will have Christ's Righteousness brought in here then we must read the words thus Abraham believed God and God was counted unto him Christ's Righteousness for Righteousness I would desire them to tell us what Sense they can make of either reading So Verse 5th But to him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his Faith is counted for Righteousness And Verse 9th For we say that Faith was reckoned to Abraham for Righteousness The Scripture saith expresly Faith was counted and Faith was reckoned for Righteousness they say nay but by Faith is meant Christ's Righteousness now let any Man judge whether we are to believe the Scripture or them Though let it ever be marked when I according to Scripture say Faith is counted imputed or reckoned for Righteousness I do not as I have said exclude the object Christ or God in Christ but say it is not Christ's Righteousness in it self that is accounted by God to be my formal personal Righteousness but that Faith which doth accept of the Lord Jesus as offered in the Gospel this Faith gives me interest in him and right to Pardon and Life and as such is my justifying righteousness in the Sense of the Gospel and that because God by the Gospel doth declare unto me and assure me that if I thus believe in Christ I shall both be pardoned and everlastingly saved I must still urge that Text John 3. 16. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life and let it I pray be well considered for what can God's declaring and assuring by the Gospel be that I shall have these great benefits upon such a Faith but his justifying me thereupon or his accounting by this his express word my right to these blessings upon such a believing But it will be said do you not bring Faith into the very matter of Justification I Answer I shall distinguish of matter of right 1. There is the meriting purchasing matter of right and this is solely or only Christ's Righteousness 2. There is the qualifying matter of right and this is Evangelical Obedience included in Faith seeing that without Faith it is impossible to please God now if Persons judge when I say Evangelical obedience is the matter of right that I intend the purchasing meriting matter of right here they mistake me But if they judge when I affirm Evangelical Obedience to be the matter of right that I only intend the qualifying matter in this they bit right As thus now Persons will grant me there are such gracious benefits as these i. e. Pardon Reconciliation Adoption Acceptation of the services of a real Christian c. The purchasing and meriting Righteousness then of all these benefits is only the righteousness of Christ But now consider me or any other Person as an Impenitent Infidel the Question will be whether as such an one I have an actual personal right unto or interest in these blessings I think it will not be said as such an one I have for then I should be in a saving state while in a state of Impenitency and Infideliâ—y which is manifestly repugnant to the Scripture If not then I must be a Person or Subject qualified with something that according to God's appointment must give me interest in and right unto I mean an actual right unto these benefits which I had not while an Impenitent Infidel And what must this be not the Righteousness of Christ for that cannot be a qualification in me and if not then Faith and Repentance by which of an impenitent Infidel I come to be a penitent Believer And this I would have observed that those which are against my notion yet if they be true practical Christians their practice must and doth agree with my notion To instance in one thing I offer up Prayer and Supplication to God they do the same I know my Prayers will not be accepted in themselves without a Mediatour they know the same I say here I must have right to Christ as my Mediatour by accepting of him and trusting unto him as such and pleading the promises of grace in his Name they say the same I say further I may hope for acceptation of my Prayers for his meritorious intercession if I have the qualification requisite and that is Faith Whatsoever saith Christ you shall ask in my name believing ye shall receive so that this Faith is not the merit of my acceptation but the gracious qualification of my Person without which I cannot have an interest in or right unto in this particular Christ's intercession seeing that is offered up with the Prayers of Saints and these most certainly must be Believers Now are not they of the same mind see then if their practice do not agree with my notion more than their own And it look's odd on 't that Men should contend against that which must be found in their own Practice if they be true Believers Having proceeded thus far my next undertaking shall be to examine a little their gloss upon some of the main Texts they bring for the proof of this their rigid Imputation of Christ's Righteousness 1. One is Psalm 37. 1. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Here is the Pardon of Sin express but not a word of the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self it is said indeed whose sin is covered But what can the meaning be but that God for the sake of Christ's Merits and Satisfaction so pardons Sin to a Penitent Believer as that it shall never be brought in against him or laid to his charge in judgment to his condemnation and everlasting shame and thus it is said to be covered and thus covered for Christ's Righteousness But seeing that Christ's Righteousness is the cover How is it so in their Sense well they say as a Garment or Robe if it cover then as a Garment or Robe Will they say that properly or that it is really and in it self a Garment or Robe i. e. Physically so surely no for this would be gross to conceive it to be a Coat or Gown c. if not properly a Garment or Robe then improperly they must say it is so and so comparatively in respect of it's use A Robe or Garment then it may have these uses to cover our nakedness to defend from cold and storms to keep our bodies warm and to adorn We will grant then that Christ's Righteousness may be compared to a Robe or Garment in regard of these uses considered as satisfactory and meritorious It is for this that a true penitent Believer having his Sins pardoned shall be delivered from everlasting shame it is for this he shall be secured from the storm of God's eternal wrath and displeasure it is for this he is adorned and beautified with the Graces and Gifts of the most Holy Spirit it is for this that he hath all the
Psalmist determine Psalm 45. 13 14. The King's daughter is all glorious within her cloathing is of wrought gold She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of Needle-work the Virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee And so the Apostle Paul Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Husbands love your Wives even as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing 5. A Fifth Text is in Rom. 3. 22. Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference This Righteousness of God say they is the Righteousness of Christ imputed and accounted to be a Believer's formal personal Righteousness but that by the Righteousness of God in this Scripture and others cannot be meant the Righteousness of Christ is manifest 1. Because this righteousness which is called the righteousness of God is opposed unto the righteousness of the Law and is said ver 21. to be without the Law But the righteousness of Christ is not opposed to the righteousness of the Law he being conformed unto the Law both in habit and act 2. By the righteousness of God cannot be meant God's righteousness it self I hope they will grant and if not then from it they cannot gather that the righteousness of Christ in it self is imputed seeing it is a divine as well as an humane righteousness unless they will say it is the humane righteousness of Christ only which is imputed in it self and if so it could nothing avail them for though it be true the humane righteousness of Christ would have availed himself as the Law of Innocency justified him thereupon as a righteous Man Yet it would have availed us nothing at all without the conjunction of his divine righteousness seeing without this it would not have been for others satisfactory and meritorious therefore I conclude that Faith in Jesus Christ is the righteousness which is here called the righteousness of God and that because God by the Gospel hath constituted and appointed this to be that which he will accept instead of legal perfect righteousness and for the sake of Christ's satisfactory and meritorious righteousness will justifie us by his Law of Grace and thereby give right to Pardon and Life What hath been said to this Text may be sufficient to give light to understand the meaning of that Text so much urged Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith And so Rom. 1. 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just shall live by faith Rom. 10. 3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 6. The sixth Text is Rom. 4. 6. Even as David also describeth the blessâ—dness of the Man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works This righteousness say they which God in this Text is said to impute can be no other but the righteousness of Christ There hath been enough said to shew it cannot be righteousness of Christ in it self which is imputed I would gladly have Men to consider what the Apostle in this his dispute undertakes to prove can any thing be more clear than that it is Justification by Faith in opposition unto the works of the Law both of Innocency and Moses But here is the grand mistake of these Men when the Apostle is only excluding works with relation to the Law of Innocency or the Law of Moses from Justification they understand him universally as excluding also Gospel works such as Faith c. which yet nothing can be more express and plain the Apostle is pleading for Justification by Verse 9. For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness And this Apostle at the fifth ver of this Chapter affirms that faith is accounted for righteousness And if so which is express then faith must be the righteousness of which the fifth Verse speaks Well but say they it is not faith that is this righteousness but the object Christ's righteousness if they mean it is not faith abstracted or seperate from its object that is this righteousness I say the same for it is no true faith which hath not Christ for its object But if they mean that it is the object it self that justifies and not faith with relation unto the object here I must leave them and that because I must believe the Apostle before them and there is nothing in all the Scripture more manifest than that though there be neither conformity to the Law of Innocency nor the Law of Moses though a Man neither can nor shall be accounted by God righteous in the sense of these Laws yet where there is a consormity to the Gospel Law we have David's testimony saith the Apostle that Man shall be blessed and this his conformity shall be by God accounted for righteousness And what wonderful grace is it that God will accept for the sake of Christ the sincere obedience of faith instead of a sinless perfect obedience But say these Men if you are justified by faith you are justified by works and so exclude the grace of God The Apostle saith the contrary Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace Verse 16. But this I suppose they cannot or will not understand but think that if it be by faith it must be by a work exclusive of grace They consider not that faith is the free gift of God through Christ and that it is by grace that God saves through faith Ephes 2. 