THE NATURE OF JUSTIFICATION OPENED IN A SERMON On ROMANS V. 1. BY Mr. GIBBONS sometime Preacher at Black-Fryers LONDON LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercer's Chappel 1695. The NATURE of Iustification opened ROMANS V. 1. Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God c. THE Words present us for the Argument of this Morning-Exercise with the great Doctrine of Justification first to be Opened and then Improved 1. To be Opened And that we may not with Aquinas and the Papists In ipso limine impingere Stumble the very first Step we take and so quite ever after lose our way by confounding Justification with Sanctification I shall only premise That as in Sanctification the change is Absolute and Inherent so in Justification the change is Relative and Juridical the former is wrought in the Sinner's Person he becomes a new Creature but this latter is wrought in his State he becomes Absolved at the Bar of Divine Justice for Justification is a Law-state 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it abolisheth the convincing Power of Sin or its Guilt Our Business therefore is to discover the Process at God's Bar in the justification of a Sinner which will be best done by comparing it with that at Man's which we are familiarly acquanted with To be Justified therefore implies in general three things 1. The Person is charg'd with Guilt 2. Pleads to the Charge 3. Upon that Plea is discharged by the Judge 1. A justified Person must be charg'd with Guilt Now Guilt is the Relation which Sin hath to Punishment for Sin is the breach of the Law and Punishment is the Vengeance which the Law threatens for that breach And as the threatning it self is in the nature of it a Guard to the Law to prevent the breach of it bidding as it were the Transgressor come at his Peril break the Law if he dare be wiâ—e before hand lest he rue it too late so the Punishment in the very nature of it is a vindication of the Equity of the injur'd Law the Reparation and Amends it makes it self for the wrong done it by damnifying the Person injuring her proportionally to the Injury Now that a justified Person must be charg'd with Guilt i. e. with the breach of Law and by consequence with desert of Punishment appears because otherwise if a Man be pronounced Righteous whom no body ever accused or questioned he is only praised not justified 2. The Person to be justified must plead for himself either in Person or by his Advocate who sustains his Person for to refuse to Plead is to despair quite of being justified and to abandon ones self over unto Punishment Silence gives conâ—â—â—t it argues the accused Person hath nothing to say for himself why he should not be Condemned Our Law you know sheweth no Mercy to one that will not Plead he is to be Prest to Death An Indicted person must plead therefore something in his own behalf why he should be Justified if he would be Now either the Man is Guilty of the Charge or not Guilty I must speak to both Cases and shew what Pleas are requisite in each and which of them is the Plea upon which a Sinner is justified at the Bar of God Case 1. If the Indicted person be not Guilty of the Charge Justice it self must justifie him upon that Plea Si accusasse sufficiat quis erit innocens An innocent Person may be accused he can never be convinced for that that is not can never be demonstrated the Judge or Jury were themselves Guilty if they found Innocence Guilty Now to be Justified thus is to be purely and meerly Justified not at all to be Pardoned for such a one stands upon his Terms bears himself upon his own Righteousness begs no Mercy 'T is no favour to justifie him 't is his due he is not beholding to the Judge a jot the exact rigor of the Law acquits him To bring this to the present Business I shall demonstrate that we can never be justified at the Bar of God by pleading not Guilty For First The Plea is false Altho' in a very restrained Sense there is none so wicked but he may plead not Guilty and be justified as to this or that particular Fact charged upon him Nimrod was not Guilty of Abel's Murther Nay a Saint may be guilty of some Sins which the Devil may plead not Guilty to as grieving the comforting the sealing Spirit abusing the Redeemer's Grace c. yet nothing short of Universal Innocence nothing but a perfect Righteousness a total exemption from all manner of Guilt will entitle us before God's Tribunal to this Plea For whosoever shall keep the whole Law and yet offend in one point is guilty of all Jam. 2.10 1. Because the Punishment due to the breach of the whole Law viz the Curse of God is due to every breach of every part Cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 Deut. 27.26 The wages of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of every single sin is death Rom. 6.23 2. Because He that offends in one point affronteth the Authority of all as is excellently observed in the next Verse For he that said Do not commit adultery said also Do not steal Jam. 2.11 Every Sin hath Atheism in it it denies the God that is above to trample upon the Majesty of God shining in one Commandment is at once to trample upon that Majesty which enacted all 3. Because therby he becomes infected with a contagious Disposition to be guilty of all the same Principle which emboldned him now will