by the deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified in his sight Rom. 3.20 However any may be justified in the sight of Men or Angels by their own Obedience or Deeds of the Law yet in His Sight none can be so Necessary it is unto any man who is to come unto a Trial in the sentence whereof he is greatly concern'd duely to consider the Judge before whom he is to appear and by whom his cause is finally to be determined And if we manage our Disputes about Justification without a continual regard unto Him by whom we must be cast or acquitted we shall not rightly apprehend what our Plea ought to be Wherefore the Greatness the Majesty the Holiness and Soveraign Authority of God are always to be present with us in a due sense of them when we enquire how we may be justified before him Yet is it hard to discern how the minds of some men are influenced by the consideration of these things in their fierce contests for the Interest of their own works in their Justification precibus aut precio ut in aliqua parte haereant But the Scripture doth represent unto us what thoughts of him and of themselves not only Sinners but Saints also have had and cannot but have upon near Discoveries and effectual Conceptions of God and his Greatness Thoughts hereof ensuing on a sense of the guilt of sin filled our first Parents with fear and shame and put them on that foolish attempt of hiding themselves from him Nor is the wisdom of their posterity one jot better under their Convictions without a discovery of the Promise That alone makes sinners wise which tenders them relief At present the Generality of men are secure and do not much question but that they shall come off well enough one way or other in the Trial they are to undergo And as such persons are altogether indifferent what Doctrine concerning Justification is taught and received so for the most part for themselves they encline unto that Declaration of it which best suits their own Reason as influenced with self-conceit and corrupt Affections The sum hereof is that what they cannot do themselves what is wanting that they may be saved be it more or less shall one way or other be made up by Christ either the use or the abuse of which perswasion is the greatest fountain of sin in the world next unto the Depravation of our nature And whatever be or may be pretended unto the contrary Persons not convinced of sin not humbled for it are in all their Ratiocinations about spiritual things under the conduct of Principles so vitiated and corrupted See Mat. 18.3 4. But when God is pleased by any means to manifest his Glory unto sinners all their presidences and contrivances do issue in dreadful horrour and distress An account of their Temper is given us Isa. 33.14 The sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire who among us shall dwell with Everlasting burnings Nor is it thus only with some peculiar sort of sinners The same will be the Thoughts of all guilty persons at some time or another For those who through sensuality security or superstition do hide themselves from the vexation of them in this world will not fail to meet with them when their Terrour shall be encreased and become remediless Our God is a consuming fire and men will one day find how vain it is to set their Briars and Thorns against him in battle array And we may see what extravagant contrivances convinced sinners will put themselves upon under any real view of the Majesty and Holiness of God Micah 6.6 7. Wherewith saith one of them shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with Burnt-offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams or with ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl shall I give my first born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my Soul Neither shall I ever think them meet to be contended withall about the Doctrine of Justification who take no notice of these things but rather despise them This is the proper effect of the Conviction of sin strengthened and sharpened with the consideration of the Terrour of the Lord who is to judge concerning it And this is that which in the Papacy meeting with an Ignorance of the Righteousness of God hath produced innumerable superstitious Inventions for the appeasing of the Consciences of men who by any means fall under the Disquietments of such Convictions For they quickly see that none of the Obedience which God requireth of them as it is performed by them will justifie them before this high and holy God Wherefore they seek for shelter in contrivances about things that he hath not commanded to try if they can put a cheat upon their Consciences and find relief in Diversions Nor is it thus only with profligate sinners upon their Convictions but the best of men when they have had near and efficacious Representations of the Greatness Holiness and Glory of God have been cast into the deepest self-abasement and most serious Renunciations of all trust or confidence in themselves So the Prophet Isaiah upon his vision of the Glory of the Holy One cried out Woe is me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips chap. 6.5 nor was he relieved but by an Evidence of the free pardon of sin ver 7. So Holy Job in all his contests with his Friends who charged him with Hypocrisie and his being a sinner guilty in a peculiar manner above other men with assured confidence and perseverance therein justified his sincerity his Faith and Trust in God against their whole charge and every parcel of it And this he doth with such a full satisfaction of his own Integrity as that not only he insists at large on his vindication but frequently appeals unto God himself as unto the Truth of his Plea For he directly pursues that counsel with great Assurance which the Apostle James so long after gives unto all Believers nor is the Doctrine of that Apostle more eminently exemplified in any one instance throughout the whole Scripture then in him For he sheweth his Faith by his works and pleads his Justification thereby As Job Justified himself and was Justified by his works so we allow it the Duty of every Believer to be His plea for Justification by works in the sense wherein it is so was the most noble that ever was in the world nor was ever any controversie managed upon a greater occasion At length this Job is called into the immediate presence of God to plead his own cause not now as stated between him and his Friends whether he were an Hypocrite or no or whether his Faith or Trust in God was sincere but as it was stated between God and him wherein he seemed to
Justification Rom. 8.33 Isa. 43.25.45.23 Psal. 145.2 Rom. 3.20 What thoughts will be ingenerated hereby in the minds of Men. Isai. 33.14 Mic. 6.7 Isa. 6.5 The Plea of Job against his friends and before God not the same Job 40.3 4 5. Chap. 42.4 5 6. Directions for visiting the sick given of old Testimonies of Jerome and Ambrose Sense of Men in their Prayers Dan. 9.7 18. Psal. 143.2.130.3 4. Paraphrase of Austine on that place Prayer of Pelagius Publick Liturgies Pag. 8. § 3. A due sense of our Apostasie from God the Depravation of our Nature thereby with the power and guilt of Sin the holiness of Law necessary unto a right understanding of the Doctrine of Justification Method of the Apostle to this purpose Romans 1 2 3 4. Chap. Grounds of the antient and present Pelagianism in the denial of these things Instances thereof Boasting of Perfection from the same Ground Knowledge of Sin and Grace mutually promote each other Pag. 18. § 4. Opposition between Works and Grace as unto Justification Method of the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans to manifest this opposition A Scheam of others contrary thereunto Testimonies witnessing this opposition Judgment to be made on them Distinctions whereby they are evaded The uselessness of them Resolution of the case in hand by Bellarmine Luk. 17.10 Dan. 9.18 Pag. 24. § 5. A Commutation as unto Sin and Righteousness by Imputation between Christ and Believers represented in the Scripture The Ordinance of the Scape Goat Levit. 16.21 22. The nature of Expiatory Sacrifices Levit. 4.29 Expiation of an uncertain Murther Deut. 21.1 2 3 4 5 6 7. The Commutation intended proved and vindicated Isa. 53.5 6. 2 Cor. 5.21 Rom. 8.3 4. Gal. 3.13 14. 1 Pet. 1.24 Deut. 21.23 Testimonies of Justin Martyr Gregory Nissen Austine Chrysostome Bernard Taulerus Pighius to that purpose The proper actings of Faith with respect thereunto Rom. 5.11 Matth. 11.28 Psa. 38.4 Gen. 4.13 Isa. 53.11 Gal. 3.1 Isa. 45.22 Joh. 3.14 15. A bold Calumny answered Pag. 38 39. § 6. Introduction of Grace by Jesus Christ into the whole of our Relation unto God and its respect unto all the parts of our Obedience No Mystery of Grace in the Covenant of Works All Religion originally commensurate unto Reason No notions of Natural Light concerning the Introduction of the Mediation of Christ and Mystery of Grace into our Relation to God Eph. 1.17 18 19. Reason as corrupted can have no notions of Religion but what are derived from its primitive state Hence the Mysteries of the Gospel esteemed folly Reason as corrupted repugnant unto the Mystery of Gâ—â—â—e Accommodation of Spiritual Mysteries unto Corrupt Reason wherefore acceptable unto many Reasons of it Two parts of corrupted Natures repugnancy unto the Mystery of the Gospel 1. That which would reduce it unto the private Reason of Men. Thence the Trinity denied And the Incarnation of the Son of God Without which the Doctrine of Justification cannot stand Rule of the Socinians in the Interpretation of the Scripture 2. Want of a due comprehension of the Harmony that is between all the parts of the Mystery of Grace This Harmomy proved Compared with the Harmony in the Works of Nature To be studied But is learned only of them who are taught of God and in experience Evil events of the want of a due comprehension hereof Instances of them All applied unto the Doctrine of Justification Pag. 53. § 7. General prejudices against the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ. 1. That it is not in Terms found in the Scripture answered 2. That nothing is said of it in the writings of the Evangelists answered Joh. 20.30 31. Nature of Christs Personal Ministery Revelations by the holy Spirit immediately from Christ. Design of the writings of the Evangelists 3. Differences among Protestants themselves about this Doctrine answered Sense of the Antients herein What is of real Difference among Protestants considered Pag. 69. § 8. Influence of the Doctrine of Justification into the first Reformation Advantages unto the World by that Reformation State of the Consciences of Men under the Papacy with respect unto Justification before God Alterations made therein by the Light of this Doctrine though not received Alterations in the Pagan unbelieving World by the Introduction of Christianity Design and success of the first Reformer herein Attempts for Reconciliation with the Papists in this Doctrine and their success Remainders of the â—gnorance of the Truth in the Roman Church Vnavoidable consequences of the corruption of this Doctrine Pag. 83. CHAP. I. JVstification by Faith generally acknowledged The meaning of it perverted The nature and use of Faith in Justification proposed to consideration Distinctions about it waved A twofold Faith of the Gospel expressed in the Scripture Faith that is not justifying Acts 8.13 Joh. 2.23 24. Luk. 8.13 Matth. 22.28 Historical Faith whence it is so called and the nature of it Degrees of Assent in it Justification not ascribed unto any Degree of it A Calumny obviated The causes of true saving Faith Conviction of Sin previous unto it The nature of legal Conviction and its Effects Arguments to prove it antecedent unto Faith Without the consideration of it the true nature of Faith not to be understood The Order and Relation of the Law and Gospel Rom. 1.17 Instance of Adam Effects of Conviction internal Displicency and sorrow Fear of punishment Desire of Deliverance External Abstinence from Sin Performance of Duties Reformation of Life Not conditions of Justification not Formal Dispositions unto it not Moral Preparations for it The Order of God in Justification The proper object of justifying Faith Not all Divine Verity equally proved by sundry Arguments The pardon of our own sins whether the first object of Faith The Lord Christ in the Work of Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the Recovery of lost Sinners the proper object of justifying Faith The Position explained and proved Rom. 3.24 25. Ephes. 1.6 7 8. Acts 10.41 Chap. 16.13 Chap. 4.12 Luk. 24.25 26 27. Joh. 1.12.3.16 36.6.29.7.38 c. Col. 2.12 1 Cor. 2.1 31. 2 Cor. 5.19 20 21. Pag. 92 93 c. CHAP. II. The nature of justifying Faith in particular or of Faith in that exercise of it whereby we are justified The Hearts approbation of the way of the Justification and Salvation of Sinners by Christ with its acquiescency therein The description given explained and confirmed 1. From the nature of the Gospel 2. Exemplified in its contrary or the nature of unbelief Prov. 1.30 Heb. 2.3 1 Pet. 2.7 1 Cor. 1.23 24. 2 Cor. 4.3 4. What it is and wherein it doth consist 3. The Design of God in and by the Gospel His own Glory his utmost End in all things The Glory of his Righteousness Grace Love Wisdom c. The end of God in the Way of the Salvation of Sinners by Christ. Rom. 3.25 Joh. 3.16 1 Joh. 3.16 Eph. 1.5 6. 1 Cor. 1.24 Ephes. 3.10 Rom. 1.16.4.16 Ephes.
of those notions and conceptions of things Religious which it retains from its first state and condition is to debase and corrupt them as we shall see in sundry Instances and so make way for their Rejection Hence very difficult it is to keep up doctrinally and practically the minds of men unto the Reality and Spiritual height of this mystery For men naturally do neither understand it nor like it And therefore every attempt to accommodate it unto the principles and inbred notions of corrupt Reason is very acceptable unto many yea unto the most For the things which such men speak and declare are without more ado without any exercise of Faith or Prayer without any supernatural Illumination easily intelligible and exposed to the common sense of mankind But whereas a Declaration of the mysteries of the Gospel can obtain no Admission into the minds of men but by the effectual working of the Spirit of God Ephes. 1.17 18 19. it is generally looked on as difficult perplexed unintelligible and even the minds of many who find they cannot contradict it are yet not at all delighted with it And here lyeth the Advantage of all them who in these days do attempt to corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel in the whole or any part of it for the accommodation of it unto the common notions of corrupted Reason is the whole of what they design And in the confidence of the suffrage hereof they not only oppose the things themselves but despise the Declarations of them as Enthusiastical canting And by nothing do they more prevail themselves then by a pretence of reducing all things to Reason and a contempt of what they oppose as unintelligible Fanaticism But I am not more satisfied in any thing of the most uncontroulable Evidence then that the Understandings of these men is no just measure or standard of Spiritual Truth Wherefore notwithstanding all this fierceness and scorn with the pretended Advantages which some think they have made by traducing Expressions in the writings of some men it may be improper it may be only not suited unto their own genius and capacity in these things we are not to be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ which is the power of God unto Salvation to every one that believeth Of this Repugnancy unto the mystery of the Wisdom and Grace of God in Christ and the Foundation of its whole Oeconomy in the distinct operations of the Persons of the Holy Trinity therein there are two parts or branches 1. That which would reduce the whole of it unto the private Reason of men and their own weak imperfect mannagement thereof This is the entire design of the Socinians Hence 1. The Doctrine of the Trinity it self is denied impugned yea derided by them and that solely on this Account They plead that it is incomprehensible by Reason for there is in that Doctrine a Declaration of things absolutely infinite and eternal which cannot be exemplified in nor accommodated unto things finite and temporal This is the substance of all their pleas against the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity that which gives a seeming life and sprightly vigour to their Objections against it wherein yet under the pretence of the use and exercise of Reason they fall and resolve all their reasonings into the most absurd and irrational principles that ever the minds of men were besotted withall For unless you will grant them that what is above their Reason is therefore contradictory unto true Reason that what is infinite and eternal is perfectly comprehensible and in all its concerns and respects to be accounted for that what cannot be in things finite and of a separate existence cannot be in things infinite whose being and existence can be but one with other such irrational yea bruitish Imaginations all the Arguments of these pretended men of Reason against the Trinity become like Chaff that every Breath of Wind will blow away Hereon they must as they do deny the distinct Operations of any Persons in the Godhead in the Dispensation of the mystery of Grace For if there are no such distinct Persons there can be no such distinct Operations Now as upon a denial of these things no one Article of Faith can be rightly understood nor any one Duty of Obedience be performed unto God in an acceptable manner so in particular we grant that the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ cannot stand 2. On the same Ground the Incarnation of the Son of God is rejected as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the most absurb conception that ever befell the minds of men Now it is to no purpose to dispute with men so perswaded about Justification Yea we will freely acknowledge that all things we believe about it are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no better then old Wives Tales if the Incarnation of the Son of God be so also For I can as well understand how he who is a meer man however exalted dignified and glorified can exercise a Spiritual Rule in and over the Hearts Consciences and Thoughts of all the men in the World being intimately knowing of and present unto them all equally at all times which is another of their fopperies as how the Righteousness and Obedience of One should be esteemed the Righteousness of all that Believe if that One be no more then a man if he be not acknowledged to be the Son of God incarnate Whilst the minds of men are prepossessed with such prejudices nay unless they firmly assent unto the Truth in these foundations of it it is impossible to convince them of the Truth and Necessity of that Justification of a sinner which is revealed in the Gospel Allow the Lord Christ to be no other Person but what they believe him to be and I will grant there can be no other way of Justification then what they declare though I cannot believe that ever any sinner will be justified thereby These are the issues of an obstinate Refusal to give way unto the Introduction of the mystery of God and his Grace into the way of Salvation and our Relation unto him And he who would desire an Instance of the fertility of mens Inventions in forging and coyning Objections against heavenly mysteries in the Justification of the Soveraignty of their own Reason as unto what belongs to our Relation unto God need go no farther then the Writings of these men against the Trinity and Incarnation of the Eternal Word For this is their fundamental Rule in things divine and Doctrines of Religion that not what the Scripture saith is therefore to be accounted true although it seems repugnant unto any Reasonings of ours or is above what we can comprehend but what seems repugnant unto our Reason let the words of the Scripture be what they will that we must conclude that the Scripture doth not say so though it seem never so expresly so to do Itaque non quia utrumque Scriptura dicat propterea haec inter se
