Animadversions On that part of Mr. ROBERT FERGVSON'S BOOK Entituled The INTEREST of REASON IN RELIGION Which Treats of JUSTIFICATION In a LETTER to a Friend LONDON Printed by T. R. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's head in St. Paul's Church-yard 1676. SIR I Return you with Mr. Ferguson's Book my hearty thanks for the Loan of it I have read it and find many things well said in it And where I find anything otherwise I impute it not to his want of ability if the Cause would bear it but the Cause it self in those particular Instances which I suspect him to be defective in For neither he nor any other of what ability soever he be can as Solomon sayes make that streight which God hath made crooked Eccles. 7.13 And therefore the greater the parts be of any man who yet cannot make work of a Cause he undertakes it doth but make me so much the more doubtfull of the goodness of that Cause if it were any whit doubtfull to me before I will give you one instance of this nature out of Mr. Ferguson's book Chap. 2 Sect 10. Where he asserts that Mr. Sherlock's Notion as he calls it of Justification is not any wayes maintainable but by perverting innumerable texts from their plain and naturall Sense to a Metaphorick and that it is accompanied with this fatall unhappiness of turning agreat part of the Bible into mere insignificant and empty Metaphors P. 402. 403. And then represents Mr. Sherlock's notion thus That we are only justified by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ That the Sacrifice of Christ's death and the Righteousness of his life have no other influence upon our acceptance with God but that to them we owe the Covenant of Grace That is God being well pleased with the obedience of Christ's life and the Sacrifice of his death entered into a new Covenant with mankind wherein he promiseth pardon of Sin and eternal life to those who believe and obey the Gospel So that the Righteousness of Christ is not the formal cause of our Justification but the Righteousness of his life and death is the Meritorious Cause whereby we are declared Righteous and rewarded as Righteous persons The Covenant of Grace which God for Christs sake hath made pardoning our past sins and follies and rewarding a sincere though imperfect Obedience The Gospel by its great arguments and motives and powerfull assistances forms our minds to the love and practice of Holiness and so makes us inherently righteous and the Grace of the Gospel accepts and rewards that sincere Obedience which according to the Rigor and Severity of the Law could deserve no reward P. 404. Mr. Ferguson having made this recital out of Mr. Sherlock's book knew not how as it seems to make good his charge there-from unless Mr. S. would be so kind as to grant what Mr. F. doth affirm but Mr. S. himself no where asserts And therefore although he grants in P. 416. That in reserence to the mere demands of the Gospel we may in a proper sense be said to be justified Yet he saith that in reference to the Law which is that alone which accuseth us we cannot in any prepriety of speech be said to be justified but that justification wheresoever it regards our discharge from the accusation of the Law must be taken Metaphorically he meanes I suppose unless we are discharged from that accusation by having the righteousness of Christ imputed to us Whether this be true or no I shall put to the Tryal afterwards But in the mean time pray you consider how little reason Mr. F. had to go about to charge Mr. S. with holding Justification in a Metaphorick sense unless he had first shewed us that according to M. S's sentiment of Justification before represented he had made somthing else necessary to it than that which is an answering of the demands of the Gospel which yet he hath not done that I can see But indeed M. F. is so far from doing that as that he hath done the quite contrary as you cannot but perceive when you compare Mr. F's concession and Mr. S 's notion touching Justification together for Mr. F. acknowledgeth as I said before that in reference to the mere demands of the Gospel we may in a proper sense be said to be Justified and M. S. saith no more as M. F. recites him but that we are only Justified by believing and obeying the Gospel And if to believe and obey the Gospel be not to answer the demands of the Gospel and no more pray you get Mr. F. to tell us what is But if it be then Mr. F. instead of making good his charge against M. S. hath himself even fairly acquitted and discharged him from it and might well have taken himself off here and saved himself the labour of further prosecution But however though M. S. doth not yet it seems Mr. F. doth hold that we must be Justified if Justified at all by answering the demands of the Law as well as of the Gospel although the Scipture tells us that he that abideth in the Doctrine of Christ which is the Gospel he hath both the Father and the Son Rep. Jo. 9. And because Mr. F. is of opinion that the demands of the Law must be answered or else we cannot be Justified therefore he thinks Mr. S. ought to be so too which if he can perswade him to be then he doubts not but that he shall be able to make good his charge against him And therefore to lay a foundation for a necessity of a perfect legal Righteousness unto Justification though not inherent in our selves yet by derivation of it from our Saviour in whom it was he does in effect assert the Original Legal Covenant to remain still in force notwithstanding the establishing with men the Evangelical and that in order to our Justification it is not enough to have an Evangelical Righteousness to answer the demands of the Gospel but that we must also have a perfect legal Righteousness to answer the demands of the Law though not in our selves but by derivation from another as was said before Whether this be not so judge I pray you by his own words comparing what he sayes in P. 411. and P. 414. which are these Now as the introduction of the law of faith hath not abrogated the law of perfect obedience but this as well as that doth remain in force each of them requiring a conformity to its own demands So supposing us to answer all that the Gospel requires yet the other law abiding uncancelled and we being all guilty of the violation of its terms there lies accordingly a charge against us from which by Justification we are to be acquitted p. 414. And again p. 411. That secluding not only the righteousness of Christ's life but the satisfaction of his death as the Matter and the imputation of it as the formal Cause of justification it seems repugnant to the immutability and essentiall
