by the Law then Christ is dead in vain Gal. 2.21 Thus he by his Faith and Doctrine according to it in believing and teaching Justification by the death of Jesus Christ did not frustrate but exalt the grace of God Faith then in the very nature of it does own the promise of all benefits to be of Grace when made to such as by sin had forfeited all The other reason why it must needs be of Grace that the Promise is made upon condition of Faith is this because our believing that another to wit Christ hath by his own suffering and intercession for us obtained pardon and life upon condition of our being reconciled to God cannot without believing a contradiction be thought to merit these benefits but that the Promise and the benefits promised and their being promised on such a condition as an obediential Faith is must needs be all of Grace and cuts off all occasion of boasting For Christ is made to us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption to the end that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1.30 31. And it is by grace that we are saved through faith and not of works lest any man should boast Ephes 2.8 9. Where is boasting then It is excluded by what Law Of works Nay but by the Law of faith Rom. 3.27 Again the Promise is therefore of Faith that it might be by Grace to the end that the promise might be sure to all the seed as well of the Uncircumcision as of the Circumcision The Promise of Pardon and Life to the Gentiles the greatest sinners upon condition of repentance is secured and made sure to them by their believing because the Promise so believed is founded in the death of Jesus Christ in whom all the promises are Yea and Amen For no man can with the least appearance of reason imagine that the great God would ever expose one so great and so greatly beloved by him as his holy Son is to such sufferings as he underwent to procure Pardon and Life for repentant sinners were he not fully and perfectly resolved to Pardon and save them upon their repentance notwithstanding all their sins they were guilty of before how hainous soever they may have been Upon which account our Saviour thus given by the Father to such an end is said to be surety of the new Covenant Heb. 7.22 that is he is the great security which the great God hath given to the world of performing whatever he hath promised us upon his Sons account in that Covenant God that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8.31 And now who sees not but that this is an act of exceeding rich Grace in God not only to resolve to bestow upon the children of men such great things as he hath promised but also to give them such a security for it as he hath done by giving his Son to prepare the way for it Now the sense and comfort of all this Grace and so our ascribing the glory of it unto God and our Lord Jesus Christ depends upon our believing these things And therefore God hath entailed the Promise of benefits upon that Faith as a condition without which we can have no sense of all that grace of God exprest in the Promise And therefore well might the Apostle say It is therefore of Faith that it might be by Grace Besides the Promise appears to be of grace in reference to the condition on which it is made whether we consider the vast disproportion between the things promised and the condition on which they are promised or the easiness of the condition it self Considering what by sin we have deserved it would have been matter of Grace in God and great Grace too if he had promised us no more but a deliverance from the wrath to come and that upon any possible condition though otherwise never so rigorous or hard to have been performed as suppose it had been the greatest severity the nature of man could undergo to be exercised by us on our own bodies If this had been the case yet herein there would have been as much grace and favour shewed us as such temporary severities would come short of eternal torments in Hell And if this would have been matter of grace as most certain it would how much more doth it appear to be so when God hath promised not only exemption from the vengeance of eternal fire but also to exalt our nature and to prefer us to an immortal happiness and glory far greater probably than the happiness of an earthly Paradise would have been in case we had never sinned at all and yet all this too upon so easie a condition as Faith is For easie it is in the attaining to it if we consider what provision God hath made and what assistances he is ready to afford to enable us to believe And it 's easie in its exercise and work if we consider what we are to do by vertue of it which besides affiance in God and our Saviour is but to abstain from that we had better be without than have though we should not be concerned in a future state in another world and to do no more but what tends to the perfecting of our nature and the comfort of our lives besides the future glory except in the case of persecution for Righteousness sake In such respects as these I have mentioned it plainly appears that Gods making of Faith to be the condition upon which his great benefits are promised us tends greatly to manifest the grace of God and our Lord Jesus Christ and to fill us with a sense of it for which cause we see he hath chosen it to that office of being the condition of pardon of sin and eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And one reason why God would have his own grace so manifest in all these his proceedings and dealings with us and why he would have us possessed with so great a sense of it is I conceive because he knows this is the direct way of reconciling us to himself of making us to have good and honourable thoughts of him such as incline and dispose us to be reconciled to him And this brings me to another reason why Faith is made the condition of the great and precious promises aforesaid which is this 2. Such a Faith as I have described does best accommodate Gods design of Grace towards us in reconciling us to himself by Jesus Christ in order to our happiness which may be another reason why Faith is made the condition of the promised benefits There is a certain aptitude in Faith to reconcile us to God and to produce that in us which is the matter of our Justification as well as of our reconciliation to God And the reason hereof is because the motives by which men come to be persuaded to be reconciled to God
