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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	faith_n	formal_a	justification_n	3,646	5	9.6016	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96866	Justification by faith: or, a confutation of that antinomian error, that justification is before faith; being the sum & substance of a sermon / preached at Sarum; by Benjamin Woodbridge, minister of Newberry in Barkshire. May 26. 1652. Imprimatur, Edmund Calamy.	Woodbridge, Benjamin, 1622-1684.	1652 (1652)	Wing W3424; Thomason E673_18; ESTC R207183	23,288	41

JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH OR A CONFUTATION Of that ANTINOMIAN ERROR That Justification is before Faith BEING The SUM SUBSTANCE Of a SERMON Preached at SARUM By Benjamin Woodbridge Minister of Newberry in BARKSHIRE May 26. 1652. Imprimatur Edmund Calamy GAL. 3. 16. We have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ London Printed by John Field for Edmund Paxton and are to be sold at his Shop in Pauls-Chain over against the Castle-Tavern near to the Doctors Commons 1652. Christian Reader THe Doctrine of the Gospel concerning the Justification of a believing Sinner because it exceedingly illustrates the glorious riches of Gods free Grace and magnifies his Justice because it is the onely support of comfort to a wounded conscience and takes away from man the cause of boastings and is so much above the invention and credulity of reason is most plainly delivered and often inculcated by the holy Ghost in Scripture in that we learn all the causes of Justification The efficient Rom. 3. 24 25. 26. God The inwardly movings his rich mercy great love The meritorious Jesus Christ The material the obedience of Christ The formal the imputation of Righteousness without Works The instrumental by which it is received Faith The final the glory of the grace of God and the salvation of the believing sinner This Doctrine hath in all ages been opposed obscured sometimes by manifest enemies and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 professedly sometimes by professed friends and such as would be accounted the great pleaders for free Grace What errors Papists Socinians Arminians erre in this weighty Doctrine I relate not This short and learned discourse which thou art presented with deals not with these but with Antinomian Error It is a true observation of godly Mr. Shepheard Mark Sound believer p. 96. those men that deny the use of the Law to lead unto Christ if they do not fall in time to oppose some main point of the Gospel For it is a righteous thing but a heavy plague for the Lord to suffer such men to obscure the Gospel that in their judgements zealously dislike the use of the Law This thing these men have done asserting That all the elect before their Conversion and Faith stand actually reconciled to God and justified before him A strange Assertion as reverend Dr. Downam rightly terms it to be uttered by a godly man Covenant of Grace p. 292. This is the Opinion in this Treatise confuted and proved contradictory to Scripture fit onely 1. To sew pillows under the elbows of prophane men 2. To overthrow the comfort of Believers destroying the ground nature use and end of Faith Curcellaeus judges the differences amongst Christians Prefat in op Episcopij in this Point of Justification of so small concernment as that they ought not to breed a controversie But Reader When the glory of God and comfort of thy soul lies at stake as in these matters do not thou think either that men wrangle about a Goats wool or that the matter doth not concern thee Thou art beholding to the learned Author for the penning of this Tract but for the publishing of it to another into whose hands it came That thou mayest read it and weigh it without prejudice and profit by it is the Prayer of James Cranford Justification by Faith Worthy Sir ACcording to your desire and my own promise I here send you the Copy of the Sermon which I Preached lately at Salisbury against the Opinion so much prevailing amongst you of Justification before Faith I have made several additions to several Arguments and annexed a large Answer to the two Arguments which Mr. Eyre made use of against me after the Sermon was ended The Introduction to the Text and the Applicatory part of the Sermon I shall not trouble you with but onely with that which is Doctrinal and Controversal HAving then read those words in Rom. 5. 1. The Point observed was this That we are justified by Faith To write down all the places that give evidence to this truth were to Transcribe almost the whole New Testament Gal. 2. 16. We have believed in Jesus Christ that we may be justified by the Faith of Christ where Justification is expresly made a consequent of Faith And as Glory follows Justification so doth Justification follow Vocation unto Faith Rom. 8. 30. and Righteousness saith the Apostle shall be imputed unto us if we believe Rom. 4. 24. so Acts 10. 43. and 13. 39. and 26. 