being justified by believing and obeying the Gospel with any such absurdity or inconvenience as that it is not maintainable without perverting innumerable texts from their plain and natural sense to a Metaphorick Only let me premise this that it would alwayes be remembred that whatever benefits do accrue to us by vertue of the new Covenant are owing unto Christ and truly attributable unto him in whom for whose sake and upon account of whose undertaking the Covenant it self and all the benefits of it are vouchsafed unto men And accordingly this Covenant in Scripture is said to be confirmed of God in Christ Gal. 3.17 to be the new-Testament in his blood Mat. 26.28 and his blood to be the blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 And he himself given for a Covenant of the People Is 42.6 and all the promises of God are in him yea and in him amen 2. Cor. 1.22 What ever then depends upon this Covenant depends upon Christ and accordingly the benefits promised in it Remission of sin and eternal life are in Scripture ascribed unto him And although Faith as comprehending repentance and sincere obedience be imputed for righteousness yet it is not for its own sake that it is so but for Christ's sake and all by vertue of the divine will which hath of mere Grace and favour appointed that so it shall be This being premised I proceed now to shew that we are justified by God upon our believing and obeying the Gospel and that in a proper sense and that our believing and obeying the Gospel is our Evangelical righteousness upon the taking place whereof in men God accounts and by the doctrine in the Scriptures declares them just and deals with them accordingly which is his justifying of them To this end let it be considered that this Covenant as founded by God in the righteousness of Christ's life and Sacrifice of his death doth consist of two parts of Conditions required by God and to be performed by men and of promise of benefits made by God and to be performed by him but to be received and enjoyed by men The Condition upon which promise of benefits is made by God is that which Mr. S. rightly calls a believing and obeying the Gospel And the benefits promised upon the aforesaid condition Mr. S. truly saith are pardon of Sin and eternal life That such promises are made and upon such conditions appears every where in Scripture where things of this nature are spoken of as every one knows that knows the Scripture and Mr. F. himself stands declared no enemy to the Doctrine of the conditionality of the promises Things then being thus setled between God and all men in this Covenant the enquiry upon every man's tryall will be whether he hath performed the condition required on his part in believing repenting and sincerely obeying If it be found that he hath he is thereupon as truly and in a proper Sense justified that is accounted and by the Gospel declared and pronounced Evangelically just and righteous i. e. in the sense of this Evangelicall Law as he would have been in the sense of the Original Law in case he had observed the terms of that And had I been to have written to Mr F. I would have enquired of him which of these things now mentioned he would or could deny being all so perfectly agreeable as they are to the tenour and very letter of the Scripture Will he or can he deny belief in the Gospel and obedience to it to be the Condition upon which God in the Gospel or new Covenant hath promised pardon of Sin and eternal life or which is the same that he hath promised these benefits to such and to no other This I take for granted he will not deny Next I would demand whether Faith Repentance and sincere obdience be not all that is required of men themselves by God in the Gospel to make them Evangelically righteous and capable of the saving benefits promised in the Gospel If they be and I believe Mr. F. will not deny them to be so from one of his own assertions p. 414. then I further query whether these do not denominate a man Evangelically righteous or righteous in the gospel sense as well as the doing all that the Law required would have denominated a man legally righteous or righteous in the sense of the Law And further whether men from those qualifications aforesaid are not in Scripture so denominated As for instance Faith which is as I have said comprehensive of repentance and sincere obedience when saveing this as the Scripture tells us expresly was counted to Abraham for righteousness Rom. 4.3 Gal. 3.6 And we are told also that the Scripture speaking of this in reference to Abraham was not written for his sake only but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead vers 23.24 And then for Evangelical or sincere obedience that comes in also for a share in denominating a man righteous in a gospel sense He that doth righteousness is righteous saith St. John 1 Ep. 3.7 and he speaks it of that righteousness which men themselves do in a course of sincere obedience and not of the righteousness of another imputed to them In the righteousness which he hath done shall he live saith the Phophet speaking of a man that shall turn from all the sins which he hath committed and shall observe all God's Statutes and do all that which is lawfull and right Ezek. 18.22 If then Faith Repentance and sincere obedience be all that the gospel requires to denominate a man righteous in a gospel sense and to make him capable of the promised benefits Then all those in whom these are found are by God in the Gospel declared and pronounced righteous men which Declaration is their Justification For what is done in this kind by the gospel on Earth is done also by God in Heaven No man sure that understands and considers what he saith will deny this to be Justification in a proper sense nor assert it not maintainable without perverting the scriptures from their plain and natural meaning to a Metaphorick sense whereas its most evident it stands back't with the Scriptures understood in their plain proper and genuine sense But because Mr. Ferguson was somwhat sensible that he could not duly infer any thing from Mr. S's own words touching his apprehensions about Justification but what was agreeable to the Notion of justification in a proper sense in reference to the demands of the gospel as you may perceive by what he saith towards the beginning of the page 416. And because he had a great mind to fasten somthing by way of retortion upon Mr. S's Notion of Justification as if it had not been maintainable to be Justification properly so called without wresting the Scriptures from their plain and proper sense which was the the thing Mr. S. charged on them whose opinion Mr.
