor nominatur spopondit autem Christus pro foederis divini veritate non tantum quatenus id firmum ratumque fore verbis perpetuo testatus est sed etiam quatenus muneris sui fidem maximis rerum ipsarum comprobavit Documentis cum perfecta vitae innocentia Sanctitate cum divinis plane quae patravit operibus cum mortis adeo truculentae quam pro Doctrinae suae veritate subijt perpessione After which he subjoyns a long Discourse about the Evidences which we have of the veracity of Christ. And herein we have a brief account of their whole Opinion concerning the Mediation of Christ. The words of Grotius are spopondit Christus i.e. Nos certos Promissi fecit non solis verbis sed perpetua vitae Sanctitate morte ob id tolerata miraculis plurimis which are an Abridgment of the Discourse of Schlictingius To the same purpose Dr. Hammond expounds it that he was a Sponsor or Surety for God unto the confirmation of the Promises of the Covenant On the other hand the generality of Expositors antient and modern of the Roman and Protestant Churches on the place affirm that the Lord Christ as the Surety of the Covenant was properly a Surety or undertaker unto God for us and not a Surety and undertaker unto us for God And because this is a matter of Great Importance wherein the Faith and Consolation of the Church is highly concerned I shall insist a little upon it And first we may consider the Argument that is produced to prove that Christ was only a Surety for God unto us Now this is taken neither from the Name nor Nature of the Office or work of Surety nor from the Nature of the Covenant whereof he was a Surety nor of the Office wherein he was so But the sole Argument insisted on is That we do not give Christ as a Surety of the Covenant unto God but he gives him unto us and therefore he is a Surety for God and the accomplishment of his Promises and not for us to pay our debts or to answer what is required of us But there is no force in this Argument For it belongs not unto the nature of a Surety by whom he is or may be designed unto his Office and Work therein His own voluntary susception of the Office and Work is all that is required however he may be designed or induced to undertake it He who of his own accord doth voluntarily undertake for another on what Grounds Reasons or Considerations soever he doth so is his Surety And this the Lord Christ did in the behalf of the Church For when it was said Sacrifice and burnt-Offering and whole burnt-Offerings for sin God would not have or accept as sufficient to make the Atonement that he required so as that the Covenant might be established and made effectual unto us then said he Loe I come to do thy Will O God Heb. 10.5.6 He willingly and voluntarily out of his own abundant goodness and love took upon him to make Atonement for us wherein he was our Surety And accordingly this undertaking is ascribed unto that love which he exercised herein Gal. 2.20 1 Joh. 3.16 Rev. 1.5 And there was this in it moreover that he took upon him our nature or the Seed of Abraham wherein he was our Surety So that although we neither did nor could appoint him so to be yet he took from us that wherein and whereby he was so which is as much as if we had designed him unto his work as to the true Reason of his being our Surety Wherefore notwithstanding those antecedent Transactions that were between the Father and him in this matter it was the voluntary Engagement of himself to be our Surety and his taking our nature upon him for that end which was the formal Reason of his being enstated in that Office It is indeed weak and contrary unto all common experience that none can be a Surety for others unless those others design him and appoint him so to be The principal instances of Suretiship in the World have been by the voluntary undertaking of such as were no way procured so to do by them for whom they undertook And in such undertakings he unto whom it is made is no less considered than they for whom it is made As when Judah on his own accord became a Surety for Benjamin he had as much respect unto the satisfaction of his Father as the safety of his Brother And so the Lord Christ in his undertaking to be a Surety for us had respect unto the Glory of God before our safety 1. We may consider the Arguments whence it is evident that he neither was nor could be a Surety unto us for God but was so for us unto God For 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Surety is one that undertaketh for another wherein he is defective really or in Reputation Whatever that undertaking be whether in words of Promise or in depositing of real security in the hands of an Arbitrator or by any other personal Engagement of life and body it respects the defect of the person for whom any one becomes a surety Such an one is Sponsor or Fidejussor in all Good Authors and common use of speech And if any one be of absolute credit himself and of a Reputation every way unquestionable there is no need of a surety unless in case of mortality The words of a surety
in the behalf of another whose Ability or Reputation is dubious are ad me recipio facâ—et aut faciam And when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is taken adjectively as sometimes it signifies satisdationibus obnoxius liable to payments for others that are non-solvent 2. God can therefore have no surety properly because there can be no Imagination of any defect on his part There may be indeed a Question whether any Word or Promise be a Word or Promise of God To assure us hereof it is not the Work of a surety but only any one or any means that may give evidence that so it is that is of a Witness But upon a supposition that what is proposed in his Word or Promise there can be no Imagination or fear of any defect on his part so as that there should be any need of a surety for the performance of it He doth therefore make use of Witnesses to confirm his Word that is to testifie that such Promises he hath made and so he will do So the Lord Christ was his Witness Isa. 43.10 Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord and my Servant whom I have chosen But they were not all his sureties So he affirms that he came into the World to bear witness unto the Truth Joh. 18.37 that is the Truth of the Promises of God for he was the Minister of the Circumcision for the Truth of the Promises of God unto the Fathers Rom. 15.8 But a surety for God properly so called he was not nor could be The distance and difference is wide enough between a witness and a surety For a surety must be of more Ability or more Credit and Reputation than he or those for whom he is a surety or there is no need of his suretiship or at least he must add unto their credit and make it better than without him This none can be for God no not the Lord Christ himself who in his whole work was the Servant of the Father And the Apostle doth not use this word in general improper sense for any one that by any means gives Assurance of any other thing for so he had ascribed nothing peculiar unto Christ. For in such a sense all the Prophets and Apostles were sureties for God and many of them confirmed the Truth of his Word and Promises with the laying down of their lives But such a surety he intends as undertaketh to do that for others which they cannot do for themselves or at least are not reputed to be able to do what is required of them 3. The Apostle had before at large declared who and what was Gods surety in this mattter of the Covenant and how impossible it was that he should have any other And this was himself alone interposing himself by his Oath For in this cause because he had none greater to swear by he sware by himself chap. 6.13 14. Wherefore if God would give any other surety besides himself it must be one greater than He. This being every way impossible he swears by himself only Many ways he may and doth use for the declaring and testifying of his Truth unto us that we may know and believe it to be his Word and so the Lord Christ in his Ministry was the principal witness of the Truth of God But other surety than himself he can have none And therefore 4. When he would have us in this matter not only come unto the full Assurance of Faith concerning his Promises but also to have strong consolation therein he resolves it wholly into