Christ never agreed for the salvation of final impenitent Unbelievers never satisfied for that though he did for impenitency and unbelief and rejection of Christ for a time provided they came in at last He obtained of God not to take every denial every rejection for an utter loss of all for then we had all perished but obtained that God would wait and be long-suffering to sinners and accept them to righteousness and life provided they come in before death They that have a mind to it notwithstanding Christ's bearing their sins may bear them themselves and many will do so even they that knowing the terms of Justification and Salvation by Christ do chuse rather his eternal wrath and displeasure than to accept him on the condition of his love and favour They agreed that they and they only shall have benefit by this Propitiatory death of Christ that shall in this life perform the conditions whereon it is offered and if they finally refuse it on these terms they shall have no benefit by it but the wrath of God shall abide on them yea and they shall perish with heavier perdition with soâ—â—r punishment because of their treading under foot the blood of the Covenant slighting of it as not worthy their acceptance upon the terms of it Which is this new Covenant this second Covenant made in the blood of Christ So that I may say Though immediately and antecedently to the consideration of fixing the terms and making this second Covenant Christ dyed as I told you before that God might be just though he should pardon sinners yet he dyed eventually and the new Covenant being considered that God might be just and the justifier of him that is of the faith of Jesus He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believed c. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Covenant that by means of death for the redemption of Transgressions they which are called that is Heb. 9. 15 effectually called converted might receive the promise of the eternal Inheritance Now it is necessary for your instruction herein that I make out to you these three things 1. What Justification is 2. What the Covenant 3. What the Condition First What Justification and to justifie â—s If you know what Condemnation is you may by it know what Justification is for contraries are mutually known by one another Now Condemnation is contrary to Justification Who shall lay any thing to Rom. 8. 33 the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth If there be a controversie between men Deu. 25. 1 and they come unto judgment that the Judges may judg them then they shall justifie the righteous and condemn the wicked Now there is a two fold Condemnation viz. by the Law and according to the Law that is by the Law and by the sentence of the Judg. A man that transgresseth a Law is immediately condemned by the Law Adam in the very moment he transgressed the Law was condemned in Law that is made guilty the death threatned was made due to him And again when an offender is proceeded against according to the Law and by the sentence of the Judg sentenced according to the Law then he is Sententially condemned First the Law condemns him and then the Judg according to the Law So there is a Justification in Law and a Justification by the Sentence of the Judg. And these two senses of the word can only challenge any kind of propriety one is called Sentential Justification by the sentence of the Judg pronouncing him righteous and one that ought to be acquitted according to the Law The other is called * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constitutive Rom. 5. 19 Justification or Justification in Law which is of one that hath right to be acquitted when accused When the Scripture speaketh of Justification by Christ by faith or to life it constantly useth it in one of these senses He that is a believer that hath performed the Gospel-condition is justified immediately ipso jure in Law-title by the Law of Grace he is constitutively justified by that Covenant or Gospel-grant He that believeth shall be saved hath right to not-perishing and a right to eternal life by this promise though he is not sententially justified till the day of Judgment The Lord grant he may find mercy at that day saith the Apostle By the Law of Grace or Promise immediately the sinner upon his believing hath right to impunity as to Hell and right to the Inheritance by Promise and at the last day shall be adjudged to it to the immediate possession of all those Immunities which were given by the Law of Grace or Promise Not the hearers but the doer of the Law shall be justified In the Gal. 5. 5. day when God shall judg the secrets of all men according to my Gospel We through the spirit do wait for the hope of righteousness by faith that is for justification by faith at the last day But this Sentential justification is to come Therefore whensoever the Scripture speaketh of justification in this life as for the most part it doth being justified by faith we have peace with God But you are sanctified you are justified it is to be understood of justification in Law-title and in this sense it is to be understood here We may say of a man whose case is good according to the Law that ought to be acquitted when it cometh to trial The Law justifieth him the Law acquits him he is justified already in Law and so are believers in this life There is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit The justification here spoken of is expressed by another word in the Text viz. Remission of sins And the Scripture constantly useth Justification in the Gospel-way and pardon or remission of sins as equipollent terms and the Apostle proveth there is no justification now by works but by pardon of sins Rom. 4. 7 8. citing it out of the Psalms Blessed are they whose iniquities are pardoned and whose siâ—â— are covered Blessed is the man to whâ—â— the Lord doth not impute iniquity Observe the place and you will see he useth imputing righteousness without works and not imputing iniquity as the very same Again in the Text justified freely by his grace through the 〈…〉 pt 〈…〉 â—hat is in Christ is thâ—s 〈…〉 Scriptures Redemption through his Eph. 1. 7. blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace And redemption through his blood even Col. 1. 14. the remission of sins Be it known unto Acts 13. 38 39. you therefore brethren that through this Man is preached unto you the remission of sins and by him all that believe are justified from those things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses The blood of the Matt. 26.
the Law for us in this sense so as it is to be imputed to us as if we had fulfilled the Law our selves then we should be freed altogether from any obligation from the Law to obedience just as we are freed from the condemnation of the Law because Christ underwent it as a Satisfaction for us we should not then sin in not-obeying the Law and we could not be pardoned by Christ for our sins in not obeying the Law for they are no sins according to this Hypothesis If there be a Law That if a servant hired for a year shall refuse to serve his year's service if his Master require he shall lye in the prison a year Suppose one hired did not serve a year but another served a year good and faithful service for him Must this hired man also serve a year for himself or he is to blame and Must this man accepted to serve a year for him also lye in prison for him What if I did not serve a year yet another served for me and better service than I can perform What need is there may he say that I should serve it my self Do I think I can mend his work do it better my self than I have done it in him I am almost ashamed to lay open the weakness of them that hold these things after such multitudes of learned Protestants have shown their absurdity How much clearer is the Scripture way of God for Christ's sake justifying and pardoning us for Christ's Satisfaction Propitiation than to talk of our fulfilling the Law yea or which is not so ill our satisfying in Him suffering in Him or redeeming our selves in Him or God accounting us to have satisfied in Him These are Phrases the Scripture is a stranger unto though if they will say as some They mean no more by such speeches but that God for Christ's Satisfaction gives us all these Gospel-mercies I shall only say They might speak plainer And our satisfying in Him is true in a figurative sense though not in a proper sense and so God's accounting us to have satisfied in Him yet in no possible sense is our fulfilling the preceptive part of the Law in Him true for this would make Christ's satisfaction needless Now since I have defined Justification by pardon of sin it is necessary that I tell you what Pardon is Pardon is a dissolution or discharge from the obligation to punishment It is none of these four things that only pretend to come in competition 1. Pardon of sin is not A making sin cease to be for that is to be ascribed to Sanctification which is a real change in opposition to relative 2. It is not making that it should be said that the sin was never committed this is impossible 3. It is not making sin that it do not in its own nature deserve damnation 4. It is not the executive taking off the penalty for this is a consequent of pardon by virtue of justice and faithfulness Yet sometimes it is used in this improper sense in Scripture But it is A dissolution of the obligation to punishment the dueness of the penalty is taken away immediately by pardon and so remotely and ultimately the penalty God being just and faithful will not inflict what is not due what he hath made not due by his Law of Grace So that Justification actively taken for God's act is an act of God whereby he pardoneth our sins or dissolveth the obligation to punishment And then Justification when taken passively for the effect of Justification is A dissolution of or discharge from the obligation to Hell and Punishment or a right to Salvation or a right to be free from Condemnation which is nothing else but a right to salvation It doth not in this Discourse concern me to speak of the further degrees of Happiness superadded for Justification of it self comprehendeth no more than right to what would have been due to us if we had been righteous without pardon had never transgressed the Law for Justification is from some thing as well as to some thing Yet this on the by Greater things than we fell from do come to man by the same Law of Grace by the same blood of Christ and upon the performance of the same condition that Justification or pardon of sin doth As for the meritorious cause of this Justification I have spoken very largely of it already for whose sake merit Cujus intuitu I told you that he justifies us through the redemption that is in Christ and I dare not ever and anon return to speak of it here lest I should confound your understandings I shall after this speak of God's working Faith in us that we might be justified and Christ's meriting of it Therefore do not in your too forward thoughts over-run me as if I denied any thing I come not yet to speak of Now I will tell you what this act of God is how God dischargeth the sinner and dissolveth this obligation to Punishment and so giveth right to salvation which we lost by our sins It is by some new Law or Constitution by some Covenant or Promise founded in Christ's Satisfaction It is some judicial juridical act and therefore by some Law-act I thus prove it 1. It is impossible that a man that is a sinner should have right to be freed from condemnation but it must be by some Law of Grace some legal discharge Such a jus or right cannot possibly pass but by some Law-act If a Rector should refuse to inflict the penalty on a man guilty or condemned this is not Pardon or Justification You may call it Suspension Impunity but the offender hath no right to the Impunity the obligation to punishment is not dissolved by it Yea suppose God should have resolved within himself never to inflict the penalty yet he might inflict it when he would without injustice though I confess not without mutability the offender hath no right to impunity by such an intention no jus the obligation is not dissolved till some lex remedians some remedying Law some Rectoral Law of Oblivion some Act of Pardon and Oblivion else it is only forbearance but no acquittance no discharge no pardon no justification 2. God will be true to his own Laws and will not leave a man unpunished to whom punishment is due by his own Constitutions all things considered but his judgment and execution will be according to Truth and Law He that condemneth Prov. 17. 15. the righteous and justifieth the wicked they both are an abomination to the Lord. He will sentence men according to his own Laws and he will not justifie or condemn pro libitu but according to his own declared Laws He will not sententially hereafter justifie nor will he account justified here any sinner but whom the new Law of Grace the Gospel founded in the blood of Christ justifieth which only justifieth Believers 3. Condemnation is by some Law therefore Justification must be by some Law for
Contraries are of the same general nature As condemnation is by a Law-threat so Justification of a sinner must be by a Law-promise It is a Law-rule that Obligations are dissolved by the same way whereby they are made The Apostle speaking of boasting being excluded in Justification asketh By what Law and answers By the Law of Faith implying plainly Men are justified by the Law of Faith 4. We may clearly see it by the tenour of the Covenants Rom. 10. 5 6 9 Moses describeth the righteousness of the Law the tenour of the Covenant of Works which would have justified men had they performed the condition of it The man which doth these things shall live in them But the righteousness of faith the tenour of the Covenant of Grace the word which we preach is this If thou confess with thy mouth and believe with thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved Had man performed the Legal Condition perfect and perpetual obedience the Law of Works would have justified him Therefore now if a man perform the Gospel-condition the Gospel this Law of Faith will justifie him See also Gal. 3. 