God administers Grace in a way of Justice as he is faithful to his promise he hath made of Pardon and Life through Jesus Christ upon our obedience to the Gospel And if he would know what he justifies from and for what and upon what God tells him Acts 13. 38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses And if he would know further how he is just in justifying him that believeth in Jesus I Answer Christ having yielded such a conformity as I have spoken of to the Law of Innocency for us in the account of the Lawgiver and satisfied the justice of God his glorious attributes are so much honoured and advanced and the repute of his violated Law kept up as that God can for and upon this meritorious and satisfactory Righteousness of Christ without any wrong to his Justice or any other his Attributes or injury to his Holy Law justifie the Sinner upon Faith in Christ or give him an actual right according to the Law of Grace to Pardon and Life And from what hath been said it is manifest he is faithful and just in forgiving of Sin when and where he doth forgive it and what God doth herein according to the explication I have given neither interferes with Law nor Justice Q. 3. What is the Rule of this righteousness of Faith which is the formal cause of our Justification he should have added by God's imputation for if it be a justifying righteousness it must be by some Rule not the Law of Innocency for it requires a perfect righteousness but faith is an imperfect one Then it is the new Law or Covenant that Christ hath purchased that must be the Rule well then I ask is an imperfect Rule the Rule of our justifying righteousness or doth the same justifie by that which is imperfect or doth this New Law justifie us with the allowed breaâ— of the Old how then is it a better Covenant or how is the Law given honoured thereby In this his 5th which he calls a Question he inquires first what is the Rule of this Righteousness of Faith which is the formal cause of our Justification I Answer the Gospel in which this Faith is commanded John 20. 31. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his Name 1 John 3. 23. And this is his Commandment that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another as he gave us Commandment And Obedience to the Gospel is this Righteousness of Faith But saith he this Faith is an imperfect Righteousness so it is if the Law of Innocency which injoins sinless perfect works be made the measure of it but not so if we bring it to the Gospel where it is commanded that accepts of sincere Obedience and such is the Obedience of Faith in all God's People for in them strict legal perfection cannot be found But to pass on this Man accounts the Gospel an imperfect Rule If compared with the Law of Innocent nature and what it requires I grant it but that it is so absolutely or in its own nature I deny seeing it contains the whole of that which God wills and requires to give us interest in Christ and a right to Eternal Salvation by way of direction or instruction Let him prove the Gospel to be insufficient here and then let him scoff at it as the Papists calling it an imperfect Rule If he judge that what God commands in order to Salvation be imperfect he must tell us what is wanting and so see if his wisdom can make up the defect In the mean time I shall hold that the Righteousness of Faith is perfect with relation to the Rule i. e. the Gospel which it is a conformity unto our Divines have ever distinguished of a Legal and Evangelical perfection but of this I have spoken more above And whereas he adds in scorn doth this New Law which I call the Gospel justifie us with an allowed breach of the Old I Answer God doth not allow of Sin so as to approve of it in any he being an infinite Holy God and Sin being so opposite to this his nature But I would have him know Christ having made satisfaction to justice God is pleased for the sake of this Blessed Redeemer and Mediatour in his abundant Grace and Mercy to Pardon the Sins of all sincere returners and accept of their sincere Obedience of Faith to the Gospel instead of strict Legal perfection God justifies not pardons not upon sincere Repentance and Faith without a satisfaction given to him as Lawgiver and when God insists upon satisfaction for the violation of his Holy Law and will not pardon any Sinner though a penitent Believer without this when then satisfaction is given and accepted if God hereupon according to the Gospel justifie and pardon a penitent and believing Sinner as such doth he by this justifie and pardon with the allowed breach of his Law If so this is as much as to say God allows of Sin when for the sake of Christ he justifies and pardons any Sinner upon sincere Faith and Repentance How the Lawgiver is honoured though he justifie by â—he Covenant or Law of Grace upon a true Faith I have elswhere shewed Q 6. Seeing Faith must be our formal justifying Righteousness then I ask saith he what degree or how many acts of Faith are required to constitute this Righteousness that justifies us Is it the faith of adherence or the faith of assurance Is it our first act of faith that justifies or our whole life of faith which consists of many acts If by our first act then all after acts are insignificant as as to Justification Mark here Reader this Man by this last branch grants that not only the first act but all after acts of Faith are significant as to Justification for he saith if we are justified by the first act of Faith then all after acts are insignificant as to our Justification which plainly implies that he accounts not only the first act but all after acts of Faith to be requisite to Justification or else he understands not well what he hath writ And thus he runs himself upon that which follows this with a design to insnare Men i. e. If by our whole Life of Faith Mark it is like the Life of Faith consists only in act according to this Man so that there must be no Life of Faith in a Soul but so long as it is in exercise which consists of many acts of Faith then our Justification is suspended till our lives be finished then saith he where is the Man that is justified or sure that he shall be I never and I question whether any beside this