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
makes men full of fears and jealousies of the avenger and not apt to believe that such as they have highly affronted injured and provoked can be reconciled to them until they have avenged themselves on them if they have power to do it therefore our Saviour to assure sinners of the reality of God's desire and intention of being reconciled to them and to pardon them if they will but be reconciled to him hath not only given them his word for it but a wonderful and great proof of it in what he hath done towards such a thing before ever any such favour was desired or sought for on their parts God he so loved the world and was so unwilling to avenge himself on them as that he hath given his only begotten Son not only to tell them so but also to suffer for them to prepare the way of reconciliation between them All this hath been done on God and his holy Sons part towards this reconciliation before there was ever any inclination on mans part of being reconciled to God God hath commended his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5.8 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins 1 John 4.9 10. And doubtless this way of proceeding with enemies if any will make them willing to be reconciled to God and it is indeed that which doth take with all but desperate contumacious wretches We love him saith St. John because he first loved us 1 John 4.19 Our thoughts and inclinations of returning to God and of being reconciled to him of any love or good will towards him take their first rise from intimations yea more than so from manifestations of Gods love to us first and especially of such love as the giving of his Son for us bespeaks him to have to us Hence the preaching of the Cross the declaration not only that Christ hath suffered but upon what account he hath suffered is said to be the power of God to them that are saved that is it is Gods powerful motive by which he persuades men of his willingness to be reconciled to them and by that means prevails with them to be willing to be reconciled to him The preaching of the Cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of God 1 Cor. 1.18 All things saith St. Paul are of God who hath reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ and hath given unto us the ministry of reconciliation what 's that to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5.18 19. This is we see Gods way and method of reconciling the world unto himself by making known to them that upon account of his Son 's undertaking and suffering for them he is freely willing to pardon them and not to impute their trespasses but to be reconciled to them provided they will be reconciled to him Hence it is that our reconciliation to God and not only God's reconciliation to us is so frequently as it is attributed in Scripture to the death of Christ If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 And that he might reconcile both Jews and Gentiles unto God in one body by the Cross having slain the enmity thereby and came and preached peace c. Eph. 2.16 17. And again having made peace by the Blood of his Cross it pleased the Father by him to reconcile all things to himself And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death Col. 1.19 20 21 22. By these and other like Scriptures we see that one of God's great designs in giving his Son to die for us was the reconciling us to himself by assuring us that upon condition of our being reconciled we should not have any the least cause to question his willingness to be reconciled to us and that it is by this that he procures a willingness in us to be reconciled to him This great transaction between the Father and the Son in behalf of the world the Father's giving and the Son 's undertaking to die for the world in order to this great work of reconciliation is the great and certain security unto men that what was said in the Gospel touching Gods being reconcilable to sinners and his forgiving them provided they will be reconciled to him shall be really performed and made good to them Hence it is that in regard that Christ was made Priest by the Oath of God to offer himself in Sacrifice to expiate sin and then in vertue of that Sacrifice to make intercession for us that he is said to be made surety of the better Testament that is he by that means becomes a surety for God unto men of the reality of his proffers and promises in the Gospel to them and of the performance of them upon the condition of their being reconciled to him Heb. 7.20 22. The Apostles inference is very natural and strongly conclusive when he says He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things Rom. 8.32 Gods giving his Son to die for us is more than the bestowing a pardon and eternal life upon us And therefore he having done the greater already to procure our reconciliation to him it is an earnest and a pledg that he will not stick to pardon and to save us which is a less matter for him to give if we become reconciled to him indeed If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Rom. 5.10 This assurance which God hath given to the world of his willingness to pardon and save sinners by the death of his Son as an earnest and a pledg of it if they wilfully refuse not to become reconciled to him is that which in the first times in which this was divulged to the wrrld brought in a considerable part of it to Christ who by him yielded up themselves to God In prospect of which success of this gracious design of God upon the world by the death of his Son it was that our Saviour said John 12.32 And I if I he lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me So powerful a motive to reconcile sinners to God is God's declaration by giving his Son to die for them of his willingness to be reconciled to them if they will but answer him
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