8. For by grace ye are saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God A Soul being by the Holy Spirit convinced of its own sinful and lost condition and its own inability and insufficiency to save it self out of this condition by the light of the Gospel it hath a discovery there is a sufficiency of Satisfaction Merit Power and Spirit in Christ for its Pardon and Life beside a free offer herein of this grace unto it immediately as it is really burdened with Sin and under the fears of eternal perishing and so truly willing of Christ and his Grace above all the World upon which the Soul penitentially renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil gives its actual consent to accept of Christ for its Propitiation Head and Teacher and so to be subject to God in him by the Holy Spirit Here now is the
I Answer Luther in Galat. 3. 6. saith Christian Righteousness is an affiance or faith in the Son of God which affiance is imputed unto Righteousness for Christ's sake And in the same place not long after God for Christ's sake in whom I have begun to believe accounts this my imperfect faith for perfect Righteousness And in the 2d Cap. 16. saith he For the Righteousness of the Law a Man is not pronounced righteous before God but the Righteousness of Faith God imputeth freely through Grace for Christ's sake And a little after saith he wherefore God doth accept or account us righteous only for our Faith in Christ Calvin on Rom. 4. 3. saith Wherefore Abraham by believing doth only embrace the grace tendered unto him that it might not be in vain If this be imputed unto him for Righteousness it follows that he is no otherwise righteous but as trusting or relying upon the goodness of God he hath boldness to hope for all things from him Bucer on Rom. 4. 3. saith Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for Righteousness that is he accounted this faith or believing for Righteousness so that â—y believing he obtained this that God esteemed him a righteous Man Musculus on Galat. 3. 6. saith What did Abraham that should be imputed unto him for Righteousness but only this that he believed God But it may be said they make the Righteousness of Christ i. e. the Imputation of it the formal cause of our Justification As to this if some Men be guilty of self contradiction I am prone to think they did not intend it But now these worthy Men who say the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness is the formal cause of our Justification if they mean only by God's Imputation that God doth account the Righteousness of Christ to be that and that only which hath the form of a Satisfactory and Meritorious Righteousness and so as such for which God justifies us upon believing then there is no contradiction And in the judgment of charity I think no more was intended notwithstanding their unwary expressions which many have made but a bad use of seeing that they have ever affirmed this Righteousness of Christ which they call by God's Imputation the formal cause of our Justification to answer for the violation of God's Holy Law satisfie God's Justice remove the curse of the Law due unto us Sinners purchase Pardon and Life and yet that none shall have in or an actual right unto Redemption from the curse special Reconciliation with God Pardon and Salvation but such as truly believe And therefore when they speak of being clothed with Christ's Righteousness as a robe and garment I would think they mean no more but that it is this which is the screen or sanctuary to secure all true penitent believers from the execution of the Laws curse or the wrath of God but then not this as it is the only Righteousness of their Persons but as it is the proper and only Righteousness of their Mediatour though the blessed benefits hereof as is plain redounds to their Persons And thus as it was for them to remove the great evil that was due and procure all saving good so it is as I have above expressed it the formal satisfactory Righteousness for their Persons by God's Imputation but then not the formal Righteousness of their Person 's by God's Imputation i. e. God doth for this Righteousness of Christ account them upon such a Faith as I have above described personally righteous in the sense of the Gospel and so to have interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life promised but then not personally righteous with it seeing as I have said it cannot in it self after any sort be communicated to Believers although it be in its fruits and benefits I think if this little which I have here inserted was but well considered and our old Divines thus understood the difference would not be great betwixt them and those that are called new upon the matter But the holding ungrounded notions from the manner of expression keeps us far from an accommodation And if some Men will stick by such notions the consequences we have collected from the very nature of the thing whether we will or no devolve upon them though as to such as are practical Christians their practice as I have said must contradict such notions and agree with those very same I have laid down wherein through Christ is their safety though yet holding such notions from whence such consequences flow I know from mine own experience they must be attended with confusion and act but in the dark while yet they may think they have the greatest light for whatsoever the notions of a true practical Holy Christian are yet I am certain he dares not conclude his interest in or right unto Christ Pardon and Life purchased by him any further than he hath ground of hope that he is a true penitent sincere obedient Believer And sure I am when he pleads with God for Pardon Grace and Acceptation he dares not plead as the Merit of this any Righteousness upon himself or wherewith he is formally personally righteous with Christ's Righteousness yet he dare not plead this no but only the Righteousness of the Mediatour Jesus Christ without him as the merit of Pardon Grace and acceptation and this includes the whole that can come within a Christians practice upon this matter I dare appeal to any practical Christian herein And though this be that I hold in this point yet saith this Man if this opinion prevail both Law and Gospel is overthrown truth and saving light extinguished and we lose our Crown and that which we have laboured for This as much as if he had said that which must and will be found in every true and real Christian's practice if this prevail both Law and Gospel is overthrown c. And not having done enough he adds and many Holy Men of God lose that they have laboured for and lost their lives What a Man is this did he ever know or hear or read of any of the Holy Men of God who lost their lives for the opposing such notions the practice of which as Holy Men must unavoidably be found in their own practice Let him give me an instance any where at any time of any one Holy Man of God indeed or Woman that lost their lives and so suffered Martyrdom for opposing this Doctrine i. e. That true Faith unites to Christ gives interest in him and so through and for him an actual right to Pardon and Life and that no true Christian dare conclude that he hath this union interest and right any further than he hath ground of hope that he is a true penitent sincere obedient Believer and that he dare not plead any Righteousness that is in him or upon him as the merit of Pardon Grace and Acceptation but only the Righteousness of Christ the Mediatour without him I say let
hath been asserted and is yet asserted by some God neither seeth nor can see Sin in his People and indeed how should it be if he account them habitually and actively sinless and Holy for where it is thus there can be no Sin in their Natures and if so then no Sin of Omission or Commission in the Life and if no Sin neither in Nature nor Life how should God see any 5. If we be such as God accounts in our Justification to be both habitually and actively Holy and sinless then we need no Pardon for there needs no Pardon where there is no Sin nor Fault and if we who are justified have no Sin to Pardon then there needs no Confession of Sin nor Repentance nor Faith in Christ for Pardon and so no Gospel Obedience seeing we have the same legal Righteousness as they say in God's account which Christ had and so we must be justified by the Law of Works as he was and thus the Gospel and Covenant of Grace which offers Pardon to Sinners upon Confession Repentance and Faith becomes a meer nothing and the whole frame of Christianity is taken down Well but they may say we are not inherently righteous by Christ's Righteousness I Answer if they be personally righteous with Christ's righteousness they must be inherently righteous with the same as I have before manifested 6. If God impute the righteousness of Christ unto us in it self and so in the Sense of the violated Law of Innocency reckon us to have done what Christ did and to have suffered what Christ suffered in our own Persons then he must reckon us such as have performed the very acts of Mediation and Redemption for wherein did Christ's Mediation and Redemption consist but in his Obedience and Sufferings I speak of this his work upon Earth which constituted his Active and Passive Righteousness And if so be that God in justifying