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cause_n	justification_n	justify_v	meritorious_a	2,124	5	11.4575	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34877	A supplement to Knowledge and practice wherein the main things necessary to be known and believed in order to salvation are more fully explained, and several new directions given for the promoting of real holiness both of heart and life : to which is added a serious disswasive from some of the reigning and customary sins of the times, viz. swearing, lying, pride, gluttony, drunkenness, uncleanness, discontent, covetousness and earthly-mindedness, anger and malice, idleness / by Samuel Cradock ... useful for the instruction of private families.	Cradock, Samuel, 1621?-1706.	1679 (1679)	Wing C6756; ESTC R15332	329,893	408

7. What is required of them who may expect this great priviledge 1. We shall consider what Sin is and what is the foul nature of it that so we may the better estimate the great goodness of God in pardoning of it The Apostle shews us 1 John 3.4 that Sin is the transgression of the Law The Law of God is the rule of the actions of man and any deviation from that rule is a Sin and brings us under guilt 2. Let us consider what are the kinds of Sin Sin is either original or actual 1. Original Sin is by the Church of England in her Articles described to be a fault and corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendred of the off-spring of Adam whereby man is very far gone from original Righteousness and inclined unto evil In which description three things may be observed 1. Original sin is the corruption of the nature of every man descended from the loins of Adam 2. It is a departure from that original Righteousness wherewith the Lord enriched Adam and our selves in him 3. 'T is an inclination to evil So that the whole race and off-sping of Adam who were then radically seminally and potentially in his loins were infected with this contagion As the Scripture sayes of Levi that he paid tythes in Abraham to Melchisedec Heb. 7.9 10. For he was then in the loyns of his Father Abraham when Melchisedec met him So all we and the whole race of Mankind were in Adam when he lost himself And that we are all from the womb tainted with this original corruption * Unum illud peccatum fons est aliorum Becan and depravation of nature is plain and manifest from these Scriptures Psal 51.5 Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me Ephes 2.3 And were by nature the children of wrath even as others And that even Infants themselves are tainted with this original corruption may appear from this that they are liable to death Now Death is a wages no way due to Infants for actual sins for actually as yet they have not offended therefore there must need be in them some original guilt some birth-sin which makes them liable to death 2. Actual sin which is the fruit of original is any action or commission or any omission repugnant unto the Law of God 3. Let us consider the wages of sin The Apostle tells us Rom. 6. last The wages of sin is death The wages due reward and fruit of sin is death But life eternal is the fruit of righteousness not as its wages but as a gift freely given by God upon the account of the merit and intercession of Jesus Christ Every sin therefore being a deviation from the Law of God brings us under guilt and guilt makes us liable to suffer the punishment which is due to our sins and proportional to our offences And our offences are augmented by the consideration of the dignity of the person against whom they are committed And being committed against God must therefore needs be very heinous and bind us over to suffer eternal punishment except we obtain a pardon and our sins be remitted 4. Let us consider by whom sins are remitted 1. Men may forgive offences committed against them so far forth as they concern them Luke 17.3 4. If thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if he repent forgive him and if he trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him But as Sin is a transgression of Gods Law so God only can forgive it 2. 'T is God the Fathers Prerogative to forgive Sins Isaiah 43.25 I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins 3. God communicated this power to his Son while he was here on the earth who had power of forgiving sins as part of that power that was given him both in Heaven and Earth Mark 2.5 and 7. When Jesus saw their Faith he said unto the sick of the Palsie Son thy sins be forgiven thee The Scribes ask who can forgive sins but God only Their position was good that God only can forgive sins but their supposition false that Christ was a meer man and not God as well as Man 4. Ministers may forgive sins not authoritatively but Ministerially and declaratively They preach remission in Christs name declare what persons they must be and what they must do who shall obtain it 5. Let us consider upon what account and for whose sake sins are forgiven The external impulsive cause inclining God to pardon us our sins and trespasses is the respect he hath to the obedience and sufferings of our Saviour Jesus Christ The Apostle tells us Rom. 3.24 that we are justified freely by the grace of God as by the internal impulsive cause of our justification by which he was first moved to forgive us our sins and then through the redemption wrought by Jesus Christ as the external moving or impulsive cause of so great a mercy The death of Christ is the meritorious cause of our forgiveness Mat. 26.28 For this is my blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Ephes 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace Acts 13.38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses 1 John 1.7 And the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin Rev. 1.5 Vnto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood God is indeed said to remit our sins but never to remit the price without which we had never been redeemed The Law promised life but upon perfect absolute uninterrupted obedience and the voice thereof was Do this and live But this we failed in we need therefore the interposition of the Sacrifice of Christ for us The atonement made by the Sacrifices under the Law clearly had relation to the death of the Messias and whatsoever vertue was in them did operate through his death alone As he was a Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in Gods decree so all atonements which were ever made were only effectual through his blood So that no sin was ever forgiven but by vertue of that satisfaction and God was never reconciled to any sinner but by intuition of that propitiation Yet the general doctrine of remission of sins was never clearly revealed and publickly preached to all Nations till the coming of our Saviour in the flesh 6. Let us consider what forgiveness of sins doth import and contain in it Forgiveness of Sins doth comprehend in it reconciliation of an offended God and a

