persons according to the tenor of the Gospel-Covenant and so qualifies them to be so adjudged by God against all accusations to the contrary by what or by whomsoever It is that which makes their cause good when they come to be tried and judged by the Law of Liberty because it is all which that Law requires to denominate them Righteous and to entitle them to the benefit of that Law This Righteousness of Faith is the essential matter or material cause of our Justification without which no such thing could be and supposing which it cannot but be so long as the Gospel-Covenant stands in force It makes those that have it the proper subjects of Justification for as God will condemn the wicked so he will most certainly Justifie the Righteous such as are made so by his own Grace without respect of persons he judgeth acocrding to every mans work and the nature of his cause In these and the like respects doth the Righteousness of Faith operate to our Justification These things stand proved in what hath been said before in opening the nature of the Covenant of Grace and the nature of Faith and the reason of its designation by God to its Office and work And may be yet further confirmed by those Scriptures where Faith is said to be counted and imputed to us for Righteousness as it was to Abraham Rom. 4.3 6 11 22 24. Gal. 3.6 Gen. 15.6 Jam. 2.23 For if God count it to us for Righteousness then it is our Righteousness for God accounts of things but as they are when they are what they are of his own making as this Righteousness of Faith is And if this Faith be our Righteousness in Gods account then they must needs be Righteous in his account that are Righteous with this Righteousness and be approved of and adjudged such by him And thus Faith operates to our Justification as it is the essential and intrinsical matter of our Justification CHAP. V. How God himself operates to our Justification I Come now in the last place to enquire in what respects Justification is attributed to God and what his operation is in producing this great effect of Justifying such as have been sinners That he doth Justifie believers by some acts proper to him is no Christians doubt It is one God which shall Justifie the Circumcision by Faith and the Vncircumcision through Faith Rom. 3.30 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth Rom. 8.33 Now God may be said to Justifie in several respects some more remote and some more proximate and immediate God is the Author Spring and Fountain and principal efficient cause of all other causes that any way concur or cooperate to our Justification Christ himself which is the foundation stone in this building by virtue of whose Mediatorial Righteousness we are Justified he is made to us of God Wisdom and Righteousness 1 Cor. 1.30 It is also God which hath given being to the new Covenant which is the Covenant of his Grace by virtue of which also we are Justified And the Righteousness of Faith which is the matter of our Justification is of Gods working in us by his Spirit Whence it is that both our Sanctification and Justification are attributed to the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 6.11 But ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God But that which we have now principally to consider is what that last act is or those last acts are by which God Justifies us And his operation herein is judicial for he Justifies as a Judg and therein proceeds by his own Law of Grace as the rule of judging of men and their cause And Gods judicial Justification of men doth stand I conceive in these two things principally 1. God in justifying of men approves of them for such as have performed the condition on which he in the Covenant of Grace promised pardon of sin and eternal Life That is he approves of them for true believers and such as have given up themselves to obey the Gospel to live according to the doctrine of their Saviour and adjudgeth them to be such 2. Those whom God approveth of as true and sincere observers of the new Law the Gospel or Covenant of Grace those he adjudgeth to be Righteous persons and that Faith of theirs by which they have fulfilled it to be their Righteousness True believers and such as have given up themselves to obey the Gospel they are Justified by the Gospel that is they are Righteous in the sense and meaning of that Law For that practical obediential Faith of theirs is their conformity to this Law of Christ the Gospel and therefore it must needs be their Evangelical Righteousness But there is this difference between being justified by the Gospel as it is the new Law of Grace and by being justified by God The Gospel-Covenant pronounceth all true believers in General to be Righteous persons but doth not determine whether this or that person in particular be a true believer and so a Righteous man or woman But God in justifying men determineth and adjudgeth this and that man in special to be a true believer and therefore a Righteous man in the sence of the Law of Grace It is the work of a Judg to apply the Law as a general rule to the special cases of particular men and to justifie or condemn men in particular in reference to their particular cases by and according to the general rule of the Law And so doth God the Judg of all in the case before us He knows and considers every man in particular whether he be a true believer or not And those whom he finds to be so those he adjudgeth to be Righteous according to the tenor of the Gospel which is his justifying of them Now that God justifieth men this way and after this manner does I conceive plainly and fully appear by those Scriptures which tell us that God doth justifie us by Faith and that he doth impute or account Faith to us for Righteousness One vein of Scriptures acquaints us that God justifieth us by Faith and through Faith Rom. 3.28 30. and 5.1 Gal. 2.16 and 3.8 By another vein of Texts we are told that God imputes accounts and reckons Faith to us for Righteousness Gen. 15.6 Rom. 4.3 5 11 22 24. Gal. 3.6 Jam. 2.23 Now these two veins of Scripture put together the sense that results out of them is I think plainly this That God justifies us by accounting our Faith to us for Righteousness This is so plain as that I know not what can well be plainer In the one vein it 's said that God justifieth us by Faith in the other that he imputes and reckons Faith to us for Righteousness And for God to account Faith to us for Righteousness and to reckon and adjudg us to be Righteous upon the account of our Faith signifies I think the same