acknowledged that the objective Grace of the Gospel in the Doctrine of it is liable to abuse where there is nothing of the subjective Grace of it in the Hearts of men and the ways of its influence into the Life of God are uncouth unto the Reasonings of carnal minds So was it charged by the Papists at the first Reformation and continueth yet so to be Yet as it gave the first occasion unto the Reformation it self so was it that whereby the Souls of men being set at liberty from their bondage unto innumerable superstitious fears and observances utterly inconsistent with true Gospel Obedience and directed into the ways of Peace with God through Jesus Christ were made fruitful in real Holiness and to abound in all those blessed effects of the Life of God which were never found among their Adversaries The same charge was afterwards renewed by the Socinians and continueth still to be managed by them But I suppose wise and impartial men will not lay much weight on their Accusations until they have manifested the efficacy of their contrary perswasion by better effects and fruits than yet they have done What sort of men they were who first coined that systeme of Religion which they adhere unto one who knew them well enough and sufficiently enclined unto their Antitrinitarian Opinions declares in one of the Queries that he proposed unto Socinus himself and his followers If this saith he be the truth which you contend for whence comes it to pass that it is declared only by persons nulla pietatis commendatione nullo laudato prioris vitae exemplo commendatos imo ut plerumque videmus per vagabundos contentionum zeli carnalis plenos homines alios ex castris aulis ganeis prolatam esse Scrupuli ab excellenti viro propositi inter oper Socin The fiercest charge of such men against any Doctrines they oppose as inconsistent with the necessary motives unto Godliness are a Recommendation of it unto the minds of considerative men And there cannot be a more effectual Engine plied for the ruine of Religion then for men to declame against the Doctrine of Justification by Faith alone and other Truths concerning the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ as those which overthrow the necessity of moral Duties Good Works and Gospel Obedience whilst under the conduct of the Opinions which they embrace in opposition unto them they give not the least evidence of the power of the Truth or Grace of the Gospel upon their own hearts or in their lives Whereas therefore the whole Gospel is the Truth which is after Godliness declaring and exhibiting that Grace of God which teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and that we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this world we being fallen into those times wherein under great and fierce contests about notions opinions and practices in Religion there is an horrible decay in true Gospel Purity and Holiness of life amongst the generality of men I shall readily grant that keeping a due regard unto the only standard of Truth a secondary Trial of Doctrines proposed and contended for may and ought to be made by the ways lives walkings and conversations of them by whom they are received and professed And although it is acknowledged that the Doctrine pleaded in the ensuing discourse be liable to be abused yea turned into licentiousness by men of corrupt minds through the prevalency of vitious Habits in them as is the whole Doctrine of the Grace of God by Jesus Christ and although the way and means of its efficacy and influence into universal Obedience unto God in Righteousness and true Holiness be not discernable without some beam of spiritual Light nor will give an experience of their power unto the minds of men utterly destitute of a principle of spiritual Life yet if it cannot preserve its station in the Church by this Rule of its useful tendency unto the promotion of Godliness and its necessity thereunto in all them by whom it is really believed and received in its proper light and power and that in the experience of former and present times I shall be content that it be exploded 4. Finding that not a few have esteemed it compliant with their Interest to publish exceptions against some few leaves which in the handling of a subject of another nature I occasionally wrote many years ago on this Subject I am not without Apprehensions that either the same persons or others of alike temper and principles may attempt an opposition unto what is here expresly tendered thereon On supposition of such an Attempt I shall in one word let the Authors of it know wherein alone I shall be concerned For if they shall make it their business to cavil at Expressions to wrest my words wiredraw inferences and conclusions from them not expresly owned by me to revile my person to catch at advantages in any occasional passages or other unessential parts of the Discourse labouring for an Appearance of success and reputation to themselves thereby without a due attendance unto Christian moderation candor and ingenuity I shall take no more notice of what they say or write then I would do of the greatest impertinencies that can be reported in this world The same I say concerning oppositions of the like nature unto any other writings of mine a work which as I hear some are at present engaged in I have somewhat else to do than to cast away any part of the small remainder of my Life in that kind of controversial Writings which good men bewail and wise men deride Whereas therefore the principal design of this Discourse is to state the Doctrine of Justification from the Scripture and to confirm it by the Testimonies thereof I shall not esteem it spoken against unless our Exposition of Scripture Testimonies and the Application of them unto the present Argument be disproved by just Rules of Interpretation and another sense of them be evinced All other things which I conceive necessary to be spoken unto in order unto the right understanding and due improvement of the Truth pleaded for are comprised and declared in the ensuing general Discourses to that purpose These few things I thought meet to mind the Reader of From my Study May the 30th 1677. J. O. Considerations previous unto the Explanation of the Doctrine of Justification § 1. THe General Nature of Justification State of the Person to be justified antecedently thereunto Rom. 4.5 Chap. 3.19 Chap. 1.32 Gal. 3.10 Joh. 3.18 36. Gal. 3.22 The sole Inquiry on that state Whether it be any thing that is our own inherently or what is only imputed unto us that we are to trust unto for our Acceptance with God The sum of this Inquiry The proper ends of Teaching and Learning the Doctrine of Justification Things to be avoided therein Pag. 1. § 2. A due consideration of God the Judge of all necessary unto the right stating and apprehension of the Doctrine of
3.9 2 Cor. 4.6 The nature of Faith thence declared Faith alone ascribes and gives this glory to God Order of the Acts of Faith or the method in believing Convictions previous thereunto Sincere assent unto all Divine Revelations Acts 26.27 The Proposal of the Gospel unto that end Rom. 10.11 12 13 c. 2 Cor. 3.18 State of Persons called to believe Justifying Faith doth not consist in any one single habit or act of the Mind or Will The nature of that assent which is the first Act of Faith Approbation of the Way of Salvation by Christ comprehensive of the special nature of justifying Faith What is included therein 1. A Renuntiation of all other ways Hos. 14.2 3. Jer. 3.23 Psal. 7.16 Rom. 10.3 2. Consent of the Will unto this Way Joh. 14.6 3. Acquiescency of the Heart in God 1 Pet. 1.21 Trust in God Faith described by Trust the Reason of it Nature and Object of this Trust inquired into A double consideration of special Mercy Whether Obedience be included in the nature of Faith or be of the essence of it A sincere purpose of Vniversal Obedience inseparable from Faith How Faith alone justifieth Repentance how required in and unto Justification How a condition of the New Covenant Perseverance in Obedience is so also Definitions of Faith Pag. 125. CHAP. III. Vse of Faith in Justification various Conceptions about it By whom asserted as the Instrument of it by whom denied In what sense it is affirmed so to be The expressions of the Scripture concerning the use of Faith in Justification what they are and how they are best explained By an Instrumental Cause Faith how the Instrument of God in Justification How the Instrument of them that do believe The use of Faith expressed in the Scripture by apprehending receiving declared by an Instrument Faith in what sense the condition of our Justification Signification of that Term whence to be Learned Pag. 146. CHAP. IV. The proper sense of these words Justification and to justifie considered Necessity thereof Latine derivation of Justification Some of the Antients deceived by it From Jus and Justum Justus filius who The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vse and signification of it Places where it is used examined 2 Sam. 15.4 Deut. 21.5 Prov. 17.15 Isa. 5.23 Chap. 50.8 1 King 8.31 32. 2 Chro. 6.22 23. Psal. 82.3 Exod. 23.7 Isa. 53.11 Jere. 44.16 Dan. 12.3 The constant sense of the word evinced 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vse of it in other Authors to punish What it is in the New Testament Matth. 11.19 Chap. 12.37 Luk. 7.29 Chap. 10.29 Chap. 16.15 Chap. 18.14 Acts 13.38 39. Rom. 2.13 Chap. 3.4 Constantly used in a forensick sense Places seeming dubious vindicated Rom. 8.30 1 Cor. 6.11 Tit. 3.5 6 7. Revel 22.11 How often these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are used in the New Testament Constant sense of this The same evinced from what is opposed unto it Isa. 50.8 Prov. 17.15 Rom. 5.16 18. Rom. 8.33 34. And the Declaration of it in Terms equivalent Rom. 4.6 7. Rom. 5.9 10. 2 Cor. 5.20 21. Matth. 1.21 Acts 13.39 Gal. 2.16 c. Justification in the Scripture proposed under a Juridical Scheam and of a forensick Title The Parts and Progress of it Instances from the whole Pag. 169. c. CHAP. V. Distinction of a First and Second Justification The whole Doctrine of the Roman Church concerning Justification grounded on this Distinction The First Justification the nature and causes of it according unto the Romanists The Second Justification what it is in their sense Solution of the seeming Difference between Paul and James falsly pretended by this Distinction The same Distinction received by the Socinians and others The latter termed by some the continuation of our Justification The Distinction disproved Justification considered either as unto its Essence or its Manifestation The Manifestation of it twofold initial and final Initial is either unto our selves or others No Second Justification hence insues Justification before God Legal and Evangelical Their distinct natures The Distinction mentioned derogatory to the Merit of Christ. More in it ascribed unto our selves then unto the Blood of Christ in our Justification The vanity of Disputations to this purpose All true Justification everthrown by this Distinction No countenance given unto this Justification in the Scripture The Second Justification not intended by the Apostle James Evil of Arbitrary Distinctions Our First Justification so described in the Scripture as to leave no room for a Second Of the Continuation of our Justification Whether it depend on Faith alone or our Personal Righteousness inquired Justification at once compleated in all Causes and Effects of it proved at large Believers upon their Justification obliged unto perfect Obedience The commanding Power of the Law constitutes the nature of Sin in them who are not obnoxious unto its curse Future Sins in what sense remitted at our First Justification The Continuation of Actual Pardon and thereby of a justified Estate on what it doth depend Continuation of Justification the act of God whereon it depends in that sense On our part it depends on Faith alone Nothing required hereunto but the Application of Righteousness imputed The Continuation of our Justification is before God That whereon the Continuation of our Justification depends pleadable before God This not our Personal Obedience proved 1. By the experience of all Believers 2. Testimonies of Scripture 3. Examples The Distinction mentioned rejected Pag. 189. CHAP. VI. Evangelical Personal Righteousness the nature and use of it Whether there be an Evangelical Justification on our Evangelical Righteousness inquired into How this is by some affirmed and applauded Evangelical Personal Righteousness asserted as the condition of our Legal Righteousness or the Pardon of Sin Opinion of the Socinians Personal Righteousness required in the Gospel Believers hence denominated Righteous Not with respect unto Righteousness habitual but actual only Inherent Righteousness the same with Sanctification or Holiness In what sense we may be said to be justified by Inherent Righteousness No Evangelical Justification on our Personal Righteousness The Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ doth not depend thereon None have this Righteousness but they are untecedently justified A charge before God in all Justification before God The Instrument of this charge the Law or the Gospel From neither of them can we be justified by this Personal Righteousness The Justification pretended needless and useless It hath not the nature of any Justification mentioned in the Scripture but is contrary to all that is so called Other Arguments to the same purpose Sentential Justification at the last day Nature of the last Judgment Who shall be then justified A Declaration of Righteousness and an Actual Admission unto Glory the whole of Justification at the last day The Argument that we are justified in this life in the same manner and on the same Grounds as we shall be judged at the last day
way of handling sacred things But the Spiritual Amplitude of Divine Truths is restrained hereby whilst low mean Philosophical senses are imposed on them And not only so but endless Divisions and Contentions are occasioned and perpetuated Hence when any Difference in Religion is in the pursuit of Controversies about it brought into the field of Metaphysical Respects and Philosophical terms whereof there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient provision for the supply of the Combatants on both sides the truth for the most part as unto any concernment of the souls of men therein is utterly lost and buried in the rubbish of senseless and unprofitable words And thus in particular those who seem to be well enough agreed in the whole Doctrine of Justification so far as the Scripture goeth before them and the Experience of Believers keeps them company when once they ingage into their Philosophical Definitions and Distinctions are at such an irreconcilable variance among themselves as if they were agreed on no one thing that doth concern it For as men have various apprehensions in coining such Definitions as may be defensible against Objections which most men aim at therein So no Proposition can be so plain at least in materia probabili but that a man ordinarily versed in Paedagogical Terms and Metaphysical Notions may multiply Distinctions on every word of it 8. Hence there hath been a pretence and appearance of twenty several Opinions among Protestants about Justification as Bellarmine and Vasquez and others of the Papists charge it against them out of Osiander when the Faith of them all was one and the same Bellar. lib. 5. cap. 1. Vasq. in 1.2 Quaest. 113. disp 202. whereof we shall speak elsewhere When men are once advanced into that field of Disputation which is all overgrown with thorns of subtilties perplexed notions and futilous terms of Art they consider principally how they may entangle others in it scarce at all how they may get out of it themselves And in this posture they oftentimes utterly forget the business which they are about especially in this matter of Justification namely how a guilty Sinner may come to obtain Favour and Acceptance with God And not only so but I doubt they oftentimes dispute themselves beyond what they can well abide by when they return home unto a sedate meditation of the state of things between God and their own souls And I cannot much value their notions and sentiments of this matter who object and answer themselves out of a sense of their own Appearance before God much less of theirs who evidence an open inconformity unto the Grace and truth of this Doctrine in their hearts and lives 9. Wherefore we do but trouble the faith of Christians and the peace of the true Church of God whilst we dispute about Expressions Terms and Notions when the substance of the Doctrine intended may be declared and believed without the knowledge understanding or use of any of them Such are all those in whose subtile management the captious Art of wrangling doth principally consist A diligent Attendance unto the Revelation made hereof in the Scripture and an examination of our own experience thereby is the Sum of what is required of us for the right understanding of the truth herein And every true Believer who is taught of God knows how to put his whole trust in Christ alone and the Grace of God by him for Mercy Righteousness and Glory and not at all concern himself with those loads of thorns and briars which under the names of Definitions Distinctions accurate Notions in a number of Exotick Paedagogical and Philosophical terms some pretend to accommodate them withall 10. The Holy Ghost in expressing the most eminent Acts in our Justification especially as unto our Believing or the acting of that faith whereby we are justified is pleased to make use of many Metaphorical Expressions For any to use them now in the same way and to the same purpose is esteemed rude undisciplinary and even ridiculous but on what Grounds He that shall deny that there is more spiritual sense and experience conveyed by them into the hearts and minds of Believers which is the life and soul of teaching things practical than in the most accurate Philosophical expressions is himself really ignorant of the whole Truth in this matter The Propriety of such Expressions belongs and is confined unto natural science but spiritual Truths are to be taught not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth comparing spiritual things with spiritual God is wiser then man and the Holy Ghost knows better what are the most expedient ways for the Illumination of our minds with that knowledge of Evangelical Truths which it is our Duty to have and attain then the wisest of us all And other knowledge of or skill in these things then what is required of us in a way of Duty is not to be valued It is therefore to no purpose to handle the mysteries of the Gospel as if Holcot and Bricot Thomas and Gabriel with all the Sententiarists Summists and Quodlibetarians of the old Roman Peripatetical School were to be raked out of their Graves to be our guides Especially will they be of no use unto us in this Doctrine of Justification For whereas they pertinaciously adhered unto the Philosophy of Aristotle who knew nothing of any Righteousness but what is an habit inherent in our selves and the Acts of it they wrested the whole Doctrine of Justification unto a compliance therewithall So Pighius himself complained of them Controv. 2. Dissimulare non possumus hanc vel primam doctrinae Christianae partem de Justificatione obscuratam magis quam illustratam a scholasticis spinosis plerisque quaestionibus definitionibus secundum quas nonnulli magno supercilio primam in omnibus autoritatem arrogantes c. Secondly A due consideration of him with whom in this matter we have to do and that immediately is necessary unto a right stating of our thoughts about it The Scripture expresseth it emphatically that it is God that justifieth Rom. 8. 33. And he assumes it unto himself as his Prerogative to do what belongs thereunto I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Isa. 43.25 And it is hard in my Apprehension to suggest unto him any other reason or consideration of the pardon of our sins seeing he hath taken it on him to do it for his own sake that is for the Lords sake Dan. 9.17 in whom all the seed of Israel are justified Isa. 45.25 In his sight before his Tribunal it is that men are justified or condemned Psal. 143.2 Enter not into Judgement with thy servant for in THY SIGHT shall no man living be justified And the whole work of Justification with all that belongeth thereunto is represented after the manner of a Juridical proceeding before Gods Tribunal as we shall see afterwards Therefore saith the Apostle
justified in his sight Whence the Prophet says in the Psalm If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquity who should stand And Ambrose to the same purpose Nemo ergo sibi arroget nemo de meritis glorietur nemo de potestate se jactet omnes speremus per Dominum Jesum misericordiam invenire quoniam omnes ante Tribunal ejus stabimus de illo veniam de illo indulgentiam postulabo quaenam spes alia peccatoribus in Psal. 119. Resh Let no man arrogate any thing unto himself let no man glory in his own merits or good deeds let no man boast of his power let us all hope to find mercy by Lord Jesus for we shall all stand before his Judgment-seat Of him will I beg pardon of him will I desire Indulgence what other hope is there for sinners Wherefore if men will be turned off from a continual regard unto the Greatness Holiness and Majesty of God by their Inventions in the Heat of Disputation if they do forget a Reverential Consideration of what will become them and what they may betake themselves unto when they stand before his Tribunal they may ingage into such apprehensions as they dare not abide by in their own personal Trial. For how shall man be just with God Hence it hath been observed that the School-men themselves in their Meditations and Devotional writings wherein they had immediate thoughts of God with whom they had to do did speak quite another Language as to Justification before God then they do in their wrangling Philosophical fiery Disputes about it And I had rather learn what some men really judge about their own Justification from their prayers then their writings Nor do I remember that I did ever hear any good man in his prayers use any expressions about Justification pardon of sin and Righteousness before God wherein any plea from any thing in our selves was introduced or made use of The Prayer of Daniel hath in this matter been the substance of their Supplications O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of faces we do not present our Supplications before thee for our own Righteousness but for thy great mercies O Lord hear O Lord forgive for thine own sake O my God Dan. 9.7 18 19. Or that of the Psalmist Enter not into Judgement with thy servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Psal. 143.2 Or If thou Lord mark Iniquity Lord who shall stand but there is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Psal. 130. 2 3 4. On which words the Exposition of Austin is remarkable speaking of David and applying it unto himself Ecce clamat sub molibus iniquitatum suarum Circumspexit se circumspexit vitam suam vidit illam undique flagitiis coopertam quacunque respexit nihil in se boni invenit Et cum tanta tam multa peccata undique videret tanquam expavescens exclamavit si iniquitates observaris Domine quis sustinebit vidit enim prope totam vitam humanam circumlatrari peccatis accusari omnes conscientias cogitationibus suis non inveniri Cor Castum praesumens de justitia quod quia inveniri non potest praesumat ergo omnium Cor de misericordia Domini Dei sui dicat Deo si iniquitates observaris Domine Domine quis sustinebit Quae autem est spes quoniam apud te propitiatio est And whereas we may and ought to represent unto God in our Supplications our Faith or what it is that we believe herein I much question whether some men can find in their hearts to pray over and plead before him all the Arguments and Distinctions they make use of to prove the interest of our Works and Obedience in our Justification before him or enter into Judgement with him upon the conclusions which they make from them Nor will many be satisfied to make use of that Prayer which Pelagius taught the Widow as it was objected to him in the Diaspolitan Synod Tu nosti Domine quam sanctae quam innocentes quam purae ab omni fraude rapina quas ad te expando manus quam justa quam immaculata labia ab omni mendacio libera quibus tibi ut mihi miserearis preces fundo Thou knowest O Lord how holy how innocent how pure from all deceit and rapine are the hands which I stretch forth unto thee how just how unspotted with evil how free from lying are those lips wherewith I pour forth prayers unto thee that thou wouldst have mercy on me And yet although he taught her so to plead her own purity innocency and righteousness before God yet he doth it not as those whereon she might be absolutely justified but only as the condition of her obtaining mercy Nor have I observed that any publick Liturgies the Mass-Book only excepted wherein there is a frequent recourse unto the merits and intercession of Saints do guide men in their prayers before God to plead any thing for their acceptance with him or as the means or condition thereof but Grace Mercy the Righteousness and Blood of Christ alone Wherefore I cannot but judge it best others may think of it as they please for those who would teach or learn the Doctrine of Justification in a due manner to place their Consciences in the presence of God and their Persons before his Tribunal and then upon a due consideration of his Greatness Power Majesty Righteousness Holiness of the terrour of his Glory and Soveraign Authority to enquire what the Scripture and a sense of their own Condition directs them unto as their Relief and Refuge and what Plea it becomes them to make for themselves Secret thoughts of God and our selves retired meditations the conduct of the spirit in humble supplications Death-bed preparations for an immediate appearance before God Faith and Love in exercise on Christ speak other things for the most part then many contend for 3. A clear apprehension and due sense of the Greatness of our Apostasie from God of the Depravation of our Natures thereby of the Power and Guilt of Sin of the Holiness and Severity of the Law are necessary unto a right apprehension of the Doctrine of Justification Therefore unto the Declaration of it doth the Apostle premise a large Discourse throughly to convince the minds of all that seek to be justified with a sense of these things Rom. 1.2 3. The Rules which he hath given us the Method which he prescribeth and the Ends which he designeth are those which we shall chuse to follow And He layeth it down in general That the Righteoussness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith and that the Just shall live by Faith chap. 1.17 But he declares not in particular the causes nature and way of our Justification until he hath fully evinced that all men are shut up under this state of sin and manifested how deplorable their Condition is thereby And in the Ignorance of these things in the