a perfect conformity to the Law of Innocency is as dung and so abominable to God and sure I am this looks odd on 't for is not this Grace and Holiness a work of God and is not every work of God perfect in its kind hath not a perfection of parts been all along granted and is there not an Evangelical perfection consisting in sincerity which hath been and is acknowledged by Divines was it a strict legal perfection or a perfection consisting in sincerity that David intended when he gave Solomon his Son the charge to serve God with a perfect heart and so when it is said of the People they offered with a perfect heart 1 Chron. 29. 9. Was that a strict legal perfection in Heart and Life that was so sweet to Hezekiah in the reflection after he had received the sentence of Death in himself Isa 38. 3. And said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight and Hezekiah wept sore Mr. Caryl from that part of Job's description This Man was perfect saith not that he had a legal perfection such a perfection as the Papists now contend for and assert to be possibly attainable yea actually attained by many in this Life But saith he the perfection here spoken of is the perfection of sincerity and he observes from the words after his explication First It is sincerity that especially commends us to God Secondly Saith he sincere and sound hearted Persons are in God's esteem perfect Persons It is not all that you can do or all that you can say or all that you can suffer or all that you can lose that can make you perfect in the esteem of God without sincerity add sincerity but to the least and it gives you the denomination of perfect Thus far this Reverend Author which Doctrine some Men call Popish so well are they acquainted what Popish Doctrine is Some Men seperate Faith and good Works and speak of them so as though there might be good Works without Faith Now for my part I know no good Works formally in a Theological sense but such as are done in Faith and I know nothing done in Faith that leads not to Christ and God in him and therefore for Persons to speak of good Works as such seperate from Faith and to speak of Faith leading the Soul off from Christ is manifestly vain Some Men will not grant that Faith is a qualification of right to Christ and his benefits and â—et they say to justifie is to make one legally just or just in Law so say I and can a Man be legally just without a legal righteousness and is not that which is a Righteousness a quality how then can a Man be just legally and not qualitatively Find me a Man that ever was legally just and yet not personally just in the sense of that Law which accounted him just and if personally just then primarily inherently just and if personally just just in his nature As I have said above so I must here say again let it be proved that Thomas is a Person without the nature of a Man or that the nature doth not go to constitute the Person when I speak of Faith as the qualifying matter in a Gospel sense some Persons have inferred from hence that this is all I intend in Justification whereas there is the form as I have said i. e. God's imputation by his Law of Grace his accounting such a Faith as accepts of Christ as our great Propitiation Head and Teacher by this his Law for the sake of Christ's satisfaction and Merit for Righteousness and forma dat esse Hence their inference is a meer fallacy à dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter Will the Gospel assert a Person 's right to Christ and his benefits before conformity thereunto and when through grace any Person yields Conformity is it not a Gospel Righteousness and is not a Gospel Righteousness jus quoad eam legem a right in that Law to Christ Pardon and Life promised and is jus ad rem a right to a thing no qualification in a legal sense if not then the consequence must be that a penitent Believer as such subjectively hath no more actual right to Christ and Life according to the Gospel promise then an impenitent Infidel I speak not of a right by merit but both by qualification unto him that hath merited and unto Pardon and Life merited by him for us Faith it self as it is the Soul's first consent to accept of Christ to be its Propitiation Head and Teacher is really Gospel Obedience Rom. 16. 26. But now is made manifest and by the Scriptures of the Prophets according to the commandment of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience of faith and that because it is the Soul's conformity to the Gospel command 1 John 3. 