God as just So that to be justified by God and to be approved of by him as just and so adjudged is all one Wisdome is justified of her children that is approved of and defended against the accusations and quarrels of her adversaries Lu. 7.29 The Publican went down to his house justified that is approved rather than the Pharisee Luk. 18.14 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified that is approved of by God as a good and righteous man as Abraham was and not by faith only Jam. 2.24 By thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned By these as well as by other things persons are and will be adjudged by God to be good and righteous or wicked and ungodly men Matth. 12.37 Again Rom. 8.33 34. It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth Where Gods approbation of his people is opposed to others disapprobation of them he approves of them as good while their adversaries condemn them as bad they charge them as bad but God absolves and dischargeth them as good And in this judicial sense is the word justification generally taken throughout the Scripture By Sanctification men are constituted and made evangelically righteous but in Justification they are approved of by God as such and adjudged to be so which is the proper difference between Sanctification and Justification If then we make our estimate of evangelical Justification according to the usual signification of the word as that implies in it the Cause of the party tried the Act of God as Judge and the law and rule on which the trial proceeds and by which the cause is determined for him that is justified then Justification may be thus described It is that whereby God for the sake and upon the account of the Righteousness of Christ doth approve of a true believer as one that hath perfermed the condition on which God in the Gospel hath promised pardon of sin and eternal life and doth impute that performance to him for righteousness and accordingly adjudgeth him to be righteous in the sense and according to the tenor of the law of Grace and such an one as hath a Covenant right and title to the blessings promised in that Covenant pardon of Sin and eternal life This description of Justification as it best agrees with the use and signification of the word and phrase so it does also with the doctrine of the Gospel as we shall afterwards see Which that we may the better do I shall open the whole to you by opening it in its several parts and so shall shew 1. How the Righteousness of Christ doth operate to our Justification 2. How the Covenant of Grace doth it 3. How Faith doth it and 4. How God himself doth it And thus to open the whole nature of Justification by shewing the operation of the several causes of it is I conceive the best and most likeliest way to come to the clearest knowledge and best insight into it that we can attain unto The want of which distinctness in proceeding hath been I conceive an occasion in great part of obscuring the doctrine of Justification while the parts have been confounded and the operation proper to one cause hath been attributed to another The whole of the description which I have given of Justification is the result of the operation of the righteousness of our Blessed Saviour of the Covenant of Grace of faith and of the whole action of Gods dijudication in justifying true believers to the opening of which I shall now proceed And I shall begin with the righteousness of our Redeemer Christ Jesus and shall enquire into the nature and operation of it in reference to our justification CHAP. II. Of the nature of the righteousness of Christ and how it operates to our Justification IN shewing what influence our Saviours righteousness hath into our Justification two things will come under consideration 1. What we are to understand by the Righteousness of our Saviour 2. How it operates to our Justification First of the former what we are to understand by the righteousness of Christ Righteousness is the conformity of a person to some Law or Rule And therefore when we speak of the righteousness of Christ it supposeth some Law in his conformity whereunto this righteousness of his whereof we speak doth consist Which Law is the Law of his Mediation which he received from his Father and which he voluntarily and most willingly undertook to observe and fulfil The mutual agreement between the Father and the Son about this Law of Mediation between God and man and the Sons undertaking to fulfil it in order to our Redemption Divines are wont to call the Covenant of Redemption And as the great office of Mediator is peculiar to him alone for there is but one Mediator between God and man even the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 So the Law of this Mediation was peculiar to him And as the law and office of Mediation were peculiar to our Saviour so is his righteousness which consisteth in his conformity to that law it is a Mediatory Righteousness The benefit of it belongs to believers as I shall afterwards shew but the righteousness it self which is Mediatorial can be no more transferred to any other than his office of Mediation can for his righteousness consists in those acts of conformity to the Law of Mediation by which he doth execute his office of Mediation Now that there was such a Law of Mediation between God and man given by God the Father to Christ his Son and which he did most readily accept of execute and obey is plainly made known to us by our Saviour himself by many of his sayings As in John 6.38 when he says I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me And again the Father which sent me he gave me commandment what I should say and what I should speak Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the Father said unto me so I speak John 12.49.50 Our Saviour speaking of his laying down his life for his sheep saith No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father mark that John 10.18 To fulfil this Law was the design of our Saviours coming into the world Heb. 10.7 Then said I Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me to do thy will O God And of the fulfilling of this law our Saviour spake when in his prayer to his Father he said I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do John 17.4 These with other like Scriptures acquaint us with these two things First that there was a Law given by the Father and chosen by the Son to be observed in managing the office and work of Mediator between God and man which we call the Law