these ends of Government be secured in shewing favour the stighteousness and Justice of God will never suffer any disparagement how great soever the Grace and Favour be that is shewed to Offenders But now that God in justifying men upon account of sincere obedience and inherent righteousness considering what hath been done by our Lord Christ to make way for it and to bring things to that issue does not in the least countenance Sin past or encourage to the committing of it for time to come but that which is altogether contrary thereunto will sufficiently appear if you consider these two things First That notwithstanding God is so good and gracious so merciful and ready to forgive as he is yet he would not grant any terms at all of receiving us into favour again having once sinned except his own dear Son himself would take upon him our Nature and become a Sacrifice to make an Atonement for our Sin nor spare him when he had undertaken so to be notwithstanding that great love wherewith he loved him but delivered him up to death for us all when he undertook to become a propitiation for our Sins rather than we should have no terms of pardon granted God's granting terms of pardon and restauration to his favour upon no cheaper terms did clearly demonstrate him to be an enemy and hater of Sin in the highest and so irreconcilable to it as that no Sinner could have any ground to hope to escape the punishment due to it but upon observing that Condition of escaping it the obtaining of which cost so dear In that Christ thus suffered in the flesh he condemned Sin in the flesh as the phrase is Rom. 8.3 and that effectually and with a witness Hereby he condemned it in the sight of Heaven and Earth yea and of Hell too as a thing most abominable to God and contrary to his Nature and to the goodness and equity of his Laws and Government when deliverance from the desert of it could be obtained at no cheaper rate or easier terms than the Son of God his suffering in the Sinners stead no not upon repentance it self without this In that God hath thus set forth his Son to be a propitiation for Sin through Faith in his Blood it is to declare his Righteousness in the remission of Sins that are past that he is righteous although he forgive and that he might be just even when he is the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Rom. 3.25 26. Secondly When God for Christ's sake and for what he hath done and suffered did grant terms of Grace by which we Sinners might come to be justified pardoned and saved yet they were such and none other but what tend to reclaim us from Sin and Rebellion and to reduce us to obedience and of Rebels to make us to become good Subjects And in doing this God is far from countenancing Sin or doing any thing disagreeable to the righteousness wisdom and goodness of his Government indeed so far from it that it highly commends and sets these off The terms of favour granted for Christ's sake are such as these That believing and being perswaded in our own minds that God is good and ready to forgive for his Son's sake we heartily repent that ever we rebell'd against him and that we desist from continuing in our Rebellion any longer and that we return to our duty and sincerely endeavour to please him in all things for the future It 's true indeed God knows that by reason of the wounds and disease we got by our fall and while we were in rebellion we have brought so great debility upon our selves as that though we do return to him yet we cannot do him such service now as man was capable of performing before the fall and his running into rebellion and therefore he is content for his Son's sake to accept of such service as we in this state of weakness and frailty are capable of performing provided we do the best we well can and make use of all helps and means afforded us whereby we may gather strength and grow better and do better and are heartily sorry that ever we have made our selves so uncapable as we have done of doing him better service These and such like are the terms granted us for Christ's sake But without some such Change as this God hath not promised to receive any man into favour Now then if it be not inconsistent with the righteousness and wisdom of his Government for God to offer and promise to receive Sinners into favour again upon these terms and conditions and I cannot think Mr. F. will say it is Then it cannot be inconsistent therewith for him to own that they have performed these conditions when indeed they have and so to own them now for his true and faithful Servants and Subjects to their power and according to the term set in his act of Grace which is his justifying of them or the imputing to them for righteousness such their faithful service as they are capable of performing These things considered I dare appeal to Mr. F's better and more impartial Judgment whether it be not consistent with the Holiness of God to justifie men upon the terms aforesaid I confess I cannot possibly understand why it should not as well consist with the Holiness of God to justifie us upon our believing and upon our obeying the Gospel too as it is to do it upon our believing alone And Mr. F. does not think that God doth justifie us at all or impute righteousness to us at all in one sense or another without our believing So that the imputation of righteousness to us for our justification in which sense soever we take it depends upon our own act in believing and so likewise is the application of what Christ hath done and suffered for our justification suspended upon our believing In what Notion soever you understand the application of the righteousness of Christ's life and satisfaction of his death to be made as whether by being imputed to us in it self or vertually by having our Faith for the sake thereof imputed to us for Righteousness yet still this application depends upon our believing because God hath made that the condition of it without which Christ shall profit us nothing I take notice further how Mr. F. by his Notion of having the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us otherwise than in its effects is led to think and say that our Sins also were otherwise imputed to Christ than in the effects of them To say saith he that our Sins were imputed to Christ in the effects of them but not in the guilt is to contradict all principles of Reason For guilt and obnoxiousness to punishment being equipollent phrases he cannot be supposed to be made liable to the last upon the account of our Sins without having been brought under the first p. 410. Nor is it imaginable let me say how any person should come under the