pleased to observe that I am not debating these things argumentatively in such propriety of Expressions as are required in a Scholastical Disputation which shall be done afterwards so far as I judge it necessary But I am doing that which indeed is better and of more Importance namely declaring the Experience of Faith in the Expressions of the Scripture or such as are analogous unto them And I had rather be instrumental in the communication of light and knowledge unto the meanest Believer then to have the clearest success against prejudiced Disputers Wherefore by Faith thus acting are we justified and have peace with God Other Foundation in this matter can no man lay that will endure the Trial. Nor are we to be moved that men who are unacquainted with these things in their Reality and Power do reject the whole work of Faith herein as an easie effort of Fancy or Imagination For the preaching of the Cross is foolishness unto the best of the natural wisdom of men Neither can any understand them but by the spirit of God Those who know the Terrour of the Lord who have been really convinced and made sensible of the Guilt of their Apostasie from God and of their actual sins in that state and what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God seeking thereon after a real solid Foundation whereon they may be accepted with him have other thoughts of these things and do find Believing a thing to be quite of another nature then such men suppose It is not a work of Fancy or Imagination unto men to deny and abhor themselves to subscribe unto the Righteousness of God in denouncing Death as due to their sins to renounce all hopes and expectations of Relief from any Righteousness of their own to mix the Word and Promise of God concerning Christ and Righteousness by him with Faith so as to receive the Attonement and therewithall to give up themselves unto an universal Obedience unto God And as for them unto whom through Pride and Self-conceit on the one hand or Ignorance on the other it is so we have in this matter no concernment with them For unto whom these things are only the work of Fancy the Gospel is a Fable Something unto this purpose I had written long since in a practical Discourse concerning Communion with God And whereas some men of an inferiour condition have found it useful for the strengthening themselves in their dependencies on some of their superiours or in compliance with their own Inclinationt to cavil at my Writings and revile their Author that Book hath been principally singled out to exercise their faculty and Good intentions upon This course is steered of late by one Mr. Hotchkisse in a Book about Justification wherein in particular he falls very severely on that Doctrine which for the substance of it is here again proposed pag. 81. And were it not that I hope it may be somewhat useful unto him to be a little warned of his Immoralities in that Discourse I should not in the least have taken notice of his other Impertinencies The Good man I perceive can be angry with Persons whom he never saw and about things which he cannot or will not understand so far as to revile them with most opprobious Language For my part although I have never written any thing designedly on this subject or the Doctrine of Justification before now yet he could not but discern by what was occasionally delivered in that Discourse that I maintain no other Doctrine herein but what is the common Faith of the most Learned men in all Protestant Churches And the Reasons why I am singled out for the object of his petulancy and spleen are too manifest to need Repetition But I shall yet inform him of what perhaps he is ignorant namely That I esteem it no small honour that the Reproaches wherewith the Doctrine opposed by him is reproached do fall upon me And the same I say concerning all the reviling and contemptuous Expressions that his ensuing pages are filled withall But as to the present occasion I beg his excuse if I believe him not that the reading of the passages which he mentions out of my Book filled him with Horrour and Indignation as he pretends For whereas he acknowledgeth that my words may have a sense which he approves of and which therefore must of necessity be good and sound what honest and sober person would not rather take them in that sense then wrest them unto another so to cast himself under the disquietment of a fit of horrible Indignation In this fit I suppose it was if such a fit indeed did befall him as one Evil begets another that he thought he might insinuate something of my denial of the necessity of our own personal Repentance and Obedience For no man who had read that Book only of all my Writings could with the least regard to Conscience or Honesty give countenance unto such a surmise unless his mind was much discomposed by the unexpected invasion of a fit of Horrour But such is his dealing with me from first to last nor do I know where to fix on any one instance of his Exceptions against me wherein I can suppose he had escaped his pretended fit and was returned unto himself that is unto honest and ingenuous thoughts wherewith I hope he is mostly conversant But though I cannot miss in the Justification of this charge by considering any Instance of his Reflections yet I shall at present take that which he insists longest upon and filleth his Discourse about it with most scurrility of Expressions And this is in the 164 th page of his Book and those that follow For there he disputeth fiercely against me for making this to be an undue End of our serving God namely that we may flee from the wrath to come And who would not take this for an inexpiable crime in any especially in him who hath written so much of the nature and use of Threatnings under the Gospel and the Fear that ought to be ingenerated by them in the hearts of men as I have done Wherefore so great a Crime being the object of them all his Revilings seem not only to be Excused but Hallowed But what if all this should prove a wilful prevarication not becoming a Good man much less a Minister of the Gospel my words as reported and transcribed by himself are these Some there are that do the Service of the House of God as the drudgery of their Lives the principle they yield Obedience upon is Spirit of Bondage unto fear the Rule they do it by is the Law in its dread and rigour exacting it of them to the utmost without mercy or mitigation the End they do it for is to fly from the Wrath to come to pacifie Conscience and to seek for Righteousness as it were by the works of the Law What follow unto the same purpose he omits and what he adds as my
non pugnare concludendum est sed potius quia haec inter se pugnant ideo alterutrum a Scriptura non dici statuendum est saith Schlicting ad Meisn. def Socin pag. 102. Wherefore because the Scripture affirms both these that is the Efficacy of Gods Grace and the Freedom of our Wills we cannot conclude from thence that they are not repugnant but because these things are repugnant unto one another we must determine that one of them is not spoken in the Scripture no it seems let it say what it will This is the hansomest way they can take in advancing their own Reason above the Scripture which yet savours of intolerable Presumption So Socinus himself speaking of the satisfaction of Christ saith in plain Terms Ego quidem etiamsi non semel sed saepius id in sacris monumentis scriptum extaret non idcirco tamen ita prorsus rem se habere crederem ut vos opinamini cum enim id omnino fieri non possit non secus atque in multis aliis Scripturae Testimoniis una cum caeteris omnibus facio aliqua quae minus incommoda videretur interpretatione adhibita eum sensum ex ejusmodi verbis elicerem qui sibi constaret For my part if this Doctrine were extant and written in the Holy Scripture not once but often yet would I not therefore believe it to be so as you do For whereas it can by no means be so whatever the Scripture saith I would as I do with others in other places make use of some less incommodious Interpretation whereby I would draw a sense out of the words that should be consistent with it self And how he would do this he declares a little before Sacra verba in alium sensum quam verba sonant per inusitatos etiam Tropos quandoque explicantur He would explain the words into another sense then what they sound or propose by unusual Tropes And indeed such uncouth Tropes doth he apply as so many Engines and Machines to pervert all the Divine Testimonies concerning our Redemption Reconciliation and Justification by the Blood of Christ. Having therefore fixed this as their Rule constantly to prefer their own Reason above the express words of the Scripture which must therefore by one means or other be so perverted or wrested to be made compliant therewith it is Endless to trace them in their multiplied Objections against the holy mysteries all resolved into this one principle that their Reason cannot comprehend them nor doth approve of them And if any man would have an especial Instance of the serpentine Wits of men winding themselves from under the power of Conviction by the spiritual Light of Truth or at least endeavouring so to do let him read the Comments of the Jewish Rabbins on Isaiah chap. 53. and of the Socinians on the Beginning of the Gospel of John Secondly The second Branch of this Repugnancy springeth from the want of a due comprehension of that Harmony which is in the mystery of Grace and between all the parts of it This comprehension is the principal effect of that Wisdom which Believers are taught by the Holy Ghost For our understanding of the Wisdom of God in a mystery is neither an Art nor a Science whether purely speculative or more practical but a spiritual Wisdom And this spiritual Wisdom is such as understands and apprehends things not so much or not only in the notion of them as in their Power Reality and Efficacy towards their proper Ends. And therefore although it may be very few unless they be learned judicious and diligent in the use of means of all sorts do attain unto it clearly and distinctly in the Doctrinal notions of it yet are all true Believers yea the meanest of them directed and enabled by the Holy Spirit as unto their own practice and duty to act suitably unto a comprehension of this Harmony according to the Promise that they shall be all taught of God Hence those things which appear unto others contradictory and inconsistent one with another so as that they are forced to offer violence unto the Scripture and their own Experience in the Rejection of the one or other of them are reconciled in their minds and made mutually useful or helpful unto one another in the whole course of their Obedience But these things must be farther spoken unto Such an Harmony as that intended there is in the whole mystery of God For it is the most curious effect and product of divine Wisdom And it is no impeachment of the Truth of it that it is not discernable by humane Reason A full comprehension of it no creature can in this world arise unto Only in the contemplation of Faith we may arrive unto such an understanding Admiration of it as shall enable us to give Glory unto God and to make use of all the parts of it in practice as we have occasion Concerning it the Holy man mentioned before cryed out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O unsearchable contrivance and operation And so is it expressed by the Apostle as that which hath an unfathomable depth of Wisdom in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his ways and his Judgments past finding out Rom. 11.33 34 35 36. see to the same purpose Eph. 3.8 9 10. There is an Harmony a suitableness of one thing unto another in all the works of Creation Yet we see that it is not perfectly nor absolutely discoverable unto the wisest and most diligent of men How far are they from an Agreement about the order and motions of the Heavenly Bodies of the Sympathies and Qualities of sundry things here below in the Relation of Causality and Efficiency between one thing and another The new discoveries made concerning any of them do only evidence how far men are from a just and perfect comprehension of them Yet such an universal Harmony there is in all the parts of nature and its operations that nothing in its proper station and operation is destructively contradictory either to the whole or any part of it but every thing contributes unto the preservation and use of the Universe But although this Harmony be not absolutely comprehensible by any yet do all living Creatures who follow the conduct or instinct of Nature make use of it and live upon it and without it neither their Being could be preserved nor their Operations continued But in the mystery of God and his Grace the Harmony and suitableness of one thing unto another with their tendency unto the same End is incomparably more excellent and glorious then that which is seen in nature or the works of it For whereas God made all things at first in Wisdom yet is the new Creation of all things by Jesus Christ ascribed peculiarly unto the Riches Stores and Treasures of that infinite wisdom Neither can any discern it unless they are taught of God for
it is only spiritually discerned But yet is it by the most despised Some seem to think that there is no great wisdom in it and some that no great wisdom is required unto the comprehension of it Few think it worth the while to spend half that time in prayer in meditation in the exercise of self denial Mortification and Holy Obedience doing the will of Christ that they may know of his word to the attaining of a due comprehension of the mystery of Godliness as some do of diligence study and trial of Experiments who design to excell in natural or mathematical Sciences Wherefore there are three things evident herein 1. That such an Harmony there is in all the parts of the mystery of God wherein all the blessed properties of the divine nature are glorified our Duty in all Instances is directed and engaged our Salvation in the way of Obedience secured and Christ as the End of all exalted Wherefore we are not only to consider and know the several parts of the Doctrine of spiritual Truth but their Relation also one unto another their consistency one with another in practice and their mutual furtherance of one another unto their common End And a disorder in our Apprehensions about any part of that whose Beauty and Use ariseth from its Harmony gives some confusion of mind with respect unto the whole 2. That unto a comprehension of this Harmony in a due measure it is necessary that we be taught of God without which we can never be wise in the knowledge of the mystery of his Grace And herein ought we to place the principal part of our diligence in our Enquiries into the Truths of the Gospel 3. All those who are taught of God to know his Will unless it be when their minds are disordered by prejudices false opinions or temptations have an experience in themselves and their own practical Obedience of the consistency of all parts of the mystery of Gods Grace and Truth in Christ among themselves of their spiritual Harmony and cogent tendency unto the same End The Introduction of the Grace of Christ into our Relation unto God makes no confusion or disorder in their minds by the conflict of the principles of natural Reason with respect unto our first Relation unto God and those of Grace with respect unto that whereunto we are renewed From the want of a due comprehension of this divine Harmony it is that the minds of men are filled with Imaginations of an Inconsistency between the most important parts of the mystery of the Gospel from whence the confusions that are at this day in Christian Religion do proceed Thus the Socinians can see no consistency between the Grace or Love of God and the satisfaction of Christ but imagine if the one of them be admitted the other must be excluded out of our Religion Wherefore they principally oppose the latter under a pretence of asserting and vindicating the former And where these things are expresly conjoined in the same proposition of Faith as where it is said that we are justified freely by the Grace of God through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through Faith in his Blood as Rom. 3.24 25. they will offer violence unto common sense and Reason rather then not disturb that Harmony which they cannot understand For although it be plainly affirmed to be a Redemption by his Blood as he is a propitiation as his Blood was a Ransome or price of Redemption yet they will contend there it is only metaphorical a meer deliverance by power like that of the Israelites by Moses But these things are clearly stated in the Gospel and therefore not only consistent but such as that the one cannot subsist without the other Nor is there any mention of any especial Love or Grace of God unto sinners but with respect unto the satisfaction of Christ as the means of the communication of all their effects unto them See Joh. 3.16 Rom. 3.23 24 25. chap. 8.30 31 32 33. 2 Cor. 5.19 20 21. Ephes. 1.7 c. In like manner they can see no consistency between the satisfaction of Christ and the necessity of Holiness or Obedience in them that do believe Hence they continually clamour that by our Doctrine of the Mediation of Christ we overthrow all Obligations unto an Holy Life And by their Sophistical Reasonings unto this purpose they prevail with many to embrace their delusions who have not a spiritual experience to confront their Sophistry withall But as the Testimony of the Scripture lyeth expresly against them so those who truly believe and have real experience of the influence of that Truth into the life of God and how impossible it is to yield any acceptable Obedience herein without respect thereunto are secured from their snares These and the like Imaginations arise from the unwillingness of men to admit of the Introduction of the mystery of Grace into our Relation unto God For suppose us to stand before God on the old constitution of the Covenant of Creation which alone natural Reason likes and is comprehensive of and we do acknowledge these things to be inconsistent But the mystery of the Wisdom and Grace of God in Christ cannot stand without them both So likewise Gods Efficacious Grace in the conversion of sinners and the exercise of the Faculties of their Minds in a way of Duty are asserted as contradictory and inconsistent And although they seem both to be positively and frequently declared in the Scripture yet say these men their Consistency being repugnant to their Reason let the Scripture say what it will yet is it to be said by us that the Scripture doth not assert one of them And this is from the same cause men cannot in their Wisdom see it possible that the mystery of Gods Grace should be introduced into our Relation and Obedience unto God Hence have many Ages of the Church especially the last of them been filled with Endless Disputes in Opposition to the Grace of God or to accommodate the conceptions of it unto the Interests of corrupted Reason But there is no Instance more pregnant unto this purpose then that under our present consideration Free Justification through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ is cried out against as inconsistent with a necessity of personal Holiness and Obedience and because the Socinians insist principally on this pretence it shall be fully and diligently considered apart and that Holiness which without it they and others deriving from them do pretend unto shall be tried by the unerring Rule Wherefore I desire it may be observed that in pleading for this Doctrine we do it as a principal part of the Introduction of Grace into our whole Relation unto God Hence we grant 1. That it is unsuited yea foolish and as some speak Childish unto the principles of unenlightened and unsanctified Reason or Understandings of men And this we conceive to be
