armed with authority from Heaven as by that means it does and when the Laws and Statutes of that Kingdom shall be produced laid open and urged to make it good and enforce it The Scriptures themselves will be found of more authority in the Consciences of men than the best words men can speak though never so rational and true In a word as Apollos was a man mighty in the Scriptures so he mightily convinced his hearers by the Scriptures Acts 18.24 28. I need not mention unto you how much it was St. Paul's manner to reason out of the Scriptures of the old Testament before those of the New were in being when he had to do with those that owned them Acts 17.2 and 28.23 Nor how our Lord Christ himself collected and brought together the things concerning himself which were scattered up and down in Moses and the Prophets and expounded them to his Disciples and thereby opened their understandings and caused their hearts to burn within them and that I think is not unlike the operation of the Motives of the Gospel I have been speaking of Luke 24.27 32 45 46. There is one thing more which I must add to obviate an objection and another to explain and confirm something I have asserted I know some and perhaps your self will be ready to object That the tenour of my reasoning touching God's imputing Faith it self and other inherent Grace for Righteousness in justifying men tends to confound Justification and Sanctification and to make them all one But that follows not at all For Sanctification is the constituting or making men Evangelically righteous or holy by the joint operation of God's Holy Spirit and the Evangelical Doctrine but Justification is God's pronouncing or declaring them as he doth in the Gospel to be righteous according to the terms of the Gospel as having performed the condition upon which forgiveness of Sin and eternal Life are therein promised Justification is a Juridical act of God as Judge which doth not make a man righteous as sanctification doth but upon tryal pronounceth him to be so and by it the person tried is acquited and discharged from the accusation of unbelief impenitency and wilful disobedience to the Gospel and so also from Condemnation it self So that Justification is not Sanctification but supposeth it as antecedent thereunto at least in order of nature Whom he called them he also justified saith St. Paul and whom he justified them he also glorified Rom. 8.30 He doth not say whom he justified them he also sanctified but them also he glorified Sanctification is not brought in between Justification and Glorification in that golden Chain but is placed in order as going before both in effectual calling The other thing I would add for explanation and confirmation is this Whereas I have said that the Faith which is imputed for Righteousness is comprehensive of Repentance and Obedience to the Gospel Now least you should not be satisfied therewith I shall give you this plain account why we cannot reasonably understand otherwise For the Scripture doth exclude such from sharing in the saving benefits of the Covenant as are impenitent unregenerate and disobedient to the Gospel Luke 13.3 Joh. 3.3 Rom. 2.8 And if so then no man can share in those saving benefits whereof Justification is one until his Faith doth produce Repentance Regeneration and Obedience unless you will suppose that which no man does that these are no efffects of Faith For he that believes is born of God is to a degree renewed to his likeness 1 John 5.1 And when I say thus I am not of opinion that men cannot be justified until they have fulfilled some time in a course of holy living and new obedience internal and external But when a man so believes as that such a real change is thereby wrought in the heart as is the beginning of a new life for the present and the foundation of a holy life for the future then undoubtedly he passeth out of an unjustified into a justified state This change in the mind and will by means of Faith doth first constitute a man a good man and when this change first takes place then God's Laws are first put into the mind and written in the heart upon which God promiseth in the New Covenant to be our God and that we shall be his People and that he will be merciful to our unrighteousness and our sins and iniquities to remember no more Hebr. 8.10 12. and 10.16 17. And it is observable that the qualification upon which God in the New Covenant here mentioned promiseth to be our God and to forgive our sins is not mentioned under the Name or Notion of Faith or Believing but of having the Divine Laws put into the mind and written in the heart Which would be somewhat strange if this writing the Law in the heart were no part of the Condition without which God will not vouchsafe unto any man that great benefit of the Covenant Justification There is no doubt indeed but that though Faith be not here mentioned yet it is supposed and implyed in as much as without it the Law cannot be written in the heart in the sense we speak of it now But then when at other times Faith only is mentioned as that which qualifies men for Justification and as the Condition of the promise of Pardon and Salvation yet then this writing of the Law in the heart is also to be understood For it is not to be imagined that the putting of the Law into the mind and writing it in the heart would be mentioned in a description of the tenour of the New Covenant as that qualification upon which God will be our God take us for his people and forgive our sins which imply Justification if any Faith or Faith in any respect short of producing this effect would be available and sufficient unto Justification It 's true the Scripture in some places tells us that Faith is imputed for Righteousness without telling us what or what manner of Faith this is But then in other places it is plainly described to us by the nature of its operation as that it purifieth the heart Acts 15.9 worketh by love Gal. 5.6 overcometh the world 1 John 5.4 and sanctifieth the whole man Acts 26.18 We see then that the inseparable effects of Faith as here the writing of the Law in the heart are sometimes mentioned as those things which qualifie us for the blessing of the Covenant and sometimes Faith it self only But if we will take the whole testimony of the Scriptures together we shall find that both are intended And why then should we contend as some do about dividing these in qualifying us for Justification as parts of that Evangelical Righteousness which will be imputed to us for Righteousness After all this let me tell you Sir That there is a sense in which it is not disagreeable to the Scripture to say that a man is justified by such acts of