Principle of Sincerity and of the Divine Nature and Life is made the Condition of Pardon And now if what hath been said amounts to any fair account of the Apostle's scope and design in those forementioned verses and of the sense of the several Phrases by which it is exprest and I leave you to judg whether it doth or no then I can see no reason why by Righteousness imputed without Works we should understand the Righteousness of Christ but rather the Righteousness of Faith properly understood which Faith the Apostle there expresly affirms to be imputed for Righteousness but doth not so much as mention Christ in those verses much less the imputation of his Righteousness unto Justification as exclusive of all manner of Works It is not the Righteousness of Christ but Grace and Faith that are in this contexture of Scripture opposed to Works Nor are Works opposed to Faith neither but under the notion of Merit as they make the reward to be of Debt and not of Grace And when I say this I do for all that with all thankfulness acknowledge and profess That the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ's Life and Death doth with a high hand operate to our Justification and so as neither our Faith nor any thing in us or done by us can do but in a way altogether transcending it though not in Mr. F's way of Imputation nor is it in this Scripture set forth as it is in others It 's true indeed the Righteousness the Apostle treats of in this place is stiled Righteousness imputed But the reason is not because it is not inherent in the persons themselves to whom it is imputed but in Christ and made theirs only by imputation for it is the Faith of the Person himself that is here said to be counted or imputed to him for Righteousness And the reason why it is called a Righteousness imputed may be because it is not naturally and of it self or in its own nature a Righteousness that would justifie a man as Adam's was before his fall but it is only by Divine Institution Grace and Favour that it is so God justifies us freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 It is of Faith that it might be by Grace as it follows Rom. 4.16 As it is by the Justification or Ordinance of a King that such a piece of Coin passeth currant for so much whether it be of the intrinsick value or no even so by vertue of God's institution and for Christ's sake Faith is made to pass for and to be reckoned and accounted to us for Righteousness and to entitle us to those benefits which in its own Nature it doth not merit If it were a perfect Righteousness in its own Nature as Adam's was it would need no Pardon to accompany it as it does and would secure us as well from temporal as eternal death which yet it doth not But it being a Righteousness by Institution and Grace how far it shall be beneficial to us and to what ends and purposes it shall serve depend wholly upon the good will and pleasure of God and are knowable only so far to us as he hath been pleased to put them into promise by vertue of which promise made upon condition of such Righteousness and not by merit of the Righteousness it self we come to have a title to the promised benefits such as are remission of Sin and eternal Life But Mr. F. cannot understand but that it is repugnant to the immutability and essential Holiness of God to justifie us upon an imperfect obedience the Law commanding that which is perfect and thinks for him to do so would be to pronounce an unjust person just But he should consider That God in justifying us doth not pronounce us just as not having sinned for that 's impossible for him indeed to do but as having performed the Condition on which he in his Gospel-Covenant hath promised to pardon our Sin And in doing this he doth not prouounce unjust persons just for they are just with an Evangelical Righteousness just in the Gospel sense and so stiled from place to place in the Scripture as I have shew'd And although the Evangelical Righteousness and Obedience upon which God is pleased to justifie us be imperfect if measured by the Law yet it is perfect as to its end appointed by God when measured by the Gospel by which we are to be tryed whether we be righteous or unrighteous And whosoever being adult is not righteous in this sense shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 69. but those that are thus righteous shall go into life eternal Matth. 25.46 But supposing Evangelical Righteousness or Obedience to be Comparatively imperfect whether compared with what man in innocency had and was capable to perform or whether compared with a gradual perfection of Righteousness and Obedience of the same kind and supposing it to be only sincere obedience according to the present circumstances a man is in Let us weigh and consider whether or no it be not consistent with the Holiness of God to justifie men upon such Righteousness and Obedience when found in them when withal we take in what hath been done by Christ the Mediatour to make way for it I conceive Mr. F. doth not suppose that God by the Holiness of his Nature is naturally and necessarily restrained from shewing favour to men after once they have been guilty of Sin and have made themselves obnoxious to the effects of his high displeasure for if he were we were all still in an ill case and there would be then no such thing as Grace extant in the World which yet is so illustrious and glorious as that it is the very subject matter of the Gospel Grace and mercy are as essentially in God as Holiness And therefore we must take heed of framing such notions of his Holiness as to leave no place for the exercise of his Grace and Mercy God no doubt is at liberty to recede from his own right as well as men are in remitting debts and pardoning offences to what degree and upon what terms he pleaseth only he as Rector of the World hath respect therein unto good order and government Supposing all this we must suppose again that such acts of Grace and Favour towards offending Sinners as do not in the least encourage them to continue in Sin nor any other Creature in the whole Creation that is innocent to fall into a state of like Rebellion as man hath done but are of a quite contrary tendency will very well consist with the end of his Government as he is Rector of the World and with the Righteousness and Justice of the Governour himself Now the reason and end of executing Justice upon Delinquents is either to recover them themselves to good order and behaviour or to deterr others from falling into like Rebellion against God For otherwise God delighteth not in the death as such of him that dies Ezek. 18. Provided then that