16 17 21 22 of the two Covenants To Abraham and his seed were the Promises made that is to Abraham and all true Believers that are of the Faith of Abraham as he fully explains himself in other places of the Chapter especially the last verse And is the Law against the Promises of God against this Covenant confirmed of God in Christ That he that believeth shall live Had there been a Law which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by that Law but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe We may argue plainly thus This Law this Covenant-Promise Believe and live can give life that is right to life for some do perform the Condition of this Law Therefore verily Righteousness is and must be by this Law Can any man possibly give a reason why that Law would have justified would have given right to life and so righteousness have been by it to a man that had performed perfect obedience and not this Believe and live perform the Gospel-conditions and live and not this justifie give right to life and so righteousness be by it 5. To deny this is to say the Gospel-Promises are meer Cyphers and Nullities they have no effect if they do not give right to Impunity and eternal life which is Justification to those that perform the conditions Nay it is to deny that they are Promises for if Promises they must have the common nature of Promises which is to give right To deny the efficacy of them is to deny they are gracious Promises it is to say they are useless as to giving the right we should have had right without them It is no Act of Oblivion much less a very gracious Act of Oblivion that doth not pardon and justifie properly them that perform the Conditions of it no Act of Oblivion to him that would be justified by doing that which is the condition of it without it And this by the way They that say Faith attaineth right as an Instrument and not as a condition make all the Promises Nullities they in effect say We should have had right had we performed that thing which is the condition without such a promise Thus you see Justification must be by some Law of Grace and indeed Protestants seem agreed it is a Juridical Act. Now what Law of Grace is it What names is it to be called by You may call it The Promise the Covenant the Law of Grace the Law of Faith the Gospel by these names it is called in Scripture The tenour of it is this He that turneth shall live He that believeth shall be saved He that accepteth Christ in the Gospel-way on the Gospel terms shall have the benefit of this Propitiation to his justification and salvation though never so great a sinner This is the Gospel the Law of Faith the Law or Covenant of Grace founded in the blood of Christ These Promises are Yea and Amen in Christ are the Covenant confirmed of God in Christ as the Apostle calls them And by this all were justified and saved that ever were saved by the blood of Christ You shall all be judged that is justified or condemned sententially according to this Gospel And as you shall be sententially judged according to this Law of Liberty at the last day so you are here in this life constitutively justified or condemned here in law The word which Christ spake shall John 1â— 48. condemn 〈◊〉 at 〈◊〉 last day shall justifie or 〈◊〉 So it doth in Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them that obey the Gospel here For not the hearers of the 〈◊〉 are just before God he speaketh Rom. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Law of Grace it is like that Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father shall inherit the Kingdom of Heaven but the doers of the Law shall be justified in the day when God shall judg the secrets of all hearts according to my Gospel I hope you now begin to see into the nature of Justification and by seeing what it is you see what it is not Only these things following to my best remembrance are and can with any shew be pretended to be called Justification except what the Pupists pretend That it is nothing else but Sanctification which I pretermit as ridiculous He would not be an abomination to God that could justifie the wicked that is sanctifie them according to thâ—ir interpretation First It is not Our knowing we are justified which some call Justification in Conscience For 1. The Scripture never calleth Assurance our knowing we are justified Justification 2. We may be justified in Scripture-sense by this Gospel having the condition of Justification and yet not know it yea think we are not justified and have no right to salvation else wo to troubled souls And we may not be justified and think we are 3. In this sense we should be properly said to justifie our selves and not God to justifie us for it is we that know we are justified by the act whereby we know it and not God though God enable us to know we are justified Secondly Justification is not God's knowing we are justified and have right to Impunity right to Heaven it is not God's knowing accounting us judging us justified for we are first justified pardoned in order of Nature though not of Time before he knows accounts us so be We first have this right to Impunity Salvation before He knows or accounts us to have it The Object is in order of Nature before the Act a thing is before it be known If there be an Act of Oblivion made upon condition of Rebels laying down their Weapons Offenders are pardoned justified in Law-title upon laying down their Weapons in
order of Nature before the King or any else know or account them pardoned God doth not account men's sins pardoned till first they be so by his own Law of Grace They that justifie the wicked or condemn the righteous are both an abomination to the Lord. As God did not account Adam guilty condemned till first he was so by his own Law through sin so he doth not will not account any justified pardoned till first they are so by his own Law of Grace made in the Blood of Christ which is upon their performing of the Condition of it Thirdly Justification is not God's knowing we shall be justified God indeed doth know men shall be justified when they believe but this is not Justification It doth not follow that a man is justified and his sin pardoned who is going on in all villany because he belongeth to the Election of Grace because God knoweth he will believe and so will be justified when brought home For 1. God knoweth till he believe he is unjustified his sin not pardoned he is under the curse of the Law and under the Rectoral displeasure of God for Without Faith it is impossible to please God God hateth all workers of iniquity with this Rectoral hatred He that believeth not is condemned already he is so far from being justified You cannot say of such a man he is justified his sins pardoned but he knoweth it not No till a man believe the wrath of God abideth on him Hell is yet his due by God's own Laws of Government though Heaven will be so when he believes 2. Else Justification and pardon of â—in would be from Eternity which we are sure is contrary to all Scripture that maketh them consequent of Faith Repentance and Conversion whatsoever some have said to the contrary turn them from darkness to light that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance c. We have believed Gal. 2. 16. that we may be justified by the faith of Christ To whom righteousness shall Rom. 4. 24. be imputed if we believe That they may return every man from his evil Jer. 36. 3. way that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin lest they should see with their eyes and be converted Mar. 4. 12 and their sin be forgiven them Fourthly Justification is not God's intending decreeing willing that men should be justified when they believe 1. Then it would be from Eternity which is repugnant to all Scripture God speaketh of it as a thing future God intended from Eternity That our King should be King of England but he was not King of England till his Father was dead and then h◠〈◊〉 the legal Title 3. God's intending from Eternity to condemn men for their sins is not Condemnation else men would be condemned from Eternity but then men are condemned when they sin and the Law condemns them So God's intending to justifie sinners upon believing is not Justification But when men believe then God justifieth them by his Law of Faith 3. To say This is meant by Justification is to make non-sense of all those places of Scripture that make it future When he saith God will justifie we must then say the meaning is He will willjustifie We must double the word will Fifthly Some tell us That Justification is properly and formally Christ's suffering or obedience or properly God's laying our sins on Christ But then we must say Christ never merited our pardon or justification we are not forgiven for Christ's sake for Christ never merited thâ—se things which they call Justification viz. his own sufferings or our sins laying on him Could you think of any other thing to call Justification beside what I have here taught you I could with much ease shew you the absurdity of it These are the likeliest of any I can think of to pretend to be it that are not it and are pretended by some to be it You now see or may see Justification is God's Juridical Act by his Gospel by his Law of Grace If an Act of Oblivion be made on these terms That whosoever of such Rebels shall go and promise before some Justice of Peace they will be loyal Subjects for the future as soon as ever they have thus promised this Law justifieth pardoneth them They did not pardon themselves that is a foolish pretence of some weak men contrary to the knowledg of all Lawyers and Divines yea of any rational men but the Law-giver did pardon them by this Rectoral Act of Pardon upon their promise If there be a Law in force that every Felon should dye but there is also another remedying Law That if the Felon read he shall not dye When he readeth the Law pardoneth him the Law-giver by this Law justifieth him from the charge and condemnation of the other Law It is by this Gospel this perfect Law of Liberty that we are justified this is that new Law that Ministers are sent to preach Go preach the Gospel to every creature He that believeth shall be saved He that believeth not shall be damned This is our great business To tell men the condition on which they shall be pardoned justified and so saved And should any Ministers be ignorant of their great Message yea so ignorant as to say These are no conditions no terms nothing required of us in order to attaining the benefit of Christ's death How sad should this be to us Men are justified or condemned here in this life by this Gospel in a Law-sense and in this sense Scripture for the most part useth the word Justifie and men shall hereafter be justified or condemn'd sententially according to this Gospel Thus I have told you what Justification is which was the first Question propounded to be answered and I have tacitly slidden into the second Question What the Covenant is and answered that The third propounded was To tell you what the Condition is Thirdly What is meant by this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Him that believeth in Jesus or Him that is of the faith of Jesus This is the Question now to be answered What is the Condition of the Covenant of Grace of the Law of Grace on the performance of which this Propitiation this price of Redemption shall be ours for our justification and salvation Ours I say with this limitation For our justification and salvation or to speak more strictly The condition of our justification and salvation by it For God never giveth us interest in his Son's Merits and Satisfaction in its essential nature but only in the fruits and effects of it He giveth us his Merit only in such a sense as a man be said figuratively to give a Captive a sum of money which it may be the Captive never handled never had it given to him at all properly but only it was paid to the King of that Countrey for his ransome I answer What would you wish or desire it should be Think of that a little for that is it I dare
essentially one and the same act and both proper Efficients of the effect If one strike with a rod he strikes and the rod strikes though less principally yet both truly If a man promise he gives right and the promise gives right properly 3. Christ's Death and Merits justifie as a Satisfaction to God's Justice that he might pardon with safety to his honour and government 4. The faith of Christ or true Christianity as the condition Now a condition is a causa sine quâ non and it is agreed that a causa sine quâ non is no cause but only so necessarily called for want of a better word just as we are forced to speak always of non-entities as if they were entities whenever we speak of them as Tenebrae sunt Nihil fuit So I was wittingly forced sometimes before to use the word of Faith's influence into right And it is almost impossible to speak otherwise but any intelligent man may see though the performance of the Gospel-condition seemeth at the first view to have something like influence into right like causality yet it hath not but that influence which it seemeth to have is to be ascribed in propriety only to God and the Promise When a Felon reads it was not his reading that pardoned him but the Legislators by the Law upon his reading So that they err that use to tell us that Faith is a cause of Justification and not other graces for it is no cause it doth not in propriety justifie and pardon our sins at all If Faith did merit then it would be a moral efficient of our right Methinks none should say Faith is an Instrument of Justification for then it would be a true proper saying in the strictest sense Faith pardoneth our sins Faith acquitteth us You have seen upon what honourable terms God hath dispensed with his Law in not executing it however not fully executing it upon offenders 1. He doth execute some of it in this life upon his pardoned ones pardoned as to the great matters for Christ did not bargain that the curse should in every part be taken off immediately upon their believing No God makes sin evil and bitter to them in this life many ways and they must dye and their bodies rot in the grave for a time God told Moses he had pardoned the Israelites that is so as not to cut them off from being a people but as truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord their carkasses shall fall in the wilderness And I doubt not but this tends to the honour of God's Justice to leave some drops of this curse upon us in this life and we ought to take notice of his righteousness as well as mercy in afflicting us Some will object But the Sufferings of Believers are not satisfactory Ans I know they are not in the strict sense of the word for that signifieth compensation enough for the fault or in the sense the Papists use the word For little Sufferings buying off other Sufferings yea the great or eternal suffering And some object They are not vindictive and when they explain the word they mean they are not eternal or totally destructive which is true indeed But if any by the words Satisfactory or Vindictive mean that they are not inflicted by the Rector by virtue of the Law for a fault in token of his displeasure and for the honour of his Justice and warning of others I must deny it and say So far as they are for sin they are satisfactory and vindictive in this sense and can plainly prove it 2. That which God hath and will take off as indeed all will be clear taken off at the great full executive Redemption the Resurrection of the body Christ hath paid deer for it 3. Though Christ hath paid this great Price yet we shall have this benefit by it only upon such terms of honour to God as acknowledging in deep sense of our unworthiness God's righteousness if he had condemned us and turning from sin accepting the Redeemer Methinks we should be so far from quarrelling at that we should see high reason for and admire the wisdom of God in this whole Transaction and while we see some of his ways are rational conclude all are so and our ignorance is the cause they appear no more amiable to us Here is no shadow of injustice in the Universal Magistrate of the World neither to Christ nor to Christians nor to the Commonwealth of the World nor to his old Law that was not executed 1. No wrong done to Christ for he underwent it willingly Et violenti non fit injuria No wrong can be done to a mind willing of the damage 2. Not to Christians The highest praises are due to God from them and given by them for this very transaction 3. Not to the World It was to reform it and lay a new foundation of Religion in it 4. Not to his Law For the repute of that hath been as well secured and kept as inviolable by the revelation of this to be adored Justice of God as if it had been executed upon all offenders to all Eternity I will answer but one Objection more before I come to apply all Some will expect to hear how this whole Doctrine is consistent with Election and Special Grace If you ask men of different perswasions concerning general and special Grace How it comes to pass that any of the degenerate sons of Adam are saved They will answer Only by Grace and Mercy through Christ If you ask them further How comes it about that some are saved and some perish notwithstanding this Grace They will further answer Because some believe perform the Gospel-condition others not If you demand How comes this that some perform the Gospel-condition and not others They will still concent in answering Some will and some will not some chuse mercy on the terms of it and others chuse rather to perish than to accept Christ and Mercy on the Gospel-terms Thus far they agree commonly so that it doth not properly concern me to speak in this Discourse of the things wherein they differ both granting all that I affirm But if you enquire further of them How comes it to pass that some are thus willing and others not Here they disagree Some will say this of man's willingness it is to be ascribed to man himself or give such answer that it inevitably follows from it and that God doth no more in this case for one than for another helps one as much as another and then consequently it follows that a man converted is not a jo◠more beholden to God than one not converted God doing no more for him than the other And some doctrinally hold That God giveth men only free-will and the Gospel or objective Evidence and will go no further with any I cannot understand how such can pray for Grace or for God's giving them to improve the Gospel and his