F. undertakes to defend therefore Mr. F. insinuates to his Reader that Mr. S's Notion doth imply unless he will allow that we are Justified by being made righteous by the perfect Righteousness of Christ imputed to us such a Justification as cannot be properly so called nor maintained to be such without perverting the Scriptures from their plain and proper sense to that which is but so Metaphorically And to this end he takes it for granted that Justification in Mr. S's Notion of it contains in it remission of Sins and then argues that remission of Sin is not Justification in a proper sense and consequently that Mr. S's Notion of justification cannot be made good from the Scriptures without understanding them in an improper sense But if Mr. F. would have done this designed business indeed against Mr. S. he should have done one of these two things which yet he hath not done Either first shewed that Mr. S. hath defined justification by pardon of sin or Secondly that according to his Notion of it it must be so defined neither of which he hath done that I finde And therefore he doth but beat the air while he would have his Reader think he is beating Mr. S. That pardon of sin is promised in the Covenant of Grace to those that believe and obey the Gospel Mr. S. doth indeed assert and that according to the Scriptures and this pardon when vouchsafed doth discharge us from whatever lay against us either from Law or Gospel and is called in Scripture a not mentioning our sins unto us Ezek. 33.16 the remembring them no more Heb. 10.17 a not imputing of them Rom. 4.8 2. Cor. 5.19 but then these are two distinct things to justifie a person against an accusation of not believing and obeying the Gospel and the conferring upon him the benefits promised to those that have If they be not different but one and the same thing then the giving of eternal life it self is an assentiall part of our justification as well as the forgiveness of our sins for that as well as the forgiveness of sins is promised to those who believe and obey the Gospel And I think no man yet ever asserted that the giving of eternal life was justification it self but a benefit promised to those who are justified according to St. Paul Rom. 8.30 Whom he Justified them he also glorified Justification is God's imputing righteousness to men or their faith to them for righteousness and thus Abraham was justified by having his faith imputed to him for righteousness But pardon of sin is his not imputing to them their Trespasses and I must needs say I cannot apprehend how the imputation of faith for righteousness and the non-imputation of sin can be all one God in justifing men avoucheth and pronounceth them to be such as to whome he hath promised pardon that is true believers such as have performed the condition of the promise But then the counting of this performance of the condition for righteousness unto them is one thing and the conferring on them the benefit promised on that condition is another as I said If God had promised pardon only upon account of what Christ hath done and suffered for Sinners without any condition to be performed on their part then they would have had title to pardon without the justification I speak of But since it is otherwise a man's title to pardon is not cleared without being justified in order thereto as a performer of the condition Moreover the clearing the equity of God's proceeding in pardoning some and not other some depends upon this viz. That he can justifie one sort to be such as have repented and performed the condition on which he promised pardon whereas he cannot do so concerning the other Ezek. 18. And when I consider this I cannot see but that we have as much reason to think it meet and necessary that there should be such a difference between justification and pardon as hath been intimated as there is to believe that its fit and necessary that the reason and equity of god's proceedings should be cleared before Angels and men in pardoning some and not others And if this be found agreeable to reason then you have an evidence from the reason and nature of the thing why it should be so as well as from the Scriptures to shew that it is so Yet it s very true also that there is so very close and inseparable a connexion between Justification and Remission of Sin as that the Scripture which does not alwayes nicely difference things which yet are distinguishable but sometimes terms things by the same name which differ only but in some respect and sometimes denotes things of the same nature by different phrases and forms of speech I say the connexion between Justification and Remission is so close and inseparable as that the Scripture sometimes speakes of them promiscuously scarcely leaving any difference to be discerned between them which I conceive hath led so many to place Justification in Remission of Sin as are of that Judgement Such is Rom. 4.6 7. for one where the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth Righteousness without works is thus described by David as St. Paul saith reciting his words saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Where you will hardly perceive any difference made between the imputation of Righteousnes and forgiveness of Sins unless we distinguish between righteousness imputed and the blessedness of haveing sin pardoned as consecuent upon it which I think may very well be done For the Apostle doth not say that David describes the Justification of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness withont works when he saith Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven but the blessedness of such a person who is so justified or to whom righteousness is imputed Which blessedness he placeth in the forgiveness of sins and being restored to the Divine favour So that these words of David as I said are not a description of Justification but of the blessedness a man comes to be possessed of by being justified The reason and design of the Apostle in reciting these words of David I shall shew afterwards Again Acts 13.39 is another such Scripture where it 's said that by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Where to be justified and to be delivered from the desert of sin seem to be the same Unless you will distinguish as well you may between that from which we are delivered to wit the obligation to Punishment and that by meanes whereof we come so to be delivered to wit our being justified and then to be justified from those things signifies no more here than by justification to come to be pardoned and so delivered from condemnation But if you will understand Justification in a large sense as comprehending and taking in with it its effects in which sense faith
