neither without the imputation of these we cannot be entitled to them to our Justification Now that Faith justifies not absolutely and as our Act may appear In Justification there is a judicial proceeding and we must answer to something to the Gospel only or to the Law also if to the Gospel only then Evangelical Justification is in a way frustrative and not perfective of the Law there needeth only Faith to answer the Gospel and not perfect Righteousness to answer the Law But what saith the Apostle to this Having concluded Justification to be by Faith Rom. 3.30 he immediatly adds Do we then make void the Law through faith God forbid yea we establish the Law ver 31. And how is this That Faith which answers to the Gospel receives that perfect Righteousness of Christ which answers the Law in every point Christ being the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth as we have it Rom. 10. Without this it is not at all imaginable how Faith or Justification by it should establish or complete the Law our sincere Obedience which flows from Faith can no more do it than imperfection can reach perfection Again if to the Gospel only then all the Pagans must needs be justified for they have nothing to answer unto not to the Gospel that is not reveiled to them not to the Law of Nature that is but the relicts and broken pieces of the Moral Law And if Christians who have the Moral Law in its entire perfection are not to answer to it then surely Pagans who have only some little Fragments of it need not answer thereunto and by consequence they must be recti in Curia before God But if as of necessity we must we must answer to the Law also then Faith as it is in it self and our Act cannot possibly justifie it being but a piece of the Law and that imperfect God who judgeth according to truth will not esteem those perfectly righteous who are not so indeed nor accept of a partial Righteousness for a total one If reply be made This is true when God judgeth Judicio Justitiae but not when he judges Judicio Misericordiae he in his condescending Mercy accepts of Faith in the room of total perfect Righteousness I answer this cannot possibly stand God's Mercy and Truth are never at variance his Truth will not esteem us righteous upon account of a partial imperfect righteousness and his Mercy will not condescend so far as to interfere with his Truth But when he esteems us righteous upon account of a perfect Righteousness which is not our own but Christ's then Truth and Mercy both shine forth Truth in that there is a perfect Righteousness to answer the Law and Mercy in that it is not our own but our Sureties But further If Faith be taken for a perfect Righteousness then it is lifted up into the room of Christ and his Righteousness If you say no Christ's Righteousness is the foundation of this acceptance of Faith I answer Then will it follow that Christ died not so much for Persons to justifie them as for Graces to elevate Faith above it self into the estimation of a perfect Righteousness and withal that Faith is our proper Righteousness in an immediate formal way and Christ but a remote Cause only much after the same rate as the Papists say Bona opera tincta sanguine Christi justificant Works are made the immediate Cause of Justification and Christ the remote Moreover it is to be remembred that nothing can be Instrumentum instrumentatum the Artificers Tools are not the House he makes the Hysops sprinkling of Blood in the Jewish Sacrifices was not the Blood of Christ Faith is not our Righteousness but the Medium to it Hence Phil. 3.9 we read of righteousness by faith it is not it self our Righteousness but a means to it Thus it appears that Faith in it self and as our Act justifies not therefore it justifies as it is that Evangelical Medium which receives Christ and his perfect Righteousness Thus the Reverend Hooker Faith is the only hand which putteth on Christ to Justification and Christ the only Garment which being so put on covereth the shame of our defiled Natures hideth the imperfection of our Works preserveth us blameless in the sight of God before whom otherwise the weakness of our Faith were cause sufficient to make us culpable yea to shut us from the Kingdom of Heaven where nothing that is not absolute can enter Thus our Church 2. Hom. of salvation The true understanding of this Doctrine That we are justified by Faith in Christ is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ which is within us doth justifie us and deserve our Justification for that were to count our selves justified by some Act or Vertue that is in our selves And in another place This Righteousness 1. Hom. of salvation which we receive of Gods Mercy and Christs Merits embraced by Faith is accepted by God for our perfect Justification But this is past all doubt Mr. Sherlock when it is confirmed by a Metaphor or two A Ring which hath a precious Stone in it which will stanch blood may be said to stanch it but the Virtue lies in the Stone Faith is the Ring Christ the precious stone all that Faith doth is to bring home Christs Merits to the Soul and so it justifies an invention I never met with before And again In the Body are Veins that suck nourishment from the Stomach