the Immutability of his counsel as declared by his Promise and Oath chap. 6.18 19. So that neither is God capable of having any surety properly so called neither do we stand in need of any on his part for the confirmation of our Faith in the highest degree 5. We on all accounts stand in need of a surety for us or on our behalf Neither without the Interposition of such a surety could any Covenant between God and us be firm and stable or an everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure In the first Covenant made with Adam there was no surety but God and men were the immediate Covenanters And although we were then in a state and condition able to perform and answer all the Terms of the Covenant yet was it broken and disannulled If this came to pass by the failure of the Promise of God it was necessary that on the making of a new Covenant he should have a surety to undertake for him that the Covenant might be stable and everlasting But this is false and blasphemous to imagine It was man alone who failed and broke that Covenant Wherefore it was necessary that upon the making of the New Covenant and that with a design and purpose that it should never be disannulled as the former was that we should have a surety and undertaker for us For if that first Covenant was not firm and stable because there was no surety to undertake for us notwithstanding all that Ability which we had to answer the terms of it how much less can any other be so now our Natures are become depraved and sinful Wherefore we alone were capable of a surety properly so called for us we alone stood in need of him and without him the Covenant could not be firm and inviolate on our parts The surety therefore of this Covenant is so with God for us 6. It is the Priesthood of Christ that the Apostle treats of in this place and that alone Wherefore he is a surety as he is a Priest and in the discharge of that Office and therefore is so with God on our behalf This Schlictingius observes and is aware what will ensue against his pretensions which he endeavours to obviate Mirum saith he porro alicui videri posset cur Divinus Author de Christi sacerdotio in superioribus in sequentibus agens derepente eum sponsorem foederis non vero sacerdotem vocet Cur non dixerit tanto praestantioris foederis factus est sacerdos Jesus hoc enim plane requirere videtur totus orationis contextus Credibile est in voce sponsionis sacerdotium quoque Christi intelligi Sponsoris enim non est alieno nomine quippiam promittere fidem suam pro alio interponere sed etiam si ita res ferat alterius nomine id quod spopondit praestare In rebus quidem humanis si id non praestet is pro quo sponsor fidejussit hic vero propter contrariam causam nam prior hic locum habere non potest nempe quatenus ille pro quo spopondit Christus per ipsum Christum promissa sua nobis exhibet qua in re praecipue Christi sacerdotium continetur Ans. 1 It may indeed seem strange unto any one who imagineth Christ to be such a surety as he doth why the Apostle should so call him and so introduce him in the Description of his Priestly Office as that which belongeth thereunto But
not able to preserve its station in the minds of men the Popish Doctrine of Justification must and will return upon the world with all the concomitants and consequences of it Whilst any knowledge of the Law or Gospel is continued amongst us the Consciences of men will at one time or other living or dying be really affected with a sense of sin as unto its guilt and danger Hence that Trouble and those Disquietments of mind will ensue as will force men be they never so unwilling to seek after some Relief and Satisfaction And what will not men attempt who are reduced to the condition expressed Micah 6.7 8. Wherefore in this case if the true and only relief of distressed Consciences of sinners who are weary and heavy laden be hid from their eyes if they have no apprehension of nor trust in that which alone they may oppose unto the sentence of the Law and interpose betweens Gods Justice and their Souls wherein they may take shelter from the storms of that wrath which abideth on them that believe not they will betake themselves unto any thing which confidently tenders them present ease and relief Hence many persons living all their days in an ignorance of the Righteousness of God are oftentimes on their sick Beds and in their dying hours proselyted unto a confidence in the ways of Rest and Peace which the Romanists impose upon them For such seasons of advantage do they wait for unto the Reputation as they suppose of their own Zeal in truth unto the scandal of Christian Religion But finding at any time the Consciences of men under disquietments and ignorant of or disbelieving that Heavenly relief which is provided in the Gospel they are ready with their Applications and Medicines having on them pretended Approbations of the experience of many Ages and an innumerable company of devout Souls in them Such is their Doctrine of Justification with the Addition of those other Ingredients of Confession Absolution Penances or Commutations Aids from Saints and Angels especially the blessed Virgin all warmed by the Fire of Purgatory and confidently Administred unto Persons sick of Ignorance Darkness and Sin And let none please themselves in the Contempt of these things If the truth concerning Evangelical Justification be once disbelieved among us or obliterated by any Artifices out of the minds of men unto these things at one time or other they must and will betake themselves For the new Schemes and Projections of Justification which some at present would supply us withal they are now way suited nor able to give Relief or Satisfaction unto a Conscience really troubled for Sin and seriously enquiring how it may have Rest and Peace with God I shall take the boldness therefore to say whoever be offended at it that if we lose the antient Doctrine of Justification through Faith in the Blood of Christ and the Imputation of his Righteousness unto us publick profession or Religion will quickly issue in Popery or Atheism or at least in what is the next door unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The second principal Controversie is about the formal cause of Justification as it is expressed and stated by those of the Roman Church And under these terms some Protestant Divines have consented to debate the matter in difference I shall not interpose into a strife of words So the Romanists will call that which we enquire after Some of ours say the Righteousness of Christ imputed some the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ is the formal cause of our Justification some that there is no formal cause of Justification but this is that which supplies the place and use of a formal cause which is the Righteousness of Christ. In none of these things will I concern my self though I judge what was mentioned in the last place to be most proper and significant The substance of the enquiry wherein alone we are concerned is what is that Righteousness whereby and wherewith a Believing sinner is justified before God or whereon he is accepted with God hath his sins pardoned is received into Grace and Favour and hath a Title given him unto the Heavenly Inheritance I shall no otherwise propose this enquiry as knowing that it contains the substance of what convinced sinners do look after in and by the Gospel And herein it is agreed by all the Socinians only excepted that the Procatarctical or procuring cause of the pardon of our sins and acceptance with God is the satisfaction and merit of Christ. Howbeit it cannot be denied but that some retaining the names of them do seem to renounce or disbelieve the things themselves But we need not to take any notice thereof until they are free more plainly to express their minds But as concerning the Righteousness it self enquired after there seems to be a difference among them who yet all deny it to be the Righteousness of Christ imputed unto us For those of the Roman Church plainly say that upon the infusion of an habit of Grace with the expulsion of sin and the Renovation of our natures thereby which they call the first Justification we are actually justified before God by our own works of Righteousness Hereon they dispute about the merit and