sicut Christi meritum ita merita justorum aliorum vim accipiunt à dignitate personae that is There is the same account of Merit in the Head and in the Members therefore as the Merits of Christ received their force or virtue from the Dignity of his Person so do the Merits of other just and holy men from the Dignity of their Persons Yet he allows the Merit of good works to be ascribed not only to the Dignity of the Persons of good men and worthiness of the works themselves but also to God's promise and acceptation though it be a contradiction for if of meritorious works then not of grace and if of grace then not of meritorious works else grace is not grace and merit is not merit Rom. 11. 6. But Vasquez the renowned Jesuit affirmeth and endeavoureth to prove these three things 1. Opera ex se-ipsis Gabr. Vas Com. in 1am 2ae qu. 114. disp 214. Cap. 5. 7 8 absque c. That the good works of just men are of themselves without any Covenant and Acceptation worthy of eternal life 2. Nullum dignitatis accrementum c. That no accession of dignity doth come to the works of the just by the Merits or Person of Christ 3. Operibus justorum accessisse quidem promissionem c. That God's promise is annexed indeed to the works of just men yet it belongeth no way to the reason of the merit If you be Christians you abhor such talk and I will offend your ears no longer with it How far is the performance of the Gospel-condition from meriting the things promised when Christ dyed for this end That God might justifie and save them that perform it There is no other Name given under Heaven whereby we can be saved Neither Saints nor Angels could by any means redeem us or give to God a ransome for us for then Christ dyed still in vain for it is in vain for that to be done with greater cost which may be done with less Could we once see all our righteousness to be as filthy rags could we cry out in sense of our unworthiness Wherewith should we come before him Then we might with great delight hear Christ sayiug Come unto me take up my yoke and you shall find rest for your souls 4. They much wrong God and Christ that think Christ dyed to procure liberty to sin or to free men from duty from obedience to the Law He dyed to free men from the curse of the Law but not from obedience to it but from the curse on condition of their sincere obedience Christ hath indeed procured pardon for our sins and imperfect obedience but enjoins us under the greatest forfeiture a sincere endeavour of universal obedience Some have said Do but believe you shall be saved and you shall be saved do but keep up a good conceit of your safety a strong faith as they call it you are safe Others Do but rely and you are justified and shall be saved This reliance on Christ for justification and salvation is a great duty but a secondary one None should trust in God or stay himself on him for salvation but such as first have the main of the Gospel-condition such as fear the Lord and obey the voice of his Prophets Isa 50. 10. It would be a Minister's sin to bid people rely on Christ for salvation that are going on resolvedly in their sins for such should be so far from relying on him to save them that they ought to believe He will not save such as they and it is to dishonour Christ to think he will But they are to bid them consent to the Gospel-terms perform the Gospel-condition and so rely Reliance is a very inconvenient word to express the condition of justification by because it is separable from justification for a man may rely and yet perish Mich. 3. 11. And one may be in a justified estate having the true Gospel-condition of heart-consent and yet think God will not save him through some misapprehensions And surely they do not rely and trust on him to save them while they judg he will not though they know none else can save them But hearty-consent to the Gospel-terms is inseparable from justification for a man cannot be or continue in a justified estate without hearty willingness to obey the Gospel Ministers are to bid the greatest resolved sinners believe while they take belief in the Scripture-Gospel-sense for consent to the Gospel-terms for accepting Christ for their Lord and Saviour for believing the Gospel and carrying suitably to such a belief but not in that sense that many use the words Faith and Believing Christ you see dyed not that those might be justified that refuse finally to give sincere obedience to the Law and so obedience to the Gospel but that he might be a justifier of him that is of the Faith of Christ of the Christian Faith a Christian indeed 5. We may learn hence the infinitely mischievous nature of sin What wickedness and malignity is there in it when nothing but the blood of Christ could expiate it And oh the deep stain that sin maketh that nothing but such precious blood could wash out A desperate Disease sure that required such a desperate remedy The evil of sin should be more seen by us in Christ's dying for it than in millions being damned for it If we could look into Hell and see the torments there they could not so fully shew us God's hatred of sin as Christ crucified doth Sin striketh at the Being of God striveth with all its might that God might not be it is enmity against God In every act of deliberate sin we make a scoff at God's Holiness contemn his Justice we slight his Counsel as foolishness think we know better than he what is good for our selves or we think God a deceiver one that envies our good and counselleth us for our hurt we strike at his Rule and Dominion No wonder if God be an enemy to sin and set himself against it to purpose No wonder if God with great difficulty and much ado hath returned into favour with sinners What fools are they that make a mock of sin a sport at sin at a high affront of the High and Holy Majesty of Heaven and Earth Will you laugh at that which was such a weight on the shoulders of the Mighty God and Prince of Peace and must be a bitter weight to thee in Repentance ere thou get easement Oh the blindness and prophaneness of the secure World What a leight matter do they make of sin Make but little matter of outward gross sins and look upon inward sins as Pride Malice Covetousness as no sins How easily they think God might pardon and wonder God should make so much ado think his thoughts should be like theirs and he should hate it no more than they How far are their thoughts from his thoughts Oh you that have slight thoughts of sin as of a tame mild
of mens faith or restipulation viz. as they are mens seals We receiving them engage and profess we do restipulate and oblige our selves to perform faith the condition and seal it by receiving the elements We so seal as hereby to oblige our selves and to be guilty of falshood in the Covenant if we do not perform Yea he that is baptized while an Infant is a debtor to the Gospel as well as he that was circumcised when an Infant was a debtor to the Law But this is not meant here for this definition speaketh only of Circumcision as God's seal and God doth not seal that any man believeth restipulateth he sealeth only what he saith and testifieth to wit his own part of the Covenant He no where testifieth that this or that man believeth but that if he do he shall be saved I say it is not said to be a seal of his faith but of the righteousness of his faith of that faith which he had being uncircumcised of such a kind of faith That is it is a sign or seal of justification upon condition of believing as he did while uncircumcised It is a seal of the truth of this Covenant or Promise and of God's faithfulness in standing to it He that believeth with such a kind of working-working-faith shall be justified and saved or to speak more properly he that believeth and obeyeth as Abraham did It was indeed a seal of the righteousness of Abraham's faith subjectively and individually taken but not as his faith else it would seal righteousness and justification to none else upon such a faith as his Though it did seal his Justification he having that sort of faith the general promise was made to yet it did not seal his justification primarily but only consequentially viz. by sealing the general promise It did not seal justification to his faith as his but as true unfeigned or faith of such a sort such an operative obediential one as the Promise was made to which was sealed It would have sealed that thing it did seal that promise he that so believeth shall be saved he that believeth with such a kind of faith as is described by being called the faith which Abraham had being uncircumcised whether Abraham had believed or no for that he believed was as we use to say contingent or accidental to the thing sealed I know some Anabaptists to elude arguments drawn from hence would have it a seal of the righteousness of Abraham's faith only and that it was so to none else interpreting it to this sense to wit That it was given as a reward to him a great and signal believer and others were circumcised upon other accounts But if this was the meaning we might as well call every great blessing which he had as a reward of his faith as having children in his old age deliverance from dangers and difficulties and conquering enemies which were given to him as rewards of his faith and tokens of God's love a seal of the righteousness of his faith and a sign or token of the Covenant as this is called Gen. 17. 11. and as the Rain-bow is called a sign or token of another Covenant Gen. 9. 8. Now if Circumcision was not a seal of Abraham's faith at all nor a seal of the righteousness of Abraham's faith as his as hath been and might further be made apparent but of the righteousness of such a kind of faith as his was then it evidently and essentially follows that it was a seal or confirming-sign of this doctrine covenant or promise made to the whole world That whosoever of faln man should believe God as Abraham did should be righteous treated by God as righteous be justified pardoned rewarded blessed these words are promiscuously used whether he be circumcised or not and so the Apostle saith in the latter part of the verse that righteousness might be imputed to them also that believe though not circumcised For that he be circumcised is so alien from the promise as to be no part of the condition for else Circumcision had sealed an untruth if a man that should perform the condition should not be justified though he be uncircumcised And indeed since Baptism is a seal of the same viz. of justification or remission of sins upon repentance and bringeth forth fruits meet and suitable as is said of John's Baptism and sure you will grant the faith required in those days was included in the word Repentance And the Lord's Supper is a seal of the same New Covenant made in Christ's blood called also the Gospel which the Apostles were sent to preach And the Apostle Paul saith He hath made us able Ministers of the New Covenant 2 Cor. 3. 6. and we see what that Covenant is Rom. 10. 6 8. The word of faith which we that is he and other Apostles preach the law of faith is this If thou believe thou shalt be saved Since I say this is the tenour of that which Baptism and the Lord's Supper seal if men believe and obey the Gospel they shall be saved it doth demonstrably also follow that if a man did perform the Gospel-condition the condition of that Covenant whereof Baptism is a seal he would be justified and saved whether he were baptized or no whether he received the Lords Supper or not as our Divines use to prove against the Papists else they did seal an untruth And surely none will deny but those holy Ancients we read of in the primitive time of Christianity who terrified through an Error taught by some viz. That there was no remission for sins committed after it deferred Baptism till toward their death were justified before Baptism and they that so delayed as to dye without it were yet saved by virtue of the Gospel promise which it seals If it it seal this He that believeth in the Gospel sense that is believeth and obeyeth the Gospel shall be saved then it evidently follows that the receiving the seal is no part of the condition nor necessary with this kind of necessity as the condition Though I could shew you how it may indirectly and quasi postliminio jure come to be necessary to the condition and also how it is directly necessary upon other accounts not only necessitate praecepti but by way of accommodation to work preserve and encrease the condition and to comfort and assure And the Objection here arising is inconsiderable viz. That one that should refuse to be baptized having never been baptized before and to receive the Lords Supper cannot have the condition For though in ordinary circumstances in our days wherein there is much light and such things are made plain it would be next to an impossibility that a man should heartily believe all Fundamentals and be heartily willing and earnestly desirous to obey God and Christ in every command to the best of his knowledg and yet through some â—â—â—or refuse the Sacrament yet such a thing it may be is possible for you will not be so