Faith is a sucking Vein that draws Virtue from Christ Is not this plain that we are saved by Christ as the Body is nourished by the Stomach That of the Ring is no new or absurd invention Answer it was many years since used by Dr. Pomeran Melch. Ad. in Vita Georg. Anhalt in these words Vt Annulus magnò estimatur amatur propter gemmam non propter aurum sic dicitur fide justificari homines propter gemmam Filium Dei hanc autem gemmam fide amplectimur With this Similitude George Prince of Anhalt was much delighted Neither need the Author have found fault with that other Similitude of a sucking Vein all spiritual nourishment is drawn from Christ and that by Faith Now to make all clear Mr. Sherlock we may give a Philosophical Account why God chose Faith to be the Instrument of our Justification Because it is an humble Grace and gives the Glory of all to Free Grace If Repentance should fetch Justification from Christ a man would be ready to say This was for my Tears strange deserving Creatures these who can dream of meriting Heaven with a few tears But Faith is humble it is an empty Hand and what merit can there be in that Doth the poor man's reaching out his hand merit an Alms yes just as much as a few tears merit Heaven Faith is only a golden Bucket that draws water out of the Well of Salvation But why may not
on the one side that he according to their Principles but a meer creature should be the object of faith on the other that so many pregnant places of Scripture should be eluded but had they found out a way to interpret such Phrases as believing and trusting in him in a sence abstractive from his Person they might all have concluded that he was not the object of faith The Authour as to a faith of recumbency on him and his merits seems to conclude the same for though he speak of trusting in Christ and his blood he interprets himself thus expecting to be saved according to the terms of the Gospel Covenant that is by believing and obeying the Gospel of Christ pag. 24. The whole is placed in believing and obeying the Gospel Obedience as I take it is no part of Faith Works shew forth Faith James 2. and so are distinct from it Faith produces Obedience Hebrews 11. and surely it doth not produce it self We are married to Christ that is by Faith that we might bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7.1 And me thinks Faith which is the espousal should not be the Progeny Abraham's faith only is admitted in Justification Romans 4. And his works though done after conversion are excluded as being no part of it When Socinus said that Christo credere idem significat atque illi obedire The Learned Calovius tells him That it is but a meer Fiction to prevent the Article of Justification and transform Faith into Works And withall adds that Credere in nullo idiomate idem est quod obedire Obedience being no part of Faith that which remains is only believing the Gospel which is a Dogmatical Faith such as believes the Gospel to be true and inter alia Jesus Christ to be the Messiah and Saviour But alas This is so far beneath a faith of recumbency such as in the Apostle is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 that the very Devils are capable of it who yet never shall have the least drop of that atoneing blood sprinkled on them In our Authour the whole terms of the Gospel are believing and obeying it Obeying it is not so much as a part of faith Believing it is a part of faith but far short of recumbency and how the Authour leaves any room at all for recumbency I see not if Faith which uses to rest in the wounds of Christ may be only totally lodged in the Evangelical Axiom's I fear that Christ will be at odds with the Gospel which contrary to its Native Genius which is to elevate faith unto him our Great Redeemer reserves all of it to it self But to go on the Authour saith That they are for a recumbency on Christ in contradistinction to obedience to his Laws which sets up a Religion of the Person of Christ in opposition to the Religion of his Gospel I answer They make true faith contradistinct from obedience not that faith is alone in existence as if it had no holy fruits of obedience hanging on it but that it is alone in the matter of Justification And this I think is the Doctrine of Protestants and Fathers Which made Erasmus as I have him quoted by the Reverend Morton say Haec Vox sola fides tot clamoribus lapidata hoc seculo in Luthero reverentèr legitur auditur in Patribus if faith though alone in justification do yet spread forth it self into holy obedience I hope the Gospel is not in the least opposed by such a recumbency as gives Christ the glory of his blood and righteousness But now we must hear the significations of the word Christ First Mr. Sherlock Christ is originally the Name of an Office which the Jews call the Messias or Anointed Jesus Christ was anointed with the Holy Ghost and Power which was his consecration to the Mediatory Function and virtually contained all those Offices of Prophet Priest and King which are not properly distinct Offices in Christ but the several parts and different administrations of his Mediatory Kingdom after which the Authour describes those Offices to us The Socinians Answer who deny the