satisfactoriness of those works with their condignity of the Reward of eternal life Others as the Socinians openly disclaim all merit in our works only some out of Reverence as I suppose unto the Antiquity of the word and under the shelter of the Ambiguity of its signification have faintly attempted an accommodation with it But in the substance of what they assent unto this purpose to the best of my understanding they are all agreed For what the Papists call Justitia Operum the Righteousness of works they call a personal inherent Evangelical Righteousness whereof we have spoken before And whereas the Papists say that this Righteousness of Works is not absolutely perfect nor in it self able to justifie us in the sight of God but owes all its worth and dignity unto this purpose unto the merit of Christ they affirm that this Evangelical Righteousness is the condition whereon we enjoy the Benefits of the Righteousness of Christ in the pardon of our sins and the acceptance of our Persons before God But as unto those who will acknowledge no other Righteousness wherewith we are justified before God the meaning is the same whether we say that on the Condition of this Righteousness we are made partakers of the Benefits of the Righteousness of Christ or that it is the Righteousness of Christ which makes this Righteousness of ours accepted with God But these things must afterwards more particularly be enquired into 3. The third Enquiry wherein there is not an Agreement in this matter is upon a supposition of a necessity that he who is to be justified should one way or other be interessed in the Righteousness of Christ what it is that on our part is required thereunto This some say to be Faith
or that we may be interessed in it that it may be made ours which is all we contend for And this is our actual coalescency into one mystical person with him by Faith Hereon doth the necessity of Faith originally depend And if we shall add hereunto the necessity of it likewise unto that especial Glory of God which he designs to exalt in our Justification by Christ as also unto all the ends of our Obedience unto God and the Renovation of our Natures into his Image its station is sufficiently secured against all Objections Our actual Interest in the satisfaction of Christ depends on our actual Insertion into his mystical Body by Faith according to the Appointment of God 4 thly It is yet objected That if the Righteousness of Christ be made ours we may be said to be Saviours of the World as he was or to save others as he did For he was so and did so by his Righteousness and no otherwise This Objection also is of the same nature with those foregoing a meer Sophistical Cavil For 1. The Righteousness of Christ is not transfused into us so as to be made inherently and subjectively ours as it was in him and which is necessarily required unto that effect of saving others thereby Whatever we may do or be said to do with respect unto others by virtue of any power or quality inherent in our selves we can be said to do nothing unto others or for them by virtue of that which is imputed unto us only for our own benefit That any Righteousness of ours should benefit another it is absolutely necessary that it should be wrought by our selves 2. If the Righteousness of Christ could be transfused into us and be made inherently ours yet could we not be nor be said to be the Saviours of others thereby For our nature in our individual persons is not subjectum capax or capable to receive and retain a Righteousness useful and effectual unto that end This capacity was given unto it in Christ by virtue of the Hypostatical Vnion and no otherwise The Righteousness of Christ himself as performed in the Humane Nature would not have been sufficient for the Justification and Salvation of the Church had it not been the Righteousness of his Person who is both God and Man for God redeemed his Church with his own Blood 3. This Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us as unto its ends and use hath its measure from the Will of God and his purpose in that Imputation And this is that it should be the Righteousness of them unto whom it is imputed and nothing else 4. We do not say that the Righteousness of Christ as made absolutely for the whole Church is imputed unto every Believer But his satisfaction for every one of them in particular according unto the Will of God is imputed unto them not with respect unto its general ends but according unto every ones particular Interest Every Believer hath his own Homer of this Bread of Life and all are justified by the same Righteousness The Apostle declares as we shall prove afterwards that as Adams actual sin is imputed unto us unto condemnation so is the Obedience of Christ imputed unto us to the Justification of life But Adams sin is not so imputed unto any person as that he should then and thereby be the cause of sin and condemnation unto all other persons in the World but only that he himself should become Guilty before God thereon And so is it on the other side And as we are made Guilty by Adams actual sin which is not inherent in us but only imputed unto us so are we made Righteous by the Righteousness of Christ which is not inherent in us but only imputed unto us And imputed unto us it is because himself was Righteous with it not for himself but for us It is yet said That if we insist on personal Imputation unto every Believer of what Christ did or if any Believer be personally Righteous in the very individual Acts of Christs Righteousness many Absurdities will follow But it was observed before that when any design to oppose an Opinion from the absurdities which they suppose would follow upon it they are much enclined so to state it as that at least they may seem so to do And this oftimes the most worthy and candid Persons are not free from in the heat of Disputation So I fear it is here fallen out For as unto personal Imputation I do not well understand it All Imputation is unto a person and is the Act of a person be it of what and what sort it will but from neither of them can be denominated a Personal Imputation And if an Imputation be allowed that is not unto the persons of men namely in this case unto all Believers the nature of it hath not yet been declared as I know of That any have so expressed the Imputation pleaded for That every Believer should be personally Righteous in the very individual Acts of Christs Righteousness I know not I have neither read nor heard any of them who have so expressed their mind It may be some have done so but I shall not undertake the defence of what they have done For it seems not only to suppose that Christ did every individual Act which in any instance is required of us but also that those Acts are made our own inherently both which are false and impossible That which indeed is pleaded for in this Imputation is only this That what the Lord Christ did and suffered as the Mediator and Surety of the Covenant in answer unto the Law for them and in their stead is imputed unto every one of them unto the Justification of Life And sufficient this is unto that end without any such supposals 1 From the Dignity of the Person who yielded his Obedience which rendered it both satisfactory and meritorious and imputable unto many 2 From the Nature of the Obedience it self which was a perfect compliance with a fulfilling of and satisfaction unto the whole Law in all its demands This on the supposition of that Act of Gods Soveraign Authority whereby a Representative of the whole Church was introduced to answer the Law is the Ground of his Righteousness being made theirs and being every way sufficient unto their Justification 3 From the constitution of God that what was done and suffered by Christ as a publick person and our surety should be reckoned unto us as if done by our selves So the sin of Adam whilst he was a publick Person and represented his whole Posterity is imputed unto us all as if we had committed that actual sin This Bellarmin himself frequently acknowledgeth Peccavimus in primo homine quando ille peccavit illa ejus praevaricatio nostra etiam praevaricatio fuit Non enim vere per Adami inobedientiam constitueremur peccatores nisi inobedientia illius nostra etiam inobedientia esset De Amiss Grat. Stat. Peccat lib.