guilt of Sin that hath not been accessary to the fault For guilt implyes two things a fault committed by him that is guilty of it and the being under an obligation thereby to suffer the punishment due to it and this obligation of a guilty person to suffer proceeds from the demerit of his fault or crime And will Mr. F. say that Christ was guilty of our Sins by being in the fault Or that he came under an obligation to suffer by being in the fault and from the demerit of the fault God sorbid Christ was no otherwise obliged to suffer for our Sins than by his own voluntary consent in concurrence with the will of God his Father in offering himself as a Sacrifice to make an Atonement by his own Blood And after this manner indeed by being a Sacrifice the Beasts in time of the Law that were offered in Sacrifice for Sin did bear the Sins of those for whom they were offered But I should think he were little better than a Beast in his understanding that should say those Beasts were guilty of the Sins of those for whom they were offered in Sacrisice But it 's true as one truth leads to another so it 's too commonly seen men are tempted to commit one errour tō defend another which I think is the Case now before us Otherwise Mr. F. would hardly have ventured to say Christ was brought under the guilt of our Sins and had the guilt of them derived upon him but only the better as he thought no doubt to accommodate his Notion of our being in the Innocency and Righteousness of Christ by having it imputed to us and derived upon us But this is not the only inconvenience that attends this Notion of having the Righteousness of Christ it self imputed to us for our justification and not only in its happy effects for it seems to me to oppose the doctrine of forgiveness of Sin Nay I pray you consider whether it doth not evacuate it and leave no place for such a thing For if we in Mr. F's Law sense have by Christ paid all the Debt the Law could any wayes demand of us both in point of obedience and of suffering for our disobedience by having his obedience and sufferings themselves imputed to us and not only in the beneficial effects of them How then I pray you can we be said to be forgiven by God to whom the Debt thus paid was due Does that man forgive a Debt to me which I have paid him by another though not by my self A Legal Discharge I may have in such a case from the Creditour but no man will say he hath for given me my Debt I think it will best become us to say as the Scripture doth That God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us and not to say we have paid him what in the rigour of Justice he could demand of us if not more to wit perfect obedience and suffering too which the Law in its utmost rigour never demanded nor required We may well and thankfully take up with this That God in consideration of what Christ hath become done and suffered for our sakes for our benefit hath past an Act of Oblivion to remember our Sins and Iniquities no more provided and on condition that we repent of our rebellion against God and return to our Loyalty and Duty in obeying him truly sincerely and heartily as every one doth that so believes as thereby to become capable of being justified pardoned and saved Furthermore consider I pray you That if Christ's fulfilling of the Law be so imputed to us as that we are looked upon as having fulfilled it in him how could it then be necessary that Christ should dye for our Sins If we by the imputation of Christ's fulfilling the Law have paid the whole debt of Obedience which was owing to it we should then owe no debt of Suffering for the breach of it and consequently Christ would not have needed by suffering to have paid any such Debt for us no more than for himself who had no Sin to suffer for Again consider yet further That if Christ hath paid our whole debt of Obedience to the Law by fulfilling it for us and then imputing it to us is there not by this Notion if admitted a way paved and prepared for Libertines to think that then they need not pay it too to think that God is no such austeer Creditour as to exact the same debt twice first of the Surery and then of the Principal too And let me tell you this Sir that I have very great reason from my observation formerly to be confident that it was from this Opinion which Mr. F. now defends touching the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to us otherwise than in its blessed effects that Antinomianism took its first rise among us in this Nation and Ranterism also out of that For how else could it be possible that men should fancy themselves pure and perfect and free from all Sin in the midst of those abominations some of them gave themselves up to but only that they thought themselves to be so by having another's righteousness imputed to them so as they to become formally righteous by it as he himself was save only in the point of imputation I must confess I cannot think that any Doctrine that is of the Gospel indeed which is a Doctrine according to Godliness in the whole and every part of it can be so liable as this is to natural inferences tending to ungodliness or to weaken that which is in the Doctrine of Justification rightly understood against Ungodliness But on the other hand when the promise of the great benefits of remission of Sin and eternal Life is suspended upon our being righteous by a righteousness inherent in us such as consists in Repentance Faith c. this becomes the greatest motive to Godliness imaginable and so comports directly with that which is God's great design by the Gospel which is to recover man again to Happiness by Holiness from which he first fell by transgression But that you may have down weight in this Argument and more if more can be I will offer one thing more to your consideration which perhaps may deserve it and that is Whether those that deny the inherent Grace of Faith and Sanctification by Faith to be imputed for Righteousness in Justification as they usually do who hold that Christ's Righteousness it self is so imputed do not thereby make themselves guilty in some respect and to a degree of the pernicious errour of the false Apostles and Judaising Christians for which in the gross they were charged with falling from Grace with making Christ to become of none effect to them and with perverting the Gospel of Christ For I think I shall make it evident that their errour lay in two things unless you will add thereto their opinion of meriting the one in denying the necessity of Internal Righteousness unto Justification the other in holding an external
Jewish Rites Acts 21. and in circumcising Timothy nor have said as he did that God had received such Christian Jews who yet made Conscience of Jewish difference and distinction of meats and dayes Rom. 14. if a mere perswasion of being under the obligation of the Law of Moses had been so dangerous and damnable as he affirms the errour of the Judaising Christians to be The very nature of the opposition which the Apostles made against the errour of the Judaising Christians in their Epistles to the Churches among whom they were sufficiently discovers to us the nature of their errour to be the placing Justification in an external Righteousness and not in an internal When St. Paul had said if they were Circumcised Christ should profit them nothing and that they were fallen from Grace that would be justified by the Law and that the true Christians waited for the hope of the Righteousness which is by Faith or which Faith produceth he gives this reason of all saying For in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love i. e. by causing Love to God and Men Gal. 5. And again for in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but a new Creature Gal. 6.15 And if any man be in Christ he 's a new Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 And the Gospel is declared by St Paul to be the ministration of Righteousness not in the Letter of the Law but in the Spirit or internal Righteousness which was required in the Law and more plainly and expresly in the Gospel 2 Cor. 3. and that Christians must serve in newness of Spirit and not in the oldness of the Letter And the benefits of the new Covenant of having God to be our God and our Sins pardoned