18. with multitudes of other places The onely Answer which is given to these and the like Texts is this That by Justification we are to understand a Justification in the Court of Conscience or the Evidence and Declaration of a Justification already past before God so that Faith is said to justifie us not because it doth justifie us before God but because it doth declare to our Consciences that we are justified Against which Gloss I have several things to oppose 1. That it is a contradiction of the Holy Ghost It is well known that the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians sets himself on purpose to assert the Doctrine of Justification by Faith in opposition to Works The question between him and the Jews was not Whether we were declared to be justified by Faith or Works but Whether we were justified by Faith or Works in the sight of God or before God and he concludes that it is by Faith and not by Works Thus Rom. 3. 20 21. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested c. The righteousness of God without the Law is the righteousness of Faith and by this we are Justified in the sight of God and not by the deeds of the Law Again Gal. 3. 11. But that no man is justified by the Law in the sight of God it is evident For the just shall live by Faith where the Argument is clearly this If we are justified by Faith in the sight of God then we are not justified by Works in the sight of God But we are justified by Faith in the sight of God For the Just shall live by Faith Ergo not by Works From which places we may safely infer that where else the Apostle speaks of Justification by Faith in opposition to Justification by Works he is to be understood of Justification before God or in the sight of God and not onely of Justification in our own Consciences 2. It is also a most unsound assertion that Faith doth Evidence our Justification before Faith The word Evidence may be taken improperly as signifying no more then an Argument and so Faith may be said to Evidence Justification as an effect doth argue the cause As laughing and crying may be said to evidence reason in a childe not that it is necessary they should evidence it to the childe it self

the effects of Election In the mean time what a miserable circle is the poor restless doubting soul conjured into through the want of its Evidence and knows not where to finde it his Faith must first evidence his Justification by his Election and then it must evidence his Election by his Justification till in the issue this new Gospel leave him without all Evidence of Eternal Life 2. But the very truth is it is not Faith which doth evidence Syllogistically and it is most absurd to say we are justified by Faith because Faith doth evidence our Justification Syllogistically let the Argument be this If we are said to be justified by Faith because Faith doth evidence Justification Syllogistically then we may be said to be justified by sense and reason as well as by Faith which is absurd The reason is because sense reason concur with Faith in a Syllogistical evidence for clearing of which let us again set before us the former Syllogism He that believeth is justified But I believe Therefore I am justified The major onely is the assent or act of Faith The Assumption an act of sense or spiritual Experience The Conclusion an act of Reason That he that believes is justified this Faith doth evidence That I believe is evidenced to me by mine own Spiritual Experience That therefore I am justified is the evidence of reason inferring the Conclusion out of the premises wherefore Faith must be said to justifie in some other respect then that it doth evidence Justification or else we cannot be said to be justified by Faith at all A third Argument to prove that the Justification by Faith is not meerly a Justification in our Consciences is this That Interpretation of the Phrase which makes us at least concurrent causes with God in the formal act of our own Justification is not true The reason is because our Justification by Faith in regard of the formal act of pronouncing us just is in Scripture attributed wholly unto God It is God that justifieth Rom. 8. 33. that imputeth Righteousness Rom. 4. 6 8. We do no more justifie our selves then we glorifie our selves It is God alone doth both and we are passive in both Rom. 8. 30. But to interpret our justification by Faith meerly for a justification in our own Conscienes is to make us at least concurrent causes with God in the formal act of our own Justification This is so clear that it needs no proof For us to be justified in our own Consciences what is it but for our own Consciences to pronounce us just and what is this but for our selves to justifie our selves And so our Justification by Faith is not Gods act onely but our own also in part It is true that the Spirit of God doth justifie us in our own Consciences but not without the concurrent testimony and justification of our Consciences The Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beareth witness not to our Spirits but with our Spirits verily if our hearts condemn us we can have no evidence nor assurance before God 1 John 3. 