he hath appointed them to Salvation Note Reader that these Divines do here join together the Covenant of Redemption with Christ and the Gospel-Covenant whereby are dispensed to us the Benefits impetrated by Christ which two distinguished would lead to clearer thoughts Error The Covenant of Grace hath no Condition to be performed on Man's part tho in the strentgh of Christ Neither is Faith it self the Condition of this Covenant but all the saving Benefits of this Covenant are actually ours before we are born Neither are we required so much as to believe that we may come to have an Interest in the Covenant Benefits Truth 9. I shall express this in the words of the Assembly and Congregational Elders at the Savoy Confes. of Faith ch 14. 2. Declarat ch 14. a. 2. of saving Faith By this Grace a Christian believeth to be true whatever is revealed in the Word for the Authority of God speaking therein and acteth differently upon that which each particular Passage thereof containeth yielding Obedience to the Commands trembling at the Threatnings and embracing the Promises of God for this Life and that which is to come But the principal Acts of saving Faith are accepting receiving and resting upon Christ alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life by virtue of the Covenant of Grace Error Saving Faith is nothing but our Persuasion or absolute concluding within our selves that our Sins are pardoned and that Christ is ours Truth 10. Christ is freely offered to be a Head and Saviour to the vilest Sinners who will knowingly assent to the Truth of the Gospel and from a Conviction of their Sin and Misery out of Christ are humbled and truly willing to renounce all their Idols and Sins denying their own carnal Self and Merits and accept of Christ as offered in the Gospel relying on him alone for Justification Sanctification and Eternal Life Error Christ is offered to Blasphemers Murderers and the worst of Sinners that they remaining ignorant unconvinced unhumbled and resolved in their purpose to continue such they may be assured they have a full Interest in Christ and this by only concluding in their own Minds upon this Offer that Christ is theirs Truth 11. Every Man is without Christ or not united to Christ until he be effectually called but when by this Call the Spirit of God enclineth and enableth him willingly to accept of Christ as a Head and Saviour a Man becomes united to him and Partaker of those Influences and Privileges which are peculiar to the Members of the Lord Jesus Error All the Elect are actually united to Christ before they have the Spirit of Christ or at all believe in him even before they are born yea and against their Will Truth 12. Tho Faith be no way a meritorious Cause of a Sinner's Justification yet God hath promised to justify all such as truly believe and requires Faith as an indispensible Qualification in all whom he will justify for Christ's Merits declaring that Unbelief shall not only hinder Mens knowing that they are justified but that it is a bar to any Person 's being justified while he continues an Unbeliever Error The whole use of Faith in Justification is only to manifest that we were justified before and Faith is no way necessary to bring a Sinner into a justified State nor at all useful to that end In a Digression there about Repentance is added Truth Altho neither Faith nor Repentance be any part of the meriting Righteousness for which we are justified and the Habits of both are wrought at the same time and included in the Regenerating Principle and there must be an assenting Act of Faith before there be any exercise of true Repentance And Repentance as consisting in the fruits meet for it viz. an external Reformation and a fruitful Life must follow Pardon as doth also an ingenuous Sorrow for Sin in the sense of Pardon Nevertheless Repentance as it consists in some degree of Humblings and Sorrow from Convictions of our lost State and the Evil of Sin with a sincere purpose of Heart to turn from our Sin and Idols to God is absolutely necessary in order to the forgiveness of Sin Error Our Sins are forgiven before any Repentance and Believers ought not to complain or mourn or sorrow for the Sins they have committed Truth 13. Tho neither Holiness sincere Obedience or good Works do make any Atonement for Sin or are in the least the meritorious Righteousness whereby Salvation is caused or for which this or any Blessing becomes due to us as of Debt yet as the Spirit of Christ freely worketh all Holiness in the Soul and enableth us to sincere Obedience and good Works so the Lord Jesus hath of Grace and for his own Merits promised to bring to Heaven such as are Partakers of true Holiness perform this sincere Obedience and do these good Works perseveringly and appoints these as the Way and Means of a Believer's obtaining Salvation and