one in conjunction with Faith in Christ to be sufficient to that end Now whether Mr. F. himself doth deny inherent Grace to be at all imputed for Righteousness in our Justification or whether that it only is so I confess I cannot say But certain it is that he denies it to be sufficient without the imputation of Christ's Righteousness in the sense of imputation wherein he is opposed One while he grants that in reference to the mere demands of the Gospel we may in a proper sense be said to be justified p. 416. At another turn he saith that secluding not only the righteousness of Christ's life but the satisfaction of his death as the matter and the imputation of it as the formal Cause of Justification it seems repugnant unto the immutability and essential Holiness of God to justifie us upon an imperfect obedience such as he accounts Evangelical obedience to be the Law which requireth a perfect remaining still in force and denouncing wrath in case of every failure By which he seems to hold how consistently with what I before recited do you judge that it is inconsistent with the Holiness of God to justifie us upon an Evangelical Righteousness because imperfect But whether Mr. F. joyns the imputation of Christ's Righteousness and the imputation of inherent Grace together in the business of Justification or whether he wholly denies the imputation of the latter and affirms only the imputation of the former I shall not further enquire But it 's well known that those who are wont to plead the same cause with Mr. F. touching the necessity of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto Justification and in that sense wherein he is opposed are wont also to exclude inherent Grace as being neither imputed for Righteousness in Justification nor as necessary thereunto antecedently Mr. E. Polhill a Gentleman doubtless of a good Spirit another of Mr. S's Antagonists in his answer to him saith in p. 75. In Justification no other Righteousness can take place but the active and passive one of Christ which answers the pure and righteous Law in every thing And in p. 321. he saith Obedience to God's commands is indeed the way to Heaven but it s no where made an ingredient into our Justification And p. 365. speaking of Phil. 3.9 saith that the Apostle in this place doth not only exclude external Pharisaical righteousness but even inherent Graces in the matter of Justification And the common opinion of those that have gone that way hath been That Sanctification is subsequent to Justification and not so much as in order of Nature going before it or to be any ingredient in it and consequently not essentially necessary to it Now then that which I say is this that if I can make it appear that the denying the necessity of internal righteousness unto Justification was one part of the grievous errour of the Judaising Christians it will be enough to spoil the reputation of the same opinion though found in better men than they were And whether I shall not make it evidently to appear so to be I shall leave you to judge after you have weighed what I shall now lay before you Their Crime was I conceive a partial revolt or turning unto the worst of Judaism saving their retaining a profession of Faith in Christ to think that an external righteousness without an internal was available to justification and salvation The unbelieving Jews to whom they turned in part were quite degenerated from their worthy Ancestors and all that remained faithful among them who all held the internal Grace of Love to God fear of him uprightness of heart towards him truth in the inward parts necessary to interest them in his favour and the blessing of the everlasting Covenant But the degenerate Jews thought an external Righteousness such as Paul had while a Pharisee and such as would justifie them in the sight of men according to the terms of the political Covenant by which they were externally governed by God as they were his Commonwealth would justifie them as to their eternal estate Of which grand mistake our Saviour Matth. 5. laboured to convince them by shewing that no less was required by God in order to that than an inward purity and upbraided them with their making clean the outside of the Cup and Platter when within they were full of extortion and excess of ravening and wickedness with their appearing outwardly Righteous unto men when within they were full of Hypocrisie and iniquity and told his hearers that except their Righteousness exceeded theirs they should never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that except they were born again they could not see the Kingdom of God Now it was to this monstrously corrupt part of Judaism to which the Judaising Christians did revolt or turn rather for many of them were Gentiles because without this their errour in adhering to the Law of Moses as necessary to be observed would not have been so damnable as the Scripture represents it to be calling it a perverting the Gospel of Christ a being removed to another Gospel a falling from Grace a making of Christ to become of none effect to them Gal. 1.7 and 5.2 4. which it would not have been if there had been nothing else in it than a perswasion that they were under an obligation of observing the Law of Moses as well as the Law of Christ For there were many thousands of the Jews which believed who were yet zealous of the Law of Moses and thought themselves still under the obligation of it Acts 21. who yet could never be said upon that account to be fallen from Grace or to be removed from the Gospel of Christ to another Gospel so long as they were really for an internal Righteousness as necessary to Justification and Salvation as well as an external For all the faithful Jews under the Law before the Law and after the Law yea and all the Gentiles too that had this internal Righteousness as well as an external were all justified through the Grace of God exhibited in the universal Covenant made in Christ and granted for his sake whether they had any explicite or distinct knowledge of that Covenant or not or of Christ in whom it was confirmed In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him and if the Uncircumcision did but keep the righteousness of the Law the internal Righteousness designed by it their Uncircumcision was counted for Circumcision When on the other hand he was not a Jew at any time in the sense there spoken of who was one outwardly in the flesh only but he was a Jew which was so inwardly and Circumcision was that of the heart in the Spirit of the Law and not in the Letter only whose praise or approbation was from God whether it were from men or no Rom. 2. St. Paul would never have become as a Jew to the Jews to gain the Jews as he did in observing