justification than any having more laws and more clearly revealed A man that would look to be justified by exact obedience to every precept and will look for no pardon will find these laws will be so far from justifying him and conferring right to any reward that they work only wrath and oblige him the more to condemnation For where there is no law there is no transgression Many of these things which you Jews sinned in omitting would have been no sins had not God thus revealed his will to you in such multitudes of commands and others not so great sins Ver. 16. Therefore happiness is not by the law that is by unsinning obedience or making all up by meritorious works but by faith that is in a Gospel-way by some promise made of pardon to sinners called the law of faith by some promise made to sinners to whom justification cannot be of debt upon their repentance belief and sincere endeavour of obedience And it is thus of faith that it might be of grace and mercy And it is thus of faith that the promise might be sure to all the seed that is to all that walk in the steps of Abraham's faith that believe repent obey God in difficulties whether they have those great priviledges you boast of as the Jews or none such as the Gentiles And so he is the father of us all both Jews and Gentiles i. e. a pattern of our justification both being justified the same way as he was Ver. 17. As it is written I have made thee a father of many nations Either this is a remote meaning of these words cited or it is an allusive accommodative making use of this citation which seemeth frequent with this Apostle The meaning however of the Apostle is this As I have received thee into favour upon thy believing me in every thing and obeying and following my call so many of several Nations both Jews and Gentils shall receive grace and favour and blessedness from me in thus turning from sin and believing and obeying me as thou hast and so be justified in such a way as thou art and so thou shalt be their Father a prime example or pattern of their justification Ver. 18 19 20 21. He sheweth the faith of Abraham was a great and strong faith he believed the most unlikely things upon God's credit believed against hope believed God was able to do what he promised though never so unlikely he never considered the difficulty it was a faith that carried him out to trust and obey God in every thing So would the Gentiles believe the resurrection of Christ which he compares there to Abraham's believing God could quicken the dead the dead womb and also dead Isaac Heb. 11. 19. and the almost-incredible things of the Gospel and be carried on by such belief to obey and follow God and Christ notwithstanding all their sufferings and discouragements they may be justified and saved without being circumcised and keeping the Ceremonial Law or perfectly the Moral Law as he applies this belief of God's raising the dead to his raising Christ from the dead v. 24. Ver. 22. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness That is as I have again and again explained it he was graciously accepted and acquitted and rewarded upon it and treated as if he had been an innocent just person though he was not so in the strict sense of the law or natural equity Ver. 23 24. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him but we may make use of it it was written for some great end and therefore sheweth that though the Gentiles be unworthy persons and have no merits by such priviledges or observances as the Pharisaical opposers of their reception suppose themselves to have yet if they do as Abraham did they shall fare as he fared if they believe this great difficulty of raising Christ from the dead and carry sutable to such a faith righteousness shall be imputed to them also that is they shall be pardoned their sins shall not be imputed to them which was the thing to be proved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 10. v. 11. The Apostle reassumes the same and here are some passages some may think make against what I have preached Ver. 2. The Jews have a zeal for God but not according to knowledg Ver. 3. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness i. e. his way of justifying sinners by pardon and going about to establish their own righteousness of perfect obedience or meritorious works have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God that is God's way of pardoning sinners by the Gospel as he explains it v. 6. Ver. 4. For Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to every one that believeth It is to be acknowledged that the Law as every Law doth require as its end perfect obedience primarily and upon default of that secondarily the punishment of the transgressors But Christ hath satisfied this as much to God's honour and its content as if it had been perfectly obeyed or the penalty suffered by us And this Propitiation is for those that believe that perform the Gospel condition So that there is no necessity now of our unsinning obedience or our making satisfaction by meritorious works in order to our justification but only of our performing the Gospel-condition and they are ignorant of this way of God Ver. 5. For Moses describeth the righteousness of the law the Covenant of Works the way that they stick to for justification thus That the man that doth these things shall live by them i. e. without pardon Lev. 18. 5. Gal. 3. 12. Moses describeth that is these words of Moses taken in the strict law-sense as a law and in the sense you understand them represent that way you stick to for justification I say represent that way For it is apparent that those very words and the whole body of the Mosaical law were a Gospel-covenant of grace as they were given by Moses and understood and ought to be understood by the people The meaning was If you endeavour to do all these sincerely and lament your falling short you shall be justified blessed live otherwise you shall perish I could make this fully apparent that it was a gracious Covenant for it was spoken to sinners and with such words I am the Lord thy God and If you will obey my voice and Moses sprinkleth blood and saith Behold the blood of the Covenant which Covenant they restipulated to when they promised to obey his voice and God saith I have heard the words of this people and they have well said in all that they have said which he would not have said if the meaning had been We promise to do things impossible to make that it should be said We never have been sinners and we will perfectly obey in every thing without the least remisness in thought word or deed But to be short see Mr. Ant. Burgess
The Great Propitiation OR CHRISTS SATISFACTION AND Man's Justification by it upon his FAITH that is Belief of and Obedience to the Gospel Endeavoured to be made easily intelligible and to appear rational and well accountable to ordinary Capacities and so more lovely and amiable In some Sermons preached c. By JOSEPH TRVMAN B. D. late Minister near Nottingham The Second Edition Corrected and Enlarg'd LONDON Printed by A. Maxwell for K. Clavell in Cross-key Court in Little Britain 1672. The Great Propitiation c. Rom. 3. 24 25 26. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is of the faith of Jesus of the Christian Faith MY Design here is to make the Christian Religion in these great parts of it Christs Satisfaction and Mans Justification by it plainly accountable and so more amiable unto you I shall enter into the Body of this Discourse by these praeliminary steps 1. God having created man a rational creature capable of moral government is by immediate resultancy his King and Governour and so giveth him a Law which was not only a Law with a Commination but a Covenant with a Promise of eternal Happiness upon perfect and perpetual Obedience and as a Law threatned Death upon every Disobedience Cursed is he that continueth not in all things written in the law to do them 2. Man loseth all becometh obnoxious to the Curse to such a Curse as might make us say with Moses We exceedingly fear and quake when we hear or speak or think of it 3. What should God now do Should he pardon Should he let go this hold of us Should this horrible Threat and Sanction of the Law vanish into smoak We would be apt indeed through self-love to say Yea by all means pardon us and do not inflict the Penalty But could give no reason but Pardon us right or wrong But this is as if an offender should say The Law is just and equal execute it therefore upon others but spare me it is I as if a weak Mother should say when her Son is convict of Felony Spare him he is my Son But these words are not dictates of Reason but meerly of folly self-love and interest All mercy is not a vertue but that which will consist and comport with other perfections of Wisdom and Righteousness otherwise it is a blemish weakness and foolish pity I grant here The Truth of God would be no hinderance to this Pardon For a Rector and Law-giver by meer threatning by making a Law with an annexed Penalty doth not in so doing part with his supra-legal Power with his Power of dispensing with his Law except he reveal that he will not in any case dispense with it For Threatnings of themselves do only constitute the dueness of punishment and make the Offender obnoxious Promises indeed give a right to the party to whom they are made which the party promising cannot dissolve or take away without his consent and to break them would be falshood and unfaithfulness If a Parent threaten to beat his Child if he commit such an offence he is ordinarily bound so to do it would be â—ickleness and a loosning of his Authority which he is bound to keep up to do otherwise but he is not so bound as to be guilty of untruth if he do otherwise you cannot say he lyed Threatnings immediately and essentially do only constitute this That the Rector shall have this authority over you which he may at his pleasure execute and it would be to destroy government ordinarily not to execute them not to keep his laws sacred and inviolable But he that threatneth may yet pardon without being guilty of untruth his truth doth not hinder but other things And we are sure God hath not executed this Law else all offenders had utterly perished for it threatned the offenders And Truth doth as much oblige to inflict it on the offenders as to inflict it at all Now these things ordinarily hinder Governours from dispensing with their Laws and so they would be hinderances unto God here from meerly pardoning 1. Should God meerly pardon This doth not become a Governour that hath made a Law in wisdom to do so would be to cast an imputation on himself of weakness either in Power or Wisdom In Power as if he was weak and unable to vindicate his injured Law In his Wisdom as if he thought his Law unequal or rashly and unadvisedly made and as if he thought his injured Law unworthy of a vindication Meerly to pardon would be to cast diâ—t in his own face and to prostitute the honour of his Power Wisdom and Holiness through foolish pity as if his Law was not holy just and good 2. Should God meerly pardon it would be to weaken his rule and government over Angels and Men. To suffer mâ—n to trample on the Majesty of God without a vindication of his Honour would be to encourage offenders by impunity That Rector is guilty of violating the authority of his own Laws that executeth not the threatned severity of the Laws against offenders And if God should do thus we might put the Apostle's question How should God judg the world How should he then rule the Rom. 3. 5. world Who but they would have said If God dispense once so lightly vvith his threatnings and vvithout a valuable satisfaction why may he not do so again and who will value his threats To ask for this That God would meerly pardon would be to ask That God would cease to be King of the World and he might say as Solomon to Adonijah Let him ask the kingdom also as well as ask that which in honour I cannot grant How could he maintain State and Port and Government in the World if he make himself appear so facile and fickle Thus you see reasons why God should not pardon and dispense with his Law Meerâ—y to pardon would have been an intolerable foul blot and stain in the face of that his Government wherein he designed to please himself in the displaying and contemplating the glory of his Attributes 4. Should God therefore execute the Law according to the threat upon all offenders to all eternity this indeed would be just and righteous and plain without difficulty and we must have said Thy ways O Lord are equal for ours were unequal But then these inconveniences had followed 1. God would have lost the glory of this Gospel-Justice this kind of Justice this wise and stupendious Justice of this Justice and Righteousness in a Mystery the glory of being just and merciful punishing the just for the unjust of laying the chastisement of
of things and I hope you will easily be convinced what are the terms 1. There are the same terms and conditions of Justification and of Salvation Whatsoever is the condition of the one is also of the other For the Apostle argueth in the same manner against salvation by works as justification by works Yea it is apparent in the nature of the thing for Justification passively taken as I told you before is nothing else but right to salvation and we need no more for Heaven than right to it Do but get and keep right to Heaven which is Justification and we need no more on our part As for possession that is God's work by his Angels carrying away souls raising bodies Many worthy men have said That Repentance sincere Obedience are only for Possession and not for Right But we are not to work for Possession at all we need not get upon a Hill when about to dye to save the Angels a labour of carrying our souls too far Do but get and keep Right and to deny Possession to us if we have right to it by Promise would be unfaithfulness in God which we need not to fear Therefore if you will grant that all the things I have spoken of are required necessary to salvation then they are also to justification Only still it is here as in all other things of like nature Consent hearty consent to the Gospel-terms immediately instateth us in Justification and right to Heaven But if we would have continuance of our Justification and right to Heaven we must continue to consent to those terms as to the sincerity of our hearts and endeavours else we should lose our Justification and right to Heaven and the reason why we cease not to be justified is because God keeps us from departing from him by keeping in us care and watchfulness Thus we see whatsoever we may lawfully do for Salvation the same we may lawfully do for Justification 2. Whatsoever duty there is that if we do not we should have no right to salvation or justification that is a condition of our salvation and justification It is too common a saying and a great upholder of the Antinomian way Do but believe say some and by believing they do not mean as I do the whole of Christianity but some one act as believing my sins are pardoned or reliance or accepting Christ for my Saviour and such acts as accepting Christ for Lord and sincere obedience will follow but they are not conditions of Justification and Salvation but put that one act and they will naturally and inevitably follow But ask them Suppose they do not follow They will answer You must not suppose it they will for they dare not ordinarily say That if they do not follow it you will yet have right to Heaven I will shew you the vanity of such talk This is virtually to say God never made promise to these as conditions never suspended salvation on them but they will follow faith naturally This is to say Godliness hath not the promise of this life or however not of that to come else it would be a condition of the promise The instance that is usually brought of it is this There cannot be a seeing-eye without the body yet it is the eye that only sees So Faith only is the Condition only attains right but cannot be without works Now I will bring this to make it like the case in hand Suppose one promise you such a reward if you bring him and give him the seeing eye of such a Beast we are sure if the meaning be according to the words you would have right to the reward if you brought him a seeing-eye without the body though indeed you cannot yet we are sure if you did you would have right and he