shew in what respects this Covenant operates to our Justification And this it doth 1. By reconciling the Natural Law to the terms of the Law of Grace in the behalf of Repentant sinners in virtue of the death of Christ for them whose Justification and Pardon the Natural Law was against while they remained impenitent By the Natural Law I mean that eternal reason or wisdom by which Almighty God does always that which is fit and becoming him towards his creatures and that by which his creatures do or ought to do what is fit and becoming them towards God towards themselves and one another And this is said to be the Natural Law because its determinations and awards are suited to the nature of things As when innocent creatures are used as such and obstinate sinners dealt with as such and repentant sinners treated as such and when creatures are more or less punished or rewarded according as they have been and done more or less wickedly or worthily or as when God does render to every one according to his works without respect of persons as the Scripture speaks Now to do according to the nature of things is to do according to right reason and to do so is always well becoming the Agent whether it be God or man and cannot be otherwise To this Law that of St. Paul refers when he saith Whatsoever things are true honest just pure lovely of good report if there be any virtue and praise think on these things Phil. 4.8 This then being the Natural Law it must needs be always against the Justification and Pardon of impenitent obstinate sinners and irreconcilable enemies for it would not be according to the nature of things not according to right reason and so not becoming the Agent if the bad should be treated as well as the good But then on the other hand the Natural Law cannot be against the justifying and pardoning of such repentant sinners for whom Christ died Because the case of such is quite different from theirs who continue in their rebellion and who have no share in the satisfaction which Christ hath made in the behalf of repentant sinners Now the case of such being thus different it would not be according to the nature and reason of things and so not according to the Natural Law if they should be no more pardoned than the impenitent Considering what our blessed Saviour hath done and suffered to atone God and to obtain pardon and happiness for repentant sinners such as are greatly displeased with themselves for having displeased God and that judg and condemn themselves as guilty of folly and worthy of death that deprecate Gods displeasure beg forgiveness and return to their duty it cannot but be agreeable to the nature and reason of the thing and very well becoming so good a being as God is for him for Christs sake to pardon such and to reward their future Faithfulness and sincere obedience with everlasting happiness And so much the rather it is so because by the death of Christ for such as return to God after their apostacy from him the great and wise ends of Gods Government over all intelligent beings which center in the publick good are secured as well yea better as I have shewed before than they would been by punishing repentant sinners themselves for their Offences By the securing of which ends of Gods Government the reason of the Natural Law is fully answered and satisfied The publick good in Gods Dominions is a great end of his Government and this publick good is promoted by Gods justifying and pardoning repentant sinners for Christs sake because by his doing so sinners are prevailed with and persuaded to repent amend and reform and of bad to become good and of unprofitable and disserviceable to become useful and profitable members in Gods Kingdom to the increasing and multiplying of such in it to the great joy and satisfaction of the whole For which cause it 's said There is joy in heaven over every one sinner that repenteth Luke 15. Again it must needs be agreeable to the Natural Law for God for Christs sake to justifie and pardon repentant and reformed sinners because it is agreeable to his own nature For that which is agreeable to the nature of God must needs agree to the Natural Law because the Natural Law is founded in the Nature of God Now for God to shew mercy to his creatures in all compassionable cases is as natural to him as to do justly mercy being as essential to God as justice or any other attribute of his is And there is no opportunity for mercy to shew it self but in compassionable cases And if the case of repenting and reformed sinners for whom Christ died being at first made but fallible be not a compassionable case I know not what is or where any will be found for God to exercise his mercy in Furthermore the Law of Grace does not nor indeed can Cancel or Relax the Natural Law in any part though I confess I with others have some time thought otherwise and the reason is because the Natural Law is naturally what it is and cannot be otherwise That which is in it self fitest to be done can never be otherwise under the same circumstances in which it is so The change or alteration is not in the Law when it favours the same persons at one time whom it disfavoured yea condemned before but the change is made in the persons themselves and in the change of the circumstances of their Case by reason of their interest in Christs performance for them and of their interest in the promise of the Law of Grace they having performed the condition on which their interest in the benefit of Christs death and in the promises of the Gospel were suspended The Law curseth all transgressors of it as such and they remain under it until they are redeemed from it and removed from under it by Christs having born it for them So that the Sanction of the Law is not Cancelled but undergon by our Redeemer for us He hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law by being made a curse for us not by altering the Law for us Gal. 3.13 Our Saviour hath told us that he which believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God because he hath not received the remedy by which he might have been delivered from that condemnation into which he was fallen John 3.18 He was under the condemnation of the Law Natural before as a transgressor of that and is now under the condemnation of the Gospel as a rejecter of the Grace offered by that But when such an one comes to believe he is no longer under the condemnation of either Law or Gospel but both are reconciled to him through Christ because by his believing he is reconciled to them not because they are in the least altered but because the man himself is altered and