Righteousness of God communicated unto us by Jesus Christ. And whereas he was opposed herein with some severity by the most learned persons of those days to countenance himself in his singularity he pretended that there were twenty different Opinions amongst the Protestants themselves about the formal cause of our Justification before God This was quickly laid hold on by them of the Roman Church and is urged as a prejudice against the whole Doctrine by Bellarmine Vasquez and others But the vanity of this pretence of his hath been sufficiently discovered and Bellarmine himself could fancy but four Opinions among them that seemed to be different from one another reckoning that of Osiander for one De Justificat lib. 2. cap. 1. But whereas he knew that the Imagination of Osiander was exploded by them all the other three that he mentions are indeed but distinct parts of the same entire Doctrine Wherefore until of late it might be truly said that the Faith and Doctrine of all Protestants was in this Article entirely the same For however they differed in the way manner and methods of its Declaration and too many private men were addicted unto Definitions and Descriptions of their own under pretence of Logical accuracy in Teaching which gave an appearance of some contradiction among them yet in this they generally agreed that it is the Righteousness of Christ and not our own on the account whereof we receive the pardon of sin acceptance with God are declared Righteous by the Gospel and have a Right and Title unto the Heavenly Inheritance Hereon I say they were generally agreed first against the Papists and afterwards against the Socinians and where this is granted I will not contend with any man about his way of declaring the Doctrine of it And that I may add it by the way we have herein the concurrence of the Fathers of the Primitive Church For although by Justification following the Etymology of the Latine word they understood the making us Righteous with internal personal Righteousness at least some of them did so as Austin in particular yet that we are pardoned and accepted with God on any other account but that of the Righteousness of Christ they believed not And whereas especially in their Controversie with the Pelagians after the rising of that Heresie they plead vehemently that we are made Righteous by the Grace of God changing our Hearts and Natures and creating in us a principle of spiritual Life and Holiness and not by the endeavours of our own free will or works performed in the strength thereof their words and expressions have been abused contrary to their Intention and Design For we wholly concur with them and subscribe unto all that they dispute about the making of us personally Righteous and holy by the effectual Grace of God against all merit of works and operations of our own free Will our Sanctification being every way as much of Grace as our Justification properly so called and that in opposition unto the common Doctrine of the Roman Church about the same matter only they call this our being made inherently and personally Righteous by Grace sometimes by the name of Justification which we do not And this is laid hold on as an Advantage by those of the Roman Church who do not concur with them in the way and manner whereby we are so made Righteous But whereas by our Justification before God we intend only that Righteousness whereon our sins are pardoned wherewith we are made Righteous in his sight or for which we are accepted as Righteous before him it will be hard to find any of them assigning of it unto any other causes then the Protestants do So it is fallen out that what they design to prove we entirely comply with them in but the way and manner whereby they prove it is made use of by the Papists unto another End which they intended not But as to the way and manner of the Declaration of this Doctrine among Protestants themselves there ever was some variety and Difference in Expressions Nor will it otherwise be whilst the Abilities and Capacities of men whether in the conceiving of things of this nature or in the expression of their conceptions are so various as they are And it is acknowledged that these Differences of late have had by some as much weight laid upon them as the substance of the Doctrine generally agreed in Hence some have composed entire Books consisting almost of nothing but impertinent Cavils at other Mens Words and Expressions But these things proceed from the weakness of some men and other vitious habits of their minds and do not belong unto the cause it self And such Persons as for me shall write as they do and fight on until they are weary Neither hath the multiplication of Questions and the curious discussion of them in the handling of this Doctrine wherein nothing ought to be diligently insisted on but what is directive of our practice been of much use unto the Truth it self though it hath not been directly opposed in them That which is of real Difference among Persons who agree in the substance of the Doctrine may be reduced unto a very few Heads As 1 There is something of this kind about the nature of Faith whereby we are justified with its proper Object in Justifying and its Use in Justification And an Instance we have herein not only of the weakness of our Intellects in the Apprehension of spiritual things but also of the remainders of confusion and disorder in our minds at least how true it is that we know only in part and prophesie only in part whilst we are in this life For whereas this Faith is an Act of our minds put forth in the way of Duty to God yet many by whom it is sincerely exercised and that continually are not agreed either in the nature or proper object of it Yet is there no doubt but that some of them who differ amongst themselves about these things have delivered their minds free from the prepossession of prejudices and notions derived from other artificial Reasonings imposed on them and do really express their own conceptions as to the best and utmost of their Experience And notwithstanding this Difference they do yet all of them please God in the exercise of Faith as it is their Duty and have that respect unto its proper Object as secures both their Justification and Salvation And if we cannot on this consideration bear with and forbear one another in our different conceptions and expressions of those conceptions about these things it is a sign we have a great mind to be contentious and that our confidences are built on very weak foundations For my part I had much rather my Lot should be found among them who do really believe with the heart unto Righteousness though they are not able to give a tolerable Definition of Faith unto others then among them who can endlesly dispute about it with seeming
that herein their Spiritual and Eternal Interest was concerned they made their Enquiries after the Truth in this matter which they knew must be the only means of their Deliverance All men in those days were either kept in Bondage under endless Fears and Anxieties of mind upon the convictions of sin or sent for Relief unto Indulgences Priestly Pardons Pennances Pilgrimages works satisfactory of their own and supererogatory of others or kept under Chains of Darkness for Purgatory unto the last day Now he is no way able to compare things past and present who fees not how great an Alteration is made in these things even in the Papal Church For before the Reformation whereby the Light of the Gospel especially in this Doctrine of Justification was diffused among men and shone even into their minds who never comprehended nor received it the whole almost of Religion among them was taken up with and confined unto these things And to instigate men unto an abounding sedulity in the observation of them their minds were stuffed with Traditions and Stories of Visions Apparitions frightful Spirits and other Imaginations that poor mortals are apt to be amazed withall and which their restless disquietments gave countenance unto Somnia terrores Magici miracula sagae Nocturni Lemures portentaque Thessala Were the principal objects of their Creed and matter of their Religious Conversation That very Church it self is comparatively at ease from these things unto what it was before the Reformation though so much of them is still retained as to blind the Eyes of men from discerning the Necessity as well as the Truth of the Evangelical Doctrine of Justification It is fallen out herein not much otherwise then it did at the first Entrance of Christianity into the world For there was an Emanation of Light and Truth from the Gospel which affected the minds of men by whom yet the whole of it in its general Design was opposed and persecuted For from thence the very vulgar sort of men became to have better apprehensions and notions of God and his properties or the Original and Rule of the Universe then they had arrived unto in the midnight of their Paganism And a sort of learned speculative men there were who by virtue of that Light of Truth which sprung from the Gospel and was now diffused into the minds of men reformed and improved the old Philosophy discarding many of those falshoods and impertinencies wherewith it had been encumbred But when this was done they still maintained their cause on the old principles of the Philosophers and indeed their opposition unto the Gospel was far more plausible and pleadable than it was before For after they had discarded the gross conceptions of the common sort about the divine Nature and Rule and had blended the Light of Truth which brake forth in Christian Religion with their own Philosophical notions they made a vigorous Attempt for the reinforcement of Heathenism against the main Design of the Gospel And things have not as I said fallen out much otherwise in the Reformation For as by the Light of Truth which therein brake forth the Consciences of even the vulgar sort are in some measure freed from those Childish Affrightments which they were before in Bondage unto so those who are Learned have been enabled to reduce the Opinions and Practices of their Church into a more defensible posture and make their Opposition unto the Truths of the Gospel more plausible than they formerly were Yea that Doctrine which in the way of its Teaching and Practice among them as also in its effects on the Consciences of men was so horrid as to drive innumerable persons from their Communion in that and other things also is now in the new Representation of it with the artificial covering provided for its former effects in practice thought an Argument meet to be pleaded for a return unto its entire Communion But to root out the Superstitions mentioned out of the minds of men to communicate unto them the knowledge of the Righteousness of God which is revealed from Faith to Faith and thereby to deliver them from their bondage fears and distress directing convinced sinners unto the only way of solid peace with God did the first Reformers labour so diligently in the Declaration and Vindication of the Evangelical Doctrine of Justification and God was with them And it is worth our consideration whether we should on every cavil and sophism of men not so taught not so employed not so tryed not so owned of God as they were and in whose Writings there are not appearing such Characters of Wisdom sound Judgment and deep Experience as in theirs easily part with that Doctrine of Truth wherein alone they found peace unto their own Souls and whereby they were instrumental to give liberty and peace with God unto the Souls and Consciences of others innumerable accompanied with the visible effects of Holiness of Life and fruitfulness in the works of Righteousness unto the praise of God by Jesus Christ. In my judgment Luther spake the truth when he said amisso Articulo Justificationis simul amissa est tota Doctrina Christiana And I wish he had not been a true Prophet when he foretold that in the following Ages the Doctrine hereof would be again obscured the Causes whereof I have elsewhere enquired into Some late Writers indeed among the Protestants have endeavoured to reduce the controversie about Justification with the Papists unto an Appearance of a far less real Difference then is usually judged to be in it And a good work it is no doubt to pare off all unnecessary occasions of Debate and Differences in Religion provided we go not so near the Quick as to let out any of its vital Spirits The way taken herein is to proceed upon some Concessions of the most sober among the Papists in their Ascriptions unto Grace and the Merit of Christ on the one side and the express judgment of the Protestants variously delivered of the necessity of good works to them that are justified Besides it appears that in different expressions which either party adhere unto as it were by Tradition the same things are indeed intended Among them who have laboured in this kind Ludovicus le Blanc for his perspicuity and plainness his moderation and freedom from a contentious frame of Spirit is pene solus legi dignus He is like the Ghost of Tiresias in this matter But I must needs say that I have not seen the effect that might be desired of any such undertaking For when each party comes unto the Interpretation of their own Concessions which is ex communi jure to be allowed unto them and which they will be sure to do in compliance with their Judgment in the substance of the Doctrine wherein the main stress of the Difference lies the distance and breach continue as Wide as ever they were Nor is there the least ground towards peace obtained by any of our condescensions or
compliances herein For unless we can come up entirely unto the Decrees and Canons of the Council of Trent wherein the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament is anathematized they will make no other use of any mens compliances but only to encrease the clamour of Differences among our selves I mention nothing of this nature to hinder any man from granting whatever he can or please unto them without the prejudice of the substance of Truths professed in the Protestant Churches but only to intimate the uselessness of such concessions in order unto Peace and Agreement with them whilst they have a Procrustes Bed to lay us upon and from whose size they will not recede Here and there one not above three or four in all may be named within this hundred and thirty years in the Roman Communion have owned our Doctrine of Justification for the substance of it So did Albertus Pighius and the Antidagma Coloniense as Bellarmin acknowledges And what he says of Pighius is true as we shall see afterwards the other I have not seen Cardinal Contarenus in a Treatise of Justification written before and published about the Beginning of the Trent Council delivereth himself in the favour of it But upon the observation of what he had done some say he was shortly after poisoned though I must confess I know not where they had the Report But do what we can for the sake of Peace as too much cannot be done for it with the safety of Truth it cannot be denied but that the Doctrine of Justification as it works effectually in the Church of Rome is the Foundation of many Enormities among them both in Judgment and Practice They do not continue I acknowledge in that visible predominancy and rage as formerly nor are the Generality of the people in so much slavish Bondage unto them as they were But the streams of them do still issue from this corrupt Fountain unto the dangerous Infection of the Souls of men For Missatical Expiatory Sacrifices for the living and the dead the necessity of Auricular Confession with Authoritative Absolution Penances Pilgrimages Sacramentals Indulgences Commutations Works Satisfactory and Supererogatory the Merit and Intercession of Saints departed with especial Devotions and Applications to this or that particular Saint or Angel Purgatory yea on the matter the whole of Monastick Devotion do depend thereon They are all nothing but ways invented to pacifie the Consciences of men or divert them from attending to the Charge which is given in against them by the Law of God sorry supplies they are of a Righteousness of their own for them who know not how to submit themselves to the Righteousness of God And if the Doctrine of free Justification by the Blood of Christ were once again exploded or corrupted and made unintelligible unto these things as absurd and foolish as now unto some they seem to be or what is not one jot better men must and will again betake themselves For if once they are diverted from putting their Trust in the Righteousness of Christ and Grace of God alone and do practically thereon follow after take up with or rest in that which is their own the first impressions of a sense of sin which shall befall their Consciences will drive them from their present hold to seek for shelter in any thing that tenders unto them the least Appearance of Relief Men may talk and dispute what they please whilst they are at peace in their own minds without a real sense either of sin or Righteousness yea and scoff at them who are not under the power of the same security But when they shall be awakened with other Apprehensions of things then yet they are aware of they will be put on new Resolutions And it is in vain to dispute with any about Justification who have not been duly convinced of a state of sin and of its Guilt for such men neither understand what they say nor that whereof they dogmatize We have therefore the same Reasons that the first Reformers had to be careful about the preservation of this Doctrine of the Gospel pure and entire though we may not expect the like success with them in our Endeavours unto that End For the minds of the Generality of men are in another posture then they were when they dealt with them Under the power of Ignorance and Superstition they were but yet multitudes of them affected with a sense of the Guilt of sin With us for the most part things are quite otherwise Notional Light accompanied with a senselessness of sin leads men unto a contempt of this Doctrine indeed of the whole mystery of the Gospel We have had Experience of the fruits of the Faith which we now plead for in this Nation for many years yea now for some Ages And it cannot well be denied but that those who have been most severely tenacious of the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ have been the most exemplary in an Holy Life I speak of former days And if this Doctrine be yet further corrupted debased or unlearned among us we shall quickly fall into one of the Extreams wherewith we are at present urged on either side For although the Reliefs provided in the Church of Rome for the satisfaction of the consciences of men are at present by the most disliked yea despised yet if they are once brought to a loss how to place their whole trust and confidence in the Righteousness of Christ and Grace of God in him they will not always live at such an uncertainty of mind as the best of their own Personal Obedience will hang them on the Briars of but betake themselves unto somewhat that tenders them certain peace and security though at present it may seem foolish unto them And I doubt not but that some out of a meer Ignorance of the Righteousness of God which either they have not been taught or had no mind to learn have with some Integrity in the Exercise of their Consciences betaken themselves unto that pretended Rest which the Church of Rome offers unto them For being troubled about their sins they think it better to betake themselves unto that great variety of means for the ease and discharge of their Consciences which the Roman Church affords then to abide where they are without the least pretence of Relief as men will find in due time there is no such thing to be found or obtained in themselves They may go on for a time with good satisfaction unto their own minds but if once they are brought unto a loss through the Conviction of sin they must look beyond themselves for peace and satisfaction or sit down without them to Eternity Nor are the principles and ways which others take up withall in another Extream upon the Rejection of this Doctrine although more plausible yet at all more really useful unto the Souls of men then those of the Roman Church which they reject as obsolete
may have and not be justified and if they have not a Faith of another kind they cannot be justified For Justification is no where ascribed unto it yea it is affirmed by the Apostle James That none can be justified by it 2. It may produce great Effects in the Minds Affections and Lives of Men although not one of them that are peculiar unto justifying Faith Yet such they may be as that those in whom they are wrought may be and ought in the Judgment of Charity to be looked on as true Believers 3. This is that Faith which may be alone We are justified by Faith alone But we are not justified by that Faith which can be alone Alone respects its influence into our Justification not its nature and existence And we absolutely deny that we can be justified by that Faith which can be alone that is without a principle of spiritual Life and universal Obedience operative in all the works of it as Duty doth require These things I have observed only to obviate that Calumny and Reproach which some endeavour to fix on the Doctrine of Justification by Faith only through the Mediation of Christ. For those who assert it must be Solifidians Antinomians and I know not what such as oppose or deny the necessity of universal Obedience or Good Works Most of them who manage it cannot but know in their own Consciences that this Charge is false But this is the way of handling Controversies with many They can aver any thing that seems to advantage the cause they plead to the great scandal of Religion If by Solifidians they mean those who believe that Faith alone is on our part the Means Instrument or Condition of which afterwards of our Justification all the Prophets and Apostles were so and were so taught to be by Jesus Christ as shall be proved If they mean those who affirm that the Faith whereby we are justified is alone separate or separable from a principle and the fruit of Holy Obedience they must find them out themselves we know nothing of them For we allow no Faith to be of the same kind or nature with that whereby we are justified but what virtually and radically contains in it universal Obedience as the effect is in the cause the fruit in the Root and which acts it self in all particular Duties according as by Rule and Circumstances they are made so to be Yea we allow no Faith to be justifying or to be of the same kind with it which is not its self and in its own nature a spiritually vital principle of Obedience and Good Works And if this be not sufficient to prevail with some not to seek for advantages by such shameful calumnies yet is it so with others to free their minds from any concernment in them For the especial nature of Justifying Faith which we enquire into the things whereby it is evidenced may be reduced unto these four Heads 1 The Causes of it on the part of God 2 What is in us previously required unto it 3 The proper Object of it 4 It s proper peculiar Acts and Effects Which shall be spoken unto so far as is necessary unto our present design 1. The Doctrine of the Causes of Faith as unto its first Original in the Divine Will and the way of its communication unto us is so large and so immixed with that of the way and manner of the operation of efficacious Grace in Conversion which I have handled elsewhere as that I shall not here insist upon it For as it cannot in a few words be spoken unto according unto its weight and worth so to engage into a full handling of it would too much divert us from our present Argument This I shall only say that from thence it may be uncontroulably evidenced That the Faith whereby we are justified is of an especial kind or nature wherein no other Faith which Justification is not inseparable from doth partake with it 2. Wherefore our first Enquiry is concerning what was proposed in the second place namely what is an our part in a way of Duty previously required thereunto or what is necessary to be found in us antecedaneously unto our Believing unto the Justification of Life And I say there is supposed in them in whom this Faith is wrought on whom it is bestowed and whose Duty it is to believe therewith the work of the Law in the Conviction of sin or Conviction of sin is a necessary Antecedent unto Justifying Faith Many have disputed what belongs hereunto and what effects it produceth in the mind that dispose the Soul unto the receiving of the Promise of the Gospel But whereas there are different Apprehensions about these effects or concomitants of Conviction in Compunction Humiliation Self-judging with sorrow for sin committed and the like as also about the Degrees of them as ordinarily pre-required unto Faith and Conversion unto God I shall speak very briefly unto them so far as they are inseparable from the Conviction asserted And I shall first consider this Conviction it self with what is essential thereunto and then the effects of it in conjunction with that temporary Faith before spoken of I shall do so not as unto their nature the knowledge whereof I take for granted but only as they have respect unto our Justification As to the first I say The work of Conviction in general whereby the Soul of man hath a practical understanding of the nature of sin its Guilt and the Punishment due unto it and is made sensible of his own interest therein both with respect unto sin original and actual with his own utter disability to deliver himself out of the state and condition wherein on the account of these things he findeth himself to be is that which we affirm to be antecedaneously necessary unto Justifying Faith that is in the Adult and of whose Justification the Word is the external means and instrument A Convinced sinner is only Subjectum capax Justificationis not that every one that is convinced is or must necessarily be justified There is not any such disposition or preparation of the subject by this Conviction its effects and consequents as that the form of Justification as the Papists speak or justifying Grace must necessarily ensue or be introduced thereon Nor is there any such preparation in it as that by virtue of any divine Compact or Promise a Person so convinced shall be pardoned and justified But as a man may believe with any kind of Faith that is not justifying such as that before mentioned without this Conviction so it is ordinarily previous and necessary so to be unto that Faith which is unto the Justification of Life The motive is not unto it that thereon a man shall be assuredly justified but that without it he cannot be so This I say is required in the Person to be justified in order of nature antecedaneously unto that Faith whereby we are justified which we shall prove with the ensuing
