12th ver of that Chapter to the end of it is evidently to prove these two things First That as sin came first into the world by Adam's disobedience and death by sin and did not only seize on him but descended upon all his Posterity even upon them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression that is against a Law promulgated as he did he begetting them in his image after his Fall in his apostate state and not in his innocncy So from Christs obedience and satisfaction for sin came righteousness life and salvation In three things the Apostle makes the Feadship of Adam and that of Christ to run parallel First As Adam had a publick Station and stood so related to others that he had power to involve them in his own condition So had Christ Secondly the Effect of Adams sin was Vniversal came upon all The Effect of Christs obedience is so comes upon all that is both upon Jews and Gentiles without distinction which is the grand point the Apostle is all along making good Thirdly the first Adam by his disobedience was the general Author of death Christ the second Adam by obedience is the Great Introducer of life And secondly That there is not and exact equality and even proportion between the Headship of Christ and the Headship of Adam So the Apostle tells us in the 15 and 16 ver But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of One Many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift I or the judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto Justification The Advantage lyes much on Christs side in the comparison and that in three respects First Christs spiritual seed Believers are not so like him in degrees of holiness as Adams natural posterity are like him in degrees of sin And yet Life reignes as triumphantly amongst them as Death did over the posterity of Adam Secondly it was one sin of Adam that introduced Death But Christs obedience and the gift brought in by him was not upon the occasion of that or any other one sin but of many is the abundance of grace and procures forgiveness not only for that sin but for all other sins whatsoever that have ensued thereupon And thirdly there is a disparity between Adam and Christ in this and the advantage lyes much on Christs side That one sin one act of disobedience was enough to condemn But more the one act of obedience was requisite to procure our pardon And so although Christ do not save by his obedience so many as Adam condemned by his disobedience yet the second Adam is much more potent then the first because there is much more efficacy required in the Saving of One then there was in the Condemning of Many As the restoring of One dead to life is much harder then the destroying of the lives of many Now How by one mans disobedience were many made sinners Why Adam who had all mankind vertually in himself turning a Rebel and an Apostate his natural state was thereby changed his nature was attainted and became sinful and so fell under the sentence of death and that was included in the penalty threatned In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye Thy Natural state shall be changed and subjected to death And this falling out before he had propagated any of his kind he begat all his posterity in the same sinful Mortal state with himself So the Apostle tells us that in Adam all dye That is he becoming Mortal all were so propagated and Death reigned upon that account So on the contrary by one mans â—â—â—obedience many are made righteous As all meer men sinned in Adam being all in him and undergo the Effects of that sin So all Believers have virtually satisfied for sin in Christ By Christs obedience and satisfaction we come to be pardoned accounted of as righteous and saved But still 't is as an effect of Christs obedience that we come to be made righteous for the Apostle does not say In one mans obedience many shall be made righteous but By one mans obedience as a consequent and Effect of it many shall be made righteous As the effect of one mans disobedience many come to be shapen in iniquity and brought forth in a sinful condemned nature so as by the Effect of one mans obedience many come to be new born and brought forth in a righteous and a saving sfate A third Text insisted on is that in the 3d. chap. to the Philip. ver 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith To this Text a short Answer will suffice No more is requisite then to read from the 4. v. where the Apostle is discoursing of his Attainments under the Law Though I might sayes he have confidence also in the flesh if any other man thinketh he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more circumcised the eighth day c. and so he goes on And in the 7th ver But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith By which it is as plain as words can make it That the righteousness he desires Not to be found in was his own as he was a Jew and a Pharisee And to be found in Christ was no more then to be found ingraffed by Faith into the Christian Church to be found in that righteousness which is of God by faith which is the Gospel-righteousness No sober minded man can imagine the Apostle did not desire to be found in Gospel-righteousness or that by his own righteousness he meant that For 't is that alone can intitle us to the benefits of Christs righteousness And he himself every where so earnestly presseth men to strive for it as indispensably necessary to salvation and rejoyeeth in it telling us what comfort he had took to conling sider that he had fought a good fight had finished his course had kept the faith and that as a reward of so doing a crown of life was laid up for him in Heaven Nor is there any one passage of St. Pauls Epistles against works but 't is very plain from the context he intends the works of the Law and no other For as he opposeth faith to works so he also opposeth faith with Gospel-obedience