hope to be Justified and Saved by Faith without works or inherent Righteousness upon the account of a speculative or notional Faith Jam. 2. Aagainst which deceitful notion St. John also warned the Christians when he said Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous 1 John 3.7 as if he should have said you will be deceived if you suffer yourselves to be persuaded to think you may be Righteous any other way without doing Righteousness Those deluded people it 's probable were willing to interpret the doctrine concerning Faith when but generally and indefinitely exprest to a sense which would indulge them in a life not truly holy as alas too many do at this day who upon a general inoperate belief of the Articles of the Christian Faith doubt not but they shall be Justified by being Pardoned or by having Christs Righteousness so imputed to them as to be Righteous with his Righteousness And although they be told that such a Faith as works by love is necessary to their Justification as a condition of it yet so long as Justification is defined by that which is esteemed intrinsically essential to Justification without such a Righteousness of Faith and so long as they apprehend there is a way of being accounted Righteous by being Pardoned they will not so easily as otherwise they would be brought to a due sense of the necessity of a personal inherent Righteousness unto Justification Whereas were they but convinced that God will account none Righteous upon any account whatsoever nor Pardon their Unrighteousness who are not Righteous indeed with a personal inherent Righteousness they would be left without all hope of being Righteous or of being accepted as Righteous any way without this inherent Righteousness And by this means they would come under a more sensible obligation of becoming inherently Righteous indeed as ever they hope to be Justified as Righteous in one respect or Pardoned as sinners in another And it is a good rule that in all controversies about points of Christian doctrine which have an influence on practice as all generally have it is still safest to adhere to that sense which most obliges men to their duty and most directly and indubitably tends to their happiness as this touching Justification by the Righteousness of Faith rather then by Remission of sin I conceive does 3. Moreover to place Justification in Pardon disagrees to the natural notion which men have both of Pardon and Justification Pardon in the natural notion of it supposeth guilt as on the contrary Justification in the natural notion of it supposeth Guiltlesness or Righteousness in reference to the matter or cause wherein a person is Justified unless when the word Justification is used in an abusive seuse to signifie the perverting of justice by Justifying the wicked To say a person is Justified when we thereby only mean that he is Pardoned gives an uncertain sound in common sense and Ministers occasion for the notion of Justification to lie uneven and to remain unfixt in the mind What I recited out of Mr. Gataker in my first Chapter may here again be remembred who saith To Justifie is not to Pardon for the word is never found so used either in the Hebrew or Greek writers sacred or prophane nor in our common speech And if so why should it be made use of to signifie Pardon contrary to the use not only of Prophane but of Sacred Authors and common speech Nor can I conceive upon supposition of the truth of Mr. Gataker's assertion but to use the word Justification to signifie Pardon or the word Pardon to signifie that thing which is Justification must needs convey the true notion of Justification to the minds of men with disadvantage as tending to obscure it if not to drown the proper notion of it 4. Furthermore to place Justification in Remission of sin is to confound things of quite a different nature for so Justification and Remission of sin I conceive are The subject matter of a mans Justification is his Righteousness but the subject matter of his Pardon is his Unrighteousness The subject matter of a mans Justification is his present conformity to the terms of the Law of Grace but the subject matter of his Pardon is his past nonconformity to that Law and what other Law of God soever he hath transgressed It also confounds Gods Justifying act and his Pardoning act as if they were both one Nay more then so it excludes that which is most properly Gods Justifying act and introduceth his Pardoning act in the room of it For it supposeth God to account or to make a man Righteous by pardoning his Unrighteousness instead of his adjudging him Righteous in that he hath performed the terms of the Gospel on condition of which he promised him Pardon 5. Lastly the notion of Justification by Remission of sin does not so far as I can see upon the most serious consideration at all agree with St. Pauls stated notion of Evangelical Justification in opposition to the Jewish notion of Justification by the Law or works of the Law For he doth not represent the difference of the notion of Justification which he asserts and that which he opposeth to lie in this that the one stands in a pretended Righteousness and the other in the Pardon of mens Unrighteousness but in the different kinds of Righteousness the one standing in the Righteousness of Faith or by Faith the other in the Righteousness of the Law or by the works of the Law The Gentiles saith he which followed not after Righteousness have attained unto Righteousness even the Righteousness which is of Faith There is the Christian Justification But Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the works of the Law and there is the Jewish Justification Rom. 9.30 31 32. Not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but the Righteousness which is by Faith Phil. 3.9 Knowing that a man is not Justified by the works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ Gal. 2.16 The formal difference we see which St. Paul makes between the two notions of Justification lies in the different kinds of Righteousness The Christian or Evangelical Righteousness consisting in a belief of and obedience to the doctrine and precepts of the Gospel but the Jewish Righteousness as they conceited in their conformity to the Law of Moses But St. Paul and the Jews both held Justification to be by a Righteousness Now to say we are Justified by being Pardoned does not at all agree with St. Pauls notion of being Justified by an Evangelical Righteousness of Faith because Pardon of sin is no such Righteousness it is neither a believing of the Gospel nor act of obedience to it but is part of the reward promised to such a Righteousness And as such it is somtime alledged indeed to