would be unjust in denying you the reward though you brought not the body And on the contrary Suppose we be sure this is a truth If you should bring him a seeing-eye it would not attain right without the body Then we are equally sure that we mistook his words or meaning he spake synecdochically for then it is equally a condition that the body be brought as that the seeing-eye be brought and it is equally influential into right for come to those things that do naturally and universally accompany and follow one another and where but one of them is made the condition and the other not the absence of that which is not a condition would no way hinder right and so not right to Justification and Salvation If a man become a Christian indeed it naturally and inevitably follows he shall be hated of wicked men but God never suspending Justification and Salvation upon it never making this a Condition we may truly say If a man be a sincere Christian it would not hinder his justification and salvation though the wicked did not hate him So if it be true that a man cannot be a true Christian but he must eat drink and breathe these are natural Concomitants yet these not being made Conditions though he did never eat drink nor breathe he shall be saved If you can say of any Grace or any measure of Grace as Assurance or Joy That it is not necessary to justification and salvation Then only you may say They are not Conditions of these If any one beloved sin knowingly and wilfully continued in would hinder a man's pardon justification or right to Heaven then a sincere desire and endeavour according to his ability to get rid of that beloved sin is a Condition of his Pardon and Justification 3. All Conditions of Justification and Salvation are equally Conditions equally influential into right If only an accident or mode of a thing be made a Condition with the thing it is equally a Condition with the thing it self If one promise to bring me a white Horse and you shall have such a reward It is equally a condition and as much influential into right that it be White as that it be a Horse so in any instance you can bring either in fact or fiction If I promise something upon condition you bring me a Hundred and you bring only Ninety-nine you have no more right than if you brought none and the odd one is as much a Condition as Ninety-nine If any shall say The Condition is a working Faith then that it be working is equally a Condition and equally influential into right as that it be Faith 4. There is no such thing as receiving Righteousness or Justification or Pardon Many make this their great strong hold Repentance and sincere Obedience are not receptive receiving Graces as Faith is and so cannot receive Justification and Righteousness Now this falls for there is no act of receiving these Justification Right to Heaven Righteousness cometh on Men. The free gift came upon all to justification As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation As condemnation cometh upon men without any act of receiving it
it is a resultancy from the Law upon disobedience so Justification Right to Heaven is a resultancy from a Law-promise the condition being performed I know you may object that place turned from darkness to light that they may receive remission of sins But one of an ordinary capacity may perceive it is a figurative expression because in natural things where there is giving there is receiving for if once men be turned from sin to God Pardon comes by virtue of God's Promise and Right to the Inheritance cometh on them And we may figuratively say Adam received his condemnation by eating And so we read in Scripture of receiving condemnation but there was in propriety no act of receiving it If I make a promise upon such a condition as soon as the condition is performed Right to him results without any act of receiving it Right comes upon the Felon that reads Right to have his Life spared Justification Pardon to Life comes upon him by the Law by reading without any act of receiving it Many tell us of applying Christ's Righteousness to Justification and this is all It is an obscure speech and it is you see by this impossible there should be any such thing properly I will tell you what I guess they mean by the word apply viz. Meditating upon any Truth you believe And they mean the same by acting faith viz. Meditating upon Truth we believe This is a great duty to meditate on his Death to act Faith upon his Satisfaction and the fulness of it to draw our hearts to consent and chear our hearts after consent But if once they understand it is Meditation they mean they will not surely pretend it is the only Condition of Justification You may say indeed That Faith receiveth Christ But then you must not mean by Faith Assurance or Reliance for Why doth not Love or Fear or Hope as much receive as reliance But you must mean the moral receiving performed by the natural act of consent acceptance As one receives morally such a man to be his Master that desires his service by consenting and if you will say Faith is Consent why is not Consent to be ruled by him giving up our selves to be ruled by him as much a receiving Christ as Consent to be saved and pardoned by Him And then if you will but grant this this is to grant all I am pleading for For Consent to have him for Lord and Saviour is to consent to be Christians indeed to consent to perform the whole duty of man which is as comprehensive a word as can be spoken to be made the condition of salvation and justification and if consenting to the whole duty of man to the best of our power and knowledg be the condition of begun-Justification and Salvation then you will readily see that continuing this Consent continuing to be Christians indeed and to perform the whole duty of Man to the best of our knowledg and power in the integrity of our hearts and wherein we fail to lament it is the condition of our continued justification and right to salvation If a King grants a Pardon to Rebels on condition they will become Loyal Subjects Consent is enough at the first to attain right to all the benefits of it But continued Consent and continual loyal carriage in the main towards him is the condition of their continued right to Impunity and every moment of continued Loyalry is in order of nature before their continued Right So whereas before we consented to the Gospel-terms our Pardon and Justification and Right to Heaven were only offered to us upon condition and were not actually existent at all now when we have heartily consented they are really existent and actual not meerly conditional so that should we dye in that moment we should be saved whereas had we dyed before we should have perished But yet the continuance of our Justification and pardon of future sins is still conditional 5. It is a gross mistake that many take up with thinking it would be a more gracious liberal and free speech and promise to say Only believe rely accept Christ for Saviour and you shall have right to Heaven and be justified and I will require nothing else of you for right to Heaven This believing shall only be influential into your right but yet except you repent turn from sin to God and obey you shall have no right shall not be justified than to say Turn from sin to God repent believe obey and you shall have right to salvation For such a speech as the first instead of being a more noble free promise is non-sense is untruth and a contradiction in the very words It is to say and unsay it is to say All shall be equally influential into right all shall be Conditions and yet they shall not all be Conditions and equally influential into right For a Condition is that which if we do not we shall have no right to the thing promised This is a Condition as much as any Condition and as influential into right as any condition in the world that is not the whole condition for every condition is only a sine quâ— non and altogether only sine quibus non cum quibus And therefore for any to speak thus is weakly to lye for God pretending to keep up the honour of God's free grace ignorantly thinking that if God require us to repent return or no mercy then it is not free then we merit our pardon it is not of grace contrary to all Reason and Scripture God hath made the Condition required from us as little as small a matter as he thought would stand with his Honour Wisdom and Government in the World and they that would make the conditions of Grace Mercy and Salvation through Christ less than God hath made them what ever good intention they have to honour God by it do really dishonour him as an unholy God for God thought it would not stand with the honour of his Holiness to accept unto favour and life any but they that should return from sin unto God Ministers are to tell the whole terms that men may sit down and consider the cost and if men will be offended and say it is a hard saying and like not Christ and Life on these terms Let them be offended they have their choice to let him alone but they shall know they had life and death set before them on gracious easie terms and they have rewarded their own souls evil for good Again if a necessity of Repentance and sincere Obedience to Justification would hinder it from being free then such as say thus and tell us these things are only for possession do virtually grant that possession of Salvation is not free But what Christian-ears can endure this that Possession is not equally free with Right that both are not of free-grace 6. They that say There is only one act to be done by us for Pardon Justification and Right to
What do you think the wicked Jews meant when they said If we let this man alone all men will believe on him What did they mean some one act and that one act that many now hold to be only necessary to salvation though not agreed ordinarily what it is Surely they meant They will believe he is the Messiah and so love him obey him stick to him If one bid you believe in such a Physician trust in him and he will cure you cannot you easily understand he means also Take his Counsel follow his directions by believing in him So when he saith Believe and thou shalt be saved he meaneth Believe and carry as one that believeth love obey turn 4. Sometime called Repentance Repent that your iniquities may be blotted John preached repentance for the remission of sin Surely you will grant that is for Justification And Christ did not take away this Condition nay he preached it himself Except you repent you shall perish He meant believe obey also 5. Called Conversion Turn them from darkness to light that they Mar. 4. 12 may receive remission Lest they should see with their eyes and be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Implying the terms that God hath bound himself to by promise through Christ's death to the world so as he cannot in faithfulness break If converted he must forgive having made this new Law of Grace 6. Called Obedience Being made perfect through suffering having fully satisfied he became the Author of eternal salvation to those that obey him Surely this holdeth out the terms on which men shall have the justifying saving benefit of Christ's death But there is implied in this also the belief of the truth of the Gospel So Hear and your souls shall live That is obey for life for justification for right to salvation 7. Keeping the Commandments Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life Not the hearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord but he that doth the will of my Father shall inherit the Kingdom If the Erek 18. 21. wicked turn from all his sins which he hath committed and keep all my statutes he shall live all the transgressions that he hath done shall not be mentioned This is not the Law of Works but the Gospel for the Law promiseth no mercy to the returning wicked Consider these three places In Jesus Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but Gal. 5. 6. faith which worketh by love In Jesus Gal. 6. 15. Christ neither circumcision c. but a new creature Again In Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 7. 19. neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing but the keeping the Commandments of God Do not these three expressions mean the same thing the same Gospel-condition 8. Regeneration New Creature Except a man be born again c. Not by works of righteousness which we have Tit. 3. 15. done but according to his mercy hath he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost One would think you might gather hence what the Apostle Paul means by Works and what by Faith the Gospel-condition 9. Sanctification Except I wash thee thou canst have no part in me And without holiness none shall see the Lord. Godliness hath the promise of this life and that which is to come Is not Justification right to Heaven among the number of those things Wash you make you clean put away the evil of your doings learn to do well Come now though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow though red like crimson they shall be as wool I could name many other Names as Fearing God Hoping in him Trusting in him c. But I will name but one more 10. Sometime it is expressed by words that import a Continuance and this is indeed the condition of the continued Justification and right to Heaven To them he will give eternal Col. 1. 21 22 23. life who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for immortality Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you blameless and unreproved in his sight if you continue in the faith grounded and setled and be not removed away from the hope of the Gospel which you have heard and was preached to every creature under Heaven That is upon condition that as you have received the Christian Faith so you continue in it to the end notwithstanding all sufferings by the encouragement of that hope which this Gospel supplies unto you If we 1 Joh. 1. 7 walk in the light as he is in the light the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin There is no condemnation to Rom. 1. 8. them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Whose house are we if we hold Heb. 3. 6. fast our confidence unto the end But yet believers are justified at present But you are sanctified but you are justified saith the Apostle you are so upon your first cordialconsent to the Gospel-terms It is here as in all other things of the like nature What makes a Servant but Consent When the Master is willing to have him and propounds the terms he consents to the terms I have set Life and Death before you and told you the condition of Life by Christ Would we go and consider this condition and the reasonableness of it and the glorious things that would come by it and would we go and in the strength of God and Christ call Heaven and Earth to record yea and Hell to witness That we consent give up our selves to be ruled and saved by Christ would we enter into Covenant to be the Lord's people and his Christ's to walk in all well-pleasing and not to allow our selves in any known sin or in the neglect of any known duty and to use the means God hath appointed to know his will and for the destruction of sin and this as honest men really intending performance even till death being so far from designing treacherously to turn aside in difficulties that it is our greatest fear and dread lest we should deal falsly in this Covenant From this time you are justified by this Law of Grace and have right to Heaven though you should have black and sad thoughts and think you are not and you may pray with encouragement Keep this in the thoughts of our heart for ever and confirm our hearts unto thee and God will keep those that thus commit themselves unto him But yet this is true if you should fall utterly away this Law of Grace would cease to justifie you because you withdraw this consent and so cease to have the condition of it and the reason why we do not lose Justification and right to Salvation is Because God keepeth his fear in our