is Davids blessedness of pardon Now 't were absurd to imagine that the Apostle should tell us that the Blessedness of Justification which must needs relate to the whole of it does consist in imputing righteousness without works which he makes to be all one with the pardon of sin and not imputing iniquity unless Justification were fully compriz'd therein and if it were so the form of it that it did as we say dare esse to it For nothing else can properly contain the Blessedness of it If it be meant by those that thus Object That by Pardon of sin the Scripture does not express the whole Effects that accrue by Justification That will be readily granted for our Pardon and Justification is but our Title in Law to the Grace and Glory of the Gospel is not the very things themselves though they are all virtually contain'd therein and inseparably conjoyned to it by the institution of God For Whom he justifies them he sanctifies and whom he sanctifies he glorifies And the Apostle in the 26 of the Acts conjoynes as inseparable forgiveness of sin and having an inheritance amongst them that are sanctified But if the meaning be That the whole form of a sinners Justification properly taken and as we find it spoken of in Scripture be not compriz'd in the Forgiveness of sin 't will appear to be a Mistake Those that thus Object tell us our Justification consists of two distinct parts First Remission of sin Secondly Adjudging to be Righteous Each standing upon a distinct bottom the first upon Christs passive obedience and the other upon his Active though in the Scripture we read not one Syllable of any such thing These two I have proved before are in the Scripture-method conjoyned Whoever is by God upon the belief of the Gospel for the sake of Christ judicially pardoned is thereby Justified and accounted as Righteous and the satisfaction of Christ is reckoned and imputed by God to all Believers in those effects and for those ends and purposes nor can it be rationally supposed to be otherwise imputed For no other persons Righteousness performed or Satisfaction made on my behalf can come to be any other way justly accounted mine then in the effects and advantages of it It can never be a Just Judgment to adjudge me to have Personally performed my self what was actually done by another though it was done on my behalf and be reckoned to my account There is no other possible way by which any man can come to be accounted Righteous in Judgment but either by a righteousness inherent in our selves which does constitute us innocent or by the Righteousness of Christ made ours in a way of personal imputation which must make us also to be justified as innocents and not as offenders The first is affirmed by the Papists and the later by many Learned Protestants The Overthrow of both which opinions I shall hereafter endeavour in this Discourse and thereby fully return Answer to this and all other Objections of this nature That Text Rom. 4. v. 25. is much pressed and insisted on But upon great Mistake as will easily be made to appear The words are Who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our Justification Which words are not to be taken as if there were two distinct ends in Christs Death and Resurrection the one to obtain pardon of sin and the other to justifie And so to divide between them two whereas in truth the Apostle makes them one and the same thing But the natural meaning and intendment of the Holy Ghost in that text is this That All that Christ did and suffered was upon our account He was delivered to death upon the account of our sins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our greatest sins and utmost Apostacy for that sense is included in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and rose again upon the same account to justify us from the condemning power of them By being delivered for our offences and rising again for our Justification the Apostle intends the same thing which is to justifie and save us from our sins And the latter expression is exegetical of the former 'T is to instruct us that Christs Death and Resurrection the whole that he transacted had one tendency and was all in order to one and the same end For in some Texts we are said to be justified by his Death and by his Blood so that he Dyed for our justification as well as rose again for it The Scripture no where affords us the least warrant to assign one distinct end to Christs death and another to his resurrection Nay the Apostle himself upon another occasion Rom. 14. ver 9. positively conjoyns them as inseparable in their ends For this end says he Christ both dyed and rose again Whatever Christ dyed for he rose again for His Rising again did not induce any farther or other ends then were his Death but only compleat and perfect the whole Design and Intendment thereof For although Christ dyed for our sins yet if he had not Risen again we could not have reap't the Fruit and Effect of his Death His own Justification as Mediator and so ours depending upon his Resurrection as the supream and Glorious Effect of his Deity and that whereby he was declared to be the Son of God mightily from heaven Secondly 'T is Objected That Remission of sin doth only take away the guilt or ordination to punishment but doth not remove the Sin it self and therefore Justification cannot consist in it Although pardon of sin do make as if sin had never been in respect of the guilt of it yet not in respect of the denomination of the Subject Although David was pardoned yet his pardon did not make him a Just man in those acts of his Murder and Adultery He was truely a Murderer and an Adulterer notwithstanding Justification doth not denominate a man to be Just and a righteousness is requisite unto it A man is not Justified and therefore Just but must be Just and therefore Justified in the order of Justification To this I Answer in these three things First by Gods forgiving of sin in a Judicial way as much is done to obliterate and extinguish it in its proper denomination as is possible and nothing but Gods forgiveness could have done so much For he forgiveth as the Supream Soveraign and Lord of all And his forgiveness is not only the effect of his mercy but the result of all his infinite Attributes He is pleased with a redundancy of Grace to express himself in Scripture to us about this matter that we might have a strong consolation therein As first That he will turn his face from our sins Psal 51. Secondly That he will remember them no more Isa 42. Thirdly That he will not impute them Psal 32. Fourthly That he will cast them into the depths of the sea Mica 7. And fifthly that he will cast them behind his back Isa 38. Now I say