several other Blessings requiring these as indispensible Duties and Qualifications of all such whom he will so save and bless and excluding all that want or neglect them or live under the Power of what 's contrary thereto viz. Profaneness Rebellion and utter Unfruitfulness Error Men have nothing to do in order to Salvation nor is Sanctification a jot the way of any Person to Heaven nor can the Graces or Duties of Believers no nor Faith it self do them the least Good or prevent the least Evil nor are they of any use to their Peace or Comfort yea tho Christ be explicitely owned and they be done in the strength of the Spirit of God And a Believer ought not to think he is more pleasing to God by any Grace he acteth or Good he doth nor may Men expect any Good to a Nation by the Humiliation earnest Prayer or Reformation of a People Truth 14. Tho we ought to intend God's Glory as our supream End in all our Duties and design therein the expressing our Love and Gratitude to God for his Benefits with a great regard to publick Good Yet we also lawfully may and ought to strive after Grace grow in it and perform holy Duties and Services with an Eye to and Concern for our own spiritual and eternal Advantage Error No Man ought to propose to himself any Advantage by any Religious Duty he performeth nor ought he in the least to intend the Profit of his own Soul by any Christian Endeavours it being vain and unlawful to do any thing with an Eye to our spiritual or eternal Good tho in Subordination to God's Glory in Christ. Truth 15. The ordinary way whereby a Man attaineth a well-grounded Assurance is not by immediate objective Revelation or an inward Voice saying Thy Sins are forgiven thee But when the Believer is examining his Heart and Life by the Word the holy Spirit enlightens the Mind there to discern Faith and Love and such other Qualifications which the Gospel declareth to be infallible
interest They also abhor a thought that our Faith can be presented to God as any Righteousness in Satisfaction to Justice Atonement for our Sin or the meriting Price of our Salvation withal they grant there must be such a Righteousness and that this was Christ's Righteousness and that our Sins are satisfied for we receive the Atonement are reconciled and obtain the Salvation so purchased Now is it possible that things should stand thus and Christ's Righteousness not be imputed to us Can our righteous Judg declare himself satisfied atoned and reconciled to us Sinners for the Righteousness of Christ and not impute to us that Righteousness in se as what he accounts a Plea for us in his account Can we enjoy the merited Effects of Christ's Death and that Death not be reckoned what secures to us those Effects against the Challenges which the Merits of it were designed to answer Finally Do not these Divines oft rest on and plead with God the Merits of Christ more immediately and directly than a denial of Imputation will admit when they rest on Christ's Righteousness and plead it with God for Pardon tho it's true we could not expect Pardon for it were not Pardon promised for the sake thereof I think their Minds oft act more directly and fully towards the Righteousness of Christ than to intend it thus viz. I trust in Christ's Merits for Pardon as that Pardon is the Effect of that Justification wherein our Faith is accounted through Christ's Satisfaction a Righteousness according to the Gospel-Covenant which Covenant was procured by the Merits of Christ's Death I. grant there may be use of this progressive manner of arriving at Christ's Death for support of our Faith as we confine its regards to the Gospel-Covenant and examine our Interest thereby as a Rule of Judgment But I humbly think that when we plead with God for Pardon for the sake of Christ's Merits we have a more direct Eye to the Covenant of Redemption wherein a Pardon was promised to Christ for Believers in reward of his Death and which the Gospel distinctly expresseth in this viz. That Pardon is granted for the sake of Christ's Death as what procured it in se as well as what merited the Gospel-Covenant which is the Instrument of the Donation of it And so by keeping our Eye on the Covenant of Redemption we plead Christ's Right as more immediately imputable and by keeping our Thoughts on the Gospel-Connexion between Pardon and Christ's Death as the procuring Merit of it we plead Christ's very Performances mediately imputed viz. as our pleadable Security for our certain obtaining and safe enjoying the said Forgiveness 6. The Reasons why these venerable Persons are so intent to deny an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in se are 1. An apprehension that there 's no such Imputation unless we are accounted by God to have done and suffered what Christ did which would unavoidably induce the Antinomian Scheme as most consistent