19 20 21. You know what was here excepted viz. That if we were altogether passive in being justified then we are justified before we believe An Exception so childish That if all Error were not a piece of witchery I should wonder it should proceed out of that mouth To believe is indeed a formal vital act of the soul in genere physico but the use of it in Justification is to qualifie us passively that we may be morally and orderly capable of being justified by another even by God the great Judge of life and death Will any sober man impute to us that because we maintain Justification by Faith in this sense therefore we set up our selves as Judges together with God of our own souls or that we have therefore a joynt concurrence with him in making that gracious Law by and according to which we are justified or in pronouncing a sentence of Absolution upon our selves He would be thought more worthy to be derided then disputed with that should infer Because some Offenders against our Laws are not capable of Pardon unless they can read the Book therefore he that reads must needs be one of the State in making that Law or a Judge with his Judge in absolving himself according to that Law If a Magistrate grant a pardon to an Offender upon condition that he accept it his acceptance is indeed his own act yet in a Moral consideration 't is onely a passive condition making him capable of being pardoned according to the Magistrates will though a man have in himself more ability to read and accept of a Pardon then a sinner hath to believe and no man I trow will say that by his acceptance he is a concurrent cause in the formal act of his own Absolution In like maner we say we are not social causes with God either in making the law of Grace or in pronouncing our selves just according to that law and therefore Justification by Faith cannot be onely justification in Conscience yet Faith is required on our part which though Physically it be an act yet morally it is but a passive condition by which we are made capable of being justified according to the order and constitution of God It is God that glorifies us and not we our selves yet surely God doth not glorifie us before we believe I shall adde but one thing more which I wish may be seriously considered If justification by Faith must be understood of justification in our Consciences then is not the word Justification taken properly for a justification before God in all the Scriptures from the beginning to the end We read of no justification in Scripture but by Faith or Works when the Scriptures speak of justification by Works Mr. Eyre says it must be understood of a justification before men when it speaks of justification by Faith he says in like maner it must be understood of a justification before our own Consciences and neither of these the justification before God and verily neither of them of much worth in the Apostles judgement 1 Cor. 4. 3. And yet of any other justification before God which is neither of these two we do not read in all the Scripture The Antinomians may read their eyes out before they produce us one Text for it And what a most incredible thing is it that a word so often used should never be read in its most natural and true signification and that so glorious a Blessing as Justification before God should never be mentioned by its own name in all the Bible yea verily the whole comfort of this inestimable Blessing will be utterly taken from us for if the Scripture doth not say that any man is justified before God then no mans Faith can evidence to him that he is justified before God And if justification by Faith be not justification before God then is there no justification before God for any man living

are justified in Christ then we are justified before we believe But we are justified in Christ Ergo. Answ We may conceive of a Threefold Justification 1. a Justification purposed in the decree of God Gal. 3. 8. The Scriptures foreseeing that God would justifie the Gentiles through Faith 2. A Justification purchased and impetrated in the death of Christ who by his death hath obtained eternal Redemption for us Heb. 9. 12. which Redemption is the Remission of sins Eph 1. 7. 3. There it also a Justification exemplified in the resurrection of Christ who himself was justified in his own resurrection and thereby became the exemplary cause of Justification to believers by vertue of which themselves shall also be justified in such time and upon such terms as shall be agreed upon between the Father and Christ I use the term of an exemplary cause rather then of a common person because a common person may be the effect of those whom he represents as the Parliament of the Commonwealth but Christ is such a common person as that he is the cause of those whom he represents in every thing in which he represents them so that when we say We are justified in Christ the meaning is no more but this That Christ is made the cause and patern according to which Justication shall certainly follow on them that believe But what is this to our deliverance from condemnation or what benefit do we receive by it before we believe Should a man argue thus in any other benefits we receive by Christ and from Christ as the exemplary cause he would make himself deservedly ridiculous For example We are said to be risen with Christ Christ himself being risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15. 20. So that Christ in his resurrection is the exemplary cause of our resurrection in which we are therefore said to bear the image of the heavenly Adam verse 49. Would any sober man infer Therefore our own personal resurrection is past already to wit before our selves are dead or that we are not to be raised at all because we are risen already in Christ Yet no man living can shew any reason of difference why we may not as justly infer that our resurrection is passed already because we are risen in Christ as that our Justification is past before we believe because we are justified in Christ No doubt but most men would account the just contrary a necessary consequence Again We are sanctified in Christ as well as justified in Christ Our old man is crucified with him Rom. 6. 