hearts lest we should draw back and his soul have no pleasure in us Do not say This is not to be supposed for you ought to put such suppositions to your selves viz. If I should now leave off to be wise and to do good I should perish For what else doth God threaten for If the righteous forsake his righteousness he shall dye As a man that never maketh this Supposition If Christ had not died I had perished or if God had not converted me cannot but be very unthankful which Suppositions are at least as equally impossible as the Supposition of your total Apostacy So a man that never maketh these Suppositions If I should fall away I should lose all cannot but be very unwary and remiss in care and watchfulness Concerning those several Names the Gospel-condition is called by let me add this Observation I know sometime these words may be and are used in Scripture in their proper sense for one act and no more And it may be sometimes by confess may be meant no more than confess And sometime Faith is used only for Faith as when he saith He that cometh to God must believe that God is There by believing is meant only assent And so when we read of Faith's operativeness it means only the belief of the Truth and so would I be understood when I at any time speak of Faith's operativeness as purifying their hearts by Faith yet whenever any Promise is made to any Grace or Act whatsoever of Justification Salvation Pardon there it implieth the whole Gospel-condition and all Graces essential to Christianity It must be understood caeteris paribus if other things answer thereto And this I can prove evidently to you by this argument else a man would have right by the Promise upon his Confessing though he did not forsake and by believing that Christ is risen from the dead though he should refuse to obey the Gospel and God would be unfaithful in denying him the things promised If you promise a Vintner so much money to send you such a Butt that stands in his Cellar and he sends you the empty Vessel if you can assure me that you are not by truth and promise bound to pay him then I am equally sure that you meant the Vessel and the Wine also you spake Synecdochically Methinks I may say as the Town-Clark of Ephesus once did with greater reason than he These things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that cannot be spoken against Object Is not this working for Justification or Righteousness Is there no danger in seeking to be justified and saved by works Ans No danger at all in this sense and yet great danger in another sense but it is so far from being dangerous in this sense that it is indispensably necessary to salvation They only shall be blessed that keep his Commandments in Gospel-sincerity that they may have right to the tree of life that is that they may be justified And I dare confidently say that never any did sincerely obey God whatever confused notions some good men have had in their brains that they held only speculatively but for this end among others that they might have right to Heaven which is Justification for as humane nature now is and I think I may say the same concerning the state of Innocency it is not capable of undergoing the difficulties of obedience but for such ends To escape the curse and attain the blessing which is to attain Justification and escape Condemnation And to say otherwise is to say God hath indeed made promises of remission of sins and Heaven to those that repent turn from sin and obey the Gospel but I will not regard these promises I will not be moved by them I will do none of these things for these ends but I will only act out of love Which yet I could shew you would be impossible For how can I love him who I think hath done me no good and how can I think he hath done me any good when I think my own salvation is no good as I certainly do if I do not desire and endeavour it And God hath threatned those that go on in sin with a Curse and Hell But I will not refrain sin for these ends that I may escape Hell I will only act out of Love I will be above Scripture I will neither be moved with promises nor threats But there is another sense which the Apostle speaketh of as damnable The Pharisaical Jews would have Justification and Righteousness without pardon would purely and meerly be justified so as not to be pardoned that it should be no favour to justifie them but their due without grace and pardon and that maketh him prove out of David the necessity of pardon Rom. 4. and that would be in effect to say without the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ and if so Christ died in vain this would make void his death they would have their obedience to the Moral Law which they commonly interpreted as reaching only to the outward act either to be perfect or so little defective that the great meritoriousness of being Abraham's Seed and circumcised and their strict observance of the Ceremonial Law and other Traditions never commanded would make up what wanted And their Righteousness being compleat of it self their Justification would be of due debt from the old Law through Justice and not of Pardon and Grace through a Propitiation And so too many among us look upon their good works as meritorious though they be sinners and know it yet they think the good works of Alms and other things which they look upon as no duties will satisfie for those sins and think God would do them wrong if he do not for their good deeds pardon their evil deeds think their good works are very good and deserving much from God and their evil not very evil and so God would be very hard yea unjust if he should condemn them If this was true then no need of Christ he then dyed in vain then salvation would be of debt from natural Justice from the old Law and not of Grace and Mercy and Pardon through Christ Will any dare to say If what I have spoken be true that he will pardon none but repenting returning believing sinners that it is not of Pardon Mercy Grace but of debt from the old Covenant which allows no Pardon I confess Paul's Epistles about Justification are hard to be understood and I am confident many Expositors are and have been notoriously mistaken about these things and that by Faith he meaneth as I do Faith and Obedience to the Gospel I have written something to shew to my Acquaintants the meaning of these places which I think make them appear rational and plain to this sense and absit verbo invidia will do so to rational men But it is not fit to speak so largely here I wish you to read considerately Cap. 3. v. 5. of his Epistle to Titus Can you
he will be as ready to part with it to thee as ever Naaman was to Gehazi 5. Have nothing to do with Sin The Philistines would not tread on the threshold they thought brake their Idol Dagon's neck The Jews would not put the Thirty pieces given for betraying Christ into the Treasury because it was the price of blood Mat. 27. 6. Will you look on sin as gain on that which you have gotten by sin as gain It is the price of blood Should that be pleasing to thee which was so bitter to Christ David would not drink of the water his Worthies had ventured their lives for but poured it out and said Is not this the blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives 2 Sam. 23. 17. Wilt thou put that Serpent into thy bosome that hath stung to death thy dearest Relation A strange sight for a Child to delight in that Sword or Knife that killed his Father Some will break God's Law for the gain of two-pence God made not such a leight matter of the breach of his Law Let this conspicuous Justice of God be as a flaming-sword to keep you from sin Since Christ hath dy'd for sin let us dye unto sin yea let us rather chuse to dye than to sin Lastly Live to your Lord Redeemer walk as they that are bought with such a price say to Christ as the people â—o Gideon Rule thou over us for thou hast delivered us from the hand of our enemies He died that they which live might not live to themselves A strong and constraining bond of obedience and thankfulness is laid upon us Offer up Souls and Bodies a living sacrifice to him that offered up himself a dead sacrifice for us Be cheerful in suffering for him grudg not at suffering any thing for him that suffered so much for thee Christ loved not his life unto the death for our sakes A Discourse concerning the Apostle Paul's meaning by Justification by Faith occasioned by some passages in the Sermons An Endeavour to make apparent That the Apostle Paul by Justification by works and by the Law means justification for mens deserts and merits or by unsinning obedience without pardon And by Justification by Faith means pardon of sin upon mens believing and turning from sin to God And that it is not in the least his design to exclude Repentance and sincere Obedience from being a condition of our justification but that he includes them in the word Faith FIrst We are sure whatever the Apostle teacheth is consistent with himself and the whole tenour of Scripture Therefore his meaning cannot be That it is not necessary or that it is dangerous for any to repent and turn from sin for pardon or justification and salvation But this I have already cleared Secondly We are sure Whatever the Apostle saith is true and his arguing cogent as when he tells us Rom. 4. 4. To him that worketh the reward is not reckoned of grace but of debt and Rom. 11. 6. If by grace then it is no more of works but if it be of works then it is no more of grace Now this would not be true for a reward may be of works and yet of grace unless by works he understand meritorious works or full and compleat innocency If there be a promise made of a reward to a work yet if the work be inconsiderable in value to the reward this reward is to be ascribed to the grace and favour and kindness of him that promiseth and giveth the reward and not to the merit of his work that receives it It would be in this case of Grace as the Cause though of Works as the Condition the Works not being meritorious Else it would be impossible for any promise to be a gracious promise that hath any duty for the condition of it which to affirm would be the abhorring of any rational soul yea though the condition was to be performed by the man 's own strength whatever any say to the contrary which yet is not in the case-in-hand I willingly grant yea a conditional promise would not be one jot less gracious if the condition was to be performed by man of himself and is not more gracious because God causeth us to perform it only this causing us to perform it is more of grace Dare any deliberately say these conditional promises were not of grace because a work made the condition viz. If the wicked turn he shall live Repent that your iniquities may be blotted out Nay do we not expresly read Such are of grace Jer. 3. 1 12. Thou hast playd the harlot with many lovers yet return and I will not cause mine anger to fall on you For I am gracious and merciful 2 Chron. 30 19. The good Lord pardon every one that prepareth his heart to seek c. though he be not cleansed according c. Nehem. 13. 22. Remember me my God concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of thy mercy Jonah knew if God spared Nineveh upon repentance it would be an act of grace I know thou art a gracious God and merciful Jonah 4. 2. Whatsoever any one gives or promises to another who works more than the merit of the work amounts to is of grace and the justification of any man upon any terms less than the obedience of the Law in every thing is of Gospel-grace to wit of pardon Thirdly The opposition of the Apostle is good and true if by works be meant meritorious works deserving the reward or full and compleat obedienee to the Law in every thing viz. If of meritorious works then not of grace then the reward is no more than what is owing in strict Justice and one need not cry gratias grace grace need not give thanks for such a reward And if of compleat unsinning obedience one needs not pardon cannot be pardoned cannot give thanks for the reward as having of it upon the account of sin pardoned Object But would not Adam's justification have been of grace if he had continued in his innocency though it would have been of works This some object against this Tenent That the Apostle meant it of meritorious works or full obedience and I never saw this well cleared and many are much puzled with it therefore I will speak the more largely to it Ans I distinguish here between justification simply taken as justification of an innocent man accused or accusable though falsly and between the justification of a man with the resultancies from it which though immediate resultancies yet come on him upon his meer justification by virtue of some gracious Law Promise or Covenant made on condition of his innocency First Suppose there had been no promise made of everlasting happiness to Adam on condition of continued innocency but only a threatning That if he sinned he should dye be damned First In this case while he had continued innocent it would have been of debt not to have condemned him as a