being justified by Faith alone as abstracted from it's effect of renewing us And if either of these Doctrines were true we might have an immediate title to Pardon and Salvation without Repentance and without being born again unless we will suppose that Justification does not immediately entitle us to these which to suppose is as absurd as any of the rest For what I pray you would such a Justification signisie And then as concerning the other thing viz. That if we have not by the Imputation of Christ's perfect Righteousness a Rightteousness to answer the demands of the Law that then as Mr. F. infers we can have no Justification but what consists in the remission of Sins I answer That for the same reason that we are accounted Righteous upon our performing the Condition of the promise pardon cannot be our Justification but a benefit consequent upon it For if God's owning or avouching the Condition to be performed on our part as he does when it is performed on which he hath promised Pardon and Salvation be his justifying of us or his accounting us righteous according to the tenour of the Covenant of Grace as indeed it is then Pardon is not our Justification it self but one of the benefits unto which our Justification by vertue of the New Covenant doth entitle us for the one is promised but on condition of the other And as the thing promised and the Condition on which it is promised are not the same so neither is the reckoning or accounting us righteous as having performed the Condition of the Promise of Pardon and the actual Pardon it self the same but so much as these differ so much does Justification and Pardon differ But yet for all that I do not deny but that in a large sense as Justification is opposed to Condemnation it may comprehend remission of Sins That is if by Condemnation you understand both conviction of impenitency which is the opposite to Justification properly and the obligation or obnoxiousness thereby to suffer the pains of the second Death And by Justification both a vindication from impenitency and unbelief which is Justification properly and also a discharge thereby from obnoxiousness to eternal punishment then as I said Justification thus opposed to condemnation does indeed include in it remission of Sin though when strictly and most properly considered Justification seems to be one thing and Pardon of Sin another It is wont to be alledged That when St. Paul saith in Rom. 4.6 that God imputeth Righteousness without Works the meaning is That he imputeth the Righteousness of Christ to us without any Works of ours at all Legal or Evangelical External or Internal And because great stress is laid on it by some I will briefly shew how the Context directs us to another sense of those words The Scope of the Apostle in this and the former Chapter is to prove that Justification proceeds from God of Grace and favour and not of Debt To make this good he shews here that it must needs be so because it is vouchsafed not unto such who have been alwayes righteous for he had proved before Chap. 3. that there are none such but that all both Jews and Gentiles have sinned but to such as have been ungodly when once they believe and therefore cease to be so and become sincerely righteous And the Apostle's reason depends upon this manifest truth That such as have once sinned can never by any after-works which they can do merit the Divine favour as a Debt due to them by desert of their Works nor are capable of that favour upon any other terms than what God of his mere Grace is pleased to appoint as the Condition of it as he hath done that of Faith For to him that worketh not saith he but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted to him for righteousness ver 5. And to prove as well as to assert that God justifieth none upon account of their having been alwayes righteous and in his favour as some Jews fancied themselves to have been upon account of their observing the Law of Moses as he in the Gospel who said All these have I kept from my youth up he shew's out of the Psalms of David how that the ancient godly Jews did alwayes esteem their happiness of being in God's favour not to proceed from the merit of their Works in observing the Law of Moses but from the Grace and Mercy of God in forgiving their Sins and accepting their sincere endeavours to please him Even as David saith he describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousnes without works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered ver 6 7. And you may easily discern if you observe it that what is said in this sixth and seventh verses is to back and make good what he had said in vers 5. touching God's justifying men upon their believing notwithstanding they had been in a state of ungodliness before And to shew that if he justifie such men upon such terms Justification must needs proceed of Grace and not of Debt or merit of Works of which he had spoken vers 4. saying Now to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned of Grace but of Debt So that in making a Judgment of what Works St. Paul speaks when he saith Righteousness is imputed without Works vers 6. if you do but take your rise from what 's said in vers 4. touching such Works the reward of which is reckoned not of Grace but of Debt and so follow the discourse and the design of it to vers 6. you will find that you cannot fairly turn aside to another but must needs understand him to this sense to wit That the Righteousness which is by Faith of which he had spoken in vers 5. is imputed without such Works as make the reward to be not of Grace but of Debt mentioned v. 4. His Argument runs thus in other words They to whom God imputed Righteousness heretofore were such as stood in need of forgiveness from God therefore they could not possibly merit his favour And although St. Paul doth not improve the words of the Psalmist further than to prove that no man is restored to the Divine favour and the blessedness consequent upon it without forgiveness of Sins and that therefore it must needs be of Grace and not of Debt and Merit that any man attains it by being justified this being his end in alledging them Yet it 's also evident by the words immediately following those the Apostle here recites That Godly sincerity is the conditional qualification required of such to whom the favour of forgiveness is vouchsafed For it 's there said Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no guile No guile notes the Sincerity I speak of Psal 32.2 And it 's to the same sense when in the writings of the New Testament Faith as the