But that I deny to be the only import of that Phrase for when that Righteousness it self is imputed relatively to the special Effects of it it 's truly an Imputation of it in se and whereas they of the other Extreme say that its being a pleadable Security for our Pardon is but an Effect I answer This Righteousness it self being that Security is an Effect of the Compact between the Father and the Son and it 's not this Effect is imputed but the Righteousness it self as such and by the same Rule as they can deny it to be imputed in se because it 's imputed as a pleadable Security they may better say it 's being imputed for Justification and for Atonement c. would make it to be no Imputation of it in se for those are but Effects and that by virtue of the same Compact 2. A Zeal for the Gospel-Righteousness of Faith But that is very consistent with the imputed Righteousness of Christ and tho both meet in our Justification yet it 's under very distinct Considerations of which afterwards Nor can I forbear again to inform the World that both Extremes arise from too much disregard of the one or the other Covenants wherein the Salvation of a Sinner is adjusted These Brethren forgetting the Covenant of Redemption to which the Gospel-Covenant is subordinate too little mention the Righteousness of Christ the other Brethren overlook the Gospel-Covenant and darken a Gospel-Righteousness of Faith Whereas a distinct respect to the Rule of Satisfaction and Impetration on the one hand and to the Rule of the Application of impetrated Benefits on the other hand would put a Period to their principal Disputes From this Representation of the several Sentiments of the Brethren concerned in the Point before us a mutual Forbearance seems no unjustifiable thing between them who differ most and no considerable Disagreement remains between the others 1. They who think the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in se is God's reckoning we did and suffered what Christ did claim a tender regard from them who say it 's imputed only as to Effects for they disown the Antinomian Consequences of it and abhor all Abuses of it to carnal Boasts and profane Libertinism of which before How unreasonable then were it to perpetuate Contests about this Point from the ill Consequences of it when those Consequences are denied On the other hand it appears too like uncharitable Rigidness for them to condemn as intolerable such who say Christ's Righteousness is imputed only as to Effects For whatever is the sound of their words they ascribe nothing to Faith or Works which belongs to Christ's Righteousness nor do they detract from the Honour of Christ's Righteousness any thing which these Brethren ascribe thereto and are Orthodox in the Doctrine of Satisfaction against Socinianism and Popery When they say Faith is an accepted Righteousness mean they that it 's a Satisfaction either to atone for Sin or merit Life No they abhor it and confine both to Christ's Righteousness entirely But they do not say Christ's Righteousness is imputed that 's not true for they say it is imputed Ay but not in se. But should that be so would not it be far from a Christian Spirit to be implacable for not using a Phrase which the Spirit of God makes no use of who surely knew how to express Truth as properly as fallible Men should pretend to Yea but the Scriptures speak what amounts to this Phrase And so do they in granting Christ's Righteousness to be the only Atonement and meriting Cause of Pardon and Life and Acceptance with God as righteous Persons But do not they think we stand before God only in this Righteousness of Faith and not of Christ No they assure us that what Righteousness Faith is it 's so by Christ's Sacrifice and Merits and it 's only a Righteousness as a performed Condition of the Gospel describing the Persons who obtain that Salvation which is the Effect of the Righteousness of Christ and whose
repeat 1. Our Testimony against Dr. Crisp's Errors when so many were indangered by his reprinted Books 2. Some part of our former Declarations against Popish Socinian and Arminian Errors when our Brethren accused us thereof for subscribing the foresaid Testimony against Crispianism 3. We shall give an account of our Congregational Brethrens Declaration against Antinomian Errors 4. We shall evidence that this taken together and examined with Candor ought to be acknowledged a sufficient Vindication of the Approvers thereof from all hurtful Antinomian Errors 5. We shall add our further Testimony against Errors about Christ's Satisfaction and Justification If Peace at least must not be allowed us after this we must bewail a judicial stroke and expect to be despised by such who perceive our common hurt from these Debates but have not Judgment to distinguish between the injured Seekers of Peace and the injurious Fomenters of Trouble CHAP. I. The State of Truth and Errors subscribed by near fifty of us drawn up and published by Mr. Williams in a Book called Gospel-Truth stated and vindicated first Edition Anno 16. 