for Christ he says may be called the Lord our Righteousness because he is the efficient cause of our righteousness As God is said to be our Strength and Salvation Again Christ is said to be our righteousness as he is our Wisdom our Redemption and our Peace because he hath redeemed us and makes us wise and righteous and reconcileth us unto God And other reasons of the same nature are added by others But not trusting to these Expositions of the words he adds Deinde dicitur Christus justitia nostra quoniam satisfecit patri pro nobis eam satisfactionem ita nobis donat communicat cum nos justificat ut nostra satisfactio justitia dici possit And afterwards Hoc modo non esset absurdum si quis diceret nobis imputari Christi justitiam merita cum nobis donantur applicantur ac si nos ipsi Deo satisfecissemus De justificat lib. 2. cap. 10. Christ is said to be our Righteousness because he hath made Satisfaction for us to the Father and doth so give and communicate that Satisfaction unto us when he justifieth us that it may be said to be our Satisfaction and Righteousness And in this sense it would not be absurd if any one should say that the righteousness of Christ and his merits are imputed unto us as if we our selves had satisfied God In this sense we say that Christ is the Lord our Righteousness nor is there any thing of importance in the whole Doctrine of Justification that we own which is not here granted by the Cardinal and that in terms which some among our selves scruple and oppose I shall therefore look a little further into this Testimony which hath wrested so eminent a confession of the Truth from so great an Adversary Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will raise up unto David a righteous branch and this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our Righteousness ver 5 6. It is confessed among Christians that this is an illustrious Renovation of the first promise concerning the Incarnation of the Son of God and our Salvation by him This promise was first given when we had lost our Original Righteousness and were considered only as those who had sinned and come short of the Glory of God In this estate a Righteousness was absolutely necessary that we might be again accepted with God for without a Righteousness yea that which is perfect and compleat we never were so nor ever can be so In this estate it is promised that he shall be our Righteousness or as the Apostle expresseth it the end of the Law for righteousness to them that do believe That he is so there can be no question the whole enquiry is how he is so This say the most Sober and Modest of our Adversaries because he is the efficient cause of our Righteousness that is of our personal inherent Righteousness But this Righteousness may be considered either in it self as it is an effect of Gods Grace and so it is good and holy although it be not perfect and compleat or it may be considered as it is ours inherent in us accompanied with the remaining defilements of our Nature In that respect as this Righteousness is ours the Prophet affirms that in the sight of God we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Isa. 64.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comprizeth our whole personal inherent righteousness And the Lord Christ cannot from hence be denominated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord our righteousness seeing it is all as filthy rags It must therefore be a Righteousness of another sort whence this denomination is taken and on the account whereof this name is given him Wherefore he is our Righteousness as all our righteousnesses are in him So the Church which confesseth all her own Righteousnesses to be filthy rags says in the Lord have I righteousness Isa. 45.24 which is expounded of Christ by the Apostle Rom. 14.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 only in the Lord are my righteousnesses which two places the Apostle expresseth Phil. 3.9 That I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law in this case as filthy rags but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith Hence it is added in the Lord shall the seed of Israel be justified ver 25. namely because he is in what he is in what he was and did as given unto and for us our righteousness and our Righteousness is all in him which totally excludes our own personal inherent righteousness from any interest in our justification and ascribes it wholly unto the Righteousness of Christ. And thus is that Emphatical Expression of the Psalmist I will go in the strength of the Lord God for as unto holiness and obedience all our spiritual strength is from him alone and I will make mention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal. 71.16 Of thy righteousness of thine only The redoubling of the affix excludes all confidence and trusting in any thing but the righteousness of God alone For this the Apostle affirms to be the design of God in making Christ to be righteousness unto us namely that no flesh should glory in his presence but that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1.29 30 31. For it is by Faith alone making mention as unto our Justification of the Righteousness of God of his righteousness only that excludes all boasting Rom. 3.27 And besides what shall be further pleaded from particular Testimonies the Scripture doth eminently declare how he is the Lord our righteousness namely in that he makes an end of sin and reconciliation for iniquity and brings in everlasting righteousness Dan. 9.24 For by these things is our Justification compleated namely in Satisfaction made for Sin the Pardon of it in our Reconciliation unto God and the providing for us an everlasting righteousness Therefore is he the Lord our Righteousness and so rightly called Wherefore seeing we had lost Original righteousness and had none of our own remaining and stood in need of a perfect compleat righteousness to procure our acceptance with God and such a one as might exclude all occasion of boasting of any thing in our selves the Lord Christ being given and made unto us the Lord our righteousness in whom we have all our righteousness our own as it is ours being as filthy rags in the sight of God and this by making an end of sin and reconciliation for iniquity and bringing in everlasting righteousness It is by his Righteousness by his only that we are justified in the sight of God and do glory This is the substance of what in this case we plead for and thus it is delivered in the Scripture in a way bringing more Light and Spiritual Sense into the Minds of Believers than those Philosophical expressions and distinctions which vaunt themselves
purpose in this Evangelist the sum of the Doctrine declared by him is That the Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World that is by the sacrifice of himself wherein he answered and fulfilled all the typical sacrifices of the Law That unto this end he sanctified himself that those who believe might be sanctified or perfected for ever by his own offering of himself That in the Gospel he is proposed as lifted up and crucified for us is bearing all our sins on his Body on the Tree That by Faith 〈◊〉 him we have adoption justification freedom from judgment and condemnation with a right and title unto Eternal Life That those who believe not are condemned already because they believe not on the Son of God and as he elswhere expresseth it make God a lier in that they believe not his Testimony namely That he hath given unto us Eternal Life and that this life is in his Son Nor doth he any where make mention of any other means cause or condition of Justification on our part but Faith only though he aboundeth in Precepts unto Believers for Love and keeping the commands of Christ. And this Faith is the receiving of Christ in the sense newly declared And this is the substance of the Christian Faith in this matter which oft-times we rather obscure then illustrate by debating the