belong only to them who have his Laws put in their mind and written in their heart Heb. 8. And that those who are born after the Spirit by regeneration are Children according to promise or tenour of the New Covenant when as those who were born after the flesh and adhering only to the Letter of the Law for an external Righteousness were Children of the flesh or Legal Political Covenant And this is set forth in an Allegory touching the two Covenants Gal. 4. All this serves not only to let us see the nature of that Righteousness by which the Judaising Christians could not be justified as they expected but also by way of opposition to that truly and plainly to represent to us the nature of that Evangelical Righteousness by which in subordination to Christ's Righteousness we must be justified if ever justified both which doubtless were the true design of the Scriptures I have brought together that you uright see the harmony and concurrent testimony of the Scriptures in this matter By this time I presume you perceive that the difference between the two sorts of Judaising Christians the better and the worse lay much in this one point to wit that the one did and the other did not hold internal Righteousness necessary to Justification For excepting in this they seem both to have been of one mind both in professing Faith in Christ and in holding themselves under the obligation of the Law of Moses for Circumcision and other Legal Rites Now then if that very thing made so great a difference between them as I have shew'd what shall we then think of that opinion by which some better men among us than the corrupt Judaising Christians were do thus far agree and fall in with them as they do in denying internal Righteousness of inherent Grace to be necessary to our Justification or that it doth enter it or is any ingredient in it but think it perfectly subsequent to it not so much as admitting it to take place or to come into being until we are first justified nor so much as admitting that Faith in it self is imputed for Righteousness but only the Righteousness of Christ as apprehended by Faith I say what shall we think of this Can we possibly think the same opinion to be a grievous errour in the Judaising Christians and yet to be Orthodox and Innocent in others Doubtless where this opinion is as practically held as it was by the corrupter sort of the Judaising Christians it is as criminal and dangerous as it was in them but so it is not I confess where it is held only speculatively as I suppose it to be by all those of that perswasion that are Regenerate and truly good For they hold Regeneration and the inherent Grace of Sanctification necessary to Salvation though not to Justification and in holding this they practically hold it necessary to Justification even then while in speculation and opinion they hold no absolute necessity of it in order thereto For the practising upon this better principle as believing Regeneration and Sanctification necessary to Salvation and becoming Regenerate Sanctified and internally Righteous thereupon they come thereby to have this Evangelical Righteousness imputed to them for such as it is that is for Righteousness for so it is in the eye and according to the tenour of the Evangelical Law which Imputation is their Justification This God does although they do not know and believe all this but think they were justified before they were sanctified which by interpretation is to think they were accounted righteous before they were so that they were accounted righteous in the Righteousness of another before they were at all righteous in themselves But God proceeds in justifying men not according to by-opinions in men while consistent with real Holiness but according to what they are indeed and in truth in the temper of their hearts and tenour of their lives I have said thus much to ease those of the opinion I oppose as much as I can For by reason that it is counter-ballanced by better principles in many it is not so dangerous in them as it was in the corrupt Judaising Christians It was in them indeed mortiserous and damnable if practised upon and persisted in because there was in them no such thing to counter-ballance it in its operation as a perswasion of the necessity of internal Righteousness unto Salvation no more than unto Justification as there is in these And in this very respect and their opinion of merit doubtless it was that the promoters of this grand errour were charged with perverting the Gospel of Christ and those that practically adhered to them therein with falling from Grace and depriving themselves of the benefit of Christ's death And the reason of this is plain because the Grace of God in the Gospel is limited and restrained in the last issue and event unto mens becoming Regenerate and internally righteous as the condition without which they shall neither be justified pardoned nor saved by the death of Christ or any thing he hath done for the Salvation of Sinners And therefore those false Teachers that taught Justification and Salvation attainable by Christ
without such internal Righteousness might well be charged with perverting the Gospel of Christ and those Christians with falling from Grace who closed with them in that opinion For therein they departed and fell off from the true Notion and Idea of the Grace of the Gospel and the terms on which all the saving benefits are in the Gospel promised by Jesus Christ Now although this opinion of the non-necessity of the inherent Grace of Sanctification unto Justification is check't and controlled in its operation in those that are full of the sense of the necessity of it unto Salvation yet by what hath been now represented it seems in it self and abstracted from the better principle I have mentioned to be the first step towards falling from Grace in the sense before explained and is of dangerous consequence when it takes place in men who have no such sense of the necessity of internal Sanctification unto Salvation For in such case Libertines and Carnal men will be apt to bear up them selves in hope as is much to be feared they too frequently do that if their believing only abstracted from its effects in renewing men be sufficient to procure the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness to them for their Justification in the fight of God or otherwise of it self to obtain it that then it will be sufficient also to save them in as much as the Scripture saith whom God justifieth them he also glorifieth and stileth the Justification of men Justification unto life and if God justifie who is he that condemneth And in this very respect it is much to be seared that this opinion too frequently becomes a snare of Death and a stumbling stone to many to content themselves with that which is but a dead Faith and some external form of Devotion and Righteousness without the internal in mortifying all inordinate affection and in governing their thoughts and passions and to think themselves safe and in a good condition upon account of that to the betraying of their Souls to destruction And whether it may not be pronounced concerning all those who expect Justification and Salvation upon account of their believing and hoping