without such internal Righteousness might well be charged with perverting the Gospel of Christ and those Christians with falling from Grace who closed with them in that opinion For therein they departed and fell off from the true Notion and Idea of the Grace of the Gospel and the terms on which all the saving benefits are in the Gospel promised by Jesus Christ Now although this opinion of the non-necessity of the inherent Grace of Sanctification unto Justification is check't and controlled in its operation in those that are full of the sense of the necessity of it unto Salvation yet by what hath been now represented it seems in it self and abstracted from the better principle I have mentioned to be the first step towards falling from Grace in the sense before explained and is of dangerous consequence when it takes place in men who have no such sense of the necessity of internal Sanctification unto Salvation For in such case Libertines and Carnal men will be apt to bear up them selves in hope as is much to be feared they too frequently do that if their believing only abstracted from its effects in renewing men be sufficient to procure the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to them for their Justification in the fight of God or otherwise of it self to obtain it that then it will be sufficient also to save them in as much as the Scripture saith whom God justifieth them he also glorifieth and stileth the Justification of men Justification unto life and if God justifie who is he that condemneth And in this very respect it is much to be seared that this opinion too frequently becomes a snare of Death and a stumbling stone to many to content themselves with that which is but a dead Faith and some external form of Devotion and Righteousness without the internal in mortifying all inordinate affection and in governing their thoughts and passions and to think themselves safe and in a good condition upon account of that to the betraying of their Souls to destruction And whether it may not be pronounced concerning all those who expect Justification and Salvation upon account of their believing and hoping in Christ and of an external Righteousness without an internal that they are fallen from Grace and that Christ shall profit them nothing as well as it was concerning the corrupt Judaising Christians is a question I think you will easily resolve When we see then how fatal it was to the unbelieving Jews and Judaising Christians to mistake the tenour of God's Covenant and the nature of the Covenant-Righteousness and to introduce a Righteousness of another kind into the place and office of the internal Righteousness which is by Faith it may well make wary men cautious how they entertain any opinion that is in any degree like unto it It hath been a mistake of the Scriptures about the nature and kind of the Evangelical-Covenant-Righteousness that hath occasioned our Disputes about it in these latter times as well as it did among Christians in the Apostles times though the difference hath not been altogether so great nor perhaps so dangerous now as it was then And if it may not be burthensome to you I will very briefly give you yet some farther account of my thoughts and apprehensions of the nature of this Righteousness and of the sense and meaning of some of those Scriptures that treat of it and have been mistaken on the one side or on the other The tenour of God's Grace in the Gospel is to exhibit declare and shew that since man by his fall hath made the enjoyment of felicity and the avoiding of misery by perfect sinless obedience impracticable that yet God will for Christ's sake as having undertaken for us receive him into favour again upon condition that he do but heartily desire resolve and sincerely endeavour for the future to become obedient and to please him in all things so far as he is able with the helps and assistances internal and external which God will vouchsafe and heartily repent that ever he did otherwise and that upon the same condition he will pardon all past sins and future failings also so far as they are consistent with sincerity of Love and Obedience This is summarily the glad tidings which by the Gospel is published to the World And a practical belief of this glad Tidings is that which God accounts unto men for Righteousness as being the New-Covenant-Righteousness And that 's a practical belief of it when men so believe it as to practise according to it in repenting and sincerely obeying in hope of the promised benefits And this godly sincerity is the Righteousness of the New Covenant or Gospel as distinguished from the Righteousness which is of the Law either as that imports perfect sinless obedience or else only an external Pharisaical Righteousness The Evangelical Righteousness afore described is in the New Testament sometimes stiled the Righteousness of God as opposed to the unbelieving Jews and corrupt Judaising Christians own external Pharisaical Righteousness Rom. 10.3 Phil. 3.9 And this is called their own Righteousness as being only of their own chusing and not of God's appointing as the condition on which they promised themselves Justification in the sight of God when he had promised them no such thing And the internal with the external Righteousness of godly sincerity is called the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness which is of God partly because it is of his institution and partly because it is of his operation It is the Righteousness of God because it is of his institution He hath in and by the New Covenant ordained That this shall be accounted and taken for that Righteousness upon which he will accept men as Righteous and justifie them as such against all condemnatory accusations This is his Institution and Revelation in the Gospel in which this Righteousness of God is said to be revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 to wit as that which is the object of Faith or that which is to be believed to be the stated terms on which God will now justifie and save men And that it is meant of a Righteousness inherent in men the rather appears by the antithesis in the next words where on the contrary it 's said the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Where the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men is put in opposition to the Righteousness of God It is the Righteousness of God also because it is of his operation and working in us It is of his Creation and therefore called the new Creature the new man created after the Image of God in Righteousness and true Holiness the Divine nature begotten of God by the word of Truth born not of the will of man or of the will of the flesh but of God And it being of his institution and operation it must needs be of his approbation too This Evangelical Righteousness is called the Righteousness of