of us do account us to have the very same righteousness which Christ had for our formal personal righteousness then he must account us to have that which is and was a mediating and redeeming righteousness and so to have that of our own by his gift as our very personal righteousness whereby we may be Mediatours and Redeemers for our selves and others 7. If God impute the righteousness of Christ in it self and account it our formal personal righteousness then it is only the righteousness of Christ he imputes as Man or the righteousness of Christ as God man If the former then they must hold that the righteousness of Christ as Man only is efficacious and he needed not be God if the righteousness of Christ as God-man then God must account them such as have a Divine righteousness as well as an Humane to be their formal personal righteousness and if so then that opinion hereby is established of being Godded with God and Christed with Christ and what I dread to say they must implicitly affirm themselves to be partakers of the very Essence of God and so God's Essence must be divided into so many parts as there are justified Believers and these Believers must be made partakers of the incommunicable Attributes of God Now upon the matter to hint it again when I say that Faith is our Gospel Righteousness and that God by the Gospel doth account it our personal justifying Righteousness it is manifest from what I have already said I do not intend only the â—â—NRâ—â— credere or the very act of Faith without relation to its Object Christ and his righteousness though some for all I have said have been bold to affirm I do for that would be no true Faith at all and far then from justifying for Faith justifies as it unites unto and gives the Soul interest in Christ and this it doth as it is the Souls free consent to take Christ as it is to be said in all his Offices upon which the Soul hath an actual right unto him and the benefits of the Covenant purchased by him and this is plain Gospel Justification as for instance Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 31. When therefore any Soul believes this his Faith is his Obedience and Conformity unto the Gospel command and so his Gospel Righteousness and as such his actual right through and for Christ to the Salvation promised Would the Jaylor have had a right unto the promised Salvation had he not believed I mean an actual right must it not be said no Upon his Faith then he had a right and this his Faith was his obedience to the Gospel command therefore it was his obedience to the command which was his Gospel Righteousness and so his right by Christ according to God's own fixed Law of Grace unto Salvation Hath any Man an actual right to Heaven but a Believer if he have let it be proved from Scripture if none have but such an one then the Believer only I speak of the Adult hath the actual right and is it not plain then 't is his Faith that gives him this right To illustrate this such a Man makes a Purchase of an Inheritance After Purchase bequeaths it by Testament or Will to this or the other Person upon the performance of such or such conditions specified in the Testament or Will if the conditions be performed according to the Testament of the Donor then he hath an actual right in Law unto the Inheritance if not he hath no right of claim if he perform the conditions the Law will vindicate his right and the Judge by Law if he do Justice if he do not perform the conditions the Law cannot nor will not give him a right to the Inheritance nor the Judge by Law 't is just thus in the matter before us and the application is easie SECT III. Scripture to prove the Imputation of Faith and an Answer to such Texts as are alledged for Imputation of Christ's Righteousness IF I should pass on further to prove from Scripture that not Christ's Righteousness in it self but Faith as it accepts of Christ as offered in the Gospel is now a Sinners formal justifying Righteousness before God I should have a large Field and might multiply express Scripture Texts for the Imputation of such a Faith but not one express Text in all the Bible can be found for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in it self nay nor implicit Let us consider a few Texts among many Rom. 4. 3. Abraham believed God and it was accounted unto him for righteousness What was accounted unto him for Righteousness Well say they not Faith but its Object i. e. the Righteousness of Christ But pray where have we any such word in the Text and besides here is the object of his faith express and that is God Abraham believed God now if they will have not Faith but its Object to be counted for Righteousness then the words must be read thus Abraham believed God and God was counted unto him for Righteousness and if they
and if they be whether can any one I speak of the Adult have Salvation by Christ who denies these and refuse to give their assent unto them If they cannot how can they be justified without such an assent Being thus it may be said you will have many assenting acts of Faith unto Justification or in that Faith which justifies I Answer implicit I will grant explicit I deny As thus Suppose I propound the above-mentioned Articles to any in order to his assent as I read these Articles if he give credence he implicitely gives his assent to each Article as I go along But then after that I have read them I ask him whether he doth assent to the truth of the whole if he say yea 't is manifest his explicit assent is but one or one explicit act which we call assent But besides assent our consent is requisite to the constituting of true Faith and this consists best in a cordial accepting this one only God to be our God giving him the preheminence in our affections Exod. 20. 2 3. An accepting of him to be our chief or best good that God who is essentially good the fountain of all goodness Hence he is the principal object of our love desire and delight Psalm 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth I desire besides thee And besides it implies a free consent to be disposed of by him according to his good pleasure and a being freely willing to be ruled and governed by him according to his Law and holy Commands 2. A consent to take Christ Jesus to be our only Propitiation all prevailing Intercessour and also as our head and Teacher i. e. Christ in all his Offices 3. An accepting of the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier to mortifie Sin to bring our hearts in love with holiness to assist us in duty and excite grace in the performance to alienate our Hearts from this World and fix them upon Heaven and heavenly things 4. A sincere consent to perform our Baptismal Vow or Covenant renouncing the World the Flesh and the Devil resolving through God's grace for the future to be his obedient Children and faithful Servants fighting against all his and our spiritual Enemies Those who are our Opposites I would gladly know of them or rather I desire them to know of themselves whether any less than such a sincere consent as this above spoken of can bring or put them into a saving justified state or give them which is all one a saving interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life through him If they say less will let it be made appear from Scripture if not then why do they make any opposition upon this consent sincerely given follows practical trust i. e. a well grounded confidence upon God in and through the Lord Jesus by the Holy Spirit that God for the sake of Christ will be faithful to his promises and make them good unto such who reduce their former consent into persevering practice such who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality Eternal Life Rom. 2. 7. Though many times under dark and afflicting providences and dispensations Thus Abraham against hope believed in hope he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in Faith giving glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform upon our first assent and consent we have an initial right to Christ and Life upon our practical trust we have this right continued which practical trust doth include sincere Obedience and when a Believer is incapacitated for the act and exercise the principle or habit is accepted The heart of Asa was perfect all his days 2 Chron. 15. 17. This practical trust is our adherence to God in Christ by the blessed Spirit in the ways of holiness notwithstanding opposition Acts 11. 23. Who when he came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord. Having shewed what a Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and continued Justification or what Faith it is which is requisite both to our initial and and continued right to Christ and to Pardon and Life purchased by him Let us now consider what this Faith includes as it gives the initial right and so I consider it especially as consisting in consent assent being previous 1. Repentance is included for in our sincere consent to take God to be our God Christ to be our Redeemer which includes an accepting him in all his Offices and the Holy Spirit to be our Sanctifier there is implied a cordial confessing and forsaking of all Sin and this with self loathing self judging enmity and opposition in the Heart against it 2. Love to God and the ways of holiness is included for it cannot be that ever any should sincerely consent to be the Lord's and make choice of the ways of holiness to walk in unless there be such a sight of their excellency and amiableness as draws their Love from Sin and the World and fixeth it principally hereupon 3. This consent includes Obedience radically for there can be no real consent to be Christ's unless there be a full resolution to do and suffer whatsoever he calls us unto this consent we speak of brings Christ and Souls into the Relation of Master and Servants and there cannot be a real consent to be Christ's Servants unless there be a willingness to do the work which he commands us and a resolution through Grace to continue in it so that it is manifest that Faith which justifies or gives right to Pardon and Life it includes Repentance Love to God and radically new Obedience and though it is like upon the matter I may procure to my self the name of a Papist I must not for that be affrighted from owning a truth that bears its own evidence before it But by the way I would have such Persons who are so ready to fix such names upon others as they judge may render them odious to consider what our Divines mean when they say that where there is one Grace there is every Grace and tell me where there is the act and exercise of that Faith which unites to Christ whether there can be this without the exercise of Repentance and Love inclusive what hath been said may give sufficient light to know how to answer the Question to such as desire to learn and think not themselves wise enough already Though seeing I am upon this I shall take leave further to offer this to consideration and let it be under correction that where there is the exercise in truth of Grace the exercise of that one Grace I speak of the sensible exercise doth include the exercise of the most if not the exercise of all Grace As thus Suppose we the exercise of true Repentance there must be