in Christ and of an external Righteousness without an internal that they are fallen from Grace and that Christ shall profit them nothing as well as it was concerning the corrupt Judaising Christians is a question I think you will easily resolve When we see then how fatal it was to the unbelieving Jews and Judaising Christians to mistake the tenour of God's Covenant and the nature of the Covenant-Righteousness and to introduce a Righteousness of another kind into the place and office of the internal Righteousness which is by Faith it may well make wary men cautious how they entertain any opinion that is in any degree like unto it It hath been a mistake of the Scriptures about the nature and kind of the Evangelical-Covenant-Righteousness that hath occasioned our Disputes about it in these latter times as well as it did among Christians in the Apostles times though the difference hath not been altogether so great nor perhaps so dangerous now as it was then And if it may not be burthensome to you I will very briefly give you yet some farther account of my thoughts and apprehensions of the nature of this Righteousness and of the sense and meaning of some of those Scriptures that treat of it and have been mistaken on the one side or on the other The tenour of God's Grace in the Gospel is to exhibit declare and shew that since man by his fall hath made the enjoyment of felicity and the avoiding of misery by perfect sinless obedience impracticable that yet God will for Christ's sake as having undertaken for us receive him into favour again upon condition that he do but heartily desire resolve and sincerely endeavour for the future to become obedient and to please him in all things so far as he is able with the helps and assistances internal and external which God will vouchsafe and heartily repent that ever he did otherwise and that upon the same condition he will pardon all past sins and future failings also so far as they are consistent with sincerity of Love and Obedience This is summarily the glad tidings which by the Gospel is published to the World And a practical belief of this glad Tidings is that which God accounts unto men for Righteousness as being the New-Covenant-Righteousness And that 's a practical belief of it when men so believe it as to practise according to it in repenting and sincerely obeying in hope of the promised benefits And this godly sincerity is the Righteousness of the New Covenant or Gospel as distinguished from the Righteousness which is of the Law either as that imports perfect sinless obedience or else only an external Pharisaical Righteousness The Evangelical Righteousness afore described is in the New Testament sometimes stiled the Righteousness of God as opposed to the unbelieving Jews and corrupt Judaising Christians own external Pharisaical Righteousness Rom. 10.3 Phil. 3.9 And this is called their own Righteousness as being only of their own chusing and not of God's appointing as the condition on which they promised themselves Justification in the sight of God when he had promised them no such thing And the internal with the external Righteousness of godly sincerity is called the Righteousness of God and the Righteousness which is of God partly because it is of his institution and partly because it is of his operation It is the Righteousness of God because it is of his institution He hath in and by the New Covenant ordained That this shall be accounted and taken for that Righteousness upon which he will accept men as Righteous and justifie them as such against all condemnatory accusations This is his Institution and Revelation in the Gospel in which this Righteousness of God is said to be revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 to wit as that which is the object of Faith or that which is to be believed to be the stated terms on which God will now justifie and save men And that it is meant of a Righteousness inherent in men the rather appears by the antithesis in the next words where on the contrary it 's said the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Where the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men is put in opposition to the Righteousness of God It is the Righteousness of God also because it is of his operation and working in us It is of his Creation and therefore called the new Creature the new man created after the Image of God in Righteousness and true Holiness the Divine nature begotten of God by the word of Truth born not of the will of man or of the will of the flesh but of God And it being of his institution and operation it must needs be of his approbation too This Evangelical Righteousness is called the Righteousness of
Evangelical Righteousness or Obedience as do not take place till long after he first believes and believes to Justification And thus Abraham's believing mentioned Gen. 15.6 which was not until some years after he first believed is said to be imputed to him for Righteousness And many years after that again he was justified by yielding obedience to God's Command about offering his Son James 2.21 And somewhat of like nature is also said of Noah Heb. 11.7 compared with Gen. 6.9 22. But these things are said I conceive in reference to the continuance of their Justification and not to their Justification at first For as those acts of believing repenting c. which do first constitute a man a new Creature are at first imputed to him for Righteousness so all after-acts of Evangelical Obedience and of Faith it self are still imputed to him for Righteousness to the continuance of his Justification To which agrees that reading of Revel 22.11 which runs thus let him that is righteous be justified still and the Righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith Rom. 1.17 But otherwise if the righteous turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth all the Righteousness which he hath done shall not be mentioned In his trespass which he hath trespassed and in his sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die Ezek. 18.24 Again when I say to the righteous he shall surely live if he trust to his own Righteousness i. e. his former Righteousness and commit iniquity all his Righteousness shall not be remembred Ezek. 33.13 Now the just shall live by faith but if he draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him Hebr. 10.38 If then you do but consider upon what terms men are at first justified and upon what terms they continue to be so afterwards you will easily perceive it to be a great and most important truth to say That we are justified by believing and obeying the Gospel These things Sir which I have thus done by way of Essay without regard to method I submit to your consideration I know right-well it 's in vain if I had a mind to it which yet I am far from to impose upon you or to perswade you to receive any thing for truth farther than it brings it's evidence to be so along with it And it were to wished that every one were able to discern when it doth so But that 's a thing rather to be desired than expected in this our present state in this World But it 's Argument enough to treat one another so almost as if we did if we have not apparent reason to think we are