consideration of any thing in our Justification but the Grace and Love of God the Person and Mediation of Christ with Faith in them CHAP. XVIII The nature of Justification as declared in the Epistles of S. Paul in that unto the Romans especially Chap. 3. THat the way and manner of our Justification before God with all the Causes and Means of it are designedly declared by the Apostle in the Epistle unto the Romans Chap. 3.4 5. as also vindicated from Objections so as to render his discourse thereon the proper Seat of this Doctrine and whence it is principally to be learned cannot modestly be denied The late exceptions of some That this Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works is found only in the Writings of S. Paul and that his Writings are obscure and intricate are both false and scandalous to Christian Religion so as that in this place we shall not afford them the least consideration He wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he was moved by the Holy Ghost And as all the matter delivered by him was sacred Truth which immediately requires our Faith and Obedience so the way and manner wherein he declared it was such as the Holy Ghost judged most expedient for the edification of the Church And as he said himself with confidence That if the Gospel which he Preached and as it was Preached by him though accounted by them foolishness was hid so as that they could not understand nor comprehend the Mystery of it it was hid unto them that are lost so we may say That if what he delivereth in particular concerning our Justification before God seems obscure difficult or perplexed unto us it is from our prejudices corrupt affections or weakness of understanding at best not able to comprehend the glory of this Mystery of the Grace of God in Christ and not from any defect in his way and manner of the Revelation of it Rejecting therefore all such perverse insinuations in a due sense of our own weakness and acknowledgment that at best we know but in part we shall humbly inquire into the Blessed Revelation of this great Mystery of the Justification of a sinner before God as by him declared in those Chapters of his glorious Epistle to the Romans and I shall do it with all briefness possible so as not on this occasion to repeat what hath been already spoken or to anticipate what may be spoken in place more convenient The first thing he doth is to prove all men to be under sin and to be guilty before God This he giveth as the conclusion of his preceding discourse from Chap. 1.18 or what he had evidently evinced thereby Chap. 3. ver 19 23. Hereon an inquiry doth arise how any of them come to be justified before God And whereas Justification is a sentence upon the consideration of a Righteousness his grand inquiry is what that Righteousness is on the consideration whereof a Man may be so justified And concerning this he affirms expresly that it is not the Righteousness of the Law nor of the Works of it whereby what he doth intend hath been in part before declared and will be further manifested in the proofs of our discourse Wherefore in general he declares that the Righteousness whereby we are justified is the Righteousness of God in opposition unto any Righteousness of our own Chap. 1.17 Chap. 3.21 22. And he describes this Righteousness of God by three properties 1. That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Law Ver. 21. separated in all its concerns from the Law not attainable by it nor any works of it which they have no influence into It is neither our obedience unto the Law nor attainable thereby Nor can any expression more separate and exclude the Works of Obedience unto the Law from any concernment in it then this doth Wherefore what ever is or can be performed by our selves in obedience unto the Law is rejected from any interest in this Righteousness of God or the procurement of it to be made ours 2. That yet it is witnessed unto by the Law Ver. 21. The Law and the Prophets The Apostle by this distinction of the Books of the Old Testament into the Law and the Prophets manifests that by the Law he understands the Books of Moses and in them Testimony is given unto this Righteousness of God four ways 1. By a declaration of the causes of the necessity of it unto our Justification This is done in the account given of our Apostasie from God of the loss of his Image and the state of sin that insued thereon For hereby an end was put unto all possibility and hope of acceptance with God by our own Personal Righteousness By the entrance of sin our own Righteousness went out of the World so that there must be another Righteousness prepared and approved of God and called The Righteousness of God in opposition unto our own or all Relation of Love and Favor between God and Man must cease for ever 2. In the way of recovery from this state generally declared in the first Promise of the Blessed Seed by whom this Righteousness of God was to be wrought and introduced for he alone was to make an end of sin and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 9.24 That Righteousness of God that should be the means of the Justification of the Church in all ages and under all dispensations 3. By stopping up the way unto any other Righteousness through the Threatnings of the Law and that Curse which every transgression of it was attended withal
believe is represented in the words of the Apostle He doth therefore use his utmost endeavor to wrest and deprave them And yet although most of his Artifices are since traduced into the Annotations of others upon the place he himself produceth nothing material but what is taken out of Origen and the Comment of Pelagius on this Epistle which is extant in the Works of Jerome and was urged before him by Erasmus The substance of what he pleads for is That the actual transgression of Adam is not imputed unto his posterity nor a depraved nature from thence communicated unto them Only whereas he had incurred the penalty of death all that derive their nature from him in that condition are rendred subject unto death also And as for that corruption of nature which is in us or a proneness unto sin it is not derived from Adam but is an habit contracted by many continued acts of our own So also on the other hand that the Obedience or Righteousness of Christ is not imputed unto us Only when we make our selves to become his Children by our obedience unto him he having obtained eternal life for himself by his obedience unto God we are made partakers of the benefits thereof This is the substance of his long Disputation on this subject De Servator lib. 4. cap. 6. But this is not to expound the words of the Apostle but expresly to contradict them as we shall see in the insuing consideration of them I intend not an Exposition of the whole discourse of the Apostle but only of those passages in it which evidently declare the way and manner of our Justification before God A comparison is here proposed and pursued between the First Adam by whom sin was brought into the World and the Second Adam by whom it is taken away And a comparison it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of things contrary wherein there is a similitude in some things and a dissimilitude in others both sorts illustrating the truth declared in it The general Proposition of it is contained in Ver. 12. As by one Man sin entred into the World and death by sin and so death passed on all Men for that all have sinned The entrance of sin and punishment into the World was by one Man and that by one sin as he afterward declares Yet were they not confined unto the person of that one Man but belonged equally unto all This the Apostle expresseth inverting the order of the Effect and Cause In the entrance of it he first mentions the cause or sin and then the effect or punishment By one Man sin entred into the World and Death by sin But in the Application of it unto all Men he expresseth first the effect and then the cause