are we If it be said not in our selves but in Christ we are I answer if not in our selves then we are not nor cannot be personally righteous or righteous in our own persons by a perfect legal righteousness and so according to your grant the righteousness of Christ is not nor cannot be our formal personal righteousness seeing that that is a perfect legal righteousness If it be said we are personally righteous in the sense of the Law of Innocency in Christ then we must be righteous in our selves and this contradicts the former that we are not thus righteous in our selves for how can a Man be righteous in his person but he must be righteous in himself Find me who can the person of a Man without the nature of a Man and further to say we are perfectly legally righteous in another suppose by imputation or in God's account in our own Persons is to say that God accounts us to he perfectly legally righteous in our selves â— for so he must if he account us thus righteous in our own Persons and not to be perfectly legally righteous in our selves because only so in another and not in our selves and does this become the infiniâ—â— wise God of Truth Now then if Justification be a Law act or the act of God as Legislator by his Law and it is not nor cannot be the act of God by the Law of Innocency then we must either have another Law and such a righteousness as is a conformity to that Law or else we must have no Justification And look what Law it is conformity to which gives us for the sake of Christ a right to Pardon and Life that conformity must be our justifying righteousness and God by this Law doth judge assert or account which is all one with â—mpâ—tation that we have a right for Christ's Merits sake to the priviledges above mentioned what Law now can this be but the Law of Grace the Gospâ—â— called the Law of Faith because it commands Faith and threatens damnation in case of unbelief and promises â—or Christ's sake Pardon and Life upon believing Johâ— â— 16. This Faith is a practical Faith and so includes the whole of what the Gospel commands and consequently repentance and sincere obedience to 〈…〉 of the Moral Law Isa 55. 3. for I am for from thinking that a notional Faith is a 〈…〉 â—â—ne manifest it is that God by his Law 〈…〉 justifies us for the â—â—isfaction and merits of Christ upon conformity hereunto and this conformity in our personal righteousness or that which gives us right by this Law to the benefits respecting eternal Salvation which Christ hath purchased and thus it must be unless Persons will say and prove that to justifie is not to have a right in Law and then Justification must not be a Law act if it be granted it is then this right must be a righteousness and the righteousness of our persons as we through God's Grace in our own persons do yield conformity to it But some may say it must 〈◊〉 sinless perfect righteousness which must justifie us but Faith is no such righteousness This Objection speaks great Ignorance in the Objectors 1. Of the nature of the two Covenants i. e. the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace and 2. Of the nature of Justification or justifying righteousness as it is jus secundum legem a right in Law But to the Objection I Answer If you speak of Justification by the Law of Works I grant it must be such a righteousness but what do you hope to be justified by that Law if so you must not be offended if I tell you in the words of the Apostle you are fallen from grace Galat. 5. 4. But if you speak of Justification by the Gospel which is the Justification I plead for and I hope shall ever stand by then such a righteousness is not required but faith is that righteousness as hath been proved though still this faith is neither accounted nor accepted for a justifying righteousness but for the sake of a sinless perfect righteousness that is to say the righteousness of Christ God man Mediatour Rom. 3. 24 25 26. But it may be further said faith is our own righteousness and if we be justified by faith we must be justified by our own righteousness I Answer that we are justified by faith relatively or as it respects Christ as the Object the Scripture is express and full for it Rom. 3. 30. Gal. 3. 8. Rom. 3. 28. Rom. 5. 1. Galat. 2. 16. Acts 13. 39. let any Man prove that in these Scriptures faith is not intended but only its object But further for Answer if by our own righteousness be meant such a righteousness of which we are the Efficient Causes or Authors or the purchasing meritorious Cause I deny that faith is our own righteousness but if by our own righteousness be meant such a righteousness as is the gift of God and the fruit of Christ's Merits and of which we as qualified Subjects are the performers so I grant faith is our own righteousness and though we are justified by it yet we are justified freely by Grace Rom. 4. 16. Ephes 2. 8. But the Objection may be retorted when it is said Christ's righteousness in its self or in its own nature in our Justification is by God accounted our very â—ormal personal righteousness doth not God so far as he accounts it make it ours if not then we have no propriety at all in it and if not how can it then be our very formal personal justifying righteousness if he do make it ours in this imputation then it must be ours by gift and what is ours by gift must be our own So that those who are for this strict imputation of Christ's righteousness must hold also Justification by their own righteousness or by a righteousness which by God is accounted their own But again it may be said if we be justified by faith we must be justified by an inherent righteousness and we are not I Answer if God's imputing or accounting by his Law or Covenant of Grace faith for righteousness which is the form of Justification be Justification by inherent righteousness then God's imputing Christ's righteousness unto us for Justification must be justifying us also by an inherent righteousness for the form is the same in both and if it be the form that makes the justifying righteousness inherent then justifying righteousness must be inherent in the one as well as the other But the form speaks that Justification is not by Faith absolutely inhering But if it be said further that Christ is the subject of that righteousness which is our formal personal justifying righteousness but we are the subjects of Faith I Answer if the righteousness of Christ be our formal personal righteousness then whatever Christ be we must however be the subjects of this righteousness and if so it must be our inherent as well as our imputed righteousness Thus then
consequences as is plain from the 15th and 16th Verses This may be enough to convince any Person that hath not drunk in a fixed prejudice that their cause must be very weak who are put for the vindication of it so manifestly to pervert the Sense of Scripture as that a Child of an indifferent capacity who can but read may with a very little ado understand it 11. Another Text is in Matt. 22. 11 12 13. concerning the Man which had not on the wedding garment This Wedding garment say they is the righteousness of Christ I shall give here the Sense of the Reverend Dr. Manton upon this In a Sermon upon this Text he puts the Question what this Wedding garment is To find out this let me tell you saith he First That it is usual in Scripture to set forth Sin by nakedness and Grace by a garment that one place which we have in Revel 3. 17 18. sheweth both thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Therefore I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear Graces are a beautiful ornament to the Soul as garments are to the Body therefore we are said to put on the new Man which is created in holiness and righteousness Ephes 4. 24. And again to put on as the elect of God holy and beloved bowels of mercies kindness humbleness of mind meekness long suffering Coloss 3. 12. It is such a garment as becometh the solemnity of the Marriage feast of the King's Son Christ's Gospel-feast is a Royal feast and a Spiritual feast becoming the nature of God's Kingdom Therefore the â—â—NRâ—â— the Wedding garment is that new array which becometh such a solemaity As 't is a Royal feast it must be something more than ordinary excellency that is required of us at a Spiritual feast a Spiritual excellency Therefore the Wedding garment is holiness habitual and actual which is the glory of God and the beauty of God and his People Habitual holiness Revel 19. 8. And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linnen clean and white for the fine linnen is the righteousness of Saints â—â—NRâ—â— the righteousness of Saints these are those graces which constitute us Saints By the way Observe how far this Reverend Author was from thinking that which is here called the righteousness of Saints to be the righteousness of Christ as some have taken it and Mr. Hildersham among the rest And then saith he actual holiness is an holy conversation Philip. 1. 27. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the Gospel of Christ Ephes 4. 1. I therefore beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called We put on the Wedding garment to honour the Marriage Therefore those that come to the Wedding feast without a Wedding garment who take up a bare profession of the Gospel without newness of Heart and Life which may be an honour and ornament to it are a dishonour and disgrace rather unto it Thus far this Pious and Learned Author And let me add Christ and his righteousness together with the gracious priviledges of the Gospel are the feast now certainly the Wedding garment must not be the same thing with the feast 12. A Twelfth Text is in 2 Corinth 5. 21. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him The meaning is God made him who was an Innocent Person to be a Sin-offering or a Sacrifice for Sin that we for his satisfactory and meritorious righteousness might be made and accounted righteous according to the Covenant of Grace by Faith in him For observe that which is the meritorious cause of a thing the thing of which it is the meritorious cause cannot be the same thing with that which merits it but the effect of it therefore plain it is the righteousness of God here spoken of must be the effect of the meritorious righteousness of Christ or the thing merited by it and so cannot be the righteousness of Christ it self but a righteousness appointed by God hereupon which he will accept as the righteousness of our Persons for the righteousness sake of Christ instead of sinless perfect righteousness and that righteousness is no other but the righteousness of Faith which is a conformity to the Gospel Law which Faith as it is the Souls free consent to accept and take the Lord Jesus not only to be its Propitiation but also its head and teacher includes a real engagement sincerely to be obedient to all his commands and so to trust only and depend upon him in faithful Obedience for the gift of all necessary and saving good he hath purchased and God for his sake hath promised Hence we read of the obedience of Faith Rom. 16. 26. Rom. 4. 20 21. 13. Another Text is in 1 Corinth 1. 30. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption Because say they it is said that Christ is made righteousness unto us of God therefore Christ's righteousness in it self is imputed unto us by God I Answer if so be that it will follow that Christ's righteousness in it self is imputed unto us by God because he is made righteousness unto us of God then it must also follow that the Wisdom of Christ and the Holiness of Christ in themselves must be imputed unto us because he is said to be made of God unto us Wisdom and Sanctification for after what manner he is said to be made of God righteousness unto us after the same manner is he said to be made Wisdom and Sanctification c. Now if he be not made of God unto us Wisdom and Sanctification by this strict Imputation then neither righteousness in that Sense As Christ then by God is made over to all his People to be the Purchaser and Author of their Spiritual Wisdom and Holiness so is he also made over to them to be the Meriter and Efficient cause of that Gospel righteousness i. e. a practical Faith which God for his sake accepts instead of a legal perfect righteousness which the Law of sinless works injoins SECT IV. Reasons against the Imputation of Faith and for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness answered HAving spoken something to the principal Texts urged for the strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness and shewed that they can be no proof that Christ's righteousness is our formal personal righteousness let us now hear what in reason may yet be said against the Imputation of Faith 1. Say they Faith is no Righteousness and therefore cannot be imputed for righteousness I Answer If the Antecedent can be proved in that Sense in which faith is called righteousness the Consequent must be granted But know Conformity to the Law of
that which the Apostle opposeth to that Law he speaks of in Philip. 3. 9. the righteousness or observation of which â—e disclaims in point of Justification or as that which gives any right to Christ Pardon and Life And therefore the righteousness of this Law i. e. the Law of Faith is called by the Apostle in this Verse the righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the righteousness of God by Faith this this is the righteousness which hath Christ for its Object and is appointed by God in his Covenant of Grace to be our personal justifying righteousness This was the righteousness the Apostle would have that he might be found in him i. e. united unto him Very few of our Divines but they hold we are united to Christ by Faith and this was that the Apostle valued above all union with him seeing then the Apostle opposeth that which gives interest in Christ and union with him unto his own righteousness in this Verse that which gives interest then and unites must be Faith and so he must be far from disclaiming it as dung Now if so Persons will have the righteousness of Christ meant by this righteousness through Faith and by Faith then it must be the righteousness of Christ which unites to Christ and so the same thingmust unite unto and give interest in it self But whoever said this But to proceed no further in this let us hear what they have to say for the vindication of this strict Imputation of Christ's righteousness 1. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because there will be no standing in judgment before God unless we be cloathed with a perfect righteousness and there is no such righteousness but that of Christ's I Answer if the process in judgment should be according to the terms of the Law of Innocency i. e. that Sentence must pass upon Persons according to conformity or non-conformity to this Law then the reason would be cogent But seeing it shall not there is no force in it at all That it shall not See Rom. 2. 16. In the day when God shall judge the secrets of Men by Christ Jesus according to my Gospel 2 Thes 1. 7 8. And to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ which Scriptures with others make it manifest the Gospel shall be the rule of judgment Hence therefore as Persons in judgment shall be found such as have been obedient or disobedient to the Gospel so shall the Sentence pass to Life or Condemnation John 3. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting LIfe and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Though know it shall be for the sake of Christ's perfect righteousness that such as are found true penitent Believers shall be adjudged to eternal Life at that day seeing had it not been for this his meritorious righteousness there had been no Covenant of Grace and so no accepting of any to Life upon such terms as the Gospel requires so that the whole glory of Believers Salvation must redound to him I speak here of the Adult unless Persons have an interest in and a right unto a perfect righteousness and so unto the righteousness of Christ they shall not be cleared and adjudged to Life in judgment But the Question is Whether all have an interest in and a right unto his righteousness If not Who are they that have Will you say any speaking of the Adult that live under the sound of the Gospel but such as are found obedient thereunto And are not true penitent Believers the Persons which are obedient if so then they are the Persons who shall be cleared and adjudged to eternal Life in judgment But it may be said not for their Repentance and Faith I Answer still not for these as the purchasing meriting causes but upon these as the qualifying matter of right which qualifying matter of right though it be not as is acknowledged a righteousness answerable to the Law of Innocency and so can be no justifying righteousness in the account of that Law yet is a righteousness agreeable to the Gospel and so is a justifying righteousness in the judgment of that Law 2. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only personal justifying righteousness because all that are justified are justified by the righteousness of another and this other by whose righteousness they must be justified can be none but Christs I Answer I do not deny but affirm that those that are justified are justified by the righteousness of another and that by Christs and his only as the purchase and merit of Justification But then that this is the qualifying righteousness of mine or another's Person which gives interest in Christ and a right to Pardon and Life according to the Gospel this I deny For though it be for Christ we are justified yet it is by Faith in him as imputed by God we are formally justified and made righteous which Faith though it be our own and so our own righteousness by free gift and possession yet is none of our own but Christ's in point of Merit and thus we are justified by a righteousness Christ hath merited and God's in point of Efficiency as he by his Spirit is the Author of it And there is this I would ask by the way i. e. Whether Justification be not a Gospel priviledge if it be as I hope it will not be denied Then are not all Gospel priviledges purchased and merited by Christ if so then certainly Justification among the rest And if Justification give me leave further to ask Did Christ purchase and merit his own righteousness you grant he purchased and merited the priviledge of Justification and you say that Christ's righteousness is the only formal justifying righteousness of our Persons must you not then also say that he purchased and merited his own righteousness certainly yes Now pray When or how or by what did Christ this if you say that Christ did not purchase and merit his own righteousness then I ask How did he purchase and merit Justification And how is Justification then in your Sense a Gospel priviledge purchased and merited by Christ It may be you will say that Christ purchased and merited that his righteousness might be imputed by God unto us for our Justification grant this still you must say that he purchased and merited not that which you call the matter of your Justification and so what you say must come to this that Christ did not merit and purchase that which justifies you and if so then that which justifies you must not be that which is purchased and merited by Christ See then however in this if the charge of Socinianism do not fall foul upon your selves