Satisfaction of Christ have some reason according to their corrupt Principles to jumble all the Offices of Christ together that the oriency of his Priestly Sacrifice might not appear yet are they castigated for it by Calovius and others and Arnoldus calls the Racovian Catechist Hostis crucis Christi upon that account But why our Authour who owns the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ should confound them I know not I conceive the Offices of Christ are distinct though he who had them all performed them in such a just Decorum as became him who had all of them in himself Though he triumphed upon the Cross and what he preached was a Law yet Teaching is not Reigning nor is either Sacrificing In his Prophetical Office Salvation was explicated in his Priestly purchased in his Kingly applied The first removes Ignorance the second expiates Guilt and the Third subdues Corruption In the Authours description of these Offices the Reader may make some Observations In that of the Prophetical Office he mentions his outward preaching but passes over in silence that internal illumination of the Spirit which to me is the life of the other without which no man can spiritually discern the things of God Hence Reverend Bishop Reynolds speaking of the Opinion of Episcopius that an unregenerate man may understand such things sine lumine supernaturali is bold to censure the same as wicked words In that of the Priestly he tells us That Intercession is the Power of a Regal Priest to expiate and forgive sins I take it Christ on Earth had power to forgive sins and did expiate them by his once offered Sacrifice on the Cross But may we call it Intercession Or is Intercession here below I ever took it to be above and to be Christ's Appearance in Heaven for us and his presenting his meritorious Sacrifice to his Father in our behalf When the Racovian Catechism describes his Intercession by his Power to avert Wrath Arnoldus censures it thus Quis unquà m tam inepta stolida insulsa super claros Scripturae textus glossemata vel somniare posset Interpellare Christi in coelis nihil aliud esse quam potestatem Quae rei vel verborum saltem cognatio In that of the Kingly he saith That he conquers the minds of men by the Power of his Word and Spirit and reduces them into Subjection by Minds I hope he takes in Wills too and all is excellent well may it but stand so but afterwards the Authour denies irresistible Grace and then the Conquest is but ad nutum creaturae at the pleasure of the conquered the conquered if he please may be Conqueror and the Conqueror must drop his Crown into his Hand and shall we call this a Conquest Or if we may is it such as becomes the Throne of the Son of God or the design
thing That the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin There must be such a gross error in modo a misprision so horrible that it is not imaginable that any one among all the millions of Sacrifices under the Law could be rightly offered up or accepted by God Such hard intolerable consequences follow this opinion that the Ancients had no knowledge of or Faith in the Messiah On the other hand that they had such a Knowledg and Faith may be gathered as from other things so from this consideration that they offered up their Sacrifices in Faith as Abel did that they were graciously accepted of by God in their offering up those Sacrifices Hence it is said that God had respect to Abel and his offering consuming it as is thought by fire from Heaven and so giving a divine Testimony to it Hence also we find that when Noah offered burnt offerings the Lord did smell a sweet savour Gen. 8.21 because those Sacrifices had an aspect upon the sweet Sacrifice of Christ in which God is ever well-pleased Moreover if the justification of the ancients were as it must be built upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the death and satisfaction of Christ then unless it were by a Faith in Christ the death of Christ one in it self must found three ways of justification one by natural Faith another by a Faith of particular promises and a third by Faith in Christ which seems very strange and incongruous Thus much touching the Ancients Faith in Christ unto which I shall only add the Testimony of our Church Abraham Isaac and Jacob believed and it was imputed to them for righteousness 2. Hom. of the Passion was it imputed to them only And shall it not be imputed to us also Yes if we have the same Faith as they had it shall be as truly imputed to us as it was to them for it is one Faith that must save both us and them even a sure and stedfast Faith in Christ Jesus From hence we learn Thirdly Mr. Sherlock what Faith in Christ is which is now imputed to us for righteousness as Abraham 's Faith was to him for to make our Faith in Christ answer to the Faith of Abraham and all good men in former ages without which the Apostles argument from Abraham's being justified by Faith is of no force our Faith in Christ must signifie such a stedfast belief of all those Revelations which Christ hath made to the world as governs our lives and actions Abraham was justified by believing the Revelations which God made to him and we are justified by believing those Revelations which Christ hath made of God's Will to us for if by the righteousness of Faith you understand the righteousness of Christ apprehended by Faith and imputed to us you utterly destroy the Apostles argument for our justification by Faith for Abraham and all the good men of old were not justified by such a Faith as this they never heard of the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us Noah was made heir of Righteousness because he believed the deluge and prepared an Ark at Gods command Abraham 's Faith was imputed to him for righteousness because he left his own Country followed God into a strange Land believed that God would give him a son and offered this son at God's command Now what hath all this to do with an imputation of Christ's Righteousness How does it follow that because Abraham was justified by such noble and generous acts of Faith therefore we should be justified by imputed Righteousness by rowling our souls on Christ These two Faiths are of as different kinds as can be imagined we cannot reason from the one to the other The difference between the Faith of Abraham and the Faith of Christans is this Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness we believe in Christ and this is counted to us for righteousness Abraham believed the Revelations God made to him we believe the Revelations God hath made to to us by his Son Heb. 1.1 So that the first notion of Faith in Christ is a firm belief of his divine Authority which necessarily draws after it a belief of the whole doctrine of the Gospel Thus Joh. 20.31 The Christian Faith is described by believing that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God And 1 Joh. 5.5 Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God That is that he came from God with full Power and Authority to declare his Will and confirm the Covenant Abraham 's faith was founded on the immediate Inspirations of God or the Revelations of Angels But a Faith in Christ is founded on the Authority of Christ which is the first Object of the Christian Faith and the reason and foundation of all other acts of Faith Abraham had only some particular Revelations as the Object of his Faith but Christ hath made a perfect Revelation of the whole Will of God which is the Object of our Faith Thus the Christian Faith excels all other kinds of Faith as much as the Gospel excels all other revelations made to Abraham and other good men but still the end of all Faith is the same to govern our lives and make us obedient in all things to God as Abraham 's was without which no Faith can justifie The stress of this discourse lyes upon two or three supposals Answer One is this that the very act of Faith is properly and in it self our Righteousness or the matter of our Justification Another is this that the whole nature of Faith consists in an assent to Divine Revelation A third is this that Abraham had only a Faith of particular Revelations but no Faith in Christ Now not to repeat things over and over I have before proved that Faith as it is an Act and absolutely in it self considered is not our Righteousness or the matter of our Justification that there is in the nature of Faith over and above a meer assent a fiducial recumbency also and that the Faith of Abraham was not only a Faith of particular promises but a Faith in the Messiah These things being before asserted the answer is very easie Our Faith in Christ very well answers to the Faith of Abraham Abraham trusted in Christ and so do we These Faiths answer one another and that much more harmoniously than if we say Abraham believed particular Promises and we believe in Christ for there the Objects are variant Indeed our Faith as having more of Evangelical Light in it is more explicit than Abraham's was but this being but a gradual difference still they are one Faith in substance and center in the same Object in the Messiah But saith the Author Abraham and the rest never heard of imputed Righteousness no he and Noah believed particular Revelations and what hath this to do with imputed Righteousness Doth it follow because Abraham was justified by such generous acts that we
Nay believing and obeying the Gospel are so far from being inconsistent with fetching Life from Christ that they cannot be without it Without Life from Christ how or which way should a man believe or obey the Gospel May Nature lapsed Nature do it No surely that which of it self is not sufficient so much as to raise up an holy thought or to say Jesus is the Lord cannot of it self believe or obey the Gospel Or may Nature and Doctrine do it To place all Grace in outward Doctrine is meer Pelagianism It is a saying of St. Austin Solet dicere humana superbia De Grat. Liber Arb. c. 2. si seissem fecissem ideò non feci quia nescivi Humane pride is wont to say had I known I had done it asking only a Rule and presuming upon its own power for performance But the Scripture tells us of an internal Work of inward Teachings Drawings Quickenings and New-creatings in the Heart where these things are there the Gospel is a Principle of Divine Life in us There the Gospel comes not in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as the Apostle hath it 1 Thess 1.5 Believing and obeying the Gospel