another time if but excited with equal Strengths of Temptation to commit any other Sin or to repeat the same Sins again and again though excited with still weaker and weaker Temptations for as frequent Acts strengthen the habit of Sin so the habit facilitates the Acts. From hence it appears That the holy Angels that Adam in Innocency that the Man Christ Jesus might indeed plead not Guilty before God and be justified upon that Plea but now impossible forms Rom. 3.20 23. Psal 1â— â— 1 Joh. 1.8 Secondly The Plea being false there is no hâ—â—e â—pon this Issue to be justified unless there were some defect in the Judge or in the Evidence In the Judge either of Prudence in not Understanding or of Integrity or Poweâ— in not executing the Law might But in our Case these are a like that is infinitely impossible for we have to do with the All wise Legislator himself who is also the Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty and shall not this â—udge of all the earth do right Gen. 18 2â— Nor can there be any defect in the Evidence for the bâ—â—â—ks shall be opened at the last day and the dead shall be judged out â—f these things which are written in the books according to their works
have satisfied God's injur'd Law for our past breach the Law would still have come upon us for future exact Conformity to pay the residue of that Eternal Debt and its Language would be Sin no more lest a worse thing befall thee as a Fellon though burnt in the Hand is yet bound to live honestly for the future at his Peril Now the New Covenant of Grace relieves us as to both these Cases and dispenses with the Rigour of the Law As to the first It comforts us with the good News That the Son of God hath satisfied his Father's Justice and if we believe but in him God will accept of us as if we had satisfied in our own Persons The case the Law leaves us in is well-expressed Isa 33.14 and Heb. 10.51 But the relief the Gospel brings us in St. Paul's Language Rom. 8.33 34. You have both together excellently Ezek. 33.10 11. As to the second Obligation the New Covenant dispenseth with the Rigor of that too for woe to a justified and pardoned Person if he must lose all again upon the least defailance therefore the Gospel proclaims pardon of Sin upon Repentance and acceptance of sincere Endeavours to obey him God's Language now is Sinners be but in good earnest do but love me heartily and my Ways let me but see a Child-like Ingenuity in you and I will put down your upright though imperfect Performances in the Book of my Remembrance Mal. 3.16 and blot out your Transgressions when repented of out of the Book of my Remembrance Mandata Dei tanquam facta reputantur quando quicquid non fit ignoscitur Thus doth the Candor of the Gospel dispence with the Rigor of the Law God deals not with us as an Aegpptian Task-master but as a Father with his Children whom he loves Christ's yoke is easie his burthen light Object 2. If any doubt how it stands with God's Veracity and Immutability having once declared that the Soul that sinneth shall die to contradict it by declaring that He that believeth shall never die but have Eternal Life John 11.26 I answer We must look upon Threatnings as a part of the Law declaring the dueness of the Punishment what the Offender hath deserved to suffer not as Predictions of the Event any more than Thou shalt and Thou shalt not in the Command are Predictions but only are expressive of the dueness of Obedience Nor will it hence follow that we have the least cause once to suspect that God may if he please to revoke his Promises as well as his Threatnings and then what would become of us for there is a wide difference in their essential Natures and Properties In a Promise the Obligation lies upon the Party promising he hath past away his own Liberty and the thing is now no longer his but the others who may if he please release and quit-claim to his Pretensions he may dispense with and surrender his own Right but if he claim his Right to and Interest in the Benefit by vertue of the Promise it cannot be detained without notorious Wrong and Injury which God forbid we should charge him with for he were not God if he were not infinitely true and faithful How should he else judge the world But now the Obligation unto Punishment lies contraily upon the Sinner threatned he hath past away his own Indemnity and given God the right of punishing him I say the Right not the Necessity if God will claim this Right he may but if he please he may dispense with it It is no Injury if he punisheth yet no Obligation lies upon him but his own Honour And that indeed obligeth him not never to dispense with his Law but never to dispense with it upon a light Cause or upon Terms misbecoming his Glorious Attributes And the Dispensation we now speak of is an honourable one for 1. There are weighty Inducements moving God hereunto If he had not dispensed with the rigour of it First He had lost the opportunity of the highest possible way of glorifying his own Goodness which now so infinitely endears him to the World and lays such Obligations on us to admire and adore him Secondly As all Israel lamented over Benjamin Judg. 21.6 that a Tribe was lost so the Creation would have mist a Tribe which is the reason some Divines have given why Christ took not on him