only by works of Righteousness which men did themselves in Obedience unto the Commands of God but also by the strict observance of many Inventions of what they called the Church with an Ascription of a strange Efficacy to the same Ends unto missatical Sacrifices Sacramentals Absolutions Pennances Pilgrimages and other the like Superstitions Hereby they observed that the Consciences of men were kept in perpetual disquietments perplexities fears and bondage exclusive of that Rest Assurance and Peace with God through the Blood of Christ which the Gospel proclaims and tenders And when the Leaders of the People in that Church had observed this that indeed the ways and means which they proposed and presented would never bring the Souls of men to Rest nor give them the least Assurance of the pardon of sins they made it a part of their Doctrine that the belief of the pardon of our own sins and Assurance of the Love of God in Christ were false and pernicious For what should they else do when they knew well enough that in their way and by their propositions they were not to be attained Hence the principal Controversie in this matter which the Reformed Divines had with those of the Church of Rome was this whether there be according unto and by the Gospel a state of Rest and assured Peace with God to be attained in this life And having all Advantages imaginable for the proof hereof from the very nature use and end of the Gospel from the Grace Love and Design of God in Christ from the Efficacy of his Mediation in his Oblation and Intercession they assigned these things to be the especial Object of Justifying Faith and that Faith it self to be a fiduciary Trust in the especial Grace and Mercy of God through the blood of Christ as proposed in the Promises of the Gospel That is they directed the Souls of men to seek for peace with God the pardon of sin and a Right unto the Heavenly Inheritance by placing their sole Trust and Confidence in the mercy of God by Christ alone But yet withall I never read any of them I know not what others have done who affirmed that every true and sincere Believer always had a full Assurance of the Especial Love of God in Christ or of the pardon of his own sins though they plead that this the Scripture requires of them in a way of Duty and that this they ought to aim at the Attainment of And these things I shall leave as I find them unto the use of the Church For I shall not contend with any about the way and manner of expressing the Truth where the substance of it is retained That which in these things is aimed at is the Advancement and Glory of the Grace of God in Christ with the conduct of the Souls of men unto Rest and Peace with him Where this is attained or aimed at and that in the way of Truth for the substance of it variety of Apprehensions and Expressions concerning the same things may tend unto the useful exercise of the Faith and Edification of the Church Wherefore neither opposing nor rejecting what hath been delivered by others as their Judgments herein I shall propose my own thoughts concerning it not without some hopes that they may tend to communicate Light in the knowledge of the thing it self enquired into and the Reconciliation of some differences about it amongst Learned and Holy men I say therefore That the Lord Jesus Christ himself as the Ordinance of God in his work of Mediation for the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners and as unto that End proposed in the Promise of the Gospel is the adequate proper Object of Justifying Faith or of saving Faith in its Work and Duty with respect unto our Justification The Reason why I thus state the Object of Justifying Faith is because it compleatly answers all that is ascribed unto it in the Scripture and all that the nature of it doth require What belongs unto it as Faith in general is here supposed and what is peculiar unto it as Justifying is fully expressed And a few things will serve for the Explication of the Thesis which shall afterwards be confirmed 1. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is asserted to be the proper Object of Justifying Faith For so it is required in all those Testimonies of Scripture where that Faith is declared to be our believing in him on his name our receiving of him or looking unto him whereunto the Promise of Justification and Eternal Life is annexed whereof afterwards See Joh. 1.12 chap. 3.16 36. chap. 6.29 47. chap. 7.38 chap. 15.25 Act. 10.41 Act. 13.38 39. Act. 16.31 Act. 26.18 c. 2. He is not proposed as the Object of our Faith unto the Justification of Life absolutely but as the Ordinance of God even the Father unto that end who therefore also is the immediate Object of Faith as Justifying in what respects we shall declare immediately So Justification is frequently ascribed unto Faith as peculiarly acted on him Joh. 5.24 He that believeth on him that sent me hath Everlasting Life and shall not come into Judgment but is passed from Death into Life And herein is comprized that Grace Love and Favour of God which is the principal moving cause of our Justification Rom. 3.23 24. Add hereunto Joh. 6.29 and the Object of Faith is compleat This is the Work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent God the Father as sending and the Son as sent that is Jesus Christ in the work of his Mediation as the Ordinance of God for the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners is the Object of our Faith See 1 Pet. 1.21 3. That he may be the Object of our Faith whose general nature consisteth in Assent and which is the Foundation of all its other Acts He is proposed in the promises of the Gospel which I therefore place as concurring unto its compleat Object Yet do I not herein consider the Promises meerly as peculiar divine Revelations in which sense they belong unto the formal Object of Faith but as they contain propose and exhibit Christ as the Ordinance of God and the Benefits of his Mediation unto them that do believe There is an especial Assent unto the Promises of the Gospel wherein some place the nature and essence of Justifying Faith or of Faith in its Work and Duty with respect unto our Justification And so they make the Promises of the Gospel to be the proper Object of it And it cannot be but that in the Actings of Justifying Faith there is a peculiar Assent unto them Howbeit this being only an Act of the mind neither the whole nature nor the whole work of Faith can consist therein Wherefore so far as the Promises concur to the compleat Object of Faith they are considered materially also namely as they contain propose and exhibit Christ unto Believers And in that sense are they frequently affirmed in the Scripture to be the
Christ unto the Grace of God that fixeth it self on the Lord Christ and that Redemption which is in his blood as the Ordinance of God the Effect of his Wisdom Grace and Love finds rest in both and in nothing else For the proof of the Assertion I need not labour in it it being not only abundantly declared in the Scripture but that which contains in it a principal part of the Design and Substance of the Gospel I shall therefore only refer unto some of the Places wherein it is taught or the Testimonies that are given unto it The whole is expressed in that place of the Apostle wherein the Doctrine of Justification is most eminently proposed unto us Rom. 3.24 25. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of sins Whereunto we may add Ephes. 1.6 7. He hath made us accepted in the Beloved in whom we have Redemption through his Blood according to the Riches of his Grace That whereby we are justified is the especial Object of our Faith unto Justification But this is the Lord Christ in the Work of his Mediation For we are justified by the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ for in him we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sin Christ as a Propitiation is the Cause of our Justification and the Object of our Faith or we attain it by Faith in his Blood But this is so under this formal Consideration as he is the Ordinance of God for that End appointed given proposed set forth from and by the Grace Wisdom and Love of God God set him forth to be a Propitiation He makes us accepted in the Beloved We have Redemption in his Blood according to the Riches of his Grace whereby he makes us accepted in the Beloved And herein he abounds towards us in all wisdom Ephes. 1.8 This therefore is that which the Gospel proposeth unto us as the especial Object of our Faith unto the Justification of Life But we may also in the same manner confirm the several parts of the Assertion distinctly 1. The Lord Jesus Christ as proposed in the Promise of the Gospel is the peculiar Object of Faith unto Justification There are three sorts of Testimonies whereby this is confirmed 1. Those wherein it is positively asserted As Act. 10.41 To him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive the Remission of sins Christ believed in as the means and cause of the Remission of sins is that which all the Prophets give witness unto Act. 16.31 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved It is the Answer of the Apostles unto the Jaylors enquiry Sirs What must I do to be saved His Duty in Believing and the Object of it the Lord Jesus Christ is what they return thereunto Act. 4.12 Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is none other Name under Heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved That which is proposed unto us as the only way and means of our Justification and Salvation and that in opposition unto all other ways is the Object of Faith unto our Justification But this is Christ alone exclusively unto all other things This is testified unto by Moses and the Prophets the Design of the whole Scripture being to direct the Faith of the Church unto the Lord Christ alone for Life and Salvation Luke 24.25 26 27. 2. All those wherein Justifying Faith is affirmed to be our Believing in him or Believing on his name which are multiplied Joh. 1.12 He gave power to them to become the Sons of God who believed on his name chap. 3.16 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life ver 36. He that believeth on the Son hath Everlasting Life chap. 6.29 This is the work of God that ye believe on him whom he hath sent ver 47. He that believeth on me hath Everlasting Life chap. 7.38 He that believeth on me out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of Living Water So chap. 9.35 36 37. chap. 11.25 Act. 26.18 That they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by Faith that is in me 1 Pet. 2.6 7. In all which places and many other we are not only directed to place and affix our Faith on him but the Effect of Justification is ascribed thereunto So expresly Act. 13.38 39. which is what we design to prove 3. Those which give us such a description of the Acts of Faith as make him the direct and proper Object of it Such are they wherein it is called a receiving of him Joh. 1.12 To as many as received him Col. 2.6 As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord. That which we receive by Faith is the proper Object of it And it is represented their looking unto the Brazen Serpent when it was lifted up who were stung by fiery Serpents Joh. 3.14 15. chap. 12. 32. Faith is that Act of the Soul whereby Convinced sinners ready otherwise to perish do look unto Christ as he was made a Propitiation for their sins and who so do shall not perish but have Everlasting Life He is therefore the Object of our Faith 2 ly He is so as he is the Ordinance of God unto this End which consideration is not to be separated from our Faith in him And this also is confirmed by several sorts of Testimonies 1. All Those wherein the Love and Grace of God are proposed as the only Cause of giving Jesus Christ to be the way and means of our Recovery and Salvation whence they become or God in them the supream Efficient Cause of our Justification Joh. 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have Everlasting Life So Rom. 5.8 1 Joh. 4.9 10. Being justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Christ Rom. 3.23 Ephes. 1.6 7 8. This the Lord Christ directs our Faith unto continually referring all unto him that sent him and whose Will be came to do Heb. 10.5 2. All those wherein God is said to set forth and propose Christ and to make him be for us and unto us what he is so unto the Justification of Life Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath proposed to be a Propitiation 1. Cor. 1.30 Who of God is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption 2 Cor. 5.21 He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Act. 5.35 c. Wherefore in the acting of Faith in Christ unto Justification we can no otherwise consider him but as the Ordinance of God to that End he brings nothing unto us does nothing for us but what God appointed designed and made him to be
the Righteousness of Christ is so far imputed unto us that on the account thereof God gives unto us Justifying Grace and thereby the Remission of Sin in their sense whence they allow it the meritorious cause of our Justification But on a supposition thereof or the reception of that Grace we are continued to be justified before God by the works we perform by vertue of that Grace received And though some of them rise so high as to affirm that this Grace and the works of it need no farther respect unto the Righteousness of Christ to deserve our second Justification and life eternal as doth Vasquez expresly in 1.2 q. 114. Disp. 222. cap. 3. Yet many of them affirm that it is still from the consideration of the merit of Christ that they are so meritorious And the same for the substance of it is the Judgment of some of them who affirm the continuation of our Justification to depend on our own works setting aside that ambiguous term of merit For it is on the account of the Righteousness of Christ they say that our own works or imperfect obedience is so accepted with God as that the continuation of our Justification depends thereon But the Apostle gives us another account hereof Rom. 5.1 2 3. For he distinguisheth three things our Access into the Grace of God 2 Our standing in that Grace 3 Our Glorying in that station against all opposition By the first he expresseth our absolute Justification By the second our continuation in the state whereinto we are admitted thereby and by the third the assurance of that continuation notwithstanding all the oppositions we meet withal And all these he ascribeth equally unto Faith without the intermixture of any other cause or condition And other places express to the same purpose might be pleaded 3. The examples of them that did believe and were justified which are recorded in the Scripture do all bear witness unto the same Truth The continuation of the Justification of Abraham before God is declared to have been by Faith only Rom. 4.3 For the instance of his Justification given by the Apostle from Gen. 15.6 was long after he was justified absolutely And if our first Justification and the continuation of it did not depend absolutely on the same cause the instance of the one could not be produced for a proof of the way and means of the other as here they are And David when a justified Believer not only placeth the Blessedness of man in the free Remission of sins in opposition unto his own works in general Rom. 4.6 7. but in his own particular case ascribeth the continuation of his Justification and acceptation before God unto Grace Mercy and forgiveness alone which are no otherwise received but by Faith Psal. 130.3 4 5. Psal. 143.2 All other works and duties of obedience do accompany Faith in the continuation of our justified estate as necessary effects and fruits of it but not as causes means or conditions whereon that effect is suspended It is patient waiting by Faith that brings in the full accomplishment of the Promises Heb. 6.12 16. Wherefore there is but one Justification and that of one kind only wherein we are concerned in this Disputation The Scripture makes mention of no more and that is the Justification of an ungodly person by Faith Nor shall we admit of the consideration of any other For if there be a second Justification it must be of the same kind with the first or of another if it be of the same kind then the same person is often justified with the same kind of Justification or at least more than once and so on just reason ought to be often Baptized If it be not of the same kind then the same person is justified before God with two sorts of Justification of both which the Scripture is utterly silent And the continuation of our Justification depends solely on the same causes with our Justification it self CHAP. VI. Evangelical Personal Righteousness the Nature and Vse of it Final Judgment and its respect unto Justification THe things which we have discoursed concerning the first and second Justification and concerning the continuation of Justification have no other Design but only to clear the principal subject whereof we treat from what doth not necessarily belong unto it For until all things that are either really heterogeneous or otherwise superfluous are separated from it we cannot understand aright the true state of the Question about the nature and causes of our Justification before God For we intend one only Justification namely that whereby God at once freely by his Grace justifieth a convinced sinner through Faith in the Blood of Christ. Whatever else any will be pleased to call Justification we are not concerned in it nor are the Consciences of them that believe To the same purpose we must therefore briefly also consider what is usually disputed about our own personal Righteousness with a Justification thereon as also what is called sentential Justification at the day of Judgment And I shall treat no farther of them in this place but only as it is necessary to free the principal subject under consideration from being intermixed with them as really it is not concerned in them For what Influence our own personal Righteousness hath into our Justification before God will be afterwards particularly examined Here we shall only consider such a notion of it as seems to enterfere with it and disturb the right understanding of it But yet I say concerning this also that it rather belongs unto the Difference that will be among us in the Expression of our conceptions about spiritual things whilst we know but in part than unto the substance of the Doctrine it self And on such differences no breach of Charity can ensue whilst there is a mutual Grant of that liberty of mind without which it will not be preserved one moment It is therefore by some apprehended that there is an Evangelical Justification upon our Evangelical Personal Righteousness This they distinguish from that Justification which is by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ in the sense wherein they do allow it For the Righteousness of Christ is our Legal Righteousness whereby we have pardon of sin and acquitment from the sentence of the Law on the account of his satisfaction and merit But moreover they say that as there is a Personal inherent Righteousness required of us so there is a Justification by the Gospel thereon For by our Faith and the plea of it we are justified from the charge of Unbelief by our sincerity and the plea of it we are justified from the charge of Hypocrisie and so by all other Graces and Duties from the charge of the contrary sins in Commission or Omission so far as such sins are inconsistent with the Terms of the Covenant of Grace How this differeth from the second Justification before God which some say we have by works on the supposition
