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A50243
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The righteousness of God through faith upon all without difference who believe in two sermons on Romans 3, 22 / by Nathaniel Mather ...
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Mather, Nathanael, 1631-1697.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing M1265; ESTC R6790
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55,229
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it freely imputed to us so as to stand in it before God for the present and everlasting acceptance of our Persons as righteous by it unto Eternal Life It may be and indeed is upon us as to some effects of it and this not be through Faith but unto Faith For Faith is obtained for us by it and bestowed on us for the sake of it But it s having an efficacy for us so as to have some effects of it communicated to us is indeed its operating for us and on us but it is not its being upon us which the Text speaks of This righteousness is one thing the saving effects of it are another The thing I am to speak to is not what reference Faith hath to any of the effects of this righteousness being wrought on us but what reference it hath unto the being on us of this righteousness it self and that by the free gift and valid imputation of God unto Justification of Lite Having premised these two things I shall deliver my self touching this matter in Six Propositions Propos 1. There is a reference or respect of connexion between Faith and this Righteousness being upon us unto Justification of Life And this connexion is inviolable and holds in all persons I speak of such as are adult for how it is upon Infants I now consider not Insomuch as it is a certain Truth that whosoever believeth not this righteousness is not upon him and whosoever hath it upon him is a Believer Having believed and having this righteousness are so inseparably connected and linked together that where-ever there is one the other also is and if there be not both there is neither If thou hast not believed with the Faith of Gods Elect thy own Conscience ought to pass this Judgment on thee for God in his Word doth it that thou hast not this righteousness upon thee And on the other hand if thou hast indeed believed with this Faith of the operation of God and thy Conscience know it thou mayst then conclude assuredly that whatever thy Sins have been or whatever thy defects and corruptions now be yet this righteousness of God is upon thee thou hast it and thou dost stand in it Propos 2. There is a reference of order between a mans believing and this righteousness being thus upon him I do not speak of an order of Time but an order onely of Nature and Consecution of the one upon the other And such an order there is among the Blessings and Benefits of the Covenant For it is ordered in all things 2 Sam. 23.5 all the concernments and blessings and benefits of it are wisely and graciously disposed and ranked by God You may see it in other Instances We are not first made Children and then pardon'd but first pardoned and then adopted to be Children We are not first sanctified and then justified but first justified and then being justified we are sanctified Not that there is any space of time between them no they are as to time done together and at once but yet there is an order of dependance and causality Our being sanctified is the Effect not the Cause of our being justified and our being justified the Cause not the Effect of our being sanctified In like manner it is between our believing and this righteousness being upon us for our Justification or the change of our state It is through Faith that this righteousness is upon us as the Text expresly saith and the Scripture every where speaks not contrarily Propos 3. There is between our believing and this righteousness's being upon as a reference of causality For Faith is a means thereof by the Ordination of God and whatever God hath ordained as a means hath some causal influence towards that whereof it is by him made a means Those Expressions of the Holy Ghost that we are justified by Faith and through Faith and this in the Text that this righteousness is upon Believers through Faith do imply some kind of causality nor do I see how they can be satisfied or a just account given of them without admitting some kind of causal influence and efficiency to be in Faith towards our having this righteousness or its being upon us I hope you will not stumble at the word causality All that call Faith an instrument do speak as much as I mean for instrumenta etiam in causis adjuvantibus connumerantur Instruments are a sort of Causes Those who are very tender in this Point and greatly averse and watchful against ascribing too much in our Justification unto any thing in us or done by us yet do concerning the hand of Faith herein freely use those words Causality Efficiency and instrumental cause See Dr. Owen of Justification pag. 148 149 150 151 152 153. Mr. Durham on Rev. digres 11. and indeed it is the common language of all Protestants who own the imputation of the righteousness of Christ unto us I shall indeavour to clear it further in the following Propositions Propos 4. This Causality of Faith unto the righteousness of Christ being upon us is of the least and lowest kind It is not at all by way of Merit or Desert nor is it by way of sole Efficiency no nor principal but all its Efficiency or Influence herein is from Gods Constitution or Ordination and wholly by virtue thereof And this Ordination or Constitution of God is not that we should have the righteousness of Christ upon us either for or as a reward of our believing No far be such a thought from us But God having in Wisdom and Grace made this inviolable Constitution that this righteousness shall be upon every one that believes it doth actually take place upon particular persons at their believing and so this righteousness is upon them through Faith He that removes out of the shade into the shine of the Sun hereby comes to have the Sun beams fall upon him But that removal of his hath no influence upon the Sun nor doth any thing to draw down the beams of it upon him So our believing hath no influence upon the righteousness of Christ it hath an influence onely unto its being upon us Though our unbelief makes us unworthy of it or of any the least mercy yet our believing is as far from making us worthy to have this righteousness of Christ upon us as our defective and defiled Obedience is from making us worthy of Eternal Glory Propos 5. The next and immediate influence of Faith in this matter is that by it according to the constitution of God our mystical vital union with Christ is accomplished Such an Union there is between Christ and Believers They are ingrafted into him Joh. 15.4 5. Rom. 11.17 23 24. Betrothed and married unto him Hos 2.20 Rom. 7.4 They do dwell in Christ and have Christ dwelling in them Joh. 6.56 This Union is brought about effected and accomplished by our believing and therefore we are said to believe into Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