price paid ye are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 a purchase that by which the purchase was bought and paid for purchased with his own blood A ransom that which is satisfactory to God as being content to release and discharge the ransomed upon that account provided they continue not in their rebellion He gave himself a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2.6 These metaphors being borrowed phrases from what is customary among men still signifie a valuable consideration given for what is obtained thereby When we consider that all Nations are but as the drop of the bucket or small dust of the balance in comparison of God and that that person who hath given himself a ransom for us is God blessed for evermore as well as man we must needs conclude that the dignity of his person must needs add an infinite value to his suffering for us and be in the sight of God of great price 2. The other reason of the aptness of our Saviours suffering for us to reconcile God unto us is taken from the congruity analogy or proportion that is in our Saviour's sufferings to answer the end of God's punishing sinners themselves His suffering for us answers Gods end in punishing sinners as well yea better than if we our selves had suffered the demerit of our sins who come to be pardoned thereby We are not to think I conceive that when God makes sinners bear their iniquity themselves in suffering according to their demerits that it is for their suffering-sake that he does it as if he were pleased or gratified with their suffering meerly as such as revengeful men use to be in the suffering of them on whom they revenge themselves or as the Devil is in the destruction of men for destruction sake no certainly God is only pleased with such sufferings of sinners themselves as they serve to worthy ends and purposes He hath plainly told us that he hath no pleasure in the death of him that dies Ezek. 18.32 nay hath sworn as he lives that he hath no pleasure no not in the death of the wicked but that he turn from his way and live Ezek. 33.11 If he had taken pleasure in the suffering as such of the sinners themselves we cannot imagine that ever he would have given a command to his dear Son as he hath done to suffer death to redeem guilty sinners themselves from eternal death when they were all justly obnoxious to the judgment of God God seeks reconciliation with us 2 Cor. 5.19 which is an argument that revenge dwells not in him only as governor of the universe he renders vengeance where the ends of Government call for it Otherwise God saith Fury is not in me Isa 27. God doubtless is only pleased with the suffering of wicked men themselves as those sufferings tend to worthy ends and a publick good For God as a wise and good governour of his whole Creation of rational beings designs the good of the whole by those punishments which he inflicts upon some that are contumacious To punish such is as necessary no doubt for the good of the Creation in general as the cutting off delinquents by the hand of publick Justice is necessary to good order and government in a Commonwealth Now the ends of punishments in reference to the publick good of Gods Creation in general are such as these 1. To awaken and beget a sense in Gods Creation of the turpitude of sin how contrary it is to the holy nature of God how hateful and displeasing to him and of how malignant a nature in reference to his creatures that wherever it fastens it causes great disorders and disturbances setting men against God their maker and one man against another yea every sinner against himself and that it is it which hath brought in all the misery and confusion that is in the visible and invisible world 2. To maintain and keep up the Authority of God and the honour of his Laws by which he governs his Creatures For punishments are the sanction of Divine as well as they are of Humane Laws If it were not for them the Laws of God would lose much of their strength and of that awe and reverence which by means of them is kept up in the minds of intelligent beings to whom they are made known 3. Another end of punishing some offenders for the good of the whole is to deter others from falling into such a hardened state of rebellion against God as for which final execution of Divine Justice passeth upon them One great use of Gods visible Judgments here in this world upon notorious offenders is for caution to the rest Thus Gods Judgments upon the Israelites thousands of years before were for examples unto us and for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come 1 Cor. 10.6 11. Sodom and Gomorrah in what befel them are set forth for examples to the rest of the world suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. And we do not know of what use to the invisible world of Gods Creation the execution of Divine Justice upon incorrigible offenders is now or will be hereafter amongst them We see what is befallen the Apostate Angels in the invisible world is made use of for admonition to those of this visible 2 Pet. 2.4 Jude 6. And it 's evident that the wise method of Gods proceeding in the matter of our Redemption was designed as of good use to the invisible world it was to the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 And it is not incredible but that on the other hand the punishment of obstinate transgressors in another world for what they have done in this may be of good use among them of the invisible world 4. This punishing of sinners in another world for impenitency in sin in this is when it is made known as it is now of great use to bring men to repentance when hope is given them as there is that they shall escape the like punishment upon their repentance and not otherwise These and such like being the reason and ends of Gods inflicting punishment upon sinners themselves that are impenitent I am now to shew that these ends are as well yea in some respect much better provided for and secured by the sufferings of our Saviour for us though we that are saved by his sufferings do not suffer than they would have been in case every sinner without redemption had born his own iniquity and suffered for himself the desert of his sin For in that first God would not spare his own Son when he espoused the cause of sinful men not to justifie or defend them in it but to suffer for them rather than they should have no terms granted them of escaping suffering themselves what they had deserved I say when in this case God would not spare his own dear Son notwithstanding the dignity and