unto the ultimate manifestation of Divine Glory in the Creation and Guidance of all things are sufficiently manifest And whence it appears how little force there is in that Argument which some pretend to be of so great weight in this cause As every one they say shall be judged of God at the last day in the same way and manner or on the same Ground is he justified of God in this life But by Works and not by Faith alone every one shall be judged at the last day Wherefore by Works and not by Faith alone every one is justified before God in this life For 1. It is no where said that we shall be judged at the last day ex operibus but only that God will render unto men secundum opera But God doth not justifie any in this life secundum opera Being justified freely by his Grace And not according to the Works of Righteousness which we have done And we are every where said to be justified in this life ex fide per fidem but no where propter fidem or that God justifieth us secundum fidem by Faith but not for our Faith nor according unto our Faith And we are not to depart from the expressions of the Scripture where such a difference is constantly observed 2. It is somewhat strange that a man should be judged at the last day and justified in this life just in the same way and manner that is with respect unto Faith and Works when the Scripture doth constantly ascribe our Justification before God unto Faith without Works and the Judgment at the last day is said to be according unto Works without any mention of Faith 3. If Justification and eternal Judgment proceed absolute-on the same Grounds Reasons and Causes then if men had not done what they shall be condemned for doing at the last day they should have been justified in this life But many shall be condemned only for sins against the light of nature Rom. 2.12 as never having the written Law or Gospel made known unto them Wherefore unto such persons to abstain from sins against the light of nature would be sufficient unto their Justification without any knowledge of Christ or the Gospel 4. This Proposition that God pardons men their Sins gives them the Adoption of Children with a right unto the Heavenly Inheritance according to their Works is not only foraign to the Gospel but contradictory unto it and destructive of it as contrary unto all express Testimonies of the Scripture both in the old Testament and the new where these things are spoken of But that God judgeth all men and rendreth unto all men at the last Judgment according unto their Works is true and affirmed in the Scripture 5. In our Justification in this life by Faith Christ is considered as our Propitiation and Advocate as he who hath made Atonement for sin and brought in everlasting Righteousness But at the last day and in the last Judgment he is considered only as the Judge 6. The end of God in our Justification is the Glory of his Grace Eph. 1.6 But the end of God in the last Judgment is the Glory of his remunerative Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 7. The Representation that is made of the final Judgment Math. 7. and Chap. 25. is only of the visible Church And therein the plea of Faith as to the profession of it is common unto all and is equally made by all Upon that plea of Faith it is put unto the trial whether it were sincere true Faith or no or only that which was dead and barren And this trial is made solely by the fruits and effects of it and otherwise in the publick declaration of things unto all it cannot be made Otherwise the Faith whereby we are justified comes not into Judgment at the last day See Joh. 5.24 with Mark 16.16 CHAP. VII Imputation and the Nature of it with the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ in particular THe first express Record of the Justification of any sinner is of Abraham Others were justified before him from the Beginning and there is that affirmed of them which sufficiently evidenceth them so to have been But this Prerogative was reserved for the Father of the Faithful that his Justification and the express way and manner of it should be first entered on the Sacred Record So it is Gen. 15.6 He believed in the Lord and it was counted unto him for Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was accounted unto him or imputed unto him for Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was counted reckoned imputed And it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed unto him but for us also unto whom it shall be imputed if we believe Rom. 4.23 24. Wherefore the first express Declaration of the nature of Justification in the Scripture affirms it to be by Imputation The Imputation of somewhat unto Righteousness And this done in that place and instance which is Recorded on purpose as the president and example of all those that shall be justified As he was justified so are we and no otherwise Under the new Testament there was a necessity of a more full and clear Declaration of the Doctrine of it For it is among the first and most principal parts of that Heavenly mystery of Truth which was to be brought to light by the Gospel And besides there was from the first a strong and Dangerous Opposition made unto it For this matter of Justification the Doctrine of it and what necessarily belongs thereunto was that whereon the Jewish Church broke off from God refused Christ and the Gospel perishing in their sins as is expresly declared Rom. 9.31 10.3 4. And in like manner a dislike of it an Opposition unto it ever was and ever will be a principle and cause of the Apostasie of any professing Church from Christ and the Gospel that falls under the power and deceit of them as it fell out afterwards in the Churches of the Galatians But in this state the Doctrine of Justification was fully declared stated and vindicated by the Apostle Paul in a peculiar manner And he doth it especially by affirming and proving that we have the Righteousness whereby and wherewith we are justified by Imputation or that our Justification consists in the non-Imputation of sin and the Imputation of Righteousness But yet although the first Recorded instance of Justification and which was so recorded that it might be an example and represent the Justification of all that should be justified unto the end of the World is expressed by Imputation and Righteousness imputed and the Doctrine of it in that great case wherein the eternal welfare of the Church of the Jews or their ruine was concerned is so expressed by the Apostle yet is it so fallen out in our days that nothing in Religion is more maligned more reproached more despised then the Imputation of Righteousness unto us or an Imputed Righteousness A putative Righteousness the
shadow of a dream a fancy a mummery an imagination say some among us An opinion foeda execranda pernitiosa detestanda saith Socinus And opposition ariseth unto it every day from great variety of principles For those by whom it is opposed and rejected can by no means agree what to set up in the place of it However the weight and importance of this Doctrine is on all hands acknowledged whether it be true or false It is not a dispute about Notions Terms and Speculations wherein Christian Practice is little or not at all concerned of which nature many are needlesly contended about but such as hath an immediate influence into our whole present Duty with our eternal Welfare or Ruine Those by whom this Imputation of Righteousness is rejected do affirm that the Faith and Doctrine of it do overthrow the necessity of Gospel Obedience of personal Righteousness and good Works bringing in Antinomianism and Libertinism in life Hereon it must of necessity be destructive of Salvation in those who believe it and conform their Practice thereunto And those on the other hand by whom it is believed seeing they judge it impossible that any man should be justified before God any other way but by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ do accordingly judge that without it none can be saved Hence a Learned man of late concludes his Discourse concerning it Hactenus de Imputatione Justitiae Christi sine qua nemo unquam aut salvatus est aut salvari queat Justificat Paulin. cap. 8. Thus far of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ without which no man was ever saved nor can any so be They do not think nor judge that all those are excluded from salvation who cannot apprehend or to deny the Doctrine of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ as by them declared But they judge that they are so unto whom that Righteousness is not really imputed nor can they do otherwise whil'st they make it the foundation of all their own Acceptation with God and eternal salvation These things greatly differ To believe the Doctrine of it or not to believe it as thus or thus explained is one thing and to enjoy the thing or not enjoy it is another I no way doubt but that many men do receive more Grace from God than they understand or will own and have a greater efficacy of it in them than they will believe Men may be really saved by that Grace which Doctrinally they do deny and they may be justified by the Imputation of that Righteousness which in opinion they deny to be imputed For the Faith of it is included in that general Assent which they give unto the truth of the Gospel and such an Adherence unto Christ may ensue thereon as that their mistake of the way whereby they are saved by him shall not defraud them of a real Interest therein And for my part I must say that notwithstanding all the disputes that I see and read about Justification some whereof are full of offence and scandal I do not believe but that the Authors of them if they be not Socinians throughout denying the whole merit and satisfaction of Christ do really trust unto the mediation of Christ for the pardon of their Sins and Acceptance with God and not unto their own Works or Obedience Nor will I believe the contrary until they expresly declare it Of the Objection on the other hand concerning the danger of the Doctrine of the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ in reference unto the necessity of Holiness and works of Righteousness we must treat afterwards The Judgment of the Reformed Churches herein is known unto all and must be confessed unless we intend by vain cavils to encrease and perpetuate contentions Especially the Church of England is in her Doctrine express as unto the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ both active and passive as it is usually distinguished This hath been of late so fully manifested out of her Authentick Writings that is the Articles of Religion and Books of Homilies and other Writings publickly authorized that it is altogether needless to give any farther Demonstration of it Those who pretend themselves to be otherwise minded are such as I will not contend withall For to what purpose is it to dispute with men who will deny the Sun to shine when they cannot bear the heat of its beams Wherefore in what I have to offer on this subject I shall not in the least depart from the ancient Doctrine of the Church of England yea I have no design but to declare and vindicate it as God shall enable There are indeed sundry differences among Persons Learned Sober and Orthodox if that term displease not in the way and manner of the Explication of the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ who yet all of them agree in the substance of it in all those things wherein the Grace of God the Honour of Christ and the Peace of the Souls of men are principally concerned As far as it is possible for me I shall avoid the concerning of my self at present in these Differences For unto what purpose is it to contend about them whilst the substance of the Doctrine it self is openly opposed and rejected why should we debate about the order and beautifying of the Rooms in an House whilst Fire is set unto the whole when that is well quenched we may return to the consideration of the best means for the disposal and use of the several parts of it There are two grand Parties by whom the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ is opposed namely the Papists and the Socinians But they proceed on different principles and unto different Ends. The design of the one is to exalt their own Merits of the other to destroy the merit of Christ. But besides these who trade in company we have many Interlopers who coming in on their hand do make bold to borrow from both as they see occasion We shall have to do with them all in our progress not with the Persons of any nor the way and manner of their expressing themselves but the Opinions of all of them so far as they are opposite unto the Truth For it is that which wise men despise and good men bewail to see persons pretending unto Religion and Piety to cavil at Expressions to contend about Words to endeavour the fastening of Opinions on men which they own not and thereon mutually to revile one another publishing all to the World as some great atchievement or victory This is not the way to teach them truths of the Gospel nor to promote the Edification of Church But in general the Importance of the cause to be pleaded the Greatness of the opposition that is made unto the Truth and the high concernment of the Souls of Believers to be rightly instructed in it do call for a renewed Declaration and Vindication of
also necessary unto the same End and Purpose For why was it necessary or why would God have it so that the Lord Christ as the Surety of the Covenant should undergo the curse and penalty of the Law which we had incurred the guilt of by sin that we may be justified in his sight Was it not that the Glory and Honor of his Righteousness as the Author of the Law and the Supream Governor of all Mankind thereby might not be violated in the absolute impunity of the infringers of it And if it were requisite unto the glory of God that the penalty of the Law should be undergone for us or suffered by our Surety in our stead because we had sinned Wherefore is it not as requisite unto the glory of God that the preceptive part of the Law be complied withal for us in as much as obedience thereunto is required of us And as we are no more able of our selves to fulfil the Law in a way of obedience then to undergo the penalty of it so as that we may be justified thereby So no Reason can be given why God is not as much concerned in Honor and Glory that the preceptive power and part of the Law be complied withal by perfect Obedience as that the Sanction of it be established by undergoing the penalty of it Upon the same Grounds therefore that the Lord Christs suffering the penalty of the Law for us was necessary that we might be justified in the sight of God and that the satisfaction he made thereby be imputed unto us as we our selves had made satisfaction unto God as Bellarmine speaks and grants On the same it was equally necessary that is as unto the glory and honor of the Legislator and Supream Governor of all by the Law that he should fulfil the Preceptive part of it in his perfect obedience thereunto which also is to be imputed unto us for our Justification Concerning the first of these namely the satisfaction of Christ and the Imputation of it unto us our principal Difference is with the Socinians And I have elswhere written so much in the vindication of the Truth therein that I shall not here again reassume the same Argument It is here therefore taken for granted although I know that there are some different Apprehensions about the notion of Christs suffering in our stead and of the Imputation of those sufferings unto us But I shall here take no notice of them seeing I press this Argument no farther but only so far forth that the obedience of Christ unto the Law and the Imputation thereof unto us is no less necessary unto our Justification before God then his suffering of the penalty of the Law and the Imputation thereof unto us unto the same end The nature of this Imputation and what it is formally that is imputed we have considered elswhere That the Obedience of Christ the Mediator is thus imputed unto us shall be afterwards proved in particular by Testimonies of the Scripture Here I intend only the vindication of the Argument as before laid down which will take us up a little more time then ordinary For there is nothing in the whole Doctrine of Justification which meets with a more fierce and various opposition But the Truth is great and will prevail The things that are usually objected and vehemently urged against the Imputation of the Obedience of Christ unto our Justification may be reduced unto three heads 1. That it is impossible 2. That it is useless 3. That it is pernitious to believe it And if the Arguments used for the inforcement of those Objections be as cogent as the charge it self is fierce and severe they will unavoidably overthrow the perswasions of it in the minds of all sober persons But there is oft-times a wide difference between what is said and what is proved as will appear in the present case 1. It is pleaded impossible on this single ground namely That the Obedience of Christ unto the Law was due from him on his own account and performed by him for himself as a man made under the Law Now what was necessary unto himself and done for himself cannot be said to be done for us so as to be imputed unto us 2. It is pretended to be useless from hence because all our sins of omission and commission being pardoned in our Justification on the account of the Death and satisfaction of Christ we are thereby made compleatly righteous so as that there is not the least necessity for or use of the Imputation of the Obedience of Christ unto us 3. Pernitious also they say it is as that which takes away the necessity of our own personal Obedience introducing Antinomianism Libertinism and all manner of evils For this last part of the charge I refer it unto its proper place For although it be urged by some against this part of the Doctrine of Justification in a peculiar manner yet is it managed by others against the whole of it And although we should grant that the Obedience of Christ unto the Law is not imputed unto us unto our Justification yet shall we not be freed from disturbance by this false accusation unless we will renounce the whole of the satisfaction and merit of Christ also And we intend not to purchase our Peace with the whole World at so dear a rate Wherefore I shall in its proper place give this part of the charge its due consideration as it reflects on the whole Doctrine of Justification and all the causes thereof which we believe and profess The first part of this charge concerning the Impossibility of the Imputation of the obedience of Christ unto us is insisted on by Socinus de Servat part 3. cap. 5. And there hath been nothing since pleaded unto the same purpose but what hath been derived from him or wherein at least he hath not prevented the Inventions of other Men and gone before them And he makes this consideration the principal engine wherewith he indeavors the overthrow of the whole Doctrine of the merit of Christ. For he supposeth that if all he did in a way of Obedience was due from himself on his own Account and was only the duty which he owed unto God for himself in his station and circumstances as a Man in this World it cannot be meritorious for us nor any way imputed unto us And in like manner to weaken the Doctrine of his Satisfaction and the Imputation thereof unto us he contends that Christ offered as a Priest for himself in that kind of offering which he made on the Cross. Part. 2. cap. 22. And his real opinion was that whatever was of offering or sacrifice in the Death of Christ it was for himself that is it was an Act of Obedience unto God which pleased him as the savor of a sweet smelling Sacrifice His offering for us is only the presentation of himself in the presence of God in Heaven now he hath no more to do
with a pretence of propriety and accuracy CHAP. XVII Testimonies out of the Evangelists considered THe Reasons why the Doctrine of Justification by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ is more fully and clearly delivered in the following Writings of the New Testament than it is in those of the Evangelists who wrote the History of the Life and Death of Christ have been before declared But yet in them also it is sufficiently attested as unto the state of the Church before the Death and Resurrection of Christ which is represented in them Some few of the many Testimonies which may be pleaded out of their Writings unto that purpose I shall consider 1. The principal design of our Blessed Saviours Sermon especially that part of it which is Recorded Matth. 5. is to declare the true nature of Righteousness before God The Scribes and Pharisees from a Bondage unto whose Doctrines he designed to vindicate the Consciences of those that heard him placed all our Righteousness before God in the Works of the Law or Mens own obedience thereunto This they taught the People and hereon they justified themselves as he chargeth them Luke 16.15 Ye are they which justifie your selves before men but God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God As in this Sermon he makes it evident And all those who were under their conduct did seek to establish their own Righteousness as it were by the works of the Law Rom. 9.33 Chap. 10.3 But yet were they convinced in their own Consciences that they could not attain unto the Law of Righteousness or unto that perfection of obedience which the Law did require Yet would they not forego their proud fond imagination of Justification by their own Righteousness but as the manner of all Men is in the same case sought out other inventions to relieve them against their convictions For unto this end they corrupted the whole Law by their false glosses and interpretations to bring down and debase the sense of it unto what they boasted in themselves to perform So doth he in whom our Saviour gives an instance of the principle and practice of the whole Society by way of a Parable Luk. 18.10 11 12. And so the young Man affirmed That he had kept the whole Law from his youth namely in their sense Matth. 19.20 To root out this pernicious Error out of the Church our Lord Jesus Christ in many instances gives the true spiritual Sense and intention of the Law manifesting what the Righteousness is which the Law requires and on what terms a Man may be justified thereby And among sundry others to the same purpose two things he evidently declares 1. That the Law in its Precepts and Prohibitions had regard unto the regulation of the heart with all its first motions and actings For he asserts that the inmost thoughts of the heart and the first motions of concupiscence therein though not consented unto much less actually accomplished in the outward deeds of sin and all the occasions leading unto them are directly forbidden in the Law This he doth in his holy Exposition of the Seventh Commandment Ver. 27 28 29 30. 2. He declares the penalty of the Law on the least sin to be Hell fire in his Assertion of causless anger to be forbidden in the Sixth Commandment If Men would but try themselves by these Rules and others there given by our Saviour it would it may be take them off from boasting in their own Righteousness and Justification thereby But as it was then so is it now also the most of them who would maintain a Justification by Works do attempt to corrupt the sense of the Law and accommodate it unto their own practice The Reader may see an eminent demonstration hereof in a late excellent Treatise whose title is The Practical Divinity of the Papists discovered to be destructive of Christianity and Mens souls The Spirituality of the Law with the severity of its Sanction extending it self unto the least and most imperceptible motions of sin in the heart are not believed or not aright considered by them who plead for Justification by Works in any sense Wherefore the principal design of the Sermon of our Saviour is as to declare what is the nature of that obedience which God requireth by the Law so to prepare the minds of his Disciples to seek after another Righteousness which in the cause and means of it was not yet plainly to be declared although many of them being prepared by the Ministery of John did hunger and thirst after it But he sufficiently intimates wherein it did consist in that he affirms of himself That he came to fulfil the Law Ver. 17. What he came for that he was sent for for as he was sent and not for himself He was born to us given unto us This was to fulfil the Law that so the Righteousness of it might he fulfilled in us And if we our selves cannot fulfil the Law in the proper sense of its commands which yet is not to be abolished but established as our Saviour declares if we cannot avoid the Curse and Penalty of it upon its transgression And if he came to fulfil it for us all which are declared by himself then is his Righteousness even which he wrought for us in fulfilling the Law the Righteousness wherewith we are justified before God And whereas here is a twofold Righteousness proposed unto us one in the fulfilling of the Law by Christ the other in our own perfect obedience unto the Law as the sense of it is by him declared and other middle Righteousness between them there is none it is left unto the Consciences of convinced sinners whether of these they will adhere and trust unto And their direction herein is the principal design we ought to have in the declaration of this Doctrine I shall pass by all those places wherein the foundations of this Doctrine are surely laid because it is not expresly mentioned in them But such they are as in their proper Interpretation do necessarily infer it Of this kind are they all wherein the Lord Christ is said to die for us or in our stead to lay down his life a ransom for us or in our stead and the like but I shall pass them by because I will not digress at all from the present Argument But the Representation made by our Saviour himself of the way and means whereon and whereby Men come to be justified before God in the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican is a guide unto all Men who have the same design with them Luk. 18.9 10 11 12 13 14. And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others Two Men went up unto the Temple to pray the one a Pharisee and the other a Publican The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am not as other