sinner and so justification of him from any thing befalling him for the breach of the Law would have been of debt and not of grace no thanks Secondly But his justification in this case would have reached but a little way would have resulted no further than I have expressed For God might yet when he pleased have annihilated him for it seems not rational to affirm That if God make a rational Creature he may not lawfully and in equity unmake and annihilate it except it offend him this would be to impose hard terms on God But yet it would be of due debt that this annihilation should not be as a token of his displeasure and for the breach of the Law if he had not broken it as is supposed Secondly Suppose the Covenant ran thus If he obey he shall live eternally happy but if he sin he shall dye be damned as it is supposed it did First Here while man keeps his innocency That he be justified as innocent and not condemned as guilty is of natural equity and not of grace Which would have been enough had we no more to say to justifie the Apostle's speech if we take it not strictly but as we use to do other moral sayings the foundational and most immediately obvious part of justification being of debt Secondly But that this very justification should reach so far as right to continued life and happiness would be of grace because that promise that causes this right to result during him innocent was of grace and not of debt Thirdly Yet this justification thus resulting to continued life and happiness would not man continuing obedient have been of Gospel-grace of that kind of grace which the Apostle hath occasion mainly to speak of which is Mercy and Pardon it would not have been of Gospel-grace of forgiveness which is the thing the Apostle hath much in his eye No thanks would be due upon the account of forgiving him any thing Fourthly But to clear all beyond possibility of exception The Apostle only speaks ex hypothesi and on supposition for the Creature cannot possibly merit any thing of God but as above-said that if innocent he be not condemned as guilty and the Apostle knew their works were not meritorious that his opposers pretended were so Now suppose I say that obedience was meritorious of eternal life of the reward suppose man did any thing meritorious of Heaven then ex hypothesi salvation would not be of grace in any sense but properly of debt which is all the Apostle here affirmeth And it seems the Pharaisaical Jews went as high as some Papists do now as to hold their good works meritorious of eternal life and our Jewish Antiquaries manifest that this Tenent was common amongst them and you see if of meritorious works then not of grace in any sense And in this sense Adam's justification to life upon his unsinning obedience would not have been of meritorious works but of grace though not of pardon and Gospel-grace and Mercy It is easie to answer take it which way you will For if you will by works understand no more than perfect obedience to the Law then justification will not be of Gospel-grace which is pardon But if by works you will understand works properly meritorious of salvation then if of works not of grace at all And in some places the Apostle seems to take the words in one sense sometimes in the other For as here he seemeth to mean proper merit so Gal. 3. 10. As many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not c. implieth Man should have been blessed and not cursed as being justified by works had he fulfilled c. Here justification would have been of works not properly meritorious but being of Law-works it would not be by Gospel-grace and pardon though there would have been in such a case the Law-grace spoken of For to speak by way of anticipation if God was not bound in strict Justice to make such a promise If man obey perfectly he shall be happy if the making of it was of grace the making of it doth not hinder the performance of it from being of grace law-grace no more than God's making this law That sinner that repents and believes shall be saved maketh man's justification for being of Pardon and Gospel-grace Object The Jews Works and Priviledges were not meritorious nor perfect Therefore the Apostle doth not mean by works meritorious works or perfect Ans First It is true they were not meritorious else they would have been justified and saved of debt without Christ's satisfaction Secondly But they maintained and pretended their works such and this was to make Christ's death vain This very opinion made them slight Christ and kept them from submitting to the righteousness of God the Gospel-way of justification And by the way if any should now have this conceit concerning faith repentance sincere obedience works of charity viz. that they are meritorious of their justification and salvation a satisfaction for their sins recompence enough to Justice they would be in the same condemnation with these and Christ should profit them nothing For this was the reason why Circumcision and other observations of the Law would undo them Gal. 5. 2. not because they had that merit in them which they supposed for then they would have been justified and saved by them but because they conceited them meritorious making them worthy deserving men and so could not possibly during this conceit expect or desire justification in God's way of grace or Mercy through a Propitiation they could not but despise it as esteeming they had no need of it as indeed they had not if their conceit was true Fourthly Faith and Repentance are works it would move a man with pity to see the weakness of mens attempts to prove that faith is not a work when Christ himself calls it a work therefore his design is not to exclude every good work from any interest in justification else he would exclude Faith it self but only perfect or meritorious works or works conceited so to be which comes all to one for as works really compleat or meritorious would essentially hinder pardon by Christ's death being essentially inconsistent so a man conceiting his works meritorious is by God's Law of Grace excluded from any interest in this Propitiation For he hath made it a part of the condition That men be sensible of their unworthiness unrighteousness and undone estate without Christ and Pardon You see what the Apostle's meaning is not Now that you may see what his meaning is let these two things be well considered viz. What the Jews Opinions were and What the Apostle's Design was First What the Jews Opinions were which Paul opposed which are something plain from Scripture and are made more plain by the Writings of ancient Jewish Authors First They held their good works meritorious of eternal life yea some of
word ungodly in this verse is implied that Abraham was once an Idolater as the Gentiles are This plainly proves his justification was by pardon of sin and that he was a man God might justly have refused to have thus justified and that he was not righteous in God's sight in the primary strict and properest sense of the word but meerly of grace and pardon Ver. 6. And David fully proveth this in his describing blessedness and wherein it lies for he taketh for granted that blessedness comes not by unsinning obedience or meritorious works which are inconsistent with pardon else he would have said Blessed are they that never sinned or have made full satisfaction for their sins But he tells us it lies in not imputing iniquity and imputing accounting righteousness is nothing else but pardon of sin imputing righteousness and not imputing sin are all one and signifie the same because to impute or account righteous signifieth as he proved before graciously to impute and that can be nothing but pardon of sin and so the meaning is God pardoned Abraham's sin upon his believing God Which sheweth he was no such worthy man as you think your selves so as to need no forgiveness Ver. 9. Now will this blessedness of Justification come only on you Jews Are not the wicked Gentiles capable of it if they turn from sin and Idols to God and believe his testimony of his Son and obey him though they never be circumcised for we say his faith was reckoned for righteousness it was not from his worthiness but by pardon of his sin upon believing Ver. 10. He yet improveth this Scripture-citation as further cogent thus Was this justification conferred on Abraham when he was circumcised or when he was uncircumcised You will find this was said concerning Abraham before he was circumcised when he was as yet uncircumcised when he could not pretend to this high meritorious priviledg you boast of viz. Circumcision but when he was as the Gentile-believers now are that are confessedly void of such accomplishments Why may not they therefore be justified in such a Gospel-way as he was having their sin pardoned through the Propitiation upon their only believing and obeying the Gospel For though you look upon Faith and Obedience as low things in comparison of Circumcision yet these were graciously accepted from him by God and his sins pardoned thereon and why may they not be accepted from them without meritorious works if it be granted such are so which you account so Ver. 11. And he received the sign of circumcision the seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had being uncircumcised that he might be the father of all them that believe though they be not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed unto them also I shall here take a liberty not allowed me by my designed method to speak largely of these words because they are difficult and there is a strange disagreement about the meaning of them The words that these are coupled unto are these It was counted to him in uncircumcision then follows and he received the sign of circumcision And that is and then or and after it is ordinal as it is frequently The sign of circumcision or Sacrament of Circumcision it is an ordinary manner of speaking the genitivus specie as we use to say the sacrament of Baptism for the sacrament Baptism so the sign of Circumcision for the sign Circumcision and Beza saith he found it so in the Accusative case in an ancient Copy By receiving the sign of circumcision is not only or chiefly meant his receiving it in his body though he did so but his receiving it in the institution or law of it from God as John may be said to have received baptism being the first to whom it was delivered by God as an Ordinance to be by him as a Minister administred And as Moses is said Acts 7. 28. to receive the lively oracles of God to give to the Jews and John 7. 22. Moses gave unto you circumcision i. e. the Ordinance of it Without doubt he is said here to receive circumcision in the sense that God is said Acts 7. 8. to give him the covenant of circumcision not in the sense wherein he gave it to himself circumcised himself I grant it doth connote secondarily his receiving it in his body yet still as in the law and ordinance of it so as to begin it to others And that which makes it further appear to be so meant is this because the stress of his becoming the father of all that believe c. seemeth to be laid here For if it should have the other sense all circumcised might on the same account be called Fathers of them that believe And else it is probable the Apostle would have used the ordinary word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and have said he was circumcised and not he received circumcision Abraham was honoured by God to be the first receiver of this Institution Indeed the promise or covenant that this sealed had been made known to the world long before viz. That whosoever of faln man should repent and believe God and obey him sincerely should be saved and all that were justified before Abraham were justified by this law of grace made in the blood of Christ but Abraham was the first that received from God this visible seal to confirm it to the world The seal of the rightsousness of the faith which he had being uncircumcised These words seem an exegetical Parenthesis or a Parenthetical explication of the former words received the sign of circumcision For these words that he might be the father seem to have their dependance on and respect to the former words received the sign of circumcision In these words here is a definition of that and also of every other Sacramental Institution Circumcision is called a sign or token of the Covenant Gen. 17. 11. and it is called figuratively the Covenant v. 10. and Acts 17. 8. even as the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is also called the Covenant This is the new covenant in my blood that is the sign or seal of the Covenant founded in my blood By the faith of Abraham is not here to be understood that personal individual faith which he had but a faith of that sort or kind which he had even in such a sense as that faith which dwelt first in his Grandmother Lois and Mother Eunice is said to dwell in Timothy to wit not the same individual act or habit but a faith of the same sort or species i. e. faith unfeigned as he explains it 2 Tim. 1. 5. and so these words the faith of Abraham ver 16. of this Chapter must necessarily be understood to this sense Again Circumcision is not said by the Apostle to be a sign or seal of his faith or any one's else no that is a mistake though I know in another sense Circumcision was and Baptism and the Lord's Supper are a seal or seals
uncharitable as to deny this of those Ancients Ecclesiastical History tells us of But however let it be granted that this cannot be as it is indeed certain it cannot be in ordinary cases for it would be ordinarily a wilful knowing refusal to submit to Christ's rule and dominion which indeed is perfectly inconsistent with performing the Gospel-condition yet this doth not oppose this hypothesis for it speaketh only on supposition If a man were a truly believing and sincerely obedient one who should thus refuse to comply with these beneficial commands he would be justified and saved And by the way you may observe that which may be very helpful to you for the understanding these and many other things viz. this the difference between that which is necessary as a condition of a promise and that which is not a condition but is necessary upon some other account you may say of any performance that is not a condition of a promise That if he perform it not he will yet have right so he do but perform the condition though he cannot perform the condition without performing this thing And consequently if any should deny sincere obedience to be a condition of justification he must say or he ignorantly contradicts himself That if a man should believe though he did resolve never to obey he must be justified and saved though it should be granted he cannot believe without obeying The Apostle here hath proved That Circumcision is so far from being meritorious as the Jews held that it was not so much as a condition necessary to justification And though it might be objected here by the Jews But why are not the believing-Gentiles then circumcised upon those other accounts Yet here is enough said for the present scope in proving justification may be had without it and this is answered by the Apostle in other places and also they might easily answer themselves knowing there was another seal instituted instead of it viz. Baptism called the circumcision of Christ Col. 2. 11. I am sensible that I have let my Pen run out of my designed short method thinking these words needful to be understood to rectifie many vulgar mistakes and to give light to these and other controversies If any dislike what is here spoken or do not understand me or think I contradict my self they may pass this over as being something alien and only read this following which is enough to my main design What pretence have any from this place to maintain That repentance or obedience are not necessary to justification or right to Heaven or that they are not included in the word Faith May we not say of Circumcision that it was as Baptism is a seal of remission of sins upon repentance and faith was it not a seal of this promise He that repenteth believeth and obeyeth walketh in the steps that Abraham walked in shall be saved Yet that you mistake not some words I have here used take notice That when I use these words such a kind of faith as Abraham ' s an operative faith I grant I speak vulgarly customarily and improperly and not naturally and strictly using the word Faith for that which is properly so called for I know that it is not of the essence of faith to be operative or not operative the effect is no part of the cause nor doth ingredi definitionem it is not the division generis in species suas but subjecti per adjuncta or causae per effectus So when we speak of operative knowledg we mean by it something more than knowledg yea something that is not knowledg but that knowledg produceth For all that is strictly and properly knowledg that is understood in this phrase operative knowledg may be in a wicked man If you shall object But not so clear a knowledg or faith Let that be as it will true or false the degree doth not alter the species So that if I would have spoken strictly and properly I should have said He that believeth and obeyeth with that kind of faith and obedience that Abraham did shall be justified This I could make plain but it is not my business here to prove but my design is only to answer thinking I have proved sufficiently already But to proceed with the words That he might be the father of all them that believe though * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non obstante praeputio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 huic simile 1 Pet. 3. 