Righteous without all mixture of that which deserves not the name of holiness and goodness nor they without unrighteousness antecedent to this and before they had repented and therefore is not such a compleat Righteousness as would hold measure according to the standard of the Law of innocency if we were to be tried by that to be Justified or Condemned by that In this regard the best of us have cause with the Psalmist to cry out and say If thou Lord shouldst work iniquity O Lord who shall stand Psal 130.3 It is indeed a growing Righteousness that is by degrees growing up towards a perfect state such in whom it is are perfecting holiness in the fear of God But before it is grown to this perfect state it is in the account of grace and by way of favour and for Christs sake accepted and approved by God for such Righteousness as unto which he hath promised the pardon of all past offences and of all such after infirmities as are consistent with this Covenant-Righteousness in its lower degree and also eternal Life it self So that in a word this thing we call everlasting Righteousness by which we are Justified owes it self its very being such a Righteousness as it is unto the Covenant of Grace or that Grace of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ which is put into a Covenant for us 3. The Covenant operates to our Justification as being the rule by which those are justified in judgment to be Righteous persons such as to whom the promise of pardon and eternal life is made that are justified at all Righteousness as I have formerly shewed receives its denomination as it doth its nature from its conformity to some Law And this Covenant-Righteousness the Righteousness of Faith receives its denomination from its Conformity to the Covenant of Grace as being that qualification in the person on condition of which the promises of the Covenant are made and therefore every man that is Justified is Justified by this Law to be such a person as to whom the promises are made It is by this Law that such a person is Justified in his cause if a man be not a Just and Righteous person in the sense of this Law he will not be Justified by God for he judgeth of men and their cause by this Law Jam. 2.12 So speak ye and so do as they that shall be judged by the Law of liberty that is the Gospel or Covenant of Grace And our Saviour saith The word that I have spoken the same shall judg you in the last day John 12.48 4. The Covenant operates to our Justification as an instrument of making us to become Righteous and so capable subjects of Justification And this it doth by way of motive or persuasion The great and precious promises made to men in this Covenant of pardon of sin and eternal Life on condition of the Righteousness of Faith Sobriety Righteousness and Godliness and not otherwise they out of a desire and love to the benefits promised are persuaded to imbrace the condition without which they cannot enjoy them that is to become Righteous The Gospel ministration is called the ministration of Righteousness 2 Cor. 3.9 And it is so both as it ministers to us the knowledg that there is another Righteousness than that which is of the Law and also as it ministers to us powerful motives and assistances to follow after Righteousness by which they become Righteous and so to be Justified St. Paul saith The Gospel is the power of God to Salvation in as much as therein the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1.16 17. the terms on which God will account them Righteous and the motives to make them so these are revealed by the Gospel by which it becomes the power of God to Salvation to those that believe it The Gospel is a ministration of Righteousness and of Justification as it is the ministration of Reconciliation of reconciling us to God of reconciling our nature to the holy nature of God and to his holy Laws by making us partakers of a Divine Nature a God-like Nature in Holiness and Goodness which is done by the great and precious promises of the Gospel of pardon and eternal Life as powerful motives persuading men to become new creatures in order to the obtaining these great benefits promised and attainable only upon condition of such our reconciliation to God which puts us into a perfect capacity of Justification that is of being approved of as those who have performed the condition of the foresaid promised benefits Thus the Gospel is called the word of reconciliation which was committed to the Apostles and others and their Ministry the ministry of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18.19 And by a practical knowledg and belief of these things revealed by the Gospel men come to be justified that is approved of as those that have known believed and obeyed the Gospel By his knowledg saith God concerning Christ shall my righteous servant justifie many Isa 53.11 That is by the knowledg of him in what he is hath done and suffered revealed and taught What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh as to free us from the Law of sin and to bring us to that Righteousness which it did design but could not effect that is now done by the Law of the spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus to wit the Gospel The Law without the Gospel could not give us that assurance of Gods willingness to be reconciled to us and of pardon upon repentance which the Gospel does much less of a glorious reward of new obedience For the promise of pardon for Christs sake upon our repentance the promise of the Resurrection of the Body and of the Celestial Glory are brought to light by the Gospel being matters of supernatural Revelation Now it is the great assurance which the Gospel gives us of these things upon the account of Christs death that is the powerful motive of prevailing with men to be reconciled to God and to become Evangelically Righteous that they may be Justified And therefore the preaching of the Cross is said to be to them that are saved the power of God and for wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.18 24. That is it contains and lays open Gods most wise contrivance of reconciling sinners to himself and by that means becomes his powerful motive of drawing men to it that so they may be Justified Pardoned and Glorified The Law made nothing perfect it is the bringing in of this better hope by the Gospel that doth it Heb. 7.19 The Law which laid a burden of strict obedience upon men backt with severe threatnings in case of transgression prevailed little upon men but to keep them under a spirit of bondage to fear while they were unacquainted with the rich grace and indulgence of the Gospel by which the Yoke of Christ is rendered easie and his burden light The Gospel prevails much