Death passed on all Men for that all had sinned Death on the first entrance of sin passed on all that is all Men became liable and obnoxious unto it as the punishment due to sin All Men that ever were are or shall be were not then existent in their own persons But yet were they all of them then upon the first entrance of sin made subject to death or liable unto punishment They were so by vertue of Divine Constitution upon their foederal existence in the one Man that sinned And actually they became obnoxious in their own persons unto the sentence of it upon their first natural existence being born children of wrath It is hence manifest what sin it is that the Apostle intends namely The actual sin of Adam the one sin of that one common person whilest he was so For although the corruption and depravation of our nature doth necessarily insue thereon in every one that is brought forth actually in the World by Natural Generation yet is it the guilt of Adams actual sin alone that rendred them all obnoxious unto death upon the First entrance of sin into the World So death entred by sin the guilt of it obnoxiousness unto it and that with respect unto all Men universally Death here compriseth the whole punishment due unto sin be it what it will concerning which we need not here to dispute The wages of sin is death Rom. 6.23 and nothing else Whatever sin deserves in the Justice of God whatever punishment God at any time appointed or threatned unto it it is comprised in death In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death This therefore the Apostle lays down as the foundation of his discourse and of the comparison which he intends namely that in and by the actual sin of Adam all Men are made liable unto death or unto the whole punishment due unto sin That is the guilt of that sin is imputed unto them For nothing is intended by the imputation of sin unto any but the rendring them justly obnoxious unto the punishment due unto that sin As the not imputing of sin is the freeing of Men from being subject or liable unto punishment And this sufficiently evidenceth the vanity of the Pelagian Gloss that Death passed upon all meerly by vertue of natural propagation from him who had deserved it without any imputation of the guilt of sin unto them which is a contradiction unto the plain words of the Apostle For it is the guilt of sin and not natural propagation that he affirms to be the cause of Death Having mentioned sin and death the one as the only cause of the other the guilt of sin of the punishment of death sin deserving nothing but death and death being due unto nothing but sin he declares how all Men universally became liable unto this punishment or guilty of death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in quo omnes peccaverunt in whom all have sinned For it relates unto the one Man that sinned in whom all sinned which is evident from the effect thereof in as much as in him all died 1 Cor. 15.22 Or as it is here on his sin Death passed on all Men. And this is the evident sense of the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being put for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not unusual in the Scripture See Matth. 15.5 Rom. 4.18 Chap. 5.2 Phil. 1.3 Heb. 9.17 And it is so often used by the best Writers in the Greek Tongue So Hesiod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 modus in omnibus rebus optimus So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vobis situm est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc in me situm est And this reading of the words is contended for by Austine against the Pelagians rejecting their eo quod or propterea But I shall not contend about the reading of the words It is the artifice of our adversaries to perswade Men that the force of our Argument to prove from hence the imputation of the sin of Adam unto his posterity doth depend solely upon this interpretation of these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by in whom We shall therefore grant them their desire that they are better rendred by eo quod propterea or quatenus
The next place I shall consider in the Epistle of this Apostle is 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption The design of the Apostle in these words is to manifest that whatever is wanting unto us on any account that we may please God live unto him and come to the injoyment of him that we have in and by Jesus Christ And this on the part of God from meer free and sovereign Grace as Ver. 26 27 28 29. do declare And we have all these things by vertue of our insition or implantation in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from of or by him He by his Grace is the principal efficient cause hereof And the effect is that we in Christ Jesus that is ingrafted in him or united unto him as Members of his Mystical Body which is the constant sense of that expression in the Scripture And the benefits which we receive hereby are enumerated in the following words But first the way whereby we are made partakers of them or they are communicated unto us is declared who of God is made unto us It is so ordained of God that he himself shall be made or become all this unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes the efficient cause as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did before But how is Christ thus made unto us of God or what act of God is it that is intended thereby Socinus says it is a General act of the providence of God whence it is come to pass or is so faln out that one way or other the Lord Christ should be said to be all this unto us But it is an especial Ordinance and Institution of Gods sovereign Grace and Wisdom designing Christ to be all this unto us and for us with actual Imputation thereon and nothing else that is intended Whatever interest therefore we have in Christ and what ever benefit we have by him it all depends on the sovereign Grace and constitution of God and not on any thing in our selves Whereas then we have no Righteousness of our own he is appointed of God to be our Righteousness and is made so unto us which can be no otherwise but that his Righteousness is made ours For he is made it unto us as he is likewise the other things mentioned so as that all boasting that is in our selves should be utterly excluded and that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord Ver. 29 31. Now there is such a Righteousness or such a way of being righteous whereon we may have somewhat to Glory Rom 4.2 And which doth not exclude boasting Chap. 3.27 And this cannot possibly be but when our Righteousness is inherent in us For that however it may be procured or purchased or wrought in us is yet our own so far as any thing can be our own whilest we are Creatures This kind of Righteousness therefore is here excluded And the Lord Christ being so made Righteousness unto us of God as that all boasting and glorying on our part or in our selves may be excluded yea being made so for this very end that so it should be it can be no otherwise but by the Imputation of his Righteousness unto us For thereby is the Grace of God the honor of his Person and Mediation exalted and all occasion of glorying in our selves utterly prescinded We desire no more from this testimony but that whereas we are in our selves destitute of all Righteousness in the sight of God Christ is by a gracious act of Divine Imputation made of God Righteousness unto us in such a way as that all our glorying ought to be in the Grace of God and the Righteousness of Christ himself Bellarmine attempts three Answers unto this Testimony the two first whereof are coincident and in the third being on the rack of Light and Truth he confesseth and grants all that we plead for 1. He says That Christ is said to be our Righteousness because he is the efficient cause of it as God is said to be our strength and so there is in the words a Metonymy of the effect for the cause And I say it is true That the Lord Christ by his Spirit is the efficient cause of our Personal Inherent Righteousness By his Grace it is effected and wrought in us he renews our natures into the Image of God and without him we can do nothing So that our habitual and actual Rightousness is from him But this Personal Righteousness is our Sanctification and nothing else And although the same internal habit of Inherent Grace with operations suitable thereunto be sometimes called our Sanctification and sometimes our Righteousness with respect unto those operations yet is it never distinguished into our Sanctification and our Righteousness But his being made Righteousness unto us in this place is absolutely distinct from his being made Sanctification unto us which is that Inherent Righteousness which is wrought in us by the Spirit and Grace of Christ. And his working Personal Righteousness in us which is our Sanctification and the Imputation of his Righteousness unto us whereby we are made righteous before God are not only consistent but the one of them cannot be without the other 2. He pleads That Christ is said to be made Righteousness unto us as he is made Redemption Now he is our Redemption because he hath redeemed us So is he said to be made Righteousness unto us because by him we become righteous or as another speaks Because by him alone we are justified This is the same plea with the former namely that there is a metonymy of the effect for the cause in all these expressions yet what cause they intend it to be who expound the words By him alone we are justified I do not understand But Bellarmine is approaching yet nearer the Truth for as Christ is said to be made of God Redemption unto us because by his Blood we are redeemed or freed from Sin Death and Hell by the ransome he paid for us or have redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins So he is said to be made Righteousness unto us because through his Righteousness granted unto us of God as Gods making him to be Righteousness unto us and our becoming the Righteousness of God in him and the Imputation of his Righteousness unto us that we may be righteous before God are the same we are justified His third answer as was before observed grants the whole of what we plead For it is the same which he gives unto Jere. 23.6 which place he conjoyns with this as of the same sense and importance giving up his whole cause in satisfaction unto them in the words before transcribed Lib. 2. cap. 10. Socinus Prefaceth his Answer unto this Testimony with an Admiration That any should make use of it or plead it in this cause it is so impertinent unto the purpose And
it was in force was a duty of the Moral Law And the Works of the Law are the Works and Duties of Obedience which this Law of God requires performed in the manner that it prescribes namely in Faith and out of love unto God above all as hath been proved To say that the Apostle excludeth only Works absolutely perfect which none ever did or could perform since the entrance of sin is to suppose him to dispute with great earnestness and many Arguments against that which no Man asserted and which he doth not once mention in all his discourse Nor can he be said to exclude only Works that are looked on as meritorious seeing he excludeth all Works that there may be no place for merit in our Justification as hath also been proved Nor did these Galatians whom he writes unto and convinceth them of their error look for Justification from any Works but such as they performed then when they were Believers So that all sorts of Works are excluded from any interest in our Justification And so much weight doth the Apostle lay on this exclusion of Works from our Justification as that he affirms That the admittance of it overthrows the whole Gospel Ver. 21. For saith he if Righteousness be by the Law then is Christ dead in vain and it is dangerous venturing on so sharp a fence Not this or that sort of Works not this or that manner of the performance of them not this or that kind of interest in our Justification but all Works of what sort soever and however performed are excluded from any kind of consideration in our Justification as our Works or Duties of Obedience For these Galatians whom the Apostle reproves desired no more but that in the Justification of a Believer Works of the Law or Duties of Obedience might be admitted into a conjunction or copartnership witn Faith in Christ Jesus For that they would exclude Faith in him and assign Justification unto Works without it nothing is intimated and it is a foolish imagination In opposition hereunto he positively ascribes our Justification unto Faith in Christ alone Not by Works but by Faith is by Faith alone That the Particles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are not exceptive but adversative hath not only been undeniably proved by Protestant Divines but is acknowledged by those of the Roman Church who pretend unto any modesty in this Controversie The words of Estius on this place deserve to be transcribed Nisi per fidem Jesu Christi sententiam reddit obscuram particula Nisi so the vulgar Latin renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of sed or sed tantum quae si proprie ut Latinis auribus sonat accipiatur exceptionem facit ab eo quod praecedit ut sensus sit hominem non justificari ex operibus Legis nisi fides in Chrislum ad ea opera accedat quae si accesserit justificari eum per legis opera Sed cum hic sensus Justificationem dividat partim eam tribuens operibus legis partim fidei Christi quod est contra definitam absolutam Apostoli sententiam manifestum est interpretationem illam tanquam Apostolico sensui scopo contrariam omnino repudiandam esse Verum constat voculam nisi frequenter in Scripturis adversative sumi ut idem valeat quod Sed tantum So he according to his usual candor and ingenuity It is not probable that we shall have an end of contending in this World when Men will not acquiesce in such plain Determinations of Controversies given by the Holy Ghost himself The Interpretation of this place given as the meaning of the Apostle That Men cannot be justified by those Works which they cannot perform that is Works absolutely perfect but may be so and are so by those which they can and do perform if not in their own strength yet by the aid of Grace And that Faith in Christ Jesus which the Apostle opposeth absolutely unto all Works whatever doth include in it all those Works which he excludes and that with respect unto that end or effect with respect whereunto they are excluded cannot well be supposed to be suitable unto the mind of the Holy Ghost Ephes. 2.8 9 10. For by Grace ye are saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of Works lest any Man should boast For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works which God hath fore-ordained that we should walk in them Unless it had seemed good unto the Holy Ghost to have expressed before hand all the evasions and subterfuges which the wit of Man in after ages could invent to pervert the Doctrine of our Justification before God and to have rejected them it is impossible they could have been more plainly prevented then they are in this context If we may take a little unprejudiced consideration of it I suppose what is affirmed will be evident It cannot be denied but that the design of the Apostle from the beginning of this Chapter unto the end of Ver. 11. is to declare the way whereby lost and condemned sinners come to be delivered and translated out of that condition into an estate of acceptance with God and eternal Salvation thereon And therefore in the first place he fully describeth their natural state with their being obnoxious unto the wrath of God thereby For such was the method of this Apostle unto the Declaration of the Grace of God in any kind he did usually yea constantly premise the consideration of our sin misery and ruine Others now like not this method so well Howbeit this hinders