the transaction between God and Christ concerning us without any thing done on us or in us or by us which cannot be said of the other for in it and indeed in order to the effecting it Christ lays hold on us Moreover the one I mean that which I call Vital Vnion is reciprocal or mutual in it not only we are in Christ but he is also in us Joh. 14.20 and 15.4 and 17.23 Colos 2.7 In this Union there is a mutual in-being between Christ and Believers But that other Union which I called Vnion in Law is not in like manner mutual for though we are said to be in Christ because of that publick capacity and common relation to us all that he stands in yet till the Vital Vnion between Christ and us is effected it cannot be said that he is in us And lastly these two Unions stand affected one to another as cause and effect The former namely that which I call Vnion in Law between Christ and us is the cause of the latter namely of our being brought into that Vital Vnion to him And hence the former is the rule and measure of the latter the latter is extended to all those and to those only who are comprised within the former and it is in the vertue and causal efficacy of the former that the latter is brought about and accomplished 6. Of this latter viz. Vital Vnion between Christ and us Faith is the means on our side Hence appears a further reason why it may well be called a Vital Union Both because in its effecting there is a vital touch as I may say between Christ and us and a clasping each on other and also because by and in this Union unto Christ we are brought immediately into a state of Spiritual Life first relative in Justification and Adoption and then and thereupon qualitative or transformative in Sanctification and Comfort which are Glory begun and shall be perfected hereafter Hence it is that some Divines and those no mean ones for Spiritual Light and Judgment make Faith to be actus medii ut simus in vivis rather than actus vitae quâ in vivis jam constituti vivimu the means and way of our being made Spiritually alive rather than our acting Life as being already brought into a state of Life As the Bodies closing with and clasping hold on the Soul by the animal Spirits which are corporeal things is rather the means of Natural Life than an Act of Life it self And the Notion seems to be countenanced by the Scripture which makes believing one thing and Life another and Faith the means of Life See Joh. 5.40 and 6.53 54 57. and 20.31 and Rom. 1.17 However this is plain and certain that he who hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life 1 Joh. 5.12 and that we in our believing do receive Christ Joh. 1.12 Faith being our closing with him in that conjugal Covenant and Relation in which we are and stand vitally united to him 7. It being the proper use of Faith to be the means of Vniting us thus unto Christ and its proper Nature to rest upon Christ for all and to receive all from Christ the Crown of all is hereby set upon the head of Christ and to flourish there for ever And thus you see how the grand original design of God to bring in a Revenue of singular Honour and Praise and Glory unto his Son Christ is in this way brought about accomplished and fulfilled For this Righteousness of Christ being upon us through Faith it glorifies Christ in that he is made all unto us in our acceptance with God as righteous to Eternal Life And indeed Faith is such a Grace as that there is in its Nature a singular aptitude and fitness to give Glory unto Christ This will be made apparent by considering these two things 1. Faith is a going out of our selves unto Christ for all It is a going out of our selves as Indigent miserable and perishing And to whom do we in believing go but unto Christ Faith therefore gives him the Glory of having in him a fulness of suitable sufficiency for Sinners in our guilty ruined Condition And what do we go to him for It is for all that we need Being guilty and under Condemnation we go to him for Righteousness unto Justification of Life and thence Faith is said to be in his Blood Rom. 3.25 Being utterly without strength and dead in sins we go to him for strength Isa 45.24 Being frail and mutable as Creatures and having unsteadfast treacherous hearts as Sinners we go to him for Everlasting Righteousness and for establishment in himself by an unchangeable Ordinance and constant never-failing influences that is in one word for Eternal Life Thus as the Son of God is in himself a Person of infinitely higher Excellency than the first Adam and a better Head unto all his Seed than the first Adam was So Faith acknowledgeth him to be an Head far better than Adam beyond all comparison and gives him the Glory of it accordingly 2. Faith is a prime and principal part of our being conformed to the image of the Son of God Suppose that the principle of Grace begotten and created in us in Regeneration do contain in it the habit of Faith which I will not now call in question nor determine yet this is manifest that in our acting Faith we cannot so well and congruously be said to act like God as to act like Christ For God never acted Faith but Christ did Heb. 2.13 and was so open and frequent in the profession of it that his Adversaries took notice of it Psal 22.7 8. He owned and professed that he lived by the Father as we by Faith do live by him Joh. 6.57 Though he be God by Nature and of himself yet as Mediator he lives by the Father and the Humane Nature of Christ lives and subsis Person leaning on the Eternal Deity of the Son of God it hath its subsistence in the bosom of the God head We in believing do herein imitate Christ after our manner and measure and according to that unmeasurable distance and disproportion that is between him and us We lean and live on Christ and fetch all from him and from God through him But he is the first Pattern and Original Copy of believing both because he lived a Life of Faith and because the Humane Nature of Christ leans on the Godhead in the Son and hath the Eternal Power of the Deity clasping about it and holding it in that Union After somewhat of a similitudinary way though with great dissimilitude and disparity do we by Faith lean and live upon Christ and on God in and through him the Eternal Power of the Godhead in Christ and not so much the strength of any created principle of Grace in us holding our hearts unto him and causing them for ever to liâ—e upon him USE 1. Here we may see the