but insincere and dissembling friends to Truth and love it not for it self nor any further than it will accommodate us in some secular or carnal respect or other and it is not easie to determine when we have apparent reason so to think And therefore I conclude it safest for our selves rather to err in treating one another in our differences better than we deserve than worse And so to do is better for them also that differ from us so far as they differ from Truth yea and better for the Truth it self too For it is often seen that when a prejudice is taken up against the persons of men be the Cause never so just the Truth it self is the less esteemed if not shrewdly suspected because held by them especially when its evidence is not written as with a Sun beam So that when we by an undue behaviour in pleading the Cause of Truth draw upon our selves disrespect from them whom we would draw from Errour we prevaricate in the matter and act cross to our own design A thing which some engaged in Controversies have been to blame in However it will be our wisdom in reading of Books of this nature to mind the Argument and to take little notice of any unbecoming girds or reflections unless it be to bewail them and to endeavour to follow as indeed there is need that saying of our Saviour let him that readeth understand Mark 13.14 Thus desiring that you and I and all other Christians may speak the truth in love in love both to it and men and receive it in the love of it that we may be benefitted by it I take my leave and remain as ever Your most affectionately to serve you in all offices of Christian love and respect c. 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Principle of Sincerity and of the Divine Nature and Life is made the Condition of Pardon And now if what hath been said amounts to any fair account of the Apostle's scope and design in those forementioned verses and of the sense of the several Phrases by which it is exprest and I leave you to judg whether it doth or no then I can see no reason why by Righteousness imputed without Works we should understand the Righteousness of Christ but rather the Righteousness of Faith properly understood which Faith the Apostle there expresly affirms to be imputed for Righteousness but doth not so much as mention Christ in those verses much less the imputation of his Righteousness unto Justification as exclusive of all manner of Works It is not the Righteousness of Christ but Grace and Faith that are in this contexture of Scripture opposed to Works Nor are Works opposed to Faith neither but under the notion of Merit as they make the reward to be of Debt and not of Grace And when I say this I do for all that with all thankfulness acknowledge and profess That the Righteousness or Obedience of Christ's Life and Death doth with a high hand operate to our Justification and so as neither our Faith nor any thing in us or done by us can do but in a way altogether transcending it though not in Mr. F's way of Imputation nor is it in this Scripture set forth as it is in others It 's true indeed the Righteousness the Apostle treats of in this place is stiled Righteousness imputed But the reason is not because it is not inherent in the persons themselves to whom it is imputed but in Christ and made theirs only by imputation for it is the Faith of the Person himself that is here said to be counted or imputed to him for Righteousness And the reason why it is called a Righteousness imputed may be because it is not naturally and of it self or in its own nature a Righteousness that would justifie a man as Adam's was before his fall but it is only by Divine Institution Grace and Favour that it is so God justifies us freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 It is of Faith that it might be by Grace as it follows Rom. 4.16 As it is by the Justification or Ordinance of a King that such a piece of Coin passeth currant for so much whether it be of the intrinsick value or no even so by vertue of God's institution and for Christ's sake Faith is made to pass for and to be reckoned and accounted to us for Righteousness and to entitle us to those benefits which in its own Nature it doth not merit If it were a perfect Righteousness in its own Nature as Adam's was it would need no Pardon to accompany it as it does and would secure us as well from temporal as eternal death which yet it doth not But it being a Righteousness by Institution and Grace how far it shall be beneficial to us and to what ends and purposes it shall serve depend wholly upon the good will and pleasure of God and are knowable only so far to us as he hath been pleased to put them into promise by vertue of which promise made upon condition of such Righteousness and not by merit of the Righteousness it self we come to have a title to the promised benefits such as are remission of Sin and eternal Life But Mr. F. cannot understand but that it is repugnant to the immutability and essential Holiness of God to justifie us upon an imperfect obedience the Law commanding that which is perfect and thinks for him to do so would be to pronounce an unjust person just But he should consider That God in justifying us doth not pronounce us just as not having sinned for that 's impossible for him indeed to do but as having performed the Condition on which he in his Gospel-Covenant hath promised to pardon our Sin And in doing this he doth not prouounce unjust persons just for they are just with an Evangelical Righteousness just in the Gospel sense and so stiled from place to place in the Scripture as I have shew'd And although the Evangelical Righteousness and Obedience upon which God is pleased to justifie us be imperfect if measured by the Law yet it is perfect as to its end appointed by God when measured by the Gospel by which we are to be tryed whether we be righteous or unrighteous And whosoever being adult is not righteous in this sense shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 69. but those that are thus righteous shall go into life eternal Matth. 25.46 But supposing Evangelical Righteousness or Obedience to be Comparatively imperfect whether compared with what man in innocency had and was capable to perform or whether compared with a gradual perfection of Righteousness and Obedience of the same kind and supposing it to be only sincere obedience according to the present circumstances a man is in Let us weigh and consider whether or no it be not consistent with the Holiness of God to justifie men upon such Righteousness and Obedience when found in them when withal we take in what hath been done by Christ the Mediatour to make way for it I conceive Mr. F. doth not suppose that God by the Holiness of his Nature is naturally and necessarily restrained from shewing favour to men after once they have been guilty of Sin and have made themselves obnoxious to the effects of his high displeasure for if he were we were all still in an ill case and there would be then no such thing as Grace extant in the World which yet is so illustrious and glorious as that it is the very subject matter of the Gospel Grace and mercy are as essentially in God as Holiness And therefore we must take heed of framing such notions of his Holiness as to leave no place for the exercise of his Grace and Mercy God no doubt is at liberty to recede from his own right as well as men are in remitting debts and pardoning offences to what degree and upon what terms he pleaseth only he as Rector of the World hath respect therein unto good order and government Supposing all this we must suppose again that such acts of Grace and Favour towards offending Sinners as do not in the least encourage them to continue in Sin nor any other Creature in the whole Creation that is innocent to fall into a state of like Rebellion as man hath done but are of a quite contrary tendency will very well consist with the end of his Government as he is Rector of the World and with the Righteousness and Justice of the Governour himself Now the reason and end of executing Justice upon Delinquents is either to recover them themselves to good order and behaviour or to deterr others from falling into like Rebellion against God For otherwise God delighteth not in the death as such of him that dies Ezek. 18. Provided then that