strive against its prevailing upon them as I have shewed For the Gospel is the power of God to Salvation Now then if this be true that God by means of his antecedent Grace hath given such power unto men of acting towards their believing unto Righteousness as hath been said there is then there is very great reason this should be made known to them and that they should not be made believe that they have no more power of acting towards their own Salvation than there is in a dead man to raise himself to life I say there is great reason for this because their Salvation or Damnation are much concerned in it For to persuade men that they have no power to act towards their believing is the direct way to take them off from the use of means tending thereto For what greater discouragement can be given unto men to attempt a thing than to persuade them that they have no power of accomplishing it if they do As good never a whit as never the better as the Proverb runs The quite contrary is doubtless to be done by such as would not betray mens souls to destruction nor lay a stumbling block in their way nor cramp their endeavours in seeking to be saved They should be throughly acquainted with what power God hath put into their hands of being saved if they will by having given them his Gospel and power to hear and consider the terms of Salvation that are therein offered to them and the powerful motives that tend to persuade them to believe and obey it They should be brought to a great sense that God is not nor will be wanting to them in his Grace and assistance nor in the matter of their salvation if they be not greatly wanting to themselves in not doing what they may and can do towards it That God hath set life and death before them and persuaded them to chuse life and that he hath given them power to do so much towards it by the helps wherewith he hath prevented them as that he will not fail to give them so much more as shall put them into an immediate capacity of salvation if they will but make such use as they may and can of that which he hath already given them And that therefore if they perish it is of their own choice because they judg themselves unworthy of everlasting life And that for this cause they will be left without all excuse if they perish and that God will be justified in their condemnation in that he hath done that which was sufficient on his part to have prevented it It was not the manner of our Saviour to persuade men that they could do nothing towards their own salvation but complains of them saying ye will not come to me that ye might have life how oft would I have gathered you as a Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings and ye would not and expostulates the matter with them saying yea and why even of your selves judg ye not what is right And from time to time cryed to them in his doctrin with an extended voice saying whosoever hath ears to hear let them hear meaning that if they would make use of their teachable and considerative faculties in any thing then about those things he preached among them And upbraided those that would not when they had eyes to see and ears to hear other things wherein they were nothing so much concerned as they were in his doctrine saying they seeing see not and hearing hear not neither do they understand And can any man that thinks well of our Saviour wisely think also that he upbraided them for not doing that which they had no power to do Nevertheless although it be Gods ordinary declared method of proceeding with men in reference to their salvation to add a subsequent power to enable such to believe unto Righteousness who had not grosly neglected to use and improve the antecedent power and Grace which had been vouchsafed them before yet doubtless God always reserves unto himself a liberty of acting extraordinarily in a way of Grace towards men where and when and to what degree he pleaseth though they have not improved but grosly neglected their first talents Several instances of this nature there have been in men whose natures and lives have been debauched with a custom of sinning who yet have been surprised as it were on a suddain and their consciences awakened and let loose upon them either by a Sermon or some great affliction or some other providence and such a change presently wrought that they have afterward become very good men And so God hath been found of those that sought him not as the Prophet speaks as he was by the extraordinary Conversion of those of the Gentile Nations upon the first going out of the Gospel among them many of whom till then had lived without God in the world as the Apostle speaks Now this liberty of shewing more Grace and favour to some than to othres God may well make use of and yet no man have cause to complain that he does so so long as he is not wanting to the rest in that which is sufficient unto their Salvation but puts it within their own power to be saved if they will So that if they perish it is through their own wilful neglect to do what they might have done Indeed God can no more wrong one creature than another because he cannot but do right to all But in dispensing favours it is nowise unbecoming his wisdom and goodness to do more for one creature than for anotheer no more than it was in the work of Creation when he did not make all Men Angels nor all Brutes Men. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own Is thy eye evil because I am good saith the Housholder in the Parable to him that murmured for that he that laboured but one hour in the Vineyard had as much as the hire of another for a whole day came to Mat. 20.15 Since then it is but Gods unusual and extraordinary way to convert some such men by surprising them with the mighty operations of his Grace as had in a manner wholly neglected the improvement of their first Talents the antecedent Grace of God And since he hath made no promise of doing so for any man but rather on the contrary threatened to take away from such that which they had received before It remains then that no man presume or take any encouragement to neglect Gods ordinary and prescribed way and means of attaining to Grace and Salvation in hope that God should go out of his usual way to meet with them and to convert them in a way and manner that is unusual and extraordinary No man in his wits will act by such measures in things pertaining to this present life and the outward man Some men we now and then see have strange and fortunate hits in the world Estates conferred on them