1692. Truth 1. IT is certain from God's Decree of Election that the Elect shall in time be justified adopted and saved in the way God hath appointed and the whole meritorious Cause and Price of Justification Adoption and Eternal Life were perfect when Christ finished the Work of Satisfaction Nevertheless the Elect remain Children of Wrath and subject to Condemnation till they are effectually called by the Operation of the Spirit Error The Elect are at no time of their Lives under the Wrath of God nor are they subject to Condemnation if they should die before they believe yea when they are under the Dominion of Sin and in the Practice of the grossest Villanies they are as much the Sons of God and justified as the very Saints in Glory Truth 2. Tho our Sins were imputed to Christ with respect to the Guilt thereof so that he by the Father 's Appointment and his own Consent became obliged as Mediator to bear the Punishments of our Iniquities and he did bear those Punishments to the full Satisfaction of Iustice and to our actual Remission when we believe nevertheless the Filth of our Sins was not laid upon Christ nor can he be called the Transgressor or was he in God's account the Blasphemer Murderer c. Error God did not only impute the Guilt and lay the Punishment of the Sins of the Elect upon Christ but he laid all the very Sins of the Elect upon Christ and that as to their real Filthiness and Loathsomness yea so that Christ was really the Blasphemer Murderer and Sinner and so accounted by the Father Truth 3. The Atonement made by Christ by the Appointment of God is that for which alone the Elect are pardoned when it is applied to them But the Elect are not immediately pardoned upon Christ's being appointed to suffer for them nor as soon as the Atonement was made nor is that Act of laying Sins on Christ God's forgiving Act by which we are personally discharged Error The very Act of God's laying Sins on Christ upon the Cross is the very actual discharge of all the Elect from all their Sins Truth 4. An Elect Person ceaseth not to be a Sinner upon the laying of our Sins upon Christ that is he remains a Sinner as to the Guilt till he believes if Adult He is a Sinner as to the Filth of Sin till he be sanctified He is a Sinner as to the charge of the sinful Fact he commits and that even after Pardon and Sanctification Nevertheless he is free from the Curse when he is pardoned and shall be purged from all the Filth of Sin when he is perfect in Holiness And tho Christ did bear the Punishment of our Iniquity yet it never was Christ's Iniquity but ours Error The Elect upon the Death of Christ ceased to be Sinners and ever since their Sins are none of their Sins but they are the Sins of Christ. Truth 5. The Obligation of suffering for our Sins was upon Christ from his undertaking the Office of a Mediator to the moment wherein he finished his satisfactory Atonement The Punishment of our Sins lay upon Christ from the first moment to the last of his state of Humiliation Error The time when our Sins were laid actually on Christ was when he was nailed to the Cross and God actually forsook him and they continued on him till his Resurrection Truth 6. The God testified his threatned Indignation against Sin in the awful Sufferings of Christ's Soul and Body in his Agony and suspended those delightful Communications of the Divine Nature to the Human Nature of Christ as to their wonted Degrees yet God was never separated from Christ much less during his Body's lying in the Grave neither was the Father ever displeased with Christ and far less did he abhor him because of the Filthiness of Sin upon him Error Christ was on the account of the Filthiness of Sins while they lay upon him separated from God odious to him and even the Object of God's Abhorrence and this to the time of his Resurrection Truth 7. The Mediatorial Righteousness of Christ is so imputed to true Believers as that for the sake thereof they are pardoned and accepted unto Life eternal it being reckoned to them and pleadable by them for these Uses as if they had personally done and suffered what Christ did as Mediator for them whereby they are delivered from the Curse and no other Atonement nor meriting Price of saving Benefits can be demanded from them Nevertheless this Mediatorial Righteousness is not subjectively in them nor is there a Change of Person betwixt them and Christ neither are they as righteous as he but there remain Spots and Blemishes in them until Christ by his Spirit perfect that Holiness begun in all true Believers which he will effect before he bring them to Heaven See the 2d Truth and note it is only Dr. Crisp ' s Change of Person is denied viz. a perfect Change which makes us as righteous as he c. but not Christ's dying in our stead which in this Book is oft asserted Error Every Believer or elect Person is as righteous as Christ and there is a perfect Change of Person and Condition betwixt Christ and the Elect he was what we are viz. as sinful as we and we are what he was viz. perfectly holy and without Spot or Blemish Truth 8. I shall express it in the words of the Assembly The Grace of God is manifested in the second Covenant in that he freely provideth and offereth to Sinners a Mediator and Life and Salvation by him requiring Faith as the Condition to interest them in him promiseth and giveth his holy Spirit to all his Elect to work in them that Faith with all other saving Graces and to enable them unto all Obedience as the Evidence of the Truth of their Faith and Thankfulness to God and as the way which
atoning Righteousness 2. They who say it 's by Faith alone that we apply this Righteousness do also grant that Faith is not alone in the person to whom God applies the Righteousness of Christ and when they apply it to themselves Repentance Love c. are Concomitants with Faith And they who think we are justified by Works as they think its God's applying Christ's Righteousness to us and not our applying it to our selves that is the great justifying Act so they grant God justifieth us as soon as we repent and believe with the heart and suspends not a justified State till Works meet for Repentance or the Effects of Faith are produced yea should a man dy then he would be certainly saved 3. They who say it s by Faith alone acknowledg that justifying Faith will certainly produce good Works and if good Works and persevering Holiness do not follow it was a dead Faith and because dead it never was a justifying Faith however men flatter'd themselves Also that Mens Faith tho not their Persons is justified by their Works yea the most Judicious own that if Sin should reign in Believers and they apostatize they would be condemned tho the Promise of Perseverance make that impossible and therefore persevering Holiness and good Works so far continue their justification as they prevent what would bring them into Condemnation and Faith is the Condition of the Continuation of Justification See Dr. Owen of Iustification p. 207 208 306. On the other hand they who say we are justified by Works do account Works to be no more but the executing the foederal consenting Act of Faith and so its Faith exerting it self by various occasions and considering that the Believer's not only forgiving his Enemies but his persevering in Faith and Holiness are plain Conditions in many Promises made thereto and God pronounceth to Believers that he will have no pleasure in any Man who drawerh back and he shall die if Sin reigneth in him Heb. 10. 38. Rom. 8. 13. Mat. 6. 14 15. They conceive that by Perseverance in Faith and true Holiness they are kept from being chargeable with final and total Apostacy and from Obnoxiousness to the Evils denounced by the Gospel against Apostates as such and are adjudged to be under the Influence and Safeguard of the Promises made to Believers as persevering nevertheless they abhor a thought that Perseverance in Faith and Holiness or any good Work is any meriting Righteousness or the least Compensation for Sin or entitling Price of the least Benefit nor exclude they the need of multiplied and continued Pardon or make they any Blessing due of Debt but they rely wholly on Christ's Merits for these things as the only procuring Cause tho they are affected and governed by these places of God's Word which are directed to Believers as part of his Rule of Iudgment well knowing that whatever Sentence the said Words pass in this Life God executes in part now and more at Death but at the great Day it will be solemnly pronounced and perfectly executed These respective Concessions duly weighed secure those who say we are justified by Faith alone from the danger of Licentiousness and those who say we are justified by Works also from detracting from the Honour of Christ's Righteousness as having the sole meriting atoning Virtue and Efficacy in Justification and do not only grant Perseverance but think these conditional Promises and Comminations are apt and designed means of it in Subjects capable of moral Government and whose Warfare is unaccomplished However such different Sentiments may appear to others I lay so little stress upon them that I had not thought it worth my labour to have printed a Sheet against any man who confessed the necessity of saving Faith as described in the Gospel to Justification Repentance and Love still accompanying that Faith in the Object on whom God's justifying Act doth terminate and the Uneffectualness of Faith to save any who neglected to perform good Works