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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42685	The nature of justification opened in a sermon on Romans V. 1. By Mr. Gibbons, sometime preacher at Black-Fryers, London.	Gibbon, John, 1629-1718.	1695 (1695)	Wing G651; ESTC R216248	24,547	32

have satisfied God's injur'd Law for our past breach the Law would still have come upon us for future exact Conformity to pay the residue of that Eternal Debt and its Language would be Sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee as a Fellon though burnt in the Hand is yet bound to live honestly for the future at his Peril Now the New Covenant of Grace relieves us as to both these Cases and dispenses with the Rigour of the Law As to the first It comforts us with the good News That the Son of God hath satisfied his Father's Justice and if we believe but in him God will accept of us as if we had satisfied in our own Persons The case the Law leaves us in is well-expressed Isa 33.14 and Heb. 10.51 But the relief the Gospel brings us in St. Paul's Language Rom. 8.33 34. You have both together excellently Ezek. 33.10 11. As to the second Obligation the New Covenant dispenseth with the Rigor of that too for woe to a justified and pardoned Person if he must lose all again upon the least defailance therefore the Gospel proclaims pardon of Sin upon Repentance and acceptance of sincere Endeavours to obey him God's Language now is Sinners be but in good earnest do but love me heartily and my Ways let me but see a Child-like Ingenuity in you and I will put down your upright though imperfect Performances in the Book of my Remembrance Mal. 3.16 and blot out your Transgressions when repented of out of the Book of my Remembrance Mandata Dei tanquam facta reputantur quando quicquid non fit ignoscitur Thus doth the Candor of the Gospel dispence with the Rigor of the Law God deals not with us as an Aegpptian Task-master but as a Father with his Children whom he loves Christ's yoke is easie his burthen light Object 2. If any doubt how it stands with God's Veracity and Immutability having once declared that the Soul that sinneth shall die to contradict it by declaring that He that believeth shall never die but have Eternal Life John 11.26 I answer We must look upon Threatnings as a part of the Law declaring the dueness of the Punishment what the Offender hath deserved to suffer not as Predictions of the Event any more than Thou shalt and Thou shalt not in the Command are Predictions but only are expressive of the dueness of Obedience Nor will it hence follow that we have the least cause once to suspect that God may if he please to revoke his Promises as well as his Threatnings and then what would become of us for there is a wide difference in their essential Natures and Properties In a Promise the Obligation lies upon the Party promising he hath past away his own Liberty and the thing is now no longer his but the others who may if he please release and quit-claim to his Pretensions he may dispense with and surrender his own Right but if he claim his Right to and Interest in the Benefit by vertue of the Promise it cannot be detained without notorious Wrong and Injury which God forbid we should charge him with for he were not God if he were not infinitely true and faithful How should he else judge the world But now the Obligation unto Punishment lies contraily upon the Sinner threatned he hath past away his own Indemnity and given God the right of punishing him I say the Right not the Necessity if God will claim this Right he may but if he please he may dispense with it It is no Injury if he punisheth yet no Obligation lies upon him but his own Honour And that indeed obligeth him not never to dispense with his Law but never to dispense with it upon a light Cause or upon Terms misbecoming his Glorious Attributes And the Dispensation we now speak of is an honourable one for 1. There are weighty Inducements moving God hereunto If he had not dispensed with the rigour of it First He had lost the opportunity of the highest possible way of glorifying his own Goodness which now so infinitely endears him to the World and lays such Obligations on us to admire and adore him Secondly As all Israel lamented over Benjamin Judg. 21.6 that a Tribe was lost so the Creation would have mist a Tribe which is the reason some Divines have given why Christ took not on him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham because only some of the Angelical Tribe lost their Birth-right only some kept not their first estate but man being in honour continued not but became like the Beast that perisheth Thirdly All Religion had been extinguish'd and frozen by Despair unavoidably if there had been no Hope the Fear of God his Worship and Service had for ever utterly perish'd from off the Earth But now his Name is excellent in all the earth even that Name proclaimed to Moses Exod. 34.6 The Lord is known in Judah and his Name is great in Israel Psal 79.1 2. As the Causes inducing are weighty so the Terms on which he dispenseth with his Law are as honourable which was our third Query propounded in the opening the Point For since Christ Redeemed us not by way of Solution strictly as a Surety paying the Debtor's proper Debt to the Creditor but by way of Satisfaction as a Mediator and Intercessor offering a valuable Consideration to the offended Judge of the World in lieu of the Laws executing the Penalty threatned upon the Sinner It necessarily follows that no Right at all in the Benefits of this Satisfaction can accrue to the Delinquent but upon such Terms precisely as the offended Party and the Mediator that satisfieth him shall agree unto and upon mutual Treaty and Com-promise joyntly ratifie so that Justification by way of Satisfaction provides not only the Sinner's Indemnity but in such a manner as also to consult the Interests and Honour both of the Party satisfying and satisfied and this latter is the rule and measure of exhibiting the former and of making over the Satisfaction for discharge of the Offender Query 3. What are the Terms therefore upon which both God and Christ have agreed to justifie Sinners I answer First Faith which is a hearty receiving Christ as he is tendred by the Gospel and here the Soul quits all Pretensions of being justified by any Righteousness of its own and rolls it self upon the Lord its Righteousness and therefore hath Faith the honour to be the justifying Grace because it so highly honoureth Christ it is the Nuptial Knot whereby the Soul joyns it self to its Lord-Redeemer in an everlasting Marriage-Covenant it denies it self and forsakes all its other Lovers and clasps about its Lord and Husband as it 's all in all Look what a Wife doth in a Marriage-Covenant to her Husband that doth a Soul in believing unto Christ it saith unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art my Husband Hos 2.16 And he saith unto his Spouse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are