satisfaction made to a just God It contains reconciliation without which God cannot be conceived to remit It comprehendeth satisfaction without which God was resolved not to be reconciled Christ by his death hath reconciled God unto us who was before offended by our sins His death was ordained to be a propitiation for us and to render God propitious to us The punishment which Christ endured was a full satisfaction to the Will and Justice of God He gave his life a ransome for many Matth. 20.28 Now a ransome is a price given to redeem such as are any way in captivity or any thing laid down by way of compensation to take off an obligation whereby he who was before bound becometh free Christ bought us and the price he paid for us was his own blood and that blood was a full and perfect satisfaction unto God And as the offence is augmented as we said before by the dignity of the person against whom the offence is committed so the value and dignity of that which is given by way of compensation is enhaunced according to the dignity of the person who makes that satisfaction If therefore we consider on our side the nature and obligation of sin and on Christs side the satisfaction made and reconciliation wrought we shall easily perceive how God forgiveth Sins and in what the remission of them consisteth Christ taking upon him the nature of man and offering himself a Sacrifice to God for mans sin giveth that unto God for and instead of the everlasting punishment due to man which is more valuable and acceptable unto God than that punishment could be and so maketh a sufficient compensation and satisfaction to God for the sins of man Which sacrifice God accepting releases the offence and becomes reconciled unto man He performing the conditions required of him and for the punishment which Christ endured taketh off mans obligation to eternal punishment And in this act of God consisteth the forgiveness of sins 7. Let us consider what is required of them who may expect this great priviledge and blessedness the remission of all our sins The things required of them are these 1. True Repentance Of which see Chap. 2. of the second part of Knowledge and Practice 2. Faith in Christ Of which see Chap. 3. of the same Treatise 3. Sincere obedience unto Christ Heb. 5.9 He is the author of eternal Salvation to all that obey him 4. A readiness and willingness to forgive others who have done us wrong Matth. 6.14 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you But if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses Mark 11.25 And when ye stand praying forgive if ye have ought against against any that your Father also which is Heaven may forgive you your trespasses Having thus in brief explained the Doctrine of remission of sins it will possibly seem requisite that I should add a few things more for the fuller explanation of so great an Article which we are all so much concerned clearly and distinctly to understand In order hereunto I shall further consider these three things 1. What is meant in Scripture by Justification 2. What is the procuring cause thereof 3. How any come to be partakers thereof For the first Justification and remission of Sins in the Scripture are one and the same thing * See Acts 13.38 39. Matth. 26.28 Eph. 1.7 Acts 10.43 Rom. 5.19 In some texts of Scripture we are said to be justified by Christ In others that we obtain remission of Sins by Christ In others that we are made righteous by Christ By which expressions one and the same thing is intended For Justification is a discharging us from the guilt of all our sins and an acquitting us from the challenges of the Law and a constituting us righteous before God not qualitative by making us inherently righteous with such a perfect righteousness as is Gods Justice-proof for by such a righteousness no Son of fallen Adam can be justified as we shall shew afterwards but it is a constituting us righteous in the sight of God or a judicial absolving of us upon the account of satisfaction given and accepted on our behalf and though Justification principally consists in our pardon and the remission of our sins yet there are other blessings also springing from it For those whom God justifies he sanctifies whom he sanctifies here he will also glorifie hereafter 2. Let us consider the procuring cause of our pardon and justification The procuring cause of it is the Satisfaction made to Divine Justice by the active and passive obedience of Christ And that we may understand this the more clearly let us take into our consideration these particulars 1. The Law or Covenant of Works required of our first Parents perfect and sinless obedience upon pain of death But they transgressing fell under the curse and condemnation of the Law However it pleased God of his infinite mercy that the Law should not be immediately executed upon them And yet he did not abrogate it but only relax it as to the right of it by introducing another Covenant viz. the Covenant of grace 2. By this second Covenant or Covenant of Grace no Son of fallen Adam can be justified with the justification of an innocent person or as one perfectly and inherently righteous For such persons if they should be challenged are justified because they are found without fault or blame and their justification is nothing but a declaration of their righteousness and innocence But by this Covenant of grace we must be justified as sinners and offenders upon a satisfaction made to the justice of God for our sins For offenders can no other way be brought into the state of just men but upon a legal pardon and discharge And so we may be said to be justified when the compensation or satisfaction made for us is accepted and we thereupon are legally pardoned discharged 3. This Compensation or Satisfaction made to the justice of God in our behalf is made by the active and passive obedience of Christ and the whole of our justification is founded thereon I say the active as well as the passive obedience of Christ is here to be reckoned as concurring hereunto For though Christ when he had once assumed our nature and was made Man was bound to obey the Law yet in that he voluntarily came from Heaven and voluntarily took our nature and so voluntarily put himself under the obligation of the Law this consideration makes his active obedience also meritorious These two are therefore joyntly to be considered in this matter For Christ voluntarily took on him the office of a mediator He was not compelled to it Indeed when he was man he was obliged as a man A creatures homage was due from him when he had assumed our nature but it was his own free choice that brought him into that state and condition From