and to persevere in Faith and Holiness Such as granted but these things I had never wrote against for scrupling the conditional respect of them to the Gospel-Law But Dr. Crisp's Notions I apprehended dangerous and they so greatly prevailing my Brethren thought my confuting them necessary at that time whereas I had no purpose when I wrote against Dr. Crisp to intermeddle with these other points but some Congregational Brethren in their Attempts against my Book did from a very few occasional Expressions therein accuse us of Socinianism Arminianism and Popery and that they might have some pretence to fix that Charge they turned the Controversy into these lesser Matters whereby I was necessitated either to insist on them however against my Will or else abide under the foresaid severe Imputation to the prejudice not only of my own Ministry but also of most of my Brethren CHAP. VIII An Attempt to accommodate the difference between such as say Christ's Righteousness is imputed only as to Effects and not in se and those of us who think it is imputed in se. FOreseeing an Objection that will be improved against a peaceable Forbearance towards a number however small and that Rigidness may include in that number whomever the Objectors shall disaffect it 's of use to state it Object Granting the forementioned Points to be reduced below a Cause of Dissention yet the Difference cannot be compromised between such as say the Righteousness of Christ is imputed in se for Justification and them who say it is not imputed in se but quoad effectus Answ. I think it may be accommodated at least so far as to cut off just Pretences for hereticating and dividing from each other To which end I will consider these several Opinions and then reduce the difference First Among them who say Christ's Righteousness is imputed in se there be two Opinions most noted and whereto all others are reducible Of both these I have already treated so much that little more is needful 1. Some think the Elect are judicially according to the Law of Works accounted to have done and suffered in Christ all the Law demanded both as the Punishment of Sin and the Merit of eternal Life Such must hold that Christ's Death and Obedience are the formal Righteousness of the Elect and the formal Cause of Justification and that from the first moment of their personal Subsistence yea and except making Christ to be their Representative without any Gift of that Righteousness it being imputed not of Grace but of Legal Iustice as Adam's Obedience had been if he had finally obeyed and his Offence now is upon his sinning There are others who are for this judicial reckoning Sinners to obey and suffer in Christ but they hold they are not adjudged to have done this till they are Believers and then they are legally just before God and as such entitled to eternal Life These speak more safely but less consistently they limit the time from a Conviction that the
Satisfaction still interposeth between the Justice of God and a believing Sinner Neither are they backward to ascribe to efficacious Grace that Virtue whereby we are enclined and enabled to believe Men may expose each other by fiery Debates after such Concessions but he who expresseth most Heat discovers the more ungospel Spirit if not the weaker Cause and weaker Judgment 2. As for such who own Christ's Righteousness in se to be imputed in the second sense and those who say it 's not imputed in it self but as to Effects if they contend the first must quarrel the other for denying in words what he grants for substance and the latter must be warm against the former because he will not join with him in offending the weak and hazarding Truth by rejecting a Phrase which well explained doth properly express what both intend CHAP. IX An Abstract of what helped me to avoid some Perplexity concerning Iustification with some account of our being justified at the Creator and Redeemer's Bar. THO I avoid arguing any Controversy in these Sheets which are designed for Peace yet I think it may promote this healing Design to give a short Abstract of some Thoughts whereby I arrived to Satisfaction in the Doctrine of Justification § 1. Justification being a forensick Act our Thoughts ought not to wander beyond what 's necessary to it as a judicial Sentence nor disregard whatever belongs to that Here the principal Considerations are the Judg the Rule of Judgment the Cause and Person to be tried by that Rule and the Sentence to be past by the Judg on the Person whose Cause is so tried which must be no other than what that Rule of Judgment duly applied containeth Hereby what some call Constitutive Justification is strictly no other than the Conformity of the Person to the Rule of Judgment by which he is acquittable or rewardable or both Passive Justification is no other than the Effect of the judicial Sentence or the Person 's State considered as absolved or to be rewarded or both by the Sentence now judicially past upon him and supposeth a Sentence and is measured by it § 2. A justifying Sentence is past upon every justified Person and continues to pass upon him by the Gospel-Promises applied by an Omnipresent All-seeing Infallible Faithful Almighty God Rom. 5. 