suppose internal operations of Grace and these must come from Christ the fountain of life In him we are created unto good works and without him we can do nothing Thus to proceed Mr Sherlock Christ is the Power of God and the wisdom of God and the Gospel is the wisdom and power of God 1 Cor. 1.24 Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God that is the Doctrine of a crucified Christ as appears by the verses before The Jews require a Sign and the Greeks seek after Wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness but to them who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God The Jews were all for Signs and Miracles the Greeks for curious Philosophical Speculations neither of them could relish the plain simple Doctrine of a crucified Christ But the Apostle tells us that this Doctrine is the power and wisdom of God the most powerful method which was ever used by God for the reforming of the world and the contrivance of excellent wisdom thus the Gospel is called the power of God to them that believe Rom. 1.16 And by this foolishness of preaching that is by preaching this foolish Doctrine as it was accounted by the world of a crucified Christ it pleased God to save them that believe Christ being exalted to the right hand of Majesty may in a proper sence be called the power of God because all power is given to him in Heaven and earth and he hath the supreme Government of all the affairs of this spiritual Kingdom and this is a personal power inherent in him but the exercise of it is confined to the Rules of the Gospel he hath power to save those that believe and obey and to destrey his enemies this power cannot save any man whom the Gospel condemns we have no reason to trust to his personal power unless we first obey his Gospel however omnipotent he be his Gospel is the measure of his actings if that condemn us his omnipotent power will not save us Christ is the power and wisdom of God and so is the Gospel Answer but are they both in equal degree such No surely the Gospel is such organically and in a way of subordination to Christ and he is such principally and in a way of excellency above the Gospel The Gospel is the wisdom of God a Glass of it and a Divine Medium to illuminate and make us wise but all this under Christ the brightness of his Fathers Glory and great illuminator from whom the unction or teaching anointing of the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation descends down upon us to open our eyes hearts upon the glorious things in the Gospel The Gospel is the power of God a Divine Scepter to subdue and overcome the wills and hearts of men but this is under Christ the eternal word and power of God who by that Scepter produces that great and supernatural effect The Apostles though earthen Vessels carried about the Evangelical treasure with them but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the excellency of the power was of God and not of them 2 Cor. 4.7 The believing Corinthians were the Apostles Epistle and Christ's too 2 Cor. 3.2 3. but not in equal degree They were saith the Text Christ's Epistle ministred by the Apostles the Apostles were but as the pen which the Almighty Fingers of the Spirit used to make the Impression or Divine Inscription upon their hearts Hence the Text saith That the same was written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the living God The Text quoted by the Author The Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.22 23 and 24. is a very remarkable one they all had the Gospel the external call yet to shew that all was in the Royal hand of Christ the dispensation is very different Those to whom Christ preached was a Stumbling block or Foolishness had not so much as any internal illumination For it is not at all imaginable that Christ the power of God if truly understood could be a stumbling-block to the Jews who looked after signs or that Christ the wisdom of God if truly understood could be Foolishness to the Greeks who sought after wisdom but those called ones among them to whom Christ was the power of God and wisdom of God had internal illuminations and operations of Grace The Gospel then is the power and wisdom of God but organically and in subserviency to Christ who hath all the power in Heaven and earth and illuminates and subdues hearts by the Gospel as he pleases he hath power to save such as believe and obey but that is not all he hath power to make them believing and obedient and to save them not contrary to the Gospel-rules but according to them But the chief personal Grace is still bebind Mr. Sherlock viz. the Righteousness of Christ Now no Christian will deny that Christ was very righteous a great example of universal holiness and purity and it must be confessed that his Righteousness was not an imaginary imputed Righteousness but inherent and personal but what comfort is this to us if we continue wilful incorrigible sinners Yes saith the Doctor Hast thou the sence of guilt upon thee Christ is complete Righteousness the Lord our Righteousness this makes Christ sutable to the wants of a sinner indeed that he hath a Righteousness for him which God infinitely prefers before any home-spun Righteousness of his own This is