hence therefore it will follow that all that Christ did and suffered he paid by way of valuable consideration unto God for the sins of men The whole fabrick of the Gospel is bottomed upon satisfaction made to the justice of God on our behalf We are said to be ransomed redeemed purchased bought with a price and that must needs be by a valuable consideration paid and by Satisfaction made No works of our own could ever amount to such a purchase Could men either have pefectly kept the Law or have sufficiently answered for the breach of it ex post f●cto Righteousness would have been that way and Christ had not died 4. Christs active and passive obedience is reckoned accounted and imputed to those who perform the conditions required of them in the Gospel for their benefit and advantage and so is made theirs as to the benefits redounding therefrom But it is not so imputed to them as if they were righteous in the sight of God with the self-same active and passive righteousness wherewith Christ was righteous or as if they had suffered in Christ and obeyed in Christ and were as righteous and innocent in Gods esteem as Christ himself Which some men dangerously presuming and asserting infer from thence that God sees no sin in his children but all righteousness which is a wondeful mistake For no other persons righteousness can otherwise become ours or be imputed to us than by the effects and advantages of it It cannot be a just judgement to adjudge us to have performed that our selves which was actually done by another though done on our behalf and reckoned to our benefit We are therefore judged righteous for not in the very righteousness of Christ Some indeed have conceived that Christs active and passive righteousness are so made ours by imputation as if we our selves were accounted by God to have done and suffered those very things that Christ himself in his own person did and suffered But how can it be supposed that God can account us to have done all that which Christ did that is to have performed all righteousness without sin or to have suffered all that which Christ suffered which in truth and reality we did not 'T is true that God is pleased that the whole of what Christ did and suffered as to the effects and advantages of it should redound to us and be for our good and benefit Thus all that Christ did and suffered is imputed to us as done for us but not as done by us * See a late learned Treatise called Justification Evangelical by Sr. C. W. And thus Christ is the Lord our righteousness And what can we desire more than to reap all the benefits of Christs whole undertaking and upon the account of it it being accepted of God in our behalf to be pardoned and justified sanctified and saved And thus to have Christ made to us of God as the fundamental cause procurer and spring of them wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption And thus we see that Christs personal righteousness is not imputable to any creature otherwise than as to its operation fruits and effects Each justified persons righteousness before God is not identically and numerically the same with Christs in his publick capacity as Mediator For then every justified person would be personally righteous with a righteousness that has a stock of merit in it sufficient to save the world which is very absurd to imagine But there are some that alledge against what hath here been asserted these following Scriptures 2 Cor. 5.21 God hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him I answer whereas Christ is said to be made sin for us we are to understand it that he was made a Sacrifice for our sins and that to this end and for this purpose that we might be made the righteousness of God in him that is that we might be made righteous with a Gospel righteousness He did and suffered what was requisite to make satisfaction to the justice of God for sins that we might reap the fruit of his righteousness and by believing in him might be accounted for righteous that is acquitted and pardoned Not that his righteousness is made personally ours as if we had done and suffered what he did and suffered but that we might be made the righteousness of God in him that is made righteous or acquitted by God through the merit of his righteousness In him therefore is not to be taken personally and literally but we are said to be righteous in him when we are so according to the rule of the Gospel and are righteous in the righteousness of Gods appointing and Christs procuring And thus we are said to walk in him when we walk according to the rule of his Gospel We are said to abide in him when we continue stedfast in his doctrine We are said to sleep in him when we die in the faith and hope of the Gospel We are said to marry in the Lord when we marry according to the rules he has prescribed A second Scripture alledged is Rom. 5.19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous I Answer this text makes nothing for the transferring or imputing of Christs personal righteousness to us But it shews us these things 1. That as the effect of Adams sin was universal and came upon all so the effect of Christs obedience was universal It came upon all that is all sorts of men both Jews and Gentiles without distinction 2. One sin of Adams introduced death but Christs obedience procures forgiveness not only for that one sin but for all other sins whatsoever that have insued thereupon 3. One act of disobedience was enough to condemn but more than one act of obedience was requisite to procure our pardon 4. Though Christ do not save so many by his obedience as Adam brought into a state of condemnation by his disobedience yet the second Adam is much more potent than the first because there is much more efficacy and power required to the saving of one than there was to the condemning of many As the restoring of one man to life is much harder than the destroying the lives of many 5. As the effect of one mans disobedience was that thereby many became sinners to be shapen in iniquity and brought forth in a sinful nature so as the effect and consequent of one mans obedience many come to be new born and are made righteous And this seems to be the true meaning and import of this Scripture The last Scripture alledged is that of Phil. 3.9 Not having mine own righteousness but the righteousness which is of God by faith Answer The Apostle desires not to be found in his own righteousness as he was a Jew or Pharisee but to be found in Christ ingraffed into him by faith and to have that righteousness which is of