as to the material part of your Justification Whereas the Scripture saith we are justified by his blood i. e. his Blood must purchase and merit that which justifies as well as God's Imputation of it but will you say that Christ's Blood purchased and merited Christ's righteousness which you say is the very matter of Justification 3. Christ's righteousness only say they must be our justifying righteousness because Believers have union and communion with him This is no Argument we grant that all true Believers have union and communion with Christ but then it is affirmed generally this union is by Faith and communion of his part not by the communication of his righteousness which is proper to himself as Mediatour but by the communication of his Grace the fruit of his purchase by virtue of his righteousness the merit hereof 4. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because this was the end of his fulfilling the Law I Answer if they speak of Christ's Obedience to the Law of Innocency I grant he yielded perfect conformity to that Law both in habit and act But then that this was the end that his righteousness should be imputed unto us as our very formal personal righteousness remains to be proved for if they speak of Christ's active Obedience here it was an ingredient into the meritorious cause of our Redemption Reconciliation and Acceptation Galat. 4. 4 5. For when the fulness of the time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law To redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons Heb. 7. 26. For such an High Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled seperate from sinners and made higher than the heavens And as such it cannot be imputed unto us as our personal righteousness as is manifest And there is this upon the matter I would have considered i. e. in God's justifying you doth he account the righteousness which you say is the very matter of yâ—â—r Justification to be Christs and his only or does he account it to be the righteousness of another if he account it to be his only then how doth he account it to be your personal righteousness If he account it to be the personal righteousness of another suppose of a Believer then how doth he account it to be Christs and his only That which is Christs and his only cannot be mine in it self that which is mine and the very formal righteousness of my Person cannot be Christs and his only because God must account it to be mine as well as Christs True indeed Grace is Christs and his only both as the purchaser Lord Treasurer and the great mean of conveyance but then Christ's righteousness which is proper to him is nor cannot be for communication to us as grace is seeing it is for satisfaction and so respects God immediately and for merit and so the grace of Justification Adoption c. must be the blessed fruits hereof We have upon Repentance and Faith Reconciliation and Peace with God for the satisfaction given to God but we have not that which made satisfaction we have likewise Justification Pardon and Life for his Merits if true penitent Believers but we have not that in it self which merited this Grace It is very strange that Persons should so much as think that that which was the satisfaction and merit should be given to them in it self and that God should account them such as satisfied God's Justice in Christ and merited Pardon and Life in Christ These Men they condemn the Papists for saying Christ merited that we might merit and yet cannot nor will not see that they are holding the same themselves in the strictest Sense True it is for Christ's satisfaction we have Peace and for his Merits we have Spirit and Grace But then to tell of our satisfying in Christ and meriting in Christ as though we might have Peace for our satisfying in him and Grace for our meriting in him 't is mighty gross I know here they will say they hold no such thing I Answer If â—en will hold that they either do not or will not understand what or who can help them But it would do well if they would consider that so long as they hold Christ and themselves to be one legal Person 't is not possible whatever their practice be they should hold any less in the notion 5. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because we are debtors to the Law both to perform perfect obedience and also to suffer punishment for the violation of it Now seeing say they we can do neither so as to make satisfaction and have Justification the righteousness of Christ in it self must be our personal justifying righteousness and so accounted by God I Answer Though we can neither by our Obedience nor suffering make Satisfaction and have Justification by the Law yet for Christ's Satisfaction and Obedience whereby the Justice of God is answered and the repute and credit of God's violated Law is kept up and the ends of God's governing Justice secured there is no obligation lying upon any Believer seeing a new Covenant is purchased to perform perfect Obedience nor can any true Believer be under obligation to suffer the punishment threatned by the violated Law seeing that such an one is actually delivered from the execution of the Curse by Christ's satisfactory righteousness Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit true soul uniting Faith to Christ giving him a right hereunto for Christ's sake and this God imputes unto them for righteousness according to the Law of Grace 6. Christ's righteousness say they must be our only justifying righteousness because Do this i. e. perfectly obey the Law and live is a fixed Rule but no Man can perfectly fulfill the Law of Innocency therefore Christ's righteousness must be so imputed by God that so in his account believers may be said to have done this i. e. perfectly fulfilled the Law that they may live It is manifest by this Argument the Objectors will have Justification by that Law which requires perfect sinless works But let them know do this according to that Law and live or be justified is not a fixed stated Rule to any Man upon Earth but believe and live for the sake of Christ John 3. 26. For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Mark 26. 26. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned Acts 26. 31. And they said Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
and question whether he do or know for where is the Man that ever affirmed that God reckoned that we did and suffered in our own Persons what Christ did and suffered I am sure the Scripture asserts the contrary saying he trod the winepress alone and there was none with him As to that which he calleth a false charge thou mayst Reader look back unto his 12th Article and see if it be not true of himself however there saith he it is the acts works doings and obedience of this blessed Mediatour that are imputed and counted to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness so that from hence he may judge If God doth account the very acts works â—oings and obedience of Christ as Mediatour to the Elect for their justifying Righteousness how it can be avoided but he must reckon them to have in Christ performed those acts works doings and obedience of Christ the Mediatour and what are they to whom God doth reckon those acts works doings and obedience of Christ the Mediatour but their own Persons doth God account Christ's acts works doings and obedience to such as are no Persons God indeed accounts what Christ did and suffered for the good and in the place and stead of and poor lost Sinners But then doth he account them in their own Persons in the sense of any Law to have obeyed and suffered in Christ which he must do if he account the very acts works doings and obedience of Christ as Mediatour unto them as this Man saith for if God do impute the very acts works doings of another in obeying and suffering unto me and reckon them as mine in themselves then he must either account me to have performed those very acts works and doings in that others obeying and suffering or he must not If he do then the charge is true and just against himself I mean this Man who is so brisk and confident If he do not then how can they in Law sense be imputed and reckoned to me as mine in themselves I suppose the mistake of this Man is here when I speak of Persons in a Legal sense he would have me understood in a Physical sense only and whether he do this on set purpose or from ignorance I know not But â—urther having proved that that which he calls a false charge is true of himself from his own assertion I shall inform him of another and that a Person in his day of worth and learning who saith Christ stood in a double relation for us unto God First Of a Surety Seâ—ondly Of a common Person And a common Person saith he with or for another he goes for is one who represents personates and acts the part of another by the allowance and warrant of the Law so as what he doth as such a common Person anâ— in the name of the other that other whom he personates is by the Law reckoned to do and in like manner what is done to him as being in the others stead and room is reckoned as done to the other Mr. Tho. Goodwin in his Treatise of the support of Faith from Christ's Resurrection Cap. 2. Now let any judge if what he saith in this matter be not the same with that which he calls my false charge And in his Application Cap. 4. Sect. 3. saith he Christ was considered and appointed by God as a common Person both in what he did and in what was done to him so as by the same Law what he did for us is reckoned or imputed to us as if we our selves had done it and what was done to him tending to our Justification and Salvation is reckoned as done to us 22. I believe saith he that in this weighty point of Justification such an one naming me is one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers and against the châ—â—f of those counted Orthodox since the Reformation as Luther and worthy Calvin of old c. And Thomas Goodwin Dr. Owen and Mr. Chancey of later times I Question not if this Man had been acquainted as he should what I hold in this point and such as go under the names he mentions that he durst not have made this an Article of his Faith But what will not malignity say and leave all without proof as this Man doth this Article of his Creed It is like he expects his testimony should be received without any more to do and here he is saying as they did in Jeremiah's time come let us smite him with the tongue and I do expect if any thing come forth that will bear the name of a reply to this of mine it will be railing language much what of the same complexion with this though indeed if this Man had offered any likely proof for the truth of this his charge as I do where I apply any of these names I should not so have called it When therefore he hath made it good 1. That I hold Justification by an inherent Righteousness which is a conformity to the Law of sinless perfect Works or that Faith is a meritorious Righteousness or that Christ merited that we by Grace or Duty might merit Let him make it good 2. That I hold that the 〈◊〉 credere or the very act of Faith justifies i. e. as an act Or 3. That I hold that Christ did not purchase the Covenant of Grace or that I deny Christ's Merit and satisfaction and place grace or sincere duty in the room and place of Christ's Meritorious and Satisfactory Righteousness 4. And when he hath made it good that I hold I need no more to answer the Law of Innocency or to free me from the curse and condemnation of it and procure Salvation for me but what is inherent and a walking accordingly When he hath proved I say that I hold all these above mentioned things then I will confess he believes a truth concerning me But so long as he doth not and that because he cannot I must say he believes a lie until he retract and acknowledge he hath wronged me in saying I am one with the Papists Arminians Socinians and Quakers in this point of Justification Touching those he saith I am against in this his Article I have this to say whatever unwary expressions our Reformers and others that follow their Phrase may have left in their Writings with which so far as their notion did agree it was not sound yet to me it is out of doubt that as to what is the main in this point and respects especially the practick part both Luther Calvin and the rest of our Reformers as such never held that any Man or Woman ever had I speak of the Adult actual interest in Christ and right to Pardon and Life while remaining in a state of Impenitency and Unbelief and Rebellion against God And if not then wherein am I against them in this point If it be said but where will you find in their Writings that Faith is imputed or that it is our formal justifying Righteousness