6. and he is said to be made Sanctification to us as well as Righteousness 1 Cor. 1. 30. And why then may we not inveigh against Regeneration and personal Sanctification as well as against personal Justification for if we are sanctified in Christ then we are sanctified before Faith and we need not mortifie sin and dye to the world c. all this is done already in Christ in whom we are sanctified before Faith we need onely to have it declared to us that we are sanctified To draw up the Answer more close Justification is either causal and virtual or actual and formal The former is no other then a Justification of Christ himself with a connotation of others who by virtue of this Justification of his are themselves to be justified in due time as our resurrection in Christ is nothing else but Christ himself risen as the first fruits of them that slept and so become the exemplary cause of a resurrection afterwards to follow us but as the resurrection of Christ makes no real change in us till our selves be risen so neither doth the justification of Christ make any moral change in us from death to life till our selves be justified Actual and formal justification is when we are acquitted from the guilt of sin by the gracious sentence of the Gospel He that believes shall not enter into condemnation Now then if we speak of Justification formal then I deny that we are justified in Christ which is the opponents Assumption And if we speak of Justification causal then I do utterly deny the Proposition viz. That if we are justified in Christ then we are justified before we believe the Reason is because to be justified in Christ is not to be justified simply no more then to be risen in Christ is to be risen simply or to be glorified in Christ is to be glorified simply and therefore the inference is a dicto secundum quid ad dictum simpliciter They are credulous souls I 'le assure you that will be drawn by such Decoys as these into Schism and Faction to the hardening and discomforting of more hearts in one hour then the Opinion it self should it obtain will do good to while the world stands Object 3. The last and great Argument succeeds and that is this If we are in Covenant before we believe then we are justified before we believe But we are in Covenant before we believe Ergo. Answ Were it supposed that we were in Covenant before Faith yet would the Proposition be faulty The Reason because the Blessings of the Covenant have an order and dependance one upon another and are enjoyed successively one after another God in his Covenant promises Holiness and Glory as well as Justification yet he would argue most absurdly that should say We are sanctified and glorified before Faith because we are in Covenant bfore Faith But I am unwilling to multiply quarrels If the great difference lay here it were an easie matter to be reconciled 2. I do utterly deny the Assumption viz. That we are in Covenant with God before we believe if at least the Phrase of being in Covenant be understood properly for such an interest in the Covenant as gives a man right and title to the Blessings of the Covenant That in this sense we are not in Covenant before we believe is that which I shall prove by and by But first I shall give Mr. Eyre a fair hearing though he would not give it me and I believe is resolved to give it to no body else whiles the judgement of the cause must be left to the people The proof of the Assumption stands thus If the Spirit be given us before we believe then we are in Covenant before we believe But the Spirit is given us before we believe Ergo the proof of the minor is from the tenor of the New Covenant Heb. 8. 10 11. I will put my laws into their minde and they shall all know me which is a promise of giving the Spirit to work Faith Answ The Explication of the terms of this Argument is a sufficient refutation of it God is said to give in Scripture sometimes when no receiving follows and thus the Word Give signifies no more then the will of God constituting and appointing Thus God gave his Son unto death that is constituted and appointed that he should die There is

no other name given under Heaven Acts 4. 12. that is no other name appointed so Eph. 1. 22. and 4. 11. and a hundred other places In this sense the giving of the Spirit is no more then the sending and as it were the constituting of the Spirit to be by way of specialty the worker and cause of Faith 2. The word give doth sometimes include a receiving and possession of the thing given as in the ordinary use of the word and thus the Spirit is given when we receive him and are as it were possest of him and he becomes ours and dwells in us Thus the Lord promiseth to give the Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11. 13. and we are said to receive the spirit by Faith Gal. 3. 14. and the Spirit is said to dwell in us by Faith Eph. 3. 16 17. with Rom. 8. 