Righteous and the Sons of God then may Christ by the imputation of our unrighteousness be said to be a sinner and a child of the Devil Ans. 1 That which the Scripture affirms concerning the imputation of our sins unto Christ is that he was made sin for us This the Greek Expositors Chrysostome Theophylact and Oecumenius with many others take for a sinner But all affirm that denomination to be taken from imputation only he had sin imputed unto him and underwent the punishment due unto it as we have Righteousness imputed unto us and enjoy the benefit of it 2 The imputation of sin unto Christ did not carry along with it any thing of the pollution or filth of sin to be communicated unto him by transfusion a thing impossible so that no denomination can thence arise which should include in it any respect unto them A thought hereof is impious and dishonourable unto the Son of God But his being made sin through the imputation of the guilt of sin is his honour and glory 3 The imputation of the sin of Fornicators Idolaters Adulterers c. such as the Corinthians were before their Conversion unto Christ doth not on any ground bring him under a denomination from those sins For they were so in themselves actively inherently subjectively and thence were so called But that he who knew no sin voluntarily taking on him to answer for the guilt of those sins which in him was an act of Righteousness and the highest Obedience unto God should be said to be an Idolater c. is a fond imagination The denomination of a sinner from sin inherent actually committed defiling the Soul is a reproach and significative of the utmost unworthiness But even the denomination of a sinner by the imputation of sin without the least personal guilt or defilement being undergone by him unto whom it is imputed in an act of the highest Obedience and tending unto the greatest glory of God is highly honourable and glorious But 4 The imputation of sin unto Christ was antecedent unto any real union between him and sinners whereon he took their sin on him as he would and for what ends he would But the imputation of his Righteousness unto Believers is consequential in order of nature unto their union with him whereby it becomes theirs in a peculiar manner so as that there is not a parity of reason that he should be esteemed a sinner as that they should be accounted Righteous And 5 we acquiesce in this that on the imputation of sin unto Christ it is said that God made him to be sin for us which he could not be but thereby and he was so by an act transient in its effects for a time only that time wherein he underwent the punishment due unto it But on the imputation of his Righteousness unto us we are made the Righteousness of God with an everlasting Righteousness that abides ours always 6 To be a child of the Devil by sin is to do the works of the Devil Joh. 8.44 But the Lord Christ in taking our sins upon him when imputed unto him did the work of God in the highest act of holy Obedience evidencing himself to be the Son of God thereby and destroying the work of the Devil So foolish and impious is it to conceive that any absolute change of state or relation in him did ensue thereon That by the Righteousness of God in this place our own Faith and Obedience according to the Gospel as some would have it are intended is so alien from the scope of the place and sense of the words as that I shall not particularly examine it The Righteousness of God is revealed to Faith and received by Faith and is not therefore Faith it self And the force of the Antithesis is quite perverted by this conceit For where is it in this that he was made sin by the imputation of our sin unto him and we are made Righteousness by the imputation of our own Faith and Obedience unto our selves But as Christ had no concern in sin but as God made him sin it was never in him inherently so have we no interest in this Righteousness it is not in us inherently but only is imputed unto us Besides the act of God in making us righteous is his justifying of us But this is not by the infusion of the habit of Faith and Obedience as we have proved And what act of God is intended by them who affirm That the Righteousness of God which we are made is our own Righteousness I know not The constitution of the Gospel Law it cannot be for that makes no Man righteous And the Persons of Believers are the object of this act of God and that as they are considered in Christ. Gal. 2.16 The Epistle of the same Apostle unto the Galatians is wholly designed unto the vindication of the Doctrine of Justification by Christ without the Works of the Law with the use and means of its improvement The sum of his whole design is laid down in the repetition of his words unto the Apostle Peter on the occasion of his failure there related Chap. 2.86 Knowing that a Man is not justified by the Works of the Law but by the Faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed on Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the Faith of Christ and not by the Works of the Law for by the Works of the Law shall no flesh be justified That which he doth here assert was such a known such a fundamental principle of Truth among all Believers that their conviction and knowledge of it was the ground and occasion of their transition and passing over from Judaism unto the Gospel and Faith in Jesus Christ thereby And in the words the Apostle determines that great inquiry how or by what means a Man is or may be justified before God The subject spoken of is expressed indefinitely A Man that is any Man a Jew or a Gentile a Believer or an Vnbeliever The Apostle that spake and they to whom he spake the Galatians to whom he wrote who also for some time had believed and made Profession of the Gospel The answer given unto the question is both Negative and Positive both asserted with the highest assurance and as the common faith of all Christians but only those who had been carried aside from it by Seducers He asserts that this is not this cannot be by the Works of the Law What is intended by the Law in these disputations of the Apostle hath been before declared and evinced The Law of Moses is sometimes signally intended not absolutely but as it was the present instance of Mens cleaving unto the Law of Righteousness and not submitting themselves thereon unto the Righteousness of God But that the consideration of the Moral Law and the duties of it is in this Argument any where excepted by him is a weak imagination yea it would except the Ceremonial Law it self for the observation of it whilest
Protestant Divines that it is altogether needless to insist again upon them unless they had received some new inforcement which of late they have not done That which for the most part we have now to do withal are rather Sophistiacal cavils from supposed absurd consequences then real Theological arguments And some of those who would walk with most wariness between the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ and Justification by our own works either are in such a slippery place that they seem sometimes to be on the one side sometimes on the other or else to express themselves with so much caution as it is very difficult to apprehend their minds I shall not therefore for the future dare to say that this or that is any mans opinion though it appear unto me so to be as clear and evident as words can express it but that this or that opinion let it be maintained by whom it will I approve or disapprove this I shall dare to say And I will say also that the declination that hath been from the common Doctrine of Justification before God on the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ doth daily proceed towards a direct assertion of justification by works Nor indeed hath it where to rest until it comes unto that bottome And this is more clearly seen in the objections which they make against the truth then in what they plead in defence of their own opinions For herein they speak as yet warily and with a pretence of accuracy in avoiding extremes But in the other or their objections they make use of none but what are easily resolved into a supposition of Justification by Works in the grossest sense of it To insist on all particulars were endless and as was said most of those of any importance have already occasionally been spoken unto There are therefore only two things which are generally pleaded by all sorts of persons Papists Socinians and others with whom here we have to do that I shall take notice of The first and fountain of all other is that the Doctrine of Justification by the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ doth render our personal Righteousness needless and overthrows all necessity of an Holy life The other is that the Apostle James in his Epistle doth plainly ascribe our Justification unto Works and what he affirms there is inconsistent with that sense of those many other Testimonies of Scripture which we plead for For the first of these although those who oppose the truth we contend for do proceed on various different and contradictory principles among themselves as to what they exalt in opposition unto it yet do they all agree in a vehement urging of it For those of the Church of Rome who renewed this charge invented of old by others it must be acknowledged by all sober men that as managed by them it is an open calumny For the wisest of them and those of whom it is hard to conceive but that they knew the contrary as Bellarmine Vasquez Suarez do openly aver that Protestant Writers deny all inherent Righteousness Bellarmine excepts Bucer and Chemnitius that they maintain that men may be saved although they live in all manner of sin that there is no more required of them but that they believe that their sins are forgiven and that whilest they do so although they give themselves up unto the most sensual Vices and Abominations they may be assured of their Salvation Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum So will men out of a perverse zeal to promote their own interest in the Religion they profess wilfully give up themselves unto the worst of evils such as false accusation and open calumny and of no other nature are these assertions which none of the Writings or Preachings of those who are so charged did ever give the least countenance unto Whether the forging and promulgation of such impudent falshoods be an expedient to obtain Justification by Works in the sight of God they who continue in them had best to consider For my part I say again as I suppose I have said already that it is all one to me what Religion men are of who can justifie themselves in such courses and proceedings And for those among our selves who are pleased to make use of this Objection they either know what the Doctrine is which they would oppose or they do not If they do not the wise man tells them that he who answereth a matter before he hear it it is folly and shame unto him If they do understand it it is evident that they use not sincerity but artifices and false pretenses for advantage in their handling of Sacred things which is scandalous to Religion Socinus fiercely manageth this charge against the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches De servat par 4. cap. 1. And he made it the foundation whereon and the reason why he opposeth the Doctrine of the imputation of the satisfaction of Christ if any such satisfaction should be allowed which yet he peremptorily denies And he hath written a Treatise unto the same purpose defended by Schlictingius against Meisnerus And he takes the same honest course herein that others did before him For he chargeth it on the Divines of the Protestant Churches that they taught that God justifieth the ungodly not only those that are so and whilest they are so but although they continue so that they required no inherent Righteousness or Holiness in any nor could do so on their principles seeing the imputed Righteousness of Christ is sufficient for them although they live in sin are not washed nor cleansed nor do give up themselves unto the wayes of Duty and Obedience unto God whereby he may be pleased and so bring in Libertinisme and Antinomianisme into the Church And he thinks it a sufficient confutation of this Doctrine to alledge against it that neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God And these are some of those ways which have rendred the management of controversies in Religion scandalous and abominable such as no wise or good man will meddle withal unless compelled for the necessary service of the Church For these things are openly false and made use of with a shameful dishonesty to promote a corrupt design and end When I find men at this kind of work I have very little concernment in what they say afterwards be it true or false Their rule and measure is what serves their own end or what may promote the design and interest wherein they are ingaged be it right or wrong And as for this man there is not any Article in Religion the principal whereof are rejected by him on whose account he doth with more confidence adjudge us unto eternal ruine than he doth on this of the satisfaction of Christ and the imputation of it unto them that do believe So much darkness is their remaining on the minds of the most of men so many inveterate prejudices on various
Holiness without which no man shall see God vehemently declaming against that Doctrine as destructive of Holiness which was so fruitful in it in former days 2. It doth not appear as yet in general that an attempt to introduce a Doctrine contrary unto it hath had any great success in the Reformation of the lives of men Nor hath personal Righteousness or Holiness as yet much thrived under the conduct of it as to what may be observed It will be time enough to seek countenance unto it by declaming against that which hath formerly had better effects when it hath a little more commended it self by its fruits 3. It were not amiss if this part of the controversie might amongst us all be issued in the advise of the Apostle James Chap. 2.18 Shew me thy Faith by thy works and I will shew thee my Faith by my works Let us all labour that fruits may thus far determine of Doctrines as unto their use unto the interest of Righteousness and Holiness For that Faith which doth not evidence it self by works that hath not this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Index which James calls for whereby it may be found out and examined is of no use nor consideration herein Secondly The same Objection was from the beginning laid against the Doctrine of the Apostle Paul the same charge was managed against it which sufficiently argues that it is the same Doctrine which is now assaulted with it This himself more than once takes notice of Rom. 3.31 Do we make void the Law through Faith It is an objection that he anticipates against his Doctrine of the free Justification of sinners through Faith in the blood of Christ. And the substance of the charge included in these words is that he destroyed the Law took off all Obligation unto Obedience and brought in Antinomianism So again Chap. 6.1 What shall we say then shall we continue in sin that grace may abound Some thought this the natural and genuine consequence of what he had largely discoursed concerning Justification which he had now fully closed and some think so still If what he taught concerning the grace of God in our Justification be true it will not only follow that there will be no need of any relinquishment of sin on our part but also a continuance in it must needs tend unto the exaltation of that grace which he had so extolled The same objection he repeats again v. 15. What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace And in sundry other places doth he obviate the same objection where he doth not absolutely suppose it especially Ephes. 2.9 10. we have therefore no Reason to be surprized with nor much to be moved at this objection and charge for it is no other but what was insinuated or managed against the Doctrine of the Apostle himself whatever inforcements are now given it by subtilty of arguing or Rhetorical exaggerations However evident it is that there are naturally in the minds of men efficacious prejudices against this part of the Mystery of the Gospel which began betimes to manifest themselves and ceased not until they had corrupted the whole Doctrine of the Church herein And it were no hard matter to discover the principal of them were that our present business However it hath in part been done before 3. It is granted that this Doctrine both singly by it self or in conjunction with whatever else concerns the grace of God by Christ Jesus is liable unto abuse by them in whom darkness and the love of sin is predominant For hence from the very beginning of our Religion some fancied unto themselves that a bare assent unto the Gospel was that Faith whereby they should be saved and that they might be so however they continued to live in sin and a neglect of all Duties of Obedience This is evident from the Epistles of John James and Jude in an especial manner Against this pernicious evil we can give no relief whilest men will love darkness more than light because their deeds are evil And it would be a fond imagination in any to think that their modellings of this Doctrine after this manner will prevent future abuse If they will it is by rendring it no part of the Gospel for that which is so was ever liable to be abused by such persons as we speak of These general observations being premised which are sufficient of themselves to discard this Objection from any place in the minds of sober men I shall only add the consideration of what answers the Apostle Paul returns unto it with a brief application of them unto our purpose The objection made unto the Apostle was that he made void the Law that he rendred good works needless and that on the supposition of his Doctrine men might live in sin unto the advancement of Grace And as unto his sense hereof we may observe 1. That he never returns that answer unto it no not once which some think is the only answer whereby it may be satisfied and removed namely the necessity of our own personal Righteousness and Obedience or Works in order unto our Justification before God For that by Faith without Works he understandeth Faith and Works is an unreasonable supposition If any do yet pretend that he hath given any such answer let them produce it as yet it hath not been made to appear And is it not strange that if this indeed were his Doctrine and the contrary a mistake of it namely that our personal Righteousness Holiness and Works had an influence into our justification and were in any sort our Righteousness before God therein that he who in an eminent manner every where presseth the necessity of them sheweth their true nature and use both in general and in particular Duties of all sorts above any of the Writers of the new Testament should not make use of this truth in answer unto an objection wherein he was charged to render them all needless and useless His Doctrine was urged with this objection as himself acknowledged and on the account of it rejected by many Rom. 10.3 4. Gal. 2.3 He did see and know that the corrupt lusts and depraved affections of the minds of many would supply them with subtile arguings against it Yea he did foresee by the Holy Spirit as appeareth in many places of his Writings that it would be perverted and abused And surely it was highly incumbent on him to obviate what in him lay these evils and so state his Doctrine upon this objection that no countenance might ever be given unto it And is it not strange that he should not on this occasion once at least somewhere or other give an intimation that although he rejected the works of the Law yet he maintained the necessity of Evangelical Works in order unto our Justification before God as the condition of it or that whereby we are justified according unto the Gospel If this were indeed his