eternal Life but such a practical Faith as I have described consider these following particulars 1. If none can be pardoned but such as repent nor see the Kingdom of God except they be born again as the Scripture assures us they cannot then no Faith can entitle us to Pardon and Salvation as it is a fulfilling the condition of the promises of the Covenant but such as is a penitential regenerating Faith such as works repentance and regeneration in men nor till it hath wrought these effects at least as begun I cannot imagine what can be said with any shew of reason against this argument 2. St. James argues that Faith which hath not works cannot save Ver. 12. and concludes his reasoning Ver. 24. with saying Ye see then how that by Works a man is Justified and not by Faith only 3. Faith and Obedience are so much the same or at least so inseparable when saving as that the same Greek word is indifferently translated to believe or to obey and so on the contrary the same word is translated unbelief or disobedience Instances of this nature you have in Acts 5.36 Rom. 11.30 31. Ephes 5.6 Heb. 4.11 and 11.31 in all which you have the same word translated one way in the line reading and another in the margin And belief and disobedience are likewise opposed to each other as contraries as well as faith and unbelief are and as well as obedience and disobedience are as you may see for instance in Rom. 10.16 1 Pet. 2.7 2 Thes 2.12 By all which we may reasonably judg that when Faith only is mentioned as the condition on which pardon and eternal Life are promised yet then it is to be understood of a practical obediential Faith 4. The same benefits pardon of sin and eternal Life are promised upon the condition of obedience in some Scriptures which are promised on condition of believing in others As for instance If we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin 1 John 1.7 Here assurance is given us of being purged from the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ in case we walk in the light as God is in the light labouring to be holy as God is holy in all manner of conversation And Christ is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him Heb. 5.9 And blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter through the gates into the City Revel 22.14 Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 7.21 Now if holy obedience be made the condition of the promise of Pardon and Life as well as Faith as we see it is then none but an obediential Faith can be a performance of the condition of that promise By an obediential Faith I mean such a Faith as by which a man is moved and inclined and in some sort enabled to do what is his present duty so far as he understands it to be so And in this sense a mans Faith and his obedience are of the same date and commence together And therefore it is no marvel that the same promise of the same benefits is made to the one which is made to the other and that both are joyned in the condition 5. In Heb. 8.10 11 12. where we have the tenour of the new Covenant declared God promiseth to be a God only to such and to forgive the iniquities only of such as have his Law put into their minds and written in their hearts Where Faith is not at all mentioned as the condition of receiving those benefits but the having the Law written in the heart Though the having the Law written in the heart supposeth Faith I grant as a productive cause of it yet we see it is not the condition of the promised benefits otherwise than as it produceth such an effect which effect is only here mentioned and not Faith which is the cause 6. When saving Faith is described by the nature of its operation upon a man himself and not only as it acteth upon its object without him then we are told it purifieth the heart Act. 15.9 worketh by love Gal. 5.6 overcometh the world 1 John 5.4 and sanctifieth the whole man Acts 26.18 And therefore we have no good reason to think Faith is a fulfilling the condition of the promise only as it acteth upon its object by way of credence or assent or affiance either without its transforming operation upon the Soul 3. The next thing to be enquired into is the reason why Faith is made the condition of the promises of the Gospel-Covenant And the reasons hereof seem to be such as these 1. Faith is made the condition of the promise that it might appear to be of grace that such promise is made and made upon such a condition as faith is St. Paul having spoken of the promise being made through the Righteousness of Faith and not through the Righteousness of the Law Rom. 4.13 He gives the reason of it Verse 16. when he says It is therefore of Faith that it might be by grace to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed not to that only which is of the Law but to that also which is of the Faith of Abraham In which words we have a general reason why Faith is made the condition of the Promise and that is that it might be by Grace And another is given in a particular instance viz. that the promise might be sure to all the seed There is a double reason why it must needs be of Grace that the great Promises of the Gospel are made to mens believing the Gospel The one is taken from the nature of the thing that is of Faith it self in reference and relation to its object For he that believes the Gospel believes that the great blessings and benefits promised therein are promised not for any merit of his to whom they are promised but for the sake of another to wit Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth for a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 And he that believes the Gospel according to what it reveals believes also that it was of Grace that he was thus made a propitiation for it was by the Grace of God that he tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us Tit. 3.5 And whoever believes all this exalts the grace of God in so believing St. Paul who believed and taught this in opposition to the misbelieving Jews who thought to be justified by the works of the Law without the death of the Messias to obtain that and all other benefits said I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come