of our case and a thing easie to be understood By the other we are made to be justified as Innocents which is not the truth of our case unless we will suppose God to account us to have done all that Christ did that is to have performed all righteousness without sin which in fact was not so This Objection therefore is wholly grounded upon a Mistake We obtain not Heaven as the reward of the Law but upon the promises of the Gospel Our concern is not upon what Terms the Law does justifie but how the Gospel does justifie Our own sins have rendred impracticable the justifying power of the Law and Christs righteousness and satisfaction has superseded the condemning power of it SECT III I Come in the second place to consider What is the material procuring Cause of Justification before God And the Answer to it in general is this 't is a Satisfaction made suitable to his Justice for the breach of his Law And this satisfaction consists in the whole Active and Passive obedience of our Saviour intirely taken together and the infinite merit thereof with which God declares himself so abundantly satisfied and well pleased that he Relaxeth the Law of Works thereupon dispenseth with the rigour of it and superinduceth another Covenant upon the terms of which we are justified and saved God does not upon satisfaction made for the breach of the Covenant of Works thereupon immediately pardon and save us by that But he relieves and releaseth us from the obligation we lay under to it and proclaims a new Law and enters into another Covenant And 't is upon the terms of that we are actually pardoned and justified The Righteousness and Satisfaction of Christ fully answers for us in respect of the Law We stand no more obliged to it a 't is a Law of Works and 't is the procuring Cause and formal Reason of the new Law of the saving Covenant upon the terms of which we are pardoned and justified and which is in its nature but a method of forgiveness and that place the Righteousness of Christ bears in point of Justification So that the whole is Originated in our Redeemers Satisfaction and purchased thereby the inestimable value and merit whereof results from these four things the dignity of his Person the freeness and spontaniety of his undertaking the undertaking it self and the ordination of God in the case had there not been a concurrence of all these the satisfaction had been defective and ineffectual the Gospel had never been published Death and Condemnation had still reigned and the Law had continued still in its full force and vertue First What a stupendious dignity was there in Christs Person in whom the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily 'T is no wonder we should be redeem'd by his blood when it was the blood of God and that the righteousness of this one should redound to All for the Justification of life as 't is expressed Rom. 5 18. when in him dwelt all fulness The Actions and Sufferings of such a person must needs be of unspeakable value because of his own transcendent Eminency above all creatures yea even Angels for he is Gods Fellow and was in the form of God Whatever was done and suffered by a person so qualified in whom concentred all the perfection both of the Humane and Divine nature must needs be of infinite value and of desert and merit beyond all bounds of imagination 'T is no wonder we should be bought with such a price and yet nothing less then this can we suppose without impeaching the wisdom of God who saw to bring it about this way could have answer'd for mans disobedience have stopt the current of Divine Justice and made a satisfaction for that Eternity of punishment that became due to us Secondly How free and voluntary what a meer act of Choice was Christs sufeeption of his Mediatory work How far was he exalted beyond the reach of all obligation or possibility of any Addition No Creature could oblige him that was God nor could the Divine nature lay a Constraint upon it self 't is an essential property of the Godhead to act freely 'T is true when he was man he was obliged as a man but he was under no engagement to become man A Servants work and a Creatures homage was due from him indeed when a Creature and a Servant but 't was his own free choice that brought him into the state of either Nothing but the workings of his own infinite bowells of Compassion over the fallen posterity of Apostate Adam could bring him to Tabernaclo in flesh and take up his abode with the children of Men. In a word he freely and out of choice became man and lived a life Natural And as freely resign'd up his life unto death and became a free-will-offering to God So himself declares Joh. 10. ver 17. I lay down my life no man taketh it from me And Mark 10.25 he tells us He came to Give his life a ransom for many And had not this been so God who is infinitely just could not have punished him in whom there was found no guilt Nor had it been Equal with God to accept him on our behalf unless he had freely espoused our interest Thirdly How admirable is the undertaking of Christ in it self First to assume humane nature from the very first moment of which assumption began the state of his humiliation and in that nature to yield a perfect obedience to all the Laws of God to which mankind were obliged and in the same to undergo the penalty due upon their breach submit himself to become a Curse for us What an amazing consideration is it that the Lord of all should become man in the form of a servant and subject himself to an obedience to all his own Laws yea even of those that were but the shadow as were the Ceremonial of which he as man incarnate was the substance And that he that was without all sin should submit to those Institutions that were grounded upon the supposition of sin and whose End and Tendency had a direct relation to it such was Baptism and Circumcision And yet so he was pleased to fulfill all righteousness to do all the Law required and yet to suffer what it threatned Now considering that he lay under no obligation with respect to himself for the doing of any of this what a vast stock of Merit must needs be treasur'd up for those to whom He and the Father shall please to impute it 'T is this undertaking of Christ that could alone face divine Justice and at the dreadful Tribunal of the great and eternal Jehovah be admitted as a sufficient Plea and Satisfaction for an open Rebellion from dust and ashes against Him His obedience to the Law qualified with such infinite perfections and representing us in our nature being both the Son of God and the Son of man redintigrated the honour of the Law to as great a degree as