Doctrine and that which would so easily solve this difficulty and answer this objection as both of them are by some pretended certainly neither his wisdom nor his care of the Church under the conduct of the infallible Spirit would have suffered him to omit this reply were it consistent with the truth which he had delivered But he is so far from any such Plea that when the most unavoidable occasion was administred unto it he not only waves any mention of it but in its stead affirms that which plainly evidenceth that he allowed not of it See Eph. 2.9 10. Having positively excluded Works from our Justification not of Works least any man should boast it being natural thereon to enquire to what end do Works serve or is there any necessity of them instead of a distinction of Works legal and Evangelical in order unto our Justification he asserts the necessity of the later on other Grounds Reasons and Motives manifesting that they were those in particular which he excluded as we have seen in the consideration of the place Wherefore that we may not forsake his pattern and example in the same cause seeing he was Wiser and Holier knew more of the mind of God and had more zeal for personal Righteousness and Holiness in the Church than we all if we are pressed a Thousand times with this objection we shall never seek to deliver our selves from it by answering that we allow these things to be the condition or causes of our Justification or the matter of our Righteousness before God seeing he would not so do Secondly we may observe that in his answer unto this objection whether expresly mentioned or tacitly obviated he insisteth not any where upon the common principle of moral Duties but on those motives and reasons of Holiness Obedience good works alone which are peculiar unto Believers For the question was not whether all mankind were obliged unto Obedience unto God and the Duties thereof of by the moral Law But whether there were an Obligation from the Gospel upon Believers unto Righteousness Holiness and good Works such as was suited to affect and constrain their minds unto them Nor will we admit of any other state of the question but this only whether upon the supposition of our gratuitous justification through the imputation of the Righteousness of Christ there are in the Gospel grounds reasons and motives making necessary and efficaciously influencing the minds of Believers unto Obedience and good Works for those who are not Believers we have nothing to do with them in this matter nor do plead that Evangelical grounds and motives are suited or effectual to work them unto Obedience yea we know the contrary and that they are apt both to despise them and abuse them See I Cor. 1.23 24. 2 Cor. 4.4 such persons are under the Law and there we leave them unto the Authority of God in the moral Law But that the Apostle doth confine his enquiry unto Believers is evident in every place wherein he maketh mention of it Rom. 6.2 3. How shall we that are dead unto sin live any longer therein Know ye not that so many of us as were Baptized into Jesus Christ c. Eph. 2.10 For we are the workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Wherefore we shall not at all contend what cogency unto duties of Holiness there is in Gospel motives and reasons unto the minds of Vnbelievers whatever may be the truth in that case But what is their power force and efficacy towards them that truly believe Thirdly The answers which the Apostle returns positively unto this objection wherein he declares the necessity nature ends and use of Evangelical Righteousness and good Works are large and many comprehensive of a great part of the Doctrine of the Gospel I shall only mention the heads of some of them which are the same that we plead in the vindication of the same truth 1. He pleads the Ordination of God God hath before ordained that we should walk in them Eph. 2.10 God hath designed in the disposal of the order of the causes of Salvation that those who believe in Christ should live in walk in abound in good Works and all Duties of Obedience unto God To this end are Precepts Directions Motives and Encouragements every where multiplied in the Scripture Wherefore we say that good Works and that as they include the gradual progressive Renovation of our natures our growth and increase in grace with fruitfulness in our lives are necessary from the Ordination of God from his will and command And what need there any further dispute about the necessity of good Works among them that know what it is to believe or what respect there is in the Souls and Consciences of Believers unto the commands of God But what force say some is in this Command or Ordination of God when notwithstanding it and if we do not apply our selves unto Obedience we shall be justified by the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ and so may be saved without them I say 1 As was before observed that it is Believers alone concerning whom this enquiry is made and there is none of them but will judge this a most unreasonable and senseless objection as that which ariseth from an utter ignorance of their state and relation unto God To suppose that the minds of Believers are not as much and as effectually influenced with the Authority and Commands of God unto Duty and Obedience as if they were all given in order unto their Justification is to consider neither what Faith is nor what it is to be a Believer nor what is the Relation that we stand in unto God by Faith in Christ Jesus nor what are the Arguments or motives wherewith the minds of such persons are principally affected and constrained This is the Answer which the Apostle gives at large unto this Exception Rom. 6.2 3. 2 The whole fallacy of this Exception is 1 In separating the things that God hath made inseparable These are our Justification and our Sanctification To suppose that the one of these may be without the other is to overthrow the whole Gospel 2 In compounding those things that are distinct namely Justification and eternal actual Salvation the respect of Works and Obedience being not the same unto them both as hath been declared Wherefore this Imagination that the commands of God unto Duty However given and unto what ends soever are not equally obligatory unto the Consciences of Believers as if they were all given in order unto their Justification before God is an absurd figment and which all of them who are truly so defie Yea they have a greater power upon them than they could have if the Duties required in them were in order unto their Justification and so were antecedent thereunto For thereby they must be supposed to have their efficacy upon them before they truly believe For to say that a man may be a true Believer or truly
whilest we know but in part and Prophesie but in part yet I must say that in my Judgment the usual solution of this appearing difficulty securing the Doctrine of Justification by Faith through the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ from any concernment or contradiction in the Discourse of St. James Chap. 2. v. 14. to the end hath not been in the least impeached not hath had any new difficulty put upon it in some late Discourses to that purpose I should therefore utterly forbear to speak any thing hereof but that I suppose it will be expected in a Discourse of this nature and do hope that I also may contribute some light unto the clearing and vindication of the Truth To this purpose it may be observed That 1. It is taken for granted on all hands that there is no real repugnancy or contradiction between what is delivered by these two Apostles For if that were so the writings of one of them must be Pseudepigrapha or falsly ascribed unto them whose names they bear and uncanonical as the Authority of the Epistle of James hath been by some both of old and of late highly but rashly questioned Wherefore their words are certainly capable of a just Reconciliation That we cannot any of us attain thereunto or that we do not agree therein is from the darkness of our own minds the weakness of our understandings and with too many from the power of prejudices 2. It is taken also for granted on all other occasions that when there is an appearance of Repugnancy or contradiction in any places of Scripture if some or any of them do treat directly designedly and largely about the matter concerning which there is a seeming repugnancy or contradiction and others or any other speak of the same things only Obiter occasionally transiently in order unto other ends the truth is to be learned stated and fixed from the former places Or the interpretation of those places where any truth is mentioned only occasionally with reference unto other things or ends is as unto that truth to be taken from and accommodated unto those other places wherein it is the design and purpose of the Holy Penman to declare it for its own sake and to guide the Faith of the Church therein And there is not a more rational and natural Rule of the interpretation of Scripture among all them which are by common consent agreed upon 3. According unto this Rule it is unquestionable that the Doctrine of Justification before God is to be learned from the writings of the Apostle Paul and from them is light to be taken into all other places of Scripture where it is occasionally mentioned Especially it is so considering how exactly this Doctrine represents the whole Scope of the Scripture and is witnessed unto by particular Testimonies occasionally given unto the same truth without number For it must be acknowledged that he wrote of this subject of our Justification before God on purpose to declare it for its own sake and its use in the Church and that he doth it fully largely and frequently in a constant Harmony of expressions And he owns those Reasons that pressed him unto fulness and accuracy herein 1 The importance of the Doctrine it self This he declares to be such as that thereon our Salvation doth immediately depend and that it was the hinge whereon the whole Doctrine of the Gospel did turn Articulus stantis aut cadentis-Ecelesiae Gal. 2.16 21. Chap. 5.4 5. 2 The plausible and dangerous opposition that was then made unto it This was so managed and that with such specious pretences as that very many were prevailed on and turned from the truth by it as it was with the Galatians and many detained from the Faith of the Gospel out of a dislike unto it Rom. 10.3 4. What care and diligence this requireth in the Declaration of any truth is sufficiently known unto them who are acquainted with these things What zeal care and circumspection it stirred up the Apostle unto is manifest in all his writings 3 The Abuse which the corrupt nature of man is apt to put upon this Doctrine of Grace and which some did actually pervert it unto This also himself takes notice of and througly vindicates it from giving the least countenance unto such wrestings and impositions Certainly never was there a greater necessity incumbent on any person fully and plainly to teach and declare a Doctrine of truth than was on him at that time in his circumstances considering the place and duty that he was called unto And no reason can be imagined why we should not principally and in the first place learn the truth herein from his declaration and vindication of it if withal we do indeed believe that he was Divinely inspired and Divinely guided to reveal the truth for the information of the Church As unto what is delivered by the Apostle James so far as our Justification is included therein things are quite otherwise He doth not undertake to declare the Doctrine of our Justification before God but having another design in hand as we shall see immediately he vindicates it from the abuse that some in those days had put it unto as other Doctrines of the Grace of God which they turn'd into licentiousness Wherefore it is from the writings of the Apostle Paul that we are principally to learn the truth in this matter and unto what is by him plainly declared is the interpretation of other places to be accommodated 4. Some of late are not of this mind They contend earnestly that Paul is to be interpreted by James and not on the contrary And unto this end they tell us that the Writings of Paul are obscure that sundry of the antients take notice thereof that many take occasion of errors from them with sundry things of an alike nature indeed scandalous to Christian Religion And that James writing after him is presumed to give an interpretation unto his sayings which are therefore to be expounded and understood according unto that interpretation Ans. 1 As to the vindication of the Writings of St. Paul which begin now to be frequently reflected on with much severity which is one effect of the secret prevalency of the Atheism of these days as there is no need of it so it is designed for a more proper place Only I know not how any person that can pretend the least acquaintance with Antiquity can plead a passage out of Irenaeus wherein he was evidently himself mistaken or a rash word of Origen or the like in derogation from the perspicuity of the Writings of this Apostle when they cannot but know how easie it were to overwhelm them with Testimonies unto the contrary from all the famous Writers of the Church in several ages And as for instance in one Chrysostome in forty places gives an account why some men understood not his Writings which in themselves were so gloriously evident and perspicuous so for their satisfaction I shall refer them only
justified but there is no force in this Argument For 1. The whole nature of Justification is not here declared but only what is required on our part thereunto The respect of it unto the Mediation of Christ was not yet expresly to be brought to light as was shewed before 2. Although the Publican makes his address unto God under a deep sense of the guilt of sin yet he prays not for the bare pardon of sin but for all that sovereign Mercy or Grace God provided for sinners 3. The term of Justification must have the same sense when applied unto the Pharisee as when applied unto the Publican And if the meaning of it with respect unto the Publican be That he was pardoned then hath it the same sense with respect unto the Pharisee he was not pardoned but he came on no such errand He came to be justified not pardoned nor doth he make the least mention of his sin or any sense of it Wherefore although the pardon of sin be included in Justification yet to justifie in this place hath respect unto a Righteousness whereon a Man is declared just and righteous wrapt up on the part of the Publican in the sovereign producing cause The Mercy of God Some few Testimonies may be added out of the other Evangelists in whom they abound As many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his name Joh. 1.12 Faith is expressed by the receiving of Christ. For to receive him and to believe on his name are the same It receives him as set forth of God to be a propitiation for sin as the great Ordinance of God for the Recovery and Salvation of lost sinners Wherefore this notion of Faith includes in it 1. A supposition of the proposal and tender of Christ unto us for some end and purpose 2. That this proposal is made unto us in the promise of the Gospel Hence as we are said to receive Christ we are said to receive the promise also 3. The end for which the Lord Christ is so proposed unto us in the promise of the Gospel and this is the same with that for which he was so proposed in the first promise namely The recovery and salvation of lost sinners 4 That in the tender of his person there is a tender made of all the Fruits of his Mediation as containing the way and means of our deliverance from sin and acceptance with God 5. There is nothing required on our part unto an interest in the end proposed but receiving of him or believing on his name 6. Hereby are we intitled unto the Heavenly inheritance we have power to become the Sons of God wherein our Adoption is asserted and Justification included What this receiving of Christ is and wherein it doth consist hath been declared before in the consideration of that Faith whereby we are justified That which hence we argue is That there is no more required unto the obtaining of a right and title unto the Heavenly Inheritance but Faith alone in the name of Christ the receiving of Christ as the Ordinance of God for Justification and Salvation This gives us I say our original right thereunto and therein our acceptance with God which is our Justification though more be required unto the actual acquisition and possession of it It is said indeed that other Graces and Works are not excluded though Faith alone be expressed But every thing which is not a receiving of Christ is excluded It is I say virtually excluded because it is not of the nature of that which is required When we speak of that whereby we see we exclude no other member from being a part of the body but we exclude all but the eye from the act of seeing And if Faith be required as it is a receiving of Christ every Grace and Duty which is not so is excluded as unto the end of Justification Chap. 3.14 15 16 17 18. And as Moses lifted up the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God I shall observe only a few things from these words which in themselves convey a better light of understanding in this Mystery unto the minds of Believers then many long discourses of some Learned Men. 1. It is of the justification of Men and their right to eternal Life thereon that our Saviour discourseth This is plain in Ver. 18. He that believeth is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already 2. The means of attaining this condition or state on our part is believing only as it is three times positively asserted without any addition 3. The nature of this Faith is declared 1 By its object that is Christ himself the Son of God whosoever believeth on him which is frequently repeated 2 The especial consideration wherein he is the object of Faith unto the Justification of life and that is as he is the Ordinance of God given sent and proposed from the Love and Grace of the Father God so loved the World that he gave God sent his Son 3 The especial act yet included in the type whereby the design of God in him is illustrated For this was the looking unto the Brazen Serpent lifted up in the Wilderness by them who were stung with Fiery Serpents Hereunto our Faith in Christ unto Justification doth answer and includes a trust in him alone for deliverance and relief This is the way these are the only causes and means of the Justification of condemned sinners and are the Substance of all that we plead for It will be said that all this proves not the Imputation of the Righteousness of Christ unto us which is the thing principally inquired after But if nothing be required on our part unto Justification but Faith acted on Christ as the Ordinance of God for our recovery and salvation it is the whole of what we plead for A Justification by the remission of sins alone without a Righteousness giving acceptance with God and a right unto the Heavenly Inheritance is alien unto the Scripture and the common notion of Justification amongst Men. And what this Righteousness must be upon a supposition that Faith only on our part is required unto a participation of it is sufficiently declared in the words wherein Christ himself is so often asserted as the object of our Faith unto that purpose Not to add more particular Testimonies which are multiplied unto the same
purpose in this Evangelist the sum of the Doctrine declared by him is That the Lord Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the World that is by the sacrifice of himself wherein he answered and fulfilled all the typical sacrifices of the Law That unto this end he sanctified himself that those who believe might be sanctified or perfected for ever by his own offering of himself That in the Gospel he is proposed as lifted up and crucified for us is bearing all our sins on his Body on the Tree That by Faith 〈◊〉 him we have adoption justification freedom from judgment and condemnation with a right and title unto Eternal Life That those who believe not are condemned already because they believe not on the Son of God and as he elswhere expresseth it make God a lier in that they believe not his Testimony namely That he hath given unto us Eternal Life and that this life is in his Son Nor doth he any where make mention of any other means cause or condition of Justification on our part but Faith only though he aboundeth in Precepts unto Believers for Love and keeping the commands of Christ. And this Faith is the receiving of Christ in the sense newly declared And this is the substance of the Christian Faith in this matter which oft-times we rather obscure then illustrate by debating the consideration of any thing in our Justification but the Grace and Love of God the Person and Mediation of Christ with Faith in them CHAP. XVIII The nature of Justification as declared in the Epistles of S. Paul in that unto the Romans especially Chap. 3. THat the way and manner of our Justification before God with all the Causes and Means of it are designedly declared by the Apostle in the Epistle unto the Romans Chap. 3.4 5. as also vindicated from Objections so as to render his discourse thereon the proper Seat of this Doctrine and whence it is principally to be learned cannot modestly be denied The late exceptions of some That this Doctrine of Justification by Faith without Works is found only in the Writings of S. Paul and that his Writings are obscure and intricate are both false and scandalous to Christian Religion so as that in this place we shall not afford them the least consideration He wrote 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he was moved by the Holy Ghost And as all the matter delivered by him was sacred Truth which immediately requires our Faith and Obedience so the way and manner wherein he declared it was such as the Holy Ghost judged most expedient for the edification of the Church And as he said himself with confidence That if the Gospel which he Preached and as it was Preached by him though accounted by them foolishness was hid so as that they could not understand nor comprehend the Mystery of it it was hid unto them that are lost so we may say That if what he delivereth in particular concerning our Justification before God seems obscure difficult or perplexed unto us it is from our prejudices corrupt affections or weakness of understanding at best not able to comprehend the glory of this Mystery of the Grace of God in Christ and not from any defect in his way and manner of the Revelation of it Rejecting therefore all such perverse insinuations in a due sense of our own weakness and acknowledgment that at best we know but in part we shall humbly inquire into the Blessed Revelation of this great Mystery of the Justification of a sinner before God as by him declared in those Chapters of his glorious Epistle to the Romans and I shall do it with all briefness possible so as not on this occasion to repeat what hath been already spoken or to anticipate what may be spoken in place more convenient The first thing he doth is to prove all men to be under sin and to be guilty before God This he giveth as the conclusion of his preceding discourse from Chap. 1.18 or what he had evidently evinced thereby Chap. 3. ver 19 23. Hereon an inquiry doth arise how any of them come to be justified before God And whereas Justification is a sentence upon the consideration of a Righteousness his grand inquiry is what that Righteousness is on the consideration whereof a Man may be so justified And concerning this he affirms expresly that it is not the Righteousness of the Law nor of the Works of it whereby what he doth intend hath been in part before declared and will be further manifested in the proofs of our discourse Wherefore in general he declares that the Righteousness whereby we are justified is the Righteousness of God in opposition unto any Righteousness of our own Chap. 1.17 Chap. 3.21 22. And he describes this Righteousness of God by three properties 1. That it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Law Ver. 21. separated in all its concerns from the Law not attainable by it nor any works of it which they have no influence into It is neither our obedience unto the Law nor attainable thereby Nor can any expression more separate and exclude the Works of Obedience unto the Law from any concernment in it then this doth Wherefore what ever is or can be performed by our selves in obedience unto the Law is rejected from any interest in this Righteousness of God or the procurement of it to be made ours 2. That yet it is witnessed unto by the Law Ver. 21. The Law and the Prophets The Apostle by this distinction of the Books of the Old Testament into the Law and the Prophets manifests that by the Law he understands the Books of Moses and in them Testimony is given unto this Righteousness of God four ways 1. By a declaration of the causes of the necessity of it unto our Justification This is done in the account given of our Apostasie from God of the loss of his Image and the state of sin that insued thereon For hereby an end was put unto all possibility and hope of acceptance with God by our own Personal Righteousness By the entrance of sin our own Righteousness went out of the World so that there must be another Righteousness prepared and approved of God and called The Righteousness of God in opposition unto our own or all Relation of Love and Favor between God and Man must cease for ever 2. In the way of recovery from this state generally declared in the first Promise of the Blessed Seed by whom this Righteousness of God was to be wrought and introduced for he alone was to make an end of sin and to bring in Everlasting Righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 9.24 That Righteousness of God that should be the means of the Justification of the Church in all ages and under all dispensations 3. By stopping up the way unto any other Righteousness through the Threatnings of the Law and that Curse which every transgression of it was attended withal