10 11. and of this latter way of giving the Spirit is the Question to be understood 2. The Spirit may be said to be given three ways 1. Essentially 2. Personally 3. In reference to his operations The Spirit is not given to us essentially for so he is God and is equally every where nor can he be more peculiarly in one then in another Nor 2. Personally for that cannot be conceived without a personal union which would denominate us as truly to be the Spirit of God as the like union in the man Christ Jesus did denominate him to be the Son of God 3. The Spirit therefore must be said to be given to us in regard of some peculiar operations which he worketh in us which are incommunicable to those which have not the Spirit so that common convictions illuminations humiliations some joys of heart and the like which are transient Works of the Spirit common to them that are saved and to them that perish Heb. 6. 4. Matth. 13. 20. and all other works which may either go before or be without Faith these are none of them such kinde of works as that in respect of them the Spirit should be said to be given to us wherefore there being no peculiar work of grace before Faith it self which may not be wrought in a Hypocrite which hath not the Spirit as well as in a childe of God therefore the Spirit is neither given nor received before Faith be wrought but is given and received together with Faith in the same instant of time and not before Indeed as every cause is in nature before its effect so the Spirit also in order of causes is before Faith but that he is therefore given to us in the least atome of time before the being of Faith is a meer non-sequitur and contrary to the received maxime Posita causa in actu ponitur effectus which rule Mr. Eyre hath often abused to prove a Justification immediatly upon the death or resurrection of Christ and yet here he cannot understand it so that as a man doth first build himself an house and then dwells in it So the Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 3. 3. build and organize and prepare as we render the Greek wood Luke 1. 17. the soul to be a house unto himself and then by the same Spirit dwells in it immediatly And this is that which I would have spoken publiquely in answer to this Argument if Mr. Eyre had not been beyond measure obstreperous Yet here it may be demanded Whether Faith it self be not given to us by vertue of the Covenant made withus Answ Faith is not given to us by vertue of the Covenant made with us but by vertue of the Covenant made with Christ that is God hath promised and covenanted with Christ that if he will lay down his life for the redemption of sinners those sinners shall be drawn to believe in Christ and thereby to partake of the benefits of his death That this is so the Scriptures are plain Isa 53. 10. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for him he shall see his seed He shall see of the travel of his soul by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many so Isa 55. 4. 5. Behold thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the holy One of Israel for he hath glorified thee Psal 2. 8. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance c. So Psal 110. 3. Matth. 12. 21. And why did the Lord appoint Apostles and Ministers to carry the sound of the Gospel from one end of the earth to the other and subdueth Nations to the obedience of the Faith but that he may accomplish his promises made to his Son such as are recorded in Psal 89. 25 26 c. Now to the words of the Covenant Jer. 31. 31. repeated by the Apostle Heb. 8. 10. This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel I will put my laws into their mindes and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people From whence Mr. Eyre infers That the Spirit and Faith is given by vertue of the Covenant made with us But I answer 1. That if Mr. Eyre will urge the words of this Text rigorously they would prove more then he would have For it is manifest That this Covenant contains a promise of sending Christ into the world and giving him up to death for our sins as the Apostle doth directly prove Heb. 10. 14 15 16. and why then may it not be inferred That the elect are in Covenant with God not onely before they believe but also before the death of the Mediator and so his death was not to obtain all or any of the blessings of the Covenant but onely as the Socinians to declare and confirm to us That we may believe that God of his own meer good will without expecting any satisfaction will do all this good for us for if it be a good consequence We are in Covenant before we believe because the Covenant promiseth to give us Faith Then is this also a good consequence We are in covenant before the death of Christ because the Covenant promiseth to give Christ to death And what answer Mr. Eyre will give to avoid this consequence for I presume he will not grant it and to defend his position that we are in Covenant with God upon the death of Christ and not before notwithstanding the Covenant Promise to give Christ the same Answer will serve my turn for the vindication of my Assertion That we are in Covenant with God upon believing and not before notwithstanding the same Covenant promise Faith 2. But upon a most serious perusual of this Text I finde it so contradictory to Mr. Eyr's purpose that I cannot but wonder what he means to shelter his Opinion under the protection of it If we read the words in Heb. 8. 10. or Jer. 31. 33. and