I might further shew how that our title to the heavenly inheritance ariseth out of our adoption to it as joint-heirs with Christ and from Gods free and bounteous donation as eternal Life is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord and from our performance of the condition on which it is promised Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life From all which Remission of sin differs and is another thing 5. Our right and title to Remission of sin it self depends upon the same terms as our right to glory does and yet that depends upon our Justification For God first Justifies whom he after glorifies Rom. 8.30 And if our right to Remission of sin depends upon the same terms as right to glory does then Remission of sin can be no more the same thing with Justification than glorification is but depends upon it as an effect upon a cause without which none can receive it Our right to Remission of sin depends upon our believing as the condition on which God hath promised it as well as our right to glory does To him give all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believes in him shall receive Remission of sins Acts 10.43 And this right to Remission of sins depends as much also upon Gods adjudging us to have performed the condition on which he hath promised Pardon as our right to glory does For God does no more actually Pardon any then he glorifies them until he first adjudgeth them to have performed the condition on which he promised Pardon which dijudication of his is his Justifying of them And therefore Remission of sin does as really differ from Justification as Glorification does and is as certainly subsequent to it as Glorification is and therefore cannot be the same thing properly and strictly considered 6. God does not forgive all a mans sins at once nor before they are committed and repented of but multiplies Pardons as his servants multiply sins of infirmity and their repentances and petitions for Pardon And if so and if God do not multiply as many Justifications as he does Pardons to the same person then here is another difference between Justification and Remission of sin 7. Justification is Gods imputing Righteousness to us or our Faith for Righteousness But Pardon of sin is his non-imputation of sin to us God by not imputing sin to us does not reckon us not to have sinned nor not to have deserved eternal destruction but he then does not impute sin when he does not inflict the punishment deserved by and due for sin But when he imputes Righteousness or Faith for Righteousness to us he adjudgeth us to have answered the terms of his new Law of Grace by believing by which Law that Faith becomes our Righteousness Now there is a great difference between Gods adjudging us to have answered the terms of his new Law and his not inflicting the deserved penalty of the Old between his awarding us a recompence of our sincere conformity to the one and his not exacting of us what we had deserved to suffer for transgressing the other And yet so much difference there is between Justification and Remission of sin As for those who place Justification in Gods pardoning of sin they may please to consider that the benefit of Remission of sin does not signifie the less by being called only by its proper name Pardon or Forgiveness and not Justification if by Justification be meant only Remission of sin as they hold it is who limit Justification only to that And if Remission of sin signifie no more when we call it Justification then it does when we call it Pardon or Forgiveness I see little reason why two or three or some small number of Texts of Scripture which speak of Justification fomwhat obscurely should be so much strained as they are to make them seem to mean only Remission of sin when they may be fairly understood in another sense and that too perhaps with more congruity to the signification of the word Justification and to the nature of the thing and to the Scriptures themselves elsewhere Nor can I discern what would be gained by it if it should be granted that Remission of sin were Justification and Justification Remission of sin For yet then the same thing the same benefit would signifie no more when we call it Justification than it does when we call it only Remission of sins as we all agree the Scriptures doe Nor does the placing of Justification in Gods Judicial act in approving and adjudging men to be Righteous in a Gospel sense who have performed the condition on which Pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised make the priviledg of having our sins forgiven the less beneficial to us or the less of Grace from God and our Lord Jesus Christ For Gods approving us to be Righteous in a Gospel sence does not suppose or imply that we stand in no need of Pardon nor of that mercy of God and merit of Christ from which Pardon flows it only supposeth us to be Righteous with such a Righteousness of Faith on condition of which the promise of Pardon of all our sins is made through the blood of Christ But Gods Justifying of us or his approving of us to be Righteous in such a sence does not make our sins to become no sins nor is it I conceive Gods Pardoning act but yet it is that which doth judicially qualifie us for Pardon and which as it were opens the door and lets us into the possession of it For Pardon is the next and immediate act that in order follows Gods adjudging us to have performed the condition on which he promised us Pardon Having said this much of the difference between judicial Justification and Remission of sin it seems requisite to make some enquiry into the sense and meaning of those Scriptures on which some ground an assertion limiting Justification to Remission of sin only And those Scriptures which above all others seem most to countenance such an assertion and which are most relyed on by those of that persuasion are Acts 13.39 Rom. 5.16 and 4.6 7. To an enquiry into the meaning of which I will only premise this That if we should find cause to think that it may be proved from these or any other Scriptures That we are pardoned by being Justified yet we can have no good reason thence to conclude that we are Justified only by being Pardoned no nor yet in the properest sense neither when we consider how express the Scriptures are elsewhere for a judicial Justification to wit Gods Justifying us by Faith and by accounting or adjudging Faith to us for Righteousness or for a performance of the terms of the Gospel our conformity whereto is as truly our Evangelical Righteousness as our conformity to the terms of the Law would have been a legal Righteousness if it had been found in us To begin now with Acts 13.39