23. And this is his commandment That we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ love one another as he gave us commandment And Faith thus considered is that which unites to Christ and the qualifying matter which first gives the right John 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name And as Faith is the Soul's consent to accept of Christ c. this consent includes the Soul 's free ingagement sincerely to be subject to what Christ commands so long as he continues it in the World in a dependance upon his power and faithfulness And this sincere obedience performed according to the Soul's first Covenant consent during its abode in this World is that whereby its right to Christ and saving blessings is continued Revel 22. 14. Blessed are they that do his commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City And this is agreeable to the mind of a Reverend and Judicious Divine as he Illustrates it by a Marriage Covenant including constant fidelity And this Faith with him is a condition as it relates to the Covenant and a Righteousness in the sense of the Gospel as it is the performance of the condition And when he speaks of Christ's Righteousness being the cause and matter of Justification his declared sense is the meriting matter not that we might merit but have that by virtue of his merit which the Gospel requires to give us right to Pardon and Life and what is this but our sincere consent which is Faith Our Divines excluding good Works from the matter of Justification spoke of good Works with relation to the Law of Innocency and indeed Evangelical Obedience will be no qualifying matter of right in the sense of that Law and that they did so is plain forasmuch as their argument is because they are imperfect perfect therefore say they it must be a perfect
I Answer Luther in Galat. 3. 6. saith Christian Righteousness is an affiance or faith in the Son of God which affiance is imputed unto Righteousness for Christ's sake And in the same place not long after God for Christ's sake in whom I have begun to believe accounts this my imperfect faith for perfect Righteousness And in the 2d Cap. 16. saith he For the Righteousness of the Law a Man is not pronounced righteous before God but the Righteousness of Faith God imputeth freely through Grace for Christ's sake And a little after saith he wherefore God doth accept or account us righteous only for our Faith in Christ Calvin on Rom. 4. 3. saith Wherefore Abraham by believing doth only embrace the grace tendered unto him that it might not be in vain If this be imputed unto him for Righteousness it follows that he is no otherwise righteous but as trusting or relying upon the goodness of God he hath boldness to hope for all things from him Bucer on Rom. 4. 3. saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness that is he accounted this faith or believing for Righteousness so that â—y believing he obtained this that God esteemed him a righteous Man Musculus on Galat. 3. 6. saith What did Abraham that should be imputed unto him for Righteousness but only this that he believed God But it may be said they make the Righteousness of Christ i. e. the Imputation of it the formal cause of our Justification As to this if some Men be guilty of self contradiction I am prone to think they did not intend it But now these worthy Men who say the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is the formal cause of our Justification if they mean only by God's Imputation that God doth account the Righteousness of Christ to be that and that only which hath the form of a Satisfactory and Meritorious Righteousness and so as such for which God justifies us upon believing then there is no contradiction And in the judgment of charity I think no more was intended notwithstanding their unwary expressions which many have made but a bad use of seeing that they have ever affirmed this Righteousness of Christ which they call by God's Imputation the formal cause of our Justification to answer for the violation of God's Holy Law satisfie God's Justice remove the curse of the Law due unto us Sinners purchase Pardon and Life and yet that none shall have in or an actual right unto Redemption from the curse special Reconciliation with God Pardon and Salvation but such as truly believe And therefore when they speak of being clothed with Christ's Righteousness as a robe and garment I would think they mean no more but that it is this which is the screen or sanctuary to secure all true penitent believers from the execution of the Laws curse or the wrath of God but then not this as it is the only Righteousness of their Persons but as it is the proper and only Righteousness of their Mediatour though the blessed benefits hereof as is plain redounds to their Persons And thus as it was for them to remove the great evil that was due and procure all saving good so it is as I have above expressed it the formal satisfactory Righteousness for their Persons by God's Imputation but then not the formal Righteousness of their Person 's by God's Imputation i. e. God doth for this Righteousness of Christ account them upon such a Faith as I have above described personally righteous in the sense of the Gospel and so to have interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life promised but then not personally righteous with it seeing as I have said it cannot in it self after any sort be communicated to Believers although it be in its fruits and benefits I think if this little which I have here inserted was but well considered and our old Divines thus understood the difference would not be great betwixt them and those that are called new upon the matter But the holding ungrounded notions from the manner of expression keeps us far from an