1 2. The Gospel-offer is the Rule of Judgment the Gospel in its respective Promises complied with is God's justifying Sentence and that conclusive and effectual tho not so discernable by us as if it were solemnly pronounced 1. Here the transcendent Perfections of God must raise our Minds above Human Judicatories he needs no Evidence because he knoweth all things there needs no Summons to appear for he is ever with us he cannot err in Judgment for he is inflexibly righteous and knows the Rule of Judgment in its extent and allowances 2. We know not what Solemnity this Sentence may be pronounced with concerning us tho out of our hearing what in Heaven where there is Joy for the Conversion of Sinners what at the Throne where Christ is our interceding Advocate c. And sometimes God condescends to make it audible to our own Consciences by the received Testimony of his Spirit 3. This Sentence is in part executed upon every Believer as to what is promised for the present as well as his Title is adjudged to what is reserved for the future The in-dwelling Spirit Assistances peculiar to Christ's Members Answers of Prayer the Comforts of the Holy Ghost and whatever special Actings of Providence belong only to God's adopted Ones are the Execution of the justifying Sentence and suppose such a Sentence past as well as that it is a gracious one 4. God still pronounceth a justifying Sentence according to the variety of his Gospel-Promises tho that great one which alters our State passeth upon our first believing As he adjudgeth us to Pardon and Adoption upon our first acceptance of his Grace so he adjudgeth us non-forfeiters upon our abiding in Christ or persevering acceptance instanced as the various Promises describe the Heirs thereof § 3. The same justifying Sentence that God past by his Promises applied by himself in this Life will be more solemnly and convincingly pronounced at the Judgment-day when the full and perfect Execution of the Sentence is to take place 1. We shall be as truly judged at that day as if we had not been sentenced or the Sentence executed at all in this Life or at Death The wise God who knows the Subserviency hereof to Practical Religion doth oft and most expresly deliver it and in words as if we were all to be among those found alive when the Trumpet sounds 2 Cor. 5. 10. We must all appear before the Iudgment-seat of Christ that we may all receive c. Rom. 14. 10 12. Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God 1 Pet. 4. 5. And what must we give an account of Our Words Mat. 12. 36. Secrets of Hearts Rom. 2. 16. use of Talents Mat. 25. Heb. 13. 17. our Works c. that is every thing as gives Evidence concerning Mens Condition as it 's determinable by the Rule of Judgment and principally centers in this Have they sincerely accepted of the Salvation offered by the Redeemer 2. The Rule of Judgment and Sentence at that day will be the same as that by which every Believer is justified on this side Death it 's no new or other Sentence but the same more solemnly declared unless you 'll say it includes the entire extent of the Rule for the time of trial as well as that which changed our State 3. The great design of that solemn Process and open Sentence is to vindicate God in Christ as no Respecter of Persons in the extremely different State of the Damned and the Saved both in this Life and Eternity especially such as lived under the offers of Salvation and withal to vindicate his own mysterious Methods towards the Justified in their past Life as also them from unjust Aspersions 2 Thess. 1. Dan. 12. Mat. 22. 25. But to instance no more than the first he 'll convince Angels and Men by manifested Instances that they whom he justified and now saveth were Persons justifiable by that Rule of Judgment whereby the others are condemned and that the Sentence he pronounceth and executes on each is the very Sentence which that Rule impartially applied to their real Cases denounced § 4. The Rule of Judgment in its nature and scope is to be principally regarded in order to right Apprehensions concerning the justifying Sentence This determineth what is a justifying Righteousness and what is not this declares the nature of the adjudged Title whether it be of Grace or Debt dependent or independent thereby is evident what we are adjudged to and whether the Sentence passeth upon several complex Conditions or one particular one for we must be free from whatever the Rule of Judgment denounceth condemnable and not be