not but that it was his Unto this purpose he declares unto the Ephesians That they were dead in trespasses and sins expressing the power that sin had on their Souls as unto Spiritual life and all the actions of it but withal that they lived and walked in sin and on all accounts were the children of wrath or subject and liable unto eternal condemnation Ver. 1 2 3. What such persons can do towards their own deliverance there are many terms found out to express all passing my understanding seeing the intire design of the Apostle is to prove that they can do nothing at all But another cause or other causes of it he finds out and that in direct express opposition unto any thing that may be done by our selves unto that end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 4. It is not a work for us to undertake it is not what we can contribute any thing unto But God who is rich in mercy The adversative includes an opposition unto every thing on our part and incloseth the whole work to God Would Men have rested on this Divine Revelation the Church of God had been free from many of those perverse opinions and wrangling disputes which it hath been pestered withal But they will not so easily part with thoughts of some kind of interest in being the Authors of their own happiness Wherefore two
unto the Preface unto his Exposition of his Epistles of which kind they will be directed unto more in due season But he needs not the Testimony of men nor of the whole Church together whose safety and security it is to be built on that Doctrine which he taught In the mean time it would not be unpleasant to consider but that the perverseness of the minds of men is rather a real occasion of sorrow how those who have the same design do agree in their conceptions about his Writings for some will have it that if not all yet the most of his Epistles were Written against the Gnosticks and in the confutation of their errour others that the Gnosticks took the occasion of their errours from his Writings So bold will men make with things Divine to satisfie a present interest Secondly This was not the judgment of the ancient Church for three or four hundred years For whereas the Epistles of Paul were always esteemed the principal treasure of the Church the great guide and rule of the Christian Faith this of James was scarce received as Canonical by many and doubted of by the most as both Eusebius and Hierome do testifie Thirdly The design of the Apostle James is not at all to explain the meaning of Paul in his Epistles as is pretended but only to vindicate the Doctrine of the Gospel from the abuse of such as used their liberty for a cloak of Maliciousness and turning the Grace of God into lasciviousness continued in sin under a pretence that Grace had abounded unto that end Fourthly The Apostle Paul doth himself as we have declared vindicate his own Doctrine from such exceptions and abuses as men either made at it or turned it unto Nor have we any other Doctrine in his Epistles than what he Preached all the World over and whereby he laid the foundation of Christian Religion especially among the Gentiles These things being premised I shall briefly evidence that there is not the least Repugnancy or contradiction between what is declared by these two Apostles as unto our Justification with the causes of it And this I shall do 1. By some general considerations of the nature and tendency of both their discourses 2 By a particular explication of the context in that of St. James And under the first head I shall manifest 1 That they have not the same scope design or end in their discourses That they do not consider the same question nor state the same case nor determine on the same enquiry and therefore not speaking ad idem unto the same thing do not contradict one another 2 That as Faith is a word of various signification in the Scripture and doth as we have proved before denote that which is of divers kinds they speak not of the same Faith or Faith of the same kind and therefore there can be no contradiction in what the one ascribes unto it and the other derogates from it seeing they speak not of the same Faith 3 That they do not speak of Justification in the same sense nor with respect unto the same ends 4 That as unto Works they both intend the same namely the Works of Obedience unto the moral Law As to the scope and design of the Apostle Paul the question which he answereth the case which he proposeth and determines upon are manifest in all his Writings especially his Epistles unto the Romans and Galatians The whole of his purpose is to declare how a guilty convinced sinner comes through Faith in the blood of Christ to have all his sins pardoned to be accepted with God and obtain a right unto the Heavenly inheritance that is be acquitted and justified in the sight of God And as the Doctrine hereof belonged eminently unto the Gospel whose Revelation and Declaration unto the Gentiles was in a peculiar manner committed unto him so as we have newly observed he had an especial reason to insist much upon it from the opposition that was made unto it by the Jews and Judaizing Christians who ascribed this priviledge unto the Law and our own Works of Obedience in compliance therewithal This is the case he states this the question he determines in all his Discourses about Justification and in the explication thereof declares the nature and causes of it as also vindicates it from all exceptions For whereas men of corrupt minds and willing to indulge unto their lusts as all men naturally desire nothing but what God hath made eternally inconsistent namely that they may live in sin here and come to blessedness hereafter might conclude that if it were so as he declared that we are justified freely through the Grace of God by the Imputation of a Righteousness that Originally and inherently is not our own then was there no more required of us no relinquishment of sin no attendance unto the duties of Righteousness and Holiness he obviates such impious suggestions and shews the inconsequence of them on the Doctrine that he taught But this he doth not do in any place by intimating or granting that our own Works of Obedience or Righteousness are necessary unto or have any causal influence into our Justification before God Had there been a Truth herein were not a supposition thereof really inconsistent with the whole of his Doctrine and destructive of it he would not have omitted the Plea of it nor ought so to have done as we have shewed And to suppose that there was need that any other should explain and vindicate his Doctrine from the same exceptions which he takes notice of by such a Plea as he himself would not make use of but rejects is foolish and impious The Apostle James on the other hand had no such scope or design or any such occasion for what he wrote in this matter He doth not enquire or give intimation of any such enquiry he doth not state the Case how a guilty convinced Sinner whose mouth is stopped as unto any plea or excuse for himself may come to be justified in the sight of God that is receive the Pardon of sins and the gift of Righteousness unto life To resolve this question into our own Works is to overthrow the whole Gospel But he had in hand a business quite of another nature For as we have said there were many in those days who professed the Christian Religion or Faith in the Gospel whereon they presumed that as they were already justified so that there was nothing more needful unto them that they might be saved A desirable estate they thought they had attained suited unto all the interest of the Flesh whereby they might live in Sin and neglect of all Duty of Obedience and yet be eternally saved Some suppose that this pernicious conceit was imbibed by them from the poysonous Opinions that some had then divulged according as the Apostle Paul foretold that it would come to pass 2 Tim. 4.1 2 3. For it is generally conceived that Simon Magus and his followers