accommodation And if some Men will stick by such notions the consequences we have collected from the very nature of the thing whether we will or no devolve upon them though as to such as are practical Christians their practice as I have said must contradict such notions and agree with those very same I have laid down wherein through Christ is their safety though yet holding such notions from whence such consequences flow I know from mine own experience they must be attended with confusion and act but in the dark while yet they may think they have the greatest light for whatsoever the notions of a true practical Holy Christian are yet I am certain he dares not conclude his interest in or right unto Christ Pardon and Life purchased by him any further than he hath ground of hope that he is a true penitent sincere obedient Believer And sure I am when he pleads with God for Pardon Grace and Acceptation he dares not plead as the Merit of this any Righteousness upon himself or wherewith he is formally personally righteous with Christ's Righteousness yet he dare not plead this no but only the Righteousness of the Mediatour Jesus Christ without him as the merit of Pardon Grace and acceptation and this includes the whole that can come within a Christians practice upon this matter I dare appeal to any practical Christian herein And though this be that I hold in this point yet saith this Man if this opinion prevail both Law and Gospel is overthrown truth and saving light extinguished and we lose our Crown and that which we have laboured for This as much as if he had said that which must and will be found in every true and real Christian's practice if this prevail both Law and Gospel is overthrown c. And not having done enough he adds and many Holy Men of God lose that they have laboured for and lost their lives What a Man is this did he ever know or hear or read of any of the Holy Men of God who lost their lives for the opposing such notions the practice of which as Holy Men must unavoidably be found in their own practice Let him give me an instance any where at any time of any one Holy Man of God indeed or Woman that lost their lives and so suffered Martyrdom for opposing this Doctrine i. e. That true Faith unites to Christ gives interest in him and so through and for him an actual right to Pardon and Life and that no true Christian dare conclude that he hath this union interest and right any further than he hath ground of hope that he is a true penitent sincere obedient Believer and that he dare not plead any Righteousness that is in him or upon him as the merit of Pardon Grace and Acceptation but only the Righteousness of Christ the Mediatour without him I say let
must flee to the Promise and plead the Promise as having a right through Christ upon such qualifications which are of Grace Doth not this speak that the Promise doth both assert our right and also will maintain our right to Pardon and Life And what is it but justifying Saith a Reverend Divine you shall hear a Protestant in his Prayer appealing from the Tribunal of God's Justice to the Throne of his Grace and yet in his Sermon be telling the People that it is nothing else but the perfect Obedience and Satisfaction of Christ imputed to them you must know to be accounted by God as their personal righteousness that saves them which is to bring them back from the Throne of his Grace to the Bar of his Justice to be judged 6. When I say that Justification is God's asserting act by his Promise of Grace our right to Pardon and Life for the sake of Christ upon our believing I do not think that Pardon is any part constituting our Justification but a benefit which doth immediately follow thereupon For consider we Justification first Actively so it consists in God's giving us a right through Christ by his Promise upon our obedience to the preceptive part of the Law of Grace or if you will upon our performance through his Grace of the conditions of the new Covenant I mean such upon which we have a right at the first or at the first an interest or our first acceptance into favour through Christ Ephes 1. 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved Or 2ly Consider we Justification passively so it is our having this right Now observe Pardon is that which God gives right to by his promise and which we have right to considered as subjects qualified i. e. as true penitent Believers and so must be a precious benefit devolved upon us as Persons who have right But seeing that many worthy Divines have affirmed and undertaken taken to prove that our very justifying righteousness consists in Pardon of Sin I shall here give my thoughts and the grounds of them upon the point and shall not impose upon any but leave Persons to take or leave as they shall have light and evidence SECT VII Wherein Pardon and Justification agree and wherein they disagree I Shall then first shew wherein Justification and Pardon agree 1. They agree in the principal Efficient which is God 't is God that Justifies and 't is God that Pardons Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth Ephes 4. 32. And be ye kind to one another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you 1 John 1. 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 2. They agree in the Meritorious Cause Christ hath purchased the one and the other it is for his Merits we are Justified and for his Merits we are Pardoned Rom. 3. 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Rom. 5. 