these ends of Government be secured in shewing favour the stighteousness and Justice of God will never suffer any disparagement how great soever the Grace and Favour be that is shewed to Offenders But now that God in justifying men upon account of sincere obedience and inherent righteousness considering what hath been done by our Lord Christ to make way for it and to bring things to that issue does not in the least countenance Sin past or encourage to the committing of it for time to come but that which is altogether contrary thereunto will sufficiently appear if you consider these two things First That notwithstanding God is so good and gracious so merciful and ready to forgive as he is yet he would not grant any terms at all of receiving us into favour again having once sinned except his own dear Son himself would take upon him our Nature and become a Sacrifice to make an Atonement for our Sin nor spare him when he had undertaken so to be notwithstanding that great love wherewith he loved him but delivered him up to death for us all when he undertook to become a propitiation for our Sins rather than we should have no terms of pardon granted God's granting terms of pardon and restauration to his favour upon no cheaper terms did clearly demonstrate him to be an enemy and hater of Sin in the highest and so irreconcilable to it as that no Sinner could have any ground to hope to escape the punishment due to it but upon observing that Condition of escaping it the obtaining of which cost so dear In that Christ thus suffered in the flesh he condemned Sin in the flesh as the phrase is Rom. 8.3 and that effectually and with a witness Hereby he condemned it in the sight of Heaven and Earth yea and of Hell too as a thing most abominable to God and contrary to his Nature and to the goodness and equity of his Laws and Government when deliverance from the desert of it could be obtained at no cheaper rate or easier terms than the Son of God his suffering in the Sinners stead no not upon repentance it self without this In that God hath thus set forth his Son to be a propitiation for Sin through Faith in his Blood it is to declare his Righteousness in the remission of Sins that are past that he is righteous although he forgive and that he might be just even when he is the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Rom. 3.25 26. Secondly When God for Christ's sake and for what he hath done and suffered did grant terms of Grace by which we Sinners might come to be justified pardoned and saved yet they were such and none other but what tend to reclaim us from Sin and Rebellion and to reduce us to obedience and of Rebels to make us to become good Subjects And in doing this God is far from countenancing Sin or doing any thing disagreeable to the righteousness wisdom and goodness of his Government indeed so far from it that it highly commends and sets these off The terms of favour granted for Christ's sake are such as these That believing and being perswaded in our own minds that God is good and ready to forgive for his Son's sake we heartily repent that ever we rebell'd against him and that we desist from continuing in our Rebellion any longer and that we return to our duty and sincerely endeavour to please him in all things for the future It 's true indeed God knows that by reason of the wounds and disease we got by our fall and while we were in rebellion we have brought so great debility upon our selves as that though we do return to him yet we cannot do him such service now as man was capable of performing before the fall and his running into rebellion and therefore he is content for his Son's sake to accept of such service as we in this state of weakness and frailty are capable of performing provided we do the best we well can and make use of all helps and means afforded us whereby we may gather strength and grow better and do better and are heartily sorry that ever we have made our selves so uncapable as we have done of doing him better service These and such like are the terms granted us for Christ's sake But without some such Change as this God hath not promised to receive any man into favour Now then if it be not inconsistent with the righteousness and wisdom of his Government for God to offer and promise to receive Sinners into favour again upon these terms and conditions and I cannot think Mr. F. will say it is Then it cannot be inconsistent therewith for him to own that they have performed these conditions when indeed they have and so to own them now for his true and faithful Servants and Subjects to their power and according to the term set in his act of Grace which is his justifying of them or the imputing to them for righteousness such their faithful service as they are capable of performing These things considered I dare appeal to Mr. F's better and more impartial Judgment whether it be not consistent with the Holiness of God to justifie men upon the terms aforesaid I confess I cannot possibly understand why it should not as well consist with the Holiness of God to justifie us upon our believing and upon our obeying the Gospel too as it is to do it upon our believing alone And Mr. F. does not think that God doth justifie us at all or impute righteousness to us at all in one sense or another without our believing So that the imputation of righteousness to us for our justification in which sense soever we take it depends upon our own act in believing and so likewise is the application of what Christ hath done and suffered for our justification suspended upon our believing In what Notion soever you understand the application of the righteousness of Christ's life and satisfaction of his death to be made as whether by being imputed to us in it self or vertually by having our Faith for the sake thereof imputed to us for Righteousness yet still this application depends upon our believing because God hath made that the condition of it without which Christ shall profit us nothing I take notice further how Mr. F. by his Notion of having the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us otherwise than in its effects is led to think and say that our Sins also were otherwise imputed to Christ than in the effects of them To say saith he that our Sins were imputed to Christ in the effects of them but not in the guilt is to contradict all principles of Reason For guilt and obnoxiousness to punishment being equipollent phrases he cannot be supposed to be made liable to the last upon the account of our Sins without having been brought under the first p. 410. Nor is it imaginable let me say how any person should come under the