the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham because only some of the Angelical Tribe lost their Birth-right only some kept not their first estate but man being in honour continued not but became like the Beast that perisheth Thirdly All Religion had been extinguish'd and frozen by Despair unavoidably if there had been no Hope the Fear of God his Worship and Service had for ever utterly perish'd from off the Earth But now his Name is excellent in all the earth even that Name proclaimed to Moses Exod. 34.6 The Lord is known in Judah and his Name is great in Israel Psal 79.1 2. As the Causes inducing are weighty so the Terms on which he dispenseth with his Law are as honourable which was our third Query propounded in the opening the Point For since Christ Redeemed us not by way of Solution strictly as a Surety paying the Debtor's proper Debt to the Creditor but by way of Satisfaction as a Mediator and Intercessor offering a valuable Consideration to the offended Judge of the World in lieu of the Laws executing the Penalty threatned upon the Sinner It necessarily follows that no Right at all in the Benefits of this Satisfaction can accrue to the Delinquent but upon such Terms precisely as the offended Party and the Mediator that satisfieth him shall agree unto and upon mutual Treaty and Com-promise joyntly ratifie so that Justification by way of Satisfaction provides not only the Sinner's Indemnity but in such a manner as also to consult the Interests and Honour both of the Party satisfying and satisfied and this latter is the rule and measure of exhibiting the former and of making over the Satisfaction for discharge of the Offender Query 3. What are the Terms therefore upon which both God and Christ have agreed to justifie Sinners I answer First Faith which is a hearty receiving Christ as he is tendred by the Gospel and here the Soul quits all Pretensions of being justified by any Righteousness of its own and rolls it self upon the Lord its Righteousness and therefore hath Faith the honour to be the justifying Grace because it so highly honoureth Christ it is the Nuptial Knot whereby the Soul joyns it self to its Lord-Redeemer in an everlasting Marriage-Covenant it denies it self and forsakes all its other Lovers and clasps about its Lord and Husband as it 's all in all Look what a Wife doth in a Marriage-Covenant to her Husband that doth a Soul in believing unto Christ it saith unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou art my Husband Hos 2.16 And he saith unto his Spouse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are
Law of Works Christ's Satisfaction justieth us formally as our proper legal Righteousness I call it our Righteousness because it becomes imputed to us upon our Believing Faith being our Gospel Title by pleading which we lay claim to all the Benefits accruing from the Merit of Christ's Performance to all Effects Uses and Purposes as if it had been personally our own I call it our legal Righteousness because thereby the Law of God owns it self fully apaid and acquiesceth in it as in full Reparations and Amends made unto it for the injury and dishonour received by the Sin of Man We must plead this against all the Challenges and Accusations of the Law who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is Christ that died c. Rom. 8.33 And thus our legal Righteousness required in the first Covenant that of Works is wholly without us in our Redeemer yet imputed upon our Account Thirdly The Gospel justifieth quâ Lex lata 3 3. How the Gospel as it is the Law of Faith for the very Tenour of the Gospel-Covenant is Believe and thou shalt be saved Fourthly Faith justifieth vi Legis latae 4 4. How Faith as it is our Evangelical Righteousness or our keeping the Gospel-Law for that Law suspends Justification upon Believing Faith pretends to no Merit or Vertue of its own but professedly avows its dependance upon the Merit of Christ's Satisfaction as our legal Righteousness on which it layeth hold nor can it shew any other Title to be it self our Evangelical Righteousness but only God's Sanction who chose this Act of believing to the honour of being the Justifying Act because it so highly honoureth Christ so that as a most judicious Pen expresseth it the Act of Believing is as the Silver but God's Authority in the Gospel-Sanction is the King's Coin or Image Stamp'd upon it which gives it all its value as to Justification Without this Stamp it could never have been currant and if God had set this Stamp on any other Grace as Love that then would have been currant and have justified us as Faith doth now Fifthly God justifieth in a proper sense two ways 5 5. How God First As a Legislator Secondly As a Judge 1. As a Legislator enacting by his Soveraign Authority that fweet and gracious Law of the New Covenant by vertue of whose Tenour every Sinner that believes is justified from the Guilt of Sin from which he could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.38 39. This Law of Justification by Faith is God's own Act and Deed the great Instrumentum pacis between God and Man he hath proclaimed his Letters Patents the King of Heaven and Earth hath in the Gospel our Magna Charta given his Warrant under his own Broad Seal That he that believeth shall not be condemned 2. As a Judge the God of Heaven may in three respects be said to justifie a Believer First Forthwith upon his Believing God owneth him secretly within himself as a Person justified God esteems and approves of him as in that state unto which he hath by believing a Title good in Law an indefeasible Right a justified Estate emergeth actually as soon as Faith the Law-Title thereunto emergeth as a necessary Resultance by virtue of the Tenour of the Gospel-Law which only justified Virtually Potentially and Conditionally before every Believer in general but now Actually Absolutely and in particular it justifieth him as a Believer when he is so Secondly At the moment of Dissolution God justifieth as the Judge of all the Earth passing a private Sentence and Award unto everlasting Life upon every believing Soul Thirdly But Eminently at the last Day when the Ancient of Days shall take the Throne and in open Court before the whole Creation by publick Sentence for ever acquit and discharge Believers at that great and last Assizes Sixthly 6 6. How Works Shall I need to add that Works are said to justifie us Jam. 2.4 because they justifie our Faith or demonstrate before God and Man and to our own Consciences that our Faith is not a dead and barren but a true and living one by its fruitfulness in well-doing Seventhly 7 7. How the Spirit But I must not forget Lastly That the Spirit of God is said to justifie us 1 Cor. 6.11 and that two ways First Directly by working Faith in the Heart which is one of the Fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 Now Causa causae est etiam causa causati the Spirit justifieth as it is the Author of the justifying Grace Secondly Reflexibly The Divine Spirit clears up Justification to a Believer's Conscience by discovering the truth of Faith by working Assurance and by sealing a Believer to the day of Redemption The Spirit it self beareth witness with our spirits that we are the Children of God and if Children then heirs c. Rom. 8.16 17. Thus I have at length done with my first Task the opening of the Point which finds its self summed up in this Definition Justification is a judicial act of God as Law-giver and Judge of the world graciously discharging a Believer for the sake of Christ's satisfaction from the condemnation of the Law of Works by the tenour of the Gospel-Law or New Covenant which requireth of accepteth from imputeth unto sinners faith in Christ Jesus as their righteousness see Rom. 3.25 6 7 8. Rom. 4.5 Phil. 3.9 Vse Refut To improve it now which was my other Task by way of Refutation I infer against the Antinomians First That Justification is not from Eternity 1. Because a person must be charged with Guilt before he is justified or discharged but nothing can be before Eternity if discharg'd from Eternity when was he charged what from Eternity too then he will be at once eternally charged with and discharged from Guilt which if any excuse from a Contradiction they are much wiser than I am 2. My Text convinceth them actual Faith is not from Eternity therefore not Justification before God for if Faith justifie us not before God but only at the Bar of Conscience then there will be no Justification at God's Bar at all once mention'd in Scripture for Works do it at Man's Bar. What is it I wonder that justifieth from Eternity Not God's Decree to justifie for then his Decree to glorifie would make Glorification from Eternity too but Decreta Dei nihil ponúnt actu in subjecto God's Decrees are immanent Acts and pass nothing actually upon the Creature 3. A justified person was actually under Condemnation whil'st he was an Unbeliever Rom. 3.18 He that believeth not is condemned already but he could not be at all Condemned if justified from Eternity 4. Saint Paul expresly affirms that the believing Corinthians were not once but now were justified 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus c. Secondly I infer against them that
are dangerously mistaken in thinking that a Believer is Righteous in the sight of God with the self-same active and passive Righteousness wherewith Christ was Righteous as though Believers suffered in Christ and obeyed in Christ and were as Righteous in God's Esteem as Christ himself having his personal Righteousness made personally theirs by Imputation This is their fundamental mistake and from hence tanquam ex equo Trojano issue out a throng of such false and corrupt Deductions and Consequences as these That God sees no Sin in his Children that Affliction and Death are not proper Punishments of Sin to Believers that all future Sins are already actually forgiven as well as past and present that a Believer must not pray for the Pardon of Sin but only for the manifestation of it that God loved Noah when drunk Lot when so and beside incestuous David when acting Adultery and Murther Peter when he was cursing and swearing and denying Christ with as high a love of Complacency and Delight as when conversant in the most spiritual Exercises of Grace that all which God requires as a Sinner's Duty in the Gospel is to believe that Christ died absolutely for him in particular that this is all true gospel-Gospel-Faith and the doubting or questioning this the unbelief which the Gospel so much condemneth that to argue our Justification from our Sanctification and gather assurance of God's Love from our Love and Fear of him is a legal Principle that Obedience to God's Commandments is not properly a Believer's Debt but that all the Obligation which lies upon him to Holiness is only the voluntary expression of his love and gratitude to God not as what is due but what is comely And lastly for I should be tired to name all that Christ hath kept the Gospel-Covenant for us as well as satisfied the Law so that not only our Legal Righteousness is without us in Christ our Surety but our Evangelical Righteousness it self also Now to pluck up all these desperate Consequences by the Root there needs no more than a right understanding of the true and proper Notion and manner of Christ's redeeming us it is not by way of Solution but of Satisfaction Clearly thus our Case to God is not properly that of Debtors but that of criminal Subjects God's Aspect to us-ward not properly that of a Creditor but that of a Rector and Judge The person Christ sustained and the part he acted not in a strict sense that of a Surety paying the very Debt in kind and so discharging a Bond but that of a Mediator expiating our Guilt and making Reparations to Divine Justice another way than by the execution of the Law And indeed the very nature of a Law is such as it is quite impossible that the Obligation either of its Threatning or Command should in a proper sense be fulfilled by any other than the very person threatned and commanded alias here makes aliud If another suffer the Penalty the threatning is not fulfilled Nor if another performs the Duty the Command for the Obligation as to Punishment lies on the person threatned noxa caput sequitur and that to Duty on the person Commanded it cannot be fulfilled in kind by another but it ceases to be the same thing and becomes another thing from that in the Obligation yet it may be such another thing and Christ's Righteousness both active and passive really is such as the Rector or Judge may accept of with Honour and be satisfied with as if the very same thing had been suffered and done just in the same manner as the Law threatned and commanded it That Christ hath paid not the Idem but Tantundem i. e. not fulfilled the Law as for us in kind but satisfied it for us is most evident For 1. The Law obliged the Sinner's person to suffer Christ was no Sinner 2. All Men to suffer forasmuch as all had Sinned Christ was but one Man 3. The Punishment due by Law was Eternal Christ suffered but for a season and is entred into his Glory thus Christ paid not the same thing that was in the Obligation but something equivalent thereunto This being obtain'd that the Lord Christ hath Redeemed us not by way of Solution or discharging a Bond by payment in kind but by way of Satifaction or making Amends to the injur'd Justice of the Law It follows from the Reason and Nature of the thing 1. That God pardons freely we are not only beholding to Christ for satisfying but to God too infinitely for accepting of any Satisfaction at all he might have refused it he had done Sinners no wrong if he had executed the Rigour of the Law without hearkening to terms of Reconciliation Quite contrary a Creditor doth not pardon the Debtor when the Surety hath discharged the Bond by full payment in kind the Debtor is beholding indeed to his Friend the Surety but not all to the Creditor who cannot refuse to cancel the Bond nay it were wrong and injustice in him if he did 2. That none hath or can have actual Interest in or Benefit by this Redemption but upon such terms as God and Christ have mutually compromised in and agreed to viz. the conditions of the Gospel-Covenant above-mentioned See the answer to the third Query 1. The Reason hereof is partly from God the injur'd Law-giver of the World who seeing it was at his liberty to accept of Satisfaction or no hath of necessity the right to make his own terms when and how far forth and in what manner and method he will condescend to admit the Sinner to the actual benefit of Christ's Satisfaction 2. And partly too from Christ for as he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Mediator between God and Man a friend to both Parties nay a person consisting of both Natures the offended and offending he is ingaged necessarily by virtue both of Office and Person to espouse with equal tenderness of regard the Interests of both Parties for he is really concerned in them both they are his Concernments as well as theirs True indeed a Surety that dischargeth a Bond by full payment in kind he sustains and bears only the person of the Debtor minds only his Indemnity doth what he doth upon his Account and for his sake But our great Mediator must consult not only our Impunity but his Father's yea and his own Honour and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 get you hence all you that either yet never did or that do not now repent believe and conscientiously endeavour to obey here 's not the least jot of Benefit for you in the case you are in from this Redemption for how infinite soever the Merit of Christ's Satisfaction is it conferreth nothing actually upon any person that hath not actually a Gospel-claim and Title to plead it before God The immediate effect actually resulting from Christ's performance is the procuring the Gospel-Covenant to be ratified by his Father as a Law whereby Sinners upon the terms