9. Much more then being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Matth. 26. 28. For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Acts 13. 38. Be it known unto you therefore Men and Brethren that through this Man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins 3. They agree in the Subject both Justification and Forgiveness relates to a Penitent Believer and such an one only I speak of the Adult that is Justified and 't is a Penitent Believer and such an one that is Pardoned Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. 4. They agree in the Instrumental Cause and that is the Covenant of Grace or God's gracious Promise for this is God's Instrument whereby he doth convey a right to Pardon not only Pardon but a right unto it Isa 43. 25. I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Isa 44. 22. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins return unto me for I have redeemed thee 5. They agree in time when a Person is Justified he is Pardoned there is no time wherein a Person is Justified but he is Pardoned nor wherein he is Pardoned but he is Justified I proceed Secondly To shew wherein they differ 1. And First They differ as Justification hath the priority of Nature i. e. Justification is in order of Nature before Pardon a Man must in order of Nature have a right to Pardon before he have it he must Repent and Believe and so be conformed to the Gospel Law before he be righteous in the Sense of that Law and so have right to Pardon 2. They differ in their habitude or relation Justification properly relates to a false Accusation Pardon of Sin to a true and just one he that is accused falsly when his Innocency is cleared as to the Crime of which he is accused may be said to be justified Deut. 25. 1. If there be a controversie between Men and they come unto judgment that the judges may judge them then they shall justifie the righteous and condemn the wicked But now he that is truly and justly accused he may have Pardon of the Crime committed but he cannot by that Law whereby he was Convict be justified or accounted as righteous with respect to the Crime of which he hath been truly and justly accused He that is accused of Impenitency and Unbelief if the Accusation be false the Law of Grace accounts him righteous and so justifies him against that Accusation But if a Person accused of Impenitency and Unbelief and the Accusation be true and just this Law will Pardon upon Repentance and Faith through Christ but it will not justifie upon Repentance and Faith as a Person that hath been falsly accused for he was truly and justly accused before he did Repent and Believe though not when he believed 3. They differ in their Essence or Nature that which constitutes Justification is our Conformity to the Law of Grace upon which God in his gracious Promise through Christ accounts us righteous but that which constitutes Pardon is not a Conformity or Obedience of this sort but our acquittance and discharge from obligation to Punishment due true it is upon this Gospel Righteousness for Christ's Satisfaction and Merits we are pardoned but yet Pardon is not nor cannot be that Righteousness which the Gospel calls for to our Justification for if so we should first have forgiveness and then forgiveness upon
all Men though in a special distinguishing sort of those that believe 12. I believe saith he that the obediential righteousness of Christ is by the act of God's free grace counted imputed and reckoned to the Elect as the material formal cause of their Justification in the sight of God and yet we are not Godded with God nor Christed with Christ as such an one saith mentioning me for I believe saith he that in Christ there is four sorts of righteousness three of which cannot without blasphemy be said to be imputed unto us First there is the righteousness of his Godhead Secondly Of his Manhood They are Essential to his two natures and cannot be imputed Thirdly The righteousness of both natures united together in one Person which is the righteousness that qualifies fits and makes him meet for the Work and Office of a Mediatour and is Essential to his Office as such and thus he is God's righteous Servant Jesus Christ the righteous a faithful High Priest Fourthly There is the righteousness of his obedience in his life and death to the holy and just Law of God and this is that righteousness which is imputed to sinners for Justification Now he hath led us into the clouds to purpose here is darkness and confusion with a witness yea and such as we have his own testimony for as will be manifest 1. He intimates the Elect are justified but whether as such only while in a state of impenitency and infidelity he tells us not If he intend they are while in that state then they must be justified and condemned at the same time for he that believes not is condemned already John 3. 18. 