one in conjunction with Faith in Christ to be sufficient to that end Now whether Mr. F. himself doth deny inherent Grace to be at all imputed for Righteousness in our Justification or whether that it only is so I confess I cannot say But certain it is that he denies it to be sufficient without the imputation of Christ's Righteousness in the sense of imputation wherein he is opposed One while he grants that in reference to the mere demands of the Gospel we may in a proper sense be said to be justified p. 416. At another turn he saith that secluding not only the righteousness of Christ's life but the satisfaction of his death as the matter and the imputation of it as the formal Cause of Justification it seems repugnant unto the immutability and essential Holiness of God to justifie us upon an imperfect obedience such as he accounts Evangelical obedience to be the Law which requireth a perfect remaining still in force and denouncing wrath in case of every failure By which he seems to hold how consistently with what I before recited do you judge that it is inconsistent with the Holiness of God to justifie us upon an Evangelical Righteousness because imperfect But whether Mr. F. joyns the imputation of Christ's Righteousness and the imputation of inherent Grace together in the business of Justification or whether he wholly denies the imputation of the latter and affirms only the imputation of the former I shall not further enquire But it 's well known that those who are wont to plead the same cause with Mr. F. touching the necessity of the imputation of Christ's Righteousness unto Justification and in that sense wherein he is opposed are wont also to exclude inherent Grace as being neither imputed for Righteousness in Justification nor as necessary thereunto antecedently Mr. E. Polhill a Gentleman doubtless of a good Spirit another of Mr. S's Antagonists in his answer to him saith in p. 75. In Justification no other Righteousness can take place but the active and passive one of Christ which answers the pure and righteous Law in every thing And in p. 321. he saith Obedience to God's commands is indeed the way to Heaven but it s no where made an ingredient into our Justification And p. 365. speaking of Phil. 3.9 saith that the Apostle in this place doth not only exclude external Pharisaical righteousness but even inherent Graces in the matter of Justification And the common opinion of those that have gone that way hath been That Sanctification is subsequent to Justification and not so much as in order of Nature going before it or to be any ingredient in it and consequently not essentially necessary to it Now then that which I say is this that if I can make it appear that the denying the necessity of internal righteousness unto Justification was one part of the grievous errour of the Judaising Christians it will be enough to spoil the reputation of the same opinion though found in better men than they were And whether I shall not make it evidently to appear so to be I shall leave you to judge after you have weighed what I shall now lay before you Their Crime was I conceive a partial revolt or turning unto the worst of Judaism saving their retaining a profession of Faith in Christ to think that an external righteousness without an internal was available to justification and salvation The unbelieving Jews to whom they turned in part were quite degenerated from their worthy Ancestors and all that remained faithful among them who all held the internal Grace of Love to God fear of him uprightness of heart towards him truth in the inward parts necessary to interest them in his favour and the blessing of the everlasting Covenant But the degenerate Jews thought an external Righteousness such as Paul had while a Pharisee and such as would justifie them in the sight of men according to the terms of the political Covenant by which they were externally governed by God as they were his Commonwealth would justifie them as to their eternal estate Of which grand mistake our Saviour Matth. 5. laboured to convince them by shewing that no less was required by God in order to that than an inward purity and upbraided them with their making clean the outside of the Cup and Platter when within they were full of extortion and excess of ravening and wickedness with their appearing outwardly Righteous unto men when within they were full of Hypocrisie and iniquity and told his hearers that except their Righteousness exceeded theirs they should never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that except they were born again they could not see the Kingdom of God Now it was to this monstrously corrupt part of Judaism to which the Judaising Christians did revolt or turn rather for many of them were Gentiles because without this their errour in adhering to the Law of Moses as necessary to be observed would not have been so damnable as the Scripture represents it to be calling it a perverting the Gospel of Christ a being removed to another Gospel a falling from Grace a making of Christ to become of none effect to them Gal. 1.7 and 5.2 4. which it would not have been if there had been nothing else in it than a perswasion that they were under an obligation of observing the Law of Moses as well as the Law of Christ For there were many thousands of the Jews which believed who were yet zealous of the Law of Moses and thought themselves still under the obligation of it Acts 21. who yet could never be said upon that account to be fallen from Grace or to be removed from the Gospel of Christ to another Gospel so long as they were really for an internal Righteousness as necessary to Justification and Salvation as well as an external For all the faithful Jews under the Law before the Law and after the Law yea and all the Gentiles too that had this internal Righteousness as well as an external were all justified through the Grace of God exhibited in the universal Covenant made in Christ and granted for his sake whether they had any explicite or distinct knowledge of that Covenant or not or of Christ in whom it was confirmed In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of him and if the Uncircumcision did but keep the righteousness of the Law the internal Righteousness designed by it their Uncircumcision was counted for Circumcision When on the other hand he was not a Jew at any time in the sense there spoken of who was one outwardly in the flesh only but he was a Jew which was so inwardly and Circumcision was that of the heart in the Spirit of the Law and not in the Letter only whose praise or approbation was from God whether it were from men or no Rom. 2. St. Paul would never have become as a Jew to the Jews to gain the Jews as he did in observing