supposition i. e. that I hold Faith justifies as an act whereas I deny it and therefore it is a wonder how Men daâ—e appear in writing to the world charging a Man with that which he disowns and which they cannot prove against him and whereas this Man insinuates that I hold Justification by the simple act of Faith without relation to its object He saith as much as that I hold Justification by that which is not Faith for Faith without relation â—o its object is no Faith How Faith justifies I have shewn and also how we are justified by Christ and his righteousness Q. 9. What is that wedding garment that best robe that change of raiment that garment of Salvation and robe of righteousness that fine linnen that 's white and clean Are these our acts of Faith and Obedience or Christ's Righteousness imputed He â—till sings over the old Song and if he would have an Answer if he will take pains to look back thither where I treat of these matters he may find one Q. 10. If Justification be an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our Sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by Faith alone as saith the Assemblies How then is Faith itself our justifying Righteousness seeing it doth but only receive Christ's Righteousness which God imputes This he hath puâ—me to answer before in speaking unto the 23d Article of his Faith Q. 11. Whether was it not as possible and easie nay whether was it not more easie for Adam to have obeyed the Law of Innocency being free from sin in his nature as it is for fallen Man dead in Sin to believe and keep the conditions of the new purchased Covenant If so then saith he how doth the exceeding riches of God's grace appear thereby according to such an one that â—â— me whom he names What a Man is this to bring such a thing into question Have I any where or at any time affirmed that it is as easie for a Man dead in Sin to believe and keep the conditions of the Covenant of Grace as it was for innocent Adam to have obeyed the Law of Innocency Thus it is in the practice of such Men as this in the first place falsly to charge such as they know oppose them and thus beget a prejudice in others against them and so bring them over to their own party and keep them fast to them He supposes nay takes it for granted that I hold that which yet I deny i. e. I deny that Sinners have any moral power to repent or believe without the renewing and quickening power of the Spirit of God and seeing his supposition is false his Question is ungrounded and therefore is vain and frivilons for whether he will know it or no I affirm that by grace they are saved who are saved through faith but yet not of themselves it is the gift of God Qâ— 12. Hath Christ purchased a Covenant which accepts of that which is imperfect as such an one still naming me grants Faith to be and so morally evil Is this to honour the Law of God or the death and obedience of the Son of God or to set up the golden calf the fruit of our own brains drawn out of the forge of our imagination and dance about it saying this is thy God O Israel that justifies and saves thee Though I have already said enough for the solution of this yet there is in this which he calls a Question I would have taken notice of i. e. He supposeth seeing that the sincere grace and duties of God's People do not answer the Law of Innocency nor are not a conformity in full to that Law therefore they are morally evil i. e. in plain terms they are no other but Sin for he supposeth Faith to be so and if Faith then all other graces and duties Now I grant that although Persons have true Faith and performs sincere Obedience yet the Law of Innocency in it self or as such a Law condemns them for all this though through and for Christ they are delivered from a condemned state so as that the Laws sentence shall not everlastingly be executed upon them Rom. 8. 1. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit And that because Faith in a Redeemer and sincere Obedience is not that conformity to this Law it calls for But then that true Faith in a Redeemer and sincere in Obedience as such are morally evil in themselves and so Sin this I deny for they are both commanded where then or in whomsoever they are found they are a conformity to the will of that God who commands them And can that which is a conformity to God's command be morally evil in it self or in its own nature and so Sin If this were so then it would be all one for Persons to continue disobedient Infidels as to be obedient Believers and this is uncouth Doctrine Indeed neither Faith in a Redeemer or Mediatour nor yet sincere Obedience under that formality only are commanded by the Law of Innocency seeing it is sinless perfect Obedience or obedience in a Subject where is no Sin that it requires seeing then that both the Faith and Obedience above spoken of are commanded they must be commanded by some Law and what Law can this be but a Law of Mercy and Grace which for Christ accepts of the sincere obedience of Faith when God might have insisted upon perfect obedience in a sinless subject Manifest it is that Man as he gathers from others confounds Law and Gospel which sets him and keeps him sadly wrong and dark in the Doctrine of Salvation by Grace through Christ And yet notwithstanding I have ground enough to think that he judgeth himself to be exceeding clear in the matter and looks upon me to be a silly deceived Creature and that there is no Salvation for me if I die an opposer of his confused notions seeing that by what he saith in this which he calls his Question he accounts me no other than a gross Idolater that forms and frames a God intending hereby the Doctrine I own out of the forge of my own brain and imagination calling it a golden calf which I dance about and call upon others to worship By such disdain as this this poor Mâ—n discovers what his Spirit is And though I could retaliate yet I do not think it my way and therefore all I shall say to this which is downright calumny for he cannot prove what he hath said is I wish there may be the like convictions and hopeful work upon his Soul which sometime since were manifest And that the Lord of his abundant Mercy in Jesus Christ if there be the truth of grace in his heart would take away all that which obstructs the exercise of spiriâ—â—al light life and love with relation to
as in this Life is not impertinent as to the intentions and desires of his Soul though yet he may have uttered many impertinent words and expressions in that Prayer Qâ— 22. Then whether is it not time for Ministers to repent of their errors and tell the People plainly their formeâ— mistakes and for Christians to reform their impertinent Pâ—â—ers and never more to pray for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness nor to be found in him I Answer If so be a Minister have further light from God by his word to discover any thing that he hath formerly held and pâ—eached to have been an error he is to be thankful to God for that light and to tell the People plainly of his mistakes in that point and thus to repent The People likewise so far as they have light to discover the impertinencies of their Prayers are to reform Will any wise or good Man deny this But now this Man supposeth in his Question that a Minister is free from error if he preach but up the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in the sense he would have it and the People clear of impertinencies in their Prayers if they pray but in his sense for the Imputatition of this Righteousness because he fixeth upon this after he hath spoken of the errors of the one and the impertinencies of the other But grant at the best that he intends no more but this that if it be an error for a Minister to Preach up the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness and for People to pray for it then Ministers should repent of this their error and People reform in their Prayers in this particular I Answer He would bear People in hand by this that I absolutely deny the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness which is false for I have shewed that I hold it in six particulars grounded upon Scripture that which I deny upon the point I have again and again declared sc that Christ's Righteousness is not so accounted by God unto us as in it self to be our personal formal Righteousness or that our Persons are righteous with it in it self or that God in Law sense accounts what Christ did and suffered we did and suffered in him as he was a common Person and our Representative Therefore whoever they are that hold such an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness as this I look upon it as an error and mistake in the notion though such may be right in their practice acting contradictory thereunto as I have shewn And touching that which he adds i. e. of being found in Christ this is no other but by union with him and this union as the most of our Divines have acknowledged is by Faith But when he speaks of praying for the Imputation of this Righteousness he either means till they have some