2. He saith that Christ's Righteousness is counted imputed and reckoned to the Elect as the material formal cause of their Justification and yet saith he we are not Godded with God and Christed with Christ I grant indeed neither he nor any other whoever they be are or ever shall be Goded with God or Christed with Christ but that this must be the consequence which is the thing I say if they hold the Doctrine of being formally personally Righteous with Christ's Righteousness this I have given reason for above Touching his distribution of Christ's Righteousness into four sorts his first and second sort supposeth that the humane nature of Christ did once exist seperate from the Divine seeing he saith the third sort is the righteousness of both natures united Now if the humane nature after it did exist never did exist but in Union with the Divine what ground can there be for this distinction First The Divine Righteousness Second The Humane Third The Righteousness of both Natures united I would know when and where they were disunited after the humane nature had once an existence I deny not that Christ's Righteousness as God is distinct from his Righteousness as Man as well as humane nature is distinct from the Divine though united in one and the same Person But this is that I desire to know when or where there was a Righteousness of both these natures considered as existing disunited If not to what purpose then is that which he calls his two first sorts of Christ's Righteousness I mean the distinction of his Righteousness into Divine and Humane from the Righteousness of both natures united And how can he make three sorts go we upon his own supposition for he saith there is the Righteousness of Christ as God and his Righteousness as Man and then the Righteousness of both natures united Now if he consider the natures as divided and if again as united He hath but still the Righteousness of the Divine and the Righteousness of the Humane nature which righteousness is but twofold where now is his third sort or where will he find it His fourth sort of Christ's Righteousness as he calls it is his obedience in Life and Death and this saith he is the Righteousness which is imputed Now as he makes this a fourth sort and so specifically distinct from the other then this obedience of Christ according to him must neither be his righteousness as Man nor his righteousness as God nor his righteousness as God and Man united for it is blasphemy quoth he to say that any of these sorts of Righteousness as he calls them are imputed and if Christ's Obedience in Life and Death be none of these what or whose Righteousness must it be it cannot according to what he saith be the Righteousness of our Lord Jesus for he is both God and Man and his Righteousness then must be the Righteousness of that Person who is both God and Man And if this Obedience in Life and Death which he saith is the Righteousness imputed be neither the Obedience of the Divine nor the Obedience of the Humane nature as he supposeth in seperation nor the Obedience of the Divine and Humane nature in union then it is manifest it cannot be Christ's according to his Doctrine Hath not this Man thinkest thou Reader run divisions to a pâ—rpose in Christ's Righteousness until he hath whoâ—ly cut off and cast away from him his active and passive Righteousness besides his dividing the Righteousness of his Divine and Humane nature which are but two into three Consider consider I beseech you you that are so stiff for such an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as to be formally in your own Persons righteous with it what this Doctrine leads to shut not your Eyes against clear light The Lord make it a conviction unto you when you hear that Men will have the active and passive obedience of Christ to be that they are materially and formally righteous with and yet will not have this active and passive obedience to be either the righteousness of Christ as God or the righteousness of Christ as Man or the righteousness of Christ as God and Man and so to be none of Christ's Righteousness at all So that now according to this Man we must have a righteousness and a righteousness imputed for our Justification which is the active and passive obedience of some Person but whose I cannot tell seeing he excludes the righteousness of Christ as God Man Mediatour saying it cannot without blasphemy be said to be imputed to us and without doubt the active and passive obedience of Christ was a righteousness and the righteousness of Christ God Man Mediatour and such a righteousness as was Essential to his Office seeing he would not have been a Mediatour without it But some may say Christ's active and passive obedience was essential to the execution of his Office as Mediatour but not to the constitution I Answer yes to the constitution as an actual and perfect Mediatour so far as respected his undertaken work both upon Earth and now in Heaven Heb. 5. 8 9 Though he were a Son yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered And being made perfect he became the Author of eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him Heb. 9. 14. 15.
right to this Pardon and Life without Faith previous thereunto in order of nature and whoever they are that will deny this they must deny the plainest part of Scripture But it may be said do not you affirm that the performance of the condition is required of us I Answer true and the Scripture is express we are injoined to repent believe and obey and not Christ for us doth not this suppose us then it may be said to have a moral power in our selves to repent believe and obey antecedent to the disposing and assisting grace of the Spirit I Answer no God indeed by his command makes it our duty to repent believe and obey his infinite wisdom having ordered this as the best way or means to our having Pardon and Life through Christ and therefore for this purpose will have the commands of the Gospel pressed upon Sinners But then his promise of the gift of this grace through and for Christ to enable us hereunto supposeth our want of moral power and so our insufficiency and