Notion they had of God and from their observation of his general and common goodness to the World notwithstanding mens sins that if they did but repent and leave their sins forgiveness might possibly be obtained that caused them to turn from their evil way and from the violence that was in their hands Jona 3.8 10. Now then since so much as you see depends upon Faith as Repentance Conversion Regeneration and all inherent Righteousness and Holiness of living there is great reason why it should usually be mentioned as that which is imputed for Righteousness rather than any other inherent Grace and in the name and as the representative of all the rest as being the productive cause of them all By the way you may observe then that since it is as you see the Operation of the great Motives of the Gospel as believed that in conjunction with the operation of the Holy Spirit effects that great Change in men by which they become regularly capable of all the blessedness of pardon and salvation which the Gospel reveals it must needs be very necessary for such as you who are ministers of the Gospel to insist much upon those Motives in your discourses to the people and to inculcate and work them into their minds To set life and death heaven and hell before them and to convince them of the reality of such a future state and of the inseparable connexion that is between happiness and their duty and between a sinful and hypocritical life and their eternal misery And to convince them that every one shall have in the next World according as he chuseth in this he that chuseth the right way shall come to the right and best end as he that chuseth the wrong shall certainly come to the wrong and worst and that every he that shall perish hereafter is a self murderer And likewise to set in the peoples eye the preventing grace of God what he hath already done for us as a most affecting motive tending to reconcile us to him and to think well of him as of one that never sought our ruin but as pitying us and taking compassion on us when we had brought it upon our selves and not pursuing the advantage we have given him against us nor revenging himself on us But contrarily contriving a way of our recovery from sin and from the misery into which that hath brought us yea though it cost him very dear to do it in giving his Son to dye for us when he could not otherwise do it with satisfaction to himself in reference to the honour of his Government Besides he hath done this for us men and for our salvation when he hath past by the fallen Angels Christ the Son of God did not take hold of Angels the Apostate Spirits to rescue them out of that destruction and misery into which they plunged themselves and yet hath taken hold of the seed of Abraham of the humane nature to rescue and pluck mankind out of the horrible pit of destruction into which we were fallen Heb. 2.16 And now is not all this Grace of God and Love of Christ which thus far is unconditionate and absolutely free and unsought for on our part and altogether antecedent to any thing done by us to obtain it a wonderful motive thankfully and joyfully to accept of those most reasonable and gracious terms of our Recovery which God in the Gospel hath offered us When it shall be considered that God of his mere commiseration and compassion towards us hath now tried us once again when we were all but as dead men before him and hath put us in a way once again of being happy with what face can we slight despise and abuse such Love by rejecting those gracious terms of reconciliation that were procured for us on such costly terms as the sufferings of the Son of God amount unto But if we do and after all this will persist in our rebellion against Heaven how can we possibly expect that any other way or terms of pardon and salvation should ever be offered unto us again How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation and so mercifully and freely offered us and that on no harder conditions neither than to cease our wilful rebellion against God and to become dutiful and loyal under his easie yoke and gentle Government by the Evangelical Law Heb. 2.3 If then such mighty Motives as the Love of God and his Son Christ Jesus our Lord so wonderfully exprest and the hope of Heaven and the fear of Hell will not work upon us to repent to change our minds and amend our lives and to become new Creatures what greater Motives think we can God use to perswade men by Doubtless they are these Motives will do it if any thing will do it and for that reason they should as I said be insisted on by those whose special business appointed them by God is to win Souls And as these Motives should be much and often inculcated upon the minds of the people for the reason aforesaid so for the same reason they should be managed with all the advantage in respect of circumstance that can be thought on to reach their end in operating powerfully upon the people's Souls Such for one is plainess of speech as the phrase is 2 Cor. 3.12 and not as Moses who put a vail over his face By which plainness of speech if it be what I mean things are fitted and prepared for the understanding and capacity of the meanest whose salvation God hath designed as much as the salvation of the more learned and wise If Peter will express his love to his Master indeed he must as well seed his Lambs as his Sheep Joh. 21.15 And by how much the more matters so affecting in themselves as the Motives of the Gospel are are delivered with an inward sense seriousness and gravity by so much the more they will command attention and consideration from the people and the sooner sink down into their hearts and the more powerfully operate upon the mind and will And if the experience of many among whom I number my self be of any consideration in place of proof then the intermixing Scripture Texts in Divine Discourses aptly applyed and wisely managed is much more edifying to the people than such Discourses without that can be though otherwise for the matter of them they may be agreeable to the Scripture For besides that so doing greatly helps memory and retention of the matter without which the operation of the matter vanisheth with the matter it self And besides also the benefit of growing thereby into better acquaintance with the Scriptures the Mine of these Motives of which I speak and of becoming able by use to reduce scattered Texts of one and the same import to heads of Doctrine I say besides all this and more which might be said it tends greatly to bind the matter delivered the faster upon the Conscience when it shall come so visibly