ground of hope that it is imputed or they are to pray for it in ordinary after they have this ground of hope that it is imputed If the former only then it must beimpertinent to pray for it in ordinary after some ground of hope that it is imputed And further if a Person is to pray only for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness till he have some ground of hope that it is imputed then according to this a Man is no longer to pray for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness than he accounts or fears himself to be in an unjustified state But now if Persons are to pray for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness in ordinary after they have ground of hope that it is imputed then they either pray for it because they have lost it after this and the other Imputation of it or they pray for a further and further Imputation of it because all the former were imperfect they having not so much of it imputed as they could desire at this or the other time let them take what part they will they may easily find what briers it runs them into and if after fight hereof they will resolve to stick there who can help them for if they take the former part that runs them upon an holding that a Man may fall from a justified state which yet they deny if they take the latter then they cannot avoid but implicitly affirm that they are imperfectly justified and also that there may be a further and further augmentation of Christ's Righteousness in it self it being only imputed by degrees both which they will deny and further it implies that Christ's Righteousness is divisible in its own nature If they say that Persons are not to pray for the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness after ground of hope that it is imputedâ— then for any of these to pray for it their Prayers must be impertinent Lord what a jumble is here for my part when I pray I hope both to have the sins pardoned that attend me in the duty and to have the duty accepted onâ—â— for the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of 〈◊〉 blessed Mediatour and this is the simple and plain truth in this matter and satisfied I am this is it that is in the practice of every sincere Soul in this duty and which agrees with Gospel simplicity whereas the other notion as is manifest is strangely complicated and confused and draws after it such consequences as the abettors themselves will not own but are ashamed of Q. 23. Is the promulgation of the Covenant of grace in absolute or conditional promises If in absolute then how is the Covenant conditional I have said enough to this before under his 13th Question Q. 24. Is not the Covenant of grace and that which some call the Covenant of Redemption one and the same in matter and substance or hath God properly made any more Covenants than two for Salvation and Life commonly called the Covenant of â—â—orks and Covenant of Grace I have said that under the 6th Article of his Creed which may be a sufficient Answer to this to which I remit the Reader and also in other places have made it manifest that the Covenant of grace through and for Christ the purchaser is made by God with Believers who are under it as actual consenters But if all this will not do let it be further observed that we find in Scripture the Fathers designation or appointing his Son our Lord and Saviour to the office of Redeemer where it is said him hath God the Father sealed John 6. 27. and that he was foreâ—ordained before the foundation of the World for to be our Redeemer yea and to redeem us with the price of his precious blood 1 Peter 1. 18 19 20. and received a commandment from his Father for the laying down of his Life John 10. 18. Christ agrees hereunto is willing to undertake for Sinners become their Mediatour pay the price of their Redemption and thus he consented And doth not this much include the foâ—m of a Covenant and such a Covenant as could not be made with us in Christ but was peculiar to him as Redeemer and Mediatour
Christ only meritorious of these Wherein now do I contradict these Holy Martyrs in this And whereas he saith that these Men sealed the Doctrine contrary to Winchester's and so to mine which he would make to be of the same piece with his with their dearest Blood he insinuates the cause of their Death to have been known unto them when yet they themselves enquired after the cause and could have no account as to any particular in this matter of which this Man speaks But he hath not done yet I must have another cast of his Office before he leave this his Question and that is that really and in truth he doubts whether I hold any Imputation of Christ's Righteousness at all in a Protestant sense So that in his account he must be no Protestant that holds that God reckons the satisfactory and meritorious Righteousness of Christ to have been for our Redemption and Salvation or to have been the merit of the Covenant of Grace and the promised benefits thereof to â—â—evers or to have been the merit of the acceptation â—â—eir grace and duty c. And if he be no Protestant that holds these things then those that hold things concontradictory unto them must be the only Protestants for aut hoc aut ejus contradictorium and who can these be but the Socinians So that plain it is none are Protestants with this Man but such as to this point Thus I have done with his Interrogatories The next province he hath entered upon hath been to transcribe Mr. Troughton's Theses and Antitheses to which there is enough said already in answer so that to speak to these particularly will be but actum agere to do that which is already done But for all that Mr. Troughton hath said in his Book to render the Doctrine I have been insisting upon and according to my weak ability vindicating odious Yet if I mistake not Page 121 saith he Faith is the means whereby the obedience and death of Christ is applied to us not saith he by a physical but a moral application giving us a right to all the benefits of them Benefits of what why of Christ's obedience and death So that plain it is Christ's Righteousness which he makes consist in his active and passive obedience is not made over to us quoth he by physical application i. e. not in it self or in its own nature but by a moral Faith as a moral means giving us a right to all the benefits of them i. e. of his obedience and death And what can be more fully said to our purpose or on our part than this And he adds God having promised Salvation upon the account of his Son's satisfaction to all that come to him and believe in him Page 122 he saith there being but these two ways by which Man can be saved either by fulfilling the Law of God or in case of Sin by fleeing unto and trusting in the mercy of God if so then Faith must give the interest Pag. 23. Faith is not a proper condition but a qualification capacitating the Soul to receive benefit of Christ appointed by God for that use and having the promise of success Man being a rational Creature cannot be taken into God's favour without his own consent nor can he be made partaker of any promise without accepting of it and 〈◊〉 ing in it An heir saith he further if he live not 〈◊〉 lack understanding cannot inherit the estate though never so absolutely purchased and yet life and discretion are not conditions of the purchase mark here he only denies Faith to be a meriting or purchasing condition and he doth well but qualifications of the subject necessary to enjoy it it is well if he and some do not part for this but he goes on these qualifications are not in Men's power as Faith is in Christ's power to give it very good still true he having purchased faith and perseverance for all those he died for which binders not his purchase from being full and absolute whereas to suspend it upon any condition doth not make it not full We will not differ about a term seeing he fairly grants the thing i. e. that faith is a qualification capacitating the Soul to receive benefit by Christ and is a moral means giving right to the benefits of Christ's obedience and death which is only made ours in its benefits hereby by which he must grant an Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us only in its fruits and effects Towards the Conclusion saith he I mean the Man I have had to deal with you may as well seek to rend the skin from my flesh as cause me to let go Christs imputed Righteousness I may not I dare not c. If he mean in it self he will find it neither is nor can be his so neither doth God account it to us after a Physical sort and therefore he need not fear that any should robb him of this for no Man can take away that from another that he neither hath nor is ever like to have Christ's Righteousness is his own proper to him and it is for this we have the application of saving good upon repentance and faith but it is not for us to be made righteous with in our own persons If it be in it self for impetration it is not in it self or in its own nature for application i. e. to be applied unto us but only in its benefits upon Faith Here he brings in one that respect and reverence forbids me to name saying Christ's Righteousness imputed is the sweetest word in all the Scriptures yea and saith this Man again we find the Apostle expressing the same ten times in the 4th Chapter of the Romans when yet there is no such expression in all the Bible it is a wonder how Men dare say that God in his word saith such a thing expresly when yet no such expression is there to be found I have made it evident that I deny not the thing in a sound sense but so as some Men will have it this I must deny for reasons already given Thus I am brought nigh to the Conclusion of this work which I have endeavoured to perform according to the rule and line of the Holy Scripture I impose nothing herein upon any 〈◊〉 desire the Readers to lay aside prejudice and judge acâ—â—â—â—ing as matters herein contained will bear weight in 〈◊〉 ballance of the Sanctuary imploring the conduct of the Holy Spirit which leads into all that is truth And if any shall account it their concern to oppose judging me to be Heterodox I desire they will produce argument and this particular and distinct and such as may be concordant to the Sacred Text and carry in it convincing evidence that hereby I having a discovery of my mistake for I have not attained to a state of sinless unerring perfection though at the present I am satisfied touching the substance of what is mine that it is truth may learn more for