inability in our selves to perform which the Spirit convinceth of so that God's commanding us that which we have not in or from our selves to perform without the renewing and assisting grace of his Spirit doth not suppose us to have the moral power of our selves but it only speaks God's order of acting in his dispensations towards Man whom he works upon as a rational Creature who after he is convinced of his Sin and Misery must be acquainted with what is his duty in this case and for this God gives his command as in the case of those at Peter's Sermon and the Jaylor c. But then after acquaintance with his duty and conviction of his own inability to perform God by his promise conveys the grace of his Holy Spirit to give him that ability so that now Man repenting and giving his sincere consent to be obedient to God in Christ the blessings of Pardon and Life according to the tenor of the Covenant of grace devolve upon him for Christ as the subject of the right i. e. as a penitent Believer So that in what I have said it is manifest the terms and conditions of the Covenant performed by Man through assisting grace are no other but terms and conditions of connection and order as hath been explained And here observe this is so far from destroying as that it doth establish the Doctrine of Justification by Faith or that Doctrine which teacheth Faith to be our formal personal Righteousness or that upon which God doth account us by the Covenant of grace subjects that have right through Christ to Pardon and Life seeing that God hath so connected true Faith and these saving benefits as that it is his fixed order by this his Covenant to dispense the latter to such and such only I speak of the Adult as are qualified with the former And if so then such must have a legal right i. e. a right in Law and what is a right in Law but a Righteousness in the sense of that Law and seeing we cannot have a right in the account of the Law of Innocency we cannot have a Righteousness in the account of that Law And if not then we must have another Law and this can be no other if a Remedy as we are fallen Creatures be but a Law of Grace and Mercy and if this must not be then we must have no legal right at all and if no legal right then no Justification there must be no such thing and if there be no such thing then let Persons contend no more about it And though it be true these conditions which are conditions of connection and order have not the Causality of the Efficient or meritorious cause yet they have the place of the matter disposing and qualifying together with the form which is God's accounting them as qualifying matter they constitute the Sinner a Subject that hath right according to the tenor of the Gospel to Pardon and Life through and for Christ and this is the nature of Justification But though this Man in his 24th Question hath granted Faith to be a condition of connection and order which is all that I intend as I have explained my self when I speak of the condition of the Covenant and so granted hereby a Covenant of grace made betwixt God and believers as I have shewn yet his 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th and 19th Questions they all respect the same thing i. e. his denial of the conditionality of the Covenant so consistent is this Man with himself but if he had not granted what he hath yet what I have said upon the former Question i. e. his 13th may be a sufficient solution to these I have mentioned and therefore I shall not take up time nor fill up Paper nor trouble the Reader with them only seeing I have answered him so many Questions I will request the same favour from him that he will answer me these few upon the matter 1. Whether he do Baptize as he calls it Persons Adult considered as so and so qualified or hath he no regard to any qualification but administers the Oâ—dinance to any that offer themselves suppose they be Turks 2. Whether there be any such a thing as any Persons being in Covenant with God If there be thenâ— 3. Whether are they taken into Covenant as Infidels or as Believers If there be not then 4. What is that which Baptism is a sign and Seal of And 5. Who have right to this Seal and that whereof it is a Seal It is only these few I shall propound I desire weight let him glory in number Q. 20. I pass on to his 29th Question If there be no right to Justification and life but by Faith how then or by what are dying Infants saved or by virtue of what Covenant have Infants right to Baptism I Answer By the Covenant of Grace upon the Faith of their Parents He needed not but it is like he would have had the number to have sought the solution of such a Question as this seeing I have at large before answered it in a Manuscript sent to one of his fellow Labourers which it is strange if he have not seen but however to this I remit him and pass on to his Q. 21. Doth not such an one naming me herein render the Doctrine of the most of those accounted Orthodox both Ancient and Modern to be false the prayers of the most sincere impertinent made in Sin and Ignorance and the sufferings of the Martyrs to be foolishness The greatest part of this I have answered already in what I have said to the 22d Article of his Faith only as to that wherein he chargeth me as one that renders the Prayers of the most sincere impertinent made in Sin and Ignorance My Answer is I do most firmly hold that a sincere Prayer though much Sin and Ignorance do and will remain in the Person who put up such a Prayer so long