my People But then this justifying Faith hath two Daughters that inseparably attend her 1. Repentance Here sinful Man retracts and undoes his Faults cries peccavi weeps wrings his Hands smites upon his Breast and cries What have I done Laments after the Lord and abhors himself in Dust and Ashes He calls himself Fool mad Man Beast Traytor to his God and to his Soul In a word executes the Law upon himself and since God excuseth him from the Punishment he accuseth himself of the Guilt and condemns himself to the shame of his Sin and hereby the Sinner honours the Equity of the threatning by his Tears acknowledging that his Blood was due 2. Newness of Life Here the Sinner acknowledgeth perfect Obedience to be still his Duty this honours the Equity of God's Commandments And the Redeemer by making this one of the Conditions of the Gospel-Covenant hath given his Father his Law back again he doth not repeal it no it 's still the rule of Life and every Commandment still obligeth a Believer Christ hath only released us from the condemning Power of it not the commanding Power of it We must still press after Perfection but though we fall short of it we shall not die for it Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us but hath left us under the Government and Command of the Law The whole matter is excellently expressed 1 John 2.1 My little Children these things I write unto you that you sin not and if any man fen we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous 3. Having thus discoursed to the three general Points first propounded and shewed that the Person justified is charged with Guilt And Secondly that he pleads to the Charge where I have largely opened the nature of that Plea I come now to the third general Point to shew how upon his Plea he is discharged or justified A Sinner is then actually justified when he is constituted or made Righteous in Law Righteousness is a Conformity to the Law he that fulfills the Law is Righteous in the Eye of that Law he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 within the Protection of it as he that transgresseth the Law is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Guilty in the Eye of the Law and without the Protection of it Now the Law of the New Covenant runs thus He that believeth shall not perish so that a Believer keeps and fulfills this Law and therefore Faith is imputed to him for Righteousness Rom. 4.22 23 24. because Faith is the keeping of the New Covenant which therefore is called the Law of Faith Rom. 3.27 in opposition to the Old Covenant called there by the Apostle the Law of Works As therefore Innocency or perfect Obedience would have justified Adam had he stood by vertue of the Law of Works or Old Covenant whose Tenour is Obey and Live for then he had fulfilled that Law and as his Disobedience actually condemned him by vertue of the same Law Disobey and die for it Gen. 2.17 So now believing in Christ justifieth by vertue of the Law of Faith for it is the keeping and fulfilling of the Gospel-Covenant whose Tenour is Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved And again Unbelief actually condemneth by vertue of the same Law He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God John 3.18 That is because the Unbeliever is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Protection of the Gospel or Law of Faith he cometh not up to its Righteousness he is condemned already as a Sinner by the Law of Works and yet once more with a Witness condemned as an Vnbeliever as a Monster that hath twice been accessary to his own Murther First in wounding himself and Secondly in refusing to be healed The Law of Works includes us all under Sin we are all dead our Case was desperate but God who is rich in mercy through his great love wherewith he hath loved us Ephes 2.4 his immense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when we were dead in Sins and Trespasses hath sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.16 And this is that Law according to which he will judge the World according to my Gospel faith Paul Rom. 2.27 Every Believer therefore though he wants the Righteousness of the Law of Works viz. Innocency yet he shall not be condemned because he hath the Righteousness of the Gospel viz. Faith which is the New Law in force according to which God now dealeth with us and shall judge the World at the last day And here it will be richly worth our very heedful Observation that although a Believer hath not the Righteousness of the Law of Works inherent in himself for if he had he were not a Sinner but should be justified by that Law yet by Faith he lays hold upon Christ's Satisfaction which in the very Eye of the Law of Works is an unexceptionably Perfect and infinitely glorious Righteousness So that Faith justifieth us even at the Bar of the Law of Works Ratione objecti as it lays hold on Christ's Satisfaction which is our legal Righteousness it justifieth us at the Bar of the Gospel or Law of Faith formaliter ratione sui as it is Covenanting-keeping or a fulfilling of the Gospel-Law For he that keeps a Law is Righteous where that Law is Judge the Law-maker by his very making of the Law makes him Righteous and the Judge that pronounceth according to the Law for a Judge is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will infallibly pronounce him so But that with all requisite Distinctness we may apprehend this great Affair let us take a view of some of the most considerable and important Causes which concur to the producing this excellent Effect the discharge and justification of a Sinner and state their several Interests and Concernments in their respective Influences upon and Contributions towards it And First 1 1. How free grace justifieth The free Grace of God is the first Wheel that sets all the rest in motion It s Contribution is that of a Proegumenal Cause or Internal Motive disposing God to send his Son Joh. 3.16 That sinners believing might be justified freely by his grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 For Christ died not to render God good he was so Eternally but that with the Honour of his Justice he might exert and display his Goodness which contriv'd and made its self this way to break forth into the World Secondly 2 2. How Christs Satisfaction Christ's Satisfaction is doubly concern'd in our Justification 1. In respect of God as a Procatartick Cause of infinite Merit and Impetrative Power for the sake of which God is reconciling himself unto the World in Christ not imputing their Trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5.19 2. In respect of the