20. Octo animae servatae sunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per medias aquas vel non obstantibus sorsan illud 1 Tim. 2. ult 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 servabitur non obstante puerperio nec absimile 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 3. 25. not circumcised that righteousness might be imputed to them also That he might be the Father c. These words seem to have reference to the words before the exegetical parenthesis viz. these and he received the sign of circumcision The meaning is his faith and then or and afterward he received the honour from God to have this sign first given to him to use himself for his comfort and to transmit to others viz. his posterity and those that should concorporate with them to seal this that whosoever should do as he did should be justified that he might be the father that is an eminent example or prime pattern of the justification of others for in this the Apostle seemeth in this place to lay the stress of his Fatherhood in his being a copy of the justification of others as appears by these words following viz. That righteousness might be imputed to them also whether circumcised or not If we shall go further and say There may be included this also That God's testification of his being justified on his believing and his having this honour to have this Ordinance first given to him to seal that whosoever walked in his steps should be justified and the great exemplariness of his faith that all these together are as a moral Cause objectively influential to make him a foecund causative exemplar to bege◠many children of his faith to cause them to walk in his steps that they may be justified as he was This is a truth but either is no part of his meaning or if it be also connoteth in the phrase as it is likely it is it seemeth not to be insisted on here by the Apostle as his chief meaning of his being a father but this only or chiefly his being a prime first pattern of the justification both of the Gentile and Jewish believers I think I could shew you great inconsistencies and inconveniencies in any other explication of this verse setting the present controversie aside And because I use to think I cannot speak very intelligibly in such things without an instance I will here give you one Suppose a great King should give to an offender that hath pleased him by some exploits a Livery to be worn by him and his Family in
token to seal and oblige himself to and assure others of this promise That whatsoever offender or offenders shall do as he did before his receiving of it he or they shall be acquitted from all penalties Here 1. The first receiving this Livery to be worn by him and his is given as a reward to him and not by way of sealing and as a peculiar token of the Royal favour and the same may be said of his exploits being mentioned in the promise to describe the condition by For it is to reward and cast an honour on him to make them a pattern to others These two agree to none else and therefore herein must the fatherhood lye 2. As a seal of the promise his Livery sealeth his particular acquittal only secondarily even by sealing the general promise primarily and immediately viz. That whoever do as he did shall be acquitted whether they have the Livery or no. That it is more assuring and comforting c. to his Family having the Livery and performing the condition I grant but pass it by as alien 3. The King by thus honouring him by giving him this Livery as a reward and also in giving him it first and also asâ— seal with this â—ignification thaâ— whosoever shall do such exploits c. also by making his exploits the pattern the regula and mensura hath put this honour on him to make him as it were a father of all after thus acquitted as receiving this honour to be the first and chief pattern of the acquitting of all that do as he did they being acquitted after him in like manner only as he was 4. He may also be called a causative father in the sense I have explained it of men after him doing as he did and consequently being acquitted as he was his exploits being morally influential to incline men to attempt to express and copy them out because so taken notice of by the King as to be propounded by him to notifie what kind and what manner of exploits they must be that this acquittal is promised to First A father or pattern of the manner of the justification of the Gentile-Christians representing that as he was graciously pardoned not justified for any worthiness of his own being a sinner and an idolater but pardoned upon his believing and obeying God and following his call yea while uncircumcised so may the idolatrous uncircumcised Gentiles that have none of the outward priviledges you Jews boast of be received into favour upon their turning from their idolataies and believing and obeying the Gospel and so he is their father Ver. 12. And secondly A father or pattern of the manner of the justification of us Jews that have these outward priviledges in that we must be justified as he was He was indeed circumcised as we are but his justification was not by that or any merit of that but the condition of his justification was his heart-circumcision his believing obeying fearing God and so must be and always was the justification of any Jew not by or by the merit of any outward priviledges but by God's pardoning their great sins in a Gospel-way upon their heart-circumcision or walking in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham Ver. 13. For the promise that he should be heir of the world that is have great things have great temporal and spiritual mercies Canaan and Heaven the world to come typified by it was not made to him and his seed that is such as he obedient believers as you may see by the places after cited through the law Obey perfectly and live without pardon and so not of Gospel-grace but through the righteousness of faith by a promise of forgiveness in a gracious Evangelical way upon their repenting believing obeying God See Rom. 10. 6. what is meant by the righteousness of faith to wit a law of grace Gal. 3. v. 14 15 16 17 18. is a place parallel to this where the Covenant confirmed of God in Christ to Abraham and his seed that is of an inheritance and blessedness to men walking in the steps of his faith is called the promise whereby he gave the inheritance to Abraham and by his seed there are meant believers as you may see plainly by v. 29. and by Christ v. 16. is meant Christ mystical viz. Believers as Expositors agree So also Heb. 9. 15. A Mediator of the new testament or covenant that they which are called i. e. effectually called obedient believers might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance Ver. 14. For if only they that are of the law that is they that are righteous without pardon that perfectly obey see Gal. 3. 10. be heirs are to have great things then faith is made void and the promise made of none effect that is then there is no place no reward for faith repentance and turning from sin to God for those that have been sinners or obey not the Law perfectly and that implied promise which is implied in God's justifying Abraham upon believing God not being partial but whosoever feareth God and worketh righteousness shall be accepted and that promise which was sealed in circumcision That whosoever should believe and obey God as he did shall find great reward as he did is made of none effect if men be to attain the reward by the Law of works without pardon And the Law given Four hundred thirty years after if it require perfect obedience so as to accept nothing less hath disannulled this promise Then none can be justified unless they be men of such merits as you suppose such outward observances and priviledges make you that it is due of strict Justice and not from a gracious promise made to sinners And also I will shew that you that are of the Law and stick to that cannot be justified or saved whatever you think to the contrary Ver. 15. For the law worketh wrath for where there is no law there is no transgression This proveth what he affirmeth before That happiness comes not by the Moral Law and so neither by any subordinate revelation which is reductively comprehended in it not by the whole system or body of precepts given by Moses as for instance by the command of circumcision which reductively belongs to the Moral Law for that is Obey whatever I shall any way command you or dye and none perfectly obey That place Gal. 3. 10. is like this As many as are of the works of the law i. e. stick to that for justification are under a curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the law to do them Which consequence of the Apostle's would be inconsequent but that it leans upon this implied foundation that none do so viz. all things written So here the meaning is this these laws take them as laws and commands they only work wrath and make sins more by multiplying commands more and so make the Jews more guilty than any and further from
Vindiciae Legis 24 Lect. proving by six Arguments That though the Law given by Moses taken strictly and abstractly as a rule holdeth forth life on no terms but perfect obedience yet take it as it was given and administred by Moses to the people as a Covenant and so it was a Covenant of Grace made in the blood of Christ promising justification and happiness upon sincere endeavours of obedience And Mr. Ball on the Covenant proveth the same of these very words and that the people did so understand it if you sincerely endeavour and ought so to understand it So Calvin l. 2. Instit c. 9. These Jews were for justification by it meerly as a Law and strict Covenant of Works as if there was no justification to be expected from it but by reaching the preceptive part in every thing and if so then there was an end of the Gospel preached to Abraham then this Law that was 430 years after it would have disannulled the promise made of God in Christ That whosoever should believe repent obey sincerely should be saved Whereas as it was given by Moses it was the Law of Grace and Faith as the following verse shews the same for substance that was made to Abraham and is now made to us But take it as a law a strict law of works and it is represented by that The man that doth these things shall live by them which is indeed essential to every law any law justifieth the doers of it and in this sense there can be no justification that is justification without pardon but by doing every thing if you be guilty of the least omission or negligence you are out of its justification and under its condemnation or curse Ver. 6. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise Say not in thy heart c. That is the tenour of the covenant or law of grace speaketh thus c. But now come to the Mosaical dispensation as it was a covenant of grace to be understoost with that Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and moderation as it was given by Moses and is explained Deut. 30. 12 13 14 c. and in many other places and you will find it is the word of faith which we preach the same for substance with it For the Gospel-rule of justification the righteousness of faith in that Chapter mentioned saith Say not in thy heart Who shall ascend c. that is Be not now sollicitous do not perplex your selves in saying Alas I am hopeless for I have broken the law or I shall never be able exactly to obey it for the future in every thing Do not trouble your selves as if God required any thing of you that you could not perform though you was really desirous to do it with the prevailing-bent of your soul for as for those failings which are consistent with this though they be sins yet they should not cause despairing trouble For Christ by his satisfaction hath procured they shall not hinder your happiness he is the end of the Law as was said But all that is required of you for life and justification is a thing very easie was there but a willing mind God will not require what you have not as some troubled souls are apt to think what is so out of your power that you cannot do it though you fain would but will if there be a willing mind accept of what you have such poor stuff as our degenerate state is capable of performing if willing It is now brought to your own choice I have set life and death before you therefore chuse life v. 19. you cannot now chuse it on the terms of it and yet miss it Say not in thy heart Who shall asscend into heaven as if the obtaining of justification to thee a sinner was such a thing as could not be come by was set before thee on an impossible condition this is in effect to deny Christ is risen and ascended into Heaven for our justification for to bring Christ from Heaven is to do what in thee lies to deny to hinder his ascending into Heaven and you do it by this saying which is virtually to deny he hath finished his work to think you must do some impossible thing your selves as keep the law perfectly your selves for salvation Say not Who shall descend into the deep do some impossible thing to fetch up righteousness and life for us sinners This is in effect to deny Christ to have dyed for our sins What did he dye for if some difficult impossible thing be required of us Ver. 8. But what saith the Gospel-rule of righteousness the righteousness of Faith The thing is easie to come by that is required of thee it is nigh thee even in thy heart and mouth And this is the word of faith the Gospel that we preach do but confess with thy mouth and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead and carry suitably to such a belief and thou shalt be saved without the laborious and innumerable observances of the Jews which they can never perfectly observe whatever they pretend and so can never be justified their way These two it is probable he names as the most generally difficult parts of the Gospel-condition at that day To believe God hath testified him to be the Messiah by raising him from the dead notwithstanding all scoffs at the resurrection and endeavours to perswade you to the contrary and confessing him in the times of danger and difficulty when like to lose all by it and many apostatizing Christians maintained it was not necessary to confess but that they might deny him when danger approached so they but kept their hearts right which seemeth to be implyed in those ironical expressions 1 Cor. 4. 8 9 10 11. Ver. 10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness c. True hearty yeelding to the obedience of the Gospel is enough at first for justification but if you would have your justification so to continue as to reach salvation you must hold out to the end in confessing him though with the danger of your lives Ver. 11. For the Scripture saith Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed Ver. 12. For there is no difference between the Jew and Gentile For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him Ver. 13. For whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved It is all one as if he had said Whosoever believeth and carrieth suitably to such belief shall be saved and he useth calling on God and believing God promiscuously which would not be sense if they did not mean the same thing the same Gospel-condition And indeed as many promises of Justification and Pardon are made to Prayer as to Believing but the meaning is carry suitably to such